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Mary was chosen by God for a special role; and God the Father never changes His mind or revokes His choice. Just as He chose to bring Jesus to us, through the sinless Virgin Mary, so He still wishes to help us, through her. Indeed, He pours out through her, upon us, the graces that her son Jesus Christ won for us by His death on the Cross, as she stood beneath it, uniting her sufferings with His.

God has revealed Himself to us through His Son Jesus Christ; and Catholics know that we can rely on Sacred Scripture, the Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium, to receive the truth handed down to us. We can hear, receive, treasure, and then share the Word of God in ordinary little ways throughout the day.

No-one in the Church should deny the importance of Missionary work. Those who revere Truth and love their fellow humans love to share the Truth about God's Love, made plain in Jesus Christ, our Saviour. There is a place for Dialogue with people of other religions; but if people called to evangelise are content to talk each time, without sharing the Faith, they have forgotten God's plan for their lives. They are foolish if they remain deaf to the Holy Spirit.

Some people seem content to live in spiritual darkness. It is important to persevere with our prayers of intercession, even for someone who seems to be preoccupied and unresponsive. The grace of God can penetrate hearts and minds without someone feeling anything, though it is when that person begins to reflect on his life and activities that he sees more clearly, and begins to see the need for change, and repentance.

We are not expected to be imprudent or foolish; yet Christ delights in seeing people treat one another with respect, with displays of sincere kindness towards everyone, whether employers or employees, older people or young, in imitation of Christ, Who loves everyone.

By our intercessions we grow in holiness and help the Church; however, we must not become despondent if we seem to see no results from our prayers for those in spiritual need: people who do not love God or who have chosen one of a thousand ways in which to dismiss God from their lives, or to ignore His Son, Jesus Christ, or to leave the one true Church. Everyone has free will. And those who refuse to repent before they die will fall into a pit, as if through the floor of a rotten building which they chose to inhabit and refused to repair.

It is a tragedy, when Christian bodies vote to discard long-standing Christian doctrines and offer a truncated version of Faith, having abandoned efforts to believe or share God's laws. Various leaders jettison - as if from a ship, into the deep - the truths that the Catholic Church still teaches about holy, indisoluble marriage, about sexuality, chastity, a male-only priesthood, and other matters.

It is true that we are sometimes exhausted by our prayers and intercessions, as we grieve over the great evils in the world - such as abortion - as well as doing penance for our own sins, and for others; and it seems as if we always have another hill to climb, on the Holy Mountain; yet God treasures all our efforts, and delights in our love. Our efforts are all worthwhile.

Christ wants His faithful people to realise the truth: that all their efforts to serve Him and to pray for others are immensely worthwhile. Even when it seems as if there will always be another hill to climb on the Holy Mountain, we are doing great things for God and other people by our penances and intercessions. It's as if we are hauling a trolley-full of needy people towards Heaven.

Christ delights in our friendship! And Christ welcomes our sincere prayers: the ones we offer 'outside' the Mass as well as during the Mass. Every brief prayer honours Him as we go about our work, or pause for a moment before meals, or in our leisure. Yet He is especially delighted by our willingness to make a spiritual Communion. It's as if we open wide our heart, to say, Lord, shall I speak to You or shall I listen? What is your Will?

No-one is exempt. At the end of time, God will bring the 'dead' to life. Everyone has to account to God, at death, for his life and behaviour; but in the end, everyone will rise to hear the Last Judgement of God, as described in Sacred Scripture and the Tradition. We can be glad if we have tried to serve God in humility, and if we have helped other people towards holiness by our intercessions, in earthly life.

We need to remember the Commandments: above all, about loving God, but also about loving our neighbour. Some people imagine it is no great wrong, to steal private property, but it can be as bad as physically assaulting the innocent, since it causes emotional damage and leaves people very afraid, even for years. Every thief should think about his likelihood of being saved.

If a follower of Christ has not remained alert, and has failed to prevent the admittance of thoughts and desires that are unworthy of a person on the Way to Heaven, his stream of consciousness thought is like a stream full of shrieking demons who are chatting to one another as they invade his mind and soul.

We are glad when people are happy, in church; reverence in Church cannot be separated from dignity, however; and when young people show their delight in the arrival of church banners by loud shrieking and whistling - as if greeting footballers before a game - they demonstrate their ignorance, and their poor catechesis. It is tragic that these Catholics do not yet know how to prepare for the reverent worship of almighty God.

Even in a vast area of the country, Christ sees that it is difficult to find ten just persons who love Him wholeheartedly, believe in all that He teaches through His Church, and persevere in prayer, and acts of charity. Many Catholics pray when it suits them, attend Mass infrequently, design their own moral code, and yet hope to drift into Heaven when they die. They trust in His love for them, but show little love for Him.

Christ has shown us the Way to Heaven; but many people rush around from one job to another, anxious and tired, forgetting to pause and ask God's help, and some yearning for marvellous spiritual experiences or assurances about the future. The best sort of yearning is directed towards loving and pleasing God. Life becomes simple, if we pray, trust, work, and persevere in all trials.

There are many places of pilgrimage which attract us, whether the sites of martyrdom of Christian heroes and heroins, or the shrines constructed over places connected with Our Lord, Our Lady or the Saints. The one great Destination where we should all yearn to arrive at is Heaven, which all who enter enjoy the love of God and the Saints, forever!

Very many Catholics seem not to believe that Jesus Christ is a living Person, or that He is Really Present in our churches. They show out their lack of respect or lack of faith by the careless little bob they give, by the tabernacle, instead of a careful genuflection made in gratitude and humility.

If we share our faith we ought not to complicate matters. Without being over-eager, or tactless, we ought to seize every suitable opportunity to share the Good News about our Faith: about the existence of God, the one, true God who has come down to share our lives, in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Everyone can have the power, from Him, through His Church, to conquer sin and misery, to do good, and to look forward to Heaven.

Christ wants us all to follow His Way to Heaven, in chastity. There are young people everywhere who deserve to hear the truth about life: that they were created by the one only God, Who loves each of them deeply, and wants to make them happy and holy. They will not become happy through drunkenness and sexual licence, but through hearing the truth, repenting, and becoming selfless and holy, by the grace of Christ.