Meditations on the Mysteries: The Visitation and Faith
Emily|Catholic Poster Girl
(Author note: During the Year of Faith, I’ll be writing about each of the mysteries of the rosary within the light of Faith. Last column was about The Annunciation.)
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. (Lk. 2: 39)
The Visitation is a celebration of faith: faith that what the Lord said to both these women would be accomplished, would actually happen. Here is Mary, pregnant with the Son of God via the Holy Spirit. Here is Elizabeth, pregnant in her old age, the desire of her heart finally fulfilled. The idea of his wife being pregnant was so outrageous to Zechariah that he was struck dumb by the Angel Gabriel until John was born (Lk. 1:18-20). Here is faith rewarded in a visible, and yes, outrageous, way.
I’ve always liked this mystery because of the closeness of the two cousins. I’ve got a lot of cousins—22 on my mom’s side alone (not counting my siblings and I). And of those, I’m second in line. So I have a lot of younger cousins, and fortunately we’re close with one another. I hope I’ll always be able to offer the hospitality and love Elizabeth so clearly shows Mary. We can forget—Mary was a teenager, and a young one at that. Was she nervous about being pregnant? Was she scared about Joseph’s reaction? Did she know how to take care of a baby? Elizabeth, during the months Mary was with her, could have soothed her fears and shared what she knew. There’s faith that everything will be all right, but there is also the practical preparation, which is equally crucial.
Mary and Elizabeth created their own community of faith, and it’s something we can do, too. Are there other women around us who could use support, help, or just a listening ear? Can we be like Elizabeth and embrace them, welcome them, and share our knowledge with them? I am usually the youngest woman in a group at church, and some older women are very welcoming, which I love and appreciate. These women are so special to me, and helpful as I work out my vocation. I see them as an example I can emulate on how to be a holy, Catholic woman in my state of life.
In these uncertain times, it can be hard to have faith. Let’s use Mary and Elizabeth as our example of trusting in God and His will, even when it can seem impossible, outrageous or just plain strange.
A Week of Saint School
Emily | Catholic Poster Girl
Actually, you could probably call it a month or two of Saint School.
The Church, in her always perfect wisdom, gives us the cycles of the Liturgical Year, which is structured like a wheel. We have the great feast times: Easter and Christmas. We have Lent and Advent, which prepare us for those feasts. And then we have Ordinary Time, which, really, isn’t very ordinary at all.
If you attend Mass during the week, or pray the Liturgy of the Hours, you notice how many days are saints’ days, or church feasts (like the Exaltation of the Cross, or Our Lady of Sorrows). And this past week is a great example of how each day offers us new possibilities for reflection, for growth, and for celebrating our faith!
On Monday, we celebrated one of the most popular saints of our time, St. Therese of Lisiuex. She died when she was only 24 and spent her brief adulthood in the Lisieux Carmel, cloistered away from the wider world. But this young nun and creator of the “Little Way” of holiness is the co-patron of missionaries, and the third female Doctor of the Church (The others are: St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Hildegard of Bingen, who will be announced next week).
She didn’t attend what we would consider high school. But by the time most of us are high school sophomores, she was entering the rigorous school of Carmel. Her way was love, and she offered herself up to Jesus to use as He saw fit. He used her in ways beyond imagining.
To outsiders, her life was so little. But what people can see isn’t always what is true.
On Tuesday, we had the Guardian Angels. Do we give ours much thought? Sometimes I think they are relegated to children’s prayers. But I say the Guardian Angel prayer every night. Taking a page from Mother Angelica, who named her guardian angel Fidelius, I named mine Chiara, Italian for “light”. [tweetherder]We each have a powerful protector given to us. Let’s make use of it![/tweetherder]
Sometimes I think humanity is like the little boy who falls from the tree in Groundhog Day. Every day, Bill Murray catches the boy before he hits the pavement. And every day, the boy runs off down the sidewalk. “You never thank me!” Bill Murray calls after him. And yet, every day, he keeps saving him. Let’s thank our guardian angels!
