On repeated trips to London, I had the privilege of tracking down various sites sacred to the memory of St. Thomas More. This was one of them, in the Chelsea area. He's always been a favorite in my family because he was a regular guy - a husband, a dad, a lawyer, a guy who liked animals, a man who liked to sit around with his friends after a good dinner and discuss religion, philosophy and politics. But he came to a point in his life, as one conservative radio host put it, when "It's time to admit what you believe and stand up for it."

I found the church were his family worshipped (partially destroyed in the Blitz and rebuilt), where he studied law, where he worked, where he was sentenced to death (giving the final speech immortalized in the Oscar-winning movie "A Man for All Seasons"), where he was imprisoned, and where he was executed. I traveled to Canterbury and visited St. Dunstan's, where his daughter Meg lovingly buried his head in the Roper vault.

But did he ever feel fear? Did he ever feel uncertainty? Did he ever wonder, when his second wife pleaded with him to do what the king wanted, if he was doing the right thing? Again, he was a regular guy, doing his duty in the little things so that when he was asked to do his duty in a big matter, he was ready. He must have sometimes felt afraid! After his condemnation to death for upholding Catholic doctrine, he wrote:

"Good Lord, give me the grace in all my fear and agony to have recourse to that great fear and wonderful agony that Thou, my sweet Saviour, hadst at the Mount of Olivet before Thy most bitter Passion, and in the meditation thereof to conceive ghostly [spiritual] comfort and consolation profitable for my soul."


May we find strength in meditation on the life of Our Lord, in the trials of our own lives!


This last picture shows a poster for the live performance of "A Man for All Seasons" starring Martin Shaw, at the Haymarket Theater in London...what a great experience! I cried when he said goodbye to his family...

Today is the feast of St. Rose of Lima (1586-1617), my patron saint. :) She was the first canonized saint in "the Americas". I've never been able to visit her Peruvian hometown in South America, but I found this picture online. Someone with computer skills beyond my imagination took this reality (her cranium) and created a computer-generated image of what she must have looked like. And here it is:



On an October day in 1895, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini's boat docked in Callao. She rose at 4 a.m. with the hope of going ashore and taking a train to Lima to receive Communion at the tomb of St. Rose. She had to wait hours and hours, and finally was able to get to Lima at around 10 a.m. She had fasted from midnight to receive Holy Communion. When her dream was fulfilled, she wrote:

"On the altar where I received Holy Communion there was a statue of the Infant Jesus with His arms extended, bearing a celestial smile on His face of extraordinary beauty. He seemed to gaze on me and to say, 'It is here I have waited to favor thee, through the merits of my beloved Rosa, whom you have come to honor.' The look of this Infant, so real, penetrated the very depths of my soul, and such was the comfort I felt, that I forgot all about my fast, as well as all other human wants, so much so, that I found I hadn't even taken as much as a sip of coffee, and it was one p.m. If it is thus Jesus rewards a little sacrifice, what will He not do for souls who are really faithful to Him?"

They continued to Buenos Aires, where she bought a house and opened a school. "We named the College after Saint Rose," she wrote to the other nuns back home in Italy, "according to the promise I made when I had the pleasure of visiting the relics of the Saint in Lima. The Saint kept her word. She blessed our voyage, our arrival in Buenos Aires, and the foundation, and she still continues to bless the School, for which reason I leave it without any anxiety. Everyone is pleased at the name of Saint Rose being given to the School, as she is Patron of the Republics of South America." She goes on to say that she'd love to build a church to this great saint, if she could only find a benefactor to give her the money.

So Mother Cabrini was the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint, but St. Rose was the first canonized saint in "The Americas". Isn't it interesting that one was devoted to the other during her life?

On August 29th, 1628, Bl. Richard Herst, a Catholic farmer, was martyred at Lancaster. Dom Bede Camm, OSB, in his A Birthday Book of the English Martyrs, wrote of him:

"Going very merrily back to prison, after having been trailed by the legs along a stony road to the heretical service, he said to some Catholics: 'They have tortured my body, but I thank God they have not hurt my soul.' Looking up to the executioner, who was busy in fastening the rope, but knew not readily how to do it right, he merrily called him by his name, and said, 'Tom, I think I must come and help thee.'"

What a joyous spirit these men and women had! We are irritable and "put-out" because the air conditioning fails in our cars, or because we get a few mosquito bites! :) These people offered their fortunes, their sufferings and even their lives with hearty words of humor and wit.



