"..the city needs Mary, whose presence speaks of God, reminds us of Grace's victory over sin and makes us hope..."

In an address given on December 8, 2009, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Benedict XVI told those present, "Dear brothers and sisters! In the heart of Christian cities, Mary constitutes a sweet and reassuring presence. In her self-effacing style, she gives everyone peace and hope during the happy and sad moments of life. In churches, chapels or the walls of buildings, a painting, mosaic or a statue stand as a remainder of the Mother’s presence, constantly watching over her children. Here too in Piazza di Spagna, Mary stands high, on guard over Rome.

What does Mary tell the city? What does her presence remind us? It reminds us that “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more (Rom., 5:20), as the Apostle Paul wrote. She is the Immaculate Mother who tells people of our time: Do not be afraid, Jesus defeated evil, uprooted it, freeing us from his rule.

When do we need such good deeds? Every day, in the newspapers, television and radio, evil is told to us, said again, amplified, so that we get used to the most horrible things, and become desensitised. In a certain way, it poisons us, because the negative is never fully cleansed out of our system but accumulates day after day. The heart hardens and thoughts become gloomy. For this reason, the city needs Mary, whose presence speaks of God, reminds us of Grace’s victory over sin and makes us hope even in the humanly most difficult situations..."

The Holy Father is not exhorting us to be pollyannas here, to stick our collective heads in the sand and to pretend all is well as everything collapses around us.  But that we cannot lose hope.  Because evil will be defeated.  The Holy Father, in a letter to Marcello Pera several years ago before he was made Pope, wrote, "Today it is a matter of the greatest urgency to show a Christian model of life that offers a livable alternative to the increasingly vacuous entertainments of leisure-time society, a society forced to make increasing recourse to drugs because it is sated by the usual shabby pleasures...The Christian model of life must be manifested as a life in all its fullness and freedom, a life that does not experience the bonds of love as dependence and limitation but rather as an opening to the greatness of life." (Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam, pp. 125-126).



But how do we effectively achieve this Christian model of life by which a pleasure-satiated society will be converted? Only by consecrating ourselves to Our Lady will we find the grace and zeal to live a life which is appealing to a materialistic and hedonistic world. It was St. Louis de Montfort who prophesied, in his True Devotion to Mary, No. 48, that, "..great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light, strengthened by her food, guided by her spirit, supported by her arm, sheltered under her protection, they will fight with one hand and build with the other. With one hand they will give battle, overthrowing and crushing heretics and their heresies, schismatics and their schisms, idolaters and their idolatries, sinners and their wickedness. With the other hand they will build the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, namely, the Blessed Virgin, who is called by the Fathers of the Church the Temple of Solomon and the City of God. By word and example they will draw all men to a true devotion to her and through this will make many enemies, it will also bring about many victories and much glory to God alone...This seems to have been foretold by the Holy Spirit in Psalm 58: ‘The Lord will reign in Jacob and all the ends of the earth. They will be converted towards evening and they will be as hungry as dogs and they will go around the city to find something to eat.’ This city around which men will roam at the end of the world seeking conversion and the appeasement of the hunger they have for justice is the most Blessed Virgin, who is called by the Holy Spirit the City of God."
The Lord loves this City conceived Immaculately: "The Lord loves the city founded on holy mountains, Loves the gates of Zion more than any dwelling in Jacob. Glorious things are said of you, O city of God! From Babylon and Egypt I count those who acknowledge the Lord. Philistia, Ethiopia, Tyre, of them it can be said: ‘This one was born there.’ But of Zion it must be said: ‘They all were born here.’ The Most High confirms this; the Lord notes in the register of the peoples: This one was born here.’" (Psalm 87: 1-6).

And what is this "register of the peoples"? We find an answer in Chapter 20 verse 12 of the Book of Revelation: "I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life. The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls."

Of Zion is must be said "They all were born here."* This holy city of Zion is the City of God, the Blessed Virgin. We must all therefore seek our conversion from this holy City. We must approach this City of God if our hunger for justice is to be appeased. We must strive to become more and more like this holy City so that our devotion will be true. Only then will we be able to offer our sin-sick world that Christian model of life Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI is calling for with such urgency.

*"Many have proved invincibly, from the sentiments of the Fathers-among others: St. Augustine, St Ephem, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Germanus of Conantinople, St. John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Thomas, and St. Bonaventure-that devotion to Our Most Blessed Virgin is necessary for salvation, and that it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem or love for that Holy Virgin while, on the other hand, it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her." - St. Louis de Montfort.

