Introduction

This is not the first time that somebody is asked to discuss this topic. How to modernize the message of the Rue du Bac? The concern for this focus arose especially starting from the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin to Saint Catherine and from then on it has been treated repeated times by diverse authors.

When reading some of those writings I have been able to verify, once again, not only the risk that one runs but also the temptation in which one can fall into when celebrating anniversaries of certain events and characters of the past. It would seem that one tries to demonstrate that it has already announced most of the problems of the present and of the future and, sometimes, even propose a solution.

I myself didn't want to fall into a similar temptation when discussing today the topic of the re-reading of the message of the Rue du Bac for our times. Because I don't agree. Such demands and consequences will have to be deduced from what the pursuit of Christ implies for all Christians as well as the unfolding and determination of the faith in those and other dimensions of the history, but not necessarily contained in it and also the contents expressed in the message of the Virgin to Saint Catherine and in the symbols contained in the Medal.

Certainly the Christian life is a new global way to conceive and live our lives in the likeness of Christ, and not a series of behaviors combined together without any connection among them. But it is also certain that it can have determined celebrations, commemorations, encounters... specifically guided to cultivate and to put the event in a concrete dimension of faith. Without excluding others, but also without the pretense that all encounters, commemorations and celebrations should have repercussions in all the aspects of Christian life. This encounter, according to the program proposed, has been summoned to achieve three concrete objectives and will be justified perfectly if it attains them. A re-reading of the message of the Rue du Bac should be made for our times, but it has to create an impact, for example, on the problems that exist in our world today, the project of cloning human beings, the alarming deterioration of the environment and the network of international terrorism. The devotees of the Miraculous Medal are not unaware to those and other social, economic and religious problems. But we won't seek to justify that that devotion, even if it's authentic, be the remedy against atheism and religious indifference, nor the solution to all the physical and moral sufferings that humanity suffers, neither of the doctrinal, pastoral and moral problems that exist inside the Church.

In the first part I will try to justify why it is necessary to make a re-reading of the message of Saint Catherine for our times. A re-reading that tries to understand it the way the Church does with regards to private revelations and from the contributions of human sciences.

In the second part I will speak of the message of the Rue du Bac and I will focus on the Medal as the privileged representation of said message.

And in the third part I will make a re-reading of that message in the light of the letter that the Pope has addressed to the whole church on the occasion of the Jubilee Year (January 6,2001). In it, John Paul IIpoints out the fundamental lines that should inspire all the pastoral projects at the beginnings of the third millennium.

And in this re-reading she/he will be necessary to have it also presents Santa Catalina's identity and ours in the Church: followers of Christ after the prints of Vicente of Paúl and Luisa of Marillac, that is to say, in coherence with our specific charisma in the Church.

It is to read a written story or an event of the past again I don't mean a simple repetitive act, but from new coordinates that help us to discover aspects or contents not discovered in previous readings. Read some stories or recaptured some events of the past from the new and changing historical situations help us to discover aspects and give new meanings to the language and the symbols with which they were transmitted us in their origin.

Referring to the extraordinary spiritual experience that Satnt Catherine had transmitted to us it should not be forgotten that, like in other similar cases, stories use a language that possess some marked symbols and conditioned by the personal experience, the culture, the social situation, politics, that surrounded the witness. It is necessary to read the story from the new historical situations, it doesn't stop to accommodate it according to our whim, but robbing him of what is incidental so that the main message appears as permanent and essential more clearly to the message above and beyond the circumstances of time and place, literary gender, sensibility of the witness etc.

Those spiritual experiences, although they are gifts given to a person, they happen in the Church and they are given as charismas for the enrichment of the whole people of God. A Church that, according to the council Vatican II, is sensitive and you united with the joys and hopes, with the anguishes and sadness, especially of the poor and their suffering. In the life of this Church, in becoming of the world, in the new theological reflection, in the progress of the biblical exegesis and of the sciences human etc. we find new lights that help us to understand the content of the original stories better, frequently expressed in symbolic key. For that reason we have to reread by the light of these new discoveries and insights.

The philosopher and French Christian thinker, Jean Guitton, in their book on the message of the Rue du Bac says: «The veiled side of the appearances has become more perceptible at the end of the XX Century... The appearances of 1830 acquire a wider meaning as the time passes». «The mystic iconography of the Medal of 1830 is of a nature synthetic. The comment of the Medal is also to end up, still when it is more alive than in 1830». «The meaning of the prophecy (of the Rue du Bac) it is in fact that she/he reproduces, like a heady stone to the water, in more and more wide successive waves; that is rebounded, it is renewed, she/he gets rich as the musical topic of a symphony, in this case the symphony of the times». Also Madre Rogé, with reason of the 150 anniversary of the appearances, proposed to the Daughters of the Charity «to make a re-reading of that which the Virgin told to Saina Catherine».

b) The Posture of the Church is always cuatious before the private revelations

The appearances, especially of the Virgin, constitute a characteristic phenomenon of the modern time. In fact they have been much more frequent that in the times previous of the history of the Church. The origin of several and important spiritual currents has its origin in concrete appearances of Christ or of the Virgin. For example, the devotion to the Herat of Jesus t, or the movements of marian devotion from the Rue du Bac, Lourdes, Fátima etc.

