The apostleship of prayer corner

Media

Part of The Cross

Title
The apostleship of prayer corner
Creator
Verceles, Pedro
Language
English
Year
1951
Rights
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Fulltext
THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER CORNER In League with the Sacred Heart By Rev. PEDRO VERCELES, S.J. National Director As, ot present everybody is tolking obout Communism ond Religion, it may be well to point out why there is such opposition between Catholicism and Communism. Communism is not only a political enetny which threatens our freedom, it is not only the enemy of our cu1ture ahd religion which prowls around our frontiers os Islom of oncient times. It is a mighty force that pervodes every place and threatens everything. Like Catholicism it cloims to be universal and it hos spread with the rapidity of lightning all over the world; frontiers ore unknown to it, it posses through the most compact lines, enters well guarded strongholds, unbalances the cleorest minds ond shakes the most steadfast of hearts. Like Catholicism, it has its opqstles who go everywhere, ond moke "converts" in the most unexpected quor-cr?. It has its fanatics, who call themselves martyrs. Like Catholicism it pretends to ennoble mon ond witn raise it to the highest level it can possibly attain, ond thus create a new civilization, a new literature, a new moral code, a new ideal, a new (Continued on page 34) ABOUT THE ARTICLE The following speech delivered by the Rev. Father Ledit, S.J. in one. of the A of P directors' conventions in Rome, will be of great interest not only to our, Associates and Promoters but also to all our Cross readers. It is t finely, solid, interesting. May we take this opportunity of inviting once again Cross readers to join the Apostleship of Prayer. Conditions for membership are easy ond simple, but the benefits are many and most consoling. To Promoters the Sacred Heart made this promise. "Those who shall promote th-s devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be effaced.” To become a member, apply i<> your Parish Priest or write to the National. Office of the Apostleship of Prayer, 2821^ Herron, Manila. — The National Director di 34 THE CROSS THE APOSTLESHIP • • • (Continued from page 31) humon roce! If ever the world hos seen a more fantastic realization of the diabolical scheme, which St. Ignatius describes in his meditation on the "Two Standords" it has now certainly become a fact which even the blind must see. It is needless to soy thot Communism is the enemy of Religion; only those who do not wish to see con deny it. Communism is nonreligious, and antl-rellgious. First, it is non-rellgious inasmuch as it tries to build up o society from which God is banished. It is hard for us to realize the great extent of this pion, since religion fills the very air we breathe. Surrounded by our churches, hoving always the crucifix before our eyes, receiving our Catholic newspapers ond listening to the intimote confidences of our faithful, we are, os it were, steeped in the supernatural. There is nothing like that in Russia. For a great number of the U.R.S.S. inhabitants God no longer exists. The faithful must worship God in secret. The quinquennial plans have given rise to new cities that have, so to speak, sprung up from the desert. No churches, no priests, no divine worship for these countless multitudes. Whole districts ore today without church and without priest, to be exdct for our Catholics there are just two foreign priests. The lamps which burned before the Blessed Sacrament are extinguished. . . The little bolshevik, goes to the Kindergarten, then to school ond meetings of the pioneers; from there he passes to the Komsomol, then to the factory ond to the army, takes part in all the sports, grows old and dies, and during oil these years, the school the press, the public speakers, the government decrees, hove told him that there is no God! Atheism, formerly was madness of the few, now it has become the normal state of countless multitudes. If, when meditating on hell, we can •inderstand, that the essence of damno lion is the loss of God, we- may feel some pity for the immense masses immersed in this inferno of the U. R.S.S. For the moteriolist, who lacks on things only from the outside, these considerations have no interest.whatsoever; but they fill with horror and dismay the Christion soul, the soul of the priest, who is forever trying to gouge the void caused by the absence of God. Bolshevism is even more onti-religious than non-religious. In former days the Commissary of Public Instruction declared thot the antireligious propaganda was not necessary in the Soviet school, thot is was enough for education to be non-religious. A late decision (For Communistic Education, Aug. 4, 1937) declares that such o theory is rotten and harmful. It is not enough to be non-religious, it is necessary to be anti-religious. God is the enemy. He must be attacked, ond against Him all weapons are good. APRIL, 1951 35 First there is the weapon of blasphemy. It is hord for us to understand the meaning of blasphemy, when it has attained such a degree ot universality. So in order to have some ideo of it, we must go back to the meditation on hell. There is the fashionable blasphemy of the "professor," who "proves" that there is no God, and thot science is in conflict with the Bible; there is the blasphemy of the popular heroine, the champion of porachutisme when, for example, she declares that she hos not found God in the clouds; there is the coarse blasphemy of the militant atheist who draws coricotures in the "Bezbozhnik", which he thinks ore amusing, but which are only impure. Always ond everywhere, the some idea: God as oh enemy; the enemy of the poor, the ally of those who cheat the people; the enemy .of progress, ollied to those who keep the world in ignorance and misery. All this is explained to little children when they begin to go to school and is kept up all through out their education. Then there is desecration ond sacrilege .The churches ore closed, destroyed