A Christian never takes pleasure from the fact of a man's death

2 MAY 2011. This morning the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., released the following statement on the death of Osama Bin Laden:

Osama Bin Laden, as is known, claimed responsibility for grave acts that spread division and hate among the peoples, manipulating religion to that end. A Christian never takes pleasure from the fact of a man's death, but sees it as an opportunity to reflect on each person's responsibility, before God and humanity, and to hope and commit oneself to seeing that no event become another occasion to disseminate hate but rather to foster peace.

For Christians, the death of Osama Bin Laden is not an opportunity for rejoicing, but a reason to seriously consider the impact that we have on the world by the way in which we exercise our free will. That is why the call to unite ourselves in a new and divine holiness--often called for by Blessed John Paul II--is so desperately needed in our world. We truly need the Divine Will to crush our willfulness, to conform us perfectly to the will of God and to the will of Mary, whose own will was, through grace, perfectly conformed to the Divine Will.

Our Lady, Queen of the Divine Will, pray for us.

A Prayer to be Nothingness

O Lord, ever loving and faithful God,
help me to be little in your eyes,
and in the eyes of men.
May I shrink until there is nothing left of my will.
Take my willfulness and admonish it,
reduce it to nothingness, so that I may reside,
with Mary, the most chaste spouse of the Holy Spirit,
and Saint Joseph, her earthly husband, alone in the light
of Your Divine Will.

Our Father, may your Will reign in me as it does in heaven.
By grace may I be buried in the ocean of Your Will,
so that it is not my life, but Yours.
Not my living, but You living in me.
Not my my prayer, but Your prayer to the Holy Trinity in me.
Not my love, but Your love returned to You.
Not the glory You have given me,
as a creature created in your image and likeness,
but Your Glory returned to You in full.

May I be so little as to no longer count, but
to live only in You, dear Savior,
only-begotten Son of the Father Almighty.

In these last days of Lent, during this Holy Week,
as the Church struggles with anxieties of hope
for the coming celebration of Your Resurrection,
may this prayer be pleasing to You,
so that I may be nothing,
and, in my nothingness gain true servitude to You,
one, holy and true God.

Amen.