Dear Friends in Christ,
We are coming to the conclusion of the month of September which is the month dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. Our Blessed Mother’s will was so attuned to that of her Son, the Lord Jesus that we can understand that she suffered when He suffered; she suffers when He continues to suffer through His Body, the Church. We recently celebrated the Feast Day of Our Lady of La Salette. In 1846, the Mother of God appeared to two children in France. She was wearing a crown and had a bright Crucifix on a chain around her neck and very significantly, she was crying. On one side of the Crucifix, there was a hammer and on the other side a set of pincers. The hammer is the instrument that drove nails into the flesh of Jesus and therefore, the hammer symbolizes our pounding nails into Christ by our sins. The pincers are used to remove nails, thus, they symbolize prayer, penance and reconciliation which removes sin. She told the children to ask people to turn away from sin and asked them to pray for the conversion of sinners. She predicted that France over all, would abandon the faith (which it has…St. John Paul II asked France, “France, eldest daughter of the Church, are you faithful to your baptism? ”), the Church will be in total disarray, priests will abandon the traditional way of living their priestly vocation, and she expressed sorrow at offenses to God. She spoke of people abandon Sundays and working on the Lord’s Day. She said that in the summer only elderly women attended Mass and that in the winter, with nothing to do, people went to poke fun at the Holy Sacrifice. Our Lady’s message to priests and to the faithful was most serious as the call to conversion always is. How many are cavalier about Mass attendance! Too many are heretics in denying the Sacrament of Penance! We use God’s name in vain or at least carelessly! We do not pray and offer up our sufferings as instructed! We cause our Lovely Mother so much pain because of our sins, because they offend the Lord Jesus. Let us strive for holiness, taking our spiritual life most seriously. Love prayer! Love communing with He who is the only way to the Father; the only means of salvation! Go to confession regularly! I once heard it said that if we knew how much we are loved by God, we would literally die with joy. Pope Saint John Paul II said at the La Salette: “In this place, Mary, the loving Mother appeared manifesting her pain for the moral evil caused by humanity. Her tears help us to understand the seriousness of sin and the rejection of God, and at the same time it is a manifestation of the passionate fidelity that her Son has for each person, even though His redemptive love is marked by the wounds of treason and abandonment by men.”
God bless you,
Father Szolack