The cautious attitude of the Church is underwtandable in light of so abundant appearances and revelations. History has taught the church to be critical and wise before phenomenons that may conatian simulation and deceit. For that reason it demands guarantees of credibility.

Such a cautious posture is the expression of a double warning. One of Saint John: «Don't trust any spirit, but examine it to see if it comes from God, because many false prophets have appeared in the world». And another of Saint Paul: «Don't extinguish the Spirit, nor reject the prophecy; examine everything and accept the good thing».

The Church requests the Christian a consent from the faith of the revelation contained in the Sacred Writing and in the Tradition. With relationship to the appearances and private revelations, when the Church judges them reliable for the testimonies and arguments that there is in favor of its authenticity, it allows them as something that can be believed piously by the faithful ones, but only with human faith. The expression human faith wants to indicate that the appearances or private revelations are in an environment different to that of the faith with the one that we accept the great revelation of God in Christ. This means that any Christian can continue being it although it doesn't create in the appearances or private revelations. Those supernatural phenomenons, if they are authentic, they keep relationship with the Christian life, but they don't enter in the environment of the divine revelation on which the Catholic faith relapses. The Church, properly speaking, it doesn't approve any appearance or private revelation. When she/he judges that there are tests in favor of their authenticity it allows them, it can even recommend them. It is not pronounced on the bottom, but rather it discerns if such an appearance or revelation that it raises a spiritual movement contribute to the development of the Christian life. In affirmative case the Church, by means of the magisterial ministry of its shepherds, gives them green light", the nihil obstat so that they can be accepted as object of compassionate belief."

Such a cautious posture of the Church before the supernatural phenomenons is wise and justifiable, today more than ever, given the proliferation of such phenomenons and the easiness with which a lot of people are inclined to accept them without the enough discernment. The inclination of the human beings toward the wonderful thing is frequently expressed today in the credulity before so many sought appearances of the Virgin. Certainly, the Church and the theology admit the possibility that the supernatural thing is manifested in the history of the men. They are not opposed to the private revelations. They recognize that God can show, also for María, to already put of relief a truth revealed in the Sacred Writing, to correct deviations and to come in our help in the face of certain dangers. They are extraordinary signs of the free action of the Sacred Spirit in their Church, expressions of the charismatic and prophetic dimension of the town of God.

On the other hand, to want to only explain such phenomenons from the theory of the myths and for mechanisms of the psyche of the seers, or to only reject them because they escape to the control of the science, it is to leave of exclusively racionalistic ideological budgets, inmanentistas and closed. But to admit them without a critical sense and without a serious discernment it is to be exposed to deceits and manipulations. Jean Guitton, a serious intellectual and anything suspect neither of credulity neither of scepticism, it is written: «In our days, in our time in that the human sciences are developed more than ever; when the psychoanalysis, the sociology, the metaphysics and the deep psychology change the limits between the natural thing and the unlikely thing, it is necessary more than ever that the ecclesiastical authority abstains from pronouncing ohe word " miracle " before those phenomenons and their spiritual effects».

II. The message of the Rue du Bac
to) the seer's stories

Saint Catherine told the P. Aladel, the facts first orally when they happened and by a griten autographer twenty-six years later, the diverse appearances that she had in the chapel of the Rue du Bac between the months of April to December of 1830: representations of Saint Vicent's heart on three foconsecutive days and in various forms and different colors, visions of Our Lord. in the Blessed Sacrament and of Christ the king and the three apparitions of the Virgin (July 18-19, November 27 and December27).

They all contain some message captured by the seer. She herself deciphered and it transmitted the meaning of the different colors of Saint Vicent's heart, of Christ the king's vestments, of the postures and words of the Virgin and of the signs of the Medal.

The Virgin's first two visions were accompanied by pronouncements. In dialogue of two and a half hours, during the night of July 18-19, the Virgin communicated to Saina Catherine the sad events of the political, social and religious order as they approached, the abuses that were going on in the two Companies and the special protection that both would have on behalf of the Virgin and of San Vicente.

That of November 27, during the afternoon prayer, she reports two different although closely associate events. In the first moment she sees the Virgin with a dress of white silk and a veil of the same color draped to the floor. On her head a crown of twelve stars. Her feet leaned on a half sphere stomping the head of the snake; the hands sustained a ball topped off with a cross and her eyes rose heavenword.. The fingers were adorned with rings of various sized stones and different hues that sent rays of light toward the floor. Around the Virgin there was formed an oval with these words «Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us twho have recourse to you. The seer listened to the Virgin's voice todecipher the meaning of the ball (globe) and of the rays; she asked her to strike a medal according to the pattern of the vision and she expressed the joy that is felt when abundant graces fall on those who request them and on those that wear that Medal with trust.

