First, we have to consider Mary in the context of the Church in which, as we have seen, she is judged to be its preeminent and paradigmatic member. This means that in her are concentrated those qualities which ideally belong to the whole Church but which in fact are always obscured by the sin affecting the historical Church at any given time. Life in the Church, we could say, is the continuation and strengthening of that first act of faith by which the human being responds to God’s initiative, that is to say, it is the flowering of the co-working that has been present from the moment at which redemption has begun. We see the Church in its essence as not merely passive but actively co-operating with God, just as Vatican II declared about Mary.

But it often happens in the Christian life that one first of all believes, even if one is not entirely clear about the content of the belief, and then understanding comes later. I think this is true not only of religious belief, but that it is a general epistemological principle. Belief has an exploratory character. Beliefs are like probes which the mind sends out into areas that are still unknown, so that they are like experiments of thought. Sometimes they are unsuccessful, but sometimes they light up whole new areas.

Feeling proud.