9 Oct 2017

Worse Than Slavery

posted in: Blog |

Since the infamous January 22, 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision which made abortion legal throughout the 50 states more than 19,000,000 black babies have died by abortion. That is more than quadruple the number of enslaved blacks (3,953,760) recorded in the 1860 U.S. census. As of January 1, 2016 the U.S Census Bureau estimated the black American population to be 74,500,000. This means that the equivalent of more than 25% of the current black population in the United States has died by abortion since 1973. Roughly 900 black babies die by abortion in the United States EVERY DAY!

Margaret Sanger, who founded Planned Parenthood (the largest abortion provider in the United States) once wrote, “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,” (Letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble on Dec. 10, 1939). In fact Sanger’s organization targets minority populations. A 2012 study by Protecting Black Life found that 79% of surgical abortion centers in the United States are within walking distance of minority neighborhoods. Black children in the United States are five times more likely to be aborted than white children are. African-American women make up only 13 percent of the U.S. female population, but they account for more than 36% of the abortions. (Mark Crutcher, Life Dynamics).

If you were alive in the 1860s would you have stood with the abolitionists against slavery? Where will you stand today?

13 Aug 2017

August Queen of Heaven–August 13, 2017

posted in: Blog |

August Queen of Heaven

A poem for August 13, 2017

 

One hundred years ago today

Humanity-in the person

Of three small shepherds-

Missed its appointment

With the August Queen of Heaven.

The sin of one man

Imprisoning the innocent

Lessened the October miracle

For all humanity.

 

The tragedy of evil

Suctions out generations

Destined for eternal liberty.

 

But we have a Father

Of Infinite Mercy

And a Redeemer

Who lives forever to intercede for us

And a Spirit

Who renews the face of the Earth.

20 Feb 2017

Taking the Offense Against Suicide

posted in: Blog |

I am republishing this post today in honor of what would have been my friend Rosemary’s 60th birthday.   May she rest in peace!

 

“Do thyself no harm, for we are all here” (Acts 16:28).  With these words, St. Paul prevented his jailer from committing suicide.  We need to unite with St. Paul and raise our voices in prayer and love against the great scourge of suicide.

When my childhood friend Rosemary committed suicide I remember feeling that nothing would ever be alright again.  Since her favorite color was yellow, I entitled a poem I wrote in her memory, “Yellow Roses.”  For many weeks after her death I continued to mourn for her; finally one of my Superiors in the convent told me to ask Rosemary to intercede with God that He would allow her to let me know that she was okay.  So one Palm Sunday as I was sitting in our convent kitchen drinking a cup of coffee I prayed, “Rosemary, if you are either in Purgatory or Heaven, then I want you to send me a sign in one week.  I’m not going to tell you what it should be, but I need to know it is from you.”

Exactly one week later on Easter Sunday I was at another convent; I had somewhat forgotten about my prayer. That afternoon I happened to be looking through a drawer filled with free holy cards.  Suddenly I saw one that had one of my favorite pictures of our Blessed Mother on it.  Happily I took the picture out and realized that it was actually the front of a greeting card.  I opened the card.  Inside was a picture of yellow roses.  Underneath this picture were the words, “Behold, I am alive, and I live forevermore.”

I do not need to tell you how much this card meant to me and also to Rosemary’s mother to whom I sent it.  We need to reach out to the families and friends who are grieving suicide to reassure them that their beloved ones are not beyond the reach of God’s Infinite Mercy.  In fact the Catechism of the Catholic Church reassures us that, “We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives.  By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance.  The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives” (CCC 2283).

St. Padre Pio said that he could just as easily pray for the happy death of his great grandmother as for someone who was dying that day.  This means that our prayers can still help people who have already died by suicide because God is outside of time.  At the moment of a person’s death God already sees all the future prayers that will be prayed for that person, and He can apply the graces obtained by those prayers to help the dying person to make the choice to receive His Merciful Love.

In the United States there are nearly 40,000 suicides annually; it is the second leading cause of death for 15-34 year olds.[i] Every suicide, including Brittany Maynard’s recent assisted suicide, is a grievous assault against the dignity of the person.  We need to join together and form a chain of loving defense against suicide.  We know that love is stronger than death (Song of Songs 8:6).  As children we used to play a game called Red Rover.  A team would join hands together and try to prevent a person from the other team from breaking through their joined hands.  Let’s do this for all the souls who are tempted to commit suicide, and for those who have committed suicide and their families.  Together we can form a great chain of prayer and in eternity we will see what was the great power and fruit of our united love for helping souls suffering from this grievous affliction.

As Daughters of Mary, Mother of Healing Love, we have formed the Lifeline Against Suicide Team (L.A.S.T.) and we hope that you will join us in taking the offense against suicide.

24 Oct 2016

Is Abortion Really Only One Issue?

posted in: Blog, Pro-Life |

26-states-gone

As we draw near to Election Day in this very contentious campaign, some Christian voters say that abortion is only one issue.  They believe it is fine to vote for a candidate who has vowed both to expand abortion coverage and to choose Supreme Court justices who likewise favor the expansion of this gruesome practice.  These voters consider other issues such as immigration reform, gun control, or environmental issues to be more important than ending legal abortion in the United States.  It is undeniable that all of these issues and many others are important, but do any of them really matter as much as the right to life does?  Consider these facts:

The estimated total of abortions in the United States since 1973 exceeds 58.5 million (Life News 2016/1/14).  The US Census Bureau estimates the current population of the United States to be over 324.7 million. (www.census.gov). This means that in the United States since 1973 we have aborted the equivalent of more than 18% of the current population!

The combined population of the 26 lowest populated states of the United States (as tabulated by the US Census Bureau’s 2015 estimates) is less than the number of babies who have died by abortion in our country since 1973! You could eliminate the total populations of: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming; and you still would not equal the number of babies who have died by abortion in the United States since the Supreme Court’s January 22, 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Before you vote for a candidate who has promised to expand abortion coverage please ask yourself, “If I had lived in Germany during World War II would I have supported Adolf Hitler if I had known he was promoting the slaughter of more than 6 million innocent Jewish people?”  If your answer is no, then please don’t vote for a candidate who is favoring a practice that has already caused the death of NINE TIMES more innocent people than the Nazis murdered.

If you have had an abortion, supported abortion rights, or voted pro-abortion in the past, then  please turn back to Jesus– Who is infinitely Merciful– and Who prayed for us all as He was dying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Sister Mary Rose, DMML

10 Sep 2016

First Amendment Violation

posted in: Blog |

Our founding fathers stated in the First Amendment that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  This means that government, whether national or local, should not be imposing a particular religious view on the people.  I find that my local government, by deciding to decorate our city of Rochester, NH with gay pride rainbow flags, is imposing a particular religious view on the whole populace.

No government has the right to force me to accept this religious view which is in opposition to my own religious view.  My religious view is Biblical: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27).  Clearly I don’t have the right to force this view on anyone else.  But I do have the right to live according to my belief; and I have the right not to be coerced into embracing beliefs which contradict my own.

I believe that I’m called to love and be merciful to every other person as Jesus loves and is merciful to me.  I am tolerant of every person; but I am not tolerant of actions which, since they oppose nature, are destructive to individuals and society and are scandalous to the young.gen-127-9-10-16

25 Jul 2016

Encountering the Merciful Father

posted in: News |

Encountering the Merciful Father

By Maree Triffett

**********************

“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom”. (Matthew 27:50,51)

****

In this decisive moment in salvation history God was revealed as the merciful Father to be worshipped “in spirit and truth”.

 

In her diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Saint Faustina describes her vision of the Merciful Jesus: “I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment.  One hand [was] raised in the gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast.  From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside at the breast,  there were emanating two large rays, one red, the other pale….” (1)

 

The phrase – “slightly drawn aside at the breast” – encapsulates the scripture: “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom”. (Matthew 27:50,51)  As Blessed John Henry Newman wrote: “He came to rend the veil of the temple, and give free passage to the rays of divine mercy over the whole world”. (2)

 

The curtain of the temple screened the Holy of Holies – the sanctuary where God manifested His presence in the “Shekinah Glory”.   Here was contained the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat.   Only the High Priest was allowed access to the Holy of Holies, and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement. On this special Jewish feast he sprinkled blood “upon and before the mercy seat seven times”.(Lev 16:14)

 

While the three Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke mention the tearing of the temple veil, John’s gospel omits it.  As an eyewitness to the crucifixion his focus is, instead, on the lance penetrating Jesus’ side:  “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out immediately.” John 19:34

 

The rending of the temple veil coincides with the tearing of Christ’s flesh: “We are assured of entering the Sanctuary by the blood of Jesus who opened for us this new and living way passing through the curtain, that is, his body” (Hebrews 10:19,20).

