To Jesus through Mary

On January 1 of each year we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. This feast day illustrates for us the central role Our Lady has in the plan of salvation that God has in mind for humanity, accomplished by the mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection pf Jesus Christ our Redeemer. It is a perfect way to begin the calendar year, as it helps us to look forward to a New Year of hope and true identity through the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who bore Christ into a world that may often seem hopeless and dark.
           
January 1 is also the Octave Day (Last Day of the Octave) of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Christmas Day. We see that this feast of Our Blessed Mother is bound to the feast of Jesus’ birth. In God’s design, Jesus and Mary are united as God’s grace is poured into the world. The Savior enters into fallen creation, sent by God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit, through this woman who was untouched by sin and who is perfectly docile to and united to God’s Will. From this Virgin Mother, God the Son becomes man and takes on human flesh to save us all.
           
Through this mystery of the Incarnation, God becoming Man in Mary’s womb, our own identity is made clear. We become sons and daughters of God because Jesus became the Son of Mary the Virgin. The God-Man became the great High Priest and the perfect Victim by whose sacrifice on the Cross all damage done by sin would be repaired; all darkness due to evil would be dispersed by the Light come into the world in the stable at Bethlehem. Our identity is highlighted at the foot of His Cross during the life-giving sacrifice that He offered for us. He said to His Mother standing there, “Behold your son,” referring not only to John, His beloved disciple, but to each one of us, His beloved children. Then to John He said, “Behold your Mother,” making His own Mother our own. By Jesus’ own words we belong to Mary.
           
Throughout the Church’s history many saints, men and women of every age, have pondered this relationship of love that unites us to Our Lady and thereby deepens our relationship with Jesus. People who have understood this great bond have expressed it in various ways. “To Jesus through Mary” is a phrase used by St. Louis de Montfort in his classic work True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It describes a spirituality that embodies this relationship between us and Jesus through His Mother. “Totus Tuus” (“Totally Yours”) taken by St. John Paul II as his motto, has its origin in a prayer of consecration to Our Lady by St. Louis de Montfort. This phrase shows the centrality of a relationship, a bond, with Mary in the life of a Christian.  Pope St. Paul VI underlined the necessity of a relationship with the Blessed Mother throughout his pontificate during and after the Second Vatican Council. He taught, “…if we want to be Christian, we must be Marian; in a word, we have to acknowledge the essential, vital and providential relationship uniting Our Lady to Jesus, a relationship that opens before us the way leading to Him” (“Address at the Shrine of Our Lady of Monaria”, Calgari, 24 April 1970).
           
Here in the Diocese of Pittsburgh we are celebrating this relationship of “to Jesus through Mary” by promoting a program of Marian Consecration, “Chains of Marian Love” beginning Tuesday, January 9 and ending with the consecration to Our Lady on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11. Won’t you join us for this essential and beautiful renewal of our bond of love with Our Savior and His Mother?
           
Please see below the places and times of talks and prayerful reflection in preparation for this consecration to Our Blessed Mother:

Tuesday, January 9 • 7:00 PM
St. Alexis Church • Wexford, PA
Binds of Marian Love: An Introduction to Marian Spirituality
Presenters: Dave VanVickle & Heidi Potter

Tuesday, January 16 • 7:00 PM
Our Lady of Grace Church • Pittsburgh, PA
You Alone Have Defeated Every Heresy:
The Five Marian Dogmas & What They Mean to Us Today
Presenter: Bishop Waltersheid

Tuesday, January 23 • 7:00 PM
Church of the Assumption • Pittsburgh, PA
Do Whatever He Tells You: Our Lady Revealed in Scripture
Presenter: Bishop Waltersheid

Tuesday, January 30 • 7:00 PM
Holy Child Church • Bridgeville, PA
Our Lady Cares for Us: Lourdes, Guadalupe & Fatima
Presenter: Fr. Adam Potter

Tuesday, February 6 • 7:00 PM
St. Anne’s Church • Castle Shannon, PA
The Victory of Our Lady Over Evil
& the Brown Scapular Investiture
Presenters: Dave VanVickle & Bishop Waltersheid

Sunday, February 11 • 1:30 PM
Sts. John & Paul Church • Sewickley, PA
Mass & Living a Life of Consecration
Celebrant: Bishop Waltersheid

Come and join us for “To Jesus through Mary.”

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh