Monday, April 20 : Saint John XXIII

The economic problem is the frightening unknown quantity in our tormented time. The problem of daily bread, of wellbeing, is the anguishing uncertainty oppressing us amongst the masses who are anxious, unsatisfied and sometimes, unfortunately, starving. It is an obligation for us to unite our efforts, to make the necessary sacrifices according to the catholic doctrine issuing from the Gospel and the Church’s clear and solemn teachings, to take part in seeking a just solution for all. Yet it is useless for us to strive to fill stomachs with bread and satisfy their other sometimes desperate desires if we don’t succeed in feeding souls with the bread of life, true, substantial, divine, to feed them with that Christ for which they hunger and thanks to which one is able, alone, to reassume the way “to the mountain of God” (1Kgs 19:8). But it is in vain that we shall ask economists and legislators for new forms of social life if they remove from people’s eyes Mary’s gentle, maternal smile, whose arms are open wide to welcome all her children. On her breast pride is cast down, hearts are pacified in the holy poetry of christian peace and love. Let us join our efforts so that the heart of man may never be separated from what God, in catholic doctrine and world history, has so marvelously united: the eucharist and the Virgin.

maronite readings – rosary,team