In last week’s article I wrote about an important part of the Spirituality of the Cross and how our baptismal priesthood is highlighted in it. Through baptism we are priests with Christ. A priest is someone who offers sacrifices for the salvation of men and women. In the sacramental life of the church there are two types of priesthood: one is the ministerial priesthood and the other the baptismal priesthood. The ministerial priesthood is received through the sacrament of ordination when the bishop lays his hands on the man who will be ordained a priest. The baptismal priesthood is the priesthood that all the baptized have by virtue of our incorporation into the body of Christ. That is, we become priests with Christ through baptism.
Since baptism makes us priests in Christ we can also offer spiritual sacrifices to God. The Chain of Love is nothing other than offering our spiritual sacrifices to God so that, with Christ, our offering of those sacrifices may obtain the salvation of men and women.
Where does the Chain of Love come from?
Concepción Cabrera de Armida was a mystical woman who received special revelations from God. In her writings, Conchita writes what the Lord says, "Since I incarnated in the pure bosom of Mary, I bought graces and I want you, transformed in Me, that is, living from my life, do not do anything else. You must forget about yourself, thrown into my arms and day and night offer everything for the salvation and perfection of the souls." Jesus continues saying to Conchita,
"Look, you're going to make a chain: every hour of your life will be a golden link, offering it with that intention; I want it not to be broken until your death and this will be your particular test. You will see if all the hours you have offered them with this holy intention, filling them of course, with of acts relative to them."
As you may see, the Chain of Love is a gift from God to Conchita, and through Conchita to all of us. The Chain of Love consists, then, in offering our own life to God just as Christ offered his own life to God His Father. In a more concrete way what the Chain of Love means is that we can do conscious acts (every hour or every certain time of our daily activities), and we offer God what we are living. That is, we can offer God our sorrows, our joys, our worries, our joys, our achievements, and all that we live. The important thing is to make this offer consciously and ask God to accept our offering along with the offering of His Son Jesus Christ for the salvation of men and women. For example, if I go through a moment of joy and enjoy it a lot, my prayer may be as follows, "Thank you very much, Lord for that moment of joy. I offer you this moment with Jesus as a conscious act of my love for you and I ask that this offering be of benefit for the salvation of our world." Or we simply become aware of our offering and say, "Jesus, Savior of all people, Save them!”
Fr. Manuel Rosiles, MSpS