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Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin Novena
Day 5 – Charity
«I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.» John 13:34
Meditation
The Martins were conscious of their duties to their neighbor, and the simplicity of their life made them attentive to the needs of others. Céline said, « If frugality prevailed in our home, then lavishness ruled when it came to helping the poor. We went to meet them, we searched them out, we urged them to come home with us, where their needs were satisfied: they were given food and clothes and encouraged to do what is right. I can still see my mother bustling around a poor old man. I was seven years old back then, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. We were walking in the countryside when, on the road, we met an old man who appeared destitute. Mother sent Thérèse to give him some alms. He seemed so grateful that she entered into conversation with him. Then my mother told him to follow us, and we returned home. She prepared a good dinner for him; he was starving, and she gave him clothes and a pair of shoes… And she invited him to come back to us whenever he needed anything. »
If one of her workers fell ill, St. Zélie would visit her on Sunday, happy to provide her with anything she needed. She treated her maid the same way: « It happened that she spent three weeks, night and day, at the bedside of Louis, who had a very severe attack of articular rheumatism, and whom she did not wish to send to the hospital. »
And when St. Louis, for his part, « knows that, in the neighborhood, there are ill people whose conversion is urgent, we witness his eagerness in visiting them, and in asking the whole family to pray that the sick person might decide to receive the Last Rites. … [His wife] does her best to help him in this apostolate. »
Resolution
Today, I will do something good for somebody—by a smile, a telephone call, a visit, or by giving alms…
Prayer
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory be to
Saints Louis and Zélie,
you who in your life as a couple and as parents
have given witness of an exemplary Christian life,
in putting God in the first place
through the exercise of the duties of your state in life
and the practice of the virtues of the gospel,
we turn to you.
Help us to have unshakable confidence in God
and to surrender ourselves to His Will,
as you did in the joys
but also in the trials, the sorrows, and the sufferings
with which your life was marked.
Help us to love God with all our heart,
to persevere in our daily difficulties,
and to dwell in the joy and hope
that will give us a living faith in Christ.
Intercede for us
so that we may obtain the graces we need
today and all the days of our life. Amen.
Saints Louis and Zélie, pray for us.
