Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Prayer

  • The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    This set of readings always makes me chuckle just a little bit.  Back in my second assignment, before I became a pastor, I was assigned to my home parish, which is a bit unusual.  And the first Sunday I was there, these readings we have today were the readings that Sunday: “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place…”!  Talk about a prophecy of doom!  Thanks be to God, it all worked out just fine.

    I often wonder how people get through the hard times of their lives if they don’t have faith.  We can all probably think of a time in our lives when we were sorely tested, when our lives were turned upside-down, and, looking back, we can’t figure out how we lived through it except for the grace of our faith.  During the course of my priesthood, I have been present to a lot of people who were going through times like that: whether it be illness or death of a loved one, relationship struggles, job issues, or financial struggles, or a host of other maladies.  Some of them had faith, and some of them didn’t.  It was always inspirational to see how people with faith lived through their hard times, and very sad to see how many who didn’t have faith just broken when their lives stopped going well.

    That’s the experience that today’s Liturgy of the Word puts before us, I think.  Let’s look at the context.  In last week’s Gospel, Jesus has cured two people miraculously.  He actually raised Jairus’s twelve-year-old daughter from the dead, and he cured the hemorrhagic woman, who had been suffering for twelve years.  So both stories had occurrences of the number twelve, reminiscent of the twelve tribes of Abraham, and later the Twelve Apostles, both of which signify the outreach of God’s presence into the whole world.  So those two miraculous healings last week reminded us that Jesus was healing the whole world.

    But this week, we see the exception.  This week, Jesus is in his hometown, where he is unable to do much in the way of miracles except for a few minor healings.  Why?  Because the people lacked faith.  And this is in stark contrast to last week’s healings where Jairus handed his daughter over to Jesus in faith, and the hemorrhagic woman had faith that just grasping on to the garments of Jesus would give her healing.  Faith can be very healing, and a lack of it can be stifling, leading eventually to the destruction of life.

    We see that clearly in the first two readings today.  First Ezekiel is told that the people he would be ministering to would not change, because they were obstinate.  But at least they’d know a prophet had been among them.  Contrast that with Saint Paul’s unyielding faith in the second reading to the Corinthian Church.  Even though he begged the Lord three times to relieve him of whatever it was that was his thorn in the flesh, he would not stop believing in God’s goodness.  Much has been said about what Saint Paul could possibly mean by this “thorn.”  Was it an illness or infirmity?  Was it a pattern of sin or at least a temptation that would not leave him alone?  We don’t know for sure, but this “thorn” makes Saint Paul’s story all the more compelling for us who have to deal with our own “thorns” in our own lives.  Saint Paul’s faith led him to be content with whatever weakness or hardship befell him, and he came to know that in his weakness, God could do more and thus make him stronger than he could be on his own. That assurance gives us hope of the same grace in our own struggles.

    We people of faith will be tested sometimes; that’s when the rubber hits the road for our faith.  Knowing of God’s providence, we can be sure that he will lead us to whatever is best.  And our faith can help us to make sense of the struggles and know God’s presence in the dark places of our lives.  People of faith are tested by the storms and tempests of the world, but are never abandoned by our God.  Never abandoned.

    Let’s pray with this notion today.  Take a moment to quiet yourself, close your eyes if that works for you… 

    Take a moment now to think of whatever thorn is in your side.  Maybe it’s illness or infirmity, or a temptation that won’t go away, an uneasiness about something going on in your life, worry about yourself or a family member.  Whatever that is, bring that to mind and tell Jesus about it.  Yes, he knows your needs, but he wants to hear you say it and put it in his merciful hands…

    Now picture putting that need, that thorn, in Jesus’ hands.  Give it up and stop holding on to it.  Let go of whatever hold that thorn has on you…

    Take a moment now to pray to Jesus in your heart, using your own words.  Tell him that you trust him to make of this thorn whatever he wants it to be.  Tell him that you trust in his healing, and that you will stop holding on to the way you want it to work out.  Ask him to take the burden from you and promise not to take it back…

    Repeat this after me: Jesus, I trust in you.  Jesus, I give you my burdens.  Jesus, I will accept healing in the way you want it for me.  Jesus, I trust in you.

