By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ • St. Josaphat Formation Center • Phoenix, AZ
As we celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost this month of May, we invoke the Holy Spirit to come upon the Church, all the clergy, faithful and the whole world with His manifold Gifts. We plead Him to give us wisdom and heavenly counsel in managing the affairs of the world and our individual lives, to make us more aware of His presence in us and among us so as to be more respectful of God, and grateful for His many gifts of creation and grace. Then we ask the Spirit to give us strength in order to put all these things into practice for the good of all and peace in the world! St Maximillian Kolbe exhorted his brothers and readers to be very generous in the petitions they made to God – to ask for great things, since as Scripture tells us “God can do more than we hope for or even imagine.” Moreover, St. Kolbe taught to ask for all in and through the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the disciples did on the morning when the Spirit came so powerfully upon them.
The Blessed Mother also advises us to ask for all we need and hope for. When she answered St. Catherine Laboure’s question as to why some of the rays coming from her fingers in the image of the Miraculous Medal didn’t reach the earth, Mary told her that those were graces from God that people didn’t ask for. “Ask and
you shall receive,” we are commanded by the Lord.
So let us ask for the great things that we need and especially that the world needs and more so if they seem out of our reach or beyond hope of acquisition, like world peace among all men of every culture, race and religion. Pray with confidence for the end of all violence especially against innocents in the womb, the young and the vulnerable, the calming of hatreds between peoples and nations, the outpouring of a spirit of forgiveness for past offenses and atrocities.
Learning from the Apostles in the upper room, we pray with confidence now with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, because “never was it known that anyone who fled to her protection, implored her help
or sought her intercession was left unaided!”
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