DAY 38 – MARY, QUEEN OF ANGELS, PRAY THAT WE PARTICIPATE IN THE COUNSEL OF KING!

Becoming “Masters of Mental Prayer.” Each day, during Lent, we will practice “Mental Prayer,” as we reflect on, and desire the greatest gifts, so God may show each one of us a “More Excellent Way” (1 Cor. 12:13). Do your best to find a minimum of 15 minutes each day. By the regular practice of Mental Prayer, you will become more attuned to the “Still Small Voice.”

GUIDE TO MENTAL PRAYER: HERE

 

You Are a Commissioned Officer

Admission into Christ’s elite fighting force begins by knowing that by your baptism you have been “commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill a most dramatic mission; it is the mission of saving souls. This mission cannot be accomplished without entering into conflict with ‘the world, the flesh and the devil.’ It is not a mission for the fainthearted or for those who wish to take the wide road to heaven. It is the path of warfare, of spiritual battle” (Fr. Thomas Euteneuer)

“Holiness,” writes Pope Benedict XVI, “has its deepest root in the grace of baptism, in being grafted on to the Paschal Mystery of Christ, by which His Spirit is communicated to us, His very life as the Risen One.” Jesus Christ is the one Whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king. The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them (CCC 783).

 

Office of King

A king is someone who leads others to God. A good king is someone who leads by example. A good king is someone who puts those in his charge ahead of himself. Christ the King said, “I have not come to be served, but to serve.” And then He got down on His hands and knees and washed the dirty feet of His disciples. He told them, “You want to be great? Then be the slave of the rest” (Mt 20:27-28, Jn 13:4-5).

As Jean-Baptiste Chautard recounts in his book The Soul of the Apostolate, Pope St. Pius X was conversing with a group of his cardinals one day. The pope asked them:

“What is the thing we most need, today, to save society?”

“Build Catholic schools,” said one.

“No.”

“More churches,” said another.

“Still no.”

“Speed up the recruiting of priests,” said a third.

“No, no,” said the pope, “the most necessary thing of all, at this time, is for every parish to possess a group of laymen who will be at the same time virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and truly apostolic.”

Chautard continues, “Further details enable us to assert that this holy pope at the end of his life saw no hope for the salvation of the world unless the clergy could use their zeal to form faithful Christians full of apostolic ardor, preaching by word and example, but especially by example. In the diocese where he served before being elevated to the papacy, he attached less importance to the (count) of parishioners than to the list of Christians capable of radiating an apostolate. It was his opinion that shock troops could be formed in any environment.”

“Shock troops” (or assault troops) is actually a military term that refers to infantry formations, along with supporting units, created to lead an attack. Consider the Allied Forces of World War II moving toward the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. That first wave of men knew full well that their chances were extremely poor of ever leaving that beach alive, but they knew somebody needed to go first. It is no less than profound that the holy Pope St. Pius X would use a military term, shock troops, to describe the most necessary need of our times. The pope is resolute in acknowledging we are in spiritual warfare as he calls for an uncommon valor willing to be the tip of the spear, the vanguard, warrior saints unafraid “to lead.”