On the feast of Christ the King, November 26, 2017, many of the people of Ireland will unite in praying the Rosary on the Coast for Life and Faith.
Many of us who are of Irish descent in the United States and in other countries around the world owe a great debt to the people of Ireland. Our Irish ancestors suffered many hardships with good will and humor to be able to hand on the treasure of the Catholic faith to their descendants. What greater inheritance could they have given us then that of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Because of this gift we hope to meet them all one day and thank them personally!
If you are of Irish descent (and also if you’re not) please pray a five decade Rosary for Ireland at any time during the day on November 26, 2017. If you’d like to coincide your Rosary with that of the people of Ireland, then please pray it at 9:30 am EST (Eastern Standard Time).
Please click here to pledge to pray a Rosary for Ireland on Nov. 26th!
Thank you and God bless you! May we all meet one day in Heaven and celebrate the great love the Father has shown to us in letting us be called His children!
“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!
The Easter season brings St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, before the eyes of the whole Church. Many consider Mary Magdalene to be Mary of Bethany. St. Gregory the Great, among other Church Fathers, stated that this was so. Tradition in the West sided with this opinion for centuries. The collect for the feast of St. Mary Magdalene identified her as the sister of Lazarus up until the 1960s. Today even such noted scholars as Dr. Brant Pitre consider the likelihood that she is Mary of Bethany.
Consider the Scriptural evidence for this. Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus twice. This occurs in Luke 7: 36-50 for the first time. The second anointing is recorded in John 12:1-8, Matthew 26:6-13, and Mark 14:3-9. That these two anointings are separate events is evident from John 11:2 and 11:5: “Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. . . . Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary, and Lazarus,” and from Luke 7:39, “Now when the Pharisee, who had invited him, saw it, he said to himself, ‘This man, were he a prophet, would surely know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.’” After Jesus had just raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, it would not make sense for Simon the Pharisee to wonder if Jesus knew who Mary was. Also consider that Jesus said of Mary of Bethany, “Mary has chosen the best part and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42), and “Wherever in the whole world this Gospel is preached, this also that she has done shall be told in memory of her” (Mt 26:13). Writing about the Resurrection which occurred just about a week after Mary anointed Jesus for the second time, Matthew wrote, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre” (Mt 28:1). If Mary of Bethany’s recent anointing was to be told wherever the Gospel was preached, it is illogical that Matthew would have referred to Mary, the mother of James and Joseph (cf. Mt 27:56) as “the other Mary.” This title would have been reserved to the more well- known Mary of Bethany whom Jesus had so highly praised and who defended her action of anointing Him by saying, “Let her be that she may keep it for the day of my burial” (John 12:7).
Meditate for a moment on the greatness of this woman and who she is for the whole Church. It is easy to imagine that before she met Jesus, Mary Magdalene had lost her sense of identity. She was possessed by seven devils (cf. Lk 8:2). Probably she wandered from one relationship to another, giving her body to man after man; enjoying all the pleasures that she could find, but at the end of each day feeling utterly empty. Her sister, Martha, and her brother Lazarus must have been very concerned about her. They must have told her about Jesus and how He forgave sinners. Most likely Mary did not want to hear this; she probably didn’t want to change her life since these empty relationships were all that she had and she was afraid to be silent and to have to face her own emptiness. Yet she would have had no peace. We can imagine that her friends mocked Jesus and that she would laugh at their jokes but then experience a deep confusing sadness. What was the turning point? Maybe one day she heard that Jesus would be preaching nearby and went to hear Him. Maybe that day he told the story of a man having 100 sheep and losing one of them and going to seek for that one and then rejoicing over it more than over all the other 99. Maybe it was this story that pierced her heart.
We know that sometime after she had begun to convert she heard that Jesus was at the house of Simon the Pharisee. She took a jar of ointment and went into the Pharisee’s house. She knelt down at His feet and began to kiss them and to cry on them and to anoint them with the oil that she had brought. Jesus looked at her with a look that made her feel completely understood. Simon and the others were ready to mock Jesus because they knew that Mary was a prostitute. Simon was thinking that if Jesus was a prophet then He would know who and what manner of woman this was who was touching Him. Jesus did know. He saw her deepest identity that had been for so long obscured and He told her, “Thy sins are forgiven….Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace.” (Lk 7:48, 50). Seven demons, who had held Mary captive, fled at these words of the Incarnate Word. And from then on Mary Magdalene began to accompany Jesus with the other holy women and she joined them in helping to provide for Him and His Apostles (cf. Lk 8:2). Those who knew Mary before probably began to mock her. But she had finally found Him whom her soul loved and she would not let Him go ever again. When Jesus came to their house in Bethany, Mary sat and listened to His word while Martha served. When Martha became upset and complained to Jesus, He said, “Mary has chosen the best part and it will not be taken away from her” (Lk 10:42). While the world continued to regard Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, she was beginning to see in the eyes of the one she called “Rabboni” (meaning Teacher or Master) that her true identity was Daughter of the Father and even more amazingly—bride of Christ.
The story of St. Mary Magdalene and her journey from prostitute to bride of Christ is the story of the whole Church, the Bride of Christ. Each member of the Bride is called to make the same journey from whatever type of prostitution sin has mired him or her in– to the knowledge of being a son or daughter of the Eternal Father and the bride of Christ. There is no saint who can better show us this journey than the one who standing beneath the Cross became eldest daughter of the Church, then first witness of the Resurrection, and finally Apostle to the Apostles.
