Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s remarks at the 54-day Rosary Novena conclusion.
October 23, 2020
Welcoming Remarks
This evening, we gather in prayer to conclude our 54-Day Totus Tuus Rosary Novena, which began on the Memorial of St. Jeanne Jugan, Foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and ended on the Feast of St. John Paul II. It is good for us to continue to pray for the special intentions which I commended to every family during the past 54 days. Mindful, too, of the elections to take place on November 3, let us keep in mind the words of Abraham Lincoln to a country deeply divided by the killing and wounding of more than a million Americans in a civil war. In his 2nd Inaugural Address, spoken shortly before his assassination, President Lincoln’s words express well what we desire for America in AD 2020. He said,
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to… bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves.”
Esta tarde, nos reunimos en oración para concluir nuestro “Totus Tuus” Novena, que comenzó en el Memorial de Santa Juana Jugan, Fundadora de las Hermanitas de los Pobres, y terminó en la fiesta de San Juan Pablo II. Es bueno que sigamos orando para las intenciones especiales que encomendé a todas las familias. Conscientes, también, de las elecciones del 3cer dia de noviembre, tengamos presentes las palabras de Abraham Lincoln a un país profundamente dividido por una guerra civil. En su Discurso, pronunciado poco antes de su asesinato, las palabras del presidente Lincoln expresan bien lo que deseamos para los Estados Unidos ahora en 2020. Dijo:
“Con malicia hacia nadie, con caridad para todos, con firmeza en la derecha como Dios nos da para ver lo correcto, esforcémonos por… atar las heridas de la nación; cuidar de aquel que habrá llevado a cabo la batalla, y de su viuda y de su huérfano, para hacer todo lo que pueda lograr y apreciar una paz justa y duradera entre nosotros.”
Homily
Why a 54 Day novena of prayer and penance? Because prayer works. Prayer opens our whole person to God, and so do acts of penance. God listens to His people who cry out to Him in faith, like Mordecai did during a time of terrible persecution when the King of Persia ordered all Jews to be killed, including women and children. With great intensity, Mordecai fasted and prayed: “O Lord God, almighty King, all things are in your power, and there is no one to oppose you in your will to save Israel…Hear my prayer; have pity on your inheritance and turn our sorrow into joy.” God heard the prayers of Mordecai and of other believers like Esther; and He spared the people from genocide.
El Catecismo de La Iglesia dice (CCC 2600), “Jesus ora antes de los momentos decisivos de su misión: antes de que el Padre de’ testimonio de El en su Bautismo y de su Transfiguración, y antes de dar cumplimiento con su Pasión al designio de amor del Padre. Jesus ora también ante los momentos decisivos que van a comprometer la misión de sus apóstoles: antes de elegir y de llamar a los Doce, antes de que Pedro lo confiese como el Cristo de Dios, y para que la fe del príncipe de los apóstoles no desfallezca ante la tentación.” [“Jesus prayed before the decisive moments of His mission… [and] before the decisive moments involving the mission of His Apostles: at His election and call of the Twelve, before Peter’s confession of Him as ‘the Christ of God,’ and again that the faith of the chief of the Apostles may not fail when tempted.”]
Durante su sermón de la Montana, Jesus hablo’ a sus discípulos del poder de la oración (Mt 7:7), “Pedid y se os dará’, buscad y encontrareis, llamad y se os abrirá. Porque todo el que pide, recibe; y el que busca, encuentra; y al que llama, se le abrirá’.” “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
May we never doubt the power of prayer to move the merciful heart of God. He is far more eager to give us good things than we can ask for or imagine. At the Last Supper, Jesus told the Apostles (Jn 16:24), “Until now you have asked nothing in my Name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Do you ever feel distant from God and as if He is absent when you seek and pray to Him? In the Gospel scene of the Last Judgment, Jesus tells us where we can always find Him (Mt 25:40), “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” In every time and place, Jesus draws near to each human person, because He knows our need for Him. Without His presence and love, each of us is poor in the most destitute of ways. So He makes Himself one with the “least” – those who are ill in soul or body, those in prison or in bondage to addiction, those who hunger and thirst for holiness. Jesus is one in a particular way with those whose lives are not protected by law because they are not yet born or are disabled or elderly.
If you wish to hear the voice of Jesus, gladly confess how poor you are without Him, and seek to be numbered among the least in His Kingdom. Remember His words in the synagogue in Nazareth (Cf. Lk 4:18), “He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” Therefore, whoever recognize their own poverty will hear His voice.
Recall, too, Jesus’ prayer to His Father (Mt 11:25), “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the clever and revealed them to the little ones.” We should not be surprised, then, that (CCC 544) “Jesus identifies Himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering His Kingdom.”
