J.M.J. On this the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, we recall an inspiring article that was published almost three years ago on the Website of the Eternal Word Television Network (www.ewtnnews.com).
We give thanks to God for Our Lady, Saint John Paul II and his veneration of Mary.
"Cardinal Recalls John Paul II's Devotion to Mary"
"Cardinal Giovanni Coppa recently recalled John Paul II's commitment to the Blessed Mother.
"The former nuncio to the Czech Republic noted that the late Pope wrote the opening lines of a St. Louis Marie de Montfort prayer at the top of each page of his writings.
"Cardinal Coppa said it was the John Paul II's custom to write the words from St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s prayer at the top of each page, beginning with the phrase 'Totus tuus,' which was his papal motto.
“'The Pope not only recited this prayer every day, but he also wrote part of it on the right-hand corner of each page of his homilies, speeches and encyclicals,' the cardinal told L’Osservatore Romano on April 1.
“'On the first page he wrote the beginning of the prayer: Totus tuus ego sum, ‘I am all yours;’ on the second page, Et omnia mea tua sunt, ‘And everything I have belongs to you;’ on the third, Accipio Te in mea omnia, ‘I put you at the center of my life;’ and on the fourth, ‘Praebe mihi cor tuum,’ Give me your heart’.'
"He repeated the lines on every page of the document in question, Cardinal Coppa recalled.
“'At the archives of the Secretariat of State we have thousands of these pages on which John Paul II intimately and movingly expressed his love for the Virgin Mary,' he added.
This custom practiced by the pilgrim Pope showed that 'his love for the Virgin Mary was a love without limits,' the cardinal continued. 'He never lost an opportunity to speak about Mary. He dedicated his encyclical Redemptoris Mater to her: redemption in fact became the common thread of his entire Petrine teaching.'”
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