FROM BLESSED POPE JOHN PAUL II

Dear brothers and sisters!

            For me, St. Louis Marie De Montfort is a significant person of reference, who has enlightened me at important moments of life. When I was working as a clandestine seminarian at the Solvay factory in Krakow, my spiritual director advised me to meditate on the True Devotion to Mary. Many times and with great spiritual profit I read and re-read this precious ascetical booklet with the blue, soda stained cover.

............By relating the Mother of Christ to the Trinitarian mystery, Montfort helped me to understand that the Virgin belongs to the plan of salvation, by the Father’s will, as Mother of Incarnate Word, who was conceived by her through the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary’s every intervention in the work of regeneration of the faithful is not in competition with Christ, but derives from Him and is at His service. Mary’s action in the plan of salvation is always Christocentric, that is, it is directly related to a mediation that takes place in Christ. I then realized that I could not exclude the Mother of the Lord from my life without disregarding the will of God-the-Trinity, who wanted “to begin and complete” the great mysteries of salvation history with the responsible and faithful collaboration of the humble Handmaid of Nazareth.

…............Yes, the whole Christocentric and Marian spirituality taught by Montfort flows from the Trinity and leads back to it. In this connection, we are struck by his insistence on the action of the three divine Persons in Mary’s regard. God the Father “gave His Only-begotten Son to the world only through Mary” and “wishes to have children through Mary until the end of the world” (True Devotion to Mary, 16, 29). God the Son “became man for our salvation but only in Mary and through Mary” and “wishes to form Himself and, so to speak, incarnate Himself every day in His members through His dear Mother” (ibid., 16,13). God the Holy Spirit “has communicated His unspeakable gifts to His faithful Spouse, Mary” and “wishes to form elect for Himself in her and through her”. (ibid., 25, 34)
           
........... “Mary is entirely relative to God. Indeed, I might well call her the relation of God” (ibid., 225). For this reason, the All- Holy One leads us to the Trinity. By repeating “Totus Tuus” to her everyday and living in harmony with her, we can attain an experience of the Father in confidence and boundless love (cf. ibid., 169, 215), docility to the Spirit (cf. ibid., 258) and transformation of self into the likeness of Christ (cf. ibid., 218-221).

Excerpt from the speech to the participants at the 8th International Mariological Colloquium.
Rome, October 13, 2000