On September 14, the universal Church joined Mexico in celebrating the day on which Fr. Moisés Lira Serafín, Missionary of the Holy Spirit, was proclaimed blessed. The event was held in the Basilica of Guadalupe, during a Eucharistic celebration presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
Known as “Apostle of the Love of the Father,” Fr. Moisés had a fruitful priestly life, during which he founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate, which is part of the Family of the Cross, a spirituality inspired by Blessed Conchita Cabrera de Armida.
Divine Filiation and spiritual childhood
In a special way, God granted him the charism of Divine Filiation and the spirituality of Spiritual Infancy. Through these phrases from his spiritual diary, we can learn more about the new blessed and his desire for all people to be holy.
On littleness
- “It is necessary to be very small to be a great saint.”
- “God wants me for the life of contemplative and childhood; I feel, and I have always felt, with affection for and tendencies to the little things.”
- “Jesus wants you to be small. You will not do great things. Your life will be spent in the arms of God, loving and letting yourself be loved.”
- “Our Lord has chosen me to carry out the ‘most sublime mission’ that he brought to earth: the mission of teaching the filial Spirit, the spirit of littleness, that is, of humility.”
On self-giving
- “I’ll go where I can give everything to Jesus.”
- “[I want] to be like Jesus, Victim and Apostle. To suffer for people, to obtain graces for them with suffering, and to and to make this God loved by the means he has given me, his Works, according to my vocation as a Priest.”
- “O my God, give to me so that I may give; may I love You, so that I may teach others to love You; give me holiness so I can sanctify others; may I live in You so I can teach others to live in You.”
Humility and love for souls
- “O my Jesus, may the souls You entrust to me find in my heart the grace You pour out.”
- “The mission that God placed in me when he brought me into the world is precisely that of intensifying the spirit of selflessness, of humility in natural things and in supernatural ones.”
Love for the Virgin Mary
- “My Mother is close to me! How real this is when we acquire the habit of being with Mary! How sweet is the intimacy of the soul with Mary!”
(Source: Commemorative booklet Beato mexicano Moisés Lira Serafín. MSpS, Sr. Beatriz Ruiz Rodríguez, MCMI)
And today we celebrate...