Gate of Heaven - Statements of John Paul II regarding Mary
Before blessing you, I invite you to pray together. We are going to turn to Mary, our Mother. I am sure that the children here present pray to her often. And you parents, you set great store by training them, from the earliest age, to prayer, to religious acts, to the Good News of the Gospel. Even better, you deepen your faith with them and pray with them. Let us ask Mary to lead you to full knowledge of her Son, Jesus, to be his disciples and his apostles.

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen! -- Address, Rome, November 10, 1980

…… [T]he Second Vatican Council emphasizes in the last chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church that "in her life the Virgin has been a model of motherly love with which all who join in the Church's apostolic mission for the regeneration of mankind should be animated" (Lumen Gentium, 65). -- Audience, Rome, November 28, 1980

What can I wish for you but that you will always listen to these words of Mary, the Mother of Christ: "Do whatever he tells you"? And may you accept these words with your hearts, because they were uttered from the heart. From the heart of Mother. And that you will fulfill them: "God has chosen you . . . calling you to this, with our Gospel, for possession of the glory of our Lord, Jesus Christ." -- Insegnamenti, January 20, 1980

In this international Year of the Family, we place our hope in the Blessed Virgin Mary, first of the disciples and Mother of all disciples, model of strength and perseverance in following Christ to the cross. The Virgin Mary is the prototype of consecrated life because she is the Mother who welcomes, listens to, beseeches, and contemplates her Lord in heartfelt praise. We pray to her for all consecrated men and women so that she, as our Mother, may protect, comfort, and renew all the families of consecrated life in the Church. -- Address, Rome, October 27, 1994

Above all, I implore Mary, the heavenly Mother of the Church, to be so good as to devote herself to this prayer of humanity's new advent, together with us who make up the Church, that is to say, the Mystical Body of her only Son. I hope that through this prayer we will be able to receive the Holy Spirit coming upon us and thus become Christ's witnesses "to the ends of the earth," like those who went out from the Upper Room of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. -- Redemptor Hominis, 22