or desecrated. It is useless to repeat here the history of 'past years, when the churches one by one were closed; useless to remind the make-believe tales tqld by the bolsheviks, to explain to the world thot they did npt mean persecution. Many churches have been converted into anti-religious museums; and bams for animals, desecnation hos been thorough; statues, ond even sacred vestments ore used for shameful ond anti-religious campaign. Finally, there is persecution. Persecution of fhe clergy; more than one hundred priests Bishops ore now under the Soviet law, most of them in concentration camps; others confined to places where life is nearly impossible. Persecution of the faithful; the introduction of the uninterrupted week, with the obligation to work on Sundoys ond holidays under the penalty of confiscation of woges that go Io pay for the anti-religious propaganda; sentences of imprisonment, sentences of death. Doubtless there hove been in the past, blasphemies, desecrations and persecutions, but never have they been so universal as now. The world hod never seen an immense country such as Russia, reject all form of worship and all religious creeds. . . And wherever Communism enters, we see the same phenomena changing here and there, according to the'different countries, but having the same universal characteristics. Think of the bloody deeds now perpetrated in those countries, the convents and churches behind the iron curtain, dessecrated, the nuns priests and bishops massacred or persecuted and with universality which afford clear proof thot we are witnessing the workings of a carefully thougHt-out diabolical pion. Satan hos risen to cjrive out .God. And it is appalling to see that so mony people have no clear Idea of what he is about. The vision of the Apocalypse, where Michael fights the 36 THE CROSS dragon ond his angles, is terrible; but here the arena is the whole world. On one side the well-organized forces of international otheism, drawn together by hatred’of God; oil this scene strangely lighted by the fantastic mixture of smoke and fire of which St.' Ignatius speaks, and which deceives so many minds thot we believed were better forearmed. On the other side, the humble-spirituol forces of the Church, Infima munde, ridiculed by those who believe, only in humon means to fight ogainst o diabolical force, scattered like o flc:k of sheep surprised by o storm, "pusillus grex". Will this little flock ever understand that its best weapon is its great weakness? INFIRMA MUNDI ELEGIT DEUS UT FORTIA QUAEQUE CONFUNDAT. God hos chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong. And here, we must admire and wonder ot the .great mercy of God towards His Church. What treasures' has He not granted Her through the devotion of the Sacred Heart applied to humon society, thot is, devotion to Christ the King. It was during the 1st century that the Apostleship of Prayer was founded. Its aim is to point out the supernatural aspect of the Church's conquests at her struggle against her enemies. Devotion to the Sacred Heort, through the Apostleship of Prayer is the remedy God has given us for the great evils from which mankind is suffering. It is a devotion for humble souls. The "Messengers of the Sacred Heart'' are not intended for a small circle; they are widely read in our Christian families, teaching them how to live humbly ond in a Christian manner. Among workmen, in the peasants' homes, wherever there are Christians who pray ond suffer, there is always to be found a picture bf the Sacred Heart. It moy be such a one os to make an artist smile, but is one which has dried many a teor and inspired many o heroic resolution. The prayers, communions, sacrifices, holy hours, all these practices of piety, which play such an important although sometimes unknown part in the history of mankind, are brought about by these little monthly pamphlets of the Apostleship of Prayer, which do not dazzle anybody, which are not even noticed by those who think themselves entrusted with destinies of the world. The program of self-sacrifice implied by the word "promoter" assures to the Apostleship of Prayer a scope of action oil the more widely spread os the promoter is often chosen from among the lowly ones of the world. The means used by the Apostleship of Prayer hove a supernatural efficacy. The doily offering teaches the members of the Apostleship of Prayer resignation. The work ond suffering of every day ore not a burden, but form a precious treosure which is offered every morning to the Socred Heort. Thot will not prevent a Christian from fighting io necessary, against the dangers which threaten his children, his family ond his counAPRIL, 1951 37 try; but his fight will be the fight not of a rebel but of o crusoder. Thus the soil where communism implants its doctrine of hatred and revolt will be purified anew every morning. For, let us say it again, the essential condition for the success of communistic propagondo, is not poverty and depression although these foctors have on importance not to be denied, but it is the naturalism ond materiel ism which hove penetrated everywhere, even at times, among the clergy, who hove forgotten, ot least in some places, what is the meaning of evangelical poverty. If in th? midst of the crisis through some countries ore possing which today, those who best withstand the instigaprecisely those workmen who are suffering under the stain of misery and wont of work, is not that in itself o striking proof that poverty and misery prepare the soul for heroism as well as for revolt? During the recent strike in Fronce, o poor working woman who had enrolled oil her co-workers in a Christian union, ond in the Apostleship of Prayer, wos violently threatened. The godless so terrified her companions thot they no longer dored to receive the monthly pamphlets which come to ternind them thot they were to offer lo God "the prayers, works and sufferings of the day." Is not this a proof that the Reds well understood the efficacity of this little practice? (TO BE CONTINUED) tions of the "extended hand", ore