On this journey we are accompanied by the Blessed Virgin Mary

Here is an excerpt from a letter by John Paul II, who entrusted the Third Millenium to the Blessed Mother:

"3. The contemplation of the Blessed Virgin shows her as the attentive Mother who watches her Son growing up in Nazareth (cf. Lk. 2,40.52), and follows him along the roads of Palestine. We see her at the wedding feast of Cana (cf. Jn. 2,5) and at the foot of the Cross, where she became the Mother of all, associated with the self offering of her Son and given to all people when Jesus Himself gave Her to the beloved disciple (cf. Jn. 19,26). As Mother of the Church, the Holy Virgin is united with the disciples "in continuous prayer" (Acts 1,14) and, as the New Woman assumed into heaven, she anticipates in herself that which one day will come to pass for all of us in the full enjoyment of the life of the Trinity. Assumed into heaven, She now extends the protective mantle of her mercy over her children who are still on pilgrimage towards the holy mountain of glory.
A similar contemplative attitude of mind and heart brings us to admire the Blessed Virgin’s faith and love, by which She already possesses what every faithful Christian desires and hopes to be within the mystery of Christ and the Church (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 103; Lumen gentium, 53). For this reason, Carmelites justly have chosen Mary as their Patroness and spiritual Mother and keep her always in mind, She who is the Most Pure Virgin and who leads all to the perfect knowledge and imitation of Christ.
In this way a spiritual intimacy develops in which the communion with Christ and with Mary is always growing. For the members of the Carmelite Family, Mary, the Virgin Mother of God and Mother of all people, is not only a model to imitate, but is also present as Mother and Sister in whom one can confide. Rightly St. Teresa of Jesus wrote, "Imitate Mary and consider how great she must be and what a good thing it is that we have her for our Patroness" (Interior Castle, III, 1, 3).

4. This intense Marian life, which is expressed in trusting prayer, in enthusiastic praise and in diligent imitation, leads us to understand that the most genuine form of devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, expressed by the humble sign of the Scapular, is the consecration to her Immaculate Heart (cf. Letter of Pope Pius XII, Neminem profecto latet [11 February 1950: AAS 42, 1950, pp. 390-391]; Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 67). Therefore in each one’s heart a communion and familiarity with the Holy Virgin grows, "as a new way of living for God and continuing here on earth the love which Jesus had towards his mother Mary" (cf. Sermon at the Angelus, in Insegnamenti XI/3, 1988, p.173). In this way, according to the expression of the Blessed martyr Titus Brandsma, we are profoundly united with Mary, the Theotokos, becoming like her, bearers of the divine life: "The Lord sends an angel also to us…… we also must receive God in our hearts, carry him in our hearts, nourish him and let him grow within us so that he is born from us and lives with us as Emmanuel, God-with-us (From the talk of Bl. Titus Brandsma to the Mariological Congress of Tongerloo, August 1936).

The Vatican, 25th March 2001
Joannes Paulus II