"Marian Pope" and interviewer

[MariaChristi]

Dear All,

An excerpt from an interview with the journalist who wrote “Crossing theThreshold of Hope” with St. John Paul II:

…You have dedicated many pages of your writings to Mary: Did Wojtyla, “Marian” Pope par excellence, ever inspire you in this regard?

–Messori: I venerate Mary and am devoted to her not, obviously, for herself, but as related to Christ. The one who interested me was Christ. The more I advanced in my studies of Christianity, the more I realized the importance of the Mother to understand Him. All that the Church says or has said about Mary, in reality, has to do with the Son. All the Marian dogmas are, well looked at, Christological dogmas in the sense that they are the truth that, through Mary, confirm faith in Jesus. Mary, without Jesus, is only an obscure Jewish home loving woman. With Him she is, in fact, the Theotokos, the Mother of God. It is no accident that in Christian symbolism Mary is the moon; she does not shine with her own light but with the light reflected by her Son. This decisive bond in Wojtyla was very clear. I recognized myself in him, in the sense that he confirmed for me that to forget the Mother means always or in any case, in the end, to obscure or perhaps forget the Son also, as the tragic secular experience of Protestantism shows…(Underlining is mine)

The entire interview can be read HERE

 

[MariaChristi]

…and Jesus, without Mary, would not have been born!

I think she shines by her own light, too.
As we all do.
This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine.

With Mary “understanding” him so well, it’s too bad she was not quoted in writing about her son more-- to explain and give more detail of what she understands. That would have been great and very helpful. I still have not given up hope that there might be a lost “gospel” with her name on it.

Dear DaddyGirl,

Thanks for your reply and your love of Jesus and Mary our Mother. Mary’s light is the brightest of all God’s creatures. The more I read and listen to the Gospels the more I see her as Mother and Model of the Church. From first “sight” of her in the Gospel of Luke and the sound of her words in that Gospel, we can see and hear by faith the fullness of God’s Grace given her at her Immaculate Conception.

As beautiful as she is, however, and she is the most beautiful of human persons God created, we need to remember she is only God’s creature and without Him she would be nothing. Jesus told us the same at the Last Supper, in telling His disciples: "Without me, you can do nothing. " Jesus is “The Light” of the World. It is His Life which shines through ours. He wants us to let our light shine because he made each soul unique and unrepeatable. No two glorify Him in exactly the same way!

St. Louis de Montfort, in his treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, states:

…14. With the whole Church I acknowledge that Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of God is, compared to his infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is simply nothing, since he alone can say, “I am he who is”. Consequently, this great Lord, who is ever independent and self-sufficient, never had and does not now have any absolute need of the Blessed Virgin for the accomplishment of his will and the manifestation of his glory. To do all things he has only to will them.

1. However, I declare that, considering things as they are, because God has decided to begin and accomplish his greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since he created her, we can safely believe that he will not change his plan in the time to come, for he is God and therefore does not change in his thoughts or his way of acting…

Mary faithfully prayed as she pondered and so must we pray to the Holy Spirit that we may learn as Mary learned. I do not think Mary would add to Jesus’ words, but repeat what she told the servants at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you.” Mary heard His Truth and did HisTruth lovingly. Through her intercession and by God’s Grace may we do the same. Yes, may our “little lights” so shine that we glorify our Father with Jesus and Mary.

 

[rickielambert]

St John Paul even proclaimed that we live in a “marian era”. In the aftermath of Vatican II and the erroneous view that devotion to Mary would take away from Jesus, the great Pope corrected that view and brought forth true devotion to Mary as the easiest way to sanctification.
www.divinemercypopes.com

 

[MariaChristi]

St John Paul even proclaimed that we live in a “marian era”. In the aftermath of Vatican II and the erroneous view that devotion to Mary would take away from Jesus, the great Pope corrected that view and brought forth true devotion to Mary as the easiest way to sanctification.
www.divinemercypopes.com

Dear rickielambert,

Thanks for your reply,

Certainly, St. John Paul II did much to foster devotion to Mary, as the following relates:

15-Oct-2000 – ZENIT News Agency
POPE REVEALS MARY’S ROLE IN HIS LIFE

ROME, (ZENIT.org).- It was during the dark years of the Nazi occupation of Poland that a young Karol Wojtyla discovered the role of Mary in his life.

John Paul II spoke about his youth today during an address to participants of the 8th International Mariological Colloquium, taking place in Rome.

The meeting was the occasion of an official petition to the Pope to have him declare Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort (1673-1716) a doctor of the Church.

Grignon de Montfort is one of the classical writers of Christian spirituality, from whom the Holy Father borrowed the motto “Totus Tuus” (“All Yours”).

During the Nazi occupation, when he worked in Krakow’s Solvay factory, the future Pope “read and reread many times and with great spiritual profit” an ascetic work of Grignon de Montfort.

It led the young seminarian to understand that Mary’s presence in the spiritual life of a Christian does not compete with the person of Christ, but stems from him and is at his service.

The Holy Father recalled: “Then I understood that I could not exclude the Lord’s Mother from my life without neglecting the will of God-Trinity, who willed to begin and fulfill the great mysteries of the history of salvation with the responsible and faithful collaboration of the humble handmaid of Nazareth.”

Thus, John Paul II emphasized how Grignon de Montfort invites the faithful to live a spirituality that encourages giving oneself consciously to Christ and, through him, to the Holy Spirit and the Father.

The Pope explained that he chose as the motto of his episcopate and pontificate the words “All Yours,” as an act of entrustment to Mary.

“In repeating every day ‘Totus tuus,’ and living in harmony with her,” he said, “one can attain to the experience of the Father in limitless confidence and love, to docility to the Holy Spirit, and to the transformation of self according to the image of Christ.”