The second part of the same appearance was the view on the part of Catherine of the reverse of the Medal. She saw letter M and two hearts united by a cross. Days later, also during prayer, Catherine heard the voice that she responded to her concern on how the reverse of the Medal should be: «The M and the two hearts already express enough».

Saint Catherine kept silent on those visions during the forty years of her hidden and laborious life in Reuilly. Only P. Aladel, as her spiritual Director, from the beginning and Sor Dufès, at the end of Catalina's life, nobody else knew who the Virgin's seer was.

b) A re-reading of Saint Catherines visions

The same cautious posture that the Church has held before the supernatural called phenomenons (visions, appearances, private revelations) it is licit and wise to also take it before what Saint Catherine narrated. From that posture of the Church one can make a re-reading, at the same time critic and respectful, of the message of the Rue du Bac.

Deep psychology would have something to say in this respect, if we notice certain circumstances that were given around what the seer tells us.

April 21,1830 she entered in the seminary. Four days later she took part in the solemn translation of Saint Vicent's relics from the cathedral of Paris to the Chapel where they rest at the moment. Eight hundred Daughters of the Charity participated in that translationt.

It followed a novena before the relics in which Saint Catherine participated. It was during the novena when she saw the Saint's heart on a reliquary that they had placed on the altar of the chapel of the Rue du Bac. The exposed relic was a piece of the forearm, since the heart, for those dates, was conserved in Lyon. The interpretation that Catherine gave to the different colors with which she was presented that heart, and that she linked with the tragic imminent events, she put it in writing later 26 years and already passed those tragic facts.

July 18, day of the Virgin's first appearance during the night, the Sister Director of the Seminary talked to the seminarians about the devotion to the saints and the Virgin. Catherine recounts that that inspired her a great desire to see it. The director had distributed to each seminarian the Saint's relic -a piece of cloth that Catherine swallowed. She says: «I fell asleep with the thought that Saint Vicent would give me the grace of seeing the Virgin». And subsequently she narrates the first appearance. Of the boy that accompanied her she says: «I believe that that boy was my guardian angel.. because she had prayed a lot for this favor .

All these circumstances justify some questions at least: Is it authentic the appearance that Saina Catherine narrated? Was it a dream? Subjective or objective vision? symbolic or real? Did she really see the Virgin's person or was a product of her imagination? The same Laurentin is asked these questions. The arguments and explanations to favor that gives this theologian can convince us or not; in my opinion they are weak. But he assures that he has studied these topics seriously analyzing the documents rigorously and that he has reached the following conclusion: «The appearances were Saint Catherines sincere experience... The authenticity of her life confirms that of the appearances» «in all the cases I estimate them authentic. Fr. Pedro Coste, secretary and archivist of the Congregation of the Mission (1873-1935), historian that some wwrite off as a racionalist, could head the list of the contrary opinion. The same P. Aladel in the begining didn't give importance to what Catherine relatedto him.

Starting from the reflection that regarding the appearances and visions not make current theologians suspects of rationalism neither of credulity, a re-reading of the message of the Rue du Bac, would take us to this conclusion. Saint Catherine had extraordinary spiritual experiences. The visions that she had of the Lord. and of the Virgin they could not be corporal, because its condition of having glorified surpasses the corporality. That which doesn't mean that was not true. It was subjective sincere experiences that well could be stimulated by supernatural external causes. That is to say that were not produced by the seer's imagination but raised by a special action of God, although psychological bias of Saint Catherine also have been occurred determine. Such personal mystic experiences could only perceive them and to experience her, and not the other Sisters that were in community, prayer because such spiritual phenomenons are not perceived through the eyes and of the hearings but for an interior personal perception. Laurentin affirms that «a private revelation, still when she/gives an auditory impression, it doesn't come from vibrations transmitted by the atmosphere, captables for a third. It reaches directly to the sensation more than to the senses, to the same perception more than to the organ». One could affirm, because that it did not belong to the physical and corporal objective order but to the subjective and spiritual.

On the other hand, it is necessary to affirm that although the Church has instituted the liturgical party and have approved the Medal, that is not equal to the recognition of the authenticity of the appearances. It means that in that devotion there is not anything contrary to the faith, but rather it can favor the growth of the Christian life. Saint Catherine was canonized by the sanctity of her life and not for the appearances that she narrated.

c) The sign of the Miraculous Medal

Under the epigraph the message of the Rue du Bac would have to include, logically, all that Catalina counted in the stories that she wrote on the different visions that she had in that place. But, in fact, the later history has taken charge of concentrating that whole message around the Medal. The seer's same concerns, during their later life to the facts, were centered more in that you completes the Virgin's command faithfully of coining a medal that in the messages received in the other appearances.

