JMJ. There's a prayer--don't remember where I read it, but there's a short prayer that goes, "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph save souls." Number one, I don't understand why we humans feel like we should command those in heaven. So I modified that prayer. Now, as I've said before, I've got a huge ego but in this case I don't think I'm too off-base to suggest that we say "please." So I started praying, "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph please save souls."
The longer I have been Catholic, though, the more I realise how precarious my previous life-antics had made my salvation. Not that any one of us is safe until our deaths but at least I know that it's all up to me to maintain my soul in a state of grace. [In re-reading this I must interject that my cooperation with God is up to me--my salvation cannot happen without His grace.] "Forewarned is forearmed", as they say. About this time I really started getting interested in apologetics and evangelisation. I added a little bit more to my daily prayer. Now I say, "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, please save souls and please allow me to help."
Then I sat back, just waiting for our Lord to send the pilgrims flocking to my door, so to speak. (Remember, I have a big ego.) Never happened. Once in a blue moon someone would ask a question about the faith or why I had converted or I found the odd chance to "witness" to someone. I felt good about being used by heaven in even a small way but I would have like to be used a little more often. Now, St. Paul lost the scales from his eyes in a moment. My "epiphany" came a little more slowly.
It finally dawned on me how much I had really been contributing and how easy it is for any of us to contribute to this important and vital work. Consider:
1. Pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy which allows each soul at death to choose to accept Christ's mercy. Pray it often, if not daily.
2. Make one of your intentions when saying the Holy Rosary the conversion of souls.
3. Offer up the occasional Mass for the conversion of souls.
4. Offer up a reception of Holy Communion for the conversion of souls.
5. Consecrate yourself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as St. Louis Marie de Montfort urged. She takes all of our graces and invests them where they'll do the most good. She's the perfect spiritual investment counselor!
6. Offer up a small fast for the conversion of souls.
7. Evangelise, evangelise, evangelise.
I'm sure there are other things to do but as you can see, each of us can make a small difference by our prayers and sacrifices. The little that we do can be magnified into a humongous grace for someone whose salvation is as precarious as mine was. Someone did it for me--pay it forward!
