What Catholics Believe About Mary: The Original Rebel Mother
This One Goes Out to All the Baby Mamas ... and to the tired mamas, the bonus mamas, the spiritual mamas, and every single one of us who had a mother.
On this Mother’s Day episode, we’re going straight to the heart of what Catholics actually believe about the Virgin Mary. No fluff, no stained-glass stereotypes — just real talk answering the questions people actually ask:
Why do Catholics make such a big deal about Mary if Jesus is enough?
What is the Immaculate Conception (and why it’s not the Virgin Birth)?
Was Mary really a virgin her whole life?
Why do we call her Mother of God?
What’s the deal with the Assumption and praying to Mary?
And why is she the ultimate Rebel Saint?
We dive deep into the Catechism, Scripture (including her powerful Magnificat), Church history, and Mary’s radical “yes” that changed the world. Whether you’re a mom in the trenches right now, someone missing their mother, or just curious about Mary, this episode will encourage, challenge, and remind you that you have a heavenly mother who never leaves.
If you’ve ever wondered why Catholics love Mary so much — or if you need a mother’s heart who truly gets it — this one’s for you.
Key Topics:
• The Theotokos (Mother of God)
• Immaculate Conception & Perpetual Virginity
• The Assumption & Queen of Heaven
• Why Catholics ask Mary to pray for us
• Mary at the Cross and her role as Mother of the Church
• The revolutionary power of the Magnificat
References & Resources Mentioned
The Bible: Luke Chapter 1 (The Canticle of Mary / The Magnificat)
Bible Version Used: New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) via the Blessed is She Journaling Bible
Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC):
CCC 491: The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception
CCC 2622: Mary’s Fiat and Magnificat
Historical Church Councils: The Council of Ephesus (431 AD) – Defense of the title Theotokos
Papal Documents: Munificentissimus Deus (1950) – Pope Pius XII defining the Dogma of the Assumption
TRANSCRIPT
This one right here goes out to all of the baby mamas, mamas, mamas mamas, baby mamas mamas. Oh gosh. Yeah, that was like way cooler in my head anyway. At any rate, I've really gotta stop butchering that Outkast classic because this is an indie podcast and there are no funds for royalties. Now that I've embarrassed myself, I do want to say that this episode is going out to every single kind of mom out there. The biological moms, the adoptive moms, the foster moms, the bonus moms, the godmothers, the spiritual mothers, the ones doing it tired, the ones doing it alone, the ones waiting to become a mom. Because all of us, we all have a mother.
And if you haven't guessed by now, today we're talking about the Virgin Mary.
And I'm going to do this Rebel Saints style, which means I'm going to give it to you straight. I'm going to center this conversation on what the Catholic Church actually teaches about her, right from the catechism, right from Scripture, and right from two thousand years of handing on the faith. Think of it as all of your questions about Mary answered.
With today being Mother's Day, I thought, you know, as we celebrate mothers, there is no better place to start than with the mother Jesus chose himself. And let's be real, today can hit different for all of us, right? Because although every single one of us had a mother, some of us, hopefully most of us, had amazing mothers who poured love into us every single day.
For many, we may have had moms who tried their very best and definitely loved us, but still left scars. And then, you know, some of us are mothers right now, maybe you're in that very new stage. Maybe you're wiping noses, drying tears. Maybe you're parenting a teen, or a young adult, and maybe you're just sitting here going, am I totally messing up my kids? The point of the matter is, motherhood is complicated, and it's layered, and it is the hardest thing any of us could ever do. And yet, for those of us who have lost our mothers, we may be experiencing an ache in our chest, wishing we could pick up the phone, and hear her voice just one more time.
A lot of folks, Catholic, and non-Catholic alike, wonder why we make such a big deal about Mary. Don't we only need Jesus? Isn't talking about her taking something away from him? And I get why people ask that... But here's the thing, the church has always said Catholics honor Mary because of Jesus, not instead of him. Jesus is the center of everything.
The Catechism puts it clearly. Mary's role is completely tied to her son. She is the mother of the Redeemer, and her whole life points straight back to him. Think about it like this. Jesus didn't drop into the world as a thirty year old rabbi. He chose to be born of a woman. He let himself be totally dependent on a human mother for nine months in the womb, for years, raising Jesus, for everything a kid needs. If the Eternal Son of God honors his mother that much, maybe we should too.
The Church calls her the Theotokos, which is the God bearer in Greek. That title was defended at the Council of Ephesus in four hundred thirty one, because if Mary is the mother of Jesus, and Jesus is God, then she is the mother of God. It's not making her divine.
It's about protecting the truth, that the baby in her womb was fully God and fully man. One divine person, with two natures. That's the incarnation. That's Christmas.
You can't talk about Jesus becoming human, without talking about the woman who gave him that humanity. Now, one of the biggest mix up people have is the Immaculate Conception.
