(106) Review of the Visit of the Pilgrim Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Marian Prayer Program of the Knights of Columbus at St. Louis Church Gallipolis December 11-16, 2012

AMDG

The Inauguration of the Marian Prayer Program at the National Convention August 2011

The Knights of Columbus is sending the Pilgrim Image to parishes all over the U.S. for a day or two in its 2011-2013 Marian Prayer Program as part of the New Evangelization.  Each of its 72 jurisdictions (each state, almost every province in Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Dominican Republic, Guam, and Puerto Rico) has a copy of the image to circulate an image.  This image touched the original image and the frame has some of the earth from where Mary appeared.  See http://www.kofc.org/un/en/service/church/marian/index.html.

    

REVIEW OF THE VISIT OF THE PILGRIM IMAGE OF GUADALUPE:

THE MARIAN PRAYER PROGRAM OF THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

St. Louis Church Gallipolis December 11-December 16, 2012

            Only eight weeks after receiving the statue of the International Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima, St. Louis Church Gallipolis, Ohio was especially privileged and blessed to receive the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from the Knights of Columbus on her great feast day, December 12.  

Very important was to prepare the people for the image on the two previous Sundays with announcements in the bulletin and from the pulpit.  To really appreciate the image, it is imperative to understand the history and meaning of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Thus Paul Sebastian, one of the knights of Council 3335, wrote two bulletin inserts (2 pages each) to help to prepare the people for the Pilgrim Image.  More detail and photos are included in two December blogs at http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com.   

After hearing that a member of one council didn’t even know who the image was after the visit, we asked our pastor to briefly explain from the pulpit the importance of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a little of its history since many don’t read the church bulletin and don’t regularly attend Mass every Sunday.  We opened the viewing of the image to the public with a blurb in the local newspaper promised by the editor for five consecutive days and left the church opened through most of the weekend of December 14-16 in addition to the feast day itself on December 12.

The Knights of Columbus gave us no such information on the history and meaning of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe nor anything about what they were trying to accomplish with this wonderful initiative of their Marian Prayer Program.  Thus we found on www.kofc.org the letter of Carl A. Anderson, the Supreme Knight on the “Mother of the Civilization of Love” (See http://www.kofc.org/un/en/resources/service/church/olog_letter.pdf) and read it to the membership at the Council meeting the day before the arrival.  Furthermore, we put notices in the bulletin and send out e-mails to as many parishioners and knights as possible.  We were, however, happy to receive prayer pamphlets and holy pictures that came with the image

.    

Reception of the Image. Because of the death of one of our knights, Don Robinson, our 4^th Degree members were occupied with being his honor guard, we did not welcome the image or send it off with a procession of knights in regalia nor did we have a 24 hour honor guard during adoration as we did with the visit of the International Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima October 14-15.  To promote solidarity in the Council, it was proposed that the knights attend a Holy Hour specifically for the K of C, but we could not agree on a common hour. 

    

Bruce Davison, an elder and former Grand Knight of Council 3335 St. Louis Church Gallipolis, picked up the 30 x 18 inch image from the council at Sacred Heart Church Pomeroy, Ohio on Tuesday, December 11.  He placed it on a tripod in front of the main altar at St. Louis.  At 5:30 pm Paul Sebastian gave a talk on the history and meaning of the image.  This was followed by benediction and rosary.  At 7:30 pm he gave another talk in the church basement on Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the Unborn with a greater focus on how she transformed a Culture of Death among the Aztecs to a Culture of Life with a comparison to our own Culture of Death.

Eucharistic Adoration. The Blessed Sacrament was exposed for adoration for the next 24 hours through the night of December 11-12 into the great feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Jaga Sebastian signed up two people to commit themselves to adoration during each hour.  Often several would be there.  At 9 am about 12 members of the Latin American community had an hour of rosary and guadalupan song in Spanish with a CD recording of a Mexican Mariachi band to accompany them in tribute to Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.  Having lived near the shrine in Mexico City for a month of language training for my 14 year mission in Peru and visiting it every day, I was moved to tears.  Following Mexican custom, they walked on their knees from the back of the church until each one touched the image.  Other parishioners present were very impressed.  Since Fr. William Myers, our pastor emeritus, with the prodding of Bruce Davison started a monthly Sunday afternoon five hour Eucharistic Adoration in about 2005 with 24 hour adoration for special occasions as the Prayer Vigil for Life December 8/9 and the Visit of the Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima, this was our best participation ever for Eucharistic Adoration.

The image has an official certification from the Rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City as being an authentic copy.  This is important because many copies have a slightly different tint and there are many versions.  Just the same as the original image in Guadalupe, the facsimile looks even more beautiful and vibrant from a distance.  The Catholic Women’s club put a bouquet of beautiful pink roses before the image along with a basket for petitions that would be offered at each Mass during the presence of the image. 

