Europe ignited faith in the American continent

 "Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas... see how great the harvest is, and intercede with the Lord so that he may instill a hunger for holiness in all the People of God... " that the faithful "may walk along the paths of an intense Christian life of love and humble service to God and to souls "6. Only in this way - with an intense Christian life, with love and a desire to serve - will we be able to carry out this new evangelization throughout the world, beginning with those closest to us. How many harvest without arms to gather it up! people hungry for the truth who have no one to teach it to them, people of all kinds and conditions who would like to come closer to God but cannot find the way. Each one of us must be a clear signpost that points out, by example and word, the right path that, through Mary, ends in Christ.

From Europe departed the first flame that ignited the faith in the American continent. 

How many men and women, of so many different races, have found the door to Heaven through the heroic and sacrificial faith of those first evangelizers! Our Lady opened the way for them and, in spite of the difficulties, with tenacity, patience and a supernatural sense they taught everywhere the deepest mysteries of the faith. "Now we find ourselves in a Europe in which the temptation to atheism and skepticism is growing ever stronger; in which a painful moral uncertainty is taking root with the disintegration of the family and the degeneration of customs; in which a dangerous conflict of ideas and movements dominates ". Of these countries that were once profoundly Christian, some give the impression of being on the way back to the paganism from which they were drawn, often with the blood of martyrdom and always with the efficacious help of Our Lady. An entire civilization founded on Christian ideas seems to find itself without the resources to react. And from these nations, from where the light of faith once came forth to spread throughout the world, unfortunately "the weeds of a new paganism are being sent to the whole world ".

We Christians continue to be leaven in the midst of the world. The strength of the leaven has not lost its vigor in these twenty centuries, because it is supernatural and is always young, new and effective. That is why we will not stand still, as if we could do nothing or as if the dimensions of evil could drown the small seed that we are, each one of us who wants to follow Christ. If those who first brought the faith to so many places had remained paralyzed in the face of the enormous task that lay before them, if they had relied only on their human strength, they would have accomplished nothing. 

The Lord continually encourages us not to lag behind in this work, which is "fascinating from the supernatural and human point of view ". Let us think today before Our Lady of Guadalupe, once again, what we are doing around us: our interest in bringing Christ closer to our relatives and friends, if we take advantage of every occasion, without neglecting any, to speak courageously of the faith we carry in our hearts, if we take seriously our own formation, on which the formation of others depends, if we give our time, always scarce, in catechesis or in other good works, if we also collaborate economically in the support of some task that has as its goal the supernatural and human improvement of people. 

We should not stop thinking that sometimes there is little we have within our reach, in the midst of a professional work that fills the day and still lacks hours. God multiplies that little; and, moreover, many few change a whole country.

Hablar con Dios