Today (October 4) is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, another popular saint. “Rebuild my church, for it is in ruins” is ample food for thought as we enter the Year of Faith next week. We may not see physical ruins, like Francis initially did, but we can all do our part to strengthen the Church through prayer and closer attention to her.
Francis embraced Lady Poverty. Now this might not be practical for us. We need clothes and a house and we can’t spend our time begging. But something I’m taking away from Francis this year is the idea of holy simplicity. It’s not being cheap or miserly; it’s “what do I really need?” This is something I will be taking to prayer very often in the coming weeks and months.
On Saturday, it’s the memorial of St. Bruno, who founded the Carthusian order, probably the most rigorous order in the Catholic Church. Try to find a copy of Into Great Silence 
Finally, Sunday is Rosary Sunday, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Instituted by Pope St. Pius V, it commemorates a victory won by the Holy League through the intercession of Our Lady via the rosary. My Church will have a blessing of roses and a rosary procession after Mass (and then the parish pig roast, because really, it’s not a Feast Day unless there’s food). October in the United States is also dedicated to the pro-life cause. We can use the rosary to pray for peace, starting in the mother’s womb, and that all life be respected, from conception to natural death.
Other feasts/memorials this month include: St. Luke (October 18), St. Margaret Mary Alocoque (October 16), and St. Ignatius (October 17), founder of the Society of Jesus, or “Jesuits”, as we more likely know them.
[tweetherder]Catholicism is many things, but it’s never boring. [/tweetherder] During Ordinary Time, get to know these saints, our brothers and sisters who are already in heaven, and who intercede for us daily!
Mother Teresa at My Desk
One of the best Christmas gifts–certainly, one of the most useful–I ever received was from one of my best friends when we were in high school. It was one of those perpetual desk calendars, and what made this one special was that every day had another quote from Mother Teresa.
The calendar has been in various places in my life. First, the desk in my bedroom. Then my dorm room, then back to my bedroom desk when I moved back home following college graduation. Now, it sits on my desk at work.
The quotes are taken from various places, but they always provide me with a bit of a pick-me-up during the day. I work for the government, so things can get stressful when we’re talking about things like the state budget, or high-profile legislation. Having her presence at my desk is a soothing reminder of what’s really important (not that work isn’t important. But it helps to ‘set my heart on higher things’ during the workday).
The calendar has also served as a subtle witness through the eight years I’ve worked there. A few people have told me how much they like reading the calendar when they visit the office or my cubicle. Most of the people in my immediate office know I’m Catholic, since they see me leave for Mass quite often, but other than wearing my Miraculous Medal or my medal of St. Mary Magdalene, it’s not something I openly broadcast. So the calendar is a small way of witnessing.
Mother Teresa is also special to me because of the connection to one of my patrons, St. Theresa. When Mother Teresa picked her name in religious (her birth name was Agnes), she chose St. Therese of Lisieux, not, as some think, St. Teresa of Avila (although she is no less worthy to be chosen!). She was captivated, as so many have been, by the “little way.”
So when I see Mother Teresa’s wisdom poured out, a little each day, on my desk, I can think of both of these incredible women. Many things St. Therese said are echoed in her spiritual daughter: “I am just a pencil in God’s hand” from Mother Teresa echoes St. Therese’s idea of being a ball or broom for the Infant Jesus to use as He sees fit, and then to put it away, or even forget about it, until it is needed again.
Mother Teresa is also an inspiration in how to live the Gospel courageously in the modern age. She unceasingly spoke about the evils of abortion, and how the poverty of love can be worse than a poverty of food, or material possessions. So many people lack love, and that is free for us to give. Yes, we should give alms and give to the poor in food drives, clothing drives, or for donating to the charity of our choice. But love fills a gap in all of us that needs to be filled for us to be truly happy. Who can be happy without love? Everyone needs to know that someone cares for them, and that everyone is a child of God. Unconditional love is the greatest gift we can give.
