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John of the Cross, Presb and the doctor Eccl.

CURRICULUM VITAE

He came from a poor Spanish family. At 21, he entered the Carmelite order in Medina del Campo. After meeting Teresa of Avila and with the consent of the superiors, he participated with her in spreading the reformed Carmel. He had to endure many hardships, but in suffering, he achieved a profound union with God and the pinnacle of mystical life. He held several positions, but according to his wish, he ended up freed from them and the glory associated with recognition. Likewise, he died after great suffering. The spiritual writings he left behind testify to his wisdom.

A MYSTIC THEOLOGIST ON THE JOYFUL WAY OF THE CROSS

He was born in 1542 in the small village of Fontiveros in Castile as the third son of Gonzalo de Yepes, who a family of wealthy merchants disinherited after the death of his parents. She did not like that he chose poor Catalina Alvarez, an orphan, as his wife. John’s ancestors on his father’s side were supposedly noblemen. His father died after a long illness when John was about two years old. Poverty and worries about how to provide the children with the most necessary things prompted his mother to set out with Francisco and little John (son Alois died before John was born) over a long distance to their uncle. The painful journey of begging did not fulfill expectations. When they were back in Fontiveros, five-year-old John (pronounced Spanish Juan) almost drowned in a lake. The incident is said to have been accompanied by a vision of Mother Mary, who was reaching out her hand to him, but he did not give her his out of respect for her so as not to soil it. Then, a peasant pulled him out. (He felt the protection of Mother Mary for the second time somewhat later when he fell into the well.)

In 1548, mother Catalina moved with her sons to Arévalo, but the family’s poverty did not decrease. In 1551, another move followed to the commercial town of Medina del Campo (today Valladolid). There, his mother placed John in a group for poor orphans, where he was educated for 8 years. He did well in his studies, but his attempts at tailoring, woodcarving, or painting were unsuccessful. From 17, he worked as a nurse in a hospital. He went around begging for alms for poor patients. With a desire to study, he spent several hours a day in the Jesuit college and more at night overbooks. He finished his humanistic studies with the Jesuits in 1563 when he entered the Carmelite monastery of St. Anne in Medina. After a year’s novitiate, he took vows and, under the name John of St. Methods, was sent to study at the University of Salamanca, where in 1567, he was ordained a priest. He had his primogeniture in Medina. Due to his desire for a stricter life, he considered transferring to the Cartesian order. Still, he met Teresa of Jesus, learned about her reform, and finally agreed to cooperate. He had not yet completed his studies. On August 15, 1568, he participated in founding a monastery in Valladolid, where Teresa introduced him to the life they began to live according to the original rules, including the method and meaning of their so-called recreation.

In Duruelo near Avila, he was given a house as a gift, which he repaired. Teresa called it Bethlehem and obtained permission from the provincial. John and two others, the prior of Medina, Father Anthony, and the deacon Joseph, took new vows there on the first Sunday of Advent, in the presence of the provincial, regarding the reform of the order. John’s new name was “John of the Cross,” and Anthony had “of Jesus” added. Thus, the first male community of the “Barefoot” was founded. The Reformed were called so because they walked barefoot, unlike the other Carmelites. The division into barefoot and shod took hold and persists.

John of the Cross was put in charge of the education of the novices. On 11 June 1570, the convent moved from Duruelo to Mancera de Abajo, near Salamanca. In the autumn of the same year, John went to Pastrana, where there were more novices. However, on 25 January 1571, he had already founded a monastery of Displaced Carmelites in Alba de Tormes. In April, he became rector of the College of Discalced Carmelites in Alcalá de Henares.

In the Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila, Teresa of Jesus became prioress in October and, through the visitor, requested John of the Cross as confessor and advisor for her convent for the following year. John stayed in Avila, with minor breaks, from May 1572 to the beginning of December 1577, when he was captured on the night of December 4 and secretly transported to the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Toledo. There, he was illegally tried as a seditionist despite all the credentials he had received from the nuncio and the apostolic visitor. They also offered him many benefits if he withdrew from the reform. In vain. Therefore, they imprisoned him in a small, windowless room with a stool and a breviary. They took away his hooded scapular so that he would suffer the cold, and they gave him only bread and water for food. They only dared to commit evil deeds after the late nuncio Ormanet was replaced by Felipe Seg, who no longer favored reform.

