Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This feast concludes the octave of the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. We honour Mary as Our Lady, Mother of Divine Grace since she is the Mother of the Son of God, the Author of Grace.  ‘The Blessed Virgin Mary was eternally predestined, in the context of the Incarnation of the divine Word,  to be the Mother of God. As decreed by divine Providence, she served on earth as the loving Mother of the divine Redeemer, His associate, uniquely generous, and the Lord’s humble servant. She conceived, bore, and nourished Christ; presented Him to the Father in the Temple; and was united with Him in His suffering as He died on the cross. In a completely unparalleled way she cooperated, by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity, with our Saviour’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is Mother to us all in the order of grace’ (Lumen Gentium, the Constitution on the Church, 61).

The first reading is from the book of Esther (8:3-8a,16-17a).  In it we hear Esther pleading with the king to save the lives of her people – “Esther again went to speak to the king. She fell at his feet, weeping and imploring his favour, to frustrate the wicked scheme devised by Haman the Agagite and his plot against the Jews.”

In the Gospel from John (2:1-11) we hear the story of the wedding feast at Cana and Mary’s concern in letting Jesus know that the wine has run out.  We hear her words to the servants and to Jesus’ disciples of all times “Do whatever he tells you.”