We are surprised two facts especially when facing with the Medal: the wealth of the symbols that contains and their quick diffusion.

«Let us suppose, J. Guitton writes that somebody has requested to a painter or a poet that she/he makes a Medal that contains the maximum of teachings and at the same time the minimum of lines and of signs that it is intelligible for all the Christian, whichever it is its culture... Let us suppose that a Medal comes out this way to competition. It is probable that the results had been inferior to those of the Medal seen in the ecstasy by Catherine. It is difficult to find bigger wealth that the one that contains and she/he suggests this Medal».

One of the arguments in favor of the authenticity of the vision of the Medal that Santa Catalina narrated us is in fact almost the impossibility that that young villager, uncultured or not turned in biblical and theological questions, can be her the author of such an invention. In a small space and in a minuscule form it is in the Medal the whole mariología and the essential of the Christian revelation. A Bible in miniature and a catechism of the people of God has called it some.

The biblical passages that, without forcing the texts neither the symbols, they evoke us the obverse and the reverse of the Medal they are: the woman of twelve stars, with the moon to their feet and stepping these a snake, according to it describes it the Apocalypse; the promise of a conquering woman descendant of Satan already made in the Genesis; the prophecy of the old Simeón in the temple: «And to you a sword will cross you the soul» (passed over heart); María active and inseparable presence in the culminating moment of the work redentora carried out by Christ in the calvary (crisscross cross with the M and the two hearts); the Immaculate Concepción's mystery proclaimed in the ejaculation Oh María without conceived sin"; María function like intercessor and distribuidora of the Don divine of the grace like in Caná (globe in the hands and the open arms spilling rays of light on the earth); Mother of the Redeemer and of those redeemed (Church) or the new Eva together to the new Adam for the new humanity's birth (the two hearts and the crisscross cross with the M, the same attitude of arms and opened hands spilling the light on the sphere of the feet, or in the circle of twelve stars as symbol of the twelve apostles etc.)

AS we said before, when a private revelation is authentic, nothing has to be done but to confirm and record the Biblical revelation. In the case of the Medal, iit is the redemptive work of Christ the mystery of love and pain and the inseparable colaboration of the Mother which is represented symbolically and simply in the Medal.

A re-reading of the Medal would have to make refernce to the teachings of the church on the devotion and cult to Mary. Paul VI published the Apostolic Exhortation, “Marian Cult” (1974) with the end of promoting renewal to the cult of Mary. In it he emphasized a solid devotion based on the figure of Mary in the Scriptures and in the Liturgy. And a t the same time, he defended the manifestationes of Marian devotions that the simple people practice.

John Paul II published the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater in 1987 as a preparation for the Matian Year 1988. In it he highlighted the place of mary in the mystery of Christ and the Church and he put the accent on her condition of pilgrim of faith liike ourselves. These two documents of the Popes are simply the echo of what had been proclaimed and taught. In the Vatican Council II in the eighth chapter of Lumen Gentium. Ity was a re-reading of the symbols that are contained in the Medal in the light of this new teaching of the church to put in perspective the biblical and central devotiojn to Mary en the context of our faith that is to say, in the mystery of Chirst and the Church.

The other fact that is surprising in thehistory of the Medal is the quick propogation among the people. June 30th, 1832 Vachette handed over the first 1,500 medals. He had received the order from Fr. Haladle. Catherine, when she it said “don’t change anything and bejín to send them out”. But she also expressed her disagreement because the globe was not preseneted in the hands of the Virgin just as it was perceived in the appaarition. Many more medals were strruck not only in Paris, but in other cities and nations. Only in France between 1832 and 1836, 12 millionb medals were distributed. Ity is imposible to calculate the number of medals distributed in all the world today. To acquire and wear a medal of the Virgin is sinomnomous to the Miraculous Medal.

The Duaghterres of Charity were the first ones to contribute to the distribution of the medal in their hospitals and schools. In 1836, the Archbishop of Paris wrote an order that all the faithful should wear a Medal. On December 7, 1838, it was approved by Pope Gregory XIV.

But, this does not explain the rapid and prodigiuos propagation. The first reason is that of symbols. that the humble people express their faith. Through the symbols and signs one passes from the visible to the invisible, which iks also a realaiaty of the sacraments. The psychology and Theological reflection point out today the importance of the presence of symbols and signs. In the medal the people found clear and simple symbols like the Herat, the cross, the maternal gesture, of the open arms that receive and give, good and evil, grace, sin, joy and pain. Jean Guitton writes “ The Medal consists in this: it is a symbol of all, a symbol of union. A wise person and an ignorant person, a believer and an unbeliever.Ratisbonne mockingly thought that the medal means nothing and in an instant, it meant everything for him . An the dame autor makes this afirmation which would inspire the title of his book The meaning of tose sykmbols is the overcoming of all superstition.

