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"I. At length, when it seemed as if God had almost forgotten His well-beloved Son, the summons came to return to the land of Israel. An angel appeared to Joseph with the welcome news that those who had sought the life of Jesus were dead, and that therefore they might go back in safety. Those who are willing to wait are sure to obtain their desires. It is impatience and the restless desire for immediate relief that leads to so many disappointments. In the things of God, as in all else, it is those who wait who win.

2. How full of joy were the hearts of Joseph and Mary as they neared once more their native land! Like all the saints, they had an intense love for their country and their people and their home. Holy indifference does not mean that we have no natural affections for kindred and for fatherland, but that those affections are entirely subordinate to the will of God.

3. If the people of Egypt knew not that their God was dwelling among them, they knew that they had amongst them those who were the special friends of God. Mary and Joseph had endeared themselves to all around by their gentleness, charity. Patience, courtesy, humility, and thoughtful kindness to all. To them how terrible a grief was the departure of the Holy Family! Do I endear myself to those among whom I live? "

Meditations for Christmas . By Rev. Richard F. Clarke S.J. The Catholic Truth Society, London 1891

"Ten thousand times ten thousand - Who are these
Of every tongue and language gathered here
In our own land? Send forth thy quickening breeze
Which guided to these shores our Christopher
And thy strong grace in Pentecostal flame
To make all one in calling on thy Name.

"Ut omnes unum sint," O lord, we pray
That all be drawn within thy one, true fold,
Back to thy Church - from which the wand'rers stray
And the true Faith she keeps like saints of Old.
O bring them back, Good Shepherd of the sheep;
And rouse the heathen nations from their sleep. Amen"

Source: Catholic Hymns for the People, James Martin Raker 1919 -

Prayer intention: Catholic Unity for all American Christians

•    Ant. That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou has sent me.
      ℣. I say to thee, that thou art Peter,
      ℟. And upon this rock I will build my Church.
      Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst say to Thine Apostles: peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, look not upon my sins, but upon the faith of Thy Church; and vouchsafe unto Her that peace and unity which is agreeable to Thy will: Who livest and reignest God forever and ever. Amen.

Reflection:

"The object of prayer for this day should be especially dear to all the faithful in the United States. Our own land, dedicated to the Mother of God under the title of the Immaculate Conception, should be noted for its love for Mary. To some extent, it is true, this love has been shown, from the coming of Christopher Columbus in his Santa Maria to the Rosary Rallies, the widespread Legion of Mary and Sodality organizations of the present day. But such tribute is not complete. Mary seeks the souls of all in America, of all the members of more than three hundred sects cut off from the Church.
If the Catholic laity of our nation were imbued with the dignity and glory of their vocation as lay apostles, what tremendous strides the Church would make! If each Catholic brought just one soul a year to the Church, in five years all America would be Catholic. True, this is idealistic, but it is surely a goal worthy of sacrifice and prayer.

There has been no appreciable change of attitude towards the Church in this country. The attacks today are fundamentally the same as they were a century ago, but here and there admiration bespeaks an interest in things Catholic and under the aegis of grace, admirable can lead to conversion. For example, a Methodist ministers in Brooklyn said two years ago:

I like Roman Catholicism because it is the mother Church. The bulk of our traditions have been preserved by this great institution. I like Roman Catholicism because it is Catholic, it is a Church militant which always has had a passion for souls. I like Roman Catholicism for its discipline. In this day when we are discovering how important to health and happiness is peace of mind, it is well to re-examine the basic principles of confession. I like Roman Catholicism, most of all for its realism. It is one Christian Church which takes itself most seriously. When a Roman communicant comes to Mass, he comes to the presence of Christ. There is no room in his faith for any doubt of this reality.

Unfortunately, one of the chief difficulties for the Protestant mind is devotion to the Mother of God. But even in this matter patience and charity can do much to dispel the spiritual iron curtain with which so many have surrounded themselves. The faithful must pray for those who are not members of the Church and be ready apostles in explaining the faith whenever they have the opportunity.

