Look to the fiancé, the Church, the people of God – unhappily we cannot say that she is prepared; neither is our house prepared, as the fiancé, for the groom that is arriving. God does not want to save only the persons of the Church, but all His people, all His sons, All are “His fiancé”. The youth of your city, the families of your neighborhood, the persons that work in your parish, unfortunately, they are not prepared for the coming of the Lord. “The fiancé” is not prepared.

The Lord called us forward, because of them, He poured out over us His Spirit and we have been used by the Lord in his gift of the His Holy Spirit, because of them; but we are not better than the others, we are not a “priviledged race” of persons that will be saved, and the rest no. On the contrary, we are called because through the grace of God, through confidence that He has in us, we are chosen to be “the Friend of the Spouse”. Therefore, he called us to come forward to prepare His people, to be salt and light, to level the road for our brothers and sisters.

The Lord is at the door. If the fiancé is unprepared, careless with her wedding gown, the “friend of the groom” needs to awake her: “The groom is arriving…prepare yourself. You will be found unprepared…suddenly!” Saying this, he is not offending and is affirming: “You are chosen and loved.”

The loved is the wife. We are only the friend that has the obligation of waking her. We are  here to wake the Wife. The lord wants to save all the Church. It is for this that our work is very urgent!

God bless you!

Monsignor Jonas Abib

Founder of the Canção Nova Community

(Excerpt from the book,  “Eu e minha casa serviremos ao Senhor” [Me and My House We Will Serve the Lord] by monsignor Jonas Abib)

translated from portuguese