Here I am, a bishop coming from a country of the Latin American continent: from Uruguay, the smallest of all.

Our continent is characterized by its great devotion to the Blessed Mother among all of its peoples and nations. Every country there esteems Mary as Mother and Protectress, and in every country she is venerated with a special prayer which is usually in relation to an historical fact regarding national independence. This is how independence came about in my country: through a miraculous event and apparition of Mary.

Everywhere in the world Mary is venerated in many ways, according to the cultural characteristics of each region. But how beautiful it is to venerate her under the name and the image of the Lady of All Nations, to express above all that she is the common mother of everyone, man and woman, young and old, of all those who live on this planet; we should be aware that close to her we will always be safe and protected.

Mary is a sign in the world, a sign of certain hope. She is the Lady of Hope. She is of our own race, and is a human being like us, but very close to God.

One cannot speak about the Catholic Church if Mary is not present. It is the Church who received the words of Jesus from the Cross, and who always says to us, "Behold Your Mother!" Just as the Virgin went to her cousin Elisabeth, so also does she come today to meet with us.

The presence of Mary in the Church is a profoundly human and holy reality, which, in everyone of faith, gives rise to prayers of tenderness, of pain, and of expectation.

Christian people know that to find the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church means to recognize the Church as the family which has the Mother of God as its mother.

She is our Mother in the order of grace, because she contributed with her love at the moment in which the family of the redeemed was born from the pierced Heart of Christ.

Mary is the Mother of God in as much as at the Annunciation she gave her "Yes" to the angel Gabriel. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her, and Jesus, the Son of God, was made man in her most pure womb.

Mary is our Mother by order of Grace, ever since, at Pentecost, she implored the Holy Spirit, the Life-giver, to come upon the Apostles.

Among others, the most painful evil of our times in Latin America is the eruption of religious sects which pressure many Catholics to abandon the Church. Notwithstanding, one of the graces in pastoral work, which we observe with great joy, is the fact that if Mary goes with us in the mission of evangelization—if she is present—the people close neither the door of their house nor the door of their heart.

It is the hour of Mary, just as at Pentecost. For now the Church—under the influence of the Holy Spirit—is at the beginning of a new era of its pilgrimage.

We are heading towards the year 2000. We will begin another millennium and we are planning new efforts of evangelization. The Church, just as Mary, should give birth to new children of God by means of the Gospel. Thus is evangelization a process which consists in the transformation "from within," "in the renovation of humanity itself," in a true spiritual rebirth.

This is the nucleus of the Christian life, begun at Baptism. One must be reborn in the water which purifies us, and in the Holy Spirit who transforms us.

Within our hearts arises the question of that mysterious person who met and spoke with Jesus during the night: Nicodemus. How can someone who is old be reborn in life? By "old" we mean not only "old" due to age, but also "old" due to sin.

In today’s world, modern man is elderly: due to materialism, to pleasures, drugs, false idols, hatred between peoples, and all that destroys life and gives neither peace nor happiness. The people of today seek in vain to find their peace far from God.

Vatican Council II states that Mary cares for us with maternal love because we are brothers of her Son Jesus Christ, and because we are still pilgrims in this world (LG 62). Her greatest happiness is that Christians have life in abundance and arrive at the maturity of faith.

Mary has a heart which is as big as the world, and that is why we invoke her as the Lady of All Nations and supplicate before her Son Jesus so that everyone, whether man or woman may, now at end of the millennium, discover the true and profound meaning of their existence. We pray to Mary, the Lady of All Nations, asking her to protect us, that the Gospel may penetrate us, transform our daily lives, and produce fruits of holiness.

When we desire to take new steps in following Jesus, we ought to look at the living image of Mary and listen to what she wants to tell us.

She wants to teach and to guide us precisely because we have embarked upon the new evangelization, which Pope John Paul II has requested of the universal Church.

In this 3rd Day of Prayer of the Lady of All Nations we ask that the Heart of the Son, which rests in all of us, may be awakened, and that the life of Baptism will grow in us, for it is by Baptism that we are made children of God; we ask that this day will cause the sense of universal brotherhood to grow in everyone, and that the Church may be the family of all people.

His Holiness Pope Paul VI said, "Mary is the most perfect disciple of Jesus so that she can be our model, and her faith is an example and a stimulus for our fragile and weak faith. She believed, and her faith was resplendent: "Blessed are you, Mary, for you believed what was announced to you."

Finally, we ask the Lady of All Nations in these most difficult times that we may have a faith as great as hers, a faith which is not just a theory, but a faith which is made strong and humble, and that thus there may also be in us: donation, readiness, response to the will of God, and, above all, faithfulness.

When we men and women are lacking in the wine of hope and of joy, we listen to Mary who says, as at the wedding of Cana in Galilee, "Do whatever He tells you!"

It is an invitation always to follow her Son and truly to be His disciples, receiving His Word, living in His love, and being His witnesses in the world.

Just as Mary, we will finally sing the greatness of the Lord who saves, and we will joyfully recognize that salvation is given freely to those who are smallest. May she, the Lady of All Nations, transform into the morning star the darkness of this world, in which the sunrise is already visible. And we pray that from now on we may busy ourselves with much good will, for the construction of a better world, according to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.