This altar was carved to honor the memory of "Tyburn Tree", a triangular gallows upon which many great Catholic martyrs gave their lives for Christ in London, England. This altar now rests in the crypt of Tyburn Convent, a few hundred feet from where the "Tree" stood. It is accompanied by an amazing museum of relics of the martyrs.... a blood-stained sleeve, a lock of hair, a corporal used at Mass, a rosary bead, etc. I'm not sure you can make out any of the inscriptions, but here is one of the display cases. May all the martyrs, rejoicing in Heaven, pray for us!

“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement.”

~ St. Augustine, whose feast is today

This picture was taken at the church of Saints Philip and James in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Hawaiian Sunset

Hawaii is one of the most beautiful places in the world, especially the non-commercialized areas. Interestingly, the island of Molokai was utilized as an exile for those with leprosy, one of the most "un-beautiful" diseases known to man.

Father Damien of Molokai saw through the outside of these poor disease victims, to the beauty of the souls within, and spent his life as a missionary among them.

Looking past the horror of their disease, he saw that these men and women could, with the help of God's grace, be prepared for everlasting joy in the hereafter. He volunteered to be the one to help their souls to that goal.

We are surrounded by terrible things in the world today: dreadful sins, the gruesome results of sin, physical tragedies, ISIS bombings, and natural disasters. The news sources on the Internet can't wait to shock us with the latest horror. Oh, that we could focus on God, grace, and eternal life, as Father Damien did, instead of the negative and awful things we see. Father Damien wrote:

"The cemetery, the church and rectory form one enclosure; thus at nighttime I am still keeper of this garden of the dead, where my spiritual children lie at rest. My greatest pleasure is to go there to say my beads and meditate on that unending happiness which so many of them are already enjoying."

(A Cemetery in Kona, Hawaii)

(The tomb of St. Francis de Sales in the Basilica at Annecy)

What a treasure we have in the accounts that friends of the saints wrote! We have the life of St. Malachy by St. Bernard, the life of St. Louis by Joinville, the teachings of St. Francis de Sales recorded by Bishop Camus, to mention but three. In The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop Camus of Belley writes charming anecdotes like, "One day he was looking at a painting in my house, and said..."

We all benefit from the author's friendship with an amazing person. We even have the depositions of St. Jane de Chantal at the canonization process of St. Francis de Sales. Under oath, she answered questions about the great man.

His meekness and love drew others to him, and even attract readers to his books and letters 450 years later. Not only did he give all of us sinners hope, but he even encouraged us not to be disheartened when we fall into faults and shortcomings.

Bishop Camus seems to tease gently those that are too sensitive in the same book when he writes, "Some people have so thin-skinned a conscience that every little failing vexes them, and then they are vexed at having been vexed, with a more vexing vexation than before! All this has its root in a self-love which is all the more difficult to cure by reason of its being so secret. Mischief which is easily perceived is half cured. This class of people have so good an opinion of themselves that as soon as they are conscious of any little failing, they are as troubled as a beauty who detects a blemish in her complexion."

Some of us bluster through our faults, excusing them and explaining how they're not really faults. Others are so sensitive to their faults that, like the bishop writes above, they are as upset as a young woman who finds a prominent zit on her face before a ball!

St. Francis de Sales gives us the perfect balance:

"Francis de Sales used to say that we ought to defend our ramparts with our own earthworks; in other words, that we should turn our very failings to account, by letting them confirm our hearty humility and our hope against hope...If the sight of our failings tends to deepen our humility, we turn our loss to gain, for any real progress in that most precious grace is an abundant compensation for our small imperfections."

~ Bishop Jean Pierre Camus, friend of St. Francis de Sales, The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales

Happy Feast of St. Louis, King of France!

Wherever you go in France, you see statues of St. Louis, e.g., the equestrian one at the Basilique de Sacre Coeur in Paris. The representation of this saint often holds Our Lord's Crown of Thorns in his hand, because he brought this relic back from the Holy Land. He built the breathtaking Sainte-Chapelle in Paris to house it. It is no longer kept there; now it is in the vault in Notre Dame Cathedral, and is taken out for veneration on Fridays during Lent. (Yes, I've been blessed to have seen and kissed it!)

The picture above was taken in Aigues-Mortes, a town that St. Louis built from which to launch his crusades to free the Holy Land from the Muslims and make it safe for Catholics to visit it on pilgrimage without being enslaved, tortured and/or beheaded. He went on one crusade with his brothers, and years later, he went with his sons. He died of illness on this second crusade at age 56.

