It is fitting that the Church’s
premier Marian feast be celebrated on the first day of the new calendar year.
In accepting God’s call to be the Mother of God, the ever Immaculate Virgin
ushered in history’s most important new beginning for the benefit of all
people.
God willed that Mary not only
serve as an earthly mother to Jesus, but also as a spiritual mother to all
God’s children on earth. We do well to return God’s love through her.
As
Saint Louis de Montfort writes, “In giving ourselves to Jesus through Mary's
hands, we imitate God the Father, who gave us his only Son through Mary, and
who imparts his graces to us only through Mary. Likewise we imitate God the
Son, who by giving us his example for us to follow, inspires us to go to him
using the same means he used in coming to us, that is, through Mary. Again, we
imitate the Holy Spirit, who bestows his graces and gifts upon us through
Mary.”