A precious gift to wear and pray on daily
This holy week is making me realize how life is beautiful indeed. Life is an unrepeatable gift. Hence, here lies the wisdom to live it responsibly and joyfully.
No one like the Virgin Mary, Our dear Heavenly Mother, can help us live our lives with the utmost joy, care and responsibility for God, each other and ourselves. Being the Mother of Grace, Our Lady received the gift not only to ponder upon God’s intervention in her life but also to live it as a continuous gift of love for God and others in each and every detail. No better than she can really support us to live our life in this way.
Here I want to remind of what Pope Francis taught us in his Angelus address on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Thursday, 8 December 2022:
But today, faced with all this, we have good news: Mary, the only human being in history without sin, is with us in the battle, she is our sister and, above all, our Mother. And we, who struggle to choose good, can entrust ourselves to her. By entrusting ourselves, consecrating ourselves to Mary, we say to her: “Take me by the hand, Mother, guide me: with you I will have more strength in the battle against evil; with you I will rediscover my original beauty”. Let us entrust ourselves to Mary today, let us entrust ourselves to Mary every day, repeating to her: “Mary, I entrust my life to you, I entrust my family, my work, I entrust my heart and my struggles. I consecrate myself to you”. May Mary Immaculate help us to safeguard our beauty from evil.
Thus, while putting putting on this miraculous medal of Our Lady in our neclace once and for all, let us pray to Mary, Our Mother, this powerful prayer each and every morning:
My Mother, Holy Virgin, I entrust my heart to You so that it shines with peace and love. To You I entrust my fears and my sufferings. To you I entrust all my joys, dreams and hopes. Stand by me, o Mary, to protect me from all evil and all temptations. Stand by me, o Mary, so that I never lack the inner strength to pray for all families, for all the young and the sick. Our Lady of Graces, grant me courage and humility to ever forgive. Our Lady of Graces, I entrust my soul to You so that I may become a better person than I am. Amen.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