  • The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    My absolute favorite line from this Gospel reading is, “Then he put them all out.”  I can just imagine Jesus going into the house, encountering the mourners, seeing the lack of faith in all of them, and saying “Go on!  Get outta here!  I’ve got work to do!”  Or at least that’s how I’d say it!

    It might be a funny little line, but I think it makes a significant point, and sums up the point made by the Liturgy of the Word we have for today.  Faith is necessary in our relationship with God and in receiving God’s blessings and in living the life for which he has created us.  Those incredulous mourners were symptomatic of a people who had abandoned hope of God’s interest in them.  They were so abused by the scrupulous religious establishment, that they didn’t really even know God, nor did they believe that God cared about them.  So all that was left for them was to mourn, because, as far as they knew, there was nothing for which to look forward.  The only thing Jesus could do, then, was to put them out of the house, so that he could respond to the faith of Jairus, the synagogue official, the father of the girl, who had called Jesus to come.  

    That’s not so different from the situation with the woman who somewhat detained Jesus on the way to Jairus’s house.  This poor woman had placed her faith in “many doctors,” who apparently did nothing but increase her suffering.  She seems to have had a stirring of faith, or maybe it was even a last ditch effort, a “Hail Mary,” if you will, and that leads her to touch the garment of Jesus as he passes by.  She makes an act of faith: “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”  And in this humble act of faith, in which she undoubtedly hopes to go unnoticed, she finds that no act of faith is ever unnoticed by Our Lord.  Even though the disciples laugh at him for wanting to know who in the pressing crowd touched him, Jesus, who surely already knew who it was, acknowledges this woman of faith and responds to that act of faith.

    “God did not make death,” as the wisdom author in our first reading tells us.  And because he did not make death, he has given us faith as a remedy for its effects on our lives.  Maybe we won’t be miraculously cured like the hemorrhagic woman, and maybe we won’t be raised from the dead like the daughter of Jairus.  But we absolutely will experience resurrection and new life when we join ourselves to Christ who has triumphed over death.  That experience requires faith, and we must make it our constant care to exercise that faith, live that faith, and to “put out” of our lives any negativity, any dependence on worldly remedies, anything, really, that interferes with that faith.  Each of us must be absolutely willing to “put them all out” and react in faith to all that God wants to do in our lives.  Because our lives depend on it.  They really do.

    And we can have that faith every day, because Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

  • Friday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

    Friday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    There’s quite a bit of laughing and astonishment in today’s Liturgy of the Word, and I like it!

    “Lord, if you wish you can make me clean.”  In some ways, that is the biggest understatement in all of Scripture.  Of course God can make him clean, God can do anything God wants to do.  But for the leper, I think it’s less of an understatement than it is a statement of faith.  He seems to have heard of or maybe has even seen some of Jesus’ other mighty deeds, and he is expressing the faith that Jesus can help him.  The big “if” for him, though is the “if you wish” part.  And of course, Jesus does wish, and he is made clean.

    In our first reading, God wishes to heal Abraham and Sarah too.  They display far less faith than our leper, but in their defense, they are new to the whole experience of God.  They would be happy enough for God to just bless them through Ishmael.  While God does grant descendants to Ismael, he intends to do more for the aged couple: he will give them a child through Sarah.  Abraham can’t imagine that coming to pass, and he laughs in the face of such overwhelming blessing.  But it is God who has the last laugh: he indeed gives them a son through Sarah, whom they are to name “Isaac,” which in Hebrew means, “God laughs.”

    God can do anything God wishes. Nothing is an obstacle for God, except, of course, for our lack of faith.  If we have the faith that our leper had in the Gospel reading, we might well be amused to see what God can do in us and through us and among us.  That doesn’t mean every whim of ours will be God’s pleasure, but it does mean that the ways he blesses us might make us all laugh for joy.

  • Tuesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    Listen to those words of Jesus again:

    “Enter through the narrow gate;
    for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction,
    and those who enter through it are many.
    How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.
    And those who find it are few.”

    Those are pretty challenging thoughts, I think. But they are thoughts we can resonate with. Certainly Lot fell into the trap of going through the wide gate into the land of Sodom, the residents of which our first reading says “were very wicked in the sins they committed against the LORD.” And how true for us as well. Isn’t it always easier to take the easy road, the road everyone uses, despite the fact that that road doesn’t take you anywhere you want to go? We might very well take that easy road time and again, and end up, well, with Lot,  in a place like Sodom.  God forbid.

    But the narrow gate isn’t easy to find and is harder still to travel. Living the Gospel and laying down our lives for others is hard work, and may often seem unrewarding. We may have to set aside our desires for the pleasures and rewards of this life. We may have to give up our own preferences for the good of others. 

    So we may well fail to get through that gate by our own efforts, due to the brokenness of our lives and the sinfulness of our living and the limited nature of our goodness. We may, in fact, find it next to impossible to travel through that narrow gate by ourselves.

    But here’s the good news: we don’t have to. The one who is our teacher in this constricted way is also the way through it. Our Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and through him we can all find our way to the Father. He even gives us the key to that narrow gate: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the Law and the Prophets.” As we pledge to live our lives by considering the needs of others just as we would consider our own needs, we will indeed find that traveling that narrow road is the way that gives most joy to our lives. As the Psalmist reminds us today, “He who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.”  Let’s make it our effort to live that Golden Rule today.

  • Monday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time (Beginning of Vacation Bible School)

    Monday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time (Beginning of Vacation Bible School)

    Today’s readings

    God is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises.

    In our first reading tonight, God makes a promise to Abram, later to be called Abraham.  God calls on him to make an act of faith and go to a foreign land to become a great nation.  This would be a great miracle, because Abram and his wife Sarai, were childless into their old age, and had given up hope of ever having a child.  God promised to give Abram descendants and a land to live on, and God, who is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises did just that: Abram’s descendants are numerous and they inherited the land as God promised.

    In our Gospel reading tonight, Jesus calls his disciples, including us, to stop judging, so that we might have forgiveness for our own sins.  If we are always looking for faults in our brothers and sisters, we can’t see the goodness of God in them, nor can they see it in us.  But if we admit our own faults, and forgive the faults of others, we are open to the forgiveness that Jesus promises.  And God, who is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises, does just that: he forgives us time and time again.

    Today we begin our parish Vacation Bible School, where we will travel with Mary to the many places that she has appeared to people over the centuries.  Mary was faithful to God’s plan for her life, and because of that, she gave birth to Jesus our Savior.  She was the first of all the disciples and a witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Over the centuries, she continued to bring God’s love and mercy to people all over the world, causing many people to come to believe in God and receive his grace through the Sacraments of the Church.  She has appeared to people in Fatima, Medjugorje, Lourdes, Knock, and Guadalupe, just to name a few!  And every time she appeared, she helped people to know that God loves them and forgives them and is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises.

    When I was in the Holy Land in 2019, I got to visit the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.  It was a wonderful place, because we know that is the house where Mary lived, where she heard God’s plan from the Angel Gabriel, and where she and Saint Joseph raised Jesus.  But all that is in the Basilica now are the interior walls of the house and the foundation.  The outside walls and roof are all gone.  You might think they caught fire or were destroyed in the centuries since, but that’s not the case. 

    Just on the eve of the house being destroyed by infidels during the Crusades, the house, which had survived similar attacks in the past, was picked up during the night, and brought by angels to what is now Yugoslavia.  Shepherds, who worked in the nearby fields, came one morning to see a house that had never been there before, and contained an altar, a statue of Mary, and a Crucifix.  The priest of the parish, who was crippled with arthritis, prayed to know where the house had come from, and Mary answered him in a dream:

    “’Know that his house,’ she said, ‘is the same in which I was born and brought up. Here, at the Annunciation….I conceived the Creator of all things. Here, the Word of the Eternal Father became man. The altar which was brought with the house was consecrated by Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. This house has now come to your shores by the power of God….And now in order that you may bear testimony of all these things, be healed. Your unexpected and sudden recovery shall confirm the truth of what I have declared to you.’”

