Dear Friend of La Salette,
Happy, healthy and above all holy New Year!
The beginning of yet another calendar year affords us the annual opportunity to reflect and resolve. We must take this occasion to beg Our Lord for His enlightening Grace to properly discern our spiritual state and take the necessary steps - cost what it may - to increase our knowledge and love of our Holy Faith and the fervor in its practice. In a world gone cold in its love of God, we must zealously seek the great means divinely placed at our disposal to serve Our Lord and save our souls. Simply put in one great word: Mary! In the inscrutable ways of Almighty God, the humble Virgin has been raised to a dignity and thus a power beyond compare among all creation, for She truly is the Mother of God, the Mother of Christ, the Mother of Divine Grace! The one resolution we must make for this new year is to increase our love of the Blessed Virgin Mary because this is God's will.
From the earliest Christian times, attested by the pictures of the Mother of God drawn in the catacombs, to our own day, the true followers of Christ, in other words Christians in the fullest and most profound sense, have been marked by their love and devotion to Our Lady.
With all the hope a new year can bring, let us ensure true success - in our families, country and throughout the world - by dedicating this year to the Immaculate Mother of God. Let us make 2009 a truly Marian year by following Her example in fidelity, charity and all virtue, heeding Her words which helped begin Her Divine Son's public ministry with the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana: Do whatever He tells you!
In Christ the King,
Immaculate Mother of God, in these times of such brazen impiety, show your power with the signs of your former victories, and from your throne, from which you bestow pardon and graces, mercifully look upon the Church of your Son, His Vicar on earth, and every order of clergy and laity, who are sorely oppressed in this mighty conflict.
Powerful vanquisher of all heresies, hasten the hour of mercy, even though the hour of God's justice is every day provoked by the countless sins of men. For me who am the least of men, kneeling before you in prayer, obtain the grace I need to live a holy life upon earth and to reign among the just in heaven. Meanwhile, together with all faithful Christians throughout the world, I greet you and acclaim you as
Queen of Heaven and Earth. Amen.
