Life: To Take It or to Give It? By Camelia Murphy

Life: To Take It or to Give It?

By Camelia Murphy

Robin Williams, a much loved American comedian and actor, was found dead in his bedroom on Monday, August 11, 2014. The evidence indicates that he committed suicide. Many people are grieving his death. I was shocked and pained by the news myself. There was something very loveable about the personality that he projected in his movies, and it seemed like a horrible contradiction that someone who had made so many people (including myself)  laugh so much,would die in a manner that was such a tragic expression of hopelessness. What a very sad waste!

By contrast, today the Church celebrates the holy life and death of St. Maximillian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who voluntarily gave his life at Auschwitz, in exchange for the life of a fellow prisoner who was a husband and father. He volunteered to take the prisoner’s place to die of starvation and dehydration: what a terribly painful death! It took two weeks for him to die: praying, singing, and comforting his fellow condemned prisoners. Pope John Paul II canonized St. Maximillian in 1982 as a Martyr of Charity. What a beautiful witness!

The Little Handmaids and some of our friends are again preparing to make the Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary, according to St. Louis de Montfort. It is another way to give our life—each year, we hope, more completely. We give our lives as slaves (little handmaids) to Jesus through Mary. What a beautiful gift and witness!

Your sister in Jesus, through Our Sorrowful Mother!

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Little Handmaids of Our Sorrowful Mother
www.sorrowfulmother.net

And Mary said, "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." (Lk 1:38)