Survey: New Hampshire residents losing their religion

"Sixty-two percent of New Hampshire adults identified themselves as Christians last year, the American Religious Identification Survey for 2008 reported. This is a 23 percent decline from 1990, when 85 percent of adults called themselves Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and other Christians...Northern New England now surpasses the Pacific Northwest as the most irreligious region of the country, according to the survey...The survey, released on Monday, reports 29 percent of New Hampshire adults say they have no religion." (For full article, click on title of this post).

This fact imposes a burden on those of us who claim to be disciples of Christ. The Council Fathers tell us that, "..the laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the earth. Thus every layman, in virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church itself, 'according to the measure of Christ's bestowal...For all their works, prayers, and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne - all these become 'spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ' (1 Pt 2:5). Together with the offering of the Lord's Body, they are most fittingly offered in the celebration of the Eucharist. Thus, as those everywhere who adore in holy activity, the laity consecrate the world itself to God." (Lumen Gentium, Nos. 33, 34 of the Second Vatican Council).

What are we waiting for? Haven't we been told that the Lord Himself will demand an account of the talents He has given us (Mt 25: 14-30). Do we really want to be among those who are relegated to the "darkness outside" because we succumbed to fear or apathy? Blessed Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer was right when he said, "There is but one fatal illness, one deadly mistake you can make: to settle for defeat, not to know how to fight with the spirit of a child of God. If this personal effort is lacking the soul becomes paralyzed and languishes alone, and is incapable of bearing fruit. Such cowardice on man's part puts pressure on Our Lord to utter those words addressed to him by the paralytic at the pool of Bethsaida, hominem non habeo! - I have no man to help me. What a pity if Jesus does not find in you the man or the woman he expects."

A 7 year-old girl named Heather McNamara has shown great courage and determination not to settle for defeat. Surely we can follow her example and show courage in the spiritual realm? Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J., did. His crime? Celebrating the Holy Mass. His punishment? Execution. The above photograph shows Blessed Pro just moments before he was gunned down. He extended his arms and proclaimed, Viva Christo Rey! - Long live Christ the King!

His love overcame his fear. He did not settle for defeat. He conquered his executioners with faith. hope and love. In the eyes of the world, he suffered defeat. But where is he now? And where are his executioners? Who really won the victory? You know the answer.

The pro-life movement is waiting for a leader?

According to a conservative magazine, in an article which may be found here, the pro-life movement is "trapped" and "waiting for a leader." As I explained in a previous Blog post, abortion will only be defeated through prayer and fasting. We already have a leader as pro-lifers: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work" (1 John 3: 8). Anyone who believes that an ordinary man would be able to lead the pro-life movement to victory over the culture of death is a fool.

The evil which weighs down upon the human race (and abortion is part of that evil) is a force so powerful that we are unable to successfully overcome it without grace, without God's help. Evil in the world has a satanic origin: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6: 12). Do we suppose that St. Paul was joking? Or that he was unstable and preaching nonsense? Since the greatest of the Apostles speaks the truth as given to him by the Holy Spirit, why do we think for one moment that an ordinary man can lead those of us in the pro-life movement (or in the Church in general) to victory? Enough nonsense! Let's instead put our faith, hope and trust in Him Who teaches with an authority so great that He even gives orders to the evil spirits and they obey Him (Mark 1: 26-28).

I have grappled with the Evil One and the evil spirits many times. Some years ago, while attending a Bible study at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary parish in Gardner, Massachusetts, I encountered a group of people who were denigrating devotion to Our Lady and attempting to introduce strange ideas about our Mother to the others present for the study. Over several weeks, I refuted their ideas using the Magisterial teaching of the Church and quoting most extensively from the Popes and various Doctors of the Church. But they only hardened. When I took the matter to prayer (and fasting) - praying many rosaries and invoking Our Lady to drive the evil out and to restore fidelity to Church teaching at this Bible study, a curious thing happened. When I returned the next week, the woman who had been serving as the "leader" of this small group arrived wearing dark sunglasses (the Bible study took place in the evening) and sat across from me with a stare which was nothing short of menacing. She said nothing. However, as I prayerfully defended the Church's teaching once more, the light fixture above the table where we all sat began to flicker on and off. Eventually it went out altogether. I continued to pray as the group disbanded.

The next week I was told that the pastor had spoken to those who had been attacking devotion to Our Lady (in a Church dedicated to her!) and that they had agreed not to do so in the future. Additionally, several of these agreed to no longer visit a local fundamentalist church where they had obtained their ideas. Prayer and fasting!

In the shortest Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, there are thirteen references to a personified Satan or to casting out demons. Among these are four exorcisms worked by Jesus. Let's recall how Jesus became angry when His disciples were unable to free the epileptic demoniac and rebuked them for their failure: "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?" (Mark 9: 19).

May we not find ourselves similarly rebuked for being without faith!