A Very Present Help in time of trouble . . .

S. Clare, as you no doubt know, once left her convent bearing the Blessed Sacrament in order to repel the attack of Frederick II's Saracens - a tactic which was succesful, no doubt at least partly because of her complete faith in Our Blessed Lord's power.

One thing which I notice today is that there are an awful lot of Catholics who seem to lack that faith : to whom, perhaps, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is - well, alright, perhaps they do think that it is, in some way, the 'Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity' of Our Lord; perhaps it's just the significance and power of it which seems to escape them . . . I don't know; but I do know that there seem to be few enough Catholics that I see for whom the Blessed Sacrament is the centre of their lives : and yet if one has complete faith in that mystery, anything is possible - as S. Clare proved on that dreadful day when she and her sisters found themselves threatened by a horde of armed men.

As we get closer to the Holy Father's visit to these shores, should we not seek to deepen our devotion to Our Lord in His Holy Sacrament, and develop a greater trust in Him to protect us through His love, and give us all the graces we need to bring us to share His glory in Heaven, that we may be better Catholics when we welcome our Pope ?

Let us pray for a great increase in faith and trust in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, that it may effect in us a great deepening of all our Catholic Faith : and let us pray S. Clare to help us in this aim.