Mary, the MISSIONARY

Francisco Palau considers and presents Mary as “missionary”, necessary in task of evangelization, even up to the point that to proclaim Mary as missionary is already proclaiming the Church:

“From now on, in this mountain, my name is Mary and it will be the Virgin-Mother of God the one to represent me in my relationships with you. Given that our spiritual bond is already consummated, there is no more need of insisting in the matters of love. You love me, I love you, and love is deeds” (MR 1,19).

“Preach in the worlds this great truth: I am not the ultimate goal of human love, but only a figure of the Church, pure Virgin and fertile Mother, and this is your Beloved One designated by the love of Gospel that is the law of charity” (MR 8,15).

It is in missionary dimension of Marian devotion where Fr. Palau focuses, in a particular manner, the advocacy of Carmel to whom he calls openly “Missionary Virgin”.

The Carmelite has seen always the Virgin as the ideal of his religious congregation, the mirror in which it should see itself to practice virtues. This exemplar dimension he brought forward, always rooted in the spirit.

Mary is “Missionary Virgin” offered to the plan of God who stimulate human being to live his/her vocation of total consecration to the Church, Christ and neighbors, ambassador sent from the bosom of Trinity to announce that it is not she the object of love of a Christian, but it is the Church. Marian devotion for us is ecclesial and missionary devotion:

“Don’t look at me as the perfect and ultimate object of your love, because I am not; it is the Church” (MR 1,12).

 “She told me: Go, preach the Gospel. This is the law: Love God for being who He is, infinite goodness, and your neighbor as you love yourself” (MR 1,20).

 “Mary, the Mother of God, a perfect and furnished type of the universal Church, comes into your heart to treat not the matters of love, but the interests that look for the spiritual good of the Church herself” (MR 9,11).

Pope Francis writes:

“I have a dream of a missionary option able to transform it all, so that the customs, styles, schedules, language and whole ecclesial structure would be changed into a suited form for evangelization of the world more than for self-preservation” (EG 27).

The Church is for the street, a Church that journeys. A Church always going out, missionary, a Church that doesn’t waste its time in grieving for things that don’t function anymore, for values of old times that are no longer valid.

Silence

 Prayer

Oh Mary, in you we see the face of the Church called to live her own vocation: “It is necessary that I announce also the Kingdom of God in other places”. We come to you to ask your help in discovering the missionary impulse that we need as the Church of Christ. Amen.