Mary saves us in times of tribulation

Christians in the East and in Africa are subjected to Islamic violence. In France, they have been struck many times by this same violence, and they also have to contend with entrenched official secularism. Rather than hide behind their pain, many Christians prefer to follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who urges them to react by witnessing to their faith in the Resurrection and by evangelizing their neighbors.

After all, the Judeo-Christian religion holds the key to the meaning of the history God wrote with the nations baptized in the Spirit of Christ. "In answer to the prayer of little children, the Virgin Mary will save France", Marthe Robin told her spiritual director who in 1947, less than 70 years ago, was despairing of the future. Rather than speculating on the accomplished, ongoing, or foretold demise of the Christian civilization, it is better that the child-like continue to humbly pray, and fill a new page in our history that is never written in advance.

Father Patrick Faure, pastor of the parish of Saint-Eugène Sainte-Cécile in Paris.

Adapted from his meditation of April 24, 2015