Holy Relics Visitation: Our Lady of Fatima Prayer Group, 4/19/2014

     

The Rosa Mystica enthroned in the Gruber

Home and a photograph of Bl. Alexandrina

da Costa, our group's patroness... plus three

relics from the habit of St. Catalina Thomas.

On the eve of the one of the holiest Feast Days in the Church's calendar, our prayer group met to pray the Holy Rosary; to pray for our personal needs; to intercede for others; and to pray for the needs of the Church and the rest of the world. The mood was somewhat serious as we reflected on the Lord's Passion that was commemorated the day before yesterday... but we were also filled with anticipation for Easter Sunday, which we would soon be celebrating.

A flake of golden escarcha that I collected
from the table with my finger tip.

The Saint I shared about at this meeting was St. Catalina Thomas, who was also my blog's featured Saint for April 2014.  I actually planned on another holy person to talk about - a Blessed female founder - but at the last minute, I felt strongly inspired to share about St. Catalina instead. This particular Saint physically battled with demons... so the faith-lesson we gleaned from her life was twofold: First, we were reminded that the devil does exist as a personal being who wants nothing more than to have us all share in his ruin.  Secondly, we, too, have our own personal fight with the devil, via temptations and other obstacles that he throws our way... but like, St. Catalina, we should always hope and bravely persevere in our Faith, knowing that if we do, eventual victory and glory is assured us through Jesus Christ.  The group members enjoyed what they learned about St. Catalina's life and we were all edified by her faith example.

The Rosary Prayer that followed was, itself, very different tonight. We all commented on how it felt as though we were "absorbed" by a profound sense of peace and time seemed to be moving in "slow motion" while we prayed. It was an unusual sensation, but in a good way that's just hard to explain adequately. I interpreted it as some sort of effect of the Holy Spirit's presence.  More so, because escarchas were seen materializing, too: red ones on the framed 2nd Class Relics of St. Catalina (reminders of the Precious Blood of Christ?), and gold and green shiny escarchas on the table around which we were seated (there was nothing around us with man-made glitter).  The unexpected sign encouraged me to pray even harder.

In the end, we enjoyed our fellowship dinner consisting of fried chicken and fish, some shoyu poke (marinated raw ahi) with poi (pounded taro with water)... and a dessert of chocolate-covered eclairs. Everything was delicious and the meeting ended with all of us feeling refreshed, at peace, and very grateful to God for the generosity of His bounty.