“None of us is an orphan . . . each one of us has a Mother., incomparable Queen of tenderness, assured Pope Francis in a video-message to Poles, on the occasion of the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa on August 26, 2017.
The Virgin Mary “knows us and accompanies us with her characteristically maternal style: gentle and courageous at the same time; never invasive and always perseverant in goodness; patient in face of evil and active in promoting concord,” stressed the Pope in his message addressed to pilgrims gathered in the National Shrine at Jasna Gora.
Poland has “a maternal heart,” he stressed. And the Virgin Mary “is not a distant Queen who sits on a throne, but a Mother who embraces her Son and, with Him, all of us, her children . . . She is a close Mother, who never loses sight of us; she is a tender Mother, who holds us by the hand on the way each day.”
This year’s celebrations also mark the third centenary of the crowning of the miraculous image of Byzantine Medieval tradition. According to the legend, it is a copy of an image painted by Saint Luke.
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