The forums, the trailer chapels, the information centers, all are valuable means of bringing souls to the faith; while the efforts, at times heroic, of priest, Brothers, and Sisters laboring in the vast areas of the south and west have wrought incalculable results. But these are not the only missions to the non-Catholics. In our large cities there are thousands and millions who do not have the true faith. How will they be converted? When? By whom? In the providence of God it seems that the principal way of bringing souls to Christ is the humble unheralded activity of lay Catholics, conscious of their duty and dignity in spreading the faith. Any sphere of activity, any walk of life, any circumstance can be significant. There is a story told of a little Sister who won a convert simply because she signed "God bless you" in a business letter. Countless others awaken the first interest in the faith by a kind act, a smile, a courteous gesture. There are so many possibilities of apostolic action for those who love Christ and His mother." The American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume 130, Herman Joseph Heuser Catholic University of America Press, 1954

"1. For seven long years the Holy Family remained in the land of Egypt. From day to day they knew not whether they were to spend all their days in banishment, far from the dear land of Israel, or to return thither it might be on the morrow; yet no shade of impatience ever marred the perfection of their peace and resignation to the will of God. How different from myself, who am so anxious and troubled about the future!

2. During all this time St. Joseph supported his holy spouse and the Infant Jesus by working at his trade of a carpenter. They often felt the pinch of poverty, but never wanted for bread. God forsakes not His own, though He sometimes tries them to the very edge of their powers of endurance. He will not forsake me if I put my trust in Him.

3. How little the people of Egypt knew Who it was that dwelt for these long years amongst them! If they had known it, they would eagerly have cast aside their idols, and thrown themselves at the feet of the King of heaven and earth. So if those outside the Catholic Church knew that on every altar God Himself dwells in the Blessed Sacrament, how they would come in crowds to make their humble submission to Him! Hence teach a great charity to those outside the Church of Christ. It is often ignorance, not malice, that stands in the way of their conversion."

Meditations for Christmas . By Rev. Richard F. Clarke S.J. The Catholic Truth Society, London 1891

"O Michael, who hast strongly kept the way
Invaders sought, and hast undone their boast:
With thee may blest Saint Boniface now pray
And Mary Queen of Peace, and heav'nly host
That all misled by heresy, may search
The paths and find the Way of Holy Church.

"Ut omnes unum sint," O lord, we pray
That all be drawn within thy one, true fold,
Back to thy Church - from which the wand'rers stray
And the true Faith she keeps like saints of Old.
O bring them back, Good Shepherd of the sheep;
And rouse the heathen nations from their sleep. Amen"

Source: Catholic Hymns for the People, James Martin Raker 1919 -

Prayer intention: Return of European Protestants

•    Ant. That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou has sent me.
      ℣. I say to thee, that thou art Peter,
      ℟. And upon this rock I will build my Church.
      Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst say to Thine Apostles: peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, look not upon my sins, but upon the faith of Thy Church; and vouchsafe unto Her that peace and unity which is agreeable to Thy will: Who livest and reignest God forever and ever. Amen.

Reflection:

There is little to be gained in criticizing Martin Luther today. Rather men should pray that those who follow him may come to a realization of the gift that he, and those who follow him, flung aside: veneration for the Mother of God. As a young priest Luther wrote and preached beautiful tributes to Mary. Even after he nailed his ninety-fives theses to the door of Wittenburg's Cathedral and turned his back on his Lord, he wrote in a commentary on the Magnificat: "If I had as many tongues as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand on the seashore, or leaves of all the forests, and if with all these tongues I did nothing but praise Mary day and night, I could never say anything half so glorious to her as that which is expressed in the single phrase: "Thou art the Mother of God."
In a short while he repudiated Our Lady too, but among his followers devotion to the Virgin did not die so quickly. In many places in the sixteenth century the Lutherans continued to celebrate the feast of the Assumption with meetings and canticles because the people would not give up the festival. At the present day many still demonstrate love for Mary by reciting the Rosary and there has been a notable increase of Marian devotion especially in the Evangelical Church of Mainz.

