In a wholly singular way [Mary] cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Saviour in restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace (LG 61).

The eighth chapter of Lumen Gentium on Mary "in the mystery of Christ and the Church"' carefully balances two essential aspects of mariology.

On one hand, Mary has a unique relationship with Christ; the Redeemer. He is her own Son. She truly is his Mother [See LG nos.52-59. See also CCC par. 2, nos.484-511]. As Mother of the Son, she is also Mother of his body, the Church. She has a very close relationship to the Church and all the redeemed.

By her Immaculate Conception, she is a pre-emptively redeemed member of the Church. More, she is '^-Mother of the Church" and a "Type" of the Church. Even now she fully embodies in her person, the Church's eschatological reality. Mary is the Second Eve. As such, she is the measure of the first Eve, just as Christ, the second Adam, is the measure of the first. Theologically speaking, therefore, we begin with Mary, not with Eve; just as we begin with Christ and not with Adam. Mary becomes "mother of all the living," above all, by her faith.

On the other hand, Mary is the first disciple of Jesus. She follows her Son most perfectly, pondering his words in her heart [Lk 2,19 & 51], standing beside him at the moment of redemption [Jn 19,25]. Scripture portrays her as the paradigm of the faithful disciple [Jn 19,26-27; Lk 2,35]. The reason for her exaltation is her perfect humility and deep faith. Called by God to the exalted task of being the Mother of his Son, the grace-gifts which she wholeheartedly accepted, enabled her to put herself completely at the service of God, so that through her, he was able to realise his saving plan [Lk 1,38; & 46-55; Gal 4,4].

When promulgating the dogmatic constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, upon closing the Second Vatican Council on 21^st November 1964, Pope Paul VI solemnly declared Mary as "Mother of the Church":

The Church herself is not constituted solely of her hierarchical order, her sacred liturgy, her sacraments and the structure of her institutions: her proper characteristic and the principal source of the efficacy by which she sanctifies humankind is found in her mystical union with Christ. And we cannot think of this mystical union without also thinking of her who is the Mother of the incarnate Word, and whom Christ associated with himself in the work of effecting our salvation.

The Pope then declared Mary to be "Mother of the Church" and spoke of her maternal task, her munus maternum:

At this most solemn moment we consider it to be particularly opportune to bring to fulfilment the desire we expressed at the end of the last session, and which a great number of Fathers then took up, and still press for, that, during this Council, the maternal task of the blessed Virgin Mary towards the Christian people be expressly stated ... Therefore, for the glory of the blessed Virgin Mary and for our consolation, we declare that the most holy Mary is Mother of the Church, that is, of the whole Christian people, of the faithful as well as of the shepherds: all of them call on her as a most loving Mother.

Mary carries out her motherly care of us in two principal ways.

Firstly, during her life on earth, she is our example of faith. She is united with Jesus and his work by her faith and trust in God and obedience to his word. In this way, she is the perfect disciple of her Son:

Secondly, like Jesus after the Resurrection, Mary, after her Assumption, continues to show a motherly love for the Church. She is Queen of the Apostles, and so she never stops praying for us, and interceding with God the Father, and her Son for the sake of the Church: