The Mass and Vocations – our treasures!
Dear members of the Society, my dear faithful and friends.
Last year, on November 11th, we asked for your generosity to help intensify our petitions towards Heaven, in order to obtain, through a prayer crusade, the liberation of the Mass and the influx of many vocations.
This crusade ended on Holy Thursday and we have now gathered together the results. With overwhelming joy, we will have the honour of solemnly handing them over to the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Heavenly Mother, on the first day of the month dedicated to her, being also the Feast of Saint Joseph.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all most warmly for the commitment and zeal with which you responded to our urgent appeal. In these trying and difficult times for the Church and her children, the sight of a worldwide holy alliance of prayer is a powerful comfort for souls, and a firm pledge of hope in the unfailing assistance from Heaven.
How grateful we are for the motherly assistance of the Blessed Virgin Mary! All over the world, the same observations have been made: despite the health restrictions and the other difficulties of all kinds, the faithful are flocking in ever greater numbers to the altars where our priests offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In many places, the number of faithful has even doubled. How can we explain this remarkable growth?
Firstly, it is the power of the rosary: infallible and always efficacious with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The rosary acts like a magnet attracting to God souls that recite it, and drawing down God’s blessings upon them - and around them.
Secondly, it is through the tireless and ingenious dedication of our priests, to whom I also express my deepest gratitude. Even sometimes by taking risks, they have sought to rival each other, with zeal and fervour, in guaranteeing access to the sacraments, for the benefit of your souls, and thus attracted many new faithful. Thanks to their sometimes daring docility and the freedom of action they enjoy within the Society, their priestly ministry has never ceased to shine forth in a magnificent way and to spread divine life in abundance.
Finally, it is also by the renewed fervour and eagerness with which each one of you undertakes to work for your own sanctification. It is undeniable that circumstances are shaking off the sluggishness in which our souls were perhaps slumbering. In these difficult times, as in others previously, Divine Providence makes use of the evils it has allowed, in order to spur us on. Since we fear of being deprived of it, we appreciate more the value of the Mass. We seek the sacraments with a greater eagerness and we cherish even more the spiritual benefits when we are able to receive them.
So with these sincere thanks, I also want to encourage you. Our Prayer Crusade must not stop here! The world and the Catholic Church need people who pray, and who sanctify themselves, so that Our Lord Jesus Christ may extend His reign on this earth, firstly in them and then through them, to all those who fall under their influence. The Church and the world are dying. God needs souls that are alive and whose spiritual vitality is like new blood for the regeneration of society. God’s holy will is your path to holiness.
May this intention for vocations remain very present in our hearts. There must be nothing more important to us all than to help encourage generous souls to consecrate to God their whole life and all their strength.
May God bless you, assist you in your generosity and grant that you may all abide in His charity!
Dillwyn, April 25th, 2021, on the Feast of Saint Mark
Don Davide Pagliarani, Superior General