"If you truly wish to love Mary, then live as she did!"

Meditation by Chiara Lubich for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.

“(…) Mary! The most extraordinary creature—she whom we call, and who truly is, the Mother of God, and therefore immaculate, assumed into heaven, body and soul, Queen, Mother of the Church.

Mary is closer to God than to human beings; yet, she remains a creature (…). And so, she can be for us that inclined plane connecting heaven and earth. Although an extraordinary creature, in Mary—as a young girl, betrothed maiden, mother and widow—we can all, regardless of our age or station in life, forge a bond with her and see in her a model.

I believe that true devotion to Mary is that which leads us to walk a path that gives birth in our hearts to the same quality of love that Jesus had for her. Mary, who possessed such beautiful and extraordinary qualities, was also the ‘perfect Christian’.

As we know from the Gospel, she did not live according to her own will, but allowed God’s law to live within her. She is the one who, more than any of us, can say: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’ (Gal 2:20). Mary is the living Word of God.

So, if you truly wish to love Mary, then live as she did! You, too, aim to be the living Word of God!

(….) If we strive to live as she did, we come to resemble her, and a spontaneous love for Mary is born in our hearts.”

Chiara Lubich
(Rome, 1976)