4 Vol. LX, No. 1 Magnificat you, many of you made the way of the cross every Friday. Spontaneously and with generosity, all those who were able did so on Mount Via Crucis, in all sorts of conditions and weather. I thank you for it, my brothers and sisters. I believe that the love of the sufferings of Jesus for us increased in your hearts through this exercise of the way of the cross. Therefore, it was a holy year. Well, I am inviting you to make this year, 2025, a year that is still holier. It is possible, holier is always possible. When God grants life to His child, it is because He destines him for more. And each moment of our life granted to us by God is because He destines us for more. From the beginning of time, the ministers of the Church present religion to us in all kinds of ways, but at the base there is always the same truth: Jesus came, He showed us the road to Heaven, He preached it to us, and then He died, giving us a striking example of what He expects of us. This year, 2025, marks another anniversary, and it is with this in mind that we will increase our motives to sanctify ourselves. In 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King, setting it on the last Sunday of October. Thus it has been a hundred years since the feast of the kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ was established in the Church. For those of you who like fine phrases, I invite you to make 2025 a royal holy year, royal in the manner of our King Jesus. Watchword and Wish This year, We wish you this: may Jesus truly be our King. My brothers and sisters, I wish that each of you, in your heart, will ardently desire to be the true servant, the true disciple of our King Jesus. To achieve this, I give you a watchword that may seem rather simple: FORGET YOURSELF. Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified said in ecstasy, “It is the me – the ego – that ruins people.”2 That is why We give you this watchword: forget yourself. This year, may each one of you endeavor to forget yourself. May each one strive to disregard his me, his ego, in all his actions, but first and foremost in his thoughts. As you know, the same ideas come up again and again, and if I often repeat the same story of our origins, it is so that it may be well engraved in our mind and heart, in order that this notion may guide our entire life. Before he was the Serpent, Lucifer, the reprobate angel, was the most beautiful angel God had created. But when God presented him with His plan for the Incarnation of the Word, Lucifer’s selflove, his ego, was offended, hurt, frustrated. This provoked his “non serviam, I will not serve, I do not subscribe to this.” Lucifer’s inordinate love of his me, his ego, led him to revolt against God, and the Apocalypse teaches us that he drew a third of the angels into that same revolt.3 That is what made hell. When man was eventually created, Satan led him into the same vice, selflove: “God does not want you to touch the apple, for if you eat of this forbidden fruit, you will be like gods, you will be equal to Him.” Adam and Eve lived in intimacy and familiarity with God, our Heavenly Father. However, the Serpent – a serpent! – managed to make them fall by flattering their ego, their self-love. Satan’s ruse worked wonderfully with our first parents, even though they did not have original sin.4 When our first parents fell into sin by biting the apple, it was as if the Serpent had bitten them. They were bitten by the 2.Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified, Sayings and Elevations (Editions Magnificat: Mont-Tremblant, 2000), p. 141. 3. Cf. Apocalypse 12:4. 4.Incidentally, it is since this fatal fall of our first parents that we are all born with original sin.
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