Page:O'Donnell - Hail Holy Queen 05 - All Through the Years.djvu/6

 the inherent dignity and integrity of the human person because of God-given rights. On the other side are the forces of materialism which see man as an animal knowing neither God nor basic morality. Materialism builds a bleak world of totalitarianism in which man exists for the state, and not the state for man as man's agent for the protection of God's gifts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the world of state-ism—the world of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Communist Russia.

But there is hope for Russia, and the hope is Mary who at Fatima, in Portugal, in 1917, asked for the consecration to her Immaculate Heart and for Communion of reparation on the first Saturday of each month. "If my requests are heard," said Our Lady of Fatima, "Russia will be converted and there will be peace; otherwise, great errors will spread through the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church; the good will suffer martyrdom, and the Holy Father will have to suffer much. Different nations will be destroyed, but in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she shall be converted, and an era of peace will be granted to humanity."

There is hope for all the people of the world. Already there are signs that a purely sensate culture has run its course, as larger and larger numbers of men and women, having found within man-made ideologies nothing but frustration and despair, turn from the worship of the things of the world to the all-important things of the spirit. Basically, the return to religion may be attributed in no small measure to the need of a nation and the people who constitute it, to have an anchor. Or, as St. Augustine put it sixteen centuries ago, "Our heart is restless, O God, until it finds peace in Thee." And Mary, our help through the years, can lead us to the Source of peace and contentment, providing we seek her help and intercession.

So America, to your knees to pray that the spiritual awakening which has begun may become in the fullest sense a spiritual renaissance.

America, to your knees to pray through the medium of the family rosary that Mary will bring us closer to the imperative need of God in our daily lives.

America, to your knees that _____