Learning Virtue at the Heart of Mary: A Journey Toward Wholeness and Holiness
Updated: Oct 8
Journey Toward Wholeness and Holiness under Mary’s Gaze - An Invitation
Working on oneself is an essential part of personal growth. To live maturely and fully, every day we make choices and take up a struggle - most often with ourselves.
It looks different when we work only through psychology, and different when we rely only on prayer.
But can these two aspects really be kept apart? Would it not be better to join them and entrust to Jesus, through Mary’s intercession?
When we pray, we remember what is difficult in our lives, what has broken, what we have lost our way in, what needs to be repaired. Sometimes we ask for help; sometimes we give thanks. But what about the things that are beautiful and simply need to grow?
Like a plant that slowly unfolds, changing from a bud into a beautiful, fully opened flower that eventually produces seeds and fruit - hmm… what do we do with that part of ourselves?
Wholeness - fullness - integration - is everything that happens when the scattered pieces of a person begin to belong to one another again.
The parts we hide, the wounds we carry, the longings we never quite name - Jung called these the shadow. Yet a human being is not made only of shadow or of sin. We also carry spiritual gifts - talents meant to be developed and multiplied, graces meant to be lived out each day, virtues and strengths. … All of this together forms our humanity.
Holiness is that same person who makes choices because they have free will, yet gives themselves entirely to God.
Most of us chase one or the other - either a full life or holiness. But do we really have to separate the two?
The path with Mary holds both together. Under Her gaze, this work takes on a different flavour.
Mary is not an ideal standing high above us. She is the one who has already walked the entire interior landscape of human life and remained whole, “full of grace.” In Her we see what grace looks like when it takes on flesh and becomes a Mother.
Carl Jung spent his life mapping the shadows of the soul and the slow movement toward becoming one’s true self.
Alicja Lenczewska, in the language of mystical conversation, received this same terrain illuminated by the presence of Christ and His Mother.
Their voices meet here: the careful attention of the psychologist and the quiet certainty of the mystic that healing comes only in relationship.
Together they open a path that is both deeply human and thoroughly Christian - the path first walked by an exceptional Woman in whom divinity and humanity rested in fullness.
A journey through the Seven Virtues of Mary shows a way of living graces that come to meet us where we are, and carry us forward.
Each post will follow the dance or the battle between a virtue and its shadow.
We’ll see the vice rise, and the virtue answer, often through Mary’s silent but powerful presence.
When the human soul aches, it longs for a Mother. This reflective blog opens a journey towards wholeness and holiness under Mary’s gaze.
Before you begin, this foundational post will help you understand the difference between virtue as a state of the soul and the virtues as its daily expression:
Learning Virtue at the Heart of Mary
🌿Mary doesn’t speak much in the Gospels. No dramatic monologues, no public teachings. And yet, Her presence is louder than words. Mary, the Woman of the Yes, the Silent Flame, the Hidden Master of Virtue, lived with God inside Her and then lived for Him entirely.
To walk with Mary is to walk every day - slowly, deeply, quietly, because She forms hearts.
Her virtues are timeless doors to freedom, maturity, and spiritual strength.
Each virtue is a path She has walked first. Each one is a mirror in which we can see our strengths, wounds, desires, and potential.
For each virtue post, you’ll find:
🌿A short biblical reflection
🌿A quote from Alicja Lenczewska’s mystical writings
🌿A symbol, especially a flower that reflects its essence
🌿A moment of personal reflection
🌿A prayer asking Mary and the Holy Spirit for growth
🌿A shadow (vice) that opposes the virtue and practical thoughts on overcoming it
The Seven Virtues of Mary 🌿🌸🌿
1. Lively Faith
2. Joyful Hope
3. Ardent Charity
4. Profound Humility
5. Heroic Patience
6. Perseverance
7. Obedience
🌿🌸Each one will be a soft light guiding us into transformation - depth and union. Let us begin under Her gaze.
A Healing Balm for Our Fragmented Selves
Mother Mary is waiting in moments when the ache in our soul doesn’t ask for answers, only for arms. When we no longer crave explanations, but presence.
In those moments, we don’t seek a perfect God in the clouds.
We search for a Mother.
🌸A woman who knows the quiet pain of surrender.
🌸A heart pierced, yet at peace.
🌸Eyes that have cried, but never turned away.
🌸A soul hidden but full.
Mary is not a myth. She is memory made flesh. She is the womb of God’s tenderness, the first and truest mirror of what we are meant to become - whole and holy.
Jung once said:
“The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parent.”
But Mary is the opposite. She is the lived life that invites us to live ours. Not in reaction to wounds, but in response to love.
Through the mystical words of Alicja Lenczewska, we hear echoes of that eternal motherhood:
"You are not alone. I am with you. I am guiding you. You are learning love through what you are going through."
“Nie jesteś sama. Trwam przy tobie. Prowadzę cię. Uczysz się miłości przez to, co przeżywasz.”
This journey helps to transform.
And every virtue Mary embodied is a healing balm for our fragmented selves.
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Let us walk this path under Her gaze because love, when it is Motherly and Divine, always wins.
Mary enters quietly, but She never comes empty-handed.
Let's continue with:
This post explores the deeper meaning of virtue as a state of being - what Aristotle called the excellence of the soul and how the virtues, as practical expressions of that state, shape our journey toward lasting joy.
Blog Series: The 7 Virtues of Mary
🌸Virtue 7: Mary’s Virtue of Obedience - The Power of Trustful Surrender
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When I reflect on the virtues of Mary, I see more and more how closely they touch what Jung and Frankl spoke about. The quotes that follow are taken from the recorded dialogues of Alicja Lenczewska.
In this reflection, we look at seven virtues that shine so clearly in Mary’s life in the Gospels and see how seven holy women made those same virtues the very rhythm of their own existence. Their lives prove that Mary’s way is possible - here and now.
Rooted in Marian consecration and enriched by Scripture, this devotion draws the heart into alignment with the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Blessings & Hugs
BE 💕
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