Looking at Jesus’ mother
by Mike Oettle
ANGLICANS never
seem quite sure how to regard Mary, the Mother of Jesus – is she “Holy Mary,
Virgin Mother of God”, or Our Lady, as the Catholics put it, or is she just
Mary, as she is in the eyes of Protestants, to whom paying any attention to
her is popish Mariolatry?[1]
Even the Anglican calendar doesn’t seem to know what to do about her – while in the Roman calendar 15 August is the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the Greek the Falling Asleep of the Virgin Mary, neither of these terms appears in the Liturgy ’75 calendar, which has this entry for the 15th: “St Mary the Virgin, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Since the doctrine of the Assumption is not officially accepted by the Anglican Communion, this is understandable. (Indeed, the Thirty-Nine Articles are silent on the subject of Christ’s mother.) But the Liturgy ’75 calendar also shows other points of difference from the Book of Common Prayer, which follows the Roman pattern of four major feasts of Mary. The four dates recognised by Rome as major Marian feasts are: her Nativity on 18 September, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (2 February), Annunciation (25 March) and Assumption (15 August).
The feast of Purification is marked by a procession of candles, and so is traditionally called Candlemas. Liturgy ’75 renames this day as “the presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple”, which is not inappropriate, as the presentation of the child in the Temple was part of the Jewish ritual of purification of a mother after giving birth; all the same the omission of Mary’s name is significant. Liturgy ’75 does list the Annunciation and the Nativity of Mary on the traditional dates and also adds, on 31 May, the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Greek Orthodox calendar is not identical with the Roman as far as Mary is concerned: aside from her Nativity, Annunciation and Falling Asleep (on the same dates as in the Roman calendar) it recognises Mary’s Presentation in the Temple on 21 November.
The Roman enthusiasm for Mary is also seen in Marian Years (years of pilgrimage and
special devotion to Mary), the Marist and Marianist religious orders, the many
shrines devoted to Mary and the many and varied titles of parish churches named
in her honour.
Lourdes in France, Walsingham in England and Fatima in Portugal are just three such shrines, and churches named in honour of Mary include Mater Dei (“Mother of God” in Latin – there’s one in Newton Park, Port Elizabeth) and such strange titles as Our Lady Queen of Martyrs (in Cathcart) and Our Lady Help of Christians (in Cape Town). The City of Los Angeles is named for its original mission church, and the settlement's earliest name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora, Reina de los Angeles (the Town of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels).
The Roman calendar also includes a whole lot more festivals of Mary (many of them now only local), some of which have given rise to unusual names – it is a Catholic tradition to name a child after the saint whose feast coincides with his or her baptism. So the Spanish name Annunziata derives from the Feast of the Annunciation, and Mercedes from the feast of Our Lady of Mercies (Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes).
All this attention derives from the doctrine that Mary is Mother of God (and, together with it, the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption) – but the question is: should we call her God’s mother? I attempt an answer to this question in this article.
