On Saturday evening, Pope Francis officially took possession of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. The Basilica, which is the oldest Marian Shrine in the West, was the Holy Father’s second visit. The day after his election, Pope Francis visited St. Mary Major to place his papacy under the Blessed Mother’s protection.After reciting the Glorious mysteries of the Rosary during his visit, the Holy Father offered a meditation to all those present, contemplating on the importance of seeking the maternal guidance of the Virgin Mary.
Referring to the title Marian icon housed in the Basilica, Pope Francis said that in invoking the Blessed Mother as the Salus Populi Romani (Health of the Roman People”, we are “asking for all of us, for Rome, for the world that she might give us health.”
“Mary is mother, and a mother concerns herself above all with the health of her children, she knows how to care for it with great and tender love,” the Pope said. “Our Lady protects our health. What does it mean to say that the Our Lady protects our health? I think above all of 3 aspects: she helps us to grow, face life, to be free.
“Mary,” the Pope said, “like a good mother, teaches us to be, like her, capable of making definitive decisions, definitive decisions in this moment in which their reigns, so to say, the philosophy of the provisional. It is so difficult to commit oneself definitively in life. And she helps us to make definitive decisions with that complete freedom with which she answered “yes” to God’s plan for her life.
The Holy Father concluded his meditation entrusting the faithful, the people of Rome and the entire world to the maternal protection of the Blessed Mother. Pope Francis asked the Virgin Mary to “grant us the health that She alone can give us, to be always signs and instruments of life.”
