Thanks be to God!

 

So excited! The book is a story-driven spiritual self-help book that tells engaging anecdotes of the saints that reveal their temperaments and extracts concrete applications for our present-day lives.

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The House where the Word was made Flesh

(The marble encasement of the Holy House of Loreto, inside the Basilica)

This summer, we had the privilege of visiting the Holy House of Loreto, which we celebrate today: December 10th. The house at Nazareth, where the Annunciation took place and the Word was made Flesh, was miraculously moved to Loreto, Italy, on the Adriatic Sea. A church was built around the little house, and a marble rectangular chapel was built over the actual four walls to protect them. Because of this "flight" of the house, Our Lady of Loreto is the patron saint of aviation, especially flight attendants and pilots.

On December 10, 1294, the house was transported across the Adriatic to Italy. It was seen arriving in a glowing light by shepherds -- how appropriate!

I was jetlagged and exhausted on the day we visited, but I knelt in the little house (pilgrims are forbidden to take pictures in there) and prayed and struggled to absorb where I was. I felt as if I couldn't get my brain around it!

St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier and the other first Jesuits visited here together. St. Francis Xavier came back here when he was about to set out for the missions in Asia. When he was offering Mass in the Holy House, with the miraculous image of Our Lady facing him, Our Lady breathed into his heart wondrous zeal and courage for the missions. St. Charles Borromeo came here often to pray.

St. Francis de Sales, before he was a priest, went on FOOT from Rome to Loreto – the journey we made by air-conditioned motorcoach. He frequently kissed the walls that had been sanctified by the presence of the Holy Family. He went to Confession and Communion here and received great consolation and graces. Later, he visited again when he was appointed bishop.

Pope Pius II, and Cardinal Barbo before he became Pope Paul II were both cured by Our Lady of Loreto. By 1733, a list of 60 saints who had visited the House of Loreto was published. Pope Benedict XV tried to protect the House of Loreto during World War I, calling it “the gem of the earth.”

St. Alphonsus made a pilgrimage here in 1772. He spent 3 days here before his episcopal consecration, filled with consolation and joy.

A friend visited the Holy Land this year and brought us a rosary from Nazareth! She saw the cave where the house stood...from what I've read, the cave made up the back part, or continuation of the house. But in Loreto, we got to see the place where the Incarnation took place.

"The mystery of the Incarnation...is so exalted and so profound that we understand next to nothing about it. All that we do know and understand is very beautiful indeed, but we believe that what we do not comprehend is even more so. Finally, someday in Heaven above, we will grasp it fully. There we will celebrate with an incomparable delight this great feast of Christmas, of the Incarnation. There we will see clearly all that took place in this mystery. We will eternally bless Him who, from His exalted state, lowered Himself in order to exalt us. May God grant us this grace!"

~ St. Francis de Sales, "The Sermons of St. Francis de Sales for Advent and Christmas"

Inspiration from Jesuit Martyrs

Painting in the Chapel of the Venerable English College, Rome

Hello, dear friends! If you're following me on instagram -- @rosemary.writer, you saw a reel today from the chapel at the Venerable English College at Rome. This huge, gorgeous painting hangs in the sanctuary. 

The college was founded in the late sixteenth century as a seminary to train priests for England and Wales, because they couldn’t have their own seminaries due to the Elizabethan persecution. St. Robert Southwell, the poet, was educated here.

It became known as the "Venerable" English College because of the many alumni who were martyred or tortured, imprisoned and exiled for the Faith. 

The age of the martyrs was 1581–1679. 44 students were martyred for the Faith, and 130 suffered imprisonment and exile. This is why it is called the Venerable English College.

The College's first martyr was St. Ralph Sherwin. "His name stands first in the famous Liber Ruber (a list of students who took the missionary oath in Rome before returning to England), where he is recorded as saying that he was ready, 'today rather than tomorrow, at a sign from his superiors to go into England for the helping of souls'." (found online)

After four months in his mission in England, he was captured, and then tortured and killed at Tyburn on December 1, 1581. Many others followed. It became the custom for a student from this college to preach before the Pope every St. Stephen's Day (feast of the first Christian martyr) on the topic of Martyrdom. 

St. Philip Neri, who lived across the way from the college would greet the students saying, "Hail, Flowers of the Marytrs!"

The painting shown above is referred to as "The Marytrs' Picture". It was painted by Durante Alberti in 1580. In the lower left forefront, we see two early English martyrs, St. Thomas Beckett on the left, and St. Edmund, King of East Anglia, on the right. A cherub is holding up the college motto, "I have come to bring fire to the earth."

You'll notice that Our Lord is *not* hanging on the Cross, though we can tell He's been crucified. Someone referred to it as "another Pieta" because it is God the Father, holding the Body of His Crucified Son. Alberti painted the Precious Blood falling from His Side onto England on the globe. What a beautiful image!

As I mentioned on Instagram, whenever the instructors and seminarians received notification that one of their alumni had been martyred, they would gather before this painting, and sing the "Te Deum" in thanksgiving. 

Above the painting is the gallery filled with frescoes of Niccolo Circignani, showing the history of the Catholic Church in England from the very beginning, through the stories of the college students who were martyred during the Elizabethan persecution.

