During his recent visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI made the following profound observation: “True freedom, the freedom of the children of God, is found only in the self-surrender, which is part of the mystery of love. Only by losing ourselves, the Lord tells us, do we truly find ourselves (cf. Lk 17:33). True freedom blossoms when we turn away from the burden of sin, which clouds our perceptions and weakens our resolve, and find the source of our ultimate happiness in him who is infinite love, infinite freedom, infinite life. ‘In his will is our peace.’ Real freedom, then, is God’s gracious gift, the fruit of conversion to his truth, the truth which makes us free (cf. Jn 8:32). And this freedom in truth brings in its wake a new and liberating way of seeing reality. When we put on ‘the mind of Christ’ (cf. Phil 2:5), new horizons open before us! In the light of faith, within the communion of the Church, we also find the inspiration and strength to become a leaven of the Gospel in the world. We become the light of the world, the salt of the earth (cf. Mt 5:13-14), entrusted with the ‘apostolate’ of making our own lives, and the world in which we live, conform ever more fully to God’s saving plan” (April 20, 2008).

 The way to freedom is the way of faith, and the life of faith expresses itself in organizing one’s daily tasks and duties in such a way as to make time for prayer, work, and rest. Prayer must take pride of place. Every day we need to forge in prayer a personal, intimate, and loving relationship with Jesus Christ. Let us pray every day: “Lord Jesus, I confide myself totally to you. Be the one Lord of my life. Transform me by your love that I may become the person you desire me to become.” Since our greatest tragedy lies in remaining in a state of serious sin, let us resolve to pick ourselves up every time we fall into serious sin by going to Confession, that Jesus may free us from our terrible enslavement to sin and death and restore us to the freedom and joy of a child of God.

The present issue of LOA devotes considerable space to one of God’s most astounding miracles — the restoration of a leg (two and a half years after it was amputated) to a young Spanish peasant, a resident of Calanda and devotee of Our Lady of Pilar in Saragossa. This single carefully documented, scientifically proven fact explodes the elaborate constructions of those who would question the existence of God. When we confront the claims of atheism (as presented by the likes of Richard Dawkins) with the fact of the miraculous restoration of an amputated limb, we see that it is not belief in God, but atheism that rests on a great delusion.

 Dear Readers! Pray for the conversion of the most hardened of atheists and sinners. Promote Love One Another Magazine in your communities. Send us your testimonies; share the treasure of your faith with others. Write to us of your experiences of God present and working in your lives. Sincere blessings to you all.

Fr. Mieczyslaw Piotrowski SChr