Holy Relics Visitation: Our Lady of Fatima Prayer Group, 6/29/2013

 

A statue and a framed photograph of

Bl. Alexandrina Maria Da Costa were the

night's focal points on my friend's altar,

along with a bone relic of Bl. Anna Maria

Taigi and the Rosa Mystica.

 

What a great prayer meeting it was!  If there was a running theme at tonight's gathering in the Gruber home, it had to be the urgent need of including God, Faith, and Devotion within the family unit.  It wasn't planned, but that's just how the Lord worked it... in addition to us regulars, we had a returning mother and daughter, plus an entire family - a couple with two teenagers - join us for the first time to pray the Holy Rosary.  It was awesome!

 

Our featured "Saint of the Month" and accompanying holy relic was a married laywoman who bore seven children so she went right along with the family theme.  She was the  Bl. Anna Maria Taigi (d. 1837), a holy matriarch who made God and family the main priorities in her life; thus attaining great sanctity and becoming one of the Church's most gifted mystics.  The message of  this Beata's  life is a timeless affirmation of the important and sacred role of mothers in families... and society, in general; most especially good women who raise their children with solid faith and morals.  I actually almost didn't bring her relic, but was glad I did - Bl. Anna Maria seemed to hit a chord with the moms present since they could easily identify with her day-to-day struggles with her spouse and kids, while also trying to juggle chores and an active devotional prayer life.

In addition to the above, we also did something new.  Our host/prayer meeting leader, being a strong devotee of Our Lady of Fatima, committed our group to spiritually adopting the Canonization Causes of the three Fatima Seers - Bl. Jacinta, Bl. Francisco, and Sr. Lucia - plus the Cause of Bl. Alexandrina Maria Da Costa (d. 1955), a holy stigmatic from Balasar (Portugal), who had a special mission from Jesus to promote the Fatima Message.  Alexandrina was so enthusiastic and successful in spreading the message, she is often referred to as the "4th Seer" of Fatima.  So for the first time in our prayer lineup, we offered a special petition asking the Lord to grant the Church their speedy Canonizations.  Moving forward, we'll be renewing the petition at subsequent meetings.

 

A group photo of tonight's participants.

A couple of us are holding up posters of

Bl. Alexandrina whose Canonization

Cause was "adopted" by our group.

 

Lastly, the dinner and fellowship that followed was a lot of fun and lively in contrast to the intensity of our prayer time.  We dined on "pasteles" (a tamale-like dish made with grated green bananas and pork), seasoned Puerto Rican rice, and all sorts of other foods and desserts while getting to know the new friends we met tonight.  We laughed and joked until we all had to finally head out; me driving back to the windward side with my small Kailua crew.

 

Our plan next month - Italian cuisine!

 

"... Do not sin!  The world is worth

nothing!  That already says it all.

Receive Communion many times!

Pray the Rosary every day!"

 

~ Words of Bl. Alexandrina Maria

Da Costa of Balasar