A lot of folks think it means Jesus was conceived without a father. No, that's the Virgin Birth.
The Immaculate Conception is about Mary herself, from the very first moment of her existence. At her conception, God preserved her from original sin. The Catechism of the Catholic Church spells it out this way, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. It was because she earned it on her own. It was a special grace from God, applied ahead of time because of what her son would do on the Cross. She's the new Eve. The one who said yes were Eve said no.
That's why the angel Gabriel greets her as "full of grace". In the original Greek, it's a perfect description. You can have been, and remain filled with grace. She was the freest human being who ever lived because her heart was completely clean, and she chose God with everything she had. The next question that always comes up.
What about her perpetual virginity?
Catholics believe Mary remained a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Jesus. The church calls her ever virgin. The Catechism says the deepening of faith in her virginal motherhood led the whole Church to confess this. People push back and say, but the Bible mentions the brothers of Jesus. Fair point. In the Hebrew and Aramaic that Mary and Jesus spoke, the word for brother also means cousin, kinsman, or close relative. The Bible itself uses it that way. Abraham calls his nephew lot his brother. And Scripture tells us James and Joseph called brothers of Jesus had another mother, Mary of Clopas plus think like a first century Jew for a second, if Mary had other children, Jesus would never have given her the Apostle John, from the cross as his mother. In that culture, you only do that if there are no other kids to care for her. Jesus was making sure his mother was looked after. That's the kind of son he was.
Then there's the assumption. In nineteen fifty, Pope Pius the twelfth declared as dogma that at the end of her earthly life, Mary was taken body and soul into heaven. Now, what that means is there is no tomb. There's no relics of her body anywhere.
The Catechism teaches that because she was preserved from original sin, death and decay didn't have the last word over her. She is the first fruit of the resurrection, we all hope for. And that's why we call her Queen of Heaven. Not because she's a goddess, but because her son is the King. In the old Davidic kingdom, the mother of the king was the queen mother. She sat at his right hand and interceded for the people. Mary does the same for us with the King of Kings. So why do we pray to her? Great question. And it's when people ask all the time, Catholics don't believe prayer means worship. Prayer just means asking. We ask Mary to pray for us, the same way we ask friends on earth to pray for us. The saints in heaven are alive in Christ. Jesus himself said, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And Scripture shows Mary interceding. Think about the wedding at Cana. She notices the wine has run out and brings the need straight to Jesus. She tells the servants, do whatever he tells you. That's her whole message. She always leads us to her son.
With regards and respect to the Rosary, I must tell you that it's not like a magic formula. It's meditating on the life of Jesus, while we let his mother walk with us. And the Hail Mary itself is straight Scripture for the first half. "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you." From the angel. "And blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." From Elizabeth. Then we simply ask her to pray for us, and "now and at the hour of our death." Here's where it gets really personal for Mother's Day. At the foot of the cross, Jesus looked at his mother, and at John, and said, "woman, behold your son, son, behold your mother." The Church has always understood that in that moment, that very moment when Jesus said those words, Mary became the mother of every disciple.
The Catechism therefore calls her mother of the Church and mother of all members of Christ. She is your mother, too. When you're up at three a.m., wondering if you're doing any of this motherhood thing right. She gets it. When your own mom is gone, or the relationship is hard, she never leaves. When you feel like you're failing, or the weight feels too heavy, she's the one who's interceding for you. Mary stood at the cross when everyone, for the most part, ran. So she knows what it is to watch your child suffer, and still trust God. And that brings us to the rebel heart of Mary. Her life was never easy. Her life isn't like a stained glass version. She was a teenage girl from a nothing town who said yes to God when it could have cost her everything. Her reputation, her safety, her future. The angel tells her she will conceive by the Holy Spirit. And she answers, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word." That one, yes, changed human history. She didn't have to say yes. She could have said, "No. Pause. I'm. No. I'm not the one for you." But she said "Yes." And when we listen to her Magnificat in Luke, Chapter One, she sings that God scatters the proud, cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. That is a revolutionary song. She lived it as a refugee in Egypt, as the mother watching her son rejected and crucified, as the woman who stayed in the upper room. Praying with all the apostles until the Holy Spirit came. Every single yes, cost her something, and she kept saying it. That is rebel motherhood.
Okay, rebels. I had to stop for a moment because, I feel like the Holy Spirit was calling me to actually read Mary's complete Magnificat instead of just explaining it. So here it goes. I'm going to be reading from the Blessed is She Bible. they're journaling Bible and it's
The new American Bible revised edition, The Canticle of Mary.
