Praying is good for the health of his father Piero Gheddo
*
ROME, Monday, May 3, 2010 (ZENIT.org) .- Prayer is good medicine. It is not a dogma, but simply my experience and I believe many others. A few days ago began the month of May, dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the Catholic tradition. From our early years we all believe we are imbued with devotion to Mary, our faith in Christ is closely connected with devotion to Mary, Mary Mary and Christ calls us back to Christ.
One of the best memories I have preserved of the five years in the diocesan seminary of Moncrivello (Vercelli) for the school (1940-1945) is the meeting night to Lourdes Grotto at the base of the large garden and patio. After dinner and recreation, we went together to the cave where he said "the prayers of the good night" to Mary. By Marian short sermons and singing at sunset and end in silence and peace of the country, with the chirping of crickets in the background, inviting reflection and emotion, praying and thinking of the Mother in Heaven.
were years of war and the seminary is located a few tens of kilometers from Turin: sometimes in the evening and at night we went to the terrace to watch the lightning and thunder of bombing and pray for those poor Turin who died under the bombs, and then we were in the area of \u200b\u200bpartisan warfare between the rice fields of Vercelli and the hills of the Canavese. We felt stories of violence, revenge shootings, torture, ambushes, night raids, day and night spent in seminar groups of partisans or fascist militiamen who aroused in us kids a sense of fear and pity. Years of poor and sometimes disgusting food (the bitter white boiled turnips grown in the garden, we had to eat!). And then, the evening prayer of the refuge in the arms of Mom, who sent us to bed serene and at peace with life.
We need to take the month of May devotions: Rosary and the "foil" newspapers, that the humiliation that we impose our will and to control the sensitivity and direct them to God "must mortify the legitimate things - my father John said - to resist the unlawful things. " The love and devotion to Mary should grow because, as Paul VI said in a speech in 1971, "we need to introduce the memory of Maria, his thought, his image, his eyes deep in the cell of personal religiosity, piety secret and intimate spirit. "
In other words, not just a formal devotion, the month of May each of us can lead to love Mary with a sincere heart and branch, so that it is indeed our refuge in the hour of temptation, weariness, depression, suffering and sustain our determination in the choice of the best, in the constancy of the commitment, the ability of the sacrifice. It 'a very real that everyone can do, engaging in May to give a little' of our time and our prayer to Mary.
Why the Rosary? For many reasons, but for me is prayer easier and immediate, more meditative and affective, which allows me in every moment of my day to rise to Mary and Christ and to practice the "constant prayer" that is essential to achieve a vivid sense the presence of God in us. This sentiment is good for your health, because relativized material things, gives us life, while immersed in the world and everyday life in a sweet union with God that keeps us calm in all the vicissitudes of life.
Every so often, here or there, we read of a return to the devotion, the Pope is critical because, as some say, wants to return to the past and resurrect traditional practices considered alienating. So the rosary is often branded for devotional or conservatism. But no saint has practiced a Christianity without devotions, nor the Church has never taught this. The Rosary is not essential to faith, but it manifests itself today as an important tool to bring the faithful to live their faith. John XXIII said that the Rosary was devoted: "The Rosary is a fascinating exercise, irreplaceable prayer. "