He was greatly in love with his wife Marguerite of Provence, and they had eleven children. He wore a signet ring inscribed with the three great loves of his life: God, France, and Marguerite. As he lay dying on August 25, 1270, he wrote out instructions for his son, who was to become King Philip III. They begin thus:

"Fair son, the first thing I teach thee is to mold thy heart to love God; for without that no one can be saved. Take care not to do anything which may displease God, to wit, a deadly sin; on the contrary, thou shouldst endure all sorts of outrage and torture rather than commit a deadly sin. If God send thee adversity, accept it patiently, and render thanks to Our Lord, and think that thou hast deserved it, and that it will turn wholly to thy advantage. If He bestows on thee prosperity, thank Him humbly, so that thou art not worse through pride or other cause when thou oughtest to be better... Confess thyself frequently [receive the Sacrament of Penance] and choose as confessor a man of discretion, who shall teach thee what thou oughtest to do and what thou oughtest to avoid."

(Also taken in Aigues-Mortes, in the public square)

After writing out full instructions to his son, which were directed to his personal life as well as his life as the future king, Saint Louis asked to receive the Last Sacraments. Then, according to his friend the Sire de Joinville, "he called upon the saints to aid and succor him, especially St. James...St. Denis of France...St. Genevieve. After that, the sainted king caused himself to be laid on a bed covered with ashes, and placed his hands upon his breast, and looking up to Heaven, yielded up his spirit to our Creator, at the very same hour that the Son of God died upon the cross...

"On the day after the festival of St. Bartholomew, the Apostle, passed from this world the good King Louis, in the year of our Lord's incarnation, and in the year of grace 1270; and his bones were preserved in a coffer, and buried at St. Denis in France, which he had selected for his place of burial; and at the spot where he was interred God has wrought many a fine miracle for the sake of his deserts."

Pope Boniface VIII declared him a saint of the Catholic Church in 1297 A.D. De Joinville wrote his account of the king's life in 1309, and reprints of it are still available on Amazon!

"We also made a little meditation on the beautiful lesson of Saint Bernard, wherein he speaks of the force and power of the love of God in a soul, and how the possession of this love enables a soul not to feel further the weight of any cross, which rather becomes a great pleasure and delight. Oh, happy the soul that lives in the true love of Christ! Detach yourselves from all persons and all things, and you will have a foretaste of the Paradise of true, solid and Heavenly love."

~ St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

The feast of St. Bernard was August 20th, during the Mother Cabrini Pilgrimage. So there's a
connection between St. Bernard and St. Cabrini,
and now I'm going to make a connection between St. Bernard and Ireland! :)

Mellifont Abbey, County Louth, Ireland

Saint Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, visited the great St. Bernard in Clairvaux, France. He became a Cistercian himself, and left some of his companions with St. Bernard to be trained. Those monks came back to Ireland and started Mellifont Abbey in 1142 A.D. (Oh, the history in Europe!! I haven't made it to Clairvaux yet, but I have visited Mellifont.) The first abbot here was St. Christian O'Connarchy.

St. Malachy often prayed that he might have the privilege of dying at Clairvaux. He wanted to retire from his episcopal duties and become a cloistered monk, but God kept him busy in Ireland. In 1151, he visited St. Bernard again, became ill, and died in the saint's arms. His prayer had been answered, though not quite as he had thought. St. Bernard swapped clothes with St. Malachy, so that he could keep and treasure the habit of his dear and admirable friend. St. Malachy is buried at Clairvaux. 

This photograph shows the morning sunlight on the Hill of Slane in County Meath, Ireland. This 518-foot elevation is famous because St. Patrick, in the year 433, lit the Easter fire here, in spite of the king's law that no one should have a fire until he lit his own on the Hill of Tara, 9.9 miles away. This courageous act of St. Patrick, in keeping with the liturgy of the Church, was the beginning of his inflaming the fire of faith in the hearts of the Irish. The king sent men to see who had broken the law, and St. Patrick explained his mission. The king was so impressed that he allowed St. Patrick to continue his missionary work among the people of Ireland.

Courageous prayer, filled with faith, can light the flame of fervor in our hearts and those of others. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini wrote:

"Whatever you ask you shall receive, for by prayer born of faith you can obtain everything....How prayer enlivens faith and does everything! Prayer and Faith united are powerful beyond thought...He who prays with faith has fervor, and fervor is the fire of prayer. This mysterious fire has the power of consuming all our faults and imperfections, and of giving to our actions, vitality, beauty and merit. The fervor produced by a lively faith...lightens all our sufferings and troubles, and purifies all that is faulty and earthly, and gives everything its proper virtue, value and splendor."

(Kells, Co. Meath, Ireland. The monks from here illuminated the renowned "Book of Kells".)

"We ought always to pray..." (Luke 18:1)

August 22nd: Today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and yesterday was the 137th apparition of Our Lady of Knock in Ireland.