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid's loneliness. Behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me. And holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age. To those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm dispersed. The arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones, But lifted up the lowly, the hungry. He has filled with good things. The rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel, his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
And then Scripture says, Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. And then next, you know, we read about the birth of John, so we have two expectant mothers in this story, right? Those ten verses. Flip the world on its head. So in the first part, we have Mary's personal praise. She doesn't start by talking about herself, or how awesome she is, because she is, let's remember without sin, right? She starts with God. "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord." The Catechism points out that her Fiat, meaning her, "Yes, let it be done to me," and her Magnificat together, show her whole Being, offered in faith. You can read that in the Catechism, twenty six twenty two. She's not performing humility for the crowd. I mean, it's really just her and her cousin, right? She is really the lowly servant, and she knows it. God didn't pick a Queen of Judea, or some high society girl. He literally picked the nobody from Nazareth. And she still, like, stunned by it. Like for real, like me. "All generations will call me blessed." Like that's not her bragging. That's prophecy. And she knows it's already coming true. And then she says, "Holy is his name." She's echoing the whole Old Testament Psalms the prophets, because she soaked in it. And then it shifts, and she starts talking about God's mercy, and how that mercy stretches from generation to generation, to everyone who fears him. So mercy isn't just like a nice feeling for Mary, it's the engine of everything. And then the real rebel part that's still, I think, makes people squirm, is God flexes his arm and scatters the proud. He yanks the powerful off their thrones and lifts the lowly. Instead, he fills the starving and sends the rich packing empty handed. This isn't gentle Jesus. Meek and mild stuff. This is the God of the Exodus. The God who sides with the underdog. The God who keeps flipping the script on human power games.
Mary singing a revolutionary anthem right there in Elizabeth's living room while she's pregnant with the Savior. And then she ties it all back to Israel. God hasn't forgotten his servant people. He's remembering his mercy exactly like he promised, Abraham centuries earlier. The Magnificat, isn't just Mary's personal diary entry. It's like the whole Story of Salvation crashing into the present moment. That's why she's the new Eve. The Church hears it every evening in the liturgy of the hours, because it sums up what the new people of God are supposed to sound like grateful, bold, and totally convinced that God's upside down kingdom is already breaking in. And here's kind of what hit me, when I really think about it, Mary is showing us what real rebellion looks like. It's not angry, shouting or grabbing power. It is a total surrender to God's plan, even when it turns your life inside out. She said yes to the angel and that yes, put a target on her back, her reputation, safety, everything. And instead of complaining, she sings. She magnifies the Lord, not herself. If there was ever a rebel saint move, it was that. That's the mother we're supposed to imitate. On Mother's Day, and every day. And that's the mother we're supposed to pray for. Even when our own mothers fail, we're supposed to forgive and love, and raise up to God's mercy. So rebels, next time you feel small or overlooked or like the world's power, players have it all locked down, I encourage you to return to this Canticle, to Mary's Magnificat, and pray it out loud. Let Mary remind you, God is still in the business of lifting the lowly, feeding the hungry, and keeping every promise he made. Her song, is your song. It is the Church's song. And it's still being sung two thousand years later because the same God is still at work.
So here's my Mother's Day challenge to you. If you're a mom listening right now, tired, second guessing yourself. Gosh, I've been there. Wiping noses, wondering if any of it matters. Look at Mary. Hand your kids over to her. I mean, I've done this probably a thousand times in the twenty two years that I've been a mother. She raised the Son of God. She knows the worry, the love, the heartbreak. If your own mother is difficult or gone, or if today feels heavy, turn to the mother Jesus gave you. She will never abandon you. And for all of us, let's ask Mary to make us better rebels. People who say yes to God even when it's scary. People who stand at the Cross instead of running away. People who point others straight to Jesus. And if you've never prayed the Magnificat, her Canticle slowly, verse by verse, return to it this week, and meditate over it. Let it mess with you like it just messed with me. Let it fire you up. Because this is what rebel motherhood, rebel discipleship sounds like. And let's close together, wherever you are. If you're driving, folding laundry, cooking dinner, sitting in the backyard...
Let's pray in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Mary, mother of God, mother of the Church. Queen of heaven. The rebel who said yes when the world would have said no. Pray for us. Teach us to love your son the way you do. On this Mother's Day, hold every mother listening in your arms the same way you held the baby Jesus, and hold all of the children who are yearning for a mother. Hold them. Wrap them in your mantle.
Amen. In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit.
And whatever your story is today, whether Mother's Day feels joyful or painful, you're not alone. Mary stood at the Cross to.
Well, rebels. That's all I've got for you today. Thank you so much for spending this time with me. If this episode answers some questions or encouraged you. Please share it with someone who's been wondering what Catholics really believe about Mary.
If you have a minute, I would really appreciate you leaving a review, hitting that follow button and, you know, maybe tapping on a few stars, that would really help this podcast find listeners who need it. Thank you so much. Happy Mother's Day to all of you.
I'm Nicole, and this is Rebel Saints, for restless hearts called to be saints. Restless hearts. You are welcome here.
