"Being Catholic Meant Belonging to Mary" - BXVI

Beautiful words from our Holy Father on men and Mary...

"CATHOLICISM MEANS MARIAN CHARACTER

VATICAN CITY, 28 MAY 2011 (VIS) - ... The Pope recalled that when he entered the seminary, Europe was going through "a dark age. It was a time of war. One after the other, Hitler had subjugated Poland, Denmark, Benelux, and France. In April of 1941 ... he had occupied Yugoslavia and Greece. It seemed that the continent was in the hands of this power that, at the same time, put the future of Christianity in doubt. We had been admitted to the Congregation ("Mariä Verkündigung" Marian Congregation of Men of Regensburg, Germany) but shortly thereafter the war against Russia began. The seminary was dissolved and, before it was able to reassemble, the congregation was scattered to the four winds".

That is why, the pontiff continued, his entry in the "Mariä Verkündigung" was not "an 'exterior fact', but it stayed with me as 'an interior fact' because it had always been clear that Catholicism could not exist without a Marian character, that being Catholic meant belonging to Mary".

...The Holy Father commented, "I constantly sense how people ...can entrust themselves to the Mother; how they can love the Mother and, through the Mother, can then learn to love Christ. I sense how the Mother continues to give birth to Christ; how Mary continues to say 'yes' and to bring Christ to the world".

"Mary is the great believer. She has taken up Abraham's mission of belief and made Abraham's faith into concrete faith in Jesus Christ, thus showing us all the way of faith, the courage to entrust ourselves to the God who puts Himself in our hands, the joy of being His witnesses. Then she shows us the determination to remain fast when all others have fled, the courage to remain at the Lord's side when he seems lost and thus to bear the witness that led to His Passion".

"I am thus very grateful", the Pope concluded, "to know that in Bavaria there are approximately 40,000 congregants; that still today there are men who, together with Mary, love the Lord. Men who, through Mary, are learning to know and to love the Lord and who, like her, bear witness to the Lord in difficult times as well as happy ones; who remain with Him under the Cross and who continue to live the Passion joyfully together with Him.

AC/ VIS 20110530 (510)"

This makes me think of my husband and other men, especially priests and saints whom I admire...they always love Our Lady. They are always Marian. She is a model for us all!

To Jesus through Mary....my blog side column has many inferences to this. Our Lady always leads to Christ. I have a family friend who dedicates his life to spreading the devotion of Consecration to Jesus Through Mary, Ray Mooney. I hope you'll check out the MyConsecration.org website fully.

Everything Our Lord did had meaning and reason for us....and He came through her!