John endured suffering with patience and responded to evil with love. He also gave the guard a wooden cross that he wore on his heart. He filled his time with prayer and composed mystical poems. However, his body did not want to endure the conditions in prison. When John felt his life was at stake, he escaped. He did not know where his prison was located. The tied blanket with the robe, with which he lowered himself from the prison, was supposedly tied to a loop that would not usually have been able to bear the weight of it. There was more than two meters to the bottom. After jumping down, he discovered he was in greater danger in the yard. He had to get up from there to a niche behind the wall. Finally, he managed to get to the Discalced Carmelites at dawn. He was in such a state that he could only eat porridge made from boiled pears. He soon took refuge in the monastery of “El Calvario” in Andalusia in southern Spain, where he became abbot in the autumn.

He started in Baez on July 14, 1579, as rector of the college of “Our Lady of Carmel,” which he led until the beginning of 1582. In the meantime, in March 1581, he participated in the provincial chapter in Alcalá de Henares because Pope Gregory XIII had consented the previous year to establish his province of the Discalced.

From January 1582, John of the Cross was stationed in Granada, and in October 1585, he became provincial vicar in Andalusia. After two years, he returned to the priory of the Granada Convent of the Martyrs. He was a sought-after confessor and wrote about prayer and the spiritual journey. During his time in Granada, he not only rebuilt the monastery, but also managed to write the book The Ascent of Mount Carmel, considered his best work. He also made many journeys, drawing strength from prayer.

As a vicar in Andalusia, he founded other monasteries. In April 1586 in Cordoba at the chapel of St. Roch, in June another in Seville and later that year in La Manchuela. That year, a wall fell while a house was being rebuilt, crushing his room and him. Onlookers thought he had not survived, but then they saw his smile and heard him attribute protection to the Virgin Mary.

Pope Sixtus V. 10. 7. 1587 Bosý authorized a vicar general subject to the superior general. In the first chapter in Madrid on 18. 6. 1588, John of the Cross was elected the first general definitor. When the vicar general M. Doria introduced a new form of governance, he appointed John the third councilor. The council seat was in Segovia in the middle of the following year. John also became the principal of the community there.

At the extraordinary Madrid chapter in 1590, he tried to mitigate the extreme measures that Doris had begun. At the next regular chapter a year later, John was stripped of all his functions, and with humility and inner peace, he left for the Andalusian province. After a month in the hermit convent of La Peñuela, he fell ill. He suffered from inflammation of his right leg and, therefore, went to the convent in used for treatment. He arrived with a high fever and underwent a serious operation without anesthesia. From December 7, his fever rose dangerously, and on December 11, he received the sacraments for the journey to eternity. Shortly after midnight on December 14, when he kissed the cross with the words: “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit” – he died.

He was beatified in 1675 and canonized in 1726. In 1926, he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI. Through his writings, he teaches the path to union with God and complete transformation into the Beloved.

In writing The Flame of Love…, he asks: “Why are you impatient, my soul, when from now on you can love God completely in your heart?”

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

From John’s example, I will learn to respond to evil with love. On this “divine path” to accept crosses with love for the conversion of others and to ascend “Mount Carmel” – where “the glory and honor of God dwells” – with a joyful flame of love in my heart.

O God, who gave to Saint John of the Cross a great love for the crucified Christ and the ability to adhere entirely to You; grant that we may follow him in this and attain the vision of Your glory. Through Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, a world without end.

 Whether God fulfilled his promises to the chosen people arose during the Babylonian captivity. The answer to this question is today’s first reading. The Old Testament prophet presents God as the Redeemer who will defeat the Babylonians. God speaks to his people with a statement already known from the books of the Law: I am the Lord, your God. In other words, the same God of the Fathers is at work here, and he has already proven himself several times in the history of the Old Testament people of God. He presents himself as one who teaches and guides the people. Then comes the reproach. They would have been saved if the people had obeyed God’s commands. So, God is not to blame for his promises not being fulfilled. The people themselves are to blame for their unfaithfulness.

