Generosity
Back Home Up Next

 

4 April 1983
Rome, Italy

Dear Members of the Marian Youth Group,

Welcome to Rome! Let me first tell you about three people who once came to Rome and had an audience with Pope Leo XIII. The Pope asked the first person how long he would stay in Rome and the reply was, one week. "You," said the Pope, "will see quite a lot." "And you," the Pope said to the second, "how long do you intend to stay here in Rome?" "A month," was the reply. "Oh, you will see a lot," the Pope observed. Then the Pope asked the third person how long he would stay and the reply was, one year. "You," said the Pope, "will see nothing."

So it seems the longer you stay in Rome, the less you see, and there is truth in that because, when you live in Rome, you promise yourself to visit all sorts of places, but somehow you keep postponing the visits. So I hope that during your short stay here in Rome, you will see much and that you will return to France very happy but very tired.

I do not know if you have yet visited the Church which is called San Andrea delle Fratte. That is a Church which has a special connection with the rue du Bac in Paris. Twelve years after Our Lady had entrusted the Miraculous Medal to St. Catherine in Paris, a Jew named Alphonse Ratisbonne, who was not a Catholic but who had consented to wear the Miraculous Medal as a favor for a friend of his, stepped inside that Church while his friend went into the sacristy to talk to a priest. Quite suddenly Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal appeared to Monsieur Ratisbonne and immediately he received the fullness of the Faith and became a Catholic. He also became a priest and founded two Congregations whose principal work is praying for and helping the Jewish people towards the full acceptance of Christ.

It was in this Church, too, that a young Polish priest celebrated his first Mass and to which he often came to pray. His name was Maximilian Kolbe. The Pope canonized him last October. You will remember that St. Maximilian Kolbe freely took the place of a married man who had been condemned to die in a starvation bunker in Auschwitz. St. Maximilian Kolbe had a great devotion to Our Lady and he often went to that Church to deepen his devotion to Our Lady. I think there is an important point for us all here. You cannot be really devoted to Our Lady without being at the same time generous to others. If you want to know how devoted you are to Our Lady, don't count just the prayers you say to her every day but also the acts of generosity you show to others.

I do not know if you have the phrase which is in the English language: `All roads lead to Rome.' The origin of the phrase may have been that, when pilgrims were walking to Rome, it helped them to think that they would eventually arrive there, no matter what road they took. We know that all roads don't lead to Rome, but we can be sure of this: that all true devotion to Our Lady will bring you to her Son, Jesus Christ, and through Him to the home which He has prepared for us all in Heaven.

Lastly, I want you to pray especially for the Daughters of Charity of France, who are holding an important meeting in the rue du Bac these days. I will be going to see them tomorrow and I will bring your greetings to them and the promise that you will pray for them.

Now, if I go on talking much longer, a month will soon have passed and you will say to yourselves: Pope Leo XIII was right. We came to Rome and spent a month there and saw nothing. We saw nothing in Rome because Father McCullen talked too much! Thank you very much, Fathers and Sisters and leaders, for inviting me to meet you here this evening. May Our Lord and His Mother be with you all in a special way these days.

Web Design by Beth Nicol