Our Lady of Mercy

Mary, then, is the one who has the deepest knowledge of the mystery of God's mercy. She knows its price, she knows how great it is. In this sense, we call her the Mother of mercy: our Lady of mercy, or Mother of divine mercy; in each one of these titles there is a deep theological meaning, for they express the special preparation of her soul, of her whole personality, so that she was able to perceive, through the complex events, first of Israel, then of every individual and of the whole of humanity, that mercy of which “from generation to generation” people become sharers according to the eternal design of the most Holy Trinity.

-Saint John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia

The Pilgrim's Way: Mysteries Of Light

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the seventh gallery: The Mysteries of Light. This gallery gives pilgrims the opportunity to take a step back from the accomplishments of St. John Paul II, in order understand the spiritual life that inspired everything he did.

The late Holy Father’s spirituality was especially nourished by a devotion to Mary, who showed him and shows all of us the way to her Son. She reveals so much about Jesus through the mysteries of the Rosary, and so St. John Paul II introduced the "Mysteries of Light" in 2002. 

Totus Tuus: Mary, Mother of Mercy

As we prepare for the feast of Saint John Paul II, we invite you to continue on this pilgrimage through our permanent exhibit, A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II. We hope you will walk through each of the nine galleries with us, so that you can get a taste of the spiritual and informational journey that awaits you here at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

This week we will explore the fifth gallery, Totus Tuus: Mary, Mother of Mercy. St. John Paul II had a strong devotion to Mary throughout his life, and he believed that devotion to her, the first disciple, leads us to Christ. His pontificate was dedicated to her in many ways—his motto being “Totus Tuus,” or “I am completely yours” and with an “M” beside the cross on his coat of arms.

During a weekly audience on May 13, 1981, when thousands of people were gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to hear St. John Paul II speak, a man shot the late Holy Father, intending to kill him. The shot did not have the deadly effect desired, though, and John Paul II attributed this to the Blessed Mother’s protection. On the day of the assassination attempt, he put his life into Mary’s hands.

Our Lady Of Sorrows, Pray For Us

Mother of Sorrows, Bartolome Esteban Murillo

God the Father, rich in mercy, has given his earthly children an Immaculate Mother: the Mother of Jesus. As we heard in the Gospel, high on the Cross, the supreme seat of love and sacrifice, Jesus speaks to his Mother and to the disciple. To his Mother he said: “Woman, behold, your son!” He then said to the disciple: “Behold, your Mother!” (cf. Jn 19:25-27). Looking at Our Lady of Sorrows, who dominates the apse of this church, we can better understand that Mary's new motherhood in the order of grace is the fruit of the love, which achieved its full growth at the foot of the cross, through her participation in the Son’s redeeming love. In this way Mary acquired a new title on Calvary, which is why she is and can be called the spiritual Mother of her Son’s brothers and sisters.

Jesus entrusts us to Mary as our Mother, and Mary receives us all as her children! This is Christ's testament on the Cross. On the one hand, he entrusts the Church to the care of his own Mother; on the other, he entrusts his Mother to the care of the Church. The scene on Calvary reveals to us the secret of true Marian piety, which is a filial love of surrender and gratitude to Mary, a love of imitation and of consecration to her person.

-St. John Paul II, Argentine National Church of “Our Lady of Sorrows” in Rome, 1998

Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for Us!

From our permanent exhibit,  A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II.

The Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13. Saint John Paul II had a strong devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, and he was convinced that her intercession saved his life after the assassination attempt in 1981.

In a homily for the consecration Mass of the Church of Our Lady of Fatima in Poland, St. John Paul II said:

The message of Fatima, which Mary gave to the world through three poor children, consists in an exhortation to conversion, prayer, especially the rosary, and reparation for one's own sins and for those of all mankind. This message flows from the Gospel, from the words which Christ spoke at the very beginning of his public ministry: "Repent, and believe in the Gospel!" (Mk 1:15). It aims at man's interior transformation, at the defeat of sin within him and the strengthening of goodness, and at the attainment of holiness. This message is addressed in particular to the people of our century, a century which has been marked by war, hatred, the violation of fundamental human rights, the immense suffering of individuals and nations, and finally by the struggle against God, carried even to the denial of his existence. The message of Fatima is an outpouring of the love of the Heart of the Mother, who is always open to her child, never loses sight of him, thinks of him always, even when he leaves the straight path and becomes a "prodigal son" (cf. Lk 15:11-32).

Our Lady of Fatima, please intercede for us during this month of May, that we may repent and bring the Gospel to the world.

This piece was originally posted on May 13, 2012.

Mary, The Mother of Mercy

Mary is also Mother of Mercy because it is to her that Jesus entrusts his Church and all   humanity. At the foot of the Cross, when she accepts John as her son, when she asks, together with Christ, forgiveness from the Father for those who do not know what they do (cf. Lk 23:34), Mary experiences, in perfect docility to the Spirit, the richness and the universality of God's love, which opens her heart and enables it to embrace the entire human race. Thus Mary becomes Mother of each and every one of us, the Mother who obtains for us divine mercy. 

                -Saint John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor

During this month of May, let us ask the Mother of Mercy to look down on us with favor and to pray for us.

Pray For Consecrated Religious Today

Living “in obedience, with nothing of one's own and in chastity,” consecrated persons profess that Jesus is the model in whom every virtue comes to perfection. His way of living in chastity, poverty and obedience appears as the most radical way of living the Gospel on this earth, a way which may be called divine, for it was embraced by him, God and man, as the expression of his relationship as the Only-Begotten Son with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. This is why Christian tradition has always spoken of the objective superiority of the consecrated life. Nor can it be denied that the practice of the evangelical counsels is also a particularly profound and fruitful way of sharing in Christ's mission, in imitation of the example of Mary of Nazareth, the first disciple, who willingly put herself at the service of God's plan by the total gift of self. Every mission begins with the attitude expressed by Mary at the Annunciation: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

-Saint John Paul II, Vita Consecrata

During this Year of Consecrated Life, let us pray for all of those men and women living the evangelical counsels, that they might continue to share in the “Yes” of Mary that we celebrate today.