Saint John Paul II’s consistent and steadfast devotion to Mary

Pope Saint John Paul II (...) was known for his consistent and steadfast devotion to Mary throughout his life and papacy. He entrusted his entire ministry and safety to Mary with his motto: “Totus tuus.”

Mentions of Marian entrustment are most noticeable in St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a book that a young Karol Wjotiyla carried everywhere with him (even to work in a sodium factory). He credited de Montfort’s intense work regarding Marian consecration with laying the foundations of his own love for Mary, especially with the revelation that to love Jesus was to love Mary, and that Mary’s heart would always take one closer to Jesus. That realization obliterated his hesitations surrounding Marian devotion and emboldened him to cultivate a rich, trusting, and all-encompassing relationship with Our Lady. Often in conversation with her and always with a rosary on hand, he called the Rosary “our daily meeting which neither I nor Our Lady neglect.”

Our Lady didn’t neglect their daily meetings, nor did she neglect the pope when he asked for her intercession. The day of his attempted assassination in 1981, a copy of Our Lady of Częstachowa was placed where he usually sat to give his audience as he was rushed to the hospital with serious internal damage. A gust of wind blew the Polish icon over, and on the back had been inscribed, weeks before, “May Our Lady protect the Holy Father from Evil.”

He said of that day, “one hand pulled the trigger, and another guided the bullet.”

Colleen Schena, October 22, 2022

Source: relevantradio.com