Mary’s divine motherhood begins with a choice: the fiat. It is also an acceptance, yet one that implies a choice—Let it be done to me according to your word—a divine choice whereby Mary consents, in her faith, hope and love, to be the Mother of the Son of the Most High, of the Son of God. Her motherhood is brought to completion in the Son of God, in the person of Christ who is the Word “made flesh.” Mary is the only mother who fully chose the person of her Son. She chose Him in faith, of course, and therefore in the darkness and poverty of faith (Mary did not imagine who her Son would be, she could not), yet in a contemplative faith that directly attained the gift given to her by the Father in His Son. Mary received and adhered to this gift. Her motherhood is above all a contemplative motherhood. The bond that exists between Mary and Jesus is primarily a divine bond that is realized in faith, hope and love.
In the mystery of Mary’s divine motherhood, this bond of friendship existed immediately. In her living faith, Mary contemplated immediately the one given to her by the Father, whom she received in the very purity of her faith (unlike Zechariah, she did not ask for a sign). As St. Ambrose and St. Augustine note, she conceived first of all in her faith and in her heart before conceiving in her flesh.[1] From the first moment of His conception, the bond between Mary and the Infant Jesus is first of all spiritual and divine; it is a contemplative bond. That is why Mary’s bond of friendship with Jesus is one that faith alone attains. This bond never stopped growing; Mary was increasingly the one who contemplated her Son, the one who chose Him in love, in a jealous and unique love. Unto the Cross, she never stopped growing closer to Him, because she loved Him more and more. She grew in her motherhood.
Since Mary’s divine motherhood is contemplative, it never ceased to grow. The bond between Mary and Jesus grew increasingly strong up to the Cross and even afterward.
[1] In his treatise On Holy Virginity Saint Augustine writes: “Mary was more blessed in accepting the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. For, to someone who said: ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you,’ He replied: ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it’! (Lk. 11:27-28). Finally, for His brethren, that is, His relatives according to the flesh, who did not believe in Him, of what advantage was that relationship? So, even her maternal relationship would have done Mary no good unless she had borne Christ more happily in her heart than in her flesh” (On Holy Virginity, III, 3; BA 3, p.146.) See also Sermon 215 (PL 38, col. 1074): “Yes, Mary is blessed, she who engendered in faith, who conceived in faith…. She had complete faith in the angel’s words; and she conceived Christ in her spirit before carrying Him in her womb.”
~ Morning Star
Father Marie Dominique Philippe, O.P. 
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