May 25 Thu
Titles of the Blessed Mother: Mother of Christ.  We invoke Mary as the Mother of Christ. Why so? To remind us that she was associated with the hopes and prayers of the prophets, of all true worshipers of God, and of all who “looked for the redemption of Israel.”

Our Lord was called Christ (in Greek), or Messiah (in Hebrew), by the Jewish people. The two words mean the same, the “Anointed One.” In the old times there were three great ministries or offices by means of which God spoke to His chosen people, that of Priest, King, and Prophet. These were solemnly anointed with oil – oil signifying the grace of God, which was given to them for the due performance of their high duties. But our Lord is all three: – a Priest, because He offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins; a Prophet, because He revealed to us the Holy Law of God; and a King, because He rules over us. Thus, He is the one true Christ.

The Jews expected him from age to age. Their first great question was, “When will He come,” and then, “Who will be His Mother?” They were told, not that He should come from heaven, but that He should be born of a Woman.

At the time of the fall of Adam, God had said that the seed of the Woman should crush the Serpent’s head. Who, then, was to be that Woman? At the end of many centuries, it was further revealed to the Jews that the great Messiah, or Christ, the seed of the Woman, should be born of their lineage, and of one of the twelve tribes.

Thus, Mary became the Mother of Christ, not in the way they expected Him, but, declining such maternity, she became a Mother by means of a higher grace, by the Holy Spirit. This is the full meaning of St. Elizabeth’s words, when the Blessed Virgin visited her, contained in the Hail Mary: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”
Inspired on St. John Henry Newman