When he was a headmaster, the late cardinal Basil Hume, when asked by an anxious parent what Ampleforth College prepared its boys for – what traits would be bestowed, what niches opened up, what worldly successes guaranteed – he replied: “We prepare them for death.”
Hume’s terse and provocative answer was recorded by the journalist Hugo Young in his book Supping with the Devils.
Such a sharp comment makes us focus on the essence of a Christian education that prods us to living a life that is good enough to conclude with a death that brings salvation.
Sadly today, in the Western world, the awareness of the transcendent is conspicuous by its absence. We are all carried away by everyday problems and our free time is choked with continual distractions fortified by the intrusion of the electronic media. Such a culture ensures that time for reflection on the real issues of life has been greatly curtailed.
Besides serious meditation on the purpose of their life, Christians need to rediscover the need for prayer, which is the oxygen of faith. The power of prayer in nourishing our faith and the spiritual dimension of our life cannot be overstated enough. This explains why so many Catholic leaders have constantly urged the faithful to pray, especially the traditional contemplative prayer of the rosary.
This is illustrated in a remarkable interview, where a retired Swiss guard recounts how the late St Pope John Paul II gave him a rosary and said: “Mario, the rosary is my favourite prayer, marvellous in its simplicity and profundity. Take my beads and make them your most powerful weapon”, adding “Welcome to adulthood. Always and continuously call on Mary because she will always show you the way to her son.”
For Christians, the power of prayer and of the rosary have also been linked to dramatic historical events. In 1571, the success in averting a Muslim invasion of Europe at the naval battle of Lepanto is attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.
Mary’s mediation is also recorded in the ‘Battle of Warsaw’, also known as the ‘Miracle on the Vistula’. This had resulted in a decisive Polish military victory on August 15, 1920, during the Polish-Soviet War, when the newly re-founded Poland was on the verge of total defeat.
More recently, in May 1955, the power of the rosary is credited for the peaceful withdrawal of Soviet troops from Austria when one-tenth of the country’s population was galvanised to pray through the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima for their country’s freedom.
Likewise, in 1986, cardinal Jaime Sin, the heroic late archbishop of Manila, appealed to Catholics to pray for an end to the corrupt rule of the fraudulently elected president Ferdinand Marcos rather than rise up in arms. Just days later, Marcos and his wife Imelda fled to Hawaii.
One hopes that this time of vacation will be an opportunity for us to rediscover and strengthen the virtue of prayer.
As the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said in the summer of 2012: “Prayer makes our salvation secure, it helps us discern the truth, it is the origin of witnessing to the faith, and it assists those near to us to enter into the presence of God, bringing the peace and love that we all need.”