Moments of Love with Mary
– The Spiritual Letter Box –
Fidelity and Humility
Despite the many occupations you have for the benefit of souls, an upsurge of my heart has been prompting me to write to you for several months now.
For a short period of time, I was convalescing as a result of an accident, and that is what permitted me to write this letter. The Lord was most certainly in need of sufferings. Thus, I accepted that trial with joy in order to help you support your sufferings before this spoiled, ungrateful, calumnious society, thirsting for power.
We must prepare ourselves to bear these sufferings well, as you so often tell us, because soon our world will become like it was in the time of the first Christians, and we will have to undergo martyrdom in order to give to the Church once again the strength it so desperately needs.
In our world, everything is permissible. We neglect to teach the basic laws of our faith, so that, by this very fact, we avoid making too many exacting demands on our life as Christians, contrary to what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel. We must return to prayer, pray relentlessly, without ever wearying, after the example of Mary, our Blessed Mother, in order to minimize the damage being caused. However, our reward in heaven will be proportionate to the cross we will have borne.
All of us join together in our sufferings and in our prayers, in order to participate, in fidelity and humility, in this Co-Redemption in which Mary has asked us to share, so as to lead us, in this way, into her Kingdom.
We, who are so little and so unworthy to know about the Army of Mary, thank the Lord. For a long time now, we have been able to see that this Work is a Work of God in all His power.
Yes, the program of the Army of Mary has prompted us to deepen our knowledge of our faith and of all the mystery of the Redemption, so that we may be able to live an authentic Christian life, following in Jesus’ footsteps, in spite of the waves of liberalism and permissiveness surrounding us.
We are expecting our fifth child and I can assure you that it is not easy to think of the future of these latter in this consumer society, the negative effects of which are very often within the reach of their mind and their soul. But thanks to the spiritual and Christian steps we have taken in the Army of Mary, this little being was desired and we thank the Lord for such a great gift.
To abandon ourselves and to give our children over totally to Mary, our Mother in heaven, there you have the secret of a true love, the love of God which is happiness here below as we experience all the Truth Christ has taught us and which the Army of Mary tirelessly repeats to us. Our hope, amid so many problems in the world, leads us to Mary who said at Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
I am sending you a small sum for our students studying theology in Rome, money which had been lent to a friend in need, and which I thought was lost forever.
In closing, I ask Jesus and Mary to give you all the necessary graces to have the strength to carry on with your mission.
May the love you received from Jesus and His Mother continue to overflow from your soul in order to fall back upon every Knight of Mary.
We ask Jesus and Mary to keep us humble, little and especially faithful to the very end, by accepting the cross put before us.
United in Jesus and Mary,
A little family that prays and loves.
It has often been said in the past that “a family that prays is a united and happy family.”
Your serene attitude in times of trial, the love with which the offering of the cross is wrapped, and the joy that fills the soul of each one as you await a new little angel to cherish, there you have the blessed fruit one can pick when God is at the center of a life.
Of course, those principles had to be instilled in you by others, most certainly your parents who must have given you the example of a very full life, in the very measure of the love they had for the doctrine taught by the Church of Christ and the graces that come with it.
The concern to transmit life is a mission of the Christian life in marriage. We must not forget that all spouses are called to holiness in marriage, which requires a constant effort, the beneficial influence of which brings joy and serenity to the family life as well as peace, provided the spouses both have the sense of responsibility and are working towards the same goal.
The strength required to overcome the trials which inevitably crop up at one point or another in life can be found in the frequent recourse to prayer, as well as in the sacraments.
In his encyclical on the Family, Pope John Paul II wrote some memorable pages on the Christian family. Here are a few excerpts from it:
“49. The Family within the Mystery of the Church
“Among the fundamental tasks of the Christian family is its ecclesial task: the family is placed at the service of the building up of the Kingdom of God in history by participating in the life and mission of the Church….”
“50. A Specific and Original Ecclesial Role
“The Christian family also builds up the Kingdom of God in history through the everyday realities that concern and distinguish its state of life. It is thus in the love between husband and wife and between the members of the family – a love lived out in all its extraordinary richness of values and demands: totality, oneness, fidelity and fruitfulness – that the Christian family’s participation in the prophetic, priestly and kingly mission of Jesus Christ and of His Church finds expression and realization. Therefore, love and life constitute the nucleus of the saving mission of the Christian family in the Church and for the Church….”
“51. Faith as the Discovery and Admiring Awareness of God’s Plan for the Family
“As a sharer in the life and mission of the Church, which listens to the word of God with reverence and proclaims it confidently, the Christian family fulfills its prophetic role by welcoming and announcing the word of God: it thus becomes more and more each day a believing and evangelizing community….
“55. The Church’s Sanctuary in the Home
“The proclamation of the Gospel and its acceptance in faith reach their fullness in the celebration of the sacraments. The Church which is a believing and evangelizing community is also a priestly people invested with the dignity and sharing in the power of Christ the High Priest of the New and Eternal Covenant.
“The Christian family too is part of this priestly people which is the Church. By means of the sacrament of marriage, in which it is rooted and from which it draws its nourishment, the Christian family is continuously vivified by the Lord Jesus and called and engaged by Him in a dialogue with God through the sacraments, through the offering of one’s life, and through prayer.
“This is the priestly role which the Christian family can and ought to exercise in intimate communion with the whole Church, through the daily realities of married and family life. In this way the Christian family is called to be sanctified and to sanctify the ecclesial community and the world.”
There you have sketched in a few words God’s marvelous plan for the family. Pope John Paul II invites all of us to work for the coming of the Kingdom, in accordance with our own personal vocation, by opening our heart to the Gospel, a message of justice, love and peace. Maintain your good dispositions, and let us hope that others will follow your example.
Marie-Paule
(Paper “Le Royaume”, no. 42)