"It is our good fortune to have such an intercessor at hand in the Most Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. In times past she earned a title, 'Help of Christians', in a day when the Moslem might threatened to overthrow Christianity. Similar signs and portents appear in the horizon today. We ought, therefore, to put into the hands of Our Lady of Knock, who is the Queen of Heaven, our petitions and prayers for the removal of bitterness from the hearts of men, for the well-being of all Christian families, and for the realization of the hopes and aspirations of a better world that are cherished in these days of trial and agony by men of peace and goodwill."

~ Most Rev. Dr. Morrisroe, Bishop of Achonry

Bishop Morrisroe gave an address at the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in 1941, from which the above quote was excerpted. I found it in Cnoc Muire in Picture and Story by Liam Cadain, published in 1945. "Cnoc Muire" means Mary's Hill. The Irish language is fascinating in many ways, one of which is that they have a word for a girl's name Mary (Maire) and another word for the Virgin Mary's name (Muire).

I took the above photo in the old stone country church at Knock. On August 21, 1879, outside the gable wall of the church, fifteen witnesses, aged 5 to 75, saw the Blessed Virgin Mary appear. She did not speak (someone joked that it was because the Irish language was too difficult). Nearby, people saw an altar with the Lamb of God (symbolizing the Mass). She stood with the two men who had been faithful to her like the Irish folk had - her husband Saint Joseph, and Saint John the Apostle who stood by her at the cross. This photo shows how it is depicted now at Knock....rather simply, but showing what they actually saw. These statues are placed where it happened.

A thorough investigation took place, the witnesses were interviewed and their words recorded. Miracles began to take place here. The experts decided that the vision had truly happened and was worthy of belief.

What was her message? Father Jarlath, a Cistercian, preached in 1936:
"The mission of Mary to Knock was not one of rebuke or complaint against our people, as was the case at La Salette and Lourdes, against the prevailing vices and abuses that were shaking the very foundations of the faith in France in those days. Neither, was it a call to do penance as on those occasions. No, Mary's mission to her faithful Irish people that day was rather one of compassion and comfort, in those dark days of their sorrow and sufferings, with an implied admonition, no doubt, of dangers ahead, and the imperative need of prayer... Such was the end and purpose of Mary's mission to Knock."


Irish cemeteries, filled with Celtic crosses, are beautiful to photograph. This is the cemetery at Knock, where those who saw the vision are buried, awaiting the resurrection of the dead at the end of time....

The two days of the Mother Cabrini Pilgrimage inspired all of the pilgrims, filling us with graces, good resolutions, and heavenward thoughts. We ask God's blessings on the volunteers who make it possible by providing meals, water, Gatorade, support vehicles, and prayers. Everyone was edified by the chaplain of the pilgrimage, who continually encouraged us and reminded us of the spirit of gratitude to God for His care of us. He finished today with a beautiful sermon about abandoning ourselves to God: throwing ourselves into His Arms as a child does whose father asks him to jump into his arms in a pool of water. If the child has confidence, he trusts, and jumps.

I'd like to share a quote with you from St. Jane Frances de Chantal, whose feast is today. We were blessed to visit her town and her tomb last year in Annecy, France. The portrait in the photo below is of the saint, who helped St. Francis de Sales found the Order of the Visitation nuns. Sister Therese (below) stands beside the picture of her holy foundress. Though she spoke no English, she served us in the gift shop attached to the Basilica where St. Jane is buried.


St. Jane wrote to her brother, the Archbishop of Bourges:

"With the confidence of a son, rest in the care and love which divine Providence has for you in all your needs. Look upon Providence as a child does its mother who loves him tenderly. You can be sure that God loves you incomparably more. We can't imagine how great is the love which God, in His goodness, has for souls who thus abandon themselves to His mercy, and who have no other wish than to do what they think pleases Him, leaving everything that concerns them to His care in time and in eternity."

This saint is unique because she excelled in all areas of life. First, she was a holy single woman, then she married and had a very happy marriage that was blessed with four children. Then her husband died in a hunting accident, and she became a holy widow. And finally, after years of prayer and care of her children and estates (she was a Baroness), she became the holy foundress of an Order of nuns. Here is her tomb:

In the Mass of her feast, we pray:

"Almighty and merciful God, Who didst endow blessed Jane Frances, burning with love of Thee, with an admirable strength of soul through all the paths of life in the way of perfection...grant to her merits and prayers that we, who, conscious of our own infirmity, trust in Thy power, may, by the assistance of divine grace, conquer all obstacles which beset us."

