Focolare Movement

Foresi: “Mary of Nazareth”

Sep 11, 2016

Fr Pasquale Foresi (1929-2015) was a theologian and co-founder of the Focolare Movement. Here he talks about Mary, drawing inspiration from the mystery of a woman who becomes the Mother of God.

Bella Accoglienza, Ave Cerquetti

Ave Cerquetti, ‘Bella Accoglienza’ – Rome, 1961

“Mary is the human creature that was made able to generate in the flesh, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word. We need to understand this prerogative of Mary in its extraordinary density, which makes her unique among all creatures. As the Mother of Jesus she is Mother of the unique human-divine Person of the Word, to whom she gives human nature which, in Him, joins in a most profound and perfect union with His divine nature – ‘without divisions’ and ‘without confusion’ says the Council of Chalcedon (see DS, 302). Therefore, Mary is in a real and true sense the Generatrix of God (see DS, 251-252). God was able to bring about all this in her, through her free consent to the divine plan that had been prepared from all eternity: “Let it be with me just as you have said” (see Lk 1:38). At the same time, since God had thought of Mary as the woman who epitomizes the entire Creation, He opened the possibility of generating God to Creation itself through her. And this is how, with Mary and in Mary, human freedom reaches its truth, reaches its fullness. And so we have Jesus, the God-Man, being born of Mary, the Woman. If this be the case, then it is necessary to give a Trinitarian interpretation to the Biblical data concerning the ontological man-woman relationship in which is rooted the real, deep equality and distinction of the two. From: Pasquale Foresi,Luce che si incarna, (Rome: Città Nuova, 2014) p.178-179.

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