During the Holy Year of 1950 a Lutheran minister, Richard Baumann, made a pilgrimage to Rome. In writing of his experiences he frequently alluded to the Blessed Virgin. Of the Rosary he said: "...when the rosary is said, truth sinks in to the subconscious like a slow and steady downpour, the hammered sentences of the catechism receive an indelible validity for precisely the little ones..." He made special note of the fact that the symbolical books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church use the following phrases: "Mary, the pure, the holy, the ever-virgin, the God-Bearer, truly the Mother of God, worthy of the amplest praises. She will that we follow her example. She prays for the Church."

For the first time in four hundred years the sons of St. Francis have returned to Norway. The land that produced its St. Olaf and St. Magnus, its St. Hallvard and St. Eyestein is beginning to re-echo with the liturgy of the Church and its Aves in honor of the Mother of God. St. Canute of Denmark will live in other sons of the Church and St. Bridget and St. Catherine of Sweden will rise once more as modern heroines of God's family, if only a sufficient number of missioners will take the torch of faith and carry it full-flaming among men who know it not. In the prayer of the famous Barnabite priest, Fr. Karl Schilling, who labored so extensively for the conversion of the Scandinavian people, we ask divine blessings: "Good Jesus, I humbly fall at Thy feet and pray Thee by Thy holy wounds and by Thy Precious Blood which Thou has shed for the whole world, to look in mercy upon the Scandinavian people. Let astray hundreds of year ago, they are now separated from Thy Church and denied the inestimable benefit of the Sacrament of Thy Body and Blood, and also the many other means of grace which Thou hast instituted for the consolation of the faithful in life and in death.

Remember, O Saviour of the world, that for these souls also Thou didst shed Thy Precious Blood and endure untold sufferings.
Good Shepherd, lead these Thy sheep back to the wholesome pastures of Thy Church, so that they may be on flock together with us under Thy Vicar here on earth - the Bishop of Rome, who in the person of the Holy Apostle Peter was commissioned by Thee to care both for the lambs and for the sheep.

Hear, O merciful Jesus, these our petitions, which we make to Thee with full trust in the love of Thy Sacred Heart towards us, and to Thy Holy Name be glory, honor, and praise through all eternity."

Source: Father Titius Crannis, S.A. The American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume 130, Herman Joseph Heuser Catholic University of America Press, 1954

"Then those whom Thy true servant Gregory
Named "angels," and to make them such sent forth
Augustine and his forty monks - to free
From pagan thrall - to give their souls true worth:
Thy Pontiff be today a beacon bright
To lead them into unity's true light.

"Ut omnes unum sint," O lord, we pray
That all be drawn within thy one, true fold,
Back to Thy Church - from which the wand'rers stray
And the true Faith she keeps like saints of Old.
O bring them back, Good Shepherd of the sheep;
And rouse the heathen nations from their sleep. Amen"

Source: Catholic Hymns for the People, James Martin Raker 1919 -

Prayer intention: Submission of Anglicans to Christ's Vicar

•    Ant. That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou has sent me.
      ℣. I say to thee, that thou art Peter,
      ℟. And upon this rock I will build my Church.
      Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst say to Thine Apostles: peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, look not upon my sins, but upon the faith of Thy Church; and vouchsafe unto Her that peace and unity which is agreeable to Thy will: Who livest and reignest God forever and ever. Amen.