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Here is a list of the martyrs (not including those who were imprisoned, tortured, and/or exiled) that are honored as alumni of the Venerable English College at Rome. We prayed it as a litany while we were there....

·        Ralph Sherwin, 1581

·        Thomas Cottam, 1582

·        Luke Kirby, 1582

·         John Shert, 1582

·       William Lacey, 1582

·        William Hart, 1583

·        John Munden, 1584

·        Thomas Hemerford, 1584

·        George Haydock, 1584

·        John Lowe, 1586

·        Christopher Buxton, 1588

·        Edward James, 1588

·        Richard Leigh, 1588

·        Robert Morton, 1588

·        Edmund Duke, 1590

·        Christopher Bales, 1590

·        Polydore Plasden, 1591

·        Eustace White, 1591

·        Joseph Lambton, 1592

·        Thomas Pormort, 1592

·        John Cornelius S.J., 1594

·        John Ingram, 1594

·        Edward Thwing, 1594

·        Robert Southwell S.J., 1595

·        Henry Walpole S.J., 1595

·        Robert Middleton, 1601

·        Thomas Tichborne, 1602

·        Robert Watkinson, 1602

·        Edward Oldcorne, 1606

·        John Almond, 1612

·        Richard Smith, 1612

·        John Thules, 1616

·        John Lockwood, 1642

·        Edward Morgan, 1642

·        Brian Tansfield S.J., 1643

·        Henry Morse S.J., 1645

·        John Woodcock O.F.M., 1646

·        Edward Mico S.J., 1678

·        Anthony Turner S.J., 1679

·        David Lewis S.J., 1679

·        John Wall O.F.M., 1679

 

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!

 

The Pieta, by Michelangelo. Picture taken at St. Peter's Basilica, July 31, 2023

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Today the Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. I'd never had a devotion to Our Lady under this title, until I attended a parish by this name in Phoenix, Arizona, and the priest taught us about it. The seven sorrows of Our Lady, all found in Scripture, are: he Prophecy of Simeon, the Flight into Egypt, the Loss of Jesus in the Temple, the Meeting on the Way to Calvary, the Death of Jesus, the Piercing of His Side and the Taking Down from the Cross, and the Burial of Jesus. 

Under this good priest's guidance, I realized that Our Lady's Sorrows all relate to her motherhood. If you are a mother, you can comprehend a little sliver of what she is going through on these seven occasions. When our mother-hearts are aching, she understands. We can ask her to intercede with her Divine Son for us.

"Oh Mother, for the love of this Son, accept me for thy servant, and pray to Him for me." ~ St. Alphonsus de Ligouri

A witty mother once said, "Yes, but she only had one Child, and He was perfect!" Yes, but on the Cross, that One Son gave her all the rest of us as her unruly, disobedient children, and her heart bleeds for all of us. "Behold thy Mother," He said to John, and to her, "Behold thy son."

I remember reading that St. Dismas was the first spiritual child she helped to save. She had just been given to us as our mother, and she prayed fervently for the dying Dismas. Her loving prayers for his salvation merited for him the words,

"This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." Oh, may she pray for us so that we may hear those words someday too!!!

St. Augustine and his mother

Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome, where his mother St. Monica is buried

I hope you've been checking out my posts on Instagram! I'm sorry I haven't been posting here as much, but I have been posting several times a week on Instagram. My handle is @rosemary.writer. 

Today is the Feast of St. Augustine. The other day, TAN Books posted to their Instagram feed about his mother St. Augustine. I keep thinking about the excerpt they posted, from one of the books they've reprinted. It's such a beautiful miracle, as well as an encouragement to every one of us.

Taken from Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure:

"It took St. Monica sixteen years to obtain the conversion of Augustine, but the conversion was entire and far beyond what she had prayed for.... She had only wanted him to be baptized and become a Christian, and she saw him a bishop. She asked God to turn him aside from heresy, and God made him a pillar of the Church and its champion against heretics. Think what would have happened had she given up hope after a couple of years, after ten or twelve years, when her prayers appeared to obtain no result and her son grew worse instead of better, adding avarice and ambition to the wildness of his life and sinking further and further into error. She would have wronged her son, thrown away her own happiness, and deprived the world of one of the greatest Christian thinkers."

This also makes me think about what Sarah Mackenzie of readaloudrevival.com said in one of her podcasts. She encouraged her listeners to think of what they are worried about and then realize that "God isn't anxious about this, and it's not a surprise to Him." We are all in the Palm of His Hand!

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Aix-en-Provence, France

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Thank you!!

Off to Heaven

 

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the Basilica at Loyola, Spain

St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuits, and so many saints we all know and love were Jesuits. Today, we celebrate the 22-year-old Jesuit St. Aloysius Gonzaga. He became ill and died after caring for a poor sick man. 

He actually felt guilty about how happy he was to die young and fly off to Heaven! He didn't purposely infect himself, but once he learned he would die, he couldn't wait.

"'We are off, Father Provincial!' exulted Aloysius [to his superior], his face already cold and gray, but his eyes shining.

"'Off? Where?'

"'To Heaven,' smiled the saint, 'If my sins do not stop me.'"

~ Rev. Edward F. Murphy, SSJ Hand Clasps with the Holy, imprimatur 1941.