Vatican City, Jan 1, 2017 / 04:01 am
At the start of the new year, Pope Francis said that celebrating Mary, the Mother of God, highlights a beautiful aspect of our faith: that Mary is our mother too, and that by her example we can learn to practice virtue and self-sacrifice in our own lives.
"By her motherhood, Mary shows us that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong," Francis said Jan. 1.
"To celebrate Mary as Mother of God and our mother at the beginning of the new year means recalling a certainty that will accompany our days: we are a people with a Mother; we are not orphans."
Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Jan. 1, reflecting on the line in Luke's Gospel that says "Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart."