Prayer to the Mother of Mercy (18 November 1980)

In Altoetting, on 18 November 1980, the Holy Father offered a prayer to the Mother of Mercy, confessing and proclaiming that Jesus Christ, her Son, is the only mediator between God and men.

Greetings, Mother of Graces from Altötting!

1. For a few days now, my pilgrimage has been leading me through the history-rich German lands in the footsteps of Christianity, which reached here as early as Roman times. Saint Boniface, the apostle of Germany, successfully spread the Christian faith among young people and sealed his missionary work with martyrdom.

My step is quick, the program of the pilgrimage so tight that I cannot visit all the places to which their historical importance and the inclination of the heart would lead me. There are so many important and outstanding sites!

Today, since I am allowed to stay here in Altötting for a few hours, I realize again how the paths of my current pilgrimage are connected with the confession of faith, which is the most important task of Peter and his followers. When I preach Christ, the Son of the living God, "God from God" and "Light from light", "One being with the Father", I confess together with the whole Church that he became man through the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary. Your name, Maria, is inseparable from his name. From now on, your vocation and your yes to it are an inseparable part of the mystery of the incarnation.

2. Together with the whole Church I confess and proclaim that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and men in this mystery; for his incarnation brought redemption and justification to the children of Adam who are subject to the power of sin and death. At the same time, however, I am deeply convinced that no one has been so deeply initiated into this powerful and overwhelming divine mystery as You, the Mother of the Redeemers; and no one is better able to introduce us, who proclaim it and participate in it, to it more easily and clearly than You alone, Mary.

I have lived by this belief for a long time. With her I have been going on my pilgrimage from the beginning as Bishop of that local Church which the Apostle Peter founded in Rome and whose special mission has always been and still is to serve communion, that is, unity in love between people individual local churches and all brothers and sisters in Christ.

It is with the same conviction that I come here today, to Your sanctuary in Altötting, Mother of Graces, surrounded by the veneration and love of so many believers from Germany and Austria and other German-speaking regions; allow me to reaffirm this conviction and to bring it to you with this prayer.

3. Here too I would like to entrust the Church to You, our Mother, since You were present in the Upper Room when the Church manifested Herself through the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. Today I entrust to you, above all, the Church that has existed in this country for many centuries and forms that great community of faith among peoples who speak the same language. To you, mother, I commend the entire history of this church and its tasks in today's world: its diverse initiatives and its tireless service for all compatriots in their fatherland as well as for so many communities and churches around the world to which the Christians of Germany so willingly and give generous help.

Mary, blessed because you have believed, I entrusted to you what seems to be the most important thing in the service of the Church in this country: her powerful witness of faith to the present generation of men and women of this people in the face of increasing secularism and religious Indifference. May this testimony always speak the clear language of the Gospel and thus find access to the hearts, especially of the younger generation. It attracts the youth and inspires them to live in the image of the "new man" and to the various ministries in the Lord's vineyard.

4. Mother of Christ, who prayed before his suffering: "Father... all should be one" - how much is my way through Germany this year connected with the urgent and humble longing for unity among Christians who have been separated since the 16th century!

Can anyone desire more fervently than you that Christ's prayer be fulfilled in the Upper Room? And if we ourselves have to confess that we are complicit in the division and pray today for a new unity in love and truth, may we not hope that You, Mother of Christ, will pray with us? May we not hope that in due time the fruit of this prayer will be the gift of that "communion of the Holy Spirit" which is indispensable "that the world may believe"?

To you, mother, I entrust the future of the faith in this ancient Christian land; and remembering the tribulations of the last terrible war, which inflicted such deep wounds especially on the peoples of Europe, I entrust peace in the world to you. May a new order arise among these peoples, based on full respect for the rights of every nation and every person in his nation, a truly moral order in which peoples can live together as one family, with due balance of justice and freedom.

I address this prayer to you, Queen of Peace and mirror of justice - I, John Paul II, Bishop of Rome and successor of St. Peter - and leave it at your place of grace in Altötting as a lasting memory. Amen.

Altoetting, November 18, 1980.
 

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