    The priest was cured, and the house was venerated for three years, before it was once again moved by angels.  This time, people saw it getting moved, and ended up in the Marche region of Italy.  Unfortunately bandits surrounded the house, and Our Lord moved the house again, this time to Lecanati.  This caused a fight between the brothers that owned the property, and so the house was moved again, finally, to Loreto in Italy, where it remains today.

    During that time, scientists went to the Holy Land to examine the spot in Nazareth where the house had been.  They were able to confirm that the house is the same size as its foundation that remained in Nazareth, and that the building materials were all those used in Nazareth, and not in any of the places the house had moved to!  Over the years, of course, people came to visit and pray at the house, and many people were cured of illnesses there, just as the priest in Yugoslavia had been. 

    During this week of Vacation Bible School, you will learn that Mary has continued to make the love and mercy of God in Jesus known all throughout the world.  She is the first and greatest of all the disciples of Jesus.  And through her intercession, many miracles have taken place, and lives have been changed.  Because God is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises.

    Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
    That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  • Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time

    Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    It amazes me when I think about all that the early Church had to go through and put up with. Saint Paul writes that he put up with persecution from all sides: from his own people as well as the Gentiles. He was beaten often, endured hazardous journeys and perilous weather, as well as every kind of deprivation. His experience was definitely extreme, but others who lived the faith in those days were also subject to persecution, torture and death. Our experience isn’t quite like that, is it? I mean, here we sit in this air-conditioned church and relatively comfortable surroundings. We came here freely to Mass this morning and it is unlikely that anyone will openly persecute us or torture us or put us to death for worshipping our God, although of course, it does happen occasionally in some parts of the world.

    But there is a subtle kind of persecution that we often must endure. We know that even if our society is not openly hostile to living the Gospel, it might be just one step short of that. Life is not respected in our society: babies are aborted, the elderly are not respected or given adequate care, children are not raised in nurturing families, people are hated because of their race, color or creed. Faith is ridiculed as the crutch of the weak. Hope is crushed by those who abuse power. Love is diminished by the world’s shabby standards of loving. Living the Gospel is costly to anyone who would want to be taken seriously in our culture.

    To all of us who come to this holy place to worship this morning and who hope to work out our salvation by living the Gospel, Saint Paul speaks eloquently. We know that he, as well as all of the communion of saints, is there to intercede for us and show us the way. He says to us today, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led to sin, and I am not indignant?” He points us to our Lord Jesus who paid the ultimate price for the Gospel, and reminds us that in living that Gospel, regardless of its cost, we store up for ourselves incredible treasures in heaven, because it is in heaven that our heart resides.

  • The Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

    The Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    I really don’t have a green thumb, but for a while when I was young, I was very interested in growing things.  My grandmother on my dad’s side had quite the green thumb: anything she planted grew to be quite prolific.  I have whatever the opposite of that is!  But still, I have always been fascinated by things growing from tiny little seeds to become large plants; no matter if they become beautiful flowers to decorate the landscape, or delicious vegetables to bring to the table.

    It’s really a miracle when you think about it.  A little seed, this tiny little dried-up thing, looks for all the world to be useless and dead.  But when it gets planted in the earth, and watered by the rains, new life springs forth from it, and a tiny sprout appears, which grows day by day to become a fully mature plant by the summertime.  Sure, we or the farmers might do a little work to nurture it and water it and keep the weeds and rabbits away, but we don’t make the plant grow: day by day, almost imperceptibly, growth happens.  One day, for all the grace given it, it becomes a mature plant that gives nourishment and delight and shade for the birds of the air.