This last line seemed to tie in so well with Father's sermon on how we must trust in the power of God and not in our own strength. When one looked around the church at all the people who had walked the pilgrimage and were sunburned, tired, and limping, we were very conscious of our own infirmity! But if we trust in the Power of God, we can overcome all obstacles, even mountains. :)

This photo shows her nun's habit on a wax statue of the saint. Notice the patches...

 Here are some of her other simple possessions:



She gave up everything to do what God was leading her to do...she truly flung herself into the Arms of her Heavenly Father!

Tomorrow we start the 50-mile Mother Cabrini pilgrimage! There is much to do today for all involved. Many people travel to Colorado from other places to participate. Those who can walk are getting ready to do so; others are preparing the food and other amenities to make the pilgrimage possible. The website is here: Mother Cabrini Pilgrimage.

This picture shows the final climb (at the end of the journey) to the top of Mother Cabrini's mountain last year:

The book, "Travels of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini" that I have been culling quotes from, shows beautifully how she found material for meditation in the beauties of God's creation. As she traveled from hemisphere to hemisphere, crisscrossing oceans, she offered all the little inconveniences (and the big ones) to Almighty God, and always kept her thoughts in the Palm of His Hand.

We hope and pray that all the Colorado pilgrims (including ourselves) can bring down many blessings on themselves and those whom they offer their sacrifices for, by keeping the true spirit of the pilgrimage.

When the sea was calm and the sun was shining down on it, Mother Cabrini wrote:

"We seem to see the portals of Heaven which do not close at the end of the day, because there daytime never ends, for the day up there is eternal and the light which emanates from the Divine Face never fails. There, in that abode, exists no night, no ignorance, no blindness, for everything is seen in God; there, no sorrows exist, no tears, no adversity, no sighs. No, in Heaven there are no clouds to obscure the Divine Sun, the Eternal Sun of Justice."

I love the part about the unfailing light which emanates from the Divine Face! What a poet she was. It reminds me of this picture that I took of the sunrise over Galway Bay, in Ireland, in 2004.

We may see some pretty spectacular skies tomorrow, as the meteorologists predict a heavy thunderstorm!

Perhaps as we climb to Mother Cabrini's Shrine on the annual pilgrimage, nearing the top of the mountain in the summer heat, we can remember that in a few months it will look like this again!!

I don't know about you, but I have found that sometimes a mental, emotional, sometimes even spiritual, cloud comes upon us. Life's trials weigh us down, we feel discouraged, we feel that no one is hearing us (on earth or in Heaven), and we look for something to lift us out of it. Mother Cabrini offers this explanation for the cloud of darkness:

"Let us learn to become humble, because God loves the humble, while He resists the proud. If we elevate ourselves through pride, God will withdraw from us, with the result that we fall into dense darkness. If we are humble, He will approach us, console us and hear our prayer, and He will send us away justified."

Perhaps if we follow her advice and try to humble ourselves, we will find our minds, hearts, souls and even emotions becoming as clear as that Colorado blue sky!

She continues, "No, God does not make the humble wait long. He runs, flies to satisfy their holy and most excellent desires. It often happens that, drawn by a humble soul, He gives what He has not been asked for....Be humble, His graces are hanging on a thread only. If we are truly humble and simple, these graces will be showered upon us. If we are proud, full of ourselves, He will withdraw His graces. In vain shall we then ask -- for He withdraws Himself from the proud and haughty."

The 8th station on Mother Cabrini's mountain...donated by the Denver Fire Department. :)

August 14th-15th

Saint John of the Cross explained that our stress, anxiety and misery come, not from outside influences, but from our attachment to material things, and our unruly passions inside. Mother Cabrini seems to agree with that, when she writes to her nuns:

"Let us follow faithfully the footsteps of Mary, our sweet Mother. Let us conquer ourselves, cost what it may, and we shall have joy in our hearts and peace in our souls! Let us strive to conquer ourselves and Mary will cover us with her mantle of virtues; then we shall not feel any trouble in making our journey."

As you climb the mountain at the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado, there are markers for each of the 14 Stations of the Way of the Cross, and for each of the 15 decades of the rosary. This is the marker for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Happy Feastday!

"If you love God,

come forth,

have courage,

the devil laughs at the weak, at the timid,

whereas he fears and flies from energetic souls."

Mother Cabrini certainly lived by this ideal...by the time she died at age 67, she had accomplished incredible work. She had traveled across the sea 25 times and founded 67 houses, many of them orphanages or hospitals, in Italy, France, Spain, England, the United States, Central and South America. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1909, which makes her the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint by the Catholic Church.