 

The temple curtain has been described as massive – 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and so thick and heavy that hundreds of men were needed to manipulate it.  Scripture says that it was rent “in two from top to bottom” indicating that it was an act, not of human hands, but from above – a sovereign act of God the Father.

 

It was the Father’s response to the anguished cry of the new Adam: “My God, My God why have you abandoned me?” (Mark 15:34)  The cry of His Beloved Son now echoed His own lament “Adam, where are you?” (Gen 3:9) – “a question charged with all the sorrow of a Father who has lost his child”. (3)

 

On the completion of Jesus’ mission, the Father removed the barrier between Himself and His children that had existed since Adam.  The severed bond of intimacy was finally restored.

 

“The central purpose of Jesus’ mission…… was to renew our relationship with the Father, a relationship severed by sin, to take us from our state of being orphaned children and to restore us as his sons and daughters…….. We were made to be God’s children, it is in our DNA. But this filial relationship was ruined and required the sacrifice of God’s only-begotten Son in order to be restored.”(4)

 

Through the death of Jesus, access to the mercy of God was no longer restricted to one place – the Mercy seat; to one person – the High Priest; or to one day – the Day of Atonement.

 

The Divine Mercy Chaplet is a prayer specifically directed to God the Father.  On Friday, September 13, 1935, Saint Faustina had a profound encounter with the Merciful Father.  In a vision she saw an angel about to execute the divine wrath of God. She prayed for mercy but in vain.  At that moment she found herself before the throne of the Heavenly Father.  “I found myself pleading with God for the world with words heard interiorly:  “Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, for our sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us”……..` “As I was praying in this manner, I saw the Angel’s helplessness: he could not carry out the just punishment which was rightly due for sins. Never before had I prayed with such inner power as I did then”. (5)

 

The tearing of the temple veil marked the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New Covenant –  “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will tear the new garment as well, and the patch from the new will not match the old.” (Luke 5:36)

 

The Ark in the Holy of Holies signified truth and law; the Mercy Seat represented spirit and mercy.   The New Covenant would introduce the new form of worship promised by Jesus to the Samaritan woman: “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain nor in Jerusalem….But the hour is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”.  (John 4:21, 23)

 

The words of Jesus to the Samaritan woman imply “a radical transformation in worship…..the time of the Father had come; it was He, the one and only Father, who laid the foundations…….The Father calls for an adoration filled with a filial spirit rather than a spirit of fear……[a relationship that is] no longer merely that of a servant or slave to an all-powerful Master, or of a creature to his Creator, but of a child to his or her Father”. (6)

 

The new worship would be the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  “In fact, the whole of the liturgy of the Mass invites us to raise our souls to the Father, to offer ourselves to Him, with His beloved son..” (7)    In this new worship of the Father we, His children, come into His presence through Jesus, now veiled by the species of Bread and Wine.  “As God in former days dwelt in the temple of Jerusalem, He now lives in our churches and chapels”. (8)

 

In a Church approved private revelation, God the Father told Mother Eugenia Ravasio:

“Why did I command Moses to build a tabernacle and the ark of the covenant, if not to come and dwell, as a Father, a brother, a close friend, with My creatures…..In the Eucharist I live among you as a Father with His family. I wanted My Son to institute the Eucharist so as to make every tabernacle the vessel of My favours, My riches and My love….. It is through My Son and the Holy Spirit that I am coming to you and into you, and it is in you that I seek My repose. To some souls, the words “I am coming into you” will seem a mystery, but it is not a mystery! Because, having instructed My Son to institute the Holy Eucharist, I intended to come to you every time you receive the Sacred Host!……. Through this Sacrament you are intimately united with Me. It is in this intimacy that the outpouring of My love makes My holiness spread into your souls”. (9)

