The Blessed Virgin Mary
(By Angie Lake)

I would like to offer here my own personal opinions and thoughts in regard to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It is my prayer that my personal understanding be in line with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church whose guidance I have trusted and followed all my life.

A good place to begin is Sacred Scripture and to meditate on some of Jesus’ final words to us:  “Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary of Magdala.  Seeing His mother and the disciple He loved standing near her, Jesus said to His mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’   Then to the disciple He said, ‘This is your mother.’  And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.” (John 19:25-27)

It follows that since I, as a believer in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, am in Christ and part of His mystical body; that Mary, being Jesus’ mother, therefore becomes my mother, for we are One in Him.

When we as believers read scripture, we often times put our name in the scripture to personalize the scripture, knowing that it is God’s Word to us personally and we must take it personally.  If I do that here in this instance, then Jesus is saying to me, “This is your mother.”  Because of this scripture, I receive Mary as the Mother of the Church, which is the mystical Body of Christ.

If you will visualize with me that we are the Body of Christ with Jesus as the Head as St. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 12:12-30, then where does the Blessed Virgin Mary fit within the Body of Jesus Christ?