The Apparitions of the Virgin Mary to St. Catherine Laboure show us a close face of Our Mother writes
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Yasmine Cajuste
VMY International President
She is the woman who is present in the world’s life, attentive to her fellow’s needs, since a service and devotion attitude. She presents herself as a Mother that is not afraid to get involved, daring to say YES to the God’s call (Annunciation), asking for a miraculous intervention of her Son to make the newlyweds happy (Cana), making herself close and letting the world events to touch her (France and XIX century’s problems.)…
However, this Mary’s proximity doesn’t have another aim than get us closer to Jesus, her Son, our salvation and our happiness’ source… Mary is that Mother who gives us to Christ, she teaches us to ask him his grace, and she invites us to return to Him with all our heart and to recognize him in our most needy brothers and sisters. This intimate relation between Mary and Jesus could be also discovered in the context of the November 27th, 1830’s apparitions. In her writings, St. Catherine remembers us that it was “the Saturday before the first advent’s Sunday, at 5:30, in the afternoon” just when the Church begins a strong time to prepare itself to welcome Jesus… As it is now; as it is today.
These aspects of the Rue du Bac’s messages interrogate us today… Are we able to get the message with new ayes and heart; are we able to make it a reality in our life and to live the evangelical radicalism they remember us? We cannot do it alone, but the Holy Spirit that lives inside us is going to transform us and to make us able to be authentic and to say YES to the Christ’s following.
Today, the Miraculous Medal challenges us and invites us to prepare our Lord’s ways. Today Mary Immaculate also calls us to spread the Medal, not only multiplying it, but also allowing this poor people’s gospel to be known and lived. When giving the Medal, may we be able to find the hope and love words to liven up the down-hearted brother, to make the sad heart happy, to lift the fallen, and to give life reasons to the people that don’t believe in God or in men. The message is for everyone; the gospel must reach all the earth’s confines, for all the people to know God’s loves them and calls them to a life full of happiness and love.
The Medal challenges us especially in this Advent’s season. Mary also calls us to share our life with the Poor People, as she did in Nazareth, in the exile’s ways, in Jerusalem, following her suffering Son… we are not only called to know Poor People’s experiences, but also to share their pain with a compassion and communion attitude. Moreover, according to the fact of being present in their world, the present Christ among the Poor People, convoke us to a simple and humble life style.
Opposite to current world’s ideas: possession and triumph.
As the Zarephath’s widow, Jesus Christ calls us to share since our poverty, knowing that “Jar of meal shall not be spent; jug of oil shall not be emptied…” (1 Kings, 17, 14). Finally, the Rue du Bac’s message calls us to be Poor People’s servants, those who are usually in the darkness, in the little situations, in the daily life… is in there, where God’s calls us to the conversion and the sanctity. May we be able to share the Poor People’s constant fights and discouragements to offer them this Good News about a God, who assumes our humanity to redeem it.
Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
Yasmine Cajuste
VMY International President