Reflection:

Prior to its separation from Rome in the sixteenth century England was so devoted to Our Lady as to merit the title, "Dowry of Mary." Its valleys and hillsides were dotted with her shrines; its people vied with each other in giving precious gifts to her altars. Every county and diocese abounded with prominent places of devotion: Canteburry, Ely, Lincoln, Worcester, York, and hundreds more. But most celebrated of all was Walsingham where even members of the nobility went in pilgrimage to honor the Mother of God.
King Edward III dedicated the kingdom to Mary as her dowry forever, and his grandson Richard II, confirmed the gift. In the English College at Rome there is an ancient painting showing Richard and his queen on their knees offering, though the hands of St. John, their country to the Blessed Virgin. Below are inscribed the words: "Do tue, Virgo pia, Haec est; quare rege Maria - This, O holy Virgin, is thy dowry; do thou, O Mary, reign over us. "
But England's devotion to Our Lady, is for the most part, a thing of the past. Sadly enough, one of the greatest devotees of Walsingham was Henry VIII; no king of England ever began his reign with greater devotion to this shrine than he who later plundered it and stripped its sanctuary of its gems and precious metals. The lone wall that starkly stands today is mute reminder of what a man did because he cast aside the love of the Mother of God. For more than three hundred years the faith was nearly stifled and devotion to Mary lay hidden, almost buried, in the hearts of a few faithful. But during the last century the Church began its re-conversion of the English nation, and it seems that the ancient prophecy is near fulfillment: "When England returns to Walsingham, then Mary will return to England."

For England is returning. The movement is gradual, but constant and steadily growing; each year sees and increase in conversions so that the Second Spring of which Newman spoke seems to have begun. With his sentiment men can pray to Mary: "Arise, and go forth in thy strength into that north country which once was thine own, and take possession of a land which knows thee not. From thy sweet eyes, from thy pure smile, from thy majestic brow, let then thousand influences rain down, not to confound or overwhelm but to persuade, to win over thine enemies. O Mary, my hope, O Mother undefiled, fulfill to us the promise of this Spring.

"But our prayer is not alone for the Anglicans of England, whether they be "high, low, or broad" but for all who belong to this communion in America, Canada, Indian and other parts of the world. It is a prayer to Our Lady which Pope Leo XIII first sent to England nearly sixty years ago:
O Blessed Mother of God and our most gently Queen and Mother look down in mercy upon England thy dowry and upon all who gently hope and trust in thee. By thee Jesus our Savior and our help was given to the world; and He has given thee to us that we might hope still more. Plead for us, thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the foot of the Cross. O Sorrowful Mother! intercede for our separated brethren that they may be united with us in the one fold of the supreme shepherd, the Vicar of thy Son. Pray for us, dear Mother, that by faith fruitful in good works we may all deserve to see and praise God together with thee in our heavenly home."

Source: Father Titius Crannis, S.A. The American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume 130, Herman Joseph Heuser Catholic University of America Press, 1954

"1. At length they reached the spot that God designed for their sojourn, in a land full of idols and idolaters. What uncongenial surroundings for the Holy Family, alone in the midst of those who worshiped a false god! So many a Catholic has to dwell in a most uncongenial atmosphere — perhaps among heretics, or bad Catholics, or those whose words and looks and actions continually jar and cause pain. Patience! Jesus and Mary know by experience what such have here to suffer.

2. When the Holy Family arrived in Egypt, in the town where they came to dwell, all the idols in the temples fell prostrate to the ground, and were shattered to pieces. Thus when Christ comes to dwell within the soul, all that opposes itself to God is destroyed by His sacred presence. If Jesus dwells with us, we shall no longer allow pride, envy, bitterness, self-will, discontent, to reign in our hearts.

3. The presence of the Holy Family in Egypt hallowed the spot where they sojourned. In early Christian times it was covered with the cells of the monks and hermits. Thus Jesus always leaves a blessing behind Him. When He comes to me in holy Communion, if only I put no obstacle in the way, my soul will flourish with virtues and good works as the effect of His presence."