Many conversions and cures are attributed to the Medal. This accounts for the people referring to the Medal as the “Miraaculous Medal”. It cfan not be denied that God allowed the Medal to serve as mediator of his actino and his saving grace. Nevertheless, a rereading of the message of Rue de Bac ought not to privilege the miraculous aspect of the Medal, The risk of superstition and taking the medal as a magical object is a temptation. A rereading of the message of the Medal ought to include a revisioin of certain expressions and devotions that put the accent on the miraaculous aspect of the medal but on the conviction that it is a sensible sign that reminds us about Mary as the path that leads to Christ, the same as it was seen at Cana. “Do what my Son tells you.”

A rereading of the actual message of Rue de Bac concentratin in the Medal as a privileged expresión ought to have thesee two affirmations: The first from the Theologian R. Larentin. He says that “The medal is an auxiliary sign of contempation and committment. It is not an obligatory sign nor a necesity for f=salvation. IT is on of those helps that a christian can cose that will serve to help him on the road. Just the same as a foto or a letter kept in the wallet or desk drawer. The second is from Guitton “”No one is obliged to go to Rue de Bac nor admit that St. Cathering saw the Blessed Mother, nor that the Medal is miraculous that it brings good luck or that ir controls the laws of the cosmos. But the same autor wrote a book about the message of the Rue de Bac to show the necessity of faith in external mediation. Intentionally, the book is entitled “Rue deBac or the Superstition overcome”

III. A re-reading of the message at the start of the thrid millenium

This tretas of re-reading the mesage of Rue de Bac in the light of new situations in the world and in the church. God is speaking to us throught the signs of the times. IT does not treta of the point that we said at the begining that from the message of the Medal we deduce the answeres to all the challenges presented in the third millenium..But, it attempt to help us to interpret, listen and try to respond to what the church calls us to respond to in our new situations

Where should the Miraculous Medal Association today put their emphasis as aresponse to the call of John Paul II in his letter of January 6, 2000, “Novo Millennio Ineunte Because it is a church association that vibrates with all the joy and hope concerns and pastoral orientations of the church. This is the content of the letter that the Pope wrote to the Bishops, Priests Religious and Laity

It tretas of a letter that first of all, John Paul II thanks God for the graces taht he has shoered during the Jubilee year 2000. Also, the Pope looks to the future and formulates some lines ofaction that will give us a new push to the misión of the church in the Third Millennium. GAT is called for is an efficient postjubilee pastoral program. Among all of the suggestions in this letter, what are the suggestions that the Association ought to asume as a re-reading of the message of the Medal. Lets try to organize this work in two blocks starting from two diffeent moments from the message of the Rue de Bac.

a) «Come to the foot of the altar; here graces will begiven to tose who ask.

These are the words that St. Catherine heard from the Virgin on the night of July 18, 19

IN gthe Catholic Liturgy, the altar represents Christ. Thereffore, the coming to Christ at the altar is the means to achieve and cultívate the main part of the letter of the Pope and the first linesof actino that ought to animate us in all of our pastoral projects in the Chursch in the Third Millennium.

The Pope animates us to«use all the resources of our intelligence and opearative capacity in our service to the Kingdom of God., but at the same time, he tells us to be careful no to do for the sake of doing and think that the results depend on our efforts and projects. Without Christ, we can do nothing. Before all the challenges that we face in our time, no formula coan save us only the Person of Jesús and the security that he gives us. I am with you always

Therfore, the second chapter of the Pope’s letter is dedicated to the contempolation of the face of Christ because, “people of our time perhaps not always consciously, ask the faithful not to talk about Christ, but in a certain way to see him”. From this Christ contemplated and loved will blossom forth a new and renewded impule to the Christian life. He is the only frim rock upon which we can build our lives and he invites us to continue his misión. A partir de esa centralidad de Cristo, todos los programas pastorales deben priorizar e impulsar la santidad como vocación de todo cristiano desde el bautismo . Porque «preguntar al catecúmeno ¿quieres recibir el bautismo significa al mismo tiempo preguntarle ¿quieres ser santo?» . Y seguidamente el Papa presenta la oración como pedagogía de la santidad .

At the start of this third millenium, the Pope unvites all christians to a renewed committment to prayer. Being persons of prayer isn ot reserved only to consecrated religious. The person who thinks that lay people can conform to a superficial life of prayer is wrong. Especially today when so manythings put our faith to the test, not only do we have mediocre chritians, but we have christians at risk. They run the risk of a weak faith and afalling into.The Pope says that we need to have education in prayer so that we can convert our pastoral actino into tru activity. That is why he asks that the christian communities be authentic schools of prayer

The call to sanctity and thecall to be peopleof prayer ought to orient and model the lives of all christians. Same can be said for the Eucharist, Reconciliation, understood not as just fulfilling a precept, but as a necessity of a true and coherent christian life. AN in from of an individualisstic spirituality, the Pope call us to give testimony with our lives as an expresión of the chairty of Christ.

