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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - "In the midst of the endless profusion of words said and written about God, the Church and holiness (that very few, or no-one, is able to read and understand fully) ", Our Lady "suggests a few words that everyone, even the simplest, can say on any occasion: “behold” and “let it be done”." Pope Francis returned to St. Peter's Square for the usual General Audience and, continuing the cycle of catechesis on the Holy Spirit, today he focused on Marian piety, a means, together with the Sacraments, prayer and the Word, through which the third Person of the Trinity "implements his work of sanctification in the Church".
Quoting the famous expression “Ad Iesum per Mariam”, that is, “to Jesus by means of Mary”, the Pontiff recalled how it is she "who leads us by the hand towards Jesus. Our Lady never points to herself, Our Lady points to Jesus. And this is Marian piety".
And thanks to this attitude, combined with the few and simple words pronounced by the Virgin, Mary can be “known and read by all”, even those who do not know how to read theology books, those “little ones” to whom Jesus says that the mysteries of the Kingdom, hidden to the wise, are revealed".
Mary, the Bishop of Rome emphasized, "is the one who said “Yes” to the Lord, and with her example and by her intercession urges us to say our “Yes” to Him too, whenever we are faced with an act of obedience to perform or a trial to overcome".
The Pope then pointed out that the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit have "a unique and eternally indestructible bond that is the very person of Christ Himself".
In fact, "the evangelist Luke deliberately highlights the correlation between the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Mary in the Annunciation and His coming to the disciples at Pentecost, using some identical expressions in both cases".
To make it clearer, the Pontiff cited the words that Saint Francis of Assisi wrote in a prayer where he greets the Our Lady as “daughter and handmaid of the heavenly Father, the almighty King, Mother of our most high Lord Jesus Christ, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit.” “Daughter of the Father, Spouse of the Holy Spirit! The unique relationship between Mary and the Trinity could not be illustrated in simpler words". The Pope concluded: "Like all images, this one of the “Spouse of the Holy Spirit” must not be rendered absolute, but taken for that amount of truth it contains, and it is a very beautiful truth. She is the bride, but before that, she is the disciple of the Holy Spirit. Bride and disciple. Let us learn from her to be docile to the inspirations of the Spirit".
At the end of the Audience, the thoughts of the Bishop of Rome went, as always, to the countries at war, renewing the appeal for peace: "Let us not forget the tormented Ukraine that suffers, let us not forget Palestine, Israel, Myanmar and the many nations at war. Let us not forget that group of innocent Palestinians who were machine-gunned. Let us pray for peace, we need it so much!".
(F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 13/11/2024)
