The Virgin Mary as Mother of the Blessed Sacrament

This blog post is lovingly dedicated to our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV. Elected Successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ by the Cardinals in Rome on May 8, in the Year of Our Lord MMXXV (2025), the 267ᵗʰ Pope is called to lead the Holy Church of God in these most tumultuous times. May Our Lady, for whom he has a most tender devotion, intercede for him and obtain from her Son every grace and heavenly blessing for our new Holy Father.

In the Catholic Church, the month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. As the month of May leads to June, so Our Lady leads us to the Sacred Heart of her Son. Ad Jesum per Mariam: thus goes the famous motto of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort. To Jesus through Mary. In honour of this profound truth of Catholic theology and of the spiritual life, and to give glory to Our lady during this month of May, today's blog post is about Our Lady's particular role as Mother of the Holy Eucharist, Mother of the Blessed Sacrament.

What is a Mother? Here in North America, we were called to reflect on this question as we celebrated Mother's Day on May 11 this year (In Europe, Mother's Day is celebrated in a different month). Mother's Day is a celebration and an acknowledgement of the gift of maternity, which is the natural means instituted by God through which a new human life comes into this world. The Church here in Canada celebrated Pro-Life Sunday on the Sunday immediately preceding Mother's Day (Sunday, May 4 this year), in order to show that the gift of life and the gift of motherhood are intimately linked. This truth may seem to be self-evident, and indeed it is when we are living in a sane society, but in today's irrational world, it is often denied. The term "mother" today is sometimes replaced by the generic and bizarre expression "birthing parent," and here in the province of Ontario, Canada, the terms "mother" and "father" have been completely eliminated from all official documents and forms. They have been replaced by the gender-neutral "parent 1" and "parent 2." Thus motherhood has come under great attack, as has the family and marriage. It is therefore important for us to understand the importance of motherhood, and how motherhood applies in a particular way to the Virgin Mary and the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.

The Thursday before Mother's Day here in Canada was the day of the National March for Life: a day in which Canadians march on the streets of the National Capital (Ottawa) for the defence of human life. Defending motherhood and defending life are one and the same thing, because these two realities cannot be separated — despite attempts to do just that. A mother has the vocation of bringing new life into this world, which is why there is no stronger natural bond in this world than the bond that unites a mother and her child. The attack on the life of an innocent child in its mother's womb is ultimately an attack on motherhood itself, with the ultimate aim of destroying the Christian (and natural, rational) understanding of the human family.

What we see in the natural order of things in this world is often a reflection of how things are in the supernatural order. In regard to this mother-child relationship, there is no more perfect example in the supernatural order than the relationship between Mary and Jesus. Christ is the Source and Author of all life because He is God. But even His own life in this world comes through the intermediary of a mother: the Virgin Mary. Mary gives birth to Christ, though in a completely miraculous and virginal way, thus inaugurating the era of the Incarnation. God is born in human flesh through the consent of a mother who said YES to the Will of God. And because the Virgin Mary is the Mother of Jesus, her maternity extends to the full mystery of Jesus Christ. Mary was historically the Mother of the Infant Jesus born in that humble manger in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. But her maternity is not just a historical fact: it extends further; she is also Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ (the Catholic Church) and of the sacramental Body of Christ: the Holy Eucharist.

The role of a mother is two-fold: firstly to bring new life into the world, and secondly to sustain and nourish that newly-begotten life. A mother engenders and she nourishes. And this two-fold aspect of the mission of mothers in the natural order is represented in a much deeper way at the supernatural level. What is true in the order of nature is much more true in the order of grace.

Returning then to the Blessed Virgin Mary... The Virgin Mary exercised this two-fold mission of (1) giving birth to Christ and (2) nourishing Him, in the most perfect way possible. And she does the same to the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Catholic Church and its members. The Blessed Virgin Mary gives birth to and sustains the Mystical Body of her Son in various ways. Firstly, through her intercession. Our Lady is the model of all true prayer, and it is through her constant intercession with her Son that she obtains for the Church all the graces that the Church needs in order to fulfil its mission of saving souls.

