Pope St. JPII's meditation on Mary

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Yesterday I posted on Pope St. John Paul II’s devotion to Mary which I believe sprang from the Holy Spirit’s inspriation, as Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would bring us into All Truth. (cf John 16:13). I’ve begun re-reading his Apostolic Letter “On the Dignity and Vocation of Women” on the occasion of the Marian Year, 1988. In the opening paragraphs, our saint includes these words:

…it seems to me that the best thing is to give this text the style and character of a meditation.

Mary is not just for “women” but for all God’s children and so I am hoping both men and women will join me in re-reading or reading for the first time this meditation on Mary by a saint who truly took Mary into His life – as Jesus told us, “Behold your Mother”.

He begins His Apostolic Letter with this paragraph:

A sign of the times

1. THE DIGNITY AND THE VOCATION OF WOMEN - a subject of constant human and Christian reflection - have gained exceptional prominence in recent years. This can be seen, for example, in the statements of the Church’s Magisterium present in various documents of the Second Vatican Council, which declares in its Closing Message: “The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at his moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women imbued with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling”. This Message sums up what had already been expressed in the Council’s teaching, specifically in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World and in the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity…

Certainly our Mother Mary was, and is, “imbued with a spirit of the Gospel” for she was uniquely overshadowed by the Holy Spirit to conceive and give birth to the Incarnate Word, Jesus. All the sons and daughters of God need to look to Mary to see how God can work wonders in a simple human person, willing to give her all to Him and for others.

 

[RPRPsych]

Excellent post. We have had many Popes in the past century and a half with a special devotion to Our Blessed Lady, but Saint John Paul’s reflections are particularly important because they are still fresh in our minds.

 

[MariaChristi]

Excellent post. We have had many Popes in the past century and a half with a special devotion to Our Blessed Lady, but Saint John Paul’s reflections are particularly important because they are still fresh in our minds.

Dear RPRPsych,

Thanks so much for your reply. St. John Paul II wrote that reading St. Louis de Montfort’s “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary” was a turning point in his life. I believe His love for Mary enabled him to see and love the Church as Mother and Model. In this beatutiful letter on the Dignity and Vocation of Women, he chose to write in the character of a meditation on “Mary” who is the perfect woman. Mary is the perfect image for the Church!

Men and women can read this letter and learn so much. Let me quote another portion of it:

…Mary - the “woman” of the Bible (cf. Gen 3:15;Jn 2:4; 19:16) - intimately belongs to the salvific mystery of Christ, and is therefore also present in a special way in the mystery of the Church. Since “the Church is in Christ as a sacrament… of intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race”, the special presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of the Church makes us think of the exceptional link between this “woman” and the whole human family. It is a question here of every man and woman, all the sons and daughters of the human race, in whom from generation to generation a fundamental inheritance is realized, the inheritance that belongs to all humanity and that is linked with the mystery of the biblical “beginning”: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”(Gen 1: 27).

This eternal truth about the human being, man and woman - a truth which is immutably fixed in human experience - at the same time constitutes the mystery which only in “the Incarnate Word takes on light… (since) Christ fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear”, as the Council teaches. In this “revealing of man to himself”, do we not need to find a special place for that “woman” who was the Mother of Christ? Cannot the “message” of Christ, contained in the Gospel, which has as its background the whole of Scripture, both the Old and the New Testament, say much to the Church and to humanity about the dignity of women and their vocation?

This is precisely what is meant to be the common thread running throughout the present document, which fits into the broader context of the Marian Year, as we approach the end of the second millennium after Christ’s birth and the beginning of the third. And it seems to me that the best thing is to give this text the style and character of a meditation.

I hope you and others will find time to continue reading or re-reading this letter and learning more from this dear Saint and Pope whose motto was “Totus Tuus” (“All Yours”) words taken directly from St. Louis de Montfort’s classic treatise on “True Devotion”.

 

[drforjc]

Here is a beautiful letter from Pope St. John Paul II to the Carmelites on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the Brown Scapular. His Marian orientation shines through gloriously.

ocarm.org/en/content/ocarm/john-paul-ii-2532001

 

[MariaChristi]

Here is a beautiful letter from Pope St. John Paul II to the Carmelites on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the Brown Scapular. His Marian orientation shines through gloriously.

ocarm.org/en/content/ocarm/john-paul-ii-2532001

Dear drforjc,

Thanks for your reply and the link to Pope St. John Paul II’s letter to the Carmelites. Yes, his Marian orientation shines through gloriously, as you noted. I read it with much gratitude to God for this Holy Pope and devoted son of our Blessed Mother.