Vatican City, Jan 1, 2017 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Sunday Pope Francis said that celebrating Mary, the Mother of God, highlights a beautiful aspect of our faith: that Mary is our mother too, and that by her example we can learn to practice virtue and self-sacrifice in our own lives.

“By her motherhood, Mary shows us that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong,” Francis said Jan. 1.