At the dawn of the third millennium, it is Christ whom we are invited to ‘know, love, imitate, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfilment in the heavenly Jerusalem. As St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort said, it is impossible ‘for a person to acquire an intimate union with Our Lord and perfect fidelity to the Holy Spirit without a very great union with the Blessed Virgin’. I therefore strongly encourage the faithful to grow in the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ through meditation of the Rosary, allowing their souls to be purified and enlightened little by little in order to become, after the example of Mary, true disciples of the Lord and to conform their lives to the Passion and Resurrection of the Saviour.

John Paul II