For the same reason that we call the day Jesus was scourged and crucified “Good,” a terrible beauty has emerged following the brutal ISIS beheading of Global Post Reporter, James Foley. As members of his parents’ parish of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Rochester, NH we had united in prayer many times first to pray for Jim’s release during his 44 day imprisonment in Libya and then again to implore that he be released from his Syrian imprisonment.
After Jim was released from prison in Libya he came here to St. Charles Children’s Home in Rochester, NH to thank the Sisters and children for praying for his safe return. It was the first time I had ever met him, and so it was with some hesitancy, that I told him that during his Libyan imprisonment I had been praying for him particularly one Saturday morning when his parents were attending Mass at St. Charles. When I received Holy Communion that day, Jesus said to me, “I am going to release him, but first I have to release him from his inner prisons.” As soon as he heard this, Jim smiled and said, “That is what happened! Before this experience I was just focusing on being the top reporter; this has changed my whole perspective on what is important.” Then he began to talk about how much praying the Rosary had helped him during his imprisonment. I was happy to hear this, and I suggested that he consecrate himself to Jesus through Mary. Also because he was grieved about his photographer friend who had been killed at the time they were captured, I talked to him about how St. Padre Pio had said that we can pray for the happy death of people who have already died. This is because God is outside of time and equally present to all times. Seeing our future prayer, He can apply it in a present situation. Before Jim left that day I gave him a Brown Scapular which he began to wear immediately. This sacramental is considered to represent Our Lady’s mantle wrapped around her child. I know that during both of his imprisonments Jim was surrounded both by his own mother’s loving prayers and by the Love of the Mother of God. It is also noteworthy that after his release from prison in Libya, Jim always wore a cord Rosary on his right wrist which had been given to him by a good friend of his mother’s, Jackie Pelletier.
Jim was always reaching out to help other people. He organized a fundraiser in New York City for the widow of his photographer friend who had been killed in Libya. When asked by our pastor, Father Paul Gousse, why he was going back into such danger in Syria, Jim replied that he had to do it so that he could be a voice for the people who were being trampled underfoot like the grass.
After Jim was killed his loving influence was amazingly magnified. This was so evident on the Saturday after his death when a group of Muslims, some of them from Syria, organized a candlelight vigil in Jim’s honor on the Rochester Commons. One of them told how Jim had raised money in Syria to buy a much needed ambulance for the people. Many Muslims spoke of how grateful they were for all he had done for their people. It was very beautiful to experience such a deep unity of prayer between Muslims and Christians that occurred that night on the Commons. As we were leaving Sister Esther Marie stopped to speak to and hug one of the Muslim woman who tearfully told her, “People have said that I’m a bad person, but I’m not a bad person.”
The day after this vigil there was a Mass at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church for Jim. Being present at that Mass was an extremely profound experience because it was such a witness to the power of love overcoming hatred. I have never seen the Church more crowded than it was that day; but the amazing thing was that despite the terrible injustice of this murder there were no expressions of bitterness or vengeance at all– only a very tangible and powerful presence of love. Even the reporters seemed very touched by this. One reporter posted to Jim’s Facebook page saying, “I never believed in Heaven, Jim, until you got there!”
Last October 18th we gathered for a special Mass at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary to pray for Jim’s release and to celebrate his 40th birthday. At that time Fr. Paul pointed out how significant it is that Jim, whose life was dedicated to reporting the truth, and who was imprisoned in Syria, was born on the feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist (who was from Antioch in Syria). A year later it seems even more significant– St. Luke died as a martyr, giving witness to the Truth!
Jackie Pelletier (who had given Jim the cord Rosary) told me that at the Mass on St. Luke’s feast last year (Jim’s 40th birthday) when she received Holy Communion, Jesus had said to her, “I am going to release him; but more people have to be converted first.” I think that on hearing this Jim would smile and say, “That is what happened!”
The Rosary of the Holy Spirit
In her book, As By a New Pentecost, Patti Gallagher Mansfield recounts the beginning of the charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church. Sister Elena Guerra (1835-1914) who was later beatified by Pope John XXIII as the “Apostle of the Holy Spirit,” wrote several letters to Pope Leo XIII urging him to promote increased devotion to the Holy Spirit. It was at her urging that he opened the 20th century on January 1, 1901 with the singing of the Veni Creator. On this same day, after many days of incessant prayer, to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the first person in what would later be called the Pentecostal movement, received this gift. Later it would be through the intercession of the Pentecostals that Catholics would receive this gift.
Blessed Elena Guerra founded the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit with five other nuns in Lucca, Italy on the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, November 4, 1882. She wished that the “Come Holy Spirit” would become as common in the Church as the “Hail Mary.”
As we prepare for Pentecost 2014 let’s begin to pray Rosaries to the Holy Spirit like this:
Start the Rosary of the Holy Spirit as usual with the Sign of the Cross and the Apostles’ Creed, followed by one Our Father, three Hail Marys, and the Glory Be. Then begin each decade with the Our Father but instead of following with ten Hail Marys, pray instead: “Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Your well Beloved Spouse.”
There are so many Mysteries of the Holy Spirit that we can choose to meditate on for the decades. It seems that to begin with some of these mysteries could be:
1. The Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son as the Love between Them.
2. The Holy Spirit stirs above the waters at creation (Genesis 1:2);
3. The Holy Spirit breathes into man the breath of life (Genesis 2:7);
4. The Holy Spirit creates woman and the first communion of human persons from the side of the man;
5. The Holy Spirit renews the earth at the time of the great flood (Genesis 7-9);
6. The Holy Spirit calls Abraham, our father in faith (Genesis 12:1-3);
7. The Holy Spirit receives the gift of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice even his beloved son and returns an eternal blessing to the human race (Genesis 22);
