Korzenie, pień i korona – próba integralnej koncepcji duchowości maryjnej

Abstract

The cult of the Mother of God is strong in the spirituality of the Catholic Church and it gives new requirements again and again. If we wanted to compare Marian spirituality to the developing tree, we should speak of the three elements: the roots, the trunk and the branches. All of them are needed and each of them plays a special role. The roots of Marian spirituality have to be derived from the Bible, dogmacy and theology. These are the sources from which the whole organism takes the living substance. What is the trunk? In a very strict sense ’Mary’s spirituality’ means everything that refers to the life of the Mother of God, Her relationship with the Holy Trinity, Her prayer, etc. It is important that it is the spirituality of Mary that has to become the pattern for the spirituality of the Church. The pattern has to be known more and more, not to lose it’s shaping power. It seams that this area develops very much nowadays, even if it looses its biblical and dogmatic roots. The branches of the tree would be everything we would call the cult of Mary. Following the comparison to the tree, we should say that this area is very differentiated. It may have many shapes, so the strong roots and the trunk are really needed. Otherwise, the cult of the Mother of God may be disfigured and become more similar to idolatry than to Christian spirituality. In this article, I try to emphasise the need of the integration of the three elements in the theology of spirituality, and in the life of the Church.