 

As Saint Faustina wrote: “When I had received Holy Communion, I had a deeper knowledge of the heavenly Father and of His Fatherhood in relation to souls.” (10)

 

However, after two thousand years of Eucharistic worship, “we could almost say that now it is the Father and no longer the Holy Spirit who is ‘the divine unknown’.”(11)  “For how many Christians is the Father, today, a living person?”(12)   Our prayers lack the intimacy with which Jesus prayed to the Father.  “Many prayers have remained at the stage of the Old Testament in their way of addressing God.”(13)

 

Several theologians believe that a liturgical feast honouring God as Father is now necessary to make the Father known: “Feasts are a living catechesis and today there is an urgent need for a living catechesis on the Father.”(14)

 

“The absence of a feast dedicated to the Father in the liturgical calendar bears witness to the fact that the worship of the Father still hasn’t reached its full development……the new worship which Jesus began consists of adoring the Father: and yet there is no day in which this adoration is directed more particularly to the person of the Father.” (15)

 

A liturgical feast honouring God as Father would “help many come to know the living Father, the Father of Mercy and Goodness as revealed to us by Jesus……Would it not contribute to an increase in the number of those who would worship the Father “in Spirit and in Truth” as Jesus has announced?”(16)

 

Monsignor Guerry asserted that the Church needs to “authorize the institution of a feast to celebrate the attributes of the Father in His relationship with us……Does not devotion to the Father perhaps magnificently accomplish, in Christian worship, Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman…”(17)

 

And a liturgical feast honouring His Fatherhood was specifically requested by God the Father to Mother Eugenia: “I desire only this: That one day may be consecrated to honouring Me in a particular way, under the title of FATHER of all mankind…the first Sunday in August ….[or] the 7th of August.”(18)

 

This Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy dedicated to the Merciful Father is a precious opportunity to grow closer to God as our Father.  Pope Francis sees it as a special time of grace in which to “find the road home to the Father” – a time in which “God’s sons and daughters take up once again the journey to the Father’s house”.  He encourages us to embrace “this Extraordinary Jubilee Year dedicated to living out in our daily lives the mercy which the Father constantly extends to all of us.”(19)

 

In the Marian Year of 1987, Our Lady promised Father Gobbi, founder of the Marian Movement of Priests, that there would be a special time of grace as a gift from the Heavenly Father:  “These are the times of the great return …These are the times of the great mercy… The Father thrills with ardor and wills to pour out upon this poor humanity the torrents of his infinite love”. (20) 

 

And humanity will respond to this outpouring of love: “At last, the prayer of the ‘Our Father’ which Jesus taught us will be fulfilled; it will have its perfect completion.  The Divine Will will be fulfilled in a perfect way by all creatures, thus bringing forth the Kingdom of the Divine Will upon this earth.”(21)   This “new and divine holiness”(22) will see the greatest glorification of the Father.

 

“ ‘Father’.  This one word contains the whole history of redemption.”(23)

“And in the end….everything else will turn out to be unimportant and inessential, except for this:  father, child, love.  And then, looking at the simplest things, all of us will say:  could we have not learned this long ago?  Has this not always been embedded at the bottom of everything that is?”(24)

 

Footnotes:

