First Saturday Parish Rosary at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 9/5/2015

"God is good... all the time!  And all the time... God is good!"  Those phrases - familiar to many Christians, regardless of denomination - are our Fr. Exsequel's catch phrases; it's how he always begins his homilies.  Each time he offers Mass, I expect to hear it; I enjoy hearing it; I feel encouraged after hearing it... and at today's First Saturday Rosary, the consoling message of God's goodness was our central focus and "lesson", courtesy of the meeting's featured Saint of the Month.

A photo of St. Therese Couderc

Before beginning the Holy Rosary, I shared the life and a relic of St. Therese Couderc (d. 1880) with the parishioners who were present.  St. Therese was a simple French woman who founded the Sisters of the Cenacle to evangelize and educate people by conducting spiritual retreats. This founder also happened to be a mystic-soul who had a profound experience that left an indelible mark on her soul: she once had a vision in which she saw everything that God created - living and inanimate - each stamped with the word "GOODNESS" in letters of gold.  Through this vision, St. Therese saw, in a mysterious way, the innate goodness present in all creation and how everything the Lord makes is a source of tremendous blessing.

So for St. Therese Couderc, the phrase "God is good..." would not just be a simple statement of truth, but she took it up a notch by striving to embody goodness; God, Himself... as well as by endeavoring to recognize that same goodness in everything around her, especially in people in whom goodness was not so apparent (there were many such people in her life).  This was St. Therese's guiding principle to sanctity and we are challenged to do the same.

Our prayer meeting proceeded and ended, in the usual manner - very uplifting - after which most of us took a short walk over to the main church for the Saturday evening Vigil Mass.  And who just happened to be the presiding priest tonight?  Fr. Exsequel, of course.  The Holy Spirit would not have arranged things any other way... and I found myself smiling broadly after Father mounted the pulpit and began proclaiming his usual catch phrases.  Yes, indeed.  "God is good... all the time!  And all the time... God is good!"

   

My Rosa Mystica pilgrim statue flanked

by relics of the Blessed Mother's veil and a

bodily-relic of St. Therese Couderc.