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If we 'offer up' our sufferings in union with Christ, interceding for sinners, we can help people who have not yet heard Christ's message, and have not yet repented. By the grace of Christ, we can help save those people who would otherwise fall into Hell, far below the glory of Heaven.

God has designed a man and a woman for a joyful union in marriage which can result in the gift of life: the gift of a child. Where they take pleasure in one another yet at the same time exclude the possibility of receiving God's gift, they are like those before them who have called out to God, saying, 'I will not serve'.

The Blessed Virgin Mary accepted God's Will, which was that she carry a child in her womb. She bore the gaze of amazed villagers, for love of God, unlike married people who refuse to do God's Will, as they deliberately make their married union sterile, by contraceptive use, and refuse the gift of life.

When a 'child of God' offers in conversation not words of charity or compassion, but malicious gossip or salacious comments, that soul is like a holy shrine from which now emerges no spring, no living water of grace, but from which oozes drops of evil-smelling puss. Such a serious infection needs powerful help.

The nuns who have offered their whole lives to God in contemplation and penance effect powerful changes in the lives of sinners. The penances of ordinary people, too, are effective, pouring into the world, by God's grace, a stream of living water rather than the 'puss' which oozes from sinful deeds and conversations.

To live as a faithful Catholic, in difficult circumstances, is like climbing a huge mountain, knowing that a great welcome awaits climbers at the summit. A good climber does not lose hope, but keeps climbing, confident that - by God's grace - he will be strong enough to persevere.

As I praised the Blessed Virgin Mary on the feast of her Assumption, I was shown by the Lord a 'mountain', with the narrow path which leads to great sanctity. We can all become holy and pure, like Our Lady and the Saints, by God's grace - though we cannot yet enter bodily into Heaven, as she has, and her son.

The sick can exercise great spiritual power, with Christ. Those who resolve to be patient and to accept a special vocation can work for God and the Church, in and through their sufferings. By God's grace they can accept without resentment their pains and humiliations, as a penance for themselves and to help save other souls, in union with Christ Who won salvation for us by His patient love, in accepting the Cross.

God has permitted capital punishment at certain times, for grave crimes. Yet the human race has been in such a dire state of sinfulness, since the Original Sin, that in whatever era of history Christ might have come to earth to speak the truth about sin and salvation, He would have been persecuted, and then killed by whatever method was usual at the time, despite His innocence.

By our intercessions, and the grace of Christ, we lift up our friends to God; it is as though we help them to travel with greater calm, as if on an escalator, and to have a 'higher' viewpoint, and time for reflection - but they retain their free-will. We do not lift them into Heaven.

Judas lacked trust in God and in God's power and willingness to forgive; and so, instead of repenting and seeking mercy, Judas regretted his sin but allowed himself to run away, in shame, remorse, and despair - by which he cut himself off from Divine graces.

Because of my Baptism, I am now a child of God, by the grace of Christ, whose Holy Spirit now lives within my soul. When I pray, it is as if the huge gates which hide Heaven are opened wide, when I utter the name of Jesus. The Father cannot refuse to hear the prayers offered in the name of His Son.

The purpose of Holy Communion, in which we receive Christ our God, is to restore to human beings the joy, and the intimacy with God, which was enjoyed by our first parents, before they sinned: before the 'fall' from grace.

It is important to maintain a state of grace. Christ reminds us that the soul is a holy place, because of the Divine indwelling. We can withdraw into that place whenever the clamour 'outside' is too loud, as we work for Christ's Kingdom; and we shall find peace, comfort and refreshment, even when we are in the public eye.

A person who wishes to enjoy perfect union with God in Heaven must achieve - by God's Grace - towering heights of holiness. No penance done, nor great works accomplished, nor lengthy prayers prayed, can prepare any Catholic for Heaven who has refused to give up his serious sins. Indeed, no-one in serious sin can enter.

Do you live in an 'ordinary street', in an ordinary town? Whether we come from poor and humble backgrounds, or rich families, from terraced houses or mud huts or palaces, we are all called to be Saints. We can achieve this by loving Jesus Christ and doing His Will. The Church tells us what is His Will; and she gives us all we need to be obedient and faithful.

The Church has for centuries inspired, employed, or admired painters, who keep before the eyes of the faithful, in graphic form, those truths of the Faith on which we should act, if we are to be saved by the grace of Christ. We can be helped by images of Heaven or Hell, even if angels or demons, for example, are portrayed in semi-human form, or in ways stemming from a particular culture.

Those who repent of their sins, make Heaven their goal, and humbly ask for the grace of Christ and the prayers of His Virgin Mother, and who persevere to the end, will receive a great welcome in Heaven. People who love Christ and Our Lady are led straight up to the summit, to meet the Father of Light Who sent His Son to save us.

Just as I scan my desk each day to attend first to the most urgent project, so, Christ said, He and His Mother Mary scan the earth, to see who most urgently needs her prayers and His graces - or even, from time to time (amidst particular difficulties of a nation or the Church) who needs a visit from Our Lady.

Christ waits in church, to welcome His friends. When I entered the church and greeted Christ, and was aware of my weaknesses, Christ appeared to me, by the tabernacle. He said: "Believe in my Love" - spreading out His arms as if to embrace me. So I believed, even more firmly, and was deeply consoled.