- Christian spirituality is distinguished by the disciple’s commitment to become conformed ever more fully to his Master …
In the spiritual journey of the Rosary,
based on the constant contemplation – in Mary’s company – of the face of Christ, this … ideal of being conformed to Him is pursued through… friendship. We … enter… into Christ’s life and as it were to share his deepest feelings. … Blessed Bartolo Longo has written: “…,
by holding familiar converse with Jesus and the Blessed Virgin… we can become, to the extent of our lowliness, similar to them … can learn …humility, poverty, hiddenness, patience and perfection”.
… being conformed to Christ in the Rosary, **we entrust ourselves… to… the Blessed Virgin… she continually brings to birth children for the mystical Body of her Son… through her intercession, imploring upon them … the Spirit.
Mary is the perfect icon of the motherhood of the Church.
The Rosary … transports us to Mary’s side …watching over the human growth of Christ in … Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is “fully formed” in us…
This … I have… experienced in my own life and made the basis of my episcopal motto: Totus Tuus. The motto is… inspired by… Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, who explained … Mary’s role in the process of our configuration to Christ:
“Our entire perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ. Hence the most perfect of all devotions is undoubtedly that which conforms, unites and consecrates us most perfectly to Jesus Christ. Now,
since Mary is of all creatures the one most conformed to Jesus Christ, it follows that among all devotions that which most consecrates and conforms a soul to our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be consecrated to Jesus Christ”. Never as in the Rosary do the life of Jesus and that of Mary appear so deeply joined. Mary lives only in Christ and for Christ!