All these lines of actino that the Pope sets forth for all the church in the third millennium are not foreign to the message of the Rue der Bac. Certainly, the Association of the Miracujlous Medal has to promote authentic devotion to Mary. But the invitation to come to the foot of the altar and to ask for the abundant graceds are above all an invitation to get coloser to Christ and to prayer. The signs on the reverse side of the medal, the cross and the M confirm the expresión to Jesús through Mary.

The Association has to foment authentic devotion to Mary. And this means in the first place to put it in the center of the mystery of Christ and the christian faith. There, She is the perfect follower of her Son, the first pilgrim christian of faith like ourselves. She was totally committed to the Lord and therefore, an example for all the disciples of her son.
Two brief observations and dedductions en relation to what we have been saying. First, fdevotion to Mary forms part of our faith. There are Marian dogmas. For that reason, we can reviatlize the devotions such as Miraculous Medal, Carmen Scapular, etc. Secondly, The Virgin promised to St. Cathering that abundant blessings will be shoered upon all tose who ask with confidence and who wear the medal.

Along with some of the actino lines presented by the Pope, are some of the challenges presented by our Superior General, Pl Maloney to the Lay Vincentians. “Be authentic believers of the word of God and practice it. Be well formed. Be Saints” And referring in a practical way, to the lay people of the Association, de asks them “Practice an authentic devotion to Mary whom the Vincentian Family knows as The Miraculous Virgin. Make of your local centres places of prayer and of permanent formation including the social doctrine of the Church.and places of mutual support in the faith

b) «She held in her hands a sphere that represented the world»

Saint Catherine described her vision of the second apparition of Mary highlihgting two attitudes of Mary: presenting to God with her hands the symbol of the world and the rays of light eminating to the sphere that her feet rested on.

Many of the pastoral plans have direct relation with our identity as Vincentians, with our misión in the world and in the church. AN important circumstance of the messsage of Rue de Bac is that the one who perceived the event and transmitted it was a Duaghter of Charity, a memeber of the Vincedntian Family.

To say Vincentian Family is to refer at once to the poor tothe misión in the Churdch and in the world as äpostles of charity” Such is our sign or our christian vincentian identity.
The third part of the Letter of the Pope is entitled “Witness of Love”. And it begins with these words of Jesús “”by this you will know that you are my disciples in the way that you love one another” If we have truly contmplated the face of Jesús, our pastoral programs will be inspired by the new commandent. Love one another as I have loved you.”

John Paul II echoing the words of St. Paul says “”Many things are necessary for the road of the church in this new age, but if we lack charity all will be in vain. To be the witnesses of Love at the start of the thrrid millennium and in the situations in which the church lives , the world is based in a spirituality of comunión among all the people of God. In the ecumenical movement, in the interreligious dialogue, in the pastoral, vocational and lay ministry. en el empeño por el ecumenismo y en el diálogo interreligoso , en la pastoral familiar, vocacional y laical .

Two affirmations of the Pope will have to have an eco in the Vincentian Family. 1ª “The century and the Millennium that begins has toDos afirmaciones del Papa tendrán que tener un eco especial en la Familia Vicenciana: 1ª: «El siglo y el milenio que comienzan tendrán que demostrar todavía hasta qué grado puede llegar la caridad hacia los pobres» . La fidelidad de la Iglesia a Cristo se demuestra en la opción preferencial por los pobres y en una caridad operante tanto o más que en una fidelidad a la doctrina. 2ª: «La caridad requiere una mayor creatividad. Es la hora de una nueva "imaginación de la caridad", que promueva no tanto y no sólo la eficacia de las ayudas prestadas, sino la capacidad de hacerse cercanos y solidarios con quienes sufren, para que el gesto de ayuda sea percibido no como limosna humillante, sino como un compartir fraterno ... El anuncio del evangelio, aún siendo la primera obra de caridad, corre el riesgo de ser incomprendido o de ahogarse en un mar de palabras al que la actual sociedad de la comunicación nos somete cada día. La caridad de las obras corrobora la caridad de las palabras» .

Por poco conocimiento que tuviésemos de la doctrina vicenciana, seguro que en todos nosotros, al escuchar estas palabras del Papa, nos han resonado las de San Vicente. Por ejemplo: la "creatividad" y la "imaginación de la caridad" no son sino el eco del "amor inventivo hasta el infinito"; "la limosna que no humille" nos evoca que "al ayudar a los pobres no hacemos caridad sino justicia"; "la caridad corroborada por las obras" nos remite al "amor efectivo que se hace efectivo en el servicio integral a los pobres". Como vemos, es el Papa quien nos está sugiriendo a los vicencianos cómo hacer una re-lectura del mensaje de la Rue du Bac.

