PHASE FIVE;  CALL TO LOVE - IN THE MIDST OF ADVERSITIES
(From 6th December 1984 to 7th February 1985.  Advent and Christmas.)

After calling the faithful to communal prayer in its various forms, with special emphasis on the family as the model for all praying communities, our Blessed Mother leads now to the heart of communal life:  love, brotherly love, about which Jesus gave us a special mandate before He died.  This brotherly love among the followers of Christ was to become the sign of recognition to others (John 13: 34-35).

Advent and Christmas seasons have provided a fitting liturgical background to Our Lady's teaching on love.  The celebration of the great mystery of Incarnation and the Birth of our Saviour reminds us that God loved us first and we are called to respond to that love.  St. John, the Evangelist of Love, explains this beautifully:
"my dear friends, let us love each other, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God.  Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.  This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him.  Love consists of this:  it is not we who loved God but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins.  My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love each other."  (1 John 4:7-11).

Our Blessed Mother is also aware of the fact that we can be most vulnerable in the area of love, exposed to increased attempts by Satan in this unloving world to spoil our love, joy and peace.  Therefore, in her teaching on love she also gives us helpful advice on how to overcome Satan's tactics, on how to love in the midst of adversities. 

Such experiences may be taken as testing for our love, and in the last part of this phase Our Lady calls us to childlike trust in God's power over the Evil One, and to loving confidence in her as our Mother who helps us in all our trials.  This brings the first year's programme, 'Invitation to a Life of Prayer and Love' to its conclusion.