Summary

This article discusses the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in various miracles and historical events, including the survival of Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan after assassination attempts, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the protection of Poland from invasions.

Abstract

The article begins with the story of Pope John Paul II's survival after being shot, attributing his recovery to his devotion to Mary. It mentions numerous reports of Marian apparitions throughout history and the connection between Mary and miracles. The article then draws parallels between the lives of John Paul II and Ronald Reagan, both of whom survived assassination attempts and believed in Mary's role in their survival and the subsequent downfall of Soviet communism. The article also discusses the Our Lady of Fatima apparitions and their predictions about Russia. The main focus of the article is the role of Mary in various miracles and historical events, including the protection of Poland and the spread of Christianity. The article concludes with a discussion of the Icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa and its involvement in numerous known miracles.

Bullet points

Pope John Paul II survived being shot and attributed his survival to Mary.
There have been numerous reports of Marian apparitions throughout history.
Both John Paul II and Ronald Reagan survived assassination attempts and believed in Mary's role in their survival and the downfall of Soviet communism.
The Our Lady of Fatima apparitions predicted Russia's spread of errors throughout the world.
The Icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa has been involved in numerous known miracles.
Mary has been involved in various historical events, including the protection of Poland and the spread of Christianity.

Something About Mary

The trained assassin fired four perfect shots. Just a few yards from his target, firing a 9-millimeter semi-automatic, the killer was certain he’d hit taken out his target.

St. John Paul II was hit. The 60-year-old pope immediately called out to Mary, repeating “Totus Tuus,” (Totally yours) again and again. “Totus Tuus! Totus Tuus! Totus Tuus!” Last Rites were administered.

“At the very moment I fell, I had this vivid presentment that I should be saved,” he later recalled according to the newly released book, “The Divine Plan: John Paul, Ronald Reagan and the Dramatic End of the Cold War,” by Paul Kengor and Robert Orlando.

MiracleHunter.com counts 2,500 credible reports of Marian apparitions since 40 AD, with 500 of those coming in the 20th century. What is it about Mary and miracles?

The Divine Plan film opens in November. Here is the book.

John Paul and Reagan were shot 44 days apart. Both prayed for their assassins and God’s Will.

Both believed something about Mary played a role in the miracles that allowed them to survive deadly wounds and overwhelm Soviet communism over the following decade.

Though Reagan was raised Protestant, both Reagan and the Pope were especially intrigued by Our Lady of Fatima and her 1917 predictions that mother Russia would spread errors throughout the world, which could only be stopped via prayer. Over the five years after JPII consecrated the world to Mary (with special attention to Russia and its errors, the Soviet Union unraveled and collapsed.

“In Mary, we have a powerful intercessor, and in the beautiful prayer composed by St. Bernard, the Memorare, we pray ‘Remember, that never was it known that anyone who sought your help was left unaided,” Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, the senior Polish American bishop, told a packed National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa audience August 25.

She may not always answer the way we hope, but she always hears and answers.

This started with her son Jesus. The people at the wedding needed wine. Like a prosecuting attorney (who happens to be the judge’s beloved mother), Mary brings the peoples’ case to Jesus, influences her son, and Jesus’ first recorded miracle grabs everyone’s attention.

Time after time, Mary is there. Shortly before JPII came to Krakow, Poland as a college student, St. Faustina received the Divine Mercy message promising overwhelming and often undeserved mercies to those who trust: “Jesus, I trust in you.’’

But before Jesus, Mary offered the ultimate trust in God, answering God’s call with the ultimate statement of trust: “Let it be done.’’

Let it be done. Bearing and raising the perfect son of God and watching him be publicly mocked, humiliated, and tortured to death at age 33.

His miracles that are known to the world began when she told the world, “Do whatever He tells you.’’

“Here and in Jasna Gora, Poland, people have come to seek her help, and they were not left unaided,’’ Wenski said. “The freedom that the Polish nation enjoys today is a witness to the power of Mary’s intercession. We remember that King Casimir made her Queen of Poland, and Mary has always been part of the Polish nation.”

The weapons that terrify us today “in shopping centers and schoolhouses” like the nuclear weapons that threatened us for decades before can’t rival the powerful weapon of prayer, Wenski said.

With God, there is hope and a future, he added. Without God, there is no hope, no future.

Wenski was the main celebrant at the Sunday, August 25 coronation of the Icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa, laying out some of the fruits of asking for Mary’s intercession:

The Our Lady of Czestochowa, believed to have originally been painted by St. Luke, has been involved with numerous known miracles. The face of this Black Madonna, like each of us her children, bears scars. Attempts to erase or hide those scars failed. Consider each of the August miracles:

- In August 1683, King Jan III Sobieski venerated this icon in 1683 and added a likeness to his shield. He then took a small army of Winged Hussars to Vienna, where they crushed a massively larger invading Islamic force on September 12, 1683, saving Christianity.

-In August 1920, on the Feast of the Assumption, troops saw Mary over the battlefield as the Miracle on the Vistula began, allowing Polish troops to push back and crush a massive invasion from the Soviet Union. Again, a weakened Europe was saved by little Poland. In April 1920, at age 8, the future St. John Paul lost his mother and would lose his brother and a sister. His father told him the Blessed Mother was his remaining mother now and turned to her for guidance. He did. By age 20, the future saint lost his father. Orphaned, he turned toward the priesthood soon after.

- In the 1930s, another August child, a young nun born August 25, 1905, St. Faustina, had more than 700 pages of transcribed discussions with Jesus recorded in her diary. She began the Divine Mercy movement. JPII would make her the first saint of the 21st century.

- St. Maximilian Kolbe, who dedicated his life to Mary, began a massive Marian movement days after Fatima spread through Poland and Japan before the Second World War. During the war, he heroically sacrificed his life to save another prisoner in the Auschwitz death camp and outlived all others, perishing on the eve of the Feast of the Assumption.

- JPII became pope in 1978, the year of three popes, the first non-Italian pope in centuries, and the youngest Polish pope ever. He immediately dedicated his papacy to Mary. He came home to Poland in June 1979, reawakening the faith, and in August 1981, Solidarity was born and won its first major victory over communist overlords.

-JPII’s visits to Poland, including a pilgrimage to Jasna Gora and journeys to the American Czestochowa Shrine in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, are credited with inspiring others to change the world, overwhelming atheistic communism.