Pope Benedict XVI, who died today in Rome, had a great deal to say about Mary, the Mother of God, whose Feast we celebrate this weekend:
The lives of the saints are not limited to their earthly biographies but also include their being and working in God after death. In the saints one thing becomes clear: those who draw near to God do not withdraw from men, but rather become truly close to them. In no one do we see this more clearly than in Mary. The words addressed by the crucified Lord to his disciple - to John and through him to all disciples of Jesus: “Behold, your mother!" (Jn 19:27) - are fulfilled anew in every generation.
Mary has truly become the Mother of all believers. Men and women of every time and place have recourse to her motherly kindness and her virginal purity and grace, in all their needs and aspirations, their joys and sorrows, their moments of loneliness and their common endeavors… Mary, Virgin and Mother, shows us what love is and whence it draws its origin and its constantly renewed power. To her we entrust the Church and her mission in the service of love:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, you have given the world its true light, Jesus, your Son – the Son of God. You abandoned yourself completely to God’s call and thus became a wellspring of the goodness that flows forth from him. Show us Jesus. Lead us to him. Teach us to know and love him, so that we too can become capable of true love and be fountains of living water in the midst of a thirsting world.
Image source 1: https://www.liturgytools.net/2016/12/pictures-feast-mary-mother-of-god-adoration-of-the-shepherds-virgin-at-prayer.html
Image source 2: Antonello da Messina, Madonna and Child (15th c.), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titles_of_Mary#/media/File:Antonello_da_Messina_033.jpg
Quotation source
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