As God taught the people in the Old Testament, so did Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus also reproaches his contemporaries for being moody and unstable. They are like children playing in the square at a wedding and a funeral simultaneously, spoiling each other’s play. Jesus’ rebuke to his contemporaries, Jesus applies their attitude to John the Baptist and himself. John the Baptist lived a life of repentance, and he did not suit them, so they accused him of being possessed by the devil. Jesus was with sinners, which seemed to them to be worldly; therefore, they did not accept him. Then Jesus makes a statement: Well, wisdom is justified by works. God’s wisdom manifested in John the Baptist’s acts of repentance. God’s wisdom was also manifested in Jesus and his dining with sinners. Both did works of God’s wisdom. You need to observe and evaluate the surrounding deeds in the spirit of faith. After all, God shapes each person differently according to their life circumstances. Therefore, we should not adopt superficial slander and name-calling of other people. Naturally, when someone is impure, he also judges others according to himself. Immersed in things, events, and people, he will keep us on the path Jesus leads us on. Whoever follows Jesus will have the light of life.

It would be interesting to conduct a poll on our idea of ​​God. The question is not new; different religions have long presented their images of their deities. Let’s see how the Old Testament approaches this topic.

The image of the God of Israel is a particular theme in the Bible. The Ten Commandments contain not only the prohibition of worshiping other gods but also the prohibition of depicting them: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth!” (Deuteronomy 5:8 ). In his speech, Moses explains that the prohibition to make an image also applies to the God of Israel: “be very careful, for you did not see any figure when the Lord spoke to you in the midst of the fire on Horeb” (Deuteronomy 4:15). Today’s excerpt from Isaiah can also be read in these intentions.

The prophet asks, “To whom will you liken God? And what form will you set next to him?” (Isaiah 40:18 – Ecumenical translation). This question arises in the context of the Babylonian captivity, a period when the Israelites were exposed to the worship of the god Sin and the cult of the God Marduk, both of which were part of the Babylonian culture. The Babylonians were famous for their astrology and their spectacular celebrations. In this context, the ‘invisibility’ of God serves a dual purpose. On the one hand, it protects God from triumphalism and excessive pride. On the other hand, it creates a crisis (v. 27) about whether God Yahweh is really what he says: mighty (v. 26), eternal and wise creator of all things (v. 28).

The opening rhetorical question about our reading suggests that the God of Israel is not just different from other deities, but incomparable. The term holy (Heb. qadoš) expresses this uniqueness (v. 25) in a way that sets our God apart. The eternal God, or more precisely the God of Eternity, is also the creator of the ends of the earth (v. 28). Eternity conceals all time; the most distant past and the most distant future, and the ends of the world represent all space. Therefore, every moment and place is in God’s power (Berges, 159-160). There is nothing to which He does not give being. We don’t know what God looks like. But it’s not really about his appearance at all. Isaiah directs the readers’ attention elsewhere. God does not lose strength or grow old (v. 28). Time does not rob him of vitality. As is common in other cults, he does not need people to charge him with life energy. Still, he distributes it to exhausted and weak people (v. 29). While natural powers are waning, God is the source of new inexhaustible power (v. 31). The key that opens the door to the source is hope, expectation, and reliance on God. This concept of hope as a source of strength should inspire and empower us all. As we light the candles on the Advent wreath, let our hope and trust in God grow with the increasing light. The Advent season, focusing on the anticipation of Christ’s birth, is a fitting time to reflect on the nature of God as revealed in the biblical text. Let us recognize him when we look into the face of the baby who will be born in a few days in Bethlehem. I add my heartfelt congratulations to Lucia and wish everyone a blessed day.

Let’s stop today at the verb to try, which we heard in the first reading. What does it mean? It can be replaced by the words irritate, anger, anger, worry. It also describes a bit: to tempt. King Ahaz, to Isaiah’s offer to ask for a sign, replies: “I will not ask, I will not tempt the Lord.” All the alternative meanings of the word tempt fit the context and complete the situation. Tempting God means putting his goodness and omnipotence to the test by word or deed.

Ahaz completes the story. King Ahaz of Judah devoted himself to idolatry and even burned his son in sacrifice to Moloch (2 Kings 16, 3). When the Syrian and Ephraim armies entered Judah to depose him, the frightened king sent word to Tiglath-Pileser, the mighty ruler of Assyria. He handed him the treasures from the Jerusalem Temple with a request that sounded like a blasphemous prayer: “I am your servant and your son. Come and save me … “(2 Kr 16.7).

