August 2007

The Family Foundation School Catholic Community Bulletin

Pauca Verba (Latin for, “A Few Words)

Here is a prayer to pray to “Our Lady of the Way.” Maybe we can offer the prayer before traveling to a game or for a home visit. But really it is a way-of-life prayer because we are constantly traveling – traveling through this time in our lives, traveling on the planet as it orbits through space, traveling through history. A beautiful prayer to offer at Mary’s Shrine here on our school property as we “travel” back and forth between buildings and errands and classes. Get it?

Prayer to Our Lady of the Way

Mother, we pray

To Christ – the Way,

Lead Thou!

In age or youth,

To Christ – the Truth,

Lead Thou!

In peace or strife,

To Christ – the Life,

Lead Thou!

O Lord Jesus Christ, Who are the Way, the Truth and the Life, graciously grant that through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Your Mother, we may hasten along the way of Your Commandments, and so reach the goal of everlasting life. Amen.

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Hello Catholics who don’t receive the Eucharist! What are you waiting for? Don’t you know that God has brought you to this place to save you from worst possibilities! Even the loss of our souls! Here, the Sacraments of Reconciliation (Confession) and Eucharist are offered to you and yet many of us wait, procrastinating, wasting time in angry rebellion against things we don’t even understand. We sadly neglect the things of God while consuming the poisons of this world that leave us weakened and wounded! Make an appointment to receive God’s pardon and healing this week!

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Last week I made reference to the book, The Woman Clothed With the Sun. Even a busy person can get this book read in a week. It will stir up joy, hope and strength in your life. In the apparitions of Our Lady, we see God never tiring of reaching for us, who so easily become lost to God. Mary Jo has 10 copies available – or get on the waiting list. We wait patiently for everything else: wait for a phone call, wait for a drug deal, wait for someone to show up who we’re going to hurt, wait for everyone to go to sleep or drive away so we can steal, wait for someone to look the other way. We might make a little amends to heaven by waiting for a book about Our Lady’s appearances on our weary earth.

Want a new motive for living the day? AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM! (To the greater glory of God.) Saint Catherine Laboure had a motto: To do what I have to do. To do it very well. And to do it for the greater glory of God. I don’t do what I have to do because it makes me feel good. I don’t do it to make my parents proud. I don’t do what I have to do to get “Student of the Month” or some kind of recognition around here. I don’t do what I have to do to appear to be “doing well.” I do everything simply to please God – to give God glory and to reveal my love for God who has loved me into being out of nothingness. This motive will not fail you, and it will be a source of great joy.

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Indeed, the rosary is a kind of chain – I hold one end and the Virgin Mary holds the other. In the morning, when I awake, I let her gently pull me out of bed – giving me no time to think about how miserable I am, or what I dread about the day, or how sleepy I am and that I need more rest. You get the idea. Indeed, hold the rosary throughout the night and go to bed imagining Our Lady holding the other end, waiting for the morning.

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Some of us have beautiful handmade rosaries. Indeed these should be blessed – that is – set aside for the use of prayer. The best time to have a rosary blessed is after Circle Up on Wednesday. The blessing of a rosary should be accompanied by the making of a good confession, and accepting the rosary means, “I am setting out on a way of prayer and virtue.” (Virtue is practiced goodness.) If I own a nice rosary and don’t pray it, I should make a decision and either set about the life of prayer, or give the rosary away to someone who will pray it often and with zeal. If the rosary is jewelry, it is Mary’s jewelry and therefore should never be worn around our necks. Left pocket – that’s where knights wore their swords. Get it?

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When working as a hospital chaplain years ago, in one part of the hospital, doctors and nurses worked frantically and feverishly to save the lives of fragile, vulnerable premature babies. In another part of the hospital, babies of the same gestation were being aborted! Go figure! If it’s human – human enough to fight for its life when prematurely born – yes – but then how do we justify killing it, sometimes just a few feet away!?

Once when a baby was born prematurely and with grave handicaps and there was nothing that could be done to save him, he was left in a back room in a tiny bed, hidden with a towel. No one to pray; no one to say comforting, loving things; no little drops of water. Does this strike you as wrong? Even our pets get hugged and cried over when we have to have them put to sleep. Do you understand these things?