Dear Friend,

Reflection by Joseph Grabowski

Loving Mother of Our Redeemer

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD, and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Dt 6:4-5)

Who doesn’t love celebrating a birthday? Each year the Church Calendar celebrates three birthdays: Jesus (December 25), John the Baptist (June 24), and the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 8). While we can read about Jesus’ and John’s birth in the New Testament, Mary’s birth isn’t mentioned, nor are her parents, but that doesn’t mean that they are unimportant.

Nestled in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City is a relatively unadorned, yet magnificent Romanesque church dedicated to the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Saints Anne and Joachim. It is here that the Church believes that Saint Anne gave birth to she who was conceived without sin.

As we entered the church, I was immediately drawn to a beautiful white statue of Saint Anne holding a scroll of the Holy Scriptures and teaching her young daughter, Mary, the Shema Yisrael, which is partially quoted at the beginning of this reflection from the Book of Deuteronomy. As a daughter of a devout Jewish household, Mary would have been praying this Scripture passage and learning to love the LORD more deeply; foreshadowing the love that she would have for her son, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Looking at this statue and overhearing some groups lifting their voices in song due to the amazing acoustics in the church, I couldn’t help but think about my own mother, who so diligently instructed me in the faith, taught me how to pray, and how to love the LORD. As I study towards being ordained a priest one day, God willing, I know it will always be due to the loving work of both my mother and father that I have this deep love for our Redeemer.

As we were concluding our visit around the church, including praying before the chapel dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we were graced with the impromptu opportunity to sing something ourselves. As a group, we quickly identified the hymn we should sing: the Alma Redemptoris Mater (Loving Mother of the Redeemer). This beautiful Latin antiphon is sung at Night Prayer traditionally from Advent through the day before Candlemas.

It was such a grace to raise our voices to song and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, at this, her birthplace. However, as I knew we would be leaving this church to walk the Stations of the Cross, it also served as a stark reminder of the Sorrows that Mary would need to endure throughout her life.

As we continue through this period of Lent, let us emulate the Blessed Virgin Mary. Like her, we are called to love Jesus as she loved him and to weep as she did for the sins that condemned Jesus to death so that we may be redeemed by His Blood.

Alma Redemptoris Mater: Loving Mother of our Redeemer, who remains the accessible Gateway of Heaven, and Star of the Sea, Give aid to a fallen people that strive to rise; O Thou who begot thy holy Creator, while all nature marveled, Virgin before and after, receiving that "Ave" from the mouth of Gabriel, have mercy on sinners.

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Joseph Grabowski is a Pre-Theology I year seminarian from the Archdiocese of Newark.