Could such a king accept the offer of God’s help, ask for a sign, pray? Certainly not. That’s why he says that he doesn’t want to tempt God. Therefore, Isaiah gave him a sign in the prophecy: And thus the Lord will provide you with a sign: Behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.” This sign has two meanings. The first was fulfilled in the reign of Ahaz’s son Hezekiah. For the Jews, Hezekiah became a messianic figure, a symbol of God’s affection for his people – and a call to the people to be faithful to Yahweh.

At the same time, this prophecy of Isaiah foreshadows Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah. He was born of a virgin and was called Emmanuel, “God with us”. “Behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, which in translation means: God with us” (Mt 1, 23). He came to save people from something more significant than conquerors. He came to free us from sin and death. God always fulfills what he promised – even after centuries! Jesus assured us that he would always be with us until the end of time, and through the Eucharist, he fulfilled his promise (Mt 28, 20). He is always “God with us.”

Jan Didakus /Juan Diego/ Cuauhtlatoatzin

John Didacus

CURRICULUM VITAE

He came from an Indian tribe in Mexico. Raised in paganism, he lived according to his conscience, and after the arrival of the Franciscans, he accepted the faith with his wife. He became a sincere Christian, and from December 9 to 12, 1531, he experienced four encounters with the Virgin Mary, who demanded the construction of a church on Tepeyac Hill. She sent flowers for the bishop as a sign and created an extraordinary, breathtaking image on his mantle. After completing the task, he became a churchwarden in the new church, a witness to the faith, and a model of Marian worship.

CV FOR MEDITATION

SERVANT OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

He was born around 1474 in Cuautitlán, 20 km from Mexico City. He was initially named Cuauhtlatoatzin – Talking Eagle (“the one who speaks the language of an eagle”). His upbringing followed Aztec principles focused on self-control and preparation for battle. As a boy, he graduated from a kind of Aztec military academy. Here, he learned how to lead battles and capture the enemy so that he could be a living sacrifice to the god Huitzilopochtli. As an adult, he married the Indian Maintain – “venerable pasture”.

In 1524, when the first Franciscans began to operate in the region, he went to Tenochtitlan, two miles away, to follow them and accept Christian teachings about God. Turibius of Benedetto baptized him and his wife. At the same time, he took the new name Jan Didakus (in the local language, Juan Diego) and his wife Malintzin-Maria Lucia. After five years, she became seriously ill and died. Jan Didakus then moved to his uncle Jan Bernardino in Tolpetlac, where he was much closer to the church in Tlatelolco (the original name was probably Tlatilolco). Every Saturday and Sunday, he set out barefoot on a three-hour journey to attend Holy Mass. At that time, only Aztecs of the upper social classes wore sandals. He went out into the cold morning dressed in a tilma woven from the fibers of the agave plant.

He was 57 when he left so early on December 9, 1531. That day, near a hill called Tepeyac, he heard a sweet, unusual song, which, at first, he thought was a bird’s song. Suddenly, it was replaced by a voice calling his name. On the hill, he found a very beautifully dressed girl and was amazed at the radiance and charm of the one who addressed him in his dialect.

She presented herself to him as the perpetual Virgin and Mother of the true God, the Author of life, who created and sustains all things. She told him she longed for a temple to be built where she had shown him. There, she wanted to show her love, favor, help, and protection because she was the kind Mother of all. She promised that there she would listen attentively to the cries of those who came to her, show them favor in their need, and bring relief in every distress.

For this reason, she sent him to Bishop John of Zumarrága, and both were to participate in realizing her wish. The bishop listened to him, but he found Didaku’s words untrustworthy. He invited him to come again so that he would think about his wish for the time being, but at the same time, he made it clear that he was not serious about the matter. That very day, John Didakus went to the place of the apparition to complain to the Queen of Heaven about his failure and ask her to send someone more suitable in his place. However, she had a reason for choosing him, a small peasant.

On Sunday, he went to the bishop again, and the bishop got rid of him by demanding a sign. At the same time, he had him followed, but below the hill of Tepeyac, Jan Didakus disappeared from the pursuers’ eyes. At the top, Didakus presented the bishop’s request to the Mother of God, and she told him to come the next day for the desired sign.

