Why Should I Answer the Call of My Heart?

	What motive do I have to answer the call of my heart, when by a movement of sincere piety and joyous admiration it wants to greet a young girl from Bethlehem as the woman who is blessed among all women? She is the mother of the Lord, the mother of my Lord. This is the deepest reason for my veneration and gratitude to her. Already on a natural level, an incomparable light surrounds the name “Mother” with a halo. As for authentic human sentiments, the title of “Mother” and all that it contains and signifies evokes something sacred and inviolable. The very name of Mother contains all that is most tender and pure in a person's life. Would you be able to depreciate your mother or speak ill of her? Would you want to erase her image from your soul? This is why it seems obvious to me that if Jesus is dear to us as our Lord and Savior, it is natural for us to have warm and deep feelings for the woman he used to call his Mother, his own Mother. To honor him and despise his Mother, to glorify him and belittle his Mother is not consistent if we see Jesus as the true son of Mary, the Virgin of the city of David, something we do in fact each time we recite the Apostles' Creed: “I believe in Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary”. Pastor E. Eidem, Herrens Moder (The Mother of the Lord – Variations on the Magnificat), Uppsala 1929 Quoted by Benoît Thierry d'Argenlieu, Marie Reine du Nord, In: Maria – études sur la Vierge Marie – under the direction of Hubert du Manoir, S. J. - Volume IV, 1956