I can’t move to Calcutta, or to a war-torn part of the world to help save lives. I can’t adopt an orphan and bring him to live with me. But I can give my love and my time to my neighbors around me. I can bring a culture of love and compassion to my environment. Even though I can be impatient and short-tempered (and generally Italian!), I try to remember every day that I am to love God and my neighbor unceasingly. Having Mother Teresa on my desk sure helps.
What Does it Mean to Put Your Hand to the Plough?
As they traveled along they met a man on the road who said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus answered, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’ Another to whom he said, ‘Follow me,’ replied, ‘Let me go and bury my father first.’ But he answered, ‘Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say good-bye to my people at home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’
†Luke 9:57-62
I have said this to the Lord many times;
I will follow You wherever You go.
What could I have known of the risk and commitment it would require to put my hand to the plough? It’s only by grace that I have not looked back, though I have often been tempted.
From the moment I first surrendered my life to Christ and He asked me to let go of all the sorrows that hounded me like dogs of destruction, to now as I pass midlife and question what will be my security in such radically uncertain times? You know what question He never answers?
How will ‘this’ work, Lord?
He has never seen my plea to ‘know’ the risks involved in following Him, as a cogent question.
At 25, when I faced total abandonment, lost everything to that first husband and had no means to obtain legal help for my own protection, He said,
Let go and follow me.
Years later, when I was burdened with physical pain for ten years after a violent car crash and it seemed there was no hope I would ever find relief, He said,
Follow me, My grace is sufficient for you.
When he called me to home school and I reminded Him of our anemic financial resources, not to mention my own human limitations, He said,
Trust and follow me.
At the height of my husband’s corporate success He asked us to let go of many of our possessions, return to Florida and simplify our lives. I cried out,
I will follow you ….but, where’s our security, Lord ?
That very year my oldest, only eight at the time, required a surgery which only two surgeons in the country were qualified to perform. One of them happened to practice in St Petersburg. Did I mention, we had no insurance?
Where’s our security? What about that most important ‘other’ necessity we feel must come first before we follow the Lord without delay?
However necessary this might appear, however easy, however short the time which it would take up, might be, it is not permitted him. Not the least delay can be allowed, although a thousand impediments stand in the way; for spiritual things must be preferred to things even the most necessary.
—(St. Chrysostom, hom. xxviii. on S. Matt.)
If we don’t teach this principle to new converts and to our children, we do them a great disservice. They will look to the world for their security; they will not hesitate to take their hand from the plough when the road gets narrow as it is bound to do.
Jesus encountered these people on His way to Jerusalem. Herod the Great had rebuilt the temple. It was magnificent, but it wouldn’t sustain the city. In one generation, (AD 70) Rome would come in and burn it to the ground. Jesus didn’t come to rebuild a literal city the way Nehemiah did. (Neh 2:1-8)
He came to call disciples to build the Kingdom of God. Emptied of His Glory, the King of Kings, had no where to lay His head.
It’s an urgent call and I think one of the hard sayings of Jesus.
What does it mean to put your hand to the plough?
Trust the Lord and don’t look back.
Nothing must be rejected by Christ’s true disciples in their obedience, however hard and difficult it may be; rather it must be grasped with enthusiasm and with joy, since if obedience is not of this kind, then it shall not be acceptable to the Lord.
—St Columban
Come Away and Rest Awhile
Last Sunday’s Gospel (Mk. 6:30-34) reminded me of my favorite spiritual self-care practice: going on retreat. In this Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples to “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile.” In order to hear the “still, small voice” of God, we must make ourselves quiet and remove ourselves to a place where that voice becomes the dominant sound in our interior symphony.
