Holy Relic Visitation: Our Lady of Fatima Prayer Group, 3/28/2015

Our participants at the March meeting of Our Lady of Fatima Prayer Group.

I believe family is important... and last night a girl-cousin of mine joined us in prayer for the the first time, along with her fiance' and a mother with her young son.  It was personally significant for me because I pray frequently for the spiritual conversion of my entire family... so having a close relative of mine suddenly want to reconnect with God and, pray the Holy Rosary with me in intercession for the rest of our "ohana" (Hawaiian for "family"), is powerful.  We have a large, loving and decent family... but like every other families out there, we have relatives who are still far from the light of God.  Rather than criticizing them, we can only love them; pray for them; and do our best to lead them back to the Faith by being an example.

So tonight the prayer meeting was different for me, but in a good way.  Not just due to our four guests, but I could sense the "presence" of the Holy Spirit in a tangible way, even before our prayers began.  It was a little overwhelming... but I knew in my heart He was with us to bring special healing and consolation to our new Brothers and Sisters in the Lord.

Bl. Margaret of Castello, pray for us.

Our Saint of the Month for this meeting was Bl. Margaret of Castello (d. 1320), the wonder-working Dominican Tertiary who suffered from a list of physical deformities: blindness, dwarfism, lameness, and a hunched-back.  I shared a 1st Class Relic (left photo) and a short bio of the Blessed with the group, and all were deeply impressed by her story.  Among the numerous lessons we gained through Bl. Margaret was the reminder that all life is precious to God even the most marginalized people; those who general society considers unimportant or "throwaways" - unwanted unborn babies, the homeless, the handicapped and mentally ill, etc. - through God's grace, are very capable of contributing goodness to the world.  Bl. Margaret is a perfect example of this.

The prayers progressed smoothly after our introductions and preliminaries, and the Pizza Party that followed was delicious and awesome.  Who doesn't enjoy pizza with lots of cheese and pepperoni?

When it was time to leave, the Holy Spirit had done His work... all were lightened, especially our newcomers.  The look on their faces said it all - there was a "glow" and a peace in their expressions that wasn't there when they first arrived.  Faith-seeds were planted and hopefully we'll see them back.  All thanks and praises be to God!