of Mother Anna Maria Cánopi
Just as nature dresses up in its colorful dress in autumn and gives joy to hearts by offering trees full of ripe fruit and vineyards ready for the harvest, so too the Church in the months of September and October offers us a liturgical calendar full of beautiful feasts, particularly dear to the Christian people.
Right at the beginning of September, here is the feast of the Nativity of Mary. An antiphon of the liturgy is expressed thus with a beautiful Gregorian melody: «Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, has announced joy to the whole world, because from you was born the Sun of justice: Christ our God. He is the one who removed condemnation and brought grace. He conquered death and gave us life." The reason for the joy of this celebration is, therefore, the work of salvation that God has accomplished. To implement his plan, he wanted to use a woman, a humble and simple creature, prepared to give birth to the savior Christ. Mary is the dawn full of hope of the new day that no longer knows sunset, into which we have already entered, in hope, and towards which we walk, steadfast in faith and driven by love.
Thanks to her who, full of grace and without stain of sin, brought the original beauty back to humanity, God's smile shines again in the world. For this reason the Byzantine liturgy invites everyone to rejoice: «From the root of Jesse and from the lineage of David the girl Mary is born for us and all creation is renewed and divinized. Rejoice together, heaven and earth; praise her, you tribes of the nations. Let the heavens rejoice and the earth rejoice."
In the tiring pilgrimage that is earthly life, the Holy Virgin is therefore always beside us, to support us and keep the light of hope alive within us. She is close to us as a Mother whom we can always invoke, as she invites us to make the beautiful liturgical memorial of the Name of Mary on 12 September; Mother of tenderness who knows human suffering well. We find, in fact, in the month of September, two other feasts that help us to always rediscover and "remember" the meaning and value of human suffering, from which salvation and joy arise: the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September) and the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows (15 September).
There on Calvary, where darkness descends, the sorrowful and sweet face of the Mother is the only light of comfort that shines in the torn heart of the Son. Her "divine" mercy is manifested in her, the very tender heart of the Father is present in her for the beloved Son sacrificed to save all her children mortally wounded by sin.
The "yes" of the greatest love, witnessed by Jesus at the hour of his death, corresponds to the "yes" of Mary which involves the greatest pain, but which becomes a source of great consolation.
From the top of the Cross, Jesus makes his last delivery: «Woman, here is your son… Son, here is your mother» (Jn 19,26-27). In this last gift from Jesus, Mary's mission for humanity until the end of the ages is declared.
The apostle John, entrusted by Jesus to the Mother and receiving her, took her with him from that moment on. There on Calvary the mystery of the Church is already taking place: the mystery of "communion". And we were all present at that supreme delivery. We too were there with Mary to be with the Lord, in compassion and total offering, to share in the suffering of our brothers, our traveling companions.
The sacrifice of Christ consumed on Calvary is renewed every day in the celebration of Mass and must continue throughout the day.
These celebrations stimulate us not to be forgetful of our vocation as Christians, not to live on a purely instinctive, natural level, at the mercy of the current and the worldly mentality, but to carefully "consider" the situations that constitute daily existence in order to live them with faith and make our contribution to the work of universal salvation.
To enlighten us, guide us and guard us in the ways of life, the Lord also sends us his angels, his trusted messengers, which the Church celebrates on 29 September on the feast of the Holy Archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael and on 2 October in memory of the Saints Guardian angels.
For some, hearing about angels is like slipping into the world of fairy tales, but for others, for us, it is like giving expression to a simple and daily experience of their lives. This depends on the way of looking at things, of reading events. Everything changes if there is faith.
There is in fact a material creation that we see with bodily eyes, but there is also an invisible - yet very real - creation that we can perceive present only with the spiritual senses, through faith, prayer, the interior illumination that comes to us by the Holy Spirit.
So who are the angels? They are first of all for us a luminous sign of divine Providence, of the paternal goodness of God, who leaves his children without nothing necessary, indeed, gives in superabundance: intermediaries between earth and heaven, angels are spiritual and invisible creatures placed at our disposal to guide us on our journey back to the Father's house. They come from heaven - that is, from God - to lead us back to heaven and to give us a foretaste of heavenly realities.
The guardianship of angels can sometimes also be experienced in a very concrete and sensitive way, as long as one knows how to recognize it. Be it "casual" encounters (which however become fundamental and decisive in a person's life) or sudden and unexpected help received in a dangerous situation; or even a sudden intuition that allows you to notice a mistake, an oversight... How, in these circumstances, can we not feel guided, protected and lovingly helped? Truly, angels are not to be relegated to the world of fairy tales. They are real presences and protect us from many dangers that we don't even realize; above all from the danger of becoming impious, of not listening to the Lord and not obeying his Word. Angels always suggest righteous and humble thoughts and good feelings to us; they make us capable of carrying out the will of the Lord at every moment. Unfortunately there are also other spirits who approach us to seduce us, to distract us from good and tempt us towards evil, often disguising it behind flattering appearances, to separate us from God.
The holy angels are instead at our side to "educate" us, that is, to lead us out of the anguish of our proud "I" and introduce us to God, his thoughts, his feelings. If we entrust ourselves to these invisible traveling companions, from them we learn to love God, because their eyes are always turned to Him (cf. Mt 18,10:XNUMX). They are not only guardians of children, but every person is entrusted to them, and also every community, every family, every city and nation.
If we cultivate devotion to the guardian angels, we become increasingly aware and mindful of being citizens of heaven and are driven to behave in such a way as to be pleasing to God and to all those who are already in Him, who enjoy his love and contemplate his glory .
Each of us could testify to having experienced the presence of angels at least in some particular moment of our life. I like to report here a suggestive memory of a priest-writer of the last century.
«A holy priest told me (some of them are still there) that on the day of the guardian angels, celebrating in his little church of San Giovanni al Fonte, with the assistance of the faithful, he happened to hear for the whole time of the Mass a vast whirring of 'ale, nor did he know where it came from. He thought it was a question, as if it were a natural thing, of a gathering of angels (his and those present) who were reciting the Mass together with him. I have never heard a more wonderful story than this, nor one that has given me greater emotion. If it wasn't the one I experienced once, when, having happened upon the threshold of an old Abbey at dusk, I heard the Hour of Compline being sung by those grave monks; and from the voice of the father prior I heard the final prayer which is a hymn to the angels: “Visit, O Lord, this house of yours, and ward off the snares of evil spirits; may your angels dwell in it and keep it in peace." At that moment, under the sound of the last bell, I seemed to see many angels who, coming out from above, gathered in all the families as the last blessing of the day. And when I returned to my room, bare as a cell, closing the door and closing the shutters, I trembled with the joy that the knowledge gave me, or rather the sight of, that I had locked up an angel there all to myself" (Cesare Angelini, Discourse with the 'Angel).
This is not to be considered a rare experience, but a normal and daily one for the Christian. Doesn't the Scripture say: "You have approached myriads of angels" (Heb 12,22:XNUMX)? Furthermore, we should never forget that we ourselves can perform a service similar to that of angels towards each other and keep each other good company along the path of life to arrive together at contemplating the face of God.