I have been privileged to attend two silent retreats in my life, both within the past decade. This isn’t something I was familiar with previously. Of course I had attended “days of recollection,” or the confirmation retreat my parish held for us before we received the Sacrament of Confirmation in eighth grade. At my old parish, I was a member of parish council, and we started every year with a retreat day. These were all somewhat in the keeping of Jesus’ words, but not entirely.
A silent retreat–whether for a weekend, a week, or longer (how lucky you are if you can attend for longer!) reaps rich spiritual fruit. Here, we are imitating Jesus in his practice of going off alone to pray, as is often mentioned in the Gospels. While our retreats will most likely not be one of forty days of fasting in the desert, each retreat has its own character and graces to impart.
Both of my retreats ran from Friday evening (five o’clock) to Sunday afternoon, after lunch. Surrounded by women from throughout the diocese, we were staying at a local retreat center about 10 minutes from my house.
Led by a priest, the retreat features five conferences around a unified theme. There is Mass every day, as well as the public recitation of morning and evening prayer, rosary, and the Divine Mercy chaplet. Saturday evening will feature one of my most treasured and fruitful devotions: all-night adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, encased in a monstrance on the chapel’s stone altar. No other prayer practice gives me as much solace and allows me to hear God’s voice as clearly as when I am before Him, exposed and waiting.
Silence begins after the introduction and overview of the retreat. Meals are in silence, allowing us to focus on the simple, fresh fare presented to us by the retreat staff. After our meal, there is the first conference, Mass and evening prayer in the European-inspired chapel. I feel the week begin to fall away from me and my heart begins to open itself like a flower unfolding, focusing toward God who is here with us.
Bedtime is early for most of us, around ten. This makes sense, since morning prayer and Mass begin at seven thirty! The late spring morning is fresh and birds are singing outside my room. I take my bible, notebook, breviary, and a pen, and head for the chapel. When I’m on retreat I always have my bible, pen, and journal handy, so I can write down the insights I receive from conferences and private prayer.
Light streams in through the high stained glass windows. Our voices echo around the stone chapel as we chant lauds and celebrate Mass. Our fast is broken with breakfast, which is accompanied by quiet harp music.
After breakfast, the second conference is given, and we have some free time until rosary and lunch at eleven thirty. I make a visit to the Lourdes Grotto, outside the retreat house, and leave a slip of paper with my intentions on the altar before her. Several others have left notes, pictures, and flowers at Mary’s feet. After brief prayer, I settle my back against the cold stone of the grotto as I sit on a bench, and I read my bible, engaging in true lectio divina, because I am not rushed. There is nothing for me to do but sit and pray over the words of the Bible and see what meaning they may have for me.
Bible reading is followed by stations of the cross, again outside, and again said leisurely. I have time to meditate, to write what comes into my mind, to truly ponder the stations that are erected here on bronze plaques. I sketch some of them into my journal.
Rosary, lunch, another conference, then more free time. I read one of the devotional books I’ve brought with me, and walk around the grounds, admiring the statues of angels and saints that adorn the lawn. Now, I mull over what I’ve thought and read and pondered already today. As I walk, things begin to click and ideas begin to form. I start to see things I hadn’t seen before and I feel that God is truly revealing himself to me here, in this small suburban lawn.
Divine Mercy Chaplet, conference, dinner. The conferences are an hour long, and my hand is always running over the pages of my journal and my bible, covering the margins with notes and quotes from the priest. We can ask questions here, if we’d like–it’s not a totally silent retreat, after all.
After dinner, we have my favorite thing–adoration. The priest leads us in exposition. Then he slowly carries the monstrance before each person, allowing us to touch it and pray intently before it before moving on to the next woman. I feel so close to God in this quiet, candlelit chapel.
The priest is available for confession. After exposition, the adoration begins. Some women have chosen this as their hour. Some go to confession. There is a social in the conference room, where we can break silence and share some food with the women and get to know each other better. We are from all walks of life, but we all want a closer relationship with God.
