‘Monday’. The crowd, again about 1,500 people to see Bernadette, made it hard to reach the spring when she was in ecstasy. During this apparition, a strange event, later popularly known as the “Benediction of the Rosary”, took place.
Bernadette’s sick friend had given her a rosary and begged her to use it during the ecstasy. Although Bernadette brought her own rosary, she took out her friend’s but then immediately put it back into her pocket. Her hand emerged with the other rosary and held it out towards the niche.
Later she explained that “Aquero” told her to use her usual rosary and to hold it up. Seeing her raised hand, the onlookers all started to imitate her, lifting their rosaries with the hope of obtaining the Virgin’s blessing.
Ref: G Menotti, “Lourdes”, p10
A cry for justice
Nowadays, a loud cry can be heard for “a better-assured peace within an atmosphere of mutual respect between men, and between the peoples of the world”. (Paul VI, Apostolic Letter, “Octogesima adveniens”, 14 May 1971) This desire for a more just world in which greater respect is given to man, is fundamental to the “hunger and thirst for justice” (cf Mt 5:6) which must exist in the heart of a Christian.
The entire preaching of Jesus is a call to justice (in its fullness) and to mercy. The Apostle James harshly reproached those who grow rich through injustice: “Your riches have rotted ... The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” (James 5:2-4)
The Church in faithfulness to the teaching of Holy Scripture, urges us to unite ourselves to this universal clamour and to turn it into a prayer that reaches our Father God. At the same time she urges us to live the demands that justice makes on our personal lives (professional and social levels), and to defend the weak who cannot avail themselves of their rights.
In the heart of each man originates every type of injustice imaginable. It is there also that the possibility of correcting all human relationships is conceived. “By denying or trying to deny God, who is his 'Beginning and End', man profoundly disturbs his own order and interior balance and also those of society and even of visible creation.
“It is in their relationship to sin that Scripture regards all the different calamities which oppress man in his personal and social existence.” (SCDF, “Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation”, 22 March 1986, 38) Thus, as Christians, when through our personal apostolate we bring men closer to God, we are building a world which is more human and more just.
Furthermore, our faith urges us never to avoid our personal commitment to the defence of justice, particularly in those aspects related to fundamental rights of the person: right to life, to work, to education, to good reputation. Within our personal sphere of action we must ask ourselves --
Do we perfectly perform the work we are paid for? Do we pay in full what we owe people for services rendered? Do we responsibly exercise those rights and duties that affect the activities of our institutions? Do we make good use of our time at work? Do we defend other people’s good name? These are some instances where we show our love for justice.
Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:203-5
Friendship: Its deep christian sense
A Christian must have a great heart. A Christian’s dealings with his fellowmen should be a generous outpouring of supernatural affection, overcoming a tendency to egoism. We pray that Our Lord enlarge our hearts; that He help us to offer our sincere friendship to more people; that He may move us to do apostolate with everyone, regardless of their response, even if we must often submerge our ego, or set aside our personal preferences.
Part and parcel of a loyal friendship is making a positive effort. We will maintain this attitude through a constant friendship with Jesus Christ, “to understand the convictions of our friends, even though we may never come to share them or accept them” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 746) if they are irreconcilable with our Christian convictions.
Assisted by grace, we will show charity towards those who do not behave as children of God; but rather offend Him, because “no sinner, as a sinner, is worthy of love; but every man, as a man, is lovable by God” (St Augustine, “On Christian Doctrine”, 1:27). They all remain as children of God, capable of conversion and attaining eternal life.
When our friends lack formation or are ignorant in doctrinal matters, display character defects, or even seem indifferent to such things, we must not get discouraged. These failings are urgent signs that reveal a greater need of spiritual help, an invitation to intensify our concern. After all a friend is a person who always wills the good of the other.
If at some time we suffer through particularly painful rebuffs in our efforts to befriend people in the course of our apostolate, we should ask for Our Lady’s help. Very often we have contemplated her at the foot of the Cross, enduring the infamous things done to her Son; and many of those offences came from us.
We must resolve to get close to those relatives, friends and acquaintances who are most in need. Let us ask Our Lady for the necessary graces to realize it.
Ref: Cf Francis Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 3:343-5
Unity of Christians is a Gift of God
‘This week of prayer’ comes around again punctually, to arouse the consciences of Christians to examine themselves under God’s eyes on the question of regaining full unity. As a gift of God, we must, therefore, ask for it intensely from the Lord. The fact that Christians of various confessions join in common prayer assumes special significance.
Christians are rediscovering with increasing lucidity how partial but true communion already exists, and, before God and with His help, they are moving toward unity. They are moving toward that goal by beginning with prayer to the Lord, to Him who purifies and liberates, who redeems and unites.
We must be very attentive and make sure prayer does not lose that power of turning things upside down. It ought to shake the consciences of all about the division of Christians, ‘which openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the good news to every creature’.
We ask You, O Lord, for the gifts of Your Spirit so that we can enter into the depths of the truth, whole and entire. Teach us to overcome divisions.
Send Us Your Spirit to lead all your children to full unity, in full charity, in obedience to Your will. Amen.
Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p62
Unity of Christians, a Task For All
Many voices -- those of Catholics, of Orthodox, of Protestants unanimously rise to our Father who is in heaven, in concordant and fervent prayer ...
This unity is all the more urgent ‘in our time’ so that the Church may more effectively perform her mission, and testify full fidelity to the Lord and proclaim the Gospel.
All Christians ought to strive and collaborate for recovery of unity, all Christians who wish to be consistent in their vocation and mission.
Let us pray to the ‘Theotokos’, the Mother of God, who brought Christ, true God and true Man, the Prince of Peace, Him who, together with His Spirit, realizes the Kingdom of God in us.
Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p63
• Establishment of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, by Pope Sixtus IV, in the year 1476 and a grant of indulgences to those who attend the offices of the church or Mass. T. iv. Conciliorum. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Establishment of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception by Sixtus IV (1476). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
• Feast of the Immaculate Conception established by Pope Sixtus IV. 1476. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• “Madonna della Croce”. Crema, Italy. 1873. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Our Lady “Della Croce”, Crema, Italy (1873). (www/divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
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