Didakus had to go home and, the next day, first called a doctor for his sick uncle. When Didakus brought him in, the doctor discovered the seriousness of the illness and declared that he was helpless. The dying uncle expressed his desire for Holy Confession and urged Jan to go and get a priest for him on the night of Monday to Tuesday the 12th. John Didacus was, therefore, in a great hurry and wanted to miss the place of the apparition, so he went a little lower. However, the Virgin Mary blocked his way. She revealed to him that she knew the situation well and showed herself as the one who had the power to protect her servants and help them. She emphasized that he should not be discouraged by anything and did not need to worry about his uncle’s illness. She said: “Am I not here, your Mother? Am I not the source of life? … He will not die from the illness he suffers from; be assured in your heart that he is already healed.” (The sudden healing was later proven.) John believed her words, even when she sent him to the top for flowers, where otherwise only cacti grew and perhaps even snow lay. Nevertheless, he picked beautiful, fragrant Castilian roses and other flowers there to serve as a sign to the bishop. An even greater sign was the image that the Mother of God caused to appear on John’s tilma – an agave cloak – when it was opened before the bishop. This image provided later amazing revelations, described in the monument to P. Mary 12. 12. The bishop believed him and decided to build. He kept John until the next day and then sent him with an escort to Tepeyac, where the Virgin Mary appeared to him 4 times. Since he also spoke to his uncle, the escort accompanied him. He testified that the Virgin Mary suddenly healed him at the time above when she also appeared to his nephew (December 12), and added that he must go to the bishop to tell him everything he had seen, how he had been miraculously healed, and that they should call that sublime image Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Since the completion of the shrine of the “Lady of Heaven” (1533), Jan Didakus took care of this small church with great love and righteousness as a churchwarden and bore witness to the pilgrims who came and encouraged them with the example of his life. His life force was the Eucharist, which Bishop Zumarraga allowed him to receive thrice a week, although this was unusual. He deeply revered the Mother of Jesus in prayer and penance. He was not attracted to earthly things, and he showed significant manifestations of faith, hope, love, humility, and obedience to spiritual shepherds. Furthermore, he took care of the shrine until the end of his life and, according to tradition, died at the end of May 1548. However, the anniversary of his meeting with the Virgin Mary is also given, on which the Pope established his memorial and inclusion in the church calendar in 2002.

A significant miracle for the beatification process was the sudden change in the life of drug addict Juan José Silva Barragán three days after an injury that was incompatible with life. The perfect recovery occurred in the intensive care unit in Durango, Mexico City, after the prayers of John Didacus.

Pope John Paul II elevated him to the veneration of the altar on May 6, 1990. He proclaimed his canonization on July 31, 2002, in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the presence of 12,000 people, with another 30,000 people watching the ceremony on giant screens around the sanctuary.

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

We are all to bear some witness of trust in God’s love, especially where it is lacking. After reflecting on how much of this trust has been evident in my life, I will prayerfully decide to take a concrete step of correction.

O God, in Saint John Didacus’s life, you have shown the love of the Most Holy Virgin Mary for your people. Grant us, through his intercession, that we may be obedient to the warnings that this our Mother gave us in Guadalupe, and may we always strive to do your will. Through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, a world without end. 

The evangelist Luke already describes what the prophet Isaiah predicts in the distant future as a present, currently unfolding story. It also speaks to our reality. The prophecy is fulfilled: Jesus heals two blind men. How can we recognize ourselves in this story as it relates to us? Even if someone doesn’t need prescription glasses, they will understand that we all have more or less severe vision impairments. It is the spiritual quality of our outlook. A person can be blind or blinded by pride. He may be blinded by passion or anger. He may be dazzled by someone or something that prevents him from seeing properly.

He can be myopic if he cannot see beyond his worries and troubles and the narrow horizon of his interests. Likewise, he can be spiritually far-sighted if he sees the big goal clearly, but he stumbles over small everyday obstacles he cannot see. He can also live in a “gray haze” when egoism dulls and clouds the vision, so he sees his fellow man, the world, and nature blurred, distorted, or obscured. The disease of correct spiritual vision is also a deceptive view in black or perhaps in pink colors.

