Pope Francis manifested his close report to the thousands of pilgrims visiting the Marian Sanctuary of Jasna Gora celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
Rome (August 28, 2020 Gaudium Press) — While greeting Polish-speaking faithful during the weekly General Audience, Pope Francis acknowledged the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Queen and Protectress of Poland.
“I unite myself today to the thousands upon thousands of pilgrims who are gathered there, together with the Polish episcopate, to entrust themselves, their families, the nation, and all of humanity to her maternal protection.” the Holy Father said, recalling his own visit to the Shrine of Jasna Gora in 2016.
Addressing the pilgrims gathered at the Shrine, he said “pray to the Blessed Mother to intercede for us all, especially for those who in different ways are suffering from the [Covid-19] pandemic, and bring them relief.”
In difficult times, the presence of God’s grace
Father Michal Legan, spokesman for the Jasna Gora Sanctuary notes that in Poland, devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary goes back to the earliest days of Christianity. “It was the most important sign of the Lord’s grace during [our] very, very difficult history, even in the darkest moments of our national history,” he said in an interview with Vatican Media’s Emanuela Campanile. “Even in the darkest hours of the personal story of each of us, she was present, and she was the point of the hope and of the faith,” he commented.
Entrusted to Our Lady of Czestochowa
Father Legan added that throughout the pandemic, the people of Poland “are looking to Our Lady with faith and prayer, with all our hopes.”
He noted that, during his visit to Jasna Gora four years ago, Pope Francis said Poland had a great privilege, “because we have our mother as the Queen and our queen as the mother.”
That is why “we pray every day to our Black Madonna for all the people who are sick, and for all who work” in the field of medicine. And, he concluded, “we can assure you that here in the Sanctuary of Our Lady, this prayer, will be continued.”
With information from Vatican News