Recall how the Blessed Virgin Mary was present with the Apostles in the Upper Chamber between the Ascension and Pentecost (the time of the Cenacle) and how, during this time, it was she who led the Apostles in prayer, asking Our Lord to send forth the Holy Ghost whom He had promised He would send. At Pentecost, this Gift of the Holy Ghost descended upon the Virgin Mary and the Apostles, and would henceforth be the Guiding Principle that would direct the Church here on earth. Without Our Lady's powerful intercession, would the Holy Ghost have descended? We know from the wedding at Cana that there is nothing that Our Lady prays for to her Son that the Son refuses, for she never asks for anything that is contrary to the Will of God. Her prayers are always efficacious, primarily becaue they come from a heart that all-pure and all-holy. Thus the Virgin Mary "engendered the Church," in a certain manner of speaking. She gave birth to the Mystical Body of Christ here on earth through the exercising of her powerful meditation and intercession.

The gift of salvation and of Eternal Life are given to us through the Holy Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, which is made present first and foremost through the Holy Eucharist (the Catholic Mass). As a consequence of this, the Blessed Virgin Mary's intercessory prayer for the Church is firstly directed towards the preservation and extension of the Eucharistic Mystery across space and time. It is only because of the prayers of Our Lady that the promise of Christ remains fulfilled to this very day: Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of time (Mt. 28: 20). Because the object of Our Lord's promise is primarily ordered to the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and to the perpetuation of the Eucharistic Mystery (the Catholic Mass), Our Lady's intercession for the Church is also ordered principally to praying for the preservation of the Holy Eucharist until the end of time. In this way, the Virgin Mary exercises her maternal role over the Church by by assuring — through her intercession — that the Church will always be nourished by the Supersubstantial Bread (see Mt. 6:11, Vulgate) without which she could never survive.

This truth — namely this relationship between Our Lady and the preservation of the Holy Eucharist as the primary life-giving force that sustains the Holy Catholic Church — is also the main reason why souls that have a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin also always have a strong Eucharistic piety. These souls almost always are filled with a deep sense of reverence towards the Blessed Sacrament: a reverence that is often expressed externally by their preference for receiving Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue. And conversely, such Eucharistic devotion in turn always leads to a deeper piety towards Our Lady. There are almost no Traditional Latin Mass communities (where Holy Communion is exclusively administered on the tongue, and kneeling) where devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is not strong. Devotion to Our Lady and to Our Eucharistic Lord mutually sustain and fortify each other. And this is what we would expect, since the Virgin Mary is the Mother of the Holy Eucharist. There are beautiful monstrances that attempt to highlight this fact, such as the one depicted here portraying Mary as the Ark of the New and Eternal Covenant. They show the Blessed Sacrament carried in the maternal and immaculate womb of Our Lady, because she not only gave birth to Our Lord in the manger of Bethlehem, but she continues to present Our Lord for Adoration by the faithful in the Blessed Sacrament.

One of the consequences of this is that these two devotions should never be separated. Devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to the Virgin Mary as the Mother of the Blessed Sacrament should always go hand in hand. In fact, the best and most fruitful way of assisting at Holy Mass, of receiving Holy Communion, and of being present at Eucharistic Adoration is by doing these actions in union with, and in calling upon the presence of, the Virgin Mary. "O Blessed Mother, come into my heart and receive Jesus in Holy Communion with me" is an excellent and highly beneficial prayer that helps to make our Holy Communions ever more fruitful to our soul. If we invite the Blessed Virgin to receive her Son in us, then Our Lord will always be happy and consoled to come to us in the Blessed Sacrament, because there He will find the presence of His Mother. Uniting ourselves to Our Lady's Most-Pure Heart at the moment of receiving Communion is a practice that can produce countless graces in our soul. Because Jesus takes no greater pleasure than to dwell in His Mother, inviting His Mother into the inner sanctuary of our soul will lead to Jesus being irresistibly drawn to our soul and giving Himself to us more completely than if Our Lady were left aside.

I leave you with a beautiful prayer that highlights this profound truth, a prayer that should be familiar to many traditional Catholics. It is known by its first line: O Jesu vivens in Maria (O Jesus living in Mary):

O Jesu vivens in Maria,

Veni et vive in famulis tuis,

In spiritu sanctitatis tuae,

In plenitudine virtutis tuae,

In perfectione viarum tuarum,

In veritate virtutum tuarum,

In communione mysteriorum tuorum;

Dominare omni adversae potestati,

In Spiritu tuo ad gloriam Patris.

O Jesus living in Mary:

Come and live in Thy servants,

In the spirit of Thy holiness,

In the fullness of Thy power,

In the perfection of Thy ways,

In the truth of Thy virtues,

In the communion of Thy mysteries.

Rule Thou over every adverse power,

In Thy Spirit, to the glory of the Father.