5 March 2011: Getting involved in the lives of others

People who witness our behaviour may say: ‘What right do you have to interfere in the lives of others? Who gave you permission to talk about Christ, his doctrine, his sweet demands?’ We may even wonder: Who’s asking me to get involved? Our ‘reply would be’ --

“Christ himself is telling me, is begging me.” “The harvest is plentiful enough, but the labourers are few. You must ask the Lord to whom the harvest belongs to send labourers out for the harvesting.” (Mt 9:37-8) “Don’t take the easy way out. Don’t say, ‘I’m no good at this sort of thing; there are others who can do it; it isn’t my line’.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Friends of God”, 272)

The Church encourages, and in fact requires, us to make Christ known. “Young people should become the first to carry on the apostolate directly to other young persons, concentrating their apostolic efforts within their own circle ... Children also have their own work to do. According to their ability, they are true living witnesses of Christ among their companions.” (Second Vatican Council, “Apostolicam Actuositatem”, 12)

Everybody: young, old, sick, jobless or successful -- all of us must be apostles (‘sent’) to make Christ known by word and deed. God tells us: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” (cf Mk 16:15). God sends us!

Love for Christ leads us to love those around us. Our vocation impels us to think of others, not to fear sacrifices which mean love with deeds. The intensity of this will is a gauge of our sincerity and commitment.

If at any time we feel no concern for souls, then our charity had grown cold. If their estrangement from God left us unmoved and their spiritual needs did not provoke a reaction in our own soul, indeed we are apathetic. The apostolate is not an adjunct to the normal activity of the Christian. It is the Christian life itself.

Ref: Cf Francis Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 3:454-5

The World is Thirsty for Mercy

Man has deep need to ‘meet with the mercy of God, today’ more than ever. To feel himself radically understood, in the weakness of his wounded nature, above all to have spiritual experience of that Love which receives, enlivens and resuscitates to new life. In acceptance of all poverty, spiritual and material, you desire to promote and favor such a meeting between modern man and the Lord’s goodness ...

Courage, dearest brethren. ‘The world is thirsty’, even without knowing it, ‘for the Divine Mercy’, and you are called to proffer this prodigious water, healing to soul and body. You venerate the Mother of Mercy under the particular title of “Mary Mediatrix”.

May she make you ever more conscious of her motherhood, ‘which endures without cease from the moment of the consent faithfully given to the Annunciation’, and may she make you all apostles, workers and servers of the Divine Goodness and mercy. I accompany you with my blessing.

Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, pp105-6

Mary, Mother of Mercy

‘Hail Holy Queen, Mother of mercy ...’ For centuries people have invoked Mary under this title, and now in modern times, Pope John Paul II has presented it to us again to emphasize the unique role Mary plays in God’s eternal plan of mercy.

In his encyclical letter, “Rich in Mercy”, he devotes an entire section to Mary, the ‘Mother of Mercy’. She is the one, he explains, who has the deepest understanding of God’s mercy, the one who, more than anyone else, deserved and received mercy. Called in a special way to share her Son’s mission to reveal His Love, she continues to proclaim His mercy ‘from generation to generation’.

Ref: “Handbook of Devotion to the Divine Mercy”, 1995, p88

Prayer for Perseverance

“O ALMIGHTY and most merciful God, Who, according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, has vouchsafed once more to receive Thy prodigal child, after so many times going astray from Thee, and to admit me to this Sacrament of reconciliation; I give Thee thanks with all the powers of my soul for this and all other mercies, graces, and blessings bestowed on me; and prostrating myself at Thy sacred feet, I offer myself to be henceforth, forever Thine.

“Oh, let nothing in life or death ever separate me from Thee. I renounce with my whole soul all my treasons against Thee; all the abominations and sins of my past life. I renew my promises made in Baptism; from now on, I dedicate myself eternally to Thy love and service.

“Oh, grant that for the time to come I may abhor sin more than death itself, and avoid all such occasions and companies as have unhappily brought me to it. This I resolve to do, by the aid of Thy divine grace, without which I can do nothing.

“I beg Thy blessing upon these my resolutions, that they may not be ineffectual, like so many others I have formerly made; for, O Lord, without Thee I am nothing but misery and sin. Give me grace to be, now and always a true penitent, through the same Jesus Christ Thy Son. Amen.”

Ref: Very Rev Charles J Callan, OP, STM and Very Rev John A McHugh, OP, STM, “Blessed Be God”, 1925, p30

Sorrowful Heart of Mary, pray for us!

“Invoke the Heart of Holy Mary, with the purpose and determination of uniting yourself to her sorrow, in reparation for your sins and the sins of men of all times.

“And pray to her -- for every soul -- that her sorrow may increase in us our aversion from sin, and that we may be able to love the physical or moral contradictions of each day as a means of expiation.”

Ref: St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 258

• Our Lady of Good Succor at Nancy, in Lorraine. This Madonna, it is believed, enabled Rene, Duke of Lorraine, to gain a victory over Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy. — Triple Couronne, n. 55. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady of Good Help (Montreal, Canada, 1657). (www/divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Our Lady of Good Aid / Help. Nancy, France; Montreal. 1657. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Our Lady of Good Aid (Nancy, Lorraine). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)