Mary’s role, both in the mystery of the Incarnation and in salvation history, is honored and continues. We seek her intercession and motherly guidance as we embark on the New Year, a Holy Year, the Jubilee Year of Hope.
By Fr. Matthew Tomeny, MIC
Christmas is always a joyful time of the year. The Church especially highlights different elements of the Incarnation during the Christmas Octave, which concludes on Jan. 1, the beginning of a new calendar year and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, a Holy Day of Obligation.
The Church has united during Christmas the supreme worship given to the Son of God with the veneration due to the Mother of God since the time of the Council of Ephesus in 431.
Ephesus famously refuted the heretic Nestorius’ claims (that Jesus was merely a man) by declaring that the divine Son, Jesus, was fully God and fully Man. As a result, Mary, being His Mother, was “Mother of God,” the Theotokos.
Light and Law
Mary’s role, both in the mystery of the Incarnation and in salvation history, is honored and continues. We seek her intercession and motherly guidance as we embark on the New Year, a Holy Year, the Jubilee Year of Hope.
On the eighth day of Christmas, the Church also traditionally recalls how Mary, with Joseph, brought her baby eight days after birth, in accordance with the Old Testament Law, to be circumcised and named Jesus, which means “the Lord saves.”
Christ in His circumcision foreshadowed the giving of His flesh and Blood on the Cross. He enters into our suffering to heal us and make us new. He makes all things new by reconciling creation to God first through mercy and forgiveness.
Forgiveness and peace
In 1967, Pope St. Paul VI designated Jan. 1 as the World Day of Peace, as a way to focus the start of each year on the universal pursuit of peace. As Mother of the Prince of Peace, Mary, the Queen of Peace, intercedes for harmony among nations and peoples. By invoking Mary’s maternal care over humanity, the Church prays that her example of humility and love may inspire peace throughout the world.
The Blessed Virgin Mary reminded us of her role in the world’s quest for peace in her apparitions at Fatima in 1917, as she called for conversion, penance, and devotion to her Immaculate Heart as a means to achieve peace in the world.
Pope Francis’ theme for the 2025 World Day of Peace is focused on how forgiveness from God is the key to peace. Only by accepting God’s forgiveness through penance can we attain inner peace, and only by then likewise forgiving others can we attain exterior peace.
True peace
Peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the “tranquility of order,” a concept rooted in St. Augustine’s theology. True peace is achieved when all things are rightly ordered according to God’s will. Mary’s Immaculate Heart is in perfect alignment with God’s will, as exemplified by her fiat, and is in harmony with all of creation because she is in harmony with the Creator.
Devotion to her Immaculate Heart, therefore, is a path to inner peace and communal harmony, as her life models obedience, purity, and selfless love in humble submission to the will of God.
First Saturdays
To promote devotion to her Immaculate Heart, Our Lady urged the faithful to observe the Five First Saturdays devotion — attending Mass, receiving Communion, praying the Rosary, and meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary — to foster inner conversion and prepare for peace.
The First Saturdays devotion is a great tangible way to begin the year. This devotion fosters conversion to the will of God, which is the only way to true peace. We can keep searching for peace all we want, but it’s not solely something for us to choose; rather, peace is a fruit of loving God and neighbor through virtue. The Immaculate Heart will triumph and reign in peace when our hearts reflect hers, which is in perfect union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
As St. Augustine put it, “O Lord, you have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.”
Mary, Mother of God and Queen of Peace, pray for us!
Father Matthew Tomeny, MIC is Rector of The National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
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