David Carlson
- May 7, 2021
- 2 min read

417 "Mary is necessary to Christianity as the feminine principle of God" - Carl Jung

Day 417: Friday May 7th, 2021

"Mary is necessary to Christianity as the feminine principle of God" - Carl Jung

Announcement: Emmaus Liturgy for this Sunday

May 9, 2021 – Mother’s Day

On this Mother’s Day we remember Mary, mother of us all, and our own mothers and those of us who are mothers ourselves. May is the traditional month of Mary and it is easy to see why with the bursting forth of new life in the trees, flowers, barnyard animals. It is she who gave new life to us in the form of her son and also in her example of how we are to love each other unconditionally, in joy and in sorrow, in acceptance, in peace.

Our own mother is our first and oldest way of knowing the world. It is through our mother’s body that we are born, in her arms that we are first cradled, from her breasts that we are first nourished.

In pre-Christian days there were many fertility goddesses prayed to for new life in the form of crops, animals, babies and connected to our mother earth. It wasn’t until a few hundred years had gone by of our Christian religion that the trinity was established as solely male – Father, Son and Holy Spirit with a slight bit of a nod to the feminine in the Holy Spirit.

The old ways of the Shekinah, (the feminine presence of God referred to in classical Jewish texts), Sophia (wisdom), and Ruach (breath of God) were replaced by the masculine images of God as creator and judge, savior and inspiration.

Why wouldn’t the creator be seen as feminine? Because that would mean a loss of masculine power, but in our modern world it seems that we have lived with the father archetype for too long.

In the twentieth century, Carl Jung said that Mary is necessary to Christianity as the feminine principle of God. Today, let us remember and be open to the Shekinah, the divine as Mother, and as we do this let us remember our own mothers and the ways in which we ourselves mother those in our personal lives and in the greater world around us.

Something to think about: Who are you from? How have your mother, grandmothers, aunts, shaped you into who you are today? Who holds your roots? Who has carved your path? How does your past help you find the path ahead?

Having reflected on our individual pasts, we will share in our dialogue homily who we hope to be to our unborn great-grandchildren, whether they are biologically ours or are the unborn future generations to come.