Tuesday in the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time

Scripture Readings: Dn 2:31-45;  Lk 21:5-11                                  

The disciples asked Jesus, “What sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”  

Their question continues down through the centuries.  In 1980 Pope John Paul II was asked the same question. He replied, in part: “If it is said that oceans will flood entire sections of the earth; and from one moment to the other, millions of people will perish … Put everything in the hands of the Mother of God. … We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives as a total gift of self to Christ. Through prayer it is possible to lessen this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because it is only in this way that the Church can be renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church been effected in blood? This time, again, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong, … we must entrust ourselves to Christ and to His holy Mother, and pray the Rosary.”¹

1. 1980 interview for the German magazine Stimme des Glaubens published in October 1981, John Paul II; English translation from Daniel J. Lynch, The Call to Total Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (St. Albans, Vermont: Missions of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pub., 1991), pp. 50–51.