What do we know about Mary?

IRWIN – We know she is a central and revered figure in history.

She is our Blessed Mother, the mother of Jesus and the

Mother of our Church. But what do we know about Mary?

“Prior to the Nativity, we know Mary was a young Jewish girl, holy, brought up in the faith,” said Father James B. Morley, Pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, Irwin, and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, North Huntingdon. “We also know, through tradition, that Mary’s parents were Saints Joachim and Anne.” Very little is known about them because they are not mentioned in the New Testament.

Through tradition, we believe that they were respected members of the Jewish community and that they wanted to become parents so much that Joachim went into the desert to fast and pray that God would hear their prayer.  It is said that an angel told them that they would soon have a daughter who would become famous throughout the world.

“While little is recorded about them, people throughout Church history have had tremendous devotion in pondering their roles as mother and father to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Father Morley said.

Months after Joachim returned from the desert, Mary, our Blessed Mother, was born, without sin, to be remarkable and destined by God.

“Mary, we believe, was born without the stain of original sin and also human and was able to choose God with her free and whole heart and with all of her love,” Father Morley said.

“When the angel Gabriel appears, she may have been anxious; she didn’t have all of the answers, but in her total outpouring of love, her fiat as we call it, she accepts and says ‘Let it be done to me according to your word’,” Father Morley explained. The angel responded by saying “Hail, Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you.”

Father Morley said Mary’s response was a true “Yes.” “It gives us the rest of the story, it gives us the Incarnation,” he added.

Many often wonder if Mary and Joseph had additional children. Sometimes we read in the Gospels the word “brother.” Father Morley explains that the Greek word for “brother” was used often for other family members.

“Our faith teaches us, and it is affirmed by Church Councils,

that Our Lady was perpetually and totally giving of herself to God,” Father Morley said. “She was wholeheartedly a gift to God and had no other children.” We believe Saint Joseph was also chaste and gave his whole life as protector to his wife, the Blessed Mother, and as foster father to Jesus on earth.

Father Morley believes the Blessed Mother was able to show compassion like we would never understand with her concern for others and her humility. We also see Mary’s gentle nudging of her son at the Wedding at Cana, where Jesus performs His first miracle.

Throughout His life on Earth and through His ministry, Mary was always present. Before His death on the cross, Jesus tells His disciple, John, the one He loved, to take Mary into his home and care. There she continued her humility, her love and her care, being present with the Apostles.

“It is true that Our Lady would have been assumed from her earthly life into heaven,” Father Morley said. “I would just like to contemplate the very last breath Mary breathed on earth; when it was time to go home and she was taken into heaven.”

We look to our Blessed Mother as a great intercessor, as our Mother, to guide us to her Son because of her perfect trust in God and in her Son.