  1. “Divine Mercy in My Soul” – Diary of Saint Faustina 47
  2. “Sermon No. 388” – 31st May, 1835 Blessed John Henry Newman
  3. “Yad Vashem Memorial Address” at Jerusalem Pope Francis 26th May, 2014
  4. Pentecost Sunday Homily 2016  Pope Francis
  5. “Divine Mercy in My Soul” 473-475
  6. “Abba, Father We Long to see Your Face” Jean Galot SJ p.204,205
  7. “Devotion to the Father: Its appropriateness – Its doctrinal value”  Monsignor Emilio Guerry
  8. Father Jean Galot SJ
  9. “Life for the Glory of the Father – the Message of God Our Father given to Mother Eugenia Elisabetta Ravasio”  p.84,87,120,121
  10. “Divine Mercy in My Soul” 1819
  11. “Life in the Lordship of Christ”  Father Raniero Cantalamessa  Chapter VI
  12. “Devotion to the Father: Its appropriateness – Its doctrinal value”  Monsignor Emilio Guerry
  13. “Abba, Father We Long to see Your Face” Jean Galot, SJ p.223
  14. “Life in the Lordship of Christ” Father Raniero Cantalamessa  Chapter VI
  15. “The New Worship of the Father”  Jean Galot SJ
  16. “Life for the Glory of the Father”  Bishop Alexander Caillot’s testimony in favour of the Father’s revelations to Mother Eugenia Ravasio p.73
  17. “Devotion to the Father: Its appropriateness – Its doctrinal value” Monsignor Emilio Guerry
  18. “Life for the Glory of the Father” p.97
  19. “Misericordiae Vultus – Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy”  Pope Francis
  20. “To the Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons” p.558,559
  21. “The Triumph, The Second Coming and the Eucharistic Reign” Fr. Stefano Gobbi, June 24, 1996
  22. Saint John Paul II canonised Saint Hannibal di Francia on 16th May, 2004. During the homily the Pope referred to “the new and divine holiness” – the spirituality of “living in the Divine Will” – which was central to St. Hannibal’s life.
  23. “Jesus of Nazareth “Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) quoting Reinhold Schneider p.135, 136
  24. Reflections on Fatherhood 1964 essay by Karol Wojtyla (Saint John Paul II)

 

 

Maree Triffett

20 Jul 2016

In Memory of Her

posted in: General |

promise to St. Mary Magdalene

“And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:9).

This Friday these words of Jesus will find a particular fulfillment as the entire Catholic Church, by order of Pope Francis, will celebrate July 22nd as a feast rather than as a memorial of St. Mary Magdalene. This elevation to a feast is quite significant since the only other woman to enjoy the honor of having a feast day is Our Blessed Mother.  Typically feasts are reserved to the Apostles.  Yet, as St. Thomas Aquinas pointed out, and Pope Francis emphasized with this decision, St. Mary Magdalene acted as the “apostle to the apostles” when she brought them the news of Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.  By establishing this new status for St. Mary Magdalene during the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis wanted to emphasize God’s Infinite Mercy in freeing this woman from seven demons and making her the first witness of the Resurrection.

St. Gregory the Great, who was Pope from 590 until his death in 604, called St. Mary Magdalene “a witness of Divine Mercy.” This Pope clearly indicated in his writing that St. Mary Magdalene was Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.  That she was Mary of Bethany was widely accepted in the Church in the west for nineteen centuries; however, in recent decades people have begun to think that St. Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany were two different people.  Yet it is quite easy to prove that Mary of Bethany was the sinful woman who anointed the feet of Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee (cf. Lk 7:36-50) and that she again anointed Him in the house of Simon the leper in Bethany a few days before his death (cf. Jn 11:2;  Jn 12:1-8; Mk 14:3-9).  Jesus said of Mary of Bethany: “And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mk 14:9).  The word of God is infallible.  If Mary of Bethany is not Mary Magdalene then where is Mary of Bethany today?  It can’t be that the woman whose memory Jesus said will always and everywhere be associated with the preaching of the Gospel doesn’t even have a day to celebrate her memory on the Church calendar!

One reason why people tend to disassociate Mary Magdalene from Mary of Bethany is because they think it is an insult to Mary Magdalene to consider her as a former prostitute.  Yet, that is precisely the beauty of St. Mary Magdalene!  She, above all women saints, shows just how far the Mercy of God extends.  Jesus Christ took a prostitute possessed by seven demons, set her free from Satan’s grasp, forgave her sins, gave her the strength to stand beneath the Cross, and made her the first witness of the Resurrection.  This means there is hope for us all!

 

 

2 Mar 2016

Black Lives Matter from Conception Until Natural Death

posted in: Blog, Pro-Life |

40 Days opening rally Greenland, NH 2016

Hillary Clinton, speaking in a Baptist church in Columbia, South Carolina on Tuesday, February 23, 2016, courted black voters as she sympathized with five black mothers whose children had died by gun violence.  Does Clinton really think that too many blacks have died violently?  How then is it that in receiving the Margaret Sanger award at the 2009 Planned Parenthood Honors Gala in Houston, Clinton said, “I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision; I am really in awe of her, there are a lot of lessons we can learn from her life.”?