A booklet written by her order theorizes, "It would seem that God wished to give the Catholics of America a saint typically American. If Americans are known throughout the world for getting things done efficiently and with the utmost dispatch, Mother Cabrini is indeed a typical American."

Here is the statue of the "typical American saint" at her shrine in Colorado at the end of the 50-mile pilgrimage from St. Isidore's Church in Watkins last summer. Join us next week!

More Mother Cabrini....
Having grown up in Connecticut, I had visited the tomb of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in New York City. I thought of her as the New York saint. When she was first asked to go to New York from Italy, she thought it was too small of a place! She was hoping to go to China, like her namesake the great Francis Xavier.

When I moved to Colorado in 1995, I discovered that there was a shrine to her in Colorado, and that many Coloradans thought of her as "their saint".

She had huge influence in Chicago too, founding Columbus Hospital there. She visited North, Central and South America numerous times, and traveled back and forth to Europe in the late 1800's and early 1900's when travel was much more difficult than today.

I'm reading about her journeys through the Andes in feet of snow. Here is the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Colorado buried in snow last November:

It's more difficult to climb to the Sacred Heart statue in the snow...

Beneath the snow is a glass case, covering the white stones that Mother Cabrini arranged...

Mother Cabrini wrote: "Prayer is a great comfort and works truly. It is the life of the soul, though its effects are not always visible. Of the many graces that proceed from prayer, some are known to us and others not; but this does not prevent its enriching our souls....In Heaven, prayer will be explained in all its pomp and majesty. Pray, then, pray with unlimited faith in every need, in every difficulty, and do not become weary if in our short lives we do not see the effects of our prayers. Have faith, lively faith, resting always assured that not one of our supplications will be rejected."

"Oh, faith! How beautiful, great, powerful!" she continues. "Faith produces hope, and prayer is at once the supplicating hope. 'In te Domine speravi, non confundar in aeternum.' [In You, O Lord, have I hoped, and I shall not ever be confounded.] Oh, hope of Heaven, thou obtainest so much when we think our prayers obtain nothing, and when our hope seems a delusion. No, our prayers are never in vain, but everything is disposed of by the wisdom of the Omniscient God. Confide in God above all, hope, and you will not be confounded. Repeat often, 'In te,' etc., and, saying it from your heart, open wide the wings of trustful hope, rejoice in the Spirit and live in holy joy."

May Grandpa Stephen F. Boucher, Jr. rest in peace:

(August 12, 1989)
(This statue is located at the top of the mountain at the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado.)

Happy Feastday of Saint Philomena! When I was twelve years old, a nun named Sister Philomena Therese, O.P., loaned me a book about this saint, and Saint Philomena and I have been best friends ever since. :)

My husband and I were not blessed with children for many years, so on our 10th wedding anniversary in 2005, we travelled to her shrine in Mugnano del Cardinale, near Avellino, Italy, to pray for a baby.

 

Having seen pictures of it for many years, my dream came true when we were able to visit the shrine. In broken Italian, I asked a "worker-man" to place our picture on St. Philomena's altar, below the figure that holds her remains, as a sign of our prayer for a "bambina". Here it is...with our wedding photo in the lower right.

This doll-like figure of Saint Philomena is not the art form that I personally prefer, but Saint Philomena appears to be pleased by the great devotion of the people, because many, many miracles have taken place here. The figure itself has been known to change position, although the case is double and even triple-locked.

So on June 10, 2005, we placed our picture there and prayed fervently that St. Philomena would intercede with God to send us a baby. In 2006, our first daughter was born, and in 2007, our second daughter was born. Our second was even due on the Feast of the Finding of the Relics of St. Philomena, May 25th! It was as if Saint Philomena was sending us a little nudge...reminding us that our "Philomena Girls" had come through her intercession!

She has performed so many miracles that she is known as "the Wonder Worker," but here is one of my favorites, related in Cecily Hallack's book Wonder Worker: Saint Philomena, Virgin Martyr.

A poor woman, Teresa Bovini, had no clothes ready for her baby who was soon to be born. She asked St. Philomena to let it be a little girl, who would be named after her if only she would provide some clothes for it. A little girl it was, but when it arrived Philomena had still provided no clothes. The mother was so distressed that the nurse, to quiet her, took off her own white neckerchief and wrapped the baby with it. The mother said there might be a rag which would do for a swaddle in a certain old trunk. When the trunk was opened, there was a complete layette, fine and beautifully folded, giving forth an unknown perfume which filled the hearts of the two women with heavenly consolation. The baby was carried triumphantly away in its celestial finery, to be christened 'Philomena'.

