To Honor Mary is to Go to Jesus
H.H. Pope John Paul II
General Audience
November 15, 1995
1. After
following in our previous catecheses how the Christian
community's reflection on the figure and role of the Blessed
Virgin in salvation history took shape from the earliest
times, let us pause today to meditate on the Marian
experience of the Church.
The
development of Mariological thought and devotion to the
Blessed Virgin down the centuries has contributed to
revealing ever better the Church's Marian aspect. Of course,
the Blessed Virgin is totally related to Christ, the
foundation of faith and ecclesial experience, and she leads
to him. That is why, in obedience to Jesus, who reserved a
very special role for his Mother in the economy of
salvation, Christians have venerated, loved and prayed to
Mary in a most particular and fervent way. They have
attributed to her an important place in faith and piety,
recognizing her as the privileged way to Christ, the supreme
Mediator.
The Church's
Marian dimension is thus an undeniable element in the
experience of the Christian people. It is expressed in many
ways in the life of believers, testifying to the place Mary
holds in their hearts. It is not a superficial sentiment but
a deep and conscious emotional bond, rooted in the faith
which spurs Christians of the past and present to turn
habitually to Mary, to enter into a more intimate communion
with Christ.
2. After the
most ancient prayer, formulated in Egypt by the Christian
communities of the third century, to implore "the Mother of
God" for protection in danger, numerous invocations were
addressed to her, whom the baptized consider most powerful
in her intercession with the Lord.
Christian
people have expressed deep devotion to Mary
Today, the
most common prayer is the Hail Mary, whose
first part consists of words from the Gospel (cf. Lk 1:28,
42). Christians learn to recite it at home from their
earliest years and receive it as a precious gift to be
preserved throughout life. This same prayer, repeated tens
of times in the Rosary, helps many of the faithful to enter
into prayerful contemplation of the Gospel mysteries and
sometimes to remain for long intervals in intimate contact
with the Mother of Jesus. Since the Middle Ages, the Hail
Mary has been the most common prayer of all believers
who ask the Holy Mother of the Lord to guide and protect
them on their daily journey through life (cf. Apostolic
Exhortation Marialis cultus, nn. 42-55).
Christian
people have also expressed their love for Mary by
multiplying expressions of their devotion: hymns, prayers
and poetic compositions, simple or sometimes of great
quality, imbued with that same love for her who was given to
men as Mother by the Crucified One. Some of these, such as
the "Akathist Hymn" and the "Salve Regina", have deeply
marked the faith life of believers.
The
counterpart of Marian piety is the immensely rich artistic
production in the East and West, which has enabled entire
generations to appreciate Mary's spiritual beauty. Painters,
sculptors, musicians and poets have left us masterpieces
which, in shedding light on the various aspects of the
Blessed Virgin's greatness, help to give us a better
understanding of the meaning and value of her lofty
contribution to the work of Redemption.
In Mary,
Christian art recognizes the fulfilment of a new humanity
which corresponds to God's plan and is therefore a sublime
sign of hope for the whole human race.
3. This
message could not fail to be grasped by Christians called to
a vocation of special consecration. In fact, Mary is
particularly venerated in religious orders and
congregations, in institutes or associations of consecrated
life. Many institutes, primarily but not only female,
include Mary's name in their title. Nevertheless, over and
above its external expressions, the spirituality of
religious families, as well as of many ecclesial movements,
some of which are specifically Marian, highlight their
special bond with Mary as the guarantee of a charism fully
and authentically lived.
This Marian
reference in the lives of people particularly favoured by
the Holy Spirit has also developed the mystical dimension,
which shows how the Christian can experience Mary's
intervention in the innermost depths of his being.
This
reference to Mary binds not only committed Christians but
also simple believers and even the "distant", for whom it is
frequently their only link with the life of the Church.
Pilgrimages to Marian shrines, which attract large crowds of
the faithful throughout the year, are a sign of the
Christian people's common sentiment for the Mother of the
Lord. Some of these bulwarks of Marian piety are famous,
such as Lourdes, Fatima, Loreto, Pompei, Guadalupe and
Częstochowa! Others are known only at the national or local
level. In all of them, the memory of events associated with
recourse to Mary conveys the message of her motherly
tenderness, opening our hearts to God's grace.
These places
of Marian prayer are a wonderful testimony to God's mercy,
which reaches man through Mary's intercession. The miracles
of physical healing, spiritual redemption and conversion are
the obvious sign that, with Christ and in the Spirit, Mary
is continuing her work as helper and mother.
Marian
dimension pervades Church's whole life
4. Marian
shrines often become centres of evangelization. Indeed, even
in the Church today, as in the community awaiting Pentecost,
prayer with Mary spurs many Christians to the apostolate and
to the service of their brothers and sisters. Here I would
especially like to recall the great influence of Marian
piety on the practice of charity and the works of mercy.
Encouraged by Mary's presence, believers have often felt the
need to dedicate themselves to the poor, the unfortunate and
the sick, in order to be for the lowliest of the earth a
sign of the motherly protection of the Blessed Virgin, the
living icon of the Father's mercy.
It can be
clearly seen from all this how the Marian dimension pervades
the Church's whole life. The proclamation of the Word, the
liturgy, the various charitable and cultural expressions
find in Mary an occasion for enrichment and renewal.
The People of
God, under the guidance of their Pastors, are called to
discern in this fact the action of the Holy Spirit who has
spurred the Christian faith onward in its discovery of
Mary's face. It is he who works marvels in the centres of
Marian piety. It is he who, by encouraging knowledge of and
love for Mary, leads the faithful to learn from the Virgin
of the Magnificat how to read the signs of God in history
and to acquire a wisdom that makes every man and every woman
the architects of a new humanity.
Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
22 November 1995
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