By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
During
the month of May —the month of Mary— we feel a special protection of
Our Lady that extends to all the faithful; we feel a special joy that
shines and illuminates our hearts expressing the universal certainty of
Catholics that the indispensable patronage of our heavenly mother
becomes even more tender, more loving and more full of visible mercy and
exorable condescendence during her month of May.
Even after the
month of May passes, a remnant of this remains— if we have profited from
those thirty— one days especially consecrated to Our Lady. We are left
with an increased devotion, a keener confidence and, so to speak, such
an increased intimacy with Our Lady that in all the vicissitudes of life
we will know how to petition her with respectful insistence, hope in
her with invincible confidence and thank her with humble tenderness for
all the good she does us.
Our Lady is the Queen of Heaven and
Earth and, at the same time, our mother. We enter the month of May with
this conviction, and it becomes more deeply rooted in us when we leave
it, strengthening our faith and increasing our fortitude. May teaches us
to love Mary Most Holy for the glory she rightly possesses and for all
that she represents in the plans of Divine Providence. It also teaches
us to be more constant in our filial union with Mary.
Children
are never more sure of the loving vigilance of their mothers than when
they suffer. All of mankind suffers today; all peoples suffer —and in
every conceivable way.
Windstorms of impiety and skepticism sweep
through minds, and crazy whirlwinds of all types of messianism
devastate them. Nebulous, confused and rash ideas filter into every
milieu and mislead not only the wretched and the lukewarm, but sometimes
even those of whom greater constancy in the Faith is expected.
Those
who are tenaciously faithful to the fulfillment of duty suffer from all
the adversity they meet by their fidelity to the Law of Christ. Yet
those who transgress the Law also suffer, for without Christ every
pleasure is nothing but bitterness, and every joy is a lie.
Hearts
suffer, torn by the revolutionary psychological war, which is so
intense in our days. Bodies suffer, impoverished by work, undermined by
malady, overwhelmed by necessities of every kind.
The
contemporary world could be likened to the time when Our Lord was born
in Bethlehem: Its tortured mouth opens with a loud and agonizing groan,
the groan of the evildoers who live far removed from God and the groan
of the just who live tormented by the evildoers.
The more somber
circumstances become and the more excruciating sundry pains grow, the
more we should ask Our Lady to put an end to so much suffering—not
merely for our own relief, but for the greater benefit of our souls.
Sacred theology says that Our Lady's prayers anticipated the moment of
the world's redemption by the Messias. At this anguished moment in
history then, let us turn our eyes to Our Lady with confidence, asking
her to hasten the great moment we all await, when a new Pentecost will
kindle beacons of light and hope in this darkness and restore the
kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ on earth.
We should be like
Daniel, whom Holy Scripture describes as the "desideriorum vir," that
is, a man full of great desires. Let us desire many great things for the
glory of God. Let us always ask Our Lady for everything. And let us,
above all, ask her for that which the Sacred Liturgy beseeches of God:
"Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae" (Send
forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created; and Thou shalt renew the
face of the earth). We should ask, through the mediation of Our Lady,
that God once again send us the Holy Ghost with the plenitude of His
gifts so that His kingdom may be created anew and be purified by a
renewal of the face of the earth.
In the Divine Comedy, Dante
wrote that praying without the patronage of Our Lady is like wanting to
fly without wings. Let us then confide to Our Lady this heartfelt
yearning and desire. The hands of Mary will be for our prayer a pair of
pure wings that will carry it with certainty to the throne of God.
[Excert of "Legionario", May, 23th 1943]
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