Mary, Mother of Christ and Mother of Christian

By: Dery Marshal James, OFMConv.

Mary bore a single son,

Begotten of the Almighty Father;

Yet every soul that Christ has won

She holds beneath her watchful eye.

Eve was named the mother of all.

But proved a stepmother instead;

She gave her children Adam’s fall.

And left them only to the dead.

But Mary, the image of the Bride,

Gave birth to Life, and Life gives birth;

In him the dead are glorified.

Reborn as heirs of heaven and earth.

Her heart is gentle, never stern.

Toward those she did not bear in pain;

One child she nursed, yet still we learn

Her womb brings forth new fruit again.

So Mother of the Christ is she,

And mother of the Christian too;

Her care and mercy, wide and free,

Make all God’s children born anew.