January 1

Mary, Mother of God

Solemnity

Honoured as the mother of Jesus, true God and true man

Mary was a young Jewish woman from Nazareth in Galilee who, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, became the mother of Jesus. Luke tells how she questioned the angel before saying yes. Later, after shepherds came to see her newborn son in Bethlehem, she kept all these things and turned them over in her heart.

This feast is really about who her son is. In the fifth century Christians argued over calling Mary Theotokos, “God-bearer.” Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, objected to the title. The Council of Ephesus in 431 upheld it: if Jesus is one person, both God and human, then his mother is the mother of God.

Rome kept an early Marian feast on 1 January, later replaced by the feast of Jesus’ circumcision. The Catholic calendar reform of 1969 made this eighth day of Christmas a solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. 1 January has also been kept as the World Day of Peace since 1968.

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger. After they had seen the Child, they spread the message they had received about Him. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Luke 2:16–19 · BSB

A prayer

Faithful God, you chose Mary of Nazareth to bear your Son, and in her child you came to share our human life. As we begin this new year, give us her open heart, so that we may receive your word, treasure it, and carry Christ’s peace into the world. Amen.