We can’t forget that Mary spent nearly every day of her life just like millions of other women who look after their family; bring up their children and take care of the house. Mary sanctifies the ordinary everyday things -- what some people wrongly regard as unimportant and insignificant: daily work, looking after those closest to us, visits to friends and relatives. A blessed ordinariness, so full of love of God!
For that’s what explains Mary’s life -- her love. A complete love, so complete that she forgets herself and is happy just to be there where God wants her, fulfilling with care what God wants her to do. That is why even her slightest action is never routine but, rather, full of meaning.
Mary, our mother, is for us both an example and a way. We must try to be like her, in the ordinary circumstances in which God wants us to live.
If we act in this way, we give those around us an example of a simple and normal life; consistent, despite limitations and defects, which are part and parcel of the human condition.
And when they see that we live the same life as they do, they will ask: Why are you so happy? How do you manage to overcome selfishness and comfort-seeking? Who has taught you to understand others, to live well and to spend yourself in their service?
Then we must disclose to them the divine secret of christian existence. We must speak to them about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Mary. The time has come for us to communicate the depth of God’s love which grace has poured into our souls.
St John has recorded a wondeful phrase of our Lady. At the wedding of Cana she turned to the waiter and said: “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn 2:5) That’s what it is all about -- getting people to face Jesus and ask him: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” (Acts 9:6)
Holy Mary, our hope, handmaid of the Lord, seat of Wisdom, pray for us!
Ref: Cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ is passing by”, 148
The greatest promise of Mary
“The gates of hell will be closed on the First Saturdays of each month. Nobody will go to hell on those days. However, the gates of Purgatory will be open. So many souls will be able to reach heaven. It is the result of the merciful Love of My Son -- It is the reward of these souls who venerate My Immaculate Heart.”
Ref: “Imprimatur:” Local bishop of Hungary. Taken from the “Revue de Coeur Immacule Reine de la Paix”, Vol. I, No. 4
“... Blessed are you among women.” (Lk 1:28)
‘This stirring Marian greeting’ repeats and causes to re-echo through the centuries those words which Elizabeth uttered ‘filled with the Holy Spirit ... in a loud voice’ to the Virgin Mother of God.
This greeting seems particularly appropriate ... to recall her apparition at Massabielle to the humble Bernadette, to entrust to her a special message of mercy and grace. And that message keeps its full value right down to our time.
Mary made use of that unknown little girl with the intention above all of bringing sinners to conversion, asking for them and for their salvation, commitment on the part of the community of all faithful Christians. Her appeal aroused a fervent movement of prayer and charity, in service to the infirm and the poor above all.
Many tried by pain and suffering are in front because an irreplaceable role has been assigned to you in the economy of salvation, in union with Him who is protagonist and artificer of salvation through His passion, death and resurrection: Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Lord.
Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, p184
Bearing witness to Jesus’ doctrine
Today, too, people thirst for the words of Jesus, the only words that can bring peace to the soul ...
“All the faithful, from the Pope to the last person to have been baptized, share in the same vocation, the same faith, the same Spirit, the same grace ... All share actively and with the same degree of responsibility (within the necessary plurality of ministries) in the one mission of Christ and of the Church.” ( A del Portillo, “Faithful and Laity in the Church”, Shannon)
There is a great urgency in making Christ’s doctrine known, because ignorance is a powerful enemy of God in the world. It is the “cause and root of all evils that poison nations”. (cf John XXIII, Encyclical, “Ad Petri cathedram”, 29 June 1959) This urgency is even greater in countries of the West, as Pope John Paul II has repeatedly pointed out.
“We find ourselves in a Europe in which the temptation towards atheism and scepticism is becoming constantly stronger; in which there is taking root a grievous moral uncertainty with the falling apart of the family and the degeneration of morals; in which a dangerous conflict of ideas and movements dominates.” (John Paul II, “Address”, 6 November 1961)
Every Christian must give testimony to the good doctrine of the gospel message, not only by example, but with words. And we must avail of every opportunity that presents itself with our relatives, friends, neighbours, colleagues; with all people we come across, even for a while, on a trip, at a conference, while shopping or engaged in business.
The person who wants to travel along the way of sanctity cannot afford to make his life to be like a great avenue of missed opportunities. God wants our words to echo his teachings in order to move hearts.
“... certain that God respects human freedom, that there may be people who ‘do not want’ to turn their eyes towards God’s light. But the grace God wants to pour out on earth is far stronger, more abundant and more plentiful. He makes use, as before and always, of the cooperation of apostles whom He has chosen to carry his light everywhere.” (cf A del Portillo, “Pastoral Letter”, 25 December 1985, 7)
Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:198-9
Missionary activity
“Some do not become Christians simply because of a dearth of those who make them Christians.” (cf St Francis Xavier) In the face of this objective dearth, the Church cannot ignore so many millions of our brothers awaiting the message of salvation. God, recalls St Paul, “wants all men to be saved and come to know the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
The command by the risen Christ to his disciples, “Go, preach” (Mt 28:19), efficaciously establishing the image and function of the Pilgrim Church, expresses the intrinsic missionary dynamism of her nature.
Evangelization corresponds to the specific vocation of the Church which, always respecting liberty, encounters men of today who still “sit in darkness” (Lk 1:79). In fact the ‘Church is mission incarnate’.
The Church, the depositary of the Good News, must of necessity continue sending today, no less than in other times, apostles and missionaries who know how to speak to men of the transcendent and liberating salvation, leading them to the knowledge of truth in full fidelity to the Spirit.
Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, pp285-6
Blessed Pedro Calungsod -- A 14-year-old native of Cebu or Bohol who joined Spanish Jesuit missionaries to the Ladrones Islands as a catechist. On this day in 1672, two Chamorros killed them (in what is now Guam) for being Christians. Their bodies were thrown into the ocean. He was 17 years-old. Beatified in Rome on 5 March 2000. (“Manila Bulletin”, 2 February 2002)
• Our Lady the Great, at Poitiers, where is shown an image of the Blessed Virgin, in whose hands the keys of the city were miraculously found while the mayor’s servant was looking everywhere for them, to open the gates to the English, to whom he had promised to betray the city. — Jean Boncher, Annales d’Aquitaine. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady the Great. Poitiers, France. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
• Our Lady the Great. Poitiers, France. Orthodox icons. Church in Israel. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Our Lady of the Highest Grace, Higuey, Dominican Republic (1506). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
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