The next night, Teresa was roused by her baby's murmur. She put out her hand, but the baby was no longer beside her. Anxiously, she moved. There was a light in the room. On a chair was a girl of about fourteen, dressed in white and all shining, holding the baby in her arms, caressing her lovingly. In confusion, joy and gratitude, the mother exclaimed, 'O St. Philomena!' She could utter no more. Philomena kissed the baby, laid it beside its mother and disappeared.

This lovely statue of St. Philomena with the Cure of Ars, St. John Marie Vianney, is also found in the Shrine of St. Philomena at Mugnano, Italy.

Saint Philomena, Virgin and Martyr, pray for us!

(Photo credit: Website of  Shrine of St. Philomena)

Today, August 10th, is the day that St. Philomena went to Heaven, although her feastday is tomorrow. This photo looks like she is pointing the way to Heaven, but the statue is actually pointing the way to the Basilica at Ars (of which I posted pictures yesterday). I couldn't get a good photo of this statue myself because we whizzed past it on a busy street corner, so I had to borrow this picture. May she always point the way to Heaven for us!

I find great comfort in the Communion of Saints, the doctrine that the saints are our friends, that they care for each other and for us, and that they pray to God for us. If I were to ask a holy friend on earth to pray for me, I would take consolation in their intercession for me. How much more confidence do I have (and should I have!) in asking a friend in Heaven to intercede for me! I can't wait to see all my friends the Saints in Heaven someday, God willing!

I'm continuing to read about the amazing little nun, Mother Cabrini, in Travels of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, published by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1944. In the short biographical sketch of her by the Most Rev. Amleto Giovanni Cicognani included in this book, we read:

Everyone advised her not to attempt to traverse the Cordilleras of the Andes; but nothing could frighten her indomitable heart, neither the terrific heights, nor volcanoes, nor snow eight meters deep, nor lakes, nor the incredible distances. Confident in Our Lady, Saint Rose and Saint Philomena, she crossed these mountains on mules to reach Buenos Aires, where she was to found schools for all classes. As her Patron Saint [St. Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit] used to say, 'I am afraid only of want of confidence in God my Protector.'

As she prepared to cross the Andes Mountains, a journey which in those days (1895) could be life-threatening, Mother Cabrini visited a shrine to St. Philomena. She wrote in a letter:

We first visited a Chapel of St. Philomena, the Wonder-worker, so much venerated here. We received Holy Communion at her altar, begging her to unite with St. Rose in protecting us. We made our thanksgiving at the back of the church, near an altar on which is venerated a picture of the martyrdom of the Saint. Whilst I was absorbed in prayer to the Saint, who inspired me with great confidence, telling her all my needs and necessities, a very gentle voice whispered in my ear, 'This is only a small offering.' I was so absorbed in laying my petition before the Saint, that I thought the words I heard were an illusion of my imagination, and so I made no movement. Again the soft voice repeated the same words. Then I raised my head, and, looking round, I saw someone offering me pieces of gold.

The guardian of the shrine offered the nuns a donation, in honor of St. Philomena. He later gave them books, pictures and St. Philomena cords because they were missionary Sisters. Mother Cabrini concludes with:

Then he gave me an image of the Wonder-worker, asking me to keep it in my pocket-book. He himself placed it there, saying, 'Keep it there, Mother, and you will never be in need of money for your Institute.' I was very much impressed, as he seemed to be inspired. You may imagine that I shall treasure this picture as a precious relic.

She then describes her adventures riding a mule (in her inexperience) over precipices in deep snow, with her nun's habit covered by a great cloak that someone had donated to her. For a sickly Italian woman of short stature, she accomplished incredible things! Her motto was always Philippians 4:13:

Omnia possum in Eo qui me confortat!

I can do all things, in Him Who strengthens me!

(I took this photo in Golden, Colorado, towards the end of the Mother Cabrini pilgrimage last year, as the pilgrims pushed the cart with the statue of Mother Cabrini up the mountainside...)

Today, August 9th, is the feast of St. Jean Marie Vianney, the "Cure of Ars". Here is his incorrupt body, as we saw it in Ars, France, last July. The basilica where his body rests is named for his beloved Saint Philomena. Sr. Marie Helene Mohr writes in her book, Saint Philomena, Powerful with God:
"When we say 'the Cure of Ars' we automatically think 'St. Philomena'. The saintly priest whose direction was characterized by common sense, remarkable insight, and supernatural knowledge credited his power to the only woman in his life, his 'dear little Saint', the Virgin-Martyr, Philomena. To his memory and that of Philomena, a basilica now stands, marking the spot where his humble village church sheltered the confessional which drew to him vast crowds from far and near."

