From Cardinal Burke:
My friend,
Our Lord has not called us to fear. No matter the darkness of our age, men and women of faith are not without the truth and love of Christ, nor the faithful care of His mother.
It was during an age much like our own when Our Lady first appeared to Saint Juan Diego some 500 years ago. Then, too, the world wrestled with famine and disease, and war in the Holy Land threatened to reduce that beautiful and tortured region to chaos. Then, too, poisonous confusion from within the Church corroded the faith of Christians the world over.
And then, too, we saw the forces of sin retreat before the presence of Our Lady. Through Saint Juan Diego’s humble and courageous cooperation with grace, Our Lady claimed the New World for Christ, drawing nearly nine million new souls into the Church by the time of Saint Juan Diego’s death in 1548. It is this same maternal care and protection that we seek today—a care and protection that she will grant us, should we earnestly ask for it.
To this end, I am calling on all Catholics, especially those in the Americas, to join me in praying a nine-month novena seeking Our Lady’s intercession beginning on March 12.
Go to: novena.cardinalburke.com