Meditations for Christmas . By Rev. Richard F. Clarke S.J. The Catholic Truth Society, London 1891

"Once more thy guiding star place in the sky,
And lead - lead back the Magi of the East
To thy One See on earth through which from High
Thou speakest to the world's greatest and least:
Communion with the Apostolic See
Will banish schism in true unity.

"Ut omnes unum sint," O lord, we pray
That all be drawn within thy one, true fold,
Back to thy Church - from which the wand'rers stray
And the true Faith she keeps like saints of Old.
O bring them back, Good Shepherd of the sheep;
And rouse the heathen nations from their sleep. Amen"

Source: Catholic Hymns for the People, James Martin Raker 1919 -

Prayer intention: Return of Oriental Separatists to the one fold of St. Peter, the one Shepherd

•    Ant. That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou has sent me.
      ℣. I say to thee, that thou art Peter,
      ℟. And upon this rock I will build my Church.
      Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst say to Thine Apostles: peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, look not upon my sins, but upon the faith of Thy Church; and vouchsafe unto Her that peace and unity which is agreeable to Thy will: Who livest and reignest God forever and ever. Amen.

Reflection:

"On this second day of the Unity octave our prayers are for a special group cut off from the Church, but united to her in may ways. These dissidents of the East who can trace their spiritual lineage to Ignatius of Antioch, John Chrystostom, the two Gregorys, John Damascene and so many other illustrious saints, have the seven sacraments and the Mass; they have bishops and priests with valid orders. They treasure a deep devotion to the Mother of God, but they lack the fullness of love because they reject the oneness of government and authority in the Holy Father.

Among the so-called Orthodox there are many manifestations of love for Mary. The icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Byzantine in style, is the most popular representation of Mary in the Near East and before the Bolsheviks and Communists defamed her image it was most widely venerated in "Holy Russia." Despite the suffering and persecution of the present hour an ardent love for Mary lives on in the hearts of the Russian people and of others enslaved by the same oppressor, with smuggled pictures and hidden icons that testify to a love that cannot be uprooted by force. The flames now concealed will burst forth again and the Bogoroditza (She-who-gave-birth-to-God) will once more reign as Queen and Mother.

Even in the Kremlin there is a church building dedicated to Mary under the title of the Assumption. Assuredly it is not used for divine services today, but in the future it will again re-echo the prayers and hymns in honor of the Mother of God and the prophecy of a holy priest and Apostles of Mary, Maximilian Kolbe, O.F.M. Conv., will be fulfilled: "One day you will see the statue of the Immaculate atop the Kremlin."
When the Catholics of Zhorimir, Russia, asked Pope Leo XIII for a copy of the most popular picture of Our Lady of Rome, the Pontiff sent a copy of the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. He likewise made it the official seal of the Pontifical Mission for Russia. The same inscription is used as the cover of a publication, Balcan, devoted to the study of Christian Unity, it adorns the walls of the Institute of Oriental Studies in Rome, an inspiration for the Europeans and Asiatics who gather there to discuss plans for reunion.

In 1931 Pope Piux XI issued an encyclical, Lux Veritatis, on the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus. His reference to Our Lady at the end of the document is most appropriate at the present time:

Under the auspices of the Heavenly Queen, We desire all to beg for a very special favor of the greatest importance, that she who is loved and venerated with such ardent piety by the people of the East, may not permit that they should be unhappily wandering and still kept apart from the unity of the Church, and thus from her Son, whose vicar We are. (...) Would, moreover, that very soon the happiest of days might dawn when the Virgin Mother of God, looking through her image so exquisitely worked in mosaic under Our Predecessor, Sixtus III, in the Liberian Basilica, and restored by Us to its original beauty, would see the separated children returning to venerate her with Us with one mind and one faith." Lux Veritatis, Dec. 25 1931

Source: Father Titius Crannis, S.A. The American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume 130, Herman Joseph Heuser Catholic University of America Press, 1954