Today is an important feast day in the life of the Church. I know we're all celebrating New Year's Day (and Happy New Year, by the way) but for the Church, the new year really began with Advent. Today we celebrate Mother Mary's role in the life of Jesus Christ, in the life of his Church, in salvation history, and in our own sanctification and salvation. A "solemnity" is a higher order of feast day - not that it has to be "solemn," but that it's super important.

As you may know, the title Mother of God is an ancient title for Mary, and it essentially is meant to emphasize the divinity of Christ. Lots could be said about it, as a doctrine, but it was the center of a controversy in the 5th century. It was affirmed as a dogma of the Church at the ecumenical Council of Ephesus in the year 431 AD. But it was far from new at that time. It goes back at least a couple centuries before that, and we have a prayer from the 3rd century that calls Mary the Mother of God. The prayer is called by its Latin title, the Sub Tuum Praesidium which can be translated, "Under your protection." The prayer exists in both Greek and Latin versions, and I encourage you to look it up in its various more traditional translations - but here is my translation, which takes into account both the Greek and the Latin:

Holy Mother of God, uniquely pure and blessed,
We take refuge under your compassion (or: protection)
Do not ignore our prayers in our time of need
But free us from danger

That last line implies, "by your intercession," of course. And note that the "danger" in question, in the middle of the third century, would have been the most severe persecution of the Church up to that time. So this is a good prayer for Mary's intercession, for when we're feeling marginalized by an anti-Christian culture, and we're feeling a little hopeless or helpless. There's a lot to be concerned about as we enter into a new calendar year, but also a lot to be thankful for, and personally, I'm not big into new years' resolutions, but I do try to treat the New Year like another Thanksgiving - thankful for the past, and rededicating myself to trusting God in the future.