Entries

Month of May in Honor of Mary (Day 15)

May 15, 2026

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Day 15

A reading from the book of Genesis (28:10-17)

Jacob departed from Beer-sheba and proceeded toward Haran.

When he came upon a certain shrine, as the sun had already set,

he stopped there for the night.

Taking one of the stones at the shrine, Jacob put it under his head

and lay down to sleep at that spot.

Then he had a dream: a stairway rested on the ground,

with its top reaching to the heavens;

and God’s messengers were going up and down on it.

And there was the LORD standing beside him and saying:

“I, the LORD, am the God of your forefather Abraham and the God of Isaac;

the land on which you are lying

I will give to you and your descendants.

These shall be as plentiful as the dust of the earth,

and through them you shall spread out east and west, north and south.

In you and your descendants

all the nations of the earth shall find blessing.

Know that I am with you;

I will protect you wherever you go,

and bring you back to this land.

I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you.”

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he exclaimed,

“Truly, the LORD is in this spot, although I did not know it!”

In solemn wonder he cried out: “How awesome is this shrine!

This is nothing else but an abode of God,

and that is the gateway to heaven!”

A reading from Mary, Mother of the Redemption by Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx

The universal mediation of Christ’s mother and ours is not a mediation of a head in relation to the members, but a mediation of a member among members—of a member who is, by virtue of the objectively and subjectively sublime manner of her own redeemed state, an exceptional and unique member of the Mystical Body.” In this respect, that is to say, as the mother of the whole Christian community, Mary is placed high above the Mystical Body. (It ‘should be noted in this context that Mary is traditionally often referred to as the “neck” which joins the members of the body to its head.) Her state of being redeemed, which comprises a universal saving function with regard to all the co-redeemed, makes Mary the active prototype of the “communion of saints” redeemed by Christ. She is the universally conceptive, life-bearing womb of the Christian community, the type of the Church. Her mother- hood, spiritual and bodily, in faith, the motherhood to which she freely committed herself in faith, forms the synthesis of Mary’s objectively and subjectively sublime redemption. Her specific influence and mediation of grace with regard to us are also included in her motherhood.

In other words, hers was a committed motherhood, which in turn implies a maternal relationship with all her children and an abiding motherly solicitude for them. The objective bond which exists between Mary’s mother- hood and our lives as Christians, even before we become aware of its existence, has a profoundly intimate and personal character as far as Mary is concerned, and should therefore never be regarded by us as an impersonal relationship.

In receiving everything for the first time in faith for our sake, Mary was able to pass everything on to us. It is possible to state her function in this way by reference to St. Thomas’s commentary on the Hail Mary: “What constitutes greatness in any saint is the extent to which the abundance of grace which he receives overflows for the salvation of many in the world.

Mary is now perfectly conscious of her maternal function within the Christian plan of salvation and, living in a state of glorious, triumphant and sublimely active loving dedication and eternal receptivity, she is utterly at one, in will and intention, with the saving will and intention of the only saviour of mankind, Christ glorified.

Archives