Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
From our province of the Immaculate Conception, we wish a Happy New Year to all! We dedicate this New Year of 2026 to Jesus Christ, Lord of History, through the hands of His Mother, Mary.
The Octave of Christmas ends on the first day of the new year, which is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, venerated as the Mother of God. The Gospel reminds us that she “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). So she did in Bethlehem, on Golgotha at the foot of the cross, and on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended in the Upper Room.
And so she does today too. The Mother of God and of human beings keeps in her heart all of humanity’s problems, great and difficult, and meditates upon them. The Alma Redemptoris Mater walks with us and guides us with motherly tenderness towards the future. Thus she helps humanity cross all the “thresholds” of the years, the centuries, the millenniums, by sustaining their hope in the One who is the Lord of history…
Jesus Christ, the beginning and the end, Alpha, and Omega. All time belongs to him, and all the ages.
We begin this new year in his name. Through Mary’s intercession may we be his faithful disciples, so that by our words and deeds we may glorify and honour him through all ages and for ever.
—from a homily of St. John Paul II, January 1, 1999, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
