Sunday:       Our Lady of Good Counsel
Date:         April 26, 2006
Year:         A
The readings: [Acts 5:17-26; Jn. 3:16-21]
The message:  How can we know the way?
Prepared by:  CATHOLIC DOORS MINISTRY
Total words:  880

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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we are commemorating the beautiful Marian Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Who is Our Lady of Good Counsel? What is the origin of this Marian Feast? In summary, this special title was given to the miraculous picture of the Madonna at Genazzano in Italy. In recognition for the financial help received from the people of Genazzano who helped to renovate the Church of Saint Mary Major in Rome, Pope Sixtus III (432-440 A.D.) gave them some land. On this land, the people built a Church and called it Our Lady of Good Counsel. Upon its completion, the Church was entrusted to the Augustinian Order.

In April, 1467, an Albanian icon of Our Lady of Shkodra (Good Counsel) mysteriously appeared in the Church. The painting of Mary and the Christ Child, a fresco on an eggshell thin layer of plaster, appeared to be floating about 2.5 cm from the wall. Since then, endless healings and miracles have been attributed to the powerful intervention of Our Lady of Good Counsel. In 1727, Pope Benedict XIII instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Following this, Pope Leo XIII added the title "Mother of Good Counsel" to the Litany of Loreto. Nowadays, Our Lady of Good Counsel is the patron of many women's groups, especially the Catholic Women's League in Canada and the Christian Mothers of America.

The endless healings and miracles that have been attributed to the powerful intervention of Our Lady of Good Counsel once more affirms that "Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. 'This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death.'" [LG § 57] (C.C.C. # 964)

As the words of Jesus were accompanied by many "mighty works and wonders and signs" [Acts 2:22; Lk 7:18-23] to manifest that the Kingdom was present in Him, (C.C.C. # 547) the endless healings and miracles attributed to Our Lady of Good Counsel affirm that the fruit of her work have been divinely commissioned for the glory of the Lord Jesus. For if Our Lady had not been personally commissioned by God Himself, the abundance of Divine graces would not have flourished through her.

While heavenly signs do not save anyone, they invite belief in Jesus. [Jn 5:36; 10:25, 38] They strengthen the faith of the believers in the One who does His Father's works. (C.C.C. # 548) Through Mary, the faithful are guided to Jesus, the one and only means of salvation.

During today's reading from the Gospel of John, [Jn. 14:27-31] we learned from Jesus that He was physically departing from this world. Resulting from His physical department, we gained His spiritual arrival. While Jesus was physically present with a few at the time of His dwelling on earth, through His departure, He has made Himself spiritually present with all those who invite Him within them. Jesus is present here with us. He will be present with each and everyone of you when you leave here today. This affirms the words of Jesus, "I am going away, and I am coming to you."

Jesus is made present to us in more than one way. First of all, He is physically present with us through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Secondly, He is spiritually present in us by His indwelling in each and everyone of us as Temples of the Holy Spirit.

Thirdly, He is manifested to us through the many Marian devotions. Through Mary, Our Lady of Good Counsel, we see the grace of God at work. Through Mary, we are drawn to her beloved Son Jesus.

Finally, Jesus is made present to us through the actions of our brothers and sisters in Christ. When a kind soul feeds a hungry person, Jesus is made present to the hungry person through the soul that fed the hungry person. The kind soul became the instrument of God by permitting God to act through him to answer the hungry person's prayer for food.

God manifest Himself through those who visit the lonely prisoners. He manifest Himself through those who assist the widows and care for the orphans. He manifest himself through those who visit the sick in the hospitals and the elders who live alone. God's instrument of grace can be anyone, an infant, a child, a teenager, a young person, even an elder. When the grace of God flows through a person, God manifests Himself through that person.

Today, let us focus our thoughts on this matter. Is the grace of God manifesting itself through us? Or is the grace of God manifesting itself through someone else to reach out to us? Faith without works is dead. If someone claims to have faith, but he does not allow the Holy Spirit to work through him, his faith his dead. Faith is alive when Jesus can manifest Himself through someone, through the good deeds that flow from the person by the grace of the Heavenly Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

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The readings...

[The readings were taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (C) 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America.]

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First Reading...

"The high priest and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.

But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, 'Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.' When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.

When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported, "We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.'

Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perpelexed about them, wondering what might be going on.

Then someone arrived and announced, 'Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!' Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people." [Acts 5:17-26]

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Gospel Reading...

"Jesus said to Nicodemus: 'God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.'

'Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned: but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.'

'And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light becasue their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.'

'But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.'" [Jn. 3:16-21]

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