 

Closing Days & Summary. The 24 hour Eucharistic Adoration was closed with a well attended Mass and benediction at 5:30 pm in the evening.  The image remained on display below Mary’s altar and statue through the Masses of Sunday December 16.  Then we packed the image in its protective case with this report enclosed and Keith Elliott, the Worthy Navigator of our 4^th Degree Assembly, took the image to its next destination.  

 About 100 people attended the special opening talk, benediction, & rosary; the 24 hour Eucharistic Adoration; and Mass on the great feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12.  Probably twice that number saw the image at the well-attended funeral on December 13 plus the three regular Masses of the weekend of December 15-16.  Of course, these figures include double counting of people who saw the image more than once.  The parish is small with about 120 families or 250 faithful.

  

In this way during the 2011-2013 Marian Prayer campaign of the Knights of Columbus, which includes the Year of Faith, Mary is continuing her great mission of nurturing our faith and bringing us closer to her son as she has done over the centuries.

(84) Meditations For the Rosary IV: The Glorious Mysteries

  AMDG

A painting by Raphael (1483-1520)

The 20 mysteries of the rosary and their corresponding meditations cover the highlights of the life of Christ and His mother, Mary. Four times through this liturgical year, we have published meditations on a set of five mysteries 1)Joyful, 2)Luminous, 3)Sorrowful, and 4)Glorious that coincide with the Gospels of the liturgical year.  Since the rosary is very biblical, bible references follow each meditation.  As to the repetitive background prayer, the Our Father’s is the prayer the Lord Himself gave to us and the Hail Mary prayer comes from Luke 1:28, 42. At the end of each decade, we give glory and praise to the Holy Trinity……the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  We don’t adore Mary, but rather we honor her as a model and ask her to pray for us.

        

     Conceptually, the rosary is a litany of repetitive prayers, which act like background music, while the focus is to meditate upon five of 20 different mysteries of the life of Christ and His mother, grouped according to the joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious events portrayed or alluded to in the Bible. See  www.americaneedsfatima.org. 

    The rosary is said with the aid of beads and a connected crucifix, marking the beginning with the Apostles Creed. This is followed by an Our Father for the intentions of the Holy Father, three Hail Mary prayers for the increase of Faith, Hope and Charity plus a Glory Be. Then each decade or mystery includes one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and a Glory Be (Praise), really a profession of faith.  Please permit me to share insights I obtained from many sources and use while meditating on the holy rosary. You might like to incorporate some of these meditations among yours or add to them.   

        For those who say the rosary every day: The Joyful Mysteries are usually said on Monday & Saturday; the Luminous Mysteries are said on Thursday; the Sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday; and the Glorious on Wednesday and Sunday. The Sunday rosary may use instead the mysteries that correspond to the season of the liturgical year.......Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. The Sorrowful Mysteries are usually said during the entire Holy Week and the Glorious Mysteries are usually said for the entire Easter Week. Of course one may meditate on any set of mysteries. There's no rigid rule.

 “The family that prays together, stays together.” This was the theme promoted by Fr. Patrick Peyton on his Family Theater program on radio and television during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. He recruited the top movie stars of the day (Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Loretta Young, etc. and even a young actor by the name of Ronald Reagan) as volunteers to sing or act in inspiring dramatizations on his Family Theater program on radio and television.  Available on DVD is a movie on the Life of Christ which he produced.  Fr. Peyton, the Rosary Priest, promoted the rosary all over the world in talks and rallies. 

    His cause for canonization is advancing.  Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXFlEJIpkqQ for one of Fr. Peyton's messages and links to other clips of his productions.  Learn more about this future saint by clicking on http://www.fatherpeyton.org/ and http://www.hcfm.org/FatherPeyton.aspx.  The latter has a link to the online store of the Holy Cross Family Ministries for a wealth of DVDs, books, and other resources regarding his work and the work of his order.

  

In gratitude for his lifetime work Pope John Paul II embraces Fr. Patrick Peyton, the Rosary Priest.

        Prayer has healed millions, ended wars, overthrown dictators, decisively stopped the advance of militant Islam into Europe at least three times at Belgrade in 1456, Le Panto in 1571, and again in breaking the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683, each a chapter in a one thousand year old war between Western Civilization and Radical Islam that includes today's War on Terror.  Otherwise, Europe would be a lot different today.

IV. THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

            During the Glorious Mysteries, imagine that you have gone through a time capsule and you are there at the tomb during the Resurrection of Christ on the first Easter Sunday, you are with the apostles during His appearances to them; saying good-by to Jesus as He ascends into Heaven; and being filled with the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost, on fire helping with the many conversions on that day.  

    

        Then we are with the apostles saying good-by to Mary during her dormition, her beautiful death or falling asleep as she is taken or assumed into heaven (body and soul) to be physically reunited with her son before being crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth.  The facts of the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary are based on the Bible and tradition handed down by the apostles as seen in the writings of the early Church fathers.

  

        Below are meditations for each decade or mystery. One may use the entire meditation or read and reflect only upon the Bible passages as he or she can imagine being there as an observer. In bold is a recommended shorter version when time is limited. Anything in italics is a quote taken directly from the Bible.

