Automatic translation from Italian, under review.
Dearest brothers and sisters all,
May returns, the month of roses, the month of Mary.
Pope Francis has urged us to join him in reciting the Rosary every day to ask for an end to the pandemic. May this be an experience of deepening our Christian life in communion with Mary; it is of her that I would like to speak to you today, and it is with her and in her that I wish to walk with you along the way of Love.
The beauty of the Virgin Mother has been a light that illuminated my steps from my youth, leading me to live with her and to turn to her often.
On the way of Love, Mary guides and sustains us if, by becoming little, we know how to let her take us in her arms when the journey of life becomes harder.
If we look at the mystery of Mary’s assumption into Heaven, we see that the Assumed One represents, in some way, all of redeemed humanity; as our Mother she points out the goal toward which we too are straining: we will follow her destiny. We are called to go to Jesus through Mary; in communion with her, all of us, men and women, as though “one mother,” can discover our vocation: to give, so to speak, flesh to Christ the Lord, so that he may continue his incarnation in us.
The Virgin Mother is not a saint like the others, but the one who, by a most particular design of God, already now lives in Heaven in communion with the Trinity in body and soul, unfolding and illuminating the mystery of the redemption of “the whole person,” as we read in Genesis, male and female he created them (cf. 1,27).
Alongside the Risen One, then, we see the Assumed One; both explain the final destiny of the human person, redeemed and transfigured in glory in all the beauty of his and her masculinity and femininity. All of us, men and women, will one day find ourselves Christified and made one in the mystical Body of Christ, together with Mary, our Mother, almost contained in her, words in the Word, different notes of a single harmony, intent on singing the new song in the Kingdom of God.
Straining toward this sublime goal, let us then live our life in communion with Mary, letting ourselves be led by the Holy Spirit on the path of holiness. Let us build authentic relationships with others in order to become what we already are: members of the one mystical Body.
Let us often invoke Mary during the day, that she may help us to love with her heart, to learn to be her “mystical presence” here on earth, who continues to generate Jesus in us and among us.
Let us not grow weary of always loving all the neighbors with whom we come into contact, as members of the one family of the children of God.
A little secret for keeping our spirit open to Love may be to pay attention to the small things of daily life, doing them with care and dedication. At times it may mean not delaying in doing God’s will of the present moment; often, instead, we put things off, even for a few seconds, without promptly following the promptings of the Holy Spirit, who guides us inwardly through the voice of our conscience. Let us remember Mary, who went “in haste” (Lk 1,39) to her cousin Elizabeth; let us learn from her to love concretely, at once, without heaviness.
At other times we may try to be more sober and temperate at meals, knowing how to restrain ourselves from eating without excess. We may also be tempted to say foolish and inappropriate words in certain circumstances; it may then be necessary to set a guard over our lips (cf. Ps 14,1,6).
All these small acts of love will be our attempts to open ourselves to Love; if we do so, God will not fail to come to meet us, filling us with his grace and making us capable of loving, guided by the Spirit, so as to share in the life of the Virgin Mother.
Sr. Nunziella