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: Who can doubt that, if the early 1900’s were “days of awful sin and hatred of God”, things are in many ways worse today. Over the last century that hatred of God and of His followers has been given free rein; the blood of martyrs has flown freely over the last century. One recent report indicated that 100,000 Christians are killed every year simply because of their Faith. If the blood does not currently flow in our own country, we can be sure that the hatred still remains.

God still calls for loyal followers, to whom He is in turn infinitely faithful. Thankfully, many hundreds of thousands now answer His call in lay movements and Third Orders, and many more across the world do so in their own humble way in their families and parishes and communities.

Perhaps today we can ask ourselves if we truly follow Christ as He wants us to follow Him, not counting the cost and not seeking self-comfort…