My hour for adoration is eleven. There, I pray silently, my mind drifting from one thing to the next, asking God for clarity and wisdom. I write in my journal. When my hour is complete, I go to bed, my head still swimming with the things I’ve learned today.
Sunday flies by–lauds, breakfast, final conference, Mass. Then it’s time to go back into the “real world” and away from this quiet place of solitude, solace, and prayer. Can I take what I’ve learned back with me? I am more successful at some things than others. But every retreat leaves an indelible mark on me.
I know that it can be hard to get away, especially if you have children. But if you are ever presented with the chance to attend a silent retreat, please do it! Your soul will revive, and you will be able to hear God’s voice so clearly. As the weekend unfolds, His voice becomes stronger in your heart. You come back to your normal life refreshed, revived, and ready to face the challenges that are present there. It’s not just a gift for yourself–it is a gift for your family and friends. If Jesus, who is God, took time to be alone with His father, how much more important is it for us?
St Martha…Pray for Us
There are those days…those days when prayer is your only recourse and you wish someone would do it for you. You need to be lifted up in the hopes of getting just a little bit closer to God the Father. But you’re tired and weary and worn and beaten down. So you wish someone would come along and hold you up…’cause you can’t hold your self up any longer.
Let’s be that support for each other. Let’s set aside Tuesdays to pray for each other in community. Let’s run to the feet of Saint Martha, a woman who worked and worried in our Lord’s physical presence. Let’s recommend ourselves and our sisters in Christ to her. {Tuesdays have been traditionally set aside as a devotional day to St Martha.}
Here is the novena prayer, asking the intercession of St Martha for each of us here at Suscipio. After all, our very name means to encourage, support and maintain, so let’s have a plan to do just that.
Novena to St. Martha This Novena is prayed on nine consecutive Tuesdays and involves lighting a candle. Pray also especially beginning 9 Tuesdays before 29 July, the Feast of St. Martha.
(Light a candle) O admirable Saint Martha, I have recourse to thee and I depend entirely on thy intercession in my trials. In thanksgiving, I promise to spread this devotion everywhere. I humbly beg thee to console me in all my difficulties. By the immense joy that filled thy soul when thou didst receive the Redeemer of the world at thy home in Bethany, be pleased to intercede for me and my family, in order that we may keep God in our hearts and therefore, deserve to obtain the remedy to our necessities, especially the present situation that overwhelms me.
(Mention your intentions here)
I implore thee, O Auxiliatrice in all needs; help us to overcome our difficulties, thou who so victoriously fought the devil. Amen.
Recite three times one Our Father, one Hail Mary, one Glory Be, and the invocation “Saint Martha, pray for us.”
If you have a specific prayer intention, or just need us to ‘set the timer’ stop by on Tuesdays and leave it in the comments. {This post will re-run each Tuesday morning as a reminder.}
Catholic Daily, Weekly and Monthly Devotionals
It started with a book on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Well, it started with baptism and lay dormant for almost 15 years, until that book on the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
I worked part time for the local diocesan newspaper as they were in major transition and overhaul. They had a box of books they were getting rid of and I gladly took them. I was hungry. The ways of the world had left me malnourished.
I decided one day to ‘try the Church’ as a last ditch effort. I was spiritually, emotionally and mentally sick. I was God starved and world scarred and in the bottom of a cardboard box of books lay the cure. A worn out, musty smelling, yellow paged dose of pure love.
{Sacred Heart of Jesus}
We consecrated our home to the Sacred Heart. I memorized the renewal prayer to be said nightly. I was devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And then I read about devotion to Blessed Mother Mary, and then St Joseph, my Guardian Angel, the Poor Souls and there were Patron Saints for everything!
A devotional tornado was swirling around me. Each devotion seemed better than the last; this one promised peace to my family, the next promised to deliver to the 4th generation, that one said I would get out of purgatory on the first Saturday and that one said I would go straight to Heaven; one was to be said nightly, yet another for a year straight, another for the first Friday or Saturday and some for nine hours or nine days or 54 days even! I wanted to do them all. But I did not want to sacrifice quality for quantity, and devotion for superstition.
