Marian Solidarity

My hope is that the Good News of Christ will enter every home and help families to rediscover that only in Christ can man find salvation. In Him it is possible to find the interior peace, hope and strength necessary to face life’s various situations each day, even those most onerous and difficult. He is the Word of God who even today continues to shed light on man’s path; his actions are the expression of the Father’s love for every human being.

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favour from the Lord. (Is 61:12).

In the synagogue of Nazareth, at the moment of beginning his public ministry, Christ will apply these words of the prophet Isaiah to himself. Today he repeats them for us during this liturgical assembly, and in repeating them he invites us to rejoice again with the words of Isaiah: “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice” (Is 61:10).

The Lord Jesus is at hand at every moment of our life. He is at hand if we consider him in the perspective of Christmas, but he is also at hand if we look at him on the banks of the Jordan when he officially receives his messianic mission from the Father; lastly, he is at hand in the perspective of his return at the end of time.

Christ is at hand! He comes by virtue of the Holy Spirit to announce the Good News; he comes to cure and to set free to proclaim a time of grace and salvation, in order to begin, already on the night of Bethlehem, the work of the world’s redemption.

Let us therefore rejoice and exult! The Lord is at hand; he is coming to save us.

Amen!

An excerpt from “Rejoice, the Lord is Near” – preached by Pope John Paul II at the Roman parish of Our Lady of Valme on Sunday, 15 December 1996, the Third Sunday of Advent.

With today’s first Sunday of Advent, a new liturgical year begins. The Church takes up her journey again, and invites us to reflect more intensely on the mystery of Christ, a mystery that is always new and that time cannot exhaust. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Thanks to him, the history of humanity proceeds as a pilgrimage toward the fulfilment of the Kingdom which he inaugurated with his Incarnation and victory over sin and death.

For this reason, Advent is synonymous with hope: not the vain waiting for a faceless god, but concrete and certain trust in the return of Him who has already visited us, of the “Spouse” who with his blood has sealed with humanity a pact that is an eternal covenant. It is a hope that stimulates vigilance, the characteristic virtue of this special liturgical season. Vigilance in prayer, fostered by a loving expectation; vigilance in the dynamics of concrete charity, aware that the Kingdom of God comes close whenever men learn to live as brothers.

Blessed John Paul II
Angelus, Sunday, 2 December 2001

In praying for the dead, the Church above all contemplates the mystery of the Resurrection of Christ, who obtains salvation and eternal life for us through his Cross.

Thus with St Odilo we can ceaselessly repeat: “The Cross is my refuge, my way and my life…. The Cross is my invincible weapon. The Cross repels all evil The Cross dispels the darkness”. The Lord’s Cross reminds us that all life is illumined by the light of Easter and that no situation is totally lost, for Christ conquered death and opened the way for us to true life. Redemption “is brought about in the sacrifice of Christ, by which man redeems the debt of sin and is reconciled to God”.

Our hope is founded on Christ’s sacrifice. His Resurrection inaugurates the “end of the times”. The belief in eternal life which we profess in the Creed is an invitation to the joyful hope of seeing God face to face. To believe in the resurrection of the flesh is to recognize that there is a final end, an ultimate goal for all human life, “which so satisfies man’s appetite that nothing else is left for him to desire”.

This same desire is wonderfully expressed by St Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”. Thus, we are all called to live with Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, and to contemplate the Holy Trinity, for “God is the principal object of Christian hope”; we can say with Job: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold and not another”.

Let us also remember that the Mystical Body of Christ is waiting to be reunited at the end of history, when all its members will be in perfect beatitude and God will be all in all. In fact, the Church hopes for the eternal salvation of all her children and of all mankind.

“We believe that the Church is necessary to salvation, for Christ is the one mediator and way of salvation and he becomes present to us in his Body which is the Church, but the divine design of salvation embraces all men. Those indeed who are in ignorance of Christ’s Gospel and of his Church through no fault of their own, who search for God in sincerity of heart, and who, acting according to conscience, strive under the influence of grace to fulfil his will, belong to his people, even though in a way we cannot see, and can obtain eternal salvation. Their number is known only to God” (Paul VI).

While waiting for death to be overcome once and for all, “some of the disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory”, contemplating the Trinity in full light. Joined to the merits of the saints, our fraternal prayer comes to the aid of those who await the beatific vision.

Intercession for the dead, just as the life of those living according to the divine commandments, obtains the merits that serve the full attainment of salvation. It is an expression of the fraternal charity of the one family of God, by which “we are faithful to the Church’s deepest vocation” (Lumen gentium): “to save souls who will love God eternally” (Therese of Lisieux). For the souls in purgatory, waiting for eternal happiness and for meeting the Beloved is a source of suffering, because of the punishment due to sin which separates them from God. But there is also the certitude that once the time of purification is over, the soul will go to meet the One it desires.

an excerpt from Message For Millenium of All Souls’ Day by Pope John Paul II

To know what is the way to holiness, we must go with the Apostles up the mount of the Beatitudes to draw near to Jesus and listen to the words of life that come from his lips. Today too he says to us again:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! The divine Teacher proclaims “blessed” and, we could say, “canonizes” first of all the poor in spirit, that is, those whose heart is free of prejudices and conditionings, and who are therefore totally disposed to the divine will. Their total and trusting fidelity to God presupposes renunciation and consistent self-detachment.

