Jesus shows us the way, indeed He is the way; and He invites us to walk with Him: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8:34-35).

 Denying ourselves means making a clean break with sin, placing all of our trust in Christ, walking with Him, accepting and carrying out His will to the bitter end. In practical terms, this means self-discipline, following a daily schedule that includes time for prayer, solid work, and rest. From perseverance in daily prayer, regular confession, and frequent Communion comes the grace to follow Christ’s way of the cross, the road of dying to sin and selfishness through mortification and self-denial. Only then can we actually thank Christ for leading us up this arduous road with all its suffering, aridity, discouragement and the loss of all solace in God, for this is what following Christ means; it is the only way of growing in love. Everything else is seeking not after God but after the self in God, and this is the most insidious and covert form of selfishness.

In every issue of Love One Another Magazine we try to point out this road of maturing in love and encourage our readers to strike out on it. New evangelizing tasks continue to open up for us. Missionaries in Africa and India are clamoring for more copies of our English-language edition. Recently we received a request for editions in Amharic (the main language of Ethiopia), and the Missionary Sisters of Charity are asking for an edition in Albanian and German. The countries of the former Soviet Union continue to call for copies of LOA’s Russian-language sister magazine, Любите друг друга. And the demand for our Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian editions also grows apace. Only with God’s help as expressed in the prayers and material contributions of our regular readers and benefactors can we meet all these demands. Our Blessed Mother, LOA’s editor-in-Chief, is counting on your prayers and your involvement in our magazine. Every day we at the editorial office pray the rosary and the chaplet of divine mercy for our readers and benefactors. Once a week we offer up a Mass for their intentions. May the love of Christ and His Blessed Mother be your greatest joy in life. Christ’s blessings and the gift of prayer be with you all.