Monday, May 04, 2015

Who will help me cleanse my soul? - A Moment with Mary

* May 4 – Pius XII establishes the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (1944)   * Who will help me cleanse my soul? ----- A Moment with Mary --
 
Une Minute avec Marie
 
An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth

May 4 – Pius XII establishes the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (1944)


Who will help me cleanse my soul?


A-bomb surviving statues, Urakami Catholic Church, Nagasaki, Japan
 
Takashi Nagai died on May 1, 1951, at the age of 43 in Nagasaki, Japan. He was a Japanese radiologist, a convert to Catholicism and a courageous survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bombing which killed 38,000 in this small town on August 9, 1945. He himself died of the consequences of irradiation from the bomb. He was also an author. The following lines were written by him on the Immaculate Virgin Mary:
"We had a white towel, but it has yellowed with age. No matter how much we wash it, we cannot restore its original luster. Every time someone from the hospital comes for my treatments, they always ask the same question: ‘Don’t you have a cleaner towel?’ This made me think that my soul has been imbued with original sin since my birth, and although it was purified at baptism, it has turned rather grey with time. And I wondered: ‘Who will help me cleanse my soul?’
I found the answer in the bottom of my heart. The Virgin Mary, the Immaculate, who does not have original sin, will intercede for me. So now I often turn to her: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.”
 

Takashi Nagai,
In Une lumière dans Nagasaki, Nouvelle Cité, 2006

 

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