This Saturday, the Catholic Church celebrates two significant events- The solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and the 44th World Day of Peace. The Holy See reserves the first day of the new year “for intense prayer for peace and education and the values linked with it: Liberty, fraternal solidarity, the dignity of the human person, respect for nature, the right to work, the sacredness of human life, and the denunciation of injustices which trouble the conscience of man and threaten peace.”

In Rome, Italy, Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a mass in celebration of the two religious events at 10 a.m. Observed as a holy day of obligation, the Church encourages the faithful to offer novena prayers, special devotions, and to recite the rosary in honor and in celebration of the divine motherhood of Mary.

Also known as the “Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” the title Mary, Mother of God, was accorded the Blessed Mother during the Council of Ephesus in 431 to celebrate the fact that Mary, being the mother of Jesus, who is God, was to be called “Mother of God.”

In memory of the event, Pope Sixtus III built in Rome, Italy, the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of the four major basilicas of the Catholic faith. The observance of World Day of Peace is meant to commemorate the part played by Mary in the mystery of salvation. “It is meant to exalt the singular divinity which this mystery brings to the Holy Mother, through whom we were found worthy to receive the Author of Life,” said Pope Paul VI, who instituted the event in 1967.

“World Day of Peace is likewise a fitting occasion for renewed adoration of the newborn Prince of Peace, for listening once more to the glad tidings of the angels, from imploring from God, through the Queen of Peace, the supreme gift of peace,” he said.