October 11: Feast of the Theotokos--The Divine Maternity of the Mother of God

In the liturgical calendar for the 1970 Roman Missal, there's an optional memorial today, that of Pope Saint John XXIII. October 11 was chosen as his feast day because that's the date on which he convoked the Second Vatican Council in 1962. But in the liturgical calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, today is the feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorating the decision of the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. that she is indeed the Mother of God, because Jesus is God from God, True God from God, True God and True Man. She is not just the mother of His "human nature"; she is the mother of His Divine Person.

As Saint John Henry Newman remonstrated with his old friend, E.B. Pusey, the Catholic Church believes what she believes about Mary because she believes what she believes about Jesus, rejecting the claims of Arius, Nestorius, and other heretics.

When Pope St. John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council on October 11, 1962, he mentioned this feast as an auspicious date on which to begin an ecumenical council:

Gaudet Mater Ecclesia quod, singulari Divinae Providentiae munere, optatissimus iam dies illuxit, quo, auspice Deipara Virgine, cuius materna dignitas hodie festo ritu recolitur, hic ad Beati Petri sepulcrum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum Secundum sollemniter initium capit.

Here's some background about the Feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from a blog post I submitted to the National Catholic Register a few years ago:

On the Roman Calendar of the 1962 Missal promulgated by Pope St. John XXIII, Oct. 11 is the Feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast was proclaimed in an encyclical letter issued by Pope Pius XI on Dec. 25, 1931 in celebration of the anniversary of the great Council of Ephesus in 431, 1500 (one thousand, five hundred) years before.

[N.B.: Now, that's 1591 (one thousand, five hundred and ninety-one) years ago.]

Pope Pius XI reigned from 1922, succeeding Pope Benedict XV, and died in 1938, succeeded by Pope Pius XII. In his encyclical, Lux Veritatis, Pope Pius XI celebrated the history of the Council of Ephesus and explained how the doctrine of the Person of Jesus, Divinity Incarnate, was essential to Catholic teaching and devotion about the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Incipit—the first words—of this encyclical Lux Veritatis, refers to the light of truth found in the true understanding of history. One shining truth revealed by history, Pius XI declares, is that God is always with His Church, defending her in the midst of troubles, whether the troubles are from within or from without. He will protect “the integrity of the sacred deposit of Gospel truth.” (paragraph 2) . . .

The heresy of the priest Nestorius was that he “denied that wondrous and substantial union of the two natures which we call hypostatic; and for this reason he asserted that the Only begotten Word of God was not made man but was in human flesh, by indwelling, by good pleasure and by the power of operation.” Nestorius said that Jesus should be called Theophoros, or God-Bearer, like a prophet who had received God’s inspiration. If Jesus was not the Second Person of the Holy Trinity incarnate, with a human nature and human will (and a Divine nature and will), then Mary was not the Mother of God: she was not the Theotokos, but merely the Christotokos, the Mother of the human person Jesus. (pp. 9 and 10)

Please read the rest there.

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
You take away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us;
You take away the sin of the world,
receive our prayer;
You are seated at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us. (from the Gloria, the Angelic Hymn)

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Pope St. John XXIII, pray for us. Amen.

Image Credit (Public Domain): The image adorned with its Canonical crowns and jewel regalia, no longer attached today. The crowns are stored within the treasury department of Saint Peter’s Basilica.