 In a tiny chapel near his home, this reliquary holds his incorrupt heart. I love the inscription in French around it...he is considered the patron saint of all the pastors "in the universe". Cure, (pronounced cyur-ay), in French means pastor.

This sweet engraving on the side of the basilica makes me smile. The patron saint of parish priests humbly offers the basilica to Saint Philomena. Bruce Marshall, in his book, Saints for Now, wrote: "He could not bring himself to believe that miracles could be operated through his intercession, and he was unwilling that others should attribute them to a merit which he was certain he didn't possess. He himself ascribed them to the intercession of St. Philomena."

My favorite anecdote was the one in which a mother begged and pleaded for the saintly priest to bless her sick child. When he did, and the child was miraculously cured, St. John Vianney fled to the sacristy, complaining, "Oh, how I wish St. Philomena had cured him at home!"

And here is what I really went to Ars to see...the statue of St. Philomena that St. John Vianney enshrined in a side chapel of his original church. Many crutches and canes rested there, left behind by those who were cured. St. John Vianney told the people, "Go to Philomena, whatever you ask of her, she will obtain for you." He would often say, "My children, Saint Philomena has great power with God, and she has moreover a kind heart; let us pray to her with confidence; her virginity and generosity in embracing her heroic martyrdom have rendered her so agreeable to God that He will never refuse her anything that she asks for us."

The following story moves my heart...especially when one has been there and seen where it all happened! A Monsieur Massiat was invited by a friend to go to Ars during the life of St. John Vianney, although he had not been to Mass or the Sacraments since his First Communion. Here is Mr. Massiat's own account of what happened, as quoted by Fr. Paul O'Sullivan, O.P., in his book, Saint Philomena the Wonder-worker:

"We got to the church. My friend put me in the seat facing the sacristy. Shortly afterwards the door opened and the Cure, vested for Mass, made his appearance. His eyes met mine for one instant, but that glance went right to my heart. I felt myself crushed beneath his gaze. I bent my head and covered my face with my hands. All during the Mass, I was immovable. When it ended, I attempted to lift my head and got up to leave the church. Just as I passed the sacristy door, I heard the words, 'Get out, all of you, all out,' and a long bony hand rested on my arm, and I felt myself drawn irrestistibly into the sacristy, as by an invisible force. The door closed on me. I felt myself again beneath that gaze that seemed to crush me. I blurted out a few confused words: 'Reverend Father, I have a burden on my shoulders that weighs me down.' Then I heard what seemed an angelic voice, such a one as I had never heard before, so sweet that it did not seem to proceed from mortal man.

"'You must get rid of the burden at once. Go on your knees, tell me your poor life. Our Lord will take the burden, my friend.' Then I commenced my Confession, it was the story of all my life since my First Communion. Little by little, I felt relieved, then consoled, and finally completely at rest. When I had finished the saintly priest added: 'Come back tomorrow, but now you will go to the altar of St. Philomena and tell her to ask of God your conversion.' I did not weep in the sacristy, but I confess that I wept abundantly at the altar of St. Philomena."

We are preparing for the 50-mile pilgrimage on foot to the shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini in Golden, Colorado, (this picture is from last year's.) Preparing myself physically is a daunting task. :)But to prepare myself mentally and spiritually, I am reading "Travels of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini", published in 1944. This volume is composed of her letters to the other nuns during her travels.

Here are some Words of Encouragement from this amazing woman:

"I don't feel ill, but I am not well, and I have no desire to do anything. Nevertheless I am in the happy position of being able to meditate freely. This is a great advantage for me, because I am able to pass the time conversing with the sweet Spouse of my soul. Oh, if everyone had the knowledge of the great and beautiful advantages of meditation and of speaking familiarly with Jesus, if they could experience these heavenly joys, they would certainly envy our happy life. Instead, how many poor creatures are there who do not want to know Him, in order to follow their own passions more freely, blinded by the smoke of the false pleasures of the world! In these circumstances, and at the sight of so many miserable and unfortunate creatures, how much better we are able to understand the great grace that God has given us by calling us to His Divine Service, or, to express it more accurately, to His love. Let us love Jesus, then...let us love Him very much."

Catholic meditation consists of placing ourselves in the presence of the Blessed Trinity, making the intention of what we mean to do by spending this time with God, and then focusing our mind on certain truths of our Faith, or inspiring words of God or His saints. At the end of the meditation time, we inwardly say a "colloquy" or prayer to Our Lord, thanking Him for all His benefits. And finally, St. Francis de Sales says to gather a little bouquet of the best thoughts we had, so that we may sniff them throughout the day....

Hope your day is full of the fragrance of holy thoughts!