Father David Rioux's Website

Pope Francis set into the Roman Calendar in 2018, the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, on the Monday following Pentecost Sunday. Pope Francis followed Pope Paul VI’s exhortation of this ‘tenderest of titles’ at the close of the Second Vatican Council, and Saint Pope John Paul II’s use of the title in reference to Mary, Mother of God. However, this title goes back to the earliest times of the Christian Church.

What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her “Church.”

– Saint Clement of Alexandria, as cited in the Cathechism of the Catholic Church § 813

In the Blessed Virgin Mary, present with the Apostles at the birth of the Church at Pentecost, we have a living sign revealing the Church as the universal Sacrament of Salvation in Christ (LG§48).

Mary is an image of the Church. Mary is the ultimate co-worker for God (1 Cor 3:9).

With Christ as the cornerstone determining the building plan for the kingdom of God, we are reborn, by Faith, in Baptism, into living stones, to fit into His plan.

Mary, conceiving Christ in Faith, is the archetype of the Church as virginal mother in the spiritual generation of the members of Christ’s body through Baptism and the ministries of Word and Sacrament.

Mary shares with the Church the patristic image of the moon, receiving all its light from sun, thereby pointing us to Christ.

In Revelation’s image of the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon, crushing the serpent’s head, daughter Zion becomes the new Ark of the Covenant bearing Emmanuel, ‘God with us,’ and becomes the mother of all the living, the People of God.

With Christ’s Church, as its institution, Mary extends from Creation as the new Eve; to the fulfillment of Israel’s history and prophecy; to the Incarnation of Christ and birth of the Church at Pentecost; and to the Assumption, revealing certain hope for the pilgrim people of God in being united with God in glory at the end (Acts 2).

Mary gave birth to Christ bodily, and to the body of Christ, the Church. Christ, Mary, and each disciple make personal decisions witnessing toward eternal life. The Church and its members are alive in the Holy Spirit, united in Eucharist and prayer (Acts 1:14). Mary is the first and model contemplative disciple hearing the Word of God and bringing Christ’s Church into being as virgin, spouse, mother. Her Immaculate Conception and Assumption guarantee and anticipate the holiness of the heavenly Church.

As Sacrament, the Church is the sign and instrument of Communion in Christ, containing and communicating the graces she signifies (CCC 774-775). The spiritual realities experienced by Christ’s disciples, and the building of the reign of God, are to be realized in the Church. Mary, the handmaiden servent, serves Christ and the Church in Sacrament, Grace, and beauty. Mary is the instituted sign, the first fruits from the Mystery of her Son’s redeeming Love, and our primary example of faithful discipleship in her Son’s Sacramental Church. Mary shows us, in image, institution, and in the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, the way of discipleship in Word and in Sacrament, in truth, to life eternal, united in Christ.

Mary, Mother of the Church, ora pro nobis!

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when He was taken up from us‚ one of these men must become with us a witness to His resurrection. And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles (Acts 1:21-26).

Saint Clement noted this of Saint Matthias: ‘”we must combat our flesh, set no value upon it, and concede to it nothing that can flatter it, but rather increase the growth of our soul by faith and knowledge” (Strom., III, 4).
The nature of this saying and its encouragement to grow in self-mastery and virtue is most likely why Saint Matthias is attributed to being one of the patron saints of those struggling with alcoholism.’

For a Saint Matthias prayer card against the temptations of alcohol, see here.

Saint Joseph, head of the Holy Family, and carpenter model of workers, shows us the dignity of work and workers. Work is to be a means of sanctification, honouring the gifts and talents we receive from our Creator (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2427).

Saint Pope Pius XII instituted the memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker on May 1, 1955. As Saint Pope John Paul II states, ‘the Church always considers it her task to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and to help to guide the above-mentioned changes so as to ensure authentic progress by man and society’ (Laborem Exercens, I.1.1).

O God, Creator of all things,
who laid down for the human race the law of work,
graciously grant that by the example of Saint Joseph and under his patronage
we may complete the works you set us to do
and attain the rewards you promise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Collect Prayer from the Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker

You know… that to join two things together there must be nothing between them or there cannot be a perfect fusion.
Now realize that this is how God wants our soul to be, without any selfish love of ourselves or of others in between, just as God loves us without anything in between.

(From a letter by Saint Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church)

Catherine of Siena consecrated herself to Christ in a spiritual union from the age of 7. She joined the Dominican order, performing corporal works of mercy, counseling, and even convincing Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome, after a period when popes had retreated to Avignon, France.

We cannot think of this saintly doctor as meek and mild, as some try to think of Christ and His Gospel. From her letters to Pope Gregory XI:

“Be a manly man… wanting to live in peace is often the greatest cruelty. When the boil has come to a head it must be cut with the lance and burned with fire and if that is not done, and only a plaster is put on it the corruption will spread and that is often worse than death. I wish to see you as a manly man so that you may serve the Bride of Christ without fear, and work spiritually and temporally for the glory of God according to the needs of that sweet Bride in our times”

(quoted from this article)

Up, father! Put into effect the resolution you have made concerning your return. Why not give your life a thousand times, if necessary, for God’s honor and the salvation of His creatures? That is what He did, and you, His vicar, ought to be carrying on His work. It is to be expected that as long as you are His vicar you will follow your Lord’s way and example.

How do we achieve this zeal for following our Lord’s Way, for keeping His Word?

You are a mystery as deep as the sea; the more I search, the more I find, and the more I find the more I search for you. But I can never be satisfied; what I receive will ever leave me desiring more. When you fill my soul I have an even greater hunger, and I grow more famished for your light. I desire above all to see you, the true light, as you really are.

From the dialogue On Divine Providence by Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor of the Church

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

Mark 1:1, 15

Saint Mark was a missionary companion of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (1 Peter 5:13; Acts 12:12-17,25).

As Saint Peter’s likely scribe, Mark’s Gospel can be referred to as the Memoirs of Saint Peter. Saint Mark presents the disciple’s mission through the person and event of Jesus Christ in a brief narrative of his ministry, passion, death, and resurrection. According to Mark, the Christian disciple’s mission is to proclaim the ‘the good tidings,’ a change of heart, to purge the impure spirits of fear, obduracy, and worldly possessiveness, and thereby to enter as a child in faith into the kingdom of God (Mark 6:7-12).

Saint Mark proclaimed the Christian faith in Alexandria, founding the Church there. He was martyred there by pagans, hanged and dragged through the streets.

Later, his remains were stolen by Venetian merchants, to be housed in the basilica of San Marco in Venice. Venice then adopted Saint Mark’s symbol of the Lion as the symbol of their city.

From the Collect prayer of the Feast Day:
O God, who raised up Saint Mark, your Evangelist, and endowed him with the grace to preach the Gospel, grant, we pray, that we may so profit from his teaching as to follow faithfully in the footsteps of Christ.