With a Rosary in Their Hands
A particular gift I have received in my
different pilgrimages to Marian Shrines has been to sit close to the
images of Our Lady and to contemplate the continual flow of people who
come to the Blessed Mother seeking Her maternal mediation and presence,
Her intercession and consolation. I keep in the memory of my heart a
very special occasion. I was kneeling before the Grotto of Our Lady of
Lourdes in France, praying a Holy Rosary for priests, and suddenly all
around me were about fifty priests kneeling with a rosary in their
hands. Every one of them seemed to be in a heartfelt dialogue with the
Blessed Mother, a dialogue that began with the mysteries of the Holy
Rosary, a dialogue that had a rhythm, a communication of words in the
passing of the beads. I could not stand up…I knew I was experiencing, in
the simplicity of that moment, a deeper understanding of the need for
priests to enter into the Home of the Heart of Mary and to sit at Her
School to be formed into living images of the Priestly Heart of Christ –
living images of Her Son, the High Priest.
The Marian Shrines are sacred places, chosen by the Father to be
particular homes where the Maternity of Our Lady can be freely and fully
communicated to our hearts. Each Marian shrine is a place of prayer and
formation, a Home where our Lady is waiting to receive Her sons, the
priests, to maternally nourish and care for them, and also a Home where
She can guide and form them. Each Marian shrine is also a School where
the Blessed Mother desires to help priestly hearts ponder and
contemplate the mysteries of the life of Jesus, which are treasured and
carefully “kept in her Heart” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51).
Remembering that event at the Grotto of Lourdes and the many priests
with a rosary in their hands, I was reminded of the words of the Servant
of God, John Paul II, in his Apostolic Exhortation on the Holy Rosary:
“With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is
led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience
the depths of his love” (RVM, 1). If this is true of all the Christian
people, what a deep and living reality this is for priestly hearts! Was
not Nazareth the Home and the School of the Priestly Heart of Jesus? Was
not Nazareth the sacred place where Our Lady treasured the memories of
all the events of Her Son’s life? Was not Nazareth the Home where all
the words of the Word Incarnate were first listened to, were first kept
and impressed upon the hearts of Our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph? Was
not Nazareth the place where Our Lady and St. Joseph began to keep all
the memories…memories that would become the “rosary which she recited
uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life” (RVM, 11)…a rosary She made
with the beads of all the things She kept and reflected upon in Her
heart?
The Heart of Mary is the Home and the School of priestly hearts
It is in Her Heart, the living House of Nazareth, where priests
can learn, with Her and through Her, to contemplate the mysteries of the
Heart of Jesus, gazing “through the eyes of her who was closest to the
Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are
disclosed” (RVM, 12).
John Paul II in this Apostolic Exhortation invited us “to learn Christ
from Mary” (n.14). This is, I believe, a particular invitation to
priests, who are called to experience, as essential to their priesthood
and ministry, a deep communion with the Blessed Mother. One concrete
path of entering into the Heart of Our Lady and learning Christ from Her
is the prayer of the Rosary. In the Rosary, Our Lady will take the
hearts of priests on a pilgrimage of love to “remember” with Her the
moments, the words, the choices, the sufferings, the joys, and the
profound meaning of the mysteries of the Priestly Heart of Jesus.
Dear Priests, the School of Mary is all the more effective, said John
Paul II, because She will not only teach and lead your priestly hearts
through the mysteries and memories of Jesus’ life, but also because She
will indicate the areas of your hearts that need to be formed, elevated,
healed, restored and matured to be more identified with the Heart of Her
Son. She will obtain for you, dear priests, through Her maternal
intercession and mediation, the graces that will allow you to be formed
and shaped with the internal dispositions and virtues of the Priestly
Heart of Christ.
The Rosary will mystically transport your
hearts to Mary’s side, and She will watch over you just as She dedicated
Herself to watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of
Nazareth. This “entrustment” in prayer and contemplation, this Totus
Tuus of your priestly hearts, enables Her to form and to mold you with
Her maternal care and guidance until Christ is “fully formed” in you
(RVM, 15).
In the School of Mary’s Heart, with a
rosary in your hands, you can experience the beauty of a spiritual
journey of love and communion, of contemplation and maturation. Every
time, dear priests, you go to the Home and School of Mary’s Heart
through the Rosary, you gaze at the mysteries that She so carefully kept
in Her Heart and that St. Joseph so diligently guarded…You enter into
the pilgrimage of their hearts just as Jesus did, and you “go back with
them to Nazareth, to grow in grace, wisdom and stature before God and
man” (cf. Lk 2:52).
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