A Family in Christ: Mary, Mother of the Church

Our 2026 Full of Grace Youth Journal theme is “Marian Titles.” We celebrate Mary throughout the year by reflecting on the many names that honor her love, protection, and intercession. June’s titles are Mother of the Church & Seat of Wisdom.

At the foot of the Cross, Jesus looked down at His mother and at the beloved disciple John and said: Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother (John 19:26–27).

This tender moment in Scripture is of great consequence. In this exchange, Jesus gives Mary to the Church, and in doing so He gives her to us. We see Mary cooperating in Jesus’ ministry in other moments of Scripture as well. At the Wedding at Cana, Mary prompts the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and so the beginning of His preaching of the Kingdom. When the servants run out of wine, Mary intercedes for them to her Son, and she confidently instructs them: Do whatever He tells you (John 2:5).

Pope Paul VI called Mary “mother of all the faithful and pastors,” formally proclaiming her Mater Ecclesiae—Mother of the Church—in 1964. His proclamation finds its basis in the words of her dying Son. Mary became mother to John in that moment, and through John, to you and to your children, their children, and every generation to come. As a parent raising a child in the faith today, with all the beauty and chaos of parenthood, you are not alone—your mother, and their other mother, is with you.

We celebrate the Mother of the Church on May 25, but we also celebrate Mary as Seat of Wisdom on June 8. Jesus is Divine Wisdom personified. As His mother who carried Him in her womb and on her lap, Mary is called Seat of Wisdom. With these complementary feast days rather close together, we can be encouraged to spend this month trying to get closer to Mary as a family as we consider practical ways to seek her guidance.

What a Mother Does

Our children know what a good mother is—she is the one who shows up, who stays, and who knows you in a way that no one else can. She has known you longer than any other human possibly could. She also intercedes for you before you even know you need it. When we tell our children that Mary is their mother too, we are not asking them to stretch their imagination but instead to expand it. We are asking them to receive a love that was given to them from Jesus before they were born. Among all the other gifts He gives us, how blessed we are to also receive Mary as our mother!

We can tell our children that Mary is a mother who prays for her children without ceasing, who brings their needs before her Son with the quiet confidence of someone who knows Him better than anyone—just as their own earthly mothers know them. The wedding at Cana gives us a glimpse of this. She noticed the need, she brought it to Jesus, and she told the servants do whatever He tells you. Her instruction has echoed through the ages to every one of her children.

Another Mother in the Home

One of the quiet griefs of modern parenting is a frequent sense that we are raising our children against the current, in a changing culture and without a village. But our children are not ours alone—they belong to a family far larger and older than our household, and at the head of that family is a mother who does not tire, does not despair, and does not abandon. She has been mothering the Church through heresy and plague and persecution. She can handle a teenager and hold the hand of an anxious child. Our work is to make this sense of abiding love real for our children rather than abstract. One of the best ways to do this is through God’s Word.

Inviting Mary in through Cana and the Cross

Read John 2:1-11 together. Ask your child:

What does it tell you about Mary that she noticed the wine had run out?
What does it tell you that she went straight to Jesus?
What does it tell you that she didn’t wait for Him to agree before she told the servants to get ready?

Invite your child to think about where they feel like something necessary is missing in their lives. Bring it to Mary as a family in the rosary.

Do the same with John 19:26-27.

How do you think Mary felt as she watched Jesus suffer?

Why do you think Jesus wanted Mary and John to care for each other?

What does this moment teach us about Jesus’ love, even while He was suffering?
When we are sad, scared, or lonely, how can we ask Mary to pray for us?

The Mother We All Share

When we call Mary Mother of the Church, we insist that we do not belong to ourselves alone. We are made for a family—the Church is a household we have been born into and we all have a mother who prays for us. Our children need to know they belong to something that will not fail them. Mary, Mother of the Church, is one face of that belonging. Go deeper and consider the following with your children:

Do you have a relationship with Mary? What is it like?

Do you believe that Mary is a loving mother who will listen to your troubles?

If the Church is the Body of Christ, in what ways can you serve Christ through the Church?

May our children grow up knowing the Mother of the Church’s voice and hearing her wisdom. May they bring her their fears and their failures and their smallest needs, trusting that she carries them all to her Son. And may we, their parents, find in her not only a model but a companion, another mother in the work, interceding for our families without ceasing, until we are all, at last, home.

Mary, Mother of the Church and Seat of Wisdom, pray for us!