The Families of Nazareth Creed

Communion of Life with Christ through Mary

1.  I believe that I am deeply and personally loved by the Triune God with the whole truth about me, and that, because I am a person of a little faith and weak love, Jesus entrusted me to His Mother at the hour of His death in the person of Saint John the Apostle, who represents all of us, thus showing His particular fondness for me, His most beloved child.

The words addressed by the crucified Lord to his disciple–to John and through him to all disciples of Jesus: “Behold, your Mother!” (Jn 19:27)–are fulfilled anew in every generation. Mary has truly become the Mother of all believers. Men and women of every time and place have recourse to her motherly kindness and her virginal purity and grace, in all their needs and aspirations, their joys and sorrows, their moments of loneliness and their common endeavors.

Pope Benedict XVI
Encyclical letter God Is Love (Deus Caritas Est), no. 42
December 25, 2005

2. In light of this entrustment, I desire to turn constantly to Mary the Mother of God who is His Special Instrument, asking her to advance me on the pilgrimage of faith, hope and charity, opening me more to His holy will and His mercy, by emulating the humble life of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

Here [in Loreto], we think spontaneously of the Holy House of Nazareth, which is the Shrine ofhumility; the humility of God who took flesh, who made himself small, and the humility of Mary whowelcomed him into her womb; the humility of the Creator and the humility of the creature. Jesus, Son of God and Son of man, was born from encounter of humility. “The greater you are, the more you humble yourself, so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord. For great is the might of the Lord” (Sirach 3:18-20).

Pope Benedict XVI
Homily at Mass in Loreto, Italy, September 2, 2007

3.  I believe that the Blessed Mother is always with me, by my side, and that she carries me in her arms close to her Immaculate Heart since I need her special assistance in every aspect of my life. This great truth is presented to me through her words addressed to Saint Juan Diego, whom I seek to imitate throughout my entire life.

Listen. Put it into your heart, my smallest child,
that the thing that frightened you,
the thing that afflicted you is nothing:
Do not let it disturb you...
Am I not here, I who am your mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not the source of your joy?
Are you not in the hollow of my mantle,
in the crossing of my arms?
Do you need something more?

Our Lady of Guadalupe,1531 A.D.

4.  Believing that the Mother of Jesus is also my Beloved Mother, and that I am always her most beloved child, I dare to call her ‘Mom,’ as she teaches me to abandon myself to God through her openness to the ‘spirituality of events,’ especially in the experiences I do not understand.

Mary is an example and support for all believers: she encourages us not to lose confidence before the difficulties and inevitable problems of every day. She assures us of her help and reminds us that it is essential to seek and think of “the things above, not those of the earth” (cf. Col 3:2).

Pope Benedict XVI
Homily of the Solemnity of the Assumption
August 15, 2006

5.  I believe that by living in a personal communion of life with the Blessed Mother through the action of the Holy Spirit, I am able to receive the graces of the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus that are present particularly in the mystery of the Eucharist and the sacrament of Reconciliation, which constitute for me the source and summit of the Church’s life.

One cannot contemplate Mary without being attracted by Christ and one cannot look at Christ without immediately perceiving the presence of Mary. There is an indissoluble link between the Mother and the Son generated in her womb by the work of the Holy Spirit, and this link we perceive in a mysterious way in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Pope Benedict XVI
Message for the Sixteenth World Day of the Sick
January 11, 2008

6.  This conviction inspires confidence and trust in His unfathomable Love and Mercy so that I believe my sinfulness can become a ‘happy fault,’ both in my life and in the life of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, which I encounter in a particular way through parish faith sharing groups, where I and others are encouraged to discover the joyful path of frequent returns to the Father, especially through the sacrament of Confession, a real path to holiness and happiness.

In our day, Our Lady has been given to us as the best defense against the evils that afflict modern life; Marian devotion is the sure guarantee of her maternal protection and safeguard in the hour of temptation.

Pope Benedict XVI
Homily at Mass for the canonization of St. Anthony of
St. Anne Galvao, Aparecida, Brazil
May 11, 2007

7.  I acknowledge my pride and distorted self-love that causes extreme narcissism within me, from which I can be rescued through the love of Mary. I desire to ponder her Son’s love for me and to make it my daily ‘food’ in her loving arms. With her, I desire to choose the path of humility as my permanent attitude, demonstrated especially by how I encounter God’s children and ponder God’s Word.

In contemplation and in activity, in solitude and in fraternity, in service to the poor and the lowly, in personal guidance and in the modern areopaghi, be ready to proclaim and to witness that God is Love and that to love him is sweet. May Mary, the Tota Pulchra [the all-beautiful], teach you to transmit to men and women today this divine fascination that must transpire from your words and actions.

Pope Benedict XVI, Feberuary 2, 2007
Address for the Eleventh World Day of Consecrated Life

8.  Because of my special ability to appropriate any merits to myself, desire to thank Mary for everything I do, and thereby join her in praising God in the spirit of her Magnificat. With simple joy, I believe the words of Jesus: “Without me you can do nothing.” Therefore, I count on God’s mercy, and the guidance of His Church through spiritual direction under the authority of the Local Ordinary and the Bishop of Rome.

 Let us look at Mary Most Holy. A humble Handmaid of the Lord, the Virgin is the model of a spiritual person who is totally free because she is immaculate, immune to sin and all holy, dedicated to the service of God and neighbor. May she help us with her motherly care to follow Jesus, to know the truth and to live freedom in love.

Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus
July1, 2007

9.  I believe that the Mother of God urgently desires to spread her Son’s Love through me and with me. In her loving arms, she teaches me to serve and defend, in spirit and in truth, the holy Catholic Church and the authority of our Holy Father.

 The icon of the Annunciation, more than any other, helps us to see clearly how everything in the Church goes back to the mystery of Mary’s acceptance of the divine Word, by which, through the action of the Holy Spirit, the Covenant between God and humanity was perfectly sealed. Everything in the Church, every institution and ministry, including that of Peter and his Successors, is “included” under the Virgin’s mantle, within the grace-filled horizon of her “yes” to God’s will.

Pope Benedict XVI
Homily at the Consistory for the Creation of New Cardinals
March 25, 2006

I would like to express to Mary my gratitude for the support she offers me in my daily service to the Church. I know that I can count on her help in every situation; indeed, I know that she foresees with maternal intuition all her children’s needs and intervenes effectively to sustain them: this has been the experience of the Christian people ever since its first steps in Jerusalem.

Pope Benedict XVI
Address at the Conclusion of the Marian Month
May 31, 2006

10.  I believe that the Blessed Mother helps me to keep focused on living in the present moment where God meets me as I am, a sinner, and that she will prepare me for the hour of my death so that she and I will together pass into heaven, praising God’s love and mercy forever. I acquire this attitude of bold trust and confidence in God’s Mercy by imitating Saint Juan Diego and Saint Thérèse the Little Flower, who both knew that they were Mary’s beloved children.

 May the Virgin Mary, who watches over us from Heaven, help us not to forget that here on earth we are only passing through, and may she teach us to prepare ourselves to encounter Jesus, who is “seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”

Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus
August 12, 2007