"Behold, your Mother!"

Detail, L'Avvocata, written by St. Luke, house in the Dominican Convent on Monte Mario in Rome

“Mary is Mother, and one cannot conceive any other title of Mary that is not ‘Mother.” She is Mother, because she brings us Jesus and she helps us with the strength of the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus will be born and grow in us. She constantly gives us life. She is Mother of the Church. She is maternity. We do not have the right  -- and if we [think we do] we are mistaken – to have a psychology of orphans. A Christian does not have the right to be an orphan. He has a Mother! We have a Mother.”

- Pope Francis