Marian devotion means learning to pray, Pope tells audience
March 14, 2012
At his weekly public audience on March 14, Pope Benedict XVI remarked that the Virgin Mary strengthened the apostles because “she shared the most precious of things: the living memory of Jesus in prayer.”
The Holy Father spoke about the Blessed Mother’s life of prayer as he opened a new series of talks. Having recently concluded a series on the prayers of Jesus, the Pope began a new series on the prayers of the early Church, as presented in the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of St. Paul. He began by examining the portrayal of Mary in Acts.
The Pope reminded the 10,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square that “it was with Mary that Jesus' earthly life began, and it was with her that the Church took its first steps.” She continued to follow him quietly through his public life, he said, and after the Ascension she was with the apostles as they awaited the Holy Spirit:
She, who had already received the Spirit in order to generate the incarnate Word, shared the entire Church’s expectation of the same gift. ... If it is true that there could be no Church without Pentecost, it is also true that there could have been no Pentecost without the Mother of Jesus, because she had a unique knowledge of what the Church experiences every day by the action of the Holy Spirit.
"Venerating the Mother of Jesus in the Church means, then, learning from her how to become a community of prayer", the Holy Father said.
For all current news, visit our News home page.
Further information:
- Venerating the Mother of God Means Learning to Become a Community of Prayer (VIS)
- Without Mary the Church does not exist (L'Osservatore Romano)
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
