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All Christians should recognise the power of Christian prayer. To pray 'in the name of Jesus' - or 'through Christ our Lord' - is to pray with faith in our union with our one and only Saviour: the God-man Who sacrificed His life for us, but conquered death and sin by His death and R+D5182esurrection. It is also to pray with faith in His prayer, Who perpetually intercedes for us with our Heavenly Father. It's as if all the people, projects and situations I pray about, or intercede for, are swept up in one great prayer from my heart to Heaven, in the power of the Holy Spirit: Spirit of Jesus.

Christ was introduced to the world, even as a child, because He is King: the Divine child Who would sacrifice His life for sinners, and then conquer sin and death by rising from the grave. The Early Church spent many years preaching about Him, and defining His two natures, and His Mission. Only much later were definitions made about His mother's Immaculate Conception, and her Assumption. Yet the time is ripe for confirmation, in a formal declaration, of two other titles: Co-Redemptrix, and Mediatrix of all Graces.

The Blessed Virgin sacrificed her life, to give the world its Saviour. The Church has issued formal declarations in modern times of what she has long believed about Our Blessed Lady: about her purity (The Immaculate Conception) and her triumph (Her Assumption, body and soul, into Heaven); yet Christ wants to see honour paid to her courage and love, through a formal definition of her titles, proclaiming her, 'Co-Redemptrix', and, 'Mediatrix of all Graces'.

Our Lady is deeply involved in our spiritual and earthly lives. The Immaculate Virgin Mary sacrificed her life, to bring Christ into the world. She was the means or portal by which Jesus came to us; so, today, spiritually, He comes to us through Mary, with all the graces we need for salvation. This is why we call her, 'Mediatrix of all Graces', as well as giving her the title of 'Co-Redemptrix' for her sufferings beneath the Cross of her Son.

God knows our nature: our desire for inspiration, and great goals. If children hear a watered-down version of the Faith, some feel only as if Jesus is yet another good man who wants them to do good. They are not awe-struck, or inspired. It is different when they hear the truth about God's descent to earth, to sacrifice his life for us: for each of us! How wonderful, to have a hero! Someone like us, but Divine, Who loves us!

If we decide, by God's grace, to leave our hiding-places, where we were nearly paralysed by fear at the thought of doing God's risky work, that requires sacrifices, we must perhaps emerge backwards from our hiding-places, in a posture of humility. Then, free from remorse, fear, and all that bound us, we can stand upright, breathe deeply, and find joy in living in the light as confident children of God.

As I sat up in bed that night, reading, I read "the Mass was abolished" in England. I discovered that it was the Catholic Church, not the Anglican communion, that continued to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass just as it had been offered throughout Christian history. I had to be Catholic.

I saw a woman hurled into Heaven at top speed, as if from a cannon; so great was her charity at death. She had thrown away her own life to save people in danger. That fire of charity in her heart - she was not baptised - carried her swiftly to the heart of God.

Each separate congregation of Catholics at Mass, in every place and every era, in present to the unique, once-for-all Holy Sacrifice of Christ, which He offered on Calvary for sinners.