Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
In the reading from the book of Revelation today, John had a vision of an open door to heaven.
This open door to heaven, the Church and the saints tell us, is a person, a living person, that is Our Lady. Today we celebrate a votive mass, in fact, of Our Lady, the gate of heaven.
It's an open door to heaven. She is an open door to heaven, not left open by accident, but very much intentionally. God has made Our Lady this open door to heaven because he wants us to have a mother, recognize a mother, and to have a life through a mother.
God wants us to have devotion to Our Lady and through her to have life in its beginning, in its development, in its perfection, an eternal life.
For this reason, God, in a special way, saves from perdition those who are in danger of losing their souls.
Our lady is a mother who's merciful to sinners, helps them to make that U-turn from the road of perdition to the narrow road that leads to salvation.
Our lady's also a mother who frees souls from purgatory.
She loves to free souls from purgatory, especially those who had devotion to her on earth.
And even more, St. Maximilian underscores, Our Lady takes directly to heaven those who, on earth, are perfectly consecrated to her, those who surrender themselves completely to her on earth.
Because it's this attitude of surrender that God loves so much.
When we surrender ourselves to Our Lady, like a child surrenders itself to its mother, in the womb, in her arms, just a complete surrender and trust in Our Lady opens that door to heaven wide open.
And Our Lady, again, to those who surrender themselves to her in that way, gives that grace of going directly to heaven.
There is this open door to heaven. Again, it's not difficult to pass through it. And that open door is devotion to Our Lady, consecration to Our Lady.
So we should pray for everybody, to Our Blessed Lady, for those who are in danger of losing their souls, because Our Lady can help them to save them.
For the souls in purgatory, because Our Lady wants to free them.
And for ourselves and for all those who have devotion to Our Lady, so that they live it perfectly, so that we live it perfectly, so as to be able to go directly to heaven from this valley of tears on earth.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.