Dear Friends,
Last Sunday I wrote about October as the Respect Life month. It is also the month of the Most Holy Rosary. This is primarily because the liturgical feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is celebrated on October 7. Mary is said to have appeared to St. Dominic in 1206 after he had been praying and doing severe penances because of his lack of success in combating the Albigensian heresy. Mary praised him for his valiant fight against the heretics and then gave him the Rosary as a mighty weapon, explained its uses and efficacy, and told him to preach it to others.
Recently I had the privilege of joining about 50 Catholics from various parishes, including ours, to go on a pilgrimage to Ireland, Scotland and the UK. Among the many shrines, basilicas, castles, ancient monuments and museums we visited, two Marian shrines stood out for me: the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in Ireland and the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in the UK.
The Story of Knock in East Mayo began on the 21st August 1879 when Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist appeared at the south gable of Knock Parish Church. Many men and women, whose ages ranged from five years to seventy-five, witnessed what they claimed was an apparition of Our Lady, St Joseph, and St John the Evangelist at the south gable end of the local small parish church. Behind them and a little to the left of St John was a plain altar. On the altar was a cross and a lamb (a traditional image of Jesus, as reflected in the religious phrase The Lamb of God) with adoring angels.
The guide explained to us that there was no message given by Mary. She just stood there in front of the altar and lamb with her hands folded. But in her silence she said so much. Like any child knows, a mother’s silence is powerful. Our Lady of Knock does the same thing; she does not say a word because our focus is not meant to be on her, our focus is meant to be on what is behind her: the lamb (symbol of Jesus) and the altar. Mary’s whole life and mission is to bring us closer to her son.
This tells us that the Rosary is not so much about Mary as it is about her Son Jesus. Rosary is Christo-centric! Her only desire and command all is: “Do what he tells you” (John 2:5) We need to open the gospels to understand what he tells us. The FALL INTO FAITH small faith sharing groups are the best opportunity for us to understand His Word better (see page 4). As you hear the witness stories of those who have benefitted from these groups, I urge you to consider signing up for this wonderful experience. It is not a long-term commitment – just six times during this Fall season.
The resource we are using is paid for by the parish for the participants, We need to know how many will participate in this faith-enhancing opportunity as we are contracting with a Catholic publishing company. If you are part of an already existing group, kindly let your group leader know if you intent to do it this time – I hope you will. If you are a first-timer, please contact Debbie Schurko, our DRE, at dschurko@stmatthias.net How I wish more of you will utilize this beautiful chance to grow more into His Word!
Your brother in Christ,
Fr. Abraham Orapankal