06/05/2022

All the prayers chosen for the Liturgy are not only appropriate but some are more strikingly beautiful than others. Today's collect is a case in point. It contains much of our faith in one carefully constructed sentence and points out to us the role of Our Lady in God's plan for the salvation of mankind. I cannot help but ask how it is possible for any priest to read this beginning to today's prayer without being moved as I am. Of course, today is now and tomorrow is another day.

Our Lady, the only human born without sin (Adam was created without sin and Eve sinlessly formed from Adam), is also the only human other than Jesus who is present in the eternal heaven in body and soul. As a human she must be appalled by the behaviour of the Church that she has been given by her son. How can we still fall into the mire of sin with the "Fiat" of Salvation as our maternal guardian?

We all have the freedom to avoid the world, the flesh and the devil. We can say "no" to temptation but my own life tells me that it is very easy to put off to tomorrow what should be our first commitment today; know love and serve is what is required of all of us and we only have to ask and the grace to do God's will together with the support of Our Lady is ours.

Dear Lord help me to be sincere in my thoughts and in my prayers. Let me avoid the self-satisfaction that so easily comes from pious moments. Without your grace I am nothing. Mary you know the pains of motherhood and the horror of witnessing the torture undergone by Jesus, your son, keep all suffering mothers in your heart and pray that all thy children will thankfully use the grace so painfully won for us.