El globo en manos de la Virgen significa el mundo. Los rayos de luz que se desprenden de sus manos abiertas simbolizan las gracias. He ahí representadas otras de las inquietudes y propuestas del Papa: promover en todo el mundo la "civilización del amor" y la "cultura de la solidaridad". Con ello sintoniza también el P. Maloney cuando pide a los laicos vicencianos: «Sed creativos», «sed inventivos en el servicio y ante las necesidades que descubráis», «haced que las obras de caridad, justicia y paz resplandezcan en todas las obras de la Familia Vicenciana» .

La Familia Vicenciana la formamos millones de miembros pertenecientes a las distintas ramas que integran ese gran árbol de la caridad. No es ningún sueño irrealizable intentar formar entre todos una red de caridad que envuelva el mundo entero. La unión en red ya iniciada por toda la Familia Vicenciana para contribuir a erradicar el hambre en el mundo es sólo una muestra concreta. Ante el desafío de la globalización de la economía -y lamentablemente de la pobreza- la Familia Vicenciana quiere asumir el reto de colaborar en la globalización de la caridad.

Los increíbles avances de la informática ¿no nos están posibilitando y llamando a los vicencianos -en concreto a los millones de miembros de la Asociación de la Medalla Milagrosa- a "en-redarnos" en una corriente mundial de caridad creativa en favor de los pobres?.

Conclusión

Una re-lectura del mensaje de la Rue du Bac es necesaria si no queremos que quede circunscrito al reducido marco de un tiempo y lugar. Ciertamente que la revelación privada de la que fue testigo Santa Catalina no pertenece a las verdades de la Gran Revelación, pero sí a la dimensión carismática y profética de la Iglesia.

Una re-lectura tiene que respetar lo esencial del mensaje para no caer en snobismos y caprichos en ese intento de actualizarlo. A la vez, su carga de profetismo nos impulsa a re-leerlo a la luz de los signos de los tiempos, de las nuevas situaciones y enseñanzas de la Iglesia, de la teología, de la exégesis bíblica, de las ciencias humanas ... si no queremos caer en esclerosis arqueológica o en fundamentalismos. Desde estos ángulos hemos tratado de hacer esta re-lectura.

Quizá forzando un poco dos frases textuales del mensaje, -pero creo que sin introducir nada extraño a los símbolos que contiene la Medalla- hemos puesto el acento en la coherencia de esos símbolos con las líneas de acción que ha propuesto el Papa para que sean incluidas en los programas pastorales de todas las comunidades eclesiales. La Asociación de la Medalla Milagrosa es una de ellas. Será bueno que terminemos la conferencia reiterando nuestra confianza en la poderosa intercesión de la Virgen de la Medalla Milagrosa y pedirle la gracia de que la Asociación sepa concretar esas líneas de acción que ha marcado el Papa para la Iglesia del tercer milenio comenzado.|

P.Fernando QUINTANO, C. M.
Director General de las Hijas de la Caridad.

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As we already said before, when a private revelation is authentic she/he doesn't make but to confirm and to remember the Biblical revelation. In the case of the Medal, it is the work redentora of Christ - mystery of love and of pain - and the Mother's inseparable collaboration what is represented symbolic and simply in the Medal.

A current re-reading of the Medal will have to make it also indexes to the teachings of the Church on the devotion and the cult to María. Pablo SAW it published the Exhortation Apostolic Marialis cultus" (1974) with the purpose of promoting the renovation from the cult to María. In her she/he pleads to give solidity to this cult centering María figure in the Sacred Writing and in the Liturgy, at the same time that she/he makes a defense of the devotion manifestations with those that the honor the simple town..

Juan Pablo II published the Encíclica Redemptoris Mater" (1987) as preparation of the year mariano of 1988. In her it stands out María place in Christ's mystery and of the Church and it puts the accent in their condition of she/he goes on pilgrimage of the faith as us. These two documents of the Potatoes are not but the echo of that that few years before she/he had taught on María the council Vatican II in the chapter eighth of the dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium. A re-reading of the symbols that contains the Medal by the light of these teachings of the Church can contribute to give biblical solidity and to center María devotion in the group of ours faith, that is to say, in Christ's mystery and of the Church.

Another fact that surprises in the history of the Medal is its quick propagation among the town. June of 1832, 30 goldsmith Vachette gave the first thousand five hundred medals. She/he had received the responsibility of the P. Aladel. The seer, when seeing it, said: «that anything is not changed and that she/he spreads», although it also expressed their disagreement because the globe had not been represented in the Virgin's hands just as her it had perceived it in the appearance. To that first edition they continued quickly other, not only coined in Paris, but in other cities and nations. Only in France, among 1832-1836, twelve million medals were distributed. It is impossible to calculate the number of those distributed in the entire world until today. In fact, to acquire and to take the Virgin's medal is synonymous of a Miraculous Medal.

To so quick diffusion they contributed the Daughters of the Charity in the first place from their hospitals and schools. In 1836 it had the official back of the archbishop from Paris that she/he wrote an ordinance in which exhorted to all their faithful ones to take the Medal. December 7 1838 were approved by the Pope XIV Gregorio.