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a racist eugenicist. She worked closely with the theorists who put together Nazi Germany’s “race purification” program and she sought the elimination of races whom she considered to be inferior.  Sanger once wrote: “The most successful educational approach to the Negro, is through a religious appeal.  We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the Minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

Now consider that the organization that Margaret Sanger founded, Planned Parenthood, is the largest provider of abortions in the United States and that 79% of its clinics are in minority neighborhoods.  Statistics from the Center for Disease Control indicate that in 2010 alone more than 81% of the abortions done in New York City were done on black or Hispanic women.  Six out of ten black babies are currently being aborted in New York City. In 2014 blacks were estimated to account for 13.2% of the total U.S. population of 318,857,056 which would be 42,089,131. Since the notorious 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion it is estimated that 15,500,000 black babies have died by abortion.  Isn’t it odd that Hillary Clinton who said of young blacks dying by violence, “That’s too many deaths.  Too many young lives cut short,” does not consider it contradictory to ardently support Sanger’s brainchild which has contributed to the equivalent of more than 36.8% of the current black population in the United States being slain in the womb?

12 Oct 2015

The Old Man and Marriage Before the Fall

posted in: Blog, Pro-Life |

Old Man in the Mountain

 

In 1805 explorers of Franconia Notch in NH were amazed to see an outcropping of rock formation on the side of a mountain that resembled the profile of an old man. This “old man of the mountain” became the icon of New Hampshire, appearing on license plates, toll tokens, and road signs. Suddenly in the middle of the stormy night of May 3, 2003 the tons of rock forming the icon collapsed. The resulting ruins left the state’s icon unrecognizable!

Committees met to discuss what could be done about the calamity. Restoring the rocks to their original appearance seemed impossible. Eventually a brilliant solution was proposed. The state created a viewing area at the base of the mountain and designed six steel profilers. These poles were installed on May 11, 2011. By standing on a marked stone and looking through one eye at the side of a steel profiler a person can now see a restored view of the Old Man on the Mountain!

The recovery of an icon is a great gift. In our society the icon value of marriage has been devastated by the vast increase in divorce and the skewed view of marriage propagated by such entities as the United States Supreme Court. Marriage between man and woman is intended by God to be an icon of the marriage of Divinity with humanity that occurred through the Incarnation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (cf. Eph 5:31-32). How can we once again begin to recognize the beauty of this icon?

When the Pharisees asked Jesus why Moses had allowed a man to divorce his wife and marry another Jesus said, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Mt 19:8). The first 23 Theology of the Body talks that Pope St. John Paul II gave beginning in 1979 focused on what Jesus meant by saying “from the beginning it was not so.” It was John Paul II’s goal to restore in the minds of the people a perspective on the icon of marriage as an expression of mankind’s call to eternal communion with God. Through being created male and female in His image and likeness and called to self-giving love and fruitfulness man and woman were called to establish the family as a communion of loving persons reflecting the Triune God. John Paul II went on in his subsequent 106 talks to explain how Jesus Christ, Redeemer, has come as Bridegroom and united through Baptism and Eucharist His Bride, the Church to Himself as One Body. Jesus has given us His own Spirit and allowed us to call God “Father.” He has made His Bride, the Church exceedingly fruitful. Marriage between man and woman continues to be the icon of this reality.

If a person looks only at the ruins of the current culture’s view of marriage it is difficult to imagine how beautiful was the gift of marriage in God’s original creation before the fall. The icon value of marriage has been shattered by original sin and centuries of subsequent sin—but not beyond redemption. In his brilliant presentation of the Theology of the Body which can be found in the book Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, St. John Paul II has given humanity a renewed perspective on God’s original plan for man and woman before the fall and on God’s re-establishment of the integrity of marriage through Jesus Christ the Redeemer. The icon of earthly marriage is meant to lead us toward the deeper Reality which alone can satisfy our hearts forever. It is the invitation to eternal communion with the Blessed Trinity and the whole communion of saints. It’s all a matter of getting the right perspective!

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