[00:00] Praised be Jesus and Mary. Today is the first Saturday of the month and also the liturgical memorial of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and such was the devotion of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta to the Immaculate Heart that it's almost the same thing really. If you study her more closely, you'll notice that she had an incredible

[00:31] devotion to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart. So she was born in 1910, died in 1997, and in 1948 she had this inspiration. She was a member of a Marian congregation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loretto. Within this congregation she had this inspiration to dedicate her life to the service of the poorest of the poor, and this she always attributed to Our Blessed Mother, a grace from Our Blessed Mother. And she explains it this way in a letter that she wrote, the last letter that she wrote to her

[01:03] congregation before she died in 1997. We'll just look at an excerpt. She explains how through the Immaculate Heart God gave her that inspiration, God gave her that vocation within a vocation. She says, "My dearest children," writing to the nuns, "I know that I say often be only all for Jesus through Mary, but that is because that is all I want for you. If in your heart you are only all for Jesus through Mary, and if you do everything only

[01:37] all for Jesus through Mary, you will be a true missionary of charity. We have much to thank God for, especially that He has given us Our Lady's spirit to be the spirit of our society, the Missionaries of Charity. Loving trust and total surrender made Our Lady say yes to the message of the angel, and cheerfulness made her run in haste to serve her cousin Elizabeth, and that is so much our life, saying yes to Jesus and running in haste to serve Him in the poorest of the poor. Let us keep close to Our Lady and she will make

[02:10] the same spirit grow in each one of us." And then one last paragraph, most crucial of all three, she says, "It is only with Our Lady that we can hear Jesus say, 'I thirst.'" Now this, this is a crucial element of the spirituality of the Missionaries of Charity. If you go into their chapels, there's always a big crucifix in the chapel, and the words of our Lord, "I thirst," are written out. Because in serving the poorest of the poor, the missionaries

[02:45] satiate, quench that thirst of our Lord. But again, Mother Teresa explains, only with Our Lady can we hear Jesus cry, "I thirst," and it is only with Our Lady that we can thank God properly for giving this great gift to us. Let our gratitude be our strong resolution to quench the thirst of Jesus by lives of real charity. Love for Jesus in prayer, love for Jesus in our sisters, love for Jesus in the poorest of the poor, and nothing else. So why is it that only with Our Lady we can hear our Lord say,

[03:15] "I thirst"? And this is the conclusion and the takeaway for all of us here. Because Our Lady was one of the few that was at the foot of the cross, close enough to hear those words, which probably were barely whispered by our Lord, who was at the point of agony. So Our Lady is there, she hears, and all those who are with her are able to hear those words of our Lord, "I thirst." It's only with Our Lady that we have access to that intimate detail of the passion of our Lord. So next step, it's devotion to our Blessed Mother. Again, God arranges everything

[03:55] in His divine providence for a reason and as a lesson to us. The lesson to us is that devotion to Our Lady puts us in close proximity to our Lord and puts us in a position to better respond to our Lord's thirst, meaning to love God more and to love neighbor better. We hear those words of our Lord, close to Our Lady, we hear those words of our Lord, "I thirst." We learn better what God's will is, what God wants of us, what He asks of us.

[04:30] And we also learn better what our neighbor's need, what service we need to offer to our neighbor. Close to Our Lady, we hear that that's all contained in those words, "I thirst," that desire of Jesus to be loved and to be loved and served in our neighbors as well. Now, since the spiritual life is all encapsulated in love of God and love of neighbor, Our Lady is the key to bringing our spiritual life to the maximum. Devotion to our Blessed Mother, devotion to her Immaculate Heart. And it's for this reason, concluding thought, ties it all

[05:01] together, I hope you'll be impressed. For this reason, our Lord Himself wants devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. God Himself wants to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It unlocks, it's that key that unlocks the door to the maximum of love of God, maximum of love of neighbor. And that's all that being a Christian is about, love of God, love of neighbor to the maximum. Praised be Jesus and Mary.

[05:43] Amen.