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The Third Annual Weekend Conference of the ESBVM USA (The Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, USA) will be held from Thursday, August 4 to Saturday, August 6, 2016 at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY. The theme of the conference will be "Mary in Scripture.”

Fr. Sebastien Abalodo of the Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute will be presenting on Thursday, August 4 on the topic "Mary, Mother of Our Savior: A Biblical Approach." 

Here, Father Abalodo tells us a bit more about his presentation:

"The theme 'Mary Mother of the Savior' seems to fit with any ecumenical Christian dialogue on Mary. Besides the Motherhood of Mary may be a solid starting point of an ecumenical dialogue on Mary. Indeed, if differences arise when it comes to the role of Mary in the Church and in the life of the Christian faith, no Christian tradition denies the motherhood of Mary, Mother of our Savior. Therefore, the Motherhood of Mary may be the uniting point of Christian for different reasons: all the Christian traditions recognize and accept at least the physical Motherhood of Mary. No Christian tradition rejects the physical maternity of Mary. There are numerous Scriptural foundations of the Motherhood of Mary in the Bible. The early Church Fathers agree on the veneration of Mary as the Mother of our Savior. The definition of the dogma Theotokos, declaring Mary as the Mother of God, is the least controversial dogma for all the Christian traditions that believe in the divinity of Jesus.

As we can notice there is consensus on many points regarding the Motherhood of Mary. The objective of this presentation is to show that the physical motherhood on which we all agree has some anthropological and spiritual implications going beyond a simple physical motherhood. Thus, exploring the biblical foundations, and some theological reflections, the presentation will show how we can reach a consensus on the major attributes of Mary according to the Sacred Scripture and to the early Church understandings, and how fundamental is her physical and spiritual motherhood, as well as her mission in the history of salvation and in the spiritual life of all the Christians, saved by her Son. So, through the analysis of some biblical texts, the presentation intends to demonstrate that there is no conflict between Mariology and Christology. Any Marian text of the Bible is Christocentric and leads to Christ. For example, the theological message of Galatians 4:4 is to affirm the Incarnation of the Son of God. A very Christocentric message. However the Christocentrism of this passage doesn’t exclude its Marian aspect, and Mary is implicitly present here as the representative of human races in the mystery of the Incarnation precisely as the Mother of Jesus Christ our Savior! The expression 'born from a Woman' alludes to a human cooperation and participation in the economy of salvation. To be more specific, it alludes to the role of Mary, which is her cooperation to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. She is the mother of the Incarnated Son of God and thus the Theotokos.

The spiritual mission of Mary in the Christian life is to lead man to her Son Jesus, and make possible the will of her Son in each person. Mary is there to tell us “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2: 5).

I’m looking forward to sharing about the Motherhood of Mary and learn from other speakers."

– Fr. Sebastien Abalodo, S.M., Lecturer and Researcher; Marian Library and the International Marian Research Institute 

Michael Duricy, also of the Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute, will be presenting on Saturday, August 6 and his topic will be “Biblical Portrayals of Mary in Film.”