{Brown Scapular}
Holy Mother Church is so wise. She knows the seasons, needs and desires of her children here on earth. She understands our desire to ‘do it all.’ Did you know each month, each week, each day carries its own special devotion as well as a daily rhythm?
Certain hours of the day are set aside for prayer. Priests, religious and those able to respond to the the call to pray the Breviary, or the Liturgy of the Hours pray prescribed prayers at set hours:
Lauds-sunrise
Prime-6am
Terce-9am
Sext-noon
None-3pm
Vespers-sunset
Compline-before bed
For those of us who are unable to commit the time to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, we can still mark our day by calls to prayer. (Elizabeth Foss has written extensively and beautifully about her routine of praying the hours.) We can pray the Angelus at 6am, noon and 6pm. We can begin our day with a morning offering and end our day with a nightly examination of conscience.
{Rosary}
The days of the week have their own devotional distinction:
Sunday-Resurrection & the Holy and Undivided Trinity
Monday-The Holy Ghost & the Souls in Purgatory
Tuesday-The Holy Angels
Wednesday-St Joseph
Thursday-The Blessed Sacrament
Friday-Christ’s Passion and His Sacred Heart
Saturday-The Blessed Virgin and her Immaculate Heart
*Tuesdays have also been traditionally set aside to honor the Holy Face and St Anthony of Padua. There is also a special novena to St Martha made on 9 consecutive Tuesdays or all Tuesdays.
Holy Mother Church has also designated devotions for each month:
January-The Holy Name and Childhood of Jesus
February-The Holy Family
March-St. Joseph
April-The Blessed Sacrament
May-Mary
June-Sacred Heart of Jesus
July-The Precious Blood
August-Immaculate Heart of Mary
September-Seven Dolours (Sorrows) of Mary
October-The Holy Rosary (and, less formally, the Holy Angels)
November-Poor Souls in Purgatory
December-The Immaculate Conception
Years ago, our family made a novena a month for various intentions. We would choose a feast day of a saint or our Lady and make the corresponding novena leading up to that feast day. Unfortunately that has not happened in years.
I see the order of the Church’s days, weeks and months as a way to spend quality time with all my heavenly friends and helpers. Instead of ‘having a devotion’ I am ‘living a devotional life (or at least ‘trying to live a devotional life,’ each hour of my day, each day of my week, each month of my year.
? What are some of your favorite devotional practices that bring you closer in friendship with God?
Saturday’s Saint
Saint Irene and her two sisters, St. Agape and St. Chionia were Christians from Thessalonica, Macedonia.
Agape and Chionia were brought before Dulcitius, governor of Macedonia, on the charge of refusing to eat food which had been earlier offered in sacrifice to the gods. He asked Agape and Chionia where they had developed this objection to such food, and Chionia responded that she had learned it from her Lord Jesus Christ. She and Agape again refused to eat the sacrificed food, and were burned alive.
St. Irene meanwhile was discovered to possess texts of the Scriptures despite a decree issued in 303 by Emperor Diocletian declaring possession a crime punishable by death. Once arrested, the governor, Dulcitius, ordered Irene be sent to a house of prostitution.
St Irene was exposed naked and chained at the brothel, yet remained unmolested. She was put to death either by burning or by an arrow through her throat. Their feast day is celebrated April 3rd.
Mind
Condemned to death for possessing a few pages of Sacred text? Lord, may I never take my possession of the Bible, of Your Word, lightly.
Body
God, grant me the grace to control my physical appetites as Sts Agape and Chionia did. They were able to refuse food sacrificed to pagan god’s for the health of their soul, please help me to refuse unnecessary food for the health of my body.
Soul
Oh Lord, may my humble soul be pleasing to You. When I read these awesome stories of the saints and I feel like I have no courage or fortitiude compared to them, remind me that weakness can be strength.
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