But this doesn't explain so quick and prodigious propagation. The first reason will have to put it in the necessity of symbols that has always felt the simple town when expressing the faith. Through signs and symbols it passes from the visible thing to the invisible thing, that which is even a reality in the celebration of the sacraments. The psychology and the same theological reflection come standing out today the importance of the symbols for the expression and incarnation of the faith. In the Medal she/he found the town some clear and simple symbols, like they are: the heart, the cross, the maternal expression of the open arms that you/they welcome and they give, the well and the wrong, the grace and the sin, the happiness and the pain. To this purpose Jean Guitton writes: «The Medal consists on this: it is a symbol of everything; a sign of union. The sensible one and the fool, the sage and the ignoramus can take it, the believing one and even the non believer. Ratisbona made fun thinking that the Medal didn't mean anything, and in an instant all couple would mean him». And the same author makes this statement that would inspire the title of his book: «The significance of those symbols is the superación of all superstition».

To the quick and extensive propagation they contributed, mainly, the numerous conversions and cures that were attributed to the Medal. That sign that began as prelude and impulse of the proclamation of the Immaculate Concepción's dogma (1854), among the town she/he spread as the Miraculous Medal." It can not refuse the one that God has been able to serve as the Medal like mediation of its action and of its grace saviors. However, a current re-reading of the message of the Rue du Bac should not privilege the miraculous aspect of the Medal. The risk of superstition and of taking it like magic object is a temptation that can hide under the name of miraculous. A re-reading of the message of the Medal should include a revision of certain expressions and devotions that put the accent more in the miraculous aspect of the Medal than in the conviction of being a sensitive sign that she/he reminds us and it brings near to María like road that it takes us to Christ, the same thing that She made and she/he said in Caná: «Make what my Son tells you».

A current re-reading of the message of the Rue du Bac, concentrated in the Medal like their privileged expression, it could assume these two statements so respectful as balanced. The first of theologian R. Laurentin. She/he says this way: «The Medal is an auxiliary sign of the view and of the commitment. It is not an obligatory sign neither a necessity for the salvation. It is one of those free and gratuitous knots that all Christian can choose, according to the spiritual road for the one that God calls him, among the means that better they are good him for the road. She/he would resemble each other to the tripes and gratuitous signs of friendship: a memory, a picture, a letter kept in the wallet or in the intimate of the desk». The second are of Jean Guitton: «Nobody is forced to go to the Rue du Bac, neither to admit that the Hermana Catalina has seen the Virgin, neither that that Medal is miraculous that regulates the chances, and, much less that trastrueque the laws of the cosmos». But the same author wrote a book on the message of the Rue du Bac to demonstrate the necessity that has the faith of external mediations. The Miraculous Medal can be one of those mediations. Intentionally, the book is titled The Rue du Bac or the overcome superstition."

III. A re-reading of the message in the beginnings of the third millennium

It is to reread the message of the Rue du Bac by the light of the new situations that are given in the world and in the Church. They are signs of this time through which God is speaking to us. It is not, I eat we already said in the introduction that we deduce the appropriate answer to all the challenges that it outlines us the third millennium from the message of the Medal. But yes it is to allow us to interpellate, of to listen and to try to respond to what requests us the Church like answer to the new situations. And it in connection and coherence with the message of the Medal, from a re-reading of their symbols and meaning by the light of the historical reality of the beginnings of the third millennium.

Where she/he will have to put the accent today the Association of the Miraculous Medal as answer to the call that Juan Pablo II has directed to the whole Church in his letter Novo Millennio Ineunte" (January 2001 6). Because to be an ecclesiastic association means that it vibrates with the joys and hopes, missionary restlessness and pastoral orientations of the Church. And all this is the content of this letter and that the Pope directs to bishops, priests, religious and lay.

It is a letter in the one that firstly Juan Pablo II invites us to give thanks to God for the thank you that it has spilled during the year of celebration of the Great Jubilee. But, also, the Pope looks to the future and it formulates some action lines that will give a new impulse to the mission of the Church in the third millennium. For she/he requests it «to undertake an effective programming pastoral postjubilar». Which would they be, among the numerous proposals of this letter, those that she/he would have to assume the Association like a current re-reading of the message of the Medal?.

We will try to contain them in two blocks, leaving of other two moments different from the message of the Rue du Bac.

to) «you Bring near you to the foot of this altar; here the thank you will be granted to people that request them particularly»

These are some of the words that I listen to Santa Catalina during the encounter with the Virgin in the night of July 18-19 1830.

In the Catholic liturgy the altar represents Christ. Because the approach to Christ, the means to achieve it and to cultivate it and the consequences that are deduced from such an encounter constitute the central part of the Pope's letter and the first action line that it should encourage all the pastoral projects of the Church in this third millennium.

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