Une Minute avec Marie
Faire connaître et aimer Marie
Cardinal Suenens, former archbishop of Brussels and primate of Belgium who died in 1996, liked to tell these two stories that reveal the true meaning of Marian devotion:
As a young professor of theology at the University of Louvain (Belgium), he was surprised by a phone call one day informing him that he had been appointed auxiliary bishop of Brussels. Many people, including fellow professors and even the King of Belgium, sent him their congratulations. He was very honored, but later on, he remembered what made him the happiest after receiving the news: one of his friends came to visit his elderly mother and brought her a bouquet of flowers. "Since that day, I have understood Marian devotion better. When we turn to Mary, we can make Jesus very happy; it is a way to love him even more."
The future primate of Belgium had this other story to share: when he was archbishop of Brussels, he regularly went to art exhibit opening days with King Baudouin. One day, he approached some people who were chanting: "Long live the Queen! Long live the Queen! " and he said to them: "But the queen is not here, only the king is." Some women answered him: "Yes, but we know that it makes the king happy!"
Keeping the metaphor of flowers, we could say that when we come to Jesus and we want to offer him the bouquet of our life, we are like little children who have picked flowers in a meadow: their gesture is generous, but their bouquet is often poorly composed. If we entrust our prayers to Mary, she is like a mother who takes our bouquet and in the blink of an eye transforms it into a magnificent bouquet.
She does this so well because she knows that this bouquet is not intended for her. It is by entrusting our bouquet to her that our desires and requests will be purified and transfigured. Everything will pass through her yes and our prayer will be much more fruitful.