In a first communion class recently the children were asked ‘who is Mary?’ One arm shot up with the child exclaiming ‘God’s wife! What is the Church saying when it says Mary is the Mother of God (not his wife!) and says ‘let’s emphasize this by celebrating it on the first day of the year’.

Whilst there are certainly rational explanations, what the Church wants us to live on this feast is an experience.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 489) says that various women in the Old Testament prefigured the work of Mary: Eve, Sarah, Deborah, Ruth amongst others. ‘Mary stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him’. Mary, like these other women is able to wait, to wait for Jesus to be born in her. At the beginning of this year we will have to wait for many things; anniversaries, hospital test results, attempts to find work, a change in difficult relationships. This feast announces that Mary wants to help us to wait, not alone, but with Jesus. We don’t make new resolutions on our own, destined to fail, but we set out on a new year, a new time, not alone, but like Mary with Jesus.

The Catechism (CCC 495) continues: ‘Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as ‘the mother of my Lord’.… Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly ‘Mother of God’ (theotokos)’. Mary is not an idea, a crutch, but a mother, our mother.

The experience of a mother is rarely summed up in one phrase. Mary, the mother of God, and the experience of her by countless Christians, has given rise to a great array of titles. John Paul II in his apostolic letter Stella Maris highlighted another ancient title,  Stella Maris (Star of the Sea). This has long been the favourite title by which seafarers and fishermen have called on her in whose protection they have always trusted.‘Her son, Jesus, accompanied his disciples in their vessels, helped them in their work and calmed the storms. And so the Church accompanies seafarers, caring for the special spiritual needs of those who for various reasons live and work in the maritime world.’ John Paul II

The Sea covers two thirds of the planet and those who live, work or have their way of life linked the sea are served by the Church through the Apostleship of the Sea (AoS). The AoS is often known locally as Stella Maris after the name given to the many seafarer’s hostels provided in ports around the world.

This icon of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, was painted in the Neo-Coptic style by iconographer Dr Stephane Rene. The Coptic icon is the direct heir to the spirituality of the Desert Fathers, who were the first Christian monks and lived in the deserts of the Middle East. They led a prayerful and reflective way of life and developed a spirituality which shaped many monastic rules such as that of St Benedict. St Jerome identified in his writings that Mary, the Mother of God, was the ‘Star of the Sea’.

O Mary, abide with us, who are your children; guide us along the path which leads to God. Be to us always a mother. (Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman)

The Star of the Sea, Stella Maris, is the most ancient of titles for Our Lady. It is premised that in the time of Our Lord the equivalent phrase of Our Lady in the Aramaic language of that day meant pilot, leader or guide - someone who could navigate through the sea or the desert by the stars and lead people to safety. The stars were and are used as a guide to safety and to new life. The sea covers all the earth and symbolises all the people of the earth. Our Lady was therefore identified from the very earliest days of the Church as the guiding light to her son, Our Lord, for all the people of the earth.

The sea has always been one of the most feared elements of nature because of its enormous power to sustain life or destroy. We are powerless and insignificant in the midst of its rage. Yet in its benign aspect the sea is a source of untold beauty and nourishment for mankind. The sea is therefore a metaphor for life and its perils but also for its wondrous joy and beauty. The worldwide ocean also represents all the peoples of the world.

The late Westminster priest, Fr Alan Fudge reminds us of another facet of this solemnity of the mother of God, ‘It is on this solemnity that the Church also wishes to give thanks to God for the mystery of women and indeed for every woman. She wants to give thanks for mothers, for sisters, for wives, for widows. For women consecrated to God in virginity; for women dedicated to the many human beings who await the gratuitous love of another person; for women who watch over the human person in the family; for women who work professionally, and at times are burdened by very great social responsibility; for all women as they have come forth from the heart of God in all the beauty and richness of their femininity.’

At the beginning of this New Year, the Church calls all of us who may be faced with storms or peril; in relationships, or economic and mental difficulties, the call is not to try harder, or to rely on our own efforts. Seafarers know such reckoning will not be sufficient. On this feast of Mary, the mother of God, the Church invites us all to look to our Mother, who knows our troubles and wants us to face this New Year not alone but with her son, our Saviour. Let us not do this alone, but together, as a ship’s crew embark on the voyage of this New Year, knowing that Jesus travels in this boat with us to guide us to a safe harbour.

The Apostleship of the Sea, AoS, is a registered charity and an agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of England & Wales and Scotland. It is wholly reliant on voluntary donations to continue its work. To donate visit www.apostleshipofthesea.org.uk or send a cheque to AoS, Herald House, Lamb's Passage, Bunhill Rown, London EC1Y 8LE.

O Mary, Star of the Sea, light of every ocean,

guide seafarers across all dark and stormy seas

that they may reach the haven of peace and light prepared in Him who calmed the sea.

As we set forth upon the oceans of the world and cross the deserts of our time,

show us, O Mary, the fruit of your womb,

for without your Son we are lost.

Pray that we will never fail on life’s journey,

that in heart and mind,
in word and deed,

in days of turmoil and in days of calm,

we will always look to Christ and say,

‘Who is this that even wind and sea obey him?’

Bright Star of the Sea,
guide us!

(Pope John Paul II)