Marian Solidarity

Russia’s educational system has produced nearly 100% literacy with great emphasis placed on science and technology. The unraveling of the Soviet Union and the physical and psychological traumas of transition resulted in a decline in the health of the Russian people. It faces a demographic crisis, with births lagging behind deaths, and a rise in HIV/AIDs cases.

Joyful Mysteries: Intentions for Russian Federation

1. For leaders to address the looming demographic crisis.
2. For society to address the issues of crime, drug abuse and family breakdown.
3. For a brighter future for the estimated million children living on the streets in Russia’s cities.
4. For peace and stability in this region of volatile tensions.
5. For workers to be safe in their places of employment.

Romanians trace their roots to Latin-speaking Romans. During World War II, Jews were subject to harsh persecution, and now number less than 10,000. Poetry and the theater play an important role in contemporary Romanian life. The Orthodox monasteries and the Transylvanian Churches are repositories of artistic treasures.

Sorrowful Mysteries: Intentions for Romania

1. For continued progress in judicial reform to combat corruption.
2. For resources to complete the land cadastre in Romania which will enable the development of agricultural lands.
3. For police to deal firmly with the buying and selling of slaves.
4. For victims of human trafficking to be successfully reintegrated.
5. For humane treatment of minorities.

Moldava is one of the poorest countries in Europe, the second-smallest of the former Soviet republics and the most densely populated. Separatist forces maintain control of the Transnistrian region of the country. Its once-flourishing wine trade has been in decline and it is now heavily dependent on Russia for energy.

Luminous Mysteries: Intentions for Rep. of Moldava

1. For more research into renewable energy sources.
2. For increased awareness on energy efficiency.
3. For improved efficiency in the justice system.
4. For continued progress in developing democratic institutions.
5. For peaceful resolution of the separatist demands in Transnistria.

Portugal has a long, at times turbulent, history as a seafaring colonial power. Its Golden Age was in the 15th century, when Portuguese like Vasco de Gama helped build an empire spanning the globe.

Glorious Mysteries: Intentions for Portugal

1. That Portugal succeed in meeting its fiscal targets.
2. That government find a solution to high unemployment.
3. For improved prison conditions.
4. For stricter compliance with Europe’s air quality standards.
5. For stricter government compliance with standards for the elimination of human trafficking.

Work was the daily expression of love in the life of the Family of Nazareth. The Gospel specifies the kind of work Joseph did in order to support his family: he was a carpenter. This simple word sums up Joseph’s entire life. For Jesus, these were hidden years, the years to which Luke refers after recounting the episode that occurred in the Temple: “And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them” (Lk 2:51). This “submission” or obedience of Jesus in the house of Nazareth should be understood as a sharing in the work of Joseph. Having learned the work of his presumed father, he was known as “the carpenter’s son.” If the Family of Nazareth is an example and model for human families, in the order of salvation and holiness, so too, by analogy, is Jesus’ work at the side of Joseph the carpenter. In our own day, the Church has emphasized this by instituting the liturgical memorial of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1. Human work, and especially manual labor, receive special prominence in the Gospel. Along with the humanity of the Son of God, work too has been taken up in the mystery of the Incarnation, and has also been redeemed in a special way. At the workbench where he plied his trade together with Jesus, Joseph brought human work closer to the mystery of the Redemption.

In the human growth of Jesus “in wisdom, age and grace,” the virtue of industriousness played a notable role, since “work is a human good” which “transforms nature” and makes man “in a sense, more human.”

The importance of work in human life demands that its meaning be known and assimilated in order to “help all people to come closer to God, the Creator and Redeemer, to participate in his salvific plan for man and the world, and to deepen…friendship with Christ in their lives, by accepting, through faith, a living participation in his threefold mission as Priest, Prophet and King.”

What is crucially important here is the sanctification of daily life, a sanctification which each person must acquire according to his or her own state, and one which can be promoted according to a model accessible to all people: “St. Joseph is the model of those humble ones that Christianity raises up to great destinies;…he is the proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need of great things-it is enough to have the common, simple and human virtues, but they need to be true and authentic.”

an excerpt from Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation, Redemptoris Custos

Poland today is ethnically almost homogeneous, in contrast to World War II era when there were significant ethnic minorities including 3 million Jews. Poland is the birthplace of Pope John Paul II and St. Faustina, the Apostle of Divine Mercy.

Sorrowful Mysteries: Intentions for Poland

1. That Poland control the exploitation and trafficking of women.
2. That the government address the issue of a judiciary that is ineffective and inefficient.
3. That the two million Poles living abroad may build new lives.
4. That economic growth may create more jobs and lift eight million Poles out of poverty.
5. That Blessed John Paul II continue to inspire the world.