The Mother of God as Lady Grammar | The Manila Times

JANUARY 1, New Year's Day, falls within the Christmas Octave in the Catholic Church, and is, in fact, the day when the Solemnity of the Divine Motherhood of Mary is celebrated. The Solemnity emphasizes the role Mary played in salvation history, that, although Jesus is God, Mary would have played many of the usual maternal roles to Jesus, like feeding Him, bathing Him, caring for Him, putting Him to sleep and teaching Him many things about life. Among other things, as mothers, we would have expected Mary to have taught Jesus their language, Aramaic. It is through this imagery that Mary is likened to Lady Grammar.

Mary has many titles — Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of the Assumption. There are also those famous titles associated with her apparitions in many places around the world — Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Guadalupe and closer to us, we have Our Lady of Manaoag. She also has many other titles often unique to a specific devotion or virtue — Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Our Lady of the Snows and Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, one of my favorites. But Mary is not often referred to as the Lady Grammar. Even I, a Marian devotee, was surprised to learn that Mary has been likened to Lady Grammar.