Thus today's liturgy wishes to tell us that here, in this place, Mary is praying with us. Not only is it we who entrust to her our prayers and petitions, our acts of thanksgiving and reparation, but above all it is she herself who prays with us, even as she prayed with the Apostles while they awaited Pentecost. And that prayerful expectation was crowned by the descent of the Holy Spirit, who came to rest on the Apostles gathered in the Upper Room and transformed their hearts. Thus transformed, they were changed from frightened men into courageous witnesses, ready to carry out the task entrusted to them by Christ. On the very day of Pentecost they began their apostolic mission, starting in Jerusalem.
Marian shrines are in fact places of spiritual transformation, places of conversion.
Experience shows that they are places where people more frequently return to the sacrament of Reconciliation, in order to begin a new life in the house of their Mother, in order to set out once more renewed in spirit. Today, as the Pastor of the whole Church, I would like to thank in a special way the Sorrowful Mother of Sastin for this transformation of people's hearts. And at the same time, conscious of the new situation and of the new spiritual needs of all who live in this land, I wish to ask Our Lady, in this shrine, to remain ever ready as a Mother to prepare people's hearts for conversion. I ask her to watch over the whole spiritual life of Slovakia. In a special way, I entrust to her the younger generation, all who are suffering, and all who are searching.