Pictures are taken from http://www.catholic-kids.com/picturemysteries.html.

The First Glorious Mystery: The Resurrection

  

       Over the weekend of Good Friday, there was despair among the disciples who put their hopes and trust in their Master, but to their surprise.......HE IS RISEN as He truly said he would. Alleluia! That gave credibility, validation, and vindication to Christ's to His teachings and His saying that He is the Son of God. Without the Resurrection, Christ would go down in history as just another good man or just another prophet who was killed for what He believed.  

      By His resurrection, Christ conquered death, evil, and sin.  God made good come out of evil.  Since Our Lord rose again victorious, we also have the hope of rising again victorious and achieving everlasting happiness with Him in heaven.  No matter how difficult are the crosses we must bear on earth, we can accept and unite them with His cross, TRUSTING that our crosses will make us saints and OUR VICTORIOUS RESURRECTION WILL COME.  All that remained in the tomb was the shroud wrapping the body of Christ.  At the instant that Christ's soul gloriously reentered His body, there was a burst of radiation that scorched the shroud just enough to leave on it an image of the crucified Savior that He left for us to strengthen our weak faith.

       Other options include reading and reflecting during the recitation of this decade on Psalm 16:5-11; Jeremiah 20:10-11; Matthew 16:21-22; 17:22-23; 20:17-19; 27:57-28:15; Mark 15:42-16:13; Luke 23:50-24:48; John 2:19-22; 19:38-21:25; Acts 1:1-3, 21-22; 2:30-32; 4:33; 10:39-43; Romans 1:1-3; 6:3-14; 1Corinthians 15:3-8, 12-22; 1Peter1:18-21. 

The Second Glorious Mystery: The Ascension

                                            

The eleven apostles went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.   Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age"  (Matthew 28:16-20).  Christ meant that not only for His apostles, but also for us to evangelize in little or big ways by prayer, by example and witness, by word, and by deed in our daily lives.......be it in the home, in parish functions or apostolates, in the community, in conversation, and even on the job.  

        He promised to always be with us, particularly in the Eucharist.  At the same time our Savior “is seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.”  The apostles were sad to see their Master depart and now had to wait to be filled with the Holy Spirit (confirmed) to begin their great mission of evangelization.  Other options include reading and reflecting during the recitation of this decade on Mark 16:14-20; Luke 24:47-53; and Acts 1:6-12.   

The Third Glorious Mystery

 The Descent of the Holy Spirit

       Present were Mary and the apostles....... “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.  And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.  Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 2:1-4). 

    May the Holy Spirit renew in us the graces and His gifts of the sacrament of Confirmation as well as His fruits.  As soldiers of Christ, may we be always faithful to the Lord and His Church.  As were the first apostles, may we also be fearlessly on fire for the faith......to defend it, to spread it, and to share it with others no matter the cost.    Dear Holy Spirit, always tell us what to do, what to say, and what to write.  Other options include reading and reflecting during the recitation of this decade on Psalm 2:1-7; 104:30; 118:1-9,19-29; Ezekiel 37:14; Joel 3:1-5; Mark 16:14-20; John 3:5-8; 7:37-39; 14:15-28; 15:26-27; 20:19-23; Acts 1:4-5; 2:1-41; 3:12-26; 4:5-14; 23-31; Romans 8:22-27; 1 Corinthians 12:3-13; Galatians 5:13-26; 1 Peter 1:10-12.

The Fourth Glorious Mystery: 

The Assumption of Mary into Heaven

                                                    

        According to tradition, the apostles joyfully found only the most beautiful flowers where Mary previously laid in state.  Christ followed the 4th Commandment in honoring His mother by having her body and soul taken directly into His arms in Heaven.  Our Lord would not allow her body, a living tabernacle for nine months, the new Ark of the Covenant, to deteriorate in the earth. 

        Mary’s womb, the new Ark, did not contain manna, but the Bread of Life which is the Eucharist, Christ Himself.....not the staff of Aaron, but the Good Shepherd and High Priest who will offer Himself for us…..not the Ten Commandments, but the Son of God, who will speak for the Father.

        All of Heaven received Mary with immense joy.  Mother Mary, pray for us so that we may have a happy death as you had.  Other options include reading and reflecting during the recitation of this decade on Judith 13:18; Luke 1:39-56; 11:27-28; 1 Corinthians 15:20-27, 54-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17; Revelation 11:19; 12:1.

The Fifth Glorious Mystery: 

The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven & Earth

                                                    

Imagine that you are there with all Heaven rejoicing in jubilation as Mary is gloriously crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth by her Son and the Father with the Holy Spirit looking on.   In the tradition of the Old Testament, the Queen Mother of Christ the King of the universe took her place of special honor and influence in the heavenly court.  From there our mother continues to intercede and pray for us and the world. 

Other options include reading and reflecting during the recitation of this decade on Judith 15:9-10; Revelation 12:1-6.  For meditations on the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of the rosary go to Blogs # 50, 73, 78, and 84 at paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com.