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Pray for Us in These Times of Confusion,
O Mother of Good Counsel
(excerpts from an article by
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira)
Does
the devotion to the Mother of Good Counsel have any significance
for our times?
Undoubtedly, innumerable souls in our
disturbed and afflicted times are in need of good counsel
in some way or another. They could do nothing better than
to implore the help of her, whom Holy Church invokes as
Mater Boni Consilii in the Litany of Loreto.
Evidently, the greater the importance
of one’s predicament, the greater is the value of
the counsel given.
This is the first premise which shows
that the devotion to Our Lady of Genazzano is especially
necessary in these times, which could go down in history
as the greatest period of confusion.
Moreover, if we broaden our horizons beyond
our individual lives and consider, from a historical perspective,
the crisis through which the Church of God is now passing,
we cannot help but conclude that, now more than ever, mankind
needs the good counsel of the Virgin of virgins…
The modern world finds itself at the crossroads
of a dark, gloomy future, faced by either capitulation before
the extremes of evil or an enthusiastic embracing of the
plentitude of truth and goodness. The problem is how to
move humanity towards the path taken by the prodigal son
who returned to his father’s house.
This is impossible without the powerful
help of grace speaking in the interior of countless souls.
And what better way is there to obtain this good counsel,
which must be intimately present in hearts for the salvation
of humanity, than to implore the Mother of Good Counsel
to convert, through a new grace, the “super-civilized”
barbarian of the our times?
Only in this way will we be able to “burn
what we have adored and adore that which we have burned,”
as did the sub-civilized barbarians of the fifth century.
Only then can a new and even more splendorous era of Faith
be born. This is the good counsel par excellence that the
devotees of Mary must ask for themselves and for all men
of our days.
It may appear excessive to some readers
that we call these the most confused times in history. Nevertheless,
among the many proofs of this assertion, we need only one
to justify our affirmation; indeed, it would be difficult
to prove that the confusion in Catholic circles has ever
been greater than it is today.
Certainly, there were times when the Church
appeared to be engulfed by greater confusion. But those
crises were struggles that either involved personal matters
rather than principles or jeopardized only some principles
– albeit basic ones – of Catholic doctrine.
Today, on the contrary, there is no error,
no matter so crass or total, that does not seek to cloth
itself in more or less new clothing in order to gain free
admission into Catholic ambiences. One can say that we are
seeing in our midst an open parade of all errors, disguised
in sheep’s clothing and deceiving many unwary, superficial
Catholics who have but little love for their Faith.
How many concessions, how many acts of
false prudence, how many criminal courtships with heterodoxy
take place! The confusion is so great that more than a few
zealous Catholic circles are regarded with derision or suspicion,
while the horde of disguised errors reigns confident.
Describing this scene, we affectionately
but apprehensively consider the many souls whose circumstances
of life do not permit them to undertake comprehensive religious
studies. How necessary it is for them to have the good counsel
of Our Lady to overcome this confusion!
It is natural, then, for us to affirm
that these times represent the greatest confusion of history
and for our lips to plead a supplication to the Mother of
God: Our Lady of Good Counsel, pray for us and help us to
remain faithful to the Way, the Truth and the Life in the
midst of so much rebellion, so much deceit and so much destruction!
To read a short historical account of the
miraculous image of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Genazzano,
click here.
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