Video and English text- Speaking of "Tradition with a capital T", Cardinal Sarah's utterly magnificent sermon tonight as the Pope's representative at the 400th Anniversary of the Visions at Sainte-Anne d'Auray

Dear brothers in the episcopacy and the priesthood, dear friends from Brittany, the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the apparitions of Saint Anne begin today. The Holy Father has sent me to you as his extraordinary envoy to express how important he considers this event not only for your Diocese, for all of Brittany but also for the entire Church. Already today, the Feast of the apostle Saint James, called the Major to distinguish him from the other James, cousin of Jesus, allows us to glimpse the spiritual meaning of this anniversary. In the Gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 20, we see the mother of Saint James, the wife of the Zebedee, interceding with Jesus. She is ambitious. She wants her sons James and John to be in the best position in the kingdom of God.

And Jesus curbs her ambition. We too, brothers and sisters, can ruin our pilgrimage to Saint-Anne d'Auray by coming solely to ask God to make our businesses prosper, to make all our undertakings successful, to satisfy all our material needs. The only Christian ambition, Jesus tells us, is to follow Christ to the point of sacrifice, to death on the Cross, to the giving of one's life for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls.

This is our Christian vocation: to drink the chalice of the Cross. And I know that your region has known so many martyrs, so many priests and faithful who have shed their blood for fidelity to their Faith. The martyrs give us an example. Today, as we speak, in many parts of the world, Christians are dying as martyrs. They fall under terrorist bombs. They are massacred, beaten, imprisoned, men, women, and even children. They give their lives to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ crucified and risen. 

And you, Christians of Brittany, Christians of France, is your ambition Christian or worldly? Do you desire martyrdom, the ultimate testimony, the gifts of your life? Lukewarmness, indifference, silent apostasy lie in wait for us like a corrupting virus. 

The example of martyrs must maintain our love for God. A Christian who does not desire martyrdom is already sick. This does not erase the heart, the anguish, or even our sins of cowardice, but at least deep in our hearts, we can say like a prayer: "Lord, may I bear witness to your love, may I give of myself, may I, if possible, give my life out of love for you, dear friends. Martyrdom can be accomplished by shedding all one's blood at once, but it can also be achieved by shedding one's blood drop by drop every day. This martyrdom, this daily witness, is still the most widespread, especially in your Europe, in former times, Christian [unknown voice wow].

It is that of those who are heroically mocked, humiliated, and scorned every day for their faith. It is also the witness of parents who give themselves every day for their children. In the Gospel, we see the mother of Saint James interceding with Jesus, and today we are gathered to open the Feast of Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary. How many mothers have played a decisive role in the lives of the saints? I am thinking of the mother of Saint John Bosco, of Saint Dominic Savio, of Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, of Saint Mary, of Saint Anne, who entrusted the human and religious education of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, but also entrusted to Saint the mission of educating the Bretons, the French, and all people throughout the world to be attentive to God's holy will and to dedicate their lives to God. You, mothers, God entrusts you with a mission. You carry a precious treasure. Despite your weakness,  the souls of your children are entrusted to you. What a terrible mission! What an enormous responsibility! This applies to fathers as well as mothers. God entrusts you with a child whom he calls to holiness. He gives you the mission of preparing his heart so that he, too, may freely accept divine grace. Dear Christian parents, day after day, you give yourselves body and soul. You make enormous sacrifices to feed your children. You work hard. And I will pay homage.

You are martyrs, witnesses of our time. You are constantly concerned about the best for the education of these little souls that the Lord has entrusted to you. Do not forget their spiritual needs. Do not forget to pass on the faith to them. Do not be afraid to bear witness to your faith to your children. As Saint Paul says in the first reading, we believe. That is why we speak. Yes, we speak in a Christian family; we must talk about God, teach catechism, explaining the Word of God and leading the children to Sunday Mass. Look at the well-known images of Saint Anne with Mary as a young child learning with her to read the Holy Scriptures and on her mother's lap. It was on these laps that the Virgin Mary learned to sing the psalms, to pray, to await the Messiah of Israel. It is on their parents' laps that young baptized children must learn their first prayer and the rudiments of the catechism. Don't be afraid to pass it on. God has entrusted you with this magnificent mission of giving human life. I see beautiful, large families, thank you. Yes, thank you for your generosity, your trust in God. And I have said to everyone, along with human life, God asks you to pass on divine life, the life of grace received at baptism. It is the most beautiful gift you can give to your children, to pass on to them this extraordinary power that belongs to God. It is not up to us. The gift of grace does not come from us, but it is up to you to open your hearts to this gift. 

In all Christian families, we must pray together at least once a day. In all Christian families, we must teach the faith. Dear parents, your role is decisive. Do not be afraid. Saint John Paul II tells you, do not be afraid. It may happen that your children refuse God's gift. You are not asked to succeed, but to pass it on without being anxious, disconcerted, sometimes even bewildered, overwhelmed, but not destroyed. Even in this very intimate, very personal gift of the vocation to the priestly life, to the consecrated life, to the religious life, you have a role to play. Certainly, it is not up to you to decide your children's vocation. It is their secret with God. But how will they hear the call if you do not prepare their hearts to love God, to love priests, to love religious men and women? How would he welcome a vocation if you don't pray for your children to be called? How would he dare respond to this call if you placed in their souls the sole desire to succeed in the eyes of the world through money, success, and pleasure. 

Dear parents, like Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary, like so many parents of saints, you have a great responsibility to transmit the faith, to transmit prayer, to transmit the Christian life. This is Tradition with a capital T: transmitting what we have received, transmitting what God revealed to the apostles and what has happened through so many generations of Christians down to us. We form an unbroken chain of which Christ is the first link. We have no right to give this chain back. The Christian family is the place where tradition, transmission, is accomplished. It is beautiful to transmit your national and regional traditions, your languages, your customs, your customs. But all this would be empty and absurd if you did not pass on the Faith that is the soul of all your traditions.

It is traditional in Brittany to go on pilgrimage. This is good and right, but the heart of this tradition remains the example of Saint Mary, the mother of the Virgin, who passed on to Mary, the mother of Jesus, the faith received from her parents. Dear friends, I bless God who gives me this joy, this grace to pray with you. Saint, I bless God who gives me this grace to strengthen you in the faith. I bless God because by coming here, I myself will be comforted by your faith. Let us ask Saint James, let us ask Saint Anne for the strength to bear witness in our families to transmit the faith. And if sometimes we feel we have failed because a child strays from the faith or rejects it, let us pray, I repeat, let us pray. Let us pray. As Saint Monica did with Saint Augustine. Monica wept and prayed for the conversation of her son Augustine. His prayer was granted. Let us bear witness, let us dare to speak, not because we are better or superior, but because we carry a treasure of which we cannot deprive the world.

The treasure of the Gospel.

Amen. 

The treasures of the sacraments that save the world. May Saint James, Saint Anne, and all the parents of the saints in heaven grant us the strength to bear joyful and persistent witness, which nothing can repel or discourage. May we have the strength to bear witness in the martyrdom of daily life and even to the final martyrdom, if God grants us the grace. Saint James, Saint Augustine, and Saint Anne, pray for us. Amen. M.