    And this is the image that Jesus uses today to describe the Kingdom of God.  These parables are a lens through which we are to see life: the life of God, and our life, and how they all come together.  And it’s an encouraging message that we hear today.  Today, our Lord assures us that the Kingdom of God doesn’t come about all at once, in great power and glory, or in some kind of dramatic explosion.  The Kingdom is like those crops that grow to be fully mature plants and yield a harvest, but it happens little by little, almost imperceptibly, always growing, but we know not how.  And the Kingdom is miraculous like a mustard seed which one day is the tiniest of all seeds and eventually becomes a large plant that gives shelter to the birds of the air.

    Here’s why I think these parables are so encouraging:  We all want to be part of the Kingdom of God.  We all want to grow in our faith.  We all want that faith to sustain us in good times and bad, and eventually lead us to heaven.  That’s why we’re here today.  But the truth is, if you’re like me, you get frustrated sometimes because it doesn’t seem like there’s any real growth going on.  We commit the same sins despite our firmest resolve.  We take one step forward and two steps back.  But still, like the seed scattered on the land, being here for Mass today isn’t nothing.  Our prayers, however lacking they may seem to be, are still a manifestation of our desire to be in relationship with God.  And God takes those tiny seeds of faith and waters them with grace and the sacraments and the life of the Church, until one day, please God, our faith makes a difference in our lives and the lives of those around us.  And even if whatever we start with in the life of faith is as tiny as a mustard seed, in God’s hands, it can become that shrub that is a shelter for those who are flying around in life from one thing to the next, without any real hope except for Christ in us.

    And that’s an important thing for us to get.  Our faith life gets nourished and we grow in it from day to day.  That’s a gift to us, for sure: every step gets us closer to the life of heaven.  But it’s not for us only, friends.  We are called as we mature to become the shrub that gives shelter to the birds of the air.  We are meant to help others along the way of faith too.  Because we don’t go alone to heaven; we’re supposed to take as many fellow seekers along with us as we possibly can.

    We may not be perfect yet, friends, but we’re graced.  And grace will perfect whatever we sow and make our tiny little beginnings into great things, all for the Kingdom of God.

  • Monday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time: Votive Mass of the Precious Blood of Jesus

    Monday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time: Votive Mass of the Precious Blood of Jesus

    Today’s readings

    God’s blessings aren’t always things that might spring to mind when we think of blessings we would like.  For example, we might not think that those who are meek and those who mourn are blessed.  And we certainly wouldn’t celebrate the blessings of those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, would we?  It’s even more challenging when we remember that the word “blessed” in Scripture could also be translated as “happy.”  Would we think of those people as happy?  Probably not, but God does.

    Paul and Timothy in our first reading write to the people of the Church at Corinth that, when they are afflicted – as they surely were! – it was for the Church’s encouragement and salvation.  Paul knew well that following Christ meant going to the Cross.  Paul saw the blessing in suffering for the sake of Christ.  He realized that suffering, for him, it probably meant death, but for all of us, it means some kind of mortification, some kind of sacrifice.

    Today we celebrate a votive Mass of the Precious Blood of Jesus.  This Mass calls to mind the saving sacrifice of Jesus, in which his most Precious Blood was poured out for us.  That blood washes away the sins of the whole world, yes, our sins too, if we let him, if we join our sufferings to his.  The salvation won at the immense cost of the Precious Blood of Jesus is a blessing that should never be taken for granted.

    So it’s important for us to remember, I think, that while God never promises to make our lives free and easy, he does promise to bless us.  He will bless us with whatever gifts we need to do the work he has called us to do, the work for which he formed us in our mother’s womb.  We may be reasonably happy in this life, but the true happiness must come later.  Our reward, which Jesus promises will be great, will surely be in heaven.

    May the Precious Blood of Jesus keep us safe for eternal life.

