Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is a privileged means “of finding Jesus Christ perfectly, of loving Him tenderly, of serving Him faithfully” (Treatise on True Devotion, n. 62). St. Louis immediately expands this central desire to “love tenderly” into a passionate prayer to Jesus, imploring Him for the grace to participate in the indescribable communion of love that exists between Him and His Mother. Marys total relativity to Christ and through Him, to the Blessed Trinity, is first experienced in the observation: “You never think of Mary without Mary interceding for you with God. You never praise or honour Mary without Marys praising and honouring God with you. Mary is altogether relative to God; and indeed, I might well call Her the relation to God. She only exists with reference to God. She is the echo of God that says nothing, repeats nothing, but God. If you say `Mary, She says `God. St. Elizabeth praised Mary and called Her blessed because She had believed. Mary, the faithful echo of God, at once intoned: `Magnificat anima mea Dominum; `My soul magnifies the Lord (Lk 1: 46). What Mary did then, She does daily now. When we praise Her, love Her, honour Her or give anything to Her, it is God who is praised, God who is loved, God who is glorified, and it is to God that we give, through Mary and in Mary” (cf. Treatise on True Devotion, n. 225). Again, in prayer to the Mother of the Lord, St. Louis Marie expresses the Trinitarian dimension of his relationship with God: “Hail Mary, beloved Daughter of the Eternal Father! Hail Mary, admirable Mother of the Son! Hail Mary, faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit!” (The Secret of Mary, p. 71). Although this traditional greeting used earlier by St. Francis of Assisi contains different levels of analogies, there is not a shadow of doubt that it expresses effectively Our Ladys special participation in the life of the Most Holy Trinity. Bl. Pope John Paul II, December 8, 2003
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 02:23:16 +0000
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