Dear young people, it is up to you to be the watchmen of the morning
who announce the coming of the sun
who is the Risen Christ!
—POPE JOHN PAUL II, Message of the Holy Father
to the Youth of the World,
XVII World Youth Day, n. 3; (cf. Is 21:11-12)
First published December 1st, 2017… a message of hope and victory.
WHEN the sun sets, even though it is the beginning of nightfall, we enter into a vigil. It is the anticipation of a new dawn. Every Saturday evening, the Catholic Church celebrates a vigil Mass precisely in anticipation of the “day of the Lord”—Sunday—even though our communal prayer is made on the threshold of midnight and the deepest darkness.
I believe this is the period that we are living now—that vigil that “anticipates” if not hastens the Day of the Lord. And just as dawn announces the rising Sun, so too, there is a dawn before the Day of the Lord. That dawn is the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In fact, there are signs already that this dawn is approaching….Continue reading