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Dear Members, Benefactors and Apostles of the Living Rosary,
I would like to congratulate you
on this powerful feast of the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ,
which helps us to bury with
Christ the painful realities which
so burden our lives with fear,
illness, despair, corruption and
death. Christ is the Resurrection
and the Life; he that believeth in
Him, although he be dead, shall
live! Easter is the central point
of all Christian doctrine: “And
if Christ be not risen again,
then is our preaching vain,
and your faith is also vain.”
(I Cor. 15:14) Love and hate met
in single combat, and it was love
that conquered - eternal Love,
leaving the bosom of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, Shepherd who gave
His Life for His sheep. His open side is the gate of salvation, the passage leading
to that living Paradise, which is Himself. It is here that we shall taste of the fruit
of the Tree of Life, which ripened for us on the wood of the Cross. We belong to
God for He has bought us!
Many times, we may expect something of God which He has not seen fit to give
us. Perhaps, in our trouble, we have doubted His Love and, although, He was
walking beside us, we took Him for a stranger. In the joy of Christ’s Resurrection,
we begin to realize the value of suffering - His suffering and ours! We can see the
blessed radiance of a future resurrection which comes with every pain or sorrow
that unites us with Him. Each suffering makes us grow in grace, gives us strength to
leave self behind and enter into the Heart of Jesus, our Resurrection and our Life!
When Christ greets us with the words, “Peace be upon you,” He is not merely
expressing a wish, He is giving us the Peace of which He is the source. Peace in
the midst of trials because our existence here below is simply a pilgrimage to
Heaven. The life that He gives us is not only an escape from eternal death; it is
the beginning of life everlasting, a rising from strength to strength, an absorption
into eternity! God knows the sorrow of sorrows is to see men who are called to
be gods, dominated by their passions; to see men who have been restored to life
living like the damned. Of ourselves, we can do nothing but, through Him, we
can do all things. Much is forgiven those who love much. Every fall is a chance of
rising again.
In order that we, too, may exercise our role in zeal for souls, we must lead a life
of devotion that our light may shine before men - burning in prayer, shining in
action, glowing in example, embodied in doctrine. We must instruct those in our