First Saturday Parish Rosary at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 4/4/2015

   

Mercy was our theme at this month's

First Saturday Rosary Meeting.  For the

second time, my newly embellished Divine

Mercy statue was displayed in the Chapel.

I was pleasantly surprised today in so many ways.  First off, being that today is Holy Saturday and not just a normal First Saturday, our Saturday evening [Easter Vigil] service was scheduled for 7:30pm instead of the regular time of 5:00pm.  So this meant there would be a large gap in time between our monthly Rosary Meeting at 4:30 and the Vigil Service so I didn't expect more than a handful of people to attend this month.  But to my surprise, a bunch of regulars actually made the time to show up and there were even new faces among them in our Day Chapel.

A photo of Bl. Savina Petrilli,
foundress of the Poor Sisters
of St. Catherine of Siena

Since the Divine Mercy Novena officially began on yesterday (Good Friday) I decided to bring my large Divine Mercy pilgrim statue to display at the front of the chapel; fitting because the image represents the risen Lord, who we'll celebrate tomorrow.  In addition, the holy person I chose to speak about was a woman who founded a congregation dedicated to merciful service towards the poor; her name was Bl. Savina Petrilli (d. 1923).  This Beata from Siena, Italy, was inspired by her hometown [favorite] Saint - St. Catherine Benincasa of Siena (d. 1380) - to found the Poor Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena.  

After narrating Bl. Savina's story, I encouraged the participants to pick a Saint - any Saint they felt drawn to - and following Bl. Savina's example in imitating St. Catherine of Siena, to do their best to emulate one or two virtues practiced by their Saint-of-choice.  I told the group, if they did so, they too would begin walking the path of holiness, themselves; Bl. Savina's life reminds us of this very real possibility.

So we proceeded with our Rosary for Peace, which was wonderful, as always... and after it ended, we did something completely new - we added a Divine Mercy Chaplet since we weren't constrained by time today.  It was beautiful to pray it in our group and the people responded positively to it.  I'm hoping to perhaps include it again at future meetings.

Anyhow, when we finished saying all our prayers, several people went up to venerate the Divine Mercy statue and to get a closer view of the bodily relic of Bl. Savina Petrilli on display at the base of the statue.  I allowed two women who had health issues to hold the small reliquary in their hands, as we offered a special healing prayer for the both of them.  The look of consolation and gratitude on their faces after we prayed was priceless and I do hope Bl. Savina obtained a favorable outcome for these ladies.

The next First Saturday Rosary for Peace at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Kailua will be offered on Saturday, May 2nd, beginning at 4:25pm.  All are welcome to participate.

A HAPPY, BLESSED EASTER
to all!