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| St Paul VI with Sr Lucia, Fatima visionary |
SAINT POPE PAUL VI WAS CANONISED TODAY. Saint Paul VI, who had great devotion to Our Blessed Lady, promulgated the apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus on February 2, 1974.
In the exhortation, Saint Paul VI explained that since he was called to the See of Peter, he constantly strove to enhance devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This was done not only with the intention of interpreting the Church's sentiments and his own personal inclination, but also because this devotion forms a very noble part of the whole sphere of that sacred worship in which there intermingle the highest expressions of wisdom and of religion, and which is therefore the primary task of the People of God. [1]
Saint Paul VI did not cease with vigilant solicitude to concern himself with whatever can give orderly fulfilment to the renewal of the worship with which the Church in spirit and in truth (cf.Jn.4:24) adores the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and "venerates with special love Mary the most holy Mother of God". [1]
The development, desired by Saint Paul VI, of devotion to the Blessed Virgin is an indication of the Church's genuine piety. This devotion fits, as the saint indicated within the exhortation, into the only worship that is rightly called "Christian", because it takes its origin and effectiveness from Christ, finds its complete expression in Christ, and leads through Christ in the Spirit to the Father.
In the sphere of worship this devotion necessarily reflects God's redemptive plan, in which a special form of veneration is appropriate to the singular place which Mary occupies in that plan.
Indeed, every authentic development of Christian worship is necessarily followed by a fitting increase of veneration for the Mother of the Lord.
Moreover, the history of piety shows how "the various forms of devotion towards the Mother of God that the Church has approved within the limits of wholesome and orthodox doctrine" have developed in harmonious subordination to the worship of Christ, and have graduated towards this worship as to their natural and necessary point of reference.
Pope Paul VI considered this as happening in our own time. The Church's reflection today on the mystery of Christ and on her own nature has led her to find at the root of the former and is a culmination of the latter the same figure of a woman: the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ and the Mother of the Church. And the increased knowledge of Mary's mission has become joyful veneration of her and adoring respect for the wise plan of God, Who has placed within His family (the Church), as in every home, the figure of a Woman, who in a hidden manner and in a spirit of service watches over that family "and carefully looks after it until the glorious day of the Lord". [1]
The beautiful exhortation can be found at the following link:
[1] Apostolic Exhortation of his holiness Paul VI, Marialis Cultus
With thanks to w2.vatican.va
