Meeting with the Sisters in the Jesuit Church in Warsaw (16 June 1983)

On Thursday, 16 Juine 1983, the Holy Father met with the Sisters in the Jesuit Church in Warsaw. In his speech, the Pope reflected on the words of the Magnificat.

You sang the Magnificat, you thanked with the words of the Madonna: "He has done great things for me". She had the right, more than anyone, to say: “she has done great things for me”. She is Our Lady of Graces: this is how we venerate her, here in Warsaw, next to St. John's Cathedral. She is the Madonna full of grace and therefore merciful to us. She is merciful for each of you, since the mystery of the religious vocation of each of you is linked in some way to Mary. I too ask her to be ever more clement for you, so that her clemency may give rise to your clemency. By receiving a gift you will know how to donate, share; and people expect you to give in the likeness of Mary, because people also expect exactly this from her, to a simply inconceivable extent. For us this measure is expressed with the word “Jasna Gora”, it is also expressed with the concept of the Jubilee of Jasna Gora.

All this speaks of the Madonna delle Grazie, of the one who gives and wants to give continuously. You have to follow it. I hope so, I hope you follow it. She is also merciful to me, since I am once again in Polish land. It is true that I have been here for a few hours and yet I am on Polish land. This Madonna delle Grazie of Warsaw is also very kind to me. Her image of her, before which we find ourselves, is also dear to the hearts of Italians, since she is honored in Faenza. So I ask you to be lenient with me, both during the following hours and during the following days, so that I too can be lenient. Such is the divine logic: a logic of grace. It is necessary for each of you to know how to receive grace and be merciful.

I also wish that Our Lady of Graces be merciful to my brothers, Cardinals and Bishops, especially the guests to whom we owe particular respect, so that they too may be merciful where there is need, and also with us. May this place be a good start for all that we must do over the next few days, may it be a place of thanksgiving for the gift, just as you have sung: “He has done great things for me”. And what will I say about you, about all of you gathered here, with the Cardinal Primate, with Archbishop Dabrowski, who came to Rome many times with his good advice, and who did so much to help me. I will say that God rewards this clemency of yours and that of the other sisters, especially those who carry the cross of suffering (there are many, even here, in this church), those of seclusion, of contemplation: of all the sisters. May God reward you. In front of the Madonna delle Grazie, I thank you for your clemency towards me; for bringing me back to these Polish streets.

Now you must lead me to the end through the streets of our land. And now with the Primate, the Cardinals and the Bishops I impart to you my apostolic blessing.
 

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