To see, to truly see, means to see with Christ’s gaze through the lens of his heart. If the famous writer (Saint-Exupéry) said that “we see correctly only with the heart,” this is only part of the truth. More precisely, we see rightly only with a pure heart, and we see best with the heart of Christ. Only those who meet him in living prayer, in the sacraments of the Church, and the Scriptures gradually adopt his way of seeing, understanding, and evaluating everything around us and ourselves. Scripture also speaks in many places about the human heart, and even characterizes it as deceitful, twisted, hardened, stubborn, etc.

He speaks of it as a place from which even evil things emanate. It is not good to idealize the human heart. Only a heart renewed by God and his grace, a heart that loves God, discovers its true power of goodness. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Yes, Lord, we, too, are blinding, and we need to encounter your healing love. May our eyes be opened, and we see. May even our hearts in their deepest core be constantly renewed in you. May it also be fulfilled so we can see correctly, clearly, and distinctly.

Life wisdom teaches us all that prevention is better than cure. We know how complicated the healing process can be. 

Today’s celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is the most striking example of God’s extraordinary preventive help, as the angel said: “Full of grace.”

On December 8, the entire Western Church celebrates the feast of the Virgin Mary c, received without the stain of original /today t, the term original/ sin is more commonly used. Many believers believe the Immaculate Conception refers to how the Virgin Mary conceived Jesus. However, this is a mistake – this is how the Virgin Mary herself was conceived. That is why the Immaculate Conception is also celebrated precisely 9 months before the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, which is commemorated every year on September 8. The Church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception results from many centuries of prayer and theological development, during which the understanding of the Virgin Mary’s role in the history of salvation has continued to grow. 

Already, the Fathers of the first century were developing the theology of Mary as the new Eve. It begins around the beginning of the fifth century, mainly thanks to St. Augustine, to more precisely formulate the doctrine of hereditary /original/ sin. Of course, the theologians immediately began to ask themselves how it was with the original sin in Mary. Was she subjected to him, too? The Franciscan Bl also asked this question. John Duns Scotus. He taught that, according to him, Mary, due to her natural origin, was subject to the law of sin like any other person. She, too, needed redemption, just like all humans. However, by God’s special preventive intervention, she was saved from the stains of any sin, so she entered earthly life already in a state of grace. Therefore full of grace. She, too, was redeemed by Christ, but in a more perfect way than other people, because she was freed from sin in advance, that is, preventive, while others are freed from the injury of the already existing one. This way of redemption is a unique privilege that God granted as an undeserved gift only to Mary because she was to become the mother of the Redeemer. 

To understand this secret, let’s use an analogy: Imagine a person who falls into a bottomless pit. Someone else walks by and pulls him out of the pit. He will free him. That man was saved from the pit. Let’s imagine then that another woman is walking around. She, too, is about to fall into the pit, but just then, someone else catches her so she doesn’t fall into the pit. She was also saved from the pit, but obviously in a better – preventive way: she was not only subsequently pulled out of the pit, but someone prevented her from falling into it and getting injured by the fall. Christians have used this simile for centuries to explain how Christ saved Mary. By receiving Christ’s grace at her conception, she received this grace before it could be defiled by original sin and guilt. So, even here, prevention is better than subsequent treatment and strenuous recovery.

On this day, we also remember that life has been sacred from conception. That is why we Christian believers are against abortion. This well-known example from history also strengthens our conviction.

 A professor at a well-known medical school presented an ethical problem to the students: “The father suffers from a venereal disease, and the mother has tuberculosis. Four children were born to them – the first was visually impaired, the second died, the third became deaf, and the fourth inherited tuberculosis. However, the mother became pregnant again and together with the father, she would come to you for advice. If they were considering an abortion, what advice would you give them?” Students formed consultation groups and consulted. Finally, they all decided to recommend abortion. “Congratulations,” said the professor. “You just killed Beethoven.” Even if someone objected that this is a popularized and exaggerated story, the fact remains that Beethoven’s mother was very poor and sickly, worked as an ordinary maid, and his father – although a musician – was a notorious alcoholic, an obscene and cruel person. Nevertheless, the mother accepted each child, and thanks to this, we can listen to many of his musical works. Life is sacred because it comes from God.

Only one thing really destroys a person’s life—sin. Even today’s holiday shows us that God wants to help us in every possible way to break free from the slavery of sin. It’s hard work. He gives us his whole life. He gives us all the means for this, including the intercession of the spiritual mother, Mary. Let’s use these means to save ourselves.