Our Marian Pope

The Holy Father has been to Fatima to pray for Our Lady's intercession, especially at this time of great trial in the church. What's needed is greater, more frequent, and more earnest appeal to the Mother of God that the cares and woes in this vale of tears may prove to be not our undoing but our solace and strength, that we will encounter- like her Son- the present evil and not falter, but rise. I found a lovely book at the library called "Maria, Pope Benedict XVI on the Mother of God" in which Ignatius Press has catalogued the many texts and excerpts the pontiff has written about this august woman, alongside beautiful photos of various shrines around the world where he has dedicated himself to her and her Son time and time again. In this lovely month of May, let us crown the Blessed Virgin in our hearts as Queen, who knows our needs and sets them at the feet of Jesus whenever we ask, humbly and faithfully.

Here is an excerpt from the Pope's homily on the Assumption in 2007, from the aforementioned book:

"The woman clothed with the sun is the great sign of the victory of love, of the victory of goodness, of the victory of God: a great sign of consolation. Yet this woman who suffered, who had to flee, who gave birth with cries of anguish, is also the Church, the pilgrim church of all times. In all generations she has to give birth to Christ anew, to bring him very painfully into the world, with great suffering...in all the trials in the various situations of the Church through the ages in different parts of the world, she wins through suffering...We see of course that today too the dragon wants to devour God who made himself a Child. Do not fear for this seemingly frail God; the fight has already been won. Today too, this weak God is strong: he is true strength...

This is the lesson: one should travel on one's own road; one should give life and not take it. And precisely in this way each one is on the journey of love which is the loss of self, but this losing of oneself is in fact the only way truly to find oneself, to find true life....

God wins. Faith, which seems weak, is the true force of the world."