Devotion to the Virgin of the Pillar




 All generations will congratulate me, because the Mighty One has done great works in me1.

According to a very ancient and venerated tradition, Our Lady, when she was still alive, appeared in mortal flesh to the Apostle St. James the Greater in Saragossa, accompanied by angels carrying a column or pillar as a sign of her presence.

In the apparition, Our Lady consoled and comforted the Apostle Santiago, to whom she promised her maternal assistance in the evangelization she was carrying out in Spain. Since then, the Pillar is considered "the symbol of firmness of faith "; at the same time, it indicates to us the sure path of every apostolate: Ad Iesum per Mariam, to Jesus, through Mary. The Virgin is the firm pillar, the sure foundation, where faith is established and where this faith is kept. "Through her, through very diverse forms of piety, faith in Christ, Son of God and of Mary, has come to many Christians." They are sustained "by devotion to Mary, thus made a pillar of that faith and a sure guide to salvation."

Seeing so many different nations and peoples celebrating this feast today and contemplating their love for Our Lady, we can see fulfilled the words of Sacred Scripture: I took root among a great people, in the Lord's portion, in his inheritance. I have grown like a cedar of Lebanon and of Mount Hermon, I have risen like a palm tree of Engedi and like a rose bush of Jericho, like a graceful olive tree in the plain and like a plane tree by the water. I exhaled fragrance like cinnamon and broom, and gave fragrance like exquisite myrrh, like perfumed resin, like amber and balsam, like a cloud of incense in the sanctuary5. Her devotion has spread far and wide.


Today's feast is an excellent occasion to ask, through her mediation, that the faith that she encouraged from the beginning be strengthened more and more, that we Christians be witnesses all the more firm the greater the difficulties we may encounter in the work environment, from the people with whom we habitually relate, or in ourselves. This comforts us: if we have to face greater obstacles, Our Lady will obtain for us more grace so that we will always emerge triumphant.


We ask her today to be secure pillars, firm foundations on which our family and friends can lean. Almighty and eternal God, we pray to you in the Mass proper to this feast that in the glorious Mother of your Son you have granted heavenly protection to all those who invoke her with the secular invocation of the Pillar; grant us, through her intercession, strength in faith, security in hope and constancy in love.



Hablar con Dios