There are many titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, though most focus on her as an adult and her role as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
One title that is different from the rest is, “Mary the Child,” as it brings to mind her time on earth as a child.
St. John Paul II used this title on the feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 2004:
The liturgy today commemorates theNativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast, very important to popular piety, leads us to admire in Mary the Child, the purest dawn of the Redemption. We are contemplating a little girl like every other, yet at the same time the only one who was “blessed among women” (Lk 1: 42). Mary was the immaculate “Daughter of Zion,” destined to become the Mother of the Messiah.
Praying for the children of the world
Responding to a few specific world events at the time, St. John Paul II turned his attention to the children of the world, praying to Mary for her intercession:
Looking at the Child Mary, how can we fail to remember the many defenceless children of Beslan, in Ossezia, victims of a barbaric kidnapping and tragic massacre?…At this moment our gaze broadens to take inall innocent children in every corner of the earth who are victims of the violence of adults. Children forced to use weapons and taught to hate and kill; children induced to beg in the streets, exploited for easy earnings; children ill-treated and humiliated by arrogant, abusive grown-ups; children left to themselves, deprived of the warmth of a family and prospects of a future; children who die of hunger, children killed in the many wars in various regions of the world.
He then led those present in a litany to the Virgin Mary for these children:
For all the children in so many parts of the world who are suffering and dying because of the violence and abuse of adults: that the Lord will enable them to feel the comfort of his love and melt the hardness of hearts that is the cause of their suffering, let us pray:
St. John Paul II ended the litany with the following prayer:
God, our Father, you created men and women so that they might live together in communion. Make us understand that every child is a treasure of humanity and that violence to others is a dead end with no future. We ask you this through the intercession of the Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ Our Lord, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
As we contemplate the life of the Child Mary, let us pray for children in the world who are suffering in any way.
And today we celebrate...