Blessed are those who mourn! This is the blessedness not only of those who suffer from the many misfortunes that belong to the mortal human condition, but also those who courageously accept the sufferings that result from the sincere profession of Gospel morality.

Blessed are the pure in heart! He proclaims blessed those who are not content with outward or ritual purity, but seek that absolute inner rectitude which excludes all deceit and duplicity.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness! Human righteousness is already a very lofty goal, which ennobles the heart of whoever pursues it, but Jesus is thinking of that greater righteousness which lies in seeking God’s saving will: blessed above all are those who hunger and thirst for this righteousness. For Jesus says: “He who does the will of my Father who is in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 7: 21).

Blessed are the merciful! Happy are those who overcome their hardness of heart and indifference, to recognize in practice the primacy of compassionate love, following the example of the Good Samaritan and, in the last analysis, of the Father “rich in mercy” (Eph 2: 4).

Blessed are the peacemakers! Peace, the sum of all messianic blessings, is a demanding task. In a world marked by tremendous antagonisms and barriers, fraternal harmony inspired by love and sharing must be promoted by overcoming hostilities and conflicts. Blessed are those who dedicate themselves to this most noble endeavour!

The saints took these words of Jesus seriously. They believed that they would find “happiness” by putting them into practice in their lives. And they realized their truth in everyday experience: despite their trials, moments of darkness and failures, they already tasted here below the deep joy of communion with Christ. In him they discovered the initial seed, already present in time, of the future glory of God’s kingdom.

an excerpt from a homily by John Paul II, 1 November 2000

O MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE
By Pope John Paul II
December 8, 2003

To you, O Mary, we turn our gaze with stronger trepidation,
to you we hasten back with more insistent trust in these times
scarred by a multitude of doubts and fears
for the present and future destiny of our planet.

To you, the first-fruits of humanity redeemed by Christ,
set free at last from the slavery of evil and sin,
we raise together our heartfelt, trusting plea:
listen to the cry of pain of the war victims,
of the victims of the many forms of violence
that bathe the earth in blood.

Dispel the shadows of sorrow and of loneliness, of hatred and of revenge.
Open to forgiveness the minds and hearts of all!

Queen of Peace, pray for us!

Mother of mercy and of hope,
obtain for the men and women of the third millennium the precious gift of peace;
peace in hearts and families, in communities and among peoples;
peace above all for those nations where people fight and die every day.
Obtain that every human being of every race and culture
may encounter and accept Jesus,
who came down to earth in the mystery of Christmas
to give His peace to us.

O Mary, Queen of Peace,
give us Christ,
the world’s true Peace!

from marytv.tv

We turn to her with faith, as the Second Vatican Council suggests, so “that she, who aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers, may now, exalted as she is above all the angels and saints, intercede before her Son in the fellowship of all the saints, until all families of people, whether they are honoured with the title of Christian or whether they still do not know the Saviour, may be happily gathered together in peace and harmony into one People of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity” (Lumen gentium, n. 69).

We greet you, glorious Mother of the Redeemer, Ark of the Covenant, in whom the mystery of Redemption was fulfilled: in you the promise of Emmanuel, God-with-us, became a reality, and God was made our brother.

We greet you, humble Handmaid of the Lord, who gave the Son of God to mankind, and, as the obedient Woman, by your fiat you taught us to accept with docility all that he asks of us.

We greet you Blessed Virgin, who accompanied and followed your divine Son, suffering and crucified, to his death, and at the foot of the Cross became “our Mother”, Mother of the Church and of all humanity.

We greet you, Virgin who prayed with the Apostles in the Upper Room: by your intercession for us you obtained the gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews heaven and earth.

We greet you, glorious Virgin, in the mystery of your Assumption into heaven: in you God the Father anticipated what he intends to accomplish at the end of time for all those who die in communion with Jesus Christ, his Son and your Son.

We greet you, Queen of Angels and Saints; you intercede for us from heaven and sustain us on our earthly pilgrimage to the promised land: Keep our faith alive, our hope firm and our love fervent for God and for our brothers and sisters.

In contemplating the mystery of your Assumption O Mary, let us learn to evaluate earthly affairs in the proper light. Help us never to forget that our true and definitive dwelling place is heaven, and support us in our effort to live together here below in ever greater brotherhood and solidarity. Make us workers of justice and peacemakers in the name of Christ, our true peace.

Blessed Virgin, as you guide us like a bright star towards the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, grant that every man and every woman may recognize Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb, as their own Saviour.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!

Pope John Paul II
Angelus 15 August 1996

from ewtn.com