Each Catholic Church has a tabernacle within it, protecting and guarding the Eucharistic presence of God.
In a similar way, the Blessed Mother was the first “tabernacle,” holding within herself Jesus Christ.
This is why in some places a tradition was established of constructing tabernacles within statues of the Virgin Mary.
Keeping this same symbolism, St. Zelie Martin, the mother of St. Therese of Lisieux, wrote in a letter that every mother should be a “tabernacle” for the life they hold.
Above all, during the months immediately preceding the birth of her child, the mother should keep close to God, of whom the infant she bears within her is the image, the handiwork, the gift and the child. She should be for her offspring, as it were, a temple, a sanctuary, an altar, a tabernacle. In short, her life should be, so to speak, the life of a living sacrament, a sacrament in act, burying herself in the bosom of that God who has so truly instituted it and hallowed it, so that there she may draw that energy, that enlightening, that natural and supernatural beauty which He wills, and wills precisely by her means, to impart to the child she bears and to be born of her.
The Story of a Family
St. Zelie provides a beautiful reminder to all mothers that the life they bear is holy to God. It is why mothers should do all they can to protect the unborn human life they hold and to cherish the time of pregnancy.
Being pregnant is certainly not easy, but mothers can look to the Blessed Mother for inspiration and strength, recognizing the divine calling they have received to be a “tabernacle” of human life.
And today we celebrate...