  • Friday of the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time

    Friday of the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    Angels are messengers that God sends sometimes to let us know his plans for us, or to guard and guide us, or even to help us to see what’s really important.  And it’s that last thing that the archangel Raphael does in today’s first reading.  If we remember all the way back to Tuesday, we heard about Tobit being made blind by cataracts caused by bird droppings, and later in that same story, he scolded his wife for accepting a goat as a bonus on her labor, because he did not believe her story.  In that part of the story, it seems that Tobit had to learn that charity – for which he himself was quite well known – begins at home.  His period of blindness gave him that very insight, I think, and in today’s story he rejoices in his cleared vision.

    Through the intercession of Saint Raphael the archangel, Tobit regained his sight and was able to see his son safely returned from a long and dangerous journey.  He saw also the return of his family fortune.  And he saw the union of his son Tobit with his new wife Sarah.  There was great cause for rejoicing in all that he was able to see and Tobit didn’t miss a beat in placing the credit where it belonged.  He said,

    Blessed be God,
    and praised be his great name,
    and blessed be all his holy angels.
    May his holy name be praised
    throughout all the ages.
    Because it was he who scourged me,
    and it is he who has had mercy on me.

    And so we praise God today for angels who help us to see what’s really important.  We praise God for angels who clear up our clouded vision and help us to see past the obstacles we’ve put in God’s way.  We praise God for angels who help us to overcome our pride and self-righteousness so that God’s way can become clear to us.  May we rejoice along with Tobit and Anna and all the rest that God has truly sent his angels to us often to bring us back to him.

  • The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary / Memorial Day

    The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary / Memorial Day

    Today’s readings

    Today we have the great honor of celebrating two very important things that happen on this day.  We all know it is Memorial Day, the day of honoring and remembering the sacrifice that many men and women made in order to safeguard our freedom.  We particularly remember those of them who paid the ultimate price during their service to our nation.  But today also happens to be the liturgical feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, having given her fiat – her “yes” – to God, now shows concern for her elder relative, Elizabeth, who is also with child.  She goes to visit her in a great act of hospitality, which is one of the virtues Paul admonished the Romans to follow in our first reading today.  Perhaps because of her faith and her great concern for Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s own child begins to rejoice in the womb, recognizing his Lord and the great woman who would bring him to human life.

    While we don’t have an exact account of what happened at that visit, we do have the Church’s recollection of its spirit, as told through Luke the Evangelist. The whole feeling of this Gospel story is one of great joy, which is perhaps why this is one of the joyful mysteries of the holy Rosary. Both Elizabeth and Mary represent the Church in the telling of the story. Because just as Elizabeth was moved by the faith and generosity of Mary, so the Church continues to be edified by her example of faith and charity. And just as Mary rejoiced in what God was doing in her life, so the Church continues to rejoice at the mighty acts of God in every person, time and place.

    Memorial Day originally began in our country as an occasion to remember and decorate the graves of the soldiers who died in the Civil War.  Later it became a holiday to commemorate all those who had died in war in the service of our country.  So today we remember those men and women who have given their lives for peace, justice, righteousness, and freedom.  These have been people who have given everything, have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.  It’s important that we take time to reflect on the freedom we have received from their sacrifice, because I think we often forget it or at least take it for granted.  They lived lives of real freedom, and so must we in our own way.  Real freedom is expressed in service, in our making the world, or at least our corner of it, a better place.  Real freedom is living in such a way that we become the person God created us to be.

    Today we pray for those courageous men and women who have made that ultimate sacrifice to keep the world safe, and free.  As we also remember Mary’s act of compassion in the Visitation today, we remember those whose compassion led them to serve our nation.  These are the ones who have been people of faith and integrity and are true heroes that God has given us. These are the ones who have laid down their lives for what is right.  If we would honor them on this Memorial Day, we should believe as they have believed, we should live as they have lived, and we should rejoice that their memory points us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our hope of eternal life.

    Today’s Gospel reading ends with the great song called the Magnificat which is Mary’s song of praise to God for the wonders he has done throughout all time, but also in her own life. We too should make that our own song as we continue to be overjoyed by the great acts of God, shepherding us all through our own lives, and intervening in our world and society to bring grace to a world darkened by sin. We, too, can pray with Mary, “From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.”

    Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God,
    That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.