VATICAN AVE MARIA - Mary, the Bride of the Spirit - Rev Luciano Alimandi

Wednesday, 23 May 2007

Vatican City (Fides Service) - In the time between Ascension and Pentecost the Church calls the faithful to be in prayer in the Upper Room, especially in front of Jesus in the Eucharist, to prepare to receive the Holy Spirit “in spiritual union with the Blessed Virgin Mary”, as the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI said at the Angelus on 20 May 2007.
The month of May, dedicated to Mary helps us to enter into more intimate communion with Our Lady who, with the Holy Spirit, has a quite unique relationship since the Spirit came to her “and the power of the Most High will covered her with its shadow” (Lk 1, 35) to work the most wonderful miracle of salvation: the Incarnation of the Word.
Montfort writes about this sublime mystery: “the Holy Spirit, sterile in God, that is he does not bring forth another divine person, became fecund through Mary whom he espoused. With her and from her he achieved his masterpiece, which is God made man, and every day until the end of time he brings forth the predestined, the members of this adorable Body. Therefore the more the Holy Spirit finds May, his beloved and inseparable spouse, in a soul, the more he becomes active and powerful to form Jesus Christ in this soul and this soul in Jesus Christ” (TVD n. 20). Similarly , another great Saint the Franciscan Maximilian Maria Kolbe, affirmed: “the Holy Spirit, the divine Spouse of Immaculate Mary, works only in Her and through Her communicates supernatural life, the life of grace, participation in divine love, divinity ” (SK 1326).
These words can be only understood in the light of the mystery of the Incarnation, when God entered the world and history, uniting himself as a spouse to the creature He wished Immaculate: “ I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving-kindness, and in compassion” (Hosea 2,21).
The bond between the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary must be intensified by every Christian, especially in this special time of preparation for Pentecost, ad a new outpouring of the love of God who, with Mary, wishes to work in our souls the miracle of a “mystical incarnation”, as it was called by Mexican mystic Concepción Cabrera de Armida.
The sole purpose of our life in fact is full conformation with Jesus by means of a progressive path of di conversion worked by the Holy Spirit, who lifts us higher and higher, so we may live Christ!
To discover the bond which unites Mary and the Holy Spirit gives unspeakable impulse to our life because we enter harmony with the powerful mystery of the Incarnation of God, which led to our salvation. To enter into spiritual union with the Blessed Virgin Mary, in this dimension of Trinitarian Love, means finding the key to ever deeper knowledge of Jesus: Fruit of the Holy Spirit in Mary!
The Papal Magisterium has often pointed out to believers this indissoluble bond between the eternal Love of the Father and the Virgin Mother, showing it as a marriage bond. For example Paul VI, in his Exhortation Marialis cultus recalls that some holy Fathers and ecclesiastical authors, “ Examining more deeply still the mystery of the Incarnation, they saw in the mysterious relationship between the Spirit and Mary an aspect redolent of marriage, poetically portrayed by Prudentius: "The unwed Virgin espoused the Spirit,"” (MC, n. 26). In Redemptoris Mater, the Servant of God John Paul II, wrote that when the Spirit came upon Mary at the Annunciation she, “became his faithful spouse ” (RM, n. 26). Numerous saints and countless faithful have invoked her as “bride of the Holy Spirit”, see in Mary “bride of God”, “totally belonging to Dio”, always and unconditionally faithful to His Love! We too never tire of invoking the coming of the Paraclete in our hearts looking the Immaculate Mary we say: “Come Holy Spirit, come through Mary”! (Agenzia Fides 23/5/2007; righe 48, parole 661)


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