Day 4:
Opening Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created and You shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
Grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations.
Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
This is the motherhood of Mary: to form Jesus in us.
St. John Paul II recalled it very well on several occasions, when, speaking to young people, he invited them to take Mary into their lives: “She will discharge her ministry as a mother and train you and mold you until Christ is fully formed in you” (Message, Behold Your Mother, for the XVIII World Youth Day, April 13, 2003, n. 3). St. Maximilian in turn invites us to live the consecration to Mary with this awareness: “In Mary’s womb our soul must be reborn after the form of Jesus Christ. She is bound to feed the soul with the milk of her grace, raise it as lovingly as she nourished, looked after, and raised Jesus. At her knee the soul must learn to know and love Jesus. From her Heart it must draw love toward Him, or even love Him with her heart and become like Him through love” (KW 1295).
St. Maximilian suggested a truly beautiful program. We should not worry about taking Mary into our lives, if it’s about experiencing this kind of motherhood that causes us to conform to Christ, to become similar to Him in love, the only commandment of the Lord! There is another very inspiring passage from St. Maximilian’s Writings that reveals a still deeper meaning of consecration to Mary: “That is the MI: to let her into all hearts, to bring her into being within all hearts, that by entering those hearts and taking most perfect possession of them, she may there give birth to the sweet Jesus, God, and there raise Him to perfect age. What a beautiful mission! ... Is that not true? ... The elevation of man to the God-Man, through the Mother of God-Man” (KW 508). This text adds something new. Welcoming Mary in our lives is to accept and experience her motherhood in us with full consciousness, but inside this awareness we find not only the acceptance of the spiritual motherhood of Mary, but also the willingness to become collaborators of her motherhood toward every man. This is the rich and original interpretation of Father Kolbe! The motherhood of Mary is not just given to us, it is also entrusted to us. Having experienced her motherhood, today we can become her collaborators. The evangelizing action of the Church is precisely the extension of the maternal mission of Mary. The MI is “to let her into all hearts” so that she can exercise her spiritual motherhood: “What a beautiful mission, is that not true?” says St. Maximilian!
Question for discussion:
• What is the role of Mary in the history of salvation and in my personal history?
Closing Prayer
Hail Mary…
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, and for all those who do not have recourse to you, especially the enemies of Holy Church and all those
recommended to you.
