Missionary Meditation with Blessed Paolo Manna
WITH 2022 marking the 150th anniversary of the birth and 70th anniversary of the death of Blessed Fr Paolo Manna (above)—the founder of the Pontifical Missionary Union—his writings have been included in the Missionary Meditation for the month of May along with Church documents. The meditation focuses on priests, consecrated persons and the laity and can be read in full below.
“One cannot live without a mother. A child without a mother is lost and cries. Have a Mother in Mary.”
(Blessed Paolo Manna)
Mary and the Mission
From the Gospel According to John
“Standing by the cross of Jesus were His Mother and his Mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw His Mother and the disciple there whom he loved, He said to His Mother: ‘Woman, behold, your son.’ Then He said to the disciple: ‘Behold, your Mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took Her into his home.
(John 19:25-27)
From the Magisterium of the Catholic Church
“Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, His Mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she ‘shows the way.’”
(CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, n. 2674)
“But above all, in the Church of that time and of every time Mary was and is the one who is ‘blessed because She believed’; She was the first to believe. (...) She had still remained the one who, like Abraham, ‘in hope believed against hope’ (Romans 4:18). But it is only after the Resurrection that hope had shown its true face and the promise had begun to be transformed into reality.”
(JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church, Redemptoris Mater, n. 26)
“Thus the ‘fullness of time’ manifests the extraordinary dignity of the ‘woman.’ On the one hand, this dignity consists in the supernatural elevation to union with God in Jesus Christ, which determines the ultimate finality of the existence of every person both on earth and in eternity.”
(JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter on the Dignity and Vocation of Women, Mulieris Dignitatem, n. 4)
“Finally, I exhort all consecrated persons, according to their own traditions, to renew daily their spiritual union with the Blessed Virgin Mary, reliving with Her the mysteries of Her Son, especially by saying the Rosary.”
(JOHN PAUL II, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Consecrated Life and Its Mission
in the Church and in the World, Vita Consecrata, n. 95)
“With the Holy Spirit, Mary is always present in the midst of the people. She joined the disciples in praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14) and thus made possible the missionary outburst which took place at Pentecost. She is the Mother of the Church which evangelises and without Her we could never truly understand the spirit of the new evangelisation.”
(POPE FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 284)
“Mary was able to turn a stable into a home for Jesus, with poor swaddling clothes and an abundance of love. (…) She is the friend who is ever concerned that wine not be lacking in our lives. She is the missionary who draws near to us and accompanies us throughout life, opening our hearts to faith by Her maternal love. As a true mother, She walks at our side, She shares our struggles and She constantly surrounds us with God’s love.”
(POPE FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 286)
“There is a Marian ‘style’ to the Church’s work of evangelisation. Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. (...) Mary is able to recognise the traces of God’s Spirit in events great and small. She constantly contemplates the mystery of God in our world, in human history and in our daily lives. She is the woman of prayer and work in Nazareth. (...) This interplay of justice and tenderness, of contemplation and concern for others, is what makes the ecclesial community look to Mary as a model of evangelisation.”
(POPE FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 288)
From the writings of Blessed Father Paolo Manna
“After his pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1908, Father Manna asked Mary for five graces that he had written in his breviary and for which he prayed until his death: 1) Make me love infinitely 2) Give me a great love for your Divine Son 3) Through many humiliations keep me pure 4) Intercede for me the grace of holy perseverance and be with me at the moment of death 5) Intercede for the salvation of all my relatives.”
(P. MANNA, Esci dalla tua terra…, Naples 1977, p. 21)
“Immediately following the worship of God, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, no one should be as dear to us as Mary Most Holy.”
(P. MANNA, Meditazioni alle religiose 1902-1934 e 1943-1949, part 1, in: Scritti, vol. 66, p. 519)
“Although only in Heaven we will truly see the glory of Mary, admire Her forever, and glorify Her greatness, already here on earth, immediately after Jesus, our feelings, mercy, and confidence should be directed to Mary.”
(P. MANNA, Meditazioni alle religiose 1902-1934 e 1943-1949, part 1, in: Scritti, vol. 66, p. 519)
“We should live like children in the arms of the Blessed Virgin.”