Pope John Paul II Prayer to Mary, the Light of Hope

Immaculate Heart of Mary, help us to conquer the menace of evil,

which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today,

and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world

and seem to block the paths toward the future.

From famine and war, deliver us.

From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction,

from every kind of war, deliver us.

From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us.

From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us.

From every kind of injustice in the life of society,

both national and international, deliver us.

From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.

From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us.

From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.

From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us.

Accept, O Mother of Christ,

this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings,

laden with the sufferings of whole societies.

Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit conquer all sin:

individual sin and the "sin of the world," sin in all its manifestations.

Let there be revealed once more in the history of the world

the infinite saving power of the redemption: the power of merciful love.

May it put a stop to evil. May it transform consciences.

May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of hope. Amen.

Mother of Sorrows

Today Catholics honor Our Blessed Mother under her title of Our Lady of Sorrows. Not only Catholics, but all of humanity owe a great debt of gratitude to her. When she was called to be the Mother of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, her "yes" had eternal repercussions for the benefit of all mankind. Out of love for God, she willingly took on not only the responsibilities of her divine calling, but also all of the sacrifices and sufferings that might be involved. Then from the Cross, Jesus gave his perfect Mother to all of us to be our Mother of Grace. She loves and watches over all her children of the world, even those who are so unfortunate as to not know her and love her.

*

THANK YOU, BLESSED MOTHER,

FOR SAYING "YES" TO BEING THE MOTHER OF JESUS AND OUR MOTHER!

*

O Mary conceived without sin,

pray for us who have recourse to you.

You have been so closely associated with the whole work of our redemption,

associated with the Cross of our Savior.

Your Heart was pierced by it, beside His Heart.

And now, in the glory of your Son,

you do not cease to intercede for us, poor sinners.

You watch over the Church and are the Mother of the Church.

You watch over each of your children.

You obtain for us from God all those graces symbolized

by the rays of light emanating from your open hands.

The sole condition on our part is that we come to you

with confidence, with boldness, and with the simplicity of a child.

~ Pope John Paul II ~

Ellie Wiesel: Universal Lessons of the Holocaust

"The promotion of the culture of life

should be the highest priority in our societies...

If the right to life is not defended decisively

as a condition for all other rights of the person,

all other references to human rights remains deceitful and illusory."

~ Pope John Paul II ~

+

Ellie Wiesel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, knows from personal experience at Auschwitz about man's inhumanity to a targeted group of human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, who are not considered to be human beings in the eyes of their killers. At Auschwitz, although mothers were given a chance to save their own lives by giving up their children--mothers chose to die with their children. Ellie Wiesel says that the message has been delivered about the holocaust of the Jews, not to solicit sympathy but because they want the world to learn and remember and become a better world. He said it is most tragic that the message has been delivered and nothing has changed. There is still hatred, antisemitism, suicide killers, fanaticism. He said that our role is to become messengers and continue to deliver the message.

+

"We must not be surprised

when we hear of murders, of killings, of wars, of hatred.

If a mother can kill her own child,

what is left but for us to kill each other."

~ Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta ~

+

The modern day holocaust of abortion has many characteristics similar to the Jewish holocaust: the victims are not considered to be human beings by their killers; the scientific and moral message has been delivered over and over again; the world is still full of prejudice against a staggering number of unborn babies deliberately killed daily throughout the world. The USA death toll alone is 5o million innocent babies since abortion became legal in a nation that prides itself on freedom and justice for ALL!

+

Why have nations not learned a valuable lesson from the tragedy of the Jewish holocaust? Ellie Wiesel, a man who suffered the holocaust, questions why there is no rage at the magnitude of cruelty and the consequences of hatred--rage against the killers, against those who inspired the killers, toward the indifferent, and those who knew and remained silent.

+

The same could be said about those who know about the helpless unborn baby humans who are mercilessly killed and do nothing to try and prevent their deaths. At Auschwitz mothers sacrificed their own lives rather than deliver their children up to death. In America, 4000 mothers every day deliver their babies into the hands of those that they pay to dispose of their tiny bodies. Where is the public and persistent outrage? A haunting reminder of inaction in the face of cruel and tragic realities of inhumane treatment of fellow human beings is the true story of a Christian who remembers the cries of Jewish prisoners being transported by train to their deaths.

+

Don't miss "Ellie Wiesel: Universal Lessons of the Holocaust" here.