John Paul II and His Devotion to Mary
One
To Jesus Through Mary
Karol Wojtyla, who would become St. John Paul II, was born on May 18th, 1920, in Wadovice, Poland. In 1929, his mother died of a heart disease just before his ninth birthday. His father took him to the local Marian Shrine, Kalweria, and said, “From now on Mary will be your Mother.” His brother Edmund died on December 5th, 1932, a victim of scarlet fever. His only sister, Olga, died in infancy. In 1938, he and his father moved to Krakow where Faustina was in the last months of her life and St. Maximilian Kolbe was broadcasting radio programs not far away in Niepokalanow.
On September 1st, 1939, Hitler and the Nazis invaded Poland. They murdered 20% of its total population. In February 1941, his father died, leaving Karol completely alone. But he wasn’t alone. God and Mary were with him. And God put young Karol Wojtyla in touch with Jan Tyranowski (this “tailor-mystic”).
Jan Tyranowski invited Karol into his living Rosary group and gave him a copy of True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort. Karol took True Devotion to work with him at the chemical plant where he read it during breaks. Till the end of his life, he carried this copy stained by the chemicals from that plant.
At first, he was afraid that devotion to Mary would distance him from Jesus and that he should lessen the attention he gave to Mary in order to give more focus to Christ. Through reading True Devotion he came to the conclusion that devotion to Mary brings us closer to Jesus. On this point, John Paul wrote, “The reading of the treatise of the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin was the turning point in my life. Whereas I had initially been afraid lest devotion to Mary might detract from that due to Jesus instead of giving him his rightful place, I realized, when reading the treatise on True Devotion, that such was not the case. Our interior relationship with the mother of God is a result of our association with the mystery of Christ.”
So, he consecrated himself entirely to Jesus through the hands of Mary. Now he was in their hands. He was their property and possession, and nothing could come accept what God willed. Even if that appeared bad, God would make it the best. Confident of the Providential care of Jesus and Mary, Karol could go forward with freedom and courage. In October of 1942, he entered the underground seminary. Then on January 17th, 1945, Soviet troops captured Warsaw, Poland. A culture of lies engulfed his country. Finally, on November 1st, 1946, Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest.
Two
The Final Confrontation
Karol Wojtyla was ordained a bishop in 1958 and he took for his motto, “Totus Tuus” (Mary, I am totally yours) the short formula of a daily consecration to Mary by St. Louis De Montfort. He was then made a Cardinal in 1967.
In 1976 he was invited to give a series of lectures in the United States where he said, “We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think that wide circles of American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. We all realize it is not an easy matter, and a great deal of it depends upon the outcome on the Vistula. This confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is, therefore, in God's Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously. We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ. With your and my prayers, it is possible to mitigate the coming tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectually renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from the shedding of blood? This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared and trust in Christ and in his Holy Mother and very, very assiduous in praying the holy rosary."
Three
The Miracle of the Vistula
In 1976 Cardinal Wojtyla said, “We all realize it is not an easy matter, and a great deal of it depends upon the outcome on the Vistula.” What the heck is the Vistula? Well, it’s the main river in Poland and he was referring to the Miracle of the Vistula which took place on August 15, 1920.
Vladimir Lenin believed that by destroying Poland, he would create a Red Bridge to Europe, particularly Germany, which he was certain was ripe for an Atheistic-Communist revolution.
By August 1920, Warsaw appeared doomed as the Soviet Red Army advanced on the city. Only the Vistula River stood between the Polish and Soviet Armies. But then on August 15, 1920, both Polish and Russian soldiers testified they saw Mary appearing over the Polish Army as if to defend them in battle. Simultaneously a break in the Soviet defenses was detected, through which General Pilsudski led the Polish army to outflank the Soviets, throw them into a panic, and defeat them. Everyone that day was convinced that victory came through Mary. They called it the Miracle of the Vistula.
Four
Victory Through Mary
In that address in 1976, Cardinal Wojtyla, who would become Pope John Paul II, said “We must be strong and prepared and trust in Christ and in His Holy Mother and very, very assiduous in praying the Holy Rosary.”
The Rosary was supposed to be a meditation on the Word of God. Not just a rote saying of words while our minds wandered. So, what should we think about when we pray the Rosary? We should think about Jesus. He is the Word of God. All He did and taught is handed down through Scripture, the Old and New Testaments; Tradition, the writing of the saints and the Magisterium, the teaching of the Catholic Church, for example in the Catechism.
The traditional mysteries of the Rosary were meant to serve as an outline of the Word of God. But they were never meant to limit us to those few scenes. This is why St. John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries to the Rosary. And then he wrote a letter to the world explaining the Rosary in which he stated, “Obviously these mysteries neither replace the Gospel nor exhaust its content. The Rosary, therefore, is no substitute for Lectio Divina (reading scripture in a meditative way) on the contrary, the Rosary presupposes and promotes it. Yet, even though the mysteries contemplated in the Rosary, even with the addition of the Luminous Mysteries, do no more than outline the fundamental elements of the life of Christ, they easily draw the mind to a more expansive reflection on the rest of the Gospel, especially when the Rosary is prayed in a setting of prolonged recollection.” Rosarium 29
And that is why we pray the Rosary the way we do, so we can learn more of the Word of God, the Deposit of Faith, and the Catholic Faith as we sit at the School of Mary in the Rosary.
Five
Do not be Afraid!
The Papacy of John Paul II began with the cry, “Do not be afraid!”
Why should we have no fear? Because God is our Father and Mary is our Mother! Just as Mary brought Jesus into the world, the Victory of Christ will be brought to us through Mary. In Crossing the Threshold of Hope John Paul said, “When victory comes it will be brought by Mary. Christ will conquer through her because he wants the Church’s victories now and in the future to be linked to her… I held this conviction even though I did not yet know much about Fatima. I could see, however, that there was a certain continuity among La Salette, Lourdes, and Fatima, and…Jasna Gora…And thus we come to May 13, 1981…the fact that the assassination attempt occurred on the anniversary of Fatima.”
Through Fatima God revealed that He wants to save the world through devotion to the Heart of Mary. He wants to save us by consecration to Mary, by praying the daily Rosary, by First Saturdays of Reparation, and by forming our rosary groups.