I think it is evident that, in these days of awful sin and hatred of God, our Blessed Lord wants to gather round Him a legion of chosen souls who will be devoted, heart and soul, to Him and His interests, and upon whom He may always count for help and consolation. Souls who will not ask “How much must I do?” but rather “How much can I do for His love?” A legion of souls who will give and not count the cost, whose only pain will be that they cannot do more and give more and suffer more for Him who has done so much for them. In a word souls who are not as the rest of men, fools perhaps in the eyes of the world, for their watchword is sacrifice and not self-comfort.
COMMENT: If the early 1900’s were “days of awful sin and hatred of God” as Fr Willie claimed, things would appear to be worse 100 years later.
But God is faithful. Whenever there is a crisis, God raises up a “legion of chosen souls” to respond. The history of the Church has always shown this to be the case. God still calls for loyal followers. But are we ready to respond?
Great thoughts above…yes, in every age the Lord has planned that all of us are to follow Him, labor with Him, suffer for Him, and maybe even die for Him; yet there are those who desire to give more, and these chosen individuals will help God in leading all towards Him, help those to contribute in building up His Kingdom, thus giving great glory to God, and to help save souls for Heaven.
Father Doyle, pray that we remain willing to work for God no matter how we may feel, or how we may fail…God knows the heart. Give us your perseverance to keep going out of loyalty to the Lord, in imitation of the outstanding saints in history.
“Sacrifice and not self-comfort”: something that could be a daily aspiration to be prayed, to help us overcome our natural self-centeredness.