Bulletin of the Eucharistic Crusade for Children in Australia
Dear Crusaders and Friends,
The free time of summer is swiftly coming to a close, if it has not closed already. It is back to school, back to an ordered schedule, and probably back to striving after holiness.
Let’s admit it; we didn’t use our summer vacation as we should have used it. We should have used it to grow closer to the hearts of Jesus and Mary. We should have used it to conquer a little bit more our dominant fault: pride, envy, anger, gluttony, or whatever it may be for us in particular. We should have taken more rest to restore our natural forces. We should have played games and had fun in order to develop our forces. We should have done all these things out of a love of God and not a love of self.
However, we used our summer vacation for ourselves. We indulged our dominant fault and gave it greater power over us. We neglected whatever we could of our prayer life and groaned while doing the prayers we couldn’t avoid. We stayed up late and enervated ourselves by means of digital media to the point that we are exhausted at the start of the new school year.
Of course, when I say we, I don’t mean everyone. It seems that there are 30 or 40 of you who did think of God, of your soul, of your duty and made efforts to live your summer for God. I’m not saying that you other 100 lived an evil life or that you forgot about God completely; but you did follow the crowd, the path of least resistance. You acted as everyone else and not as Crusaders of the Eucharist, as soldiers of Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Lady.
Well then, will we lament our poor actions? Yes, with sorrow and purpose of amendment. Will we stay down and make no effort to rise? Not on your life! Let us thank God for chiding us, for reminding us that we have desired something higher. Let us thank Him for giving us once again a structured environment (school) in which to work with Him for the salvation of souls by our prayers, our Communions, our sacrifices, and our apostolate.
Yours in Jesus & Mary,
Fr. Benjamin Campbell
