It was the religious authorities who wanted Jesus dead at all costs, not the Secular Roman authorities who could not have cared less. Pilate did his very best to get Jesus off the hook, as did his wife..
Fulton Sheen is a great hero. Thank you so much for reminding me, I must read all his books once again. Apart from anything else like any good Irishman he loves to tell stories. I love his stories , so many of which involve the miraculous. I was talking to someone the other week who heard him when he visited It Dublin.
If Our Lady appeared to Bernadette today they'd have her carted off to the nut house. If the Mother of God showed the children at Fatima hell today they'd have her arrested for child abuse.
I prayed the Joyful Mysteries this morning as Jesus suggested last night on a theme. This time on Faith. At the Annuciation, my favourite it occured to me that Mary did what no one else in the Old Testament had ever managed to do and that was to respond in to total faith. She asked a reasonable question, how can this be, but after Gabriel explained things she went ahead full steam. One exorcist said that the devil said about Mary that the thing about her that put them in terror of her was that her response was always yes to God, no matter the situation. That's total Faith. Because she believed the angel that was sent. A Faith greater than that of Moses. That dwarfed even Father Abraham's. But because of her simple Faith all else followed. O h Mary, I believe, I do! Help my little Faith!
Alleluia! May this newbie Padre be filled with zeal, piety, and may his good example stir the hearts of young boys and men to consider the priesthood! O Mary conceived without sin, pray for him who has recourse to thee!
Tomorrow I will be three weeks camping and heading of for Our Lady's Shrine at Knock which is exciting. I will leave early in the morning, please God and hope to find a Mass later in the day somewhere there. It is my experience that you never leave a Marian Shrine empty handed.I am praying for you all and hoping for a sign for the Church in the future. Things are so had at the moment I am hoping Mary will give a word of comfort.
One thing I have been trying to do the past three weeks is to shepherd my thoughts gently towards God and the things of God. St Teresa of Avila describes stray thoughts in prayer as being like bees which we must gently shoo away. I think of them as being like a herd of sheep which we must gently shepherd into the fold of Christ. God does not want ten per cent, or twenty per cent or fifty per cent, He wants it all. He wants every little bit of us. Jesus described this to me one time as me being like a little drop of honey and He being like a Hummingbird who wants to suck my all up. Every drop. One hundred per cent. Christ must have all things under His Feet. But the great key is gentleness and kindness. These things take time.
Another thing I love about Marian Shrines is that the curtain between this World and the next lifts so much. I love this and find it fascinating. I know the sight of the supernatural and mystical are not everything but still I love it. The Great Adventure.
Could I ask you to pray for my son? He was baptised on the feast of Our Lady of Knock. Like so many young people he has drifted away from the faith and no longer practices. He's not a bad or problem kid but I think he just doesn't believe any of it. So sad.
True about the religious authorities. Not so sure about Pilate but his wife Claudia Procula is revered as a saint in the Eastern Churches. “While Pilate was still seated on the bench, his wife sent him a message, ‘Have nothing to do with that righteous man. I suffered much in a dream today because of him.’” (Matthew 27:19) Origen, one of the Greek Fathers of the Church, taught that Claudia became a Christian after the Resurrection because of that dream.
The great mariologist Father Rene Laurentin said exactly that. Well maybe not in so many words. In fact he said the vast majority of Marian apparitions would never be approved today.
I've learned that it is a traditional belief that Claudia is said to have been from an influencial family in France or Gaule back then and she was said to have known Mary Magdalen very well and been part of her circle before Mary's conversion. Mary's conversion played a part in the conversion of many Roman women and others in her former circle of friends because she witnessed to them about Jesus. So when Lazarus, his sisters and others came to Gaule, they found quiet support from influencial people who had heard about the most holy Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth and wanted to know more about Him.
Prayers Adoremus! So many of us have children who no longer follow Christ in his church, mine included.
Both Pilate and his wife are venerated as saints in the East. I believe according to legend Pilate wound up being strangled by Roman soldiers at the order of the Emperor in Gaul, modern France. So maybe they are regarded as martyrs too, I'm not su re.
