Pray for the Church
Our Lord made promises of eternal life to his Church: “Behold, I am with you until the end of the ages … You are Peter and on this stone I will build my Church, the gates of hell will not prevail against she. “(Mt 16:18) And yet tyrants have tried to oppress the Church.
Despite these promises of immortality, we are not exempt from praying for the Church especially in its trials. Indeed, it is in the divine plan that God comes to her aid in proportion to the prayers of her children, and she never fulfills her mission of saving souls better than when there are many prayers in her womb. Let us pray for the Church which has never needed our supplications so much: when they are not persecuted in certain places in the world, its bishops and priests are held in suspicion, the Religious Orders are threatened until their existence and Christians are martyred in the name of their faith in certain countries. Yes, let’s pray for all these reasons.
Pray also for the Church because we are personally interested in it. Indeed, if praying for the poorest and the smallest of souls, we are sure to please Jesus, how dearly praying for the whole Church is dear to his Heart! God cannot refuse his place in heaven to those who have defended his cause on earth!(Sr Marie of the Sacred Heart Bernaud, VHM)
NOTE:
Advice from the month of January from our founder of Guard of Honor
In 1901, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart lived in the very troubled and painful era of the separation of Church and State. The daily ingredients of this period were religious persecution, rejection of the faith, contempt for the Church … Ingredients which we find unfortunately again today …. Praying for the Church is therefore not a meaningless idea. As Sr Marie du Sacré Coeur Bernaud invited all the honor guards in 1901 to pray for the Church, let us make a special commitment this month to do it at least once a day, if only at the beginning of our time of presence.