Speaking of those opportunities that the faithful have to help in addition to prayer, you have come to the United States with a book that you are trying to promote, on the story of a Korean woman who was incarcerated by the Marxist regime. It is a very beautiful story divided into chapters that are easy to read. How did you come to know this person and how can the book help your work, Tradition as a whole, and Catholics here in the United States?

Her book, Joy in Suffering (available from the Asian District or from Angelus Press), has been published in English and we have just finished the second printing. It was printed by the Society of St. Pius X in Korea. It is now being translated into French and Spanish, and soon will be in Japanese too. It relates her story, which is simple, in very beautiful chapters. When she was arrested, she was twenty-two years old; she had converted at the age of sixteen. She was arrested because of her membership in the Legion of Mary. Everything in her life is linked to the Legion of Mary which, in Mao Tse-Tung’s eyes, was his enemy number one, the spearhead of the Catholic Church in China.

Her example is instructive even for us priests, and will likely promote vocations in this wealthy, materialistic world, because it is the example of young people who stand firm in a heroic way.

I’ll give you an example taken from the book, one of the many anecdotes you'll find in it. One time Rose was sick with pneumonia. She was bedridden for two weeks, but was unable to find any medicine. Finally, she managed to have someone send her some by mail. Then, she got better, but as soon as she was back on her feet, she had to go back to work in the fields. As she was passing by a building with her friend Therese, they found an egg on the ground, an ordinary chicken’s egg. For them, an egg was like a bottle of vitamins—it was a gift from heaven! So Therese took the egg and said, “Rose, look! The Good God sent you an egg to get your strength back.” And Rose answered, “But there are people who are still sick. As for me, I am better now, but there are other people who are still sick.” “Yes, but you have to take it, because the Good God wants you to work.” “No, no, no, I can’t take this egg. We’ll talk about it this evening.” So, they work all day in the fields, and came back to their quarters in the evening. They met up with their fellow Catholics, and Rose said, “No, no, no, I cannot take this egg. There are people who are still sick.” So they passed on the egg from person to person, and it went around the whole group of fifteen people, to finally come back to Rose. Every one said, “There are others who are feeling worse than I am.” And even though some of them were dying of hunger, they would say, “No, no, there are other people who need it more than I do.” There could be found a heroic spirit of charity and sacrifice in these labor camps. In the end, they broke the egg, put it in a bowl of water, and made soup with that one egg; they ended up with a spoonful each. And when we asked Rose, “What did you do with the eggshell?” And she answered, “Oh, we ate it, because we could not leave traces.”

Father, India has always received great help from the United States. We take advantage of the opportunity to thank our many benefactors and missionaries who come from the United States. What can you say today to the young Indian who has just been ordained? If you had to give him a few words of encouragement or of priestly advice for the future, what would you tell him?

Archbishop Lefebvre said, “They are not attacking me personally, they are attacking Tradition.” In the same way—if we continue the same analogy—it is not we who, I would say, put ourselves up on a pedestal in those areas of our missions, but it is rather what we represent: it is a kind of priesthood that has practically disappeared. And that is what I am going to tell him.

The priest has to make manifest those treasures that are linked to the true Catholic priesthood: the Mass, the sacraments, Catholic sermons. In a book published a few years ago in France about those who converted to the Faith at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, our church in Paris, the author speaks of a university professor who received the grace of conversion because she was struck by the fact that before and after each sermon, the priest made the sign of the Cross. These are details that we do not think much of because we do it all the time, but, think about it, a university professor received that grace through these simple signs of the Cross. We really hold in our hands treasures of grace. I remember one of our faithful here in Asia, a doctor and a former Protestant, , who was converted at twenty-five or twenty-six years old at the moment a priest blessed the crucifix her friend had just given her.

So, on one hand, I will tell this newly ordained priest tomorrow, “Always remember what you represent, and that people turn to us because we have these treasures of grace, these channels of grace: the sacraments, Catholic doctrine, etc.” And on the other hand, that alone is not enough. For us, young priests, we must live our ideal.

Father, do you have perhaps a few words for the faithful, a message that you would like to send to them in particular, and perhaps in a more special way to young people?

First of all, thank you to all those who pray for the missions. I know that people are praying for the missions everywhere, in the families, in the schools, adults as well as children. Many times I have been assured that it is so. Every year I receive short notes, post cards from the Society’s schools, even from children in primary school, saying, “Here, Father, we have offered our Lenten sacrifices for the missions.” That moves us. The Archbishop often used the example of the garden hose. We, priests, missionaries, we are at the end, and we see the water flowing out. And then I see these faithful throughout the world praying for the missions, they are at the faucet. So I want to assure you that the graces you pray for are getting through at our end. The graces are coming through. Last Saturday, a week ago, we baptized a Muslim lady in Singapore. A week before that, we had baptized a Buddhist. There are adult conversions. We see it. It is mysterious. But grace is coming through, for sure.  Sometimes, it is even simultaneous.  I have many proofs of this.  I have seen with my own eyes the power of prayer, of the communion of Saints.  So, a sincere thanks to all those who pray, who make sacrifices, offer their Communions, their rosaries, those who remember the missions.

What will you present to the Good God on the day of your death? If you have the time and the talents, don’t waste that time, those talents, your whole life, in vain and useless things. Go, work in the harvest, in order to reap eternal fruits one day'.” St. Francis Xavier saw what was going on; he was in India at that time. He would say the same today.

So, thank you, keep courage, and think about your life on earth and in eternity. Do a retreat if you have doubts, if you are looking for your state of life. It would be good, perhaps, before starting in one way of life or another, to put things straight: “What is the best use I can make of my life, considering the glory of Heaven and eternity?” At the same time, be assured of our prayers. In answer to your prayers, you can be assured of ours, especially that the Good God may plant the seeds of ever more numerous missionary vocations amongst our youth.

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