Holy Relics Visitation: Our Lady of Fatima Prayer Group, 10/28/2012

 

A few of the regular participants of Our Lady

of Fatima Prayer Group standing beside the

Rosa Mystica shrine in the Gruber home.

 

What an evening last night turned out to be!  At this month's prayer meeting at the Gruber home, we did our usual round of prayers prior to which I shared about the holy lives of the great St. Francis of Assisi and our new Saint, Mother Marianne Cope.  We also venerated relics from each Saint and had a very meaningful discussion about what these holy people personally meant to us.  The rest of the meeting proceeded, as usual, with nothing particularly eventful to report... but it was what happened afterwards that really came as a big surprise.

 

At tonight's meeting, we venerated a

1st Class Relic (bodily ashes) of St. Francis

of Assisi (left) and also commemorated

St. Marianne through a small glass phial

filled with blessed soil from her original

grave in Kalaupapa, Molokai.

 

Just a few moments after we concluded our last prayer with an "Amen", two of our cellphones in the room started going off like crazy.  Dre, our host, answered her phone first, only to learn from someone on the other end that we had a "Tsunami (tidal wave) Watch" in effect due to a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada.  It was really uncanny because just minutes before - during our open prayer intentions segment of the meeting - we had invoked the Lord's protection for our country from hurricanes and other natural disasters... and next thing we know, we're facing a potentially dangerous tidal wave that was headed straight for our Hawaiian islands.

 

A chart of the Canadian earthquake

that triggered the latest Tsunami Watch

in the Hawaiian islands.

 

Needless to say, we hurriedly finished our potluck meal and the three of us who lived on the windward side of Oahu, headed for home to prepare ourselves.  After a couple of hours of tense waiting and more rosary prayers, the tsunami arrived at about 10:30pm... but not in the magnitude originally expected - Thanks be to God!  All of us who participated in last night's prayer meeting later expressed our gratitude that we were able to come together in prayerful intercession for our island home and for the rest of the country.  I'm not saying that we stopped the tsunami, but I do believe all the prayers that were offered last night by many concerned people in Hawaii (and beyond) - including us - combined together, must have somehow moved the merciful heart of God to spare us.  Prayer is indeed powerful... and yet again, we dodged another bullet.

 

 

* * * * *  Update: 10/29/2012  * * * * *

 

While browsing through some of the other photos that I took with my cellphone during this prayer meeting, I found among them, the photo shown below.  Initially, I didn't use it for this post because of the unattractive flash-glare that showed up on the picture of St. Marianne that was on the altar... but now I'm adding the photo because of it.

 

When I took a second look at the photo on my computer screen this morning, my eyes were drawn to the light reflection and I noticed that there was a distinct image of a man mysteriously formed in it; I was stunned... and if you compare the photo with the one shown above, you can see that the image was not something that was already superimposed on the picture of St. Marianne.  I am praying to the Lord to enlighten me about the significance of this unusual image.

 

A mysterious image of a man (circled in

red) appears in the flash reflection on St. Marianne's photo.  Who is he?  (click on

the photo to view a larger image)

 

Saint of the Month (Round 2): Saint Anna Schaffer

St. Anna Schaffer

A Hidden Victim for Sinners

Feast: October 5th

Anna Schaffer (also spelled as "Schaeffer") is one of those holy souls who during her lifetime passed quietly unnoticed ... but after she died, her reputation for exceptional goodness did not fade with her earthly life, but instead, guided by the hand of God, it slowly grew and grew until it finally snowballed during the last 20 years; culminating in her recent Canonization this past October 21, 2012.

This ministry normally features just one Saint a month in this blog, but in the past week this author noticed in the behind-the-scene stats that a lot of recent visits to this site were due to searches for "[Saint] Anna Schaffer".  I can only speculate the recent Canonization events in Rome had many people around the globe wondering who this obscure German laywoman was ... and what it was about her that prompted the Church to proclaim her one of its newest Saints (I, myself, only learned details about her 9 years ago).  If you're one of those curious people, this posting will be of interest to you.

To begin with, St. Anna Schaffer was born to a poor yet devoted German couple on February 18, 1882, in Mindelstetten, Bavaria.  She was a precocious and pious child, who from her First Holy Communion at age 11, resolved to belong to Jesus and to heroically suffer in expiation for sin.

At 13‐years-old, Anna started working as a maid to raise money for the dowry needed to enter a convent, which she hoped to do in the near future.  This desire was overshadowed by a visit from the Blessed Virgin in June 1898, when she was 16 - Our Lady was in a great light and carried a rosary.  She spoke to the teen about the importance of praying it, before foretelling to Anna that she would soon be subjected to a life of suffering.  

On the fateful evening of February 4, 1900, the 18-year-old Anna was seriously scalded at her workplace after she slipped and landed knee-deep into a large vat of boiling bleach, while attempting to fix a broken overhead stovepipe.  Obviously, the accident left the unfortunate young woman in atrocious pain and horribly scarred ... and to make matters worse, all the medical procedures she underwent proved futile.  Poor Anna was eventually confined to bed; her legs paralyzed due to dead tissue, and with open sores that needed regular attention.

St. Anna Schaffer as a young girl.

She had resolved to live only for Jesus

after her First Holy Communion.

Initially, the invalid was filled with anguish over the accident; her infirmities; and the monetary hardship her situation caused for her mother (her father had died a few years prior) ... but through the compassionate guidance of her parish priest, her spirit rallied and she came to accept her painful condition as a special call from God to imitate Christ Crucified in a more direct manner.  So, she offered her life as a sacrifice for sinners and for the spiritual needs of the Church, and in this manner, she eventually found peace, joy, and a sense of purpose for her sufferings.

Things took a more extraordinary turn on the evening of October 3, 1910 when she received a vision of St. Francis of Assisi and the Lord, himself.  Jesus informed her that he had accepted her sacrifice and would grant her a share in his Passion.  The following morning, as her priest was giving her Holy Communion, she witnessed 5 rays of fire stream from the Host to her hands, feet, and side marking her with the Sacred Stigmata.  Anna’s humility prompted her to ask the Lord to hide the visible wounds, which he eventually did, but she continued to feel the pain of the Stigmata for the rest of her life.

Anna spent her remaining years living in poverty, embroidering to support herself and her aged mother.  Her day-to-day existence was made rich and fruitful by prayer, atonement sufferings, and counseling those in need of spiritual guidance through either personal contact or through an active letter-writing apostolate.  At times she suffered from diabolic physical attacks but these were offset by heavenly visitations from Jesus, Our Lady, her Guardian Angel, and Saints.

In addition to apparitions of heavenly personages, the Poor Souls from Purgatory were also frequent visitors, asking for her prayers.

Other spiritual gifts this mystic possessed were prophetic insight into the future; having knowledge of events occurring at a distance; and she was also reported to Bilocate, as attested by witnesses who saw her ministering to the poor and infirm away from her home, although she was physically incapable of leaving her own sick bed.  She was also seen in the battlefields of WWII assisting wounded and dying soldiers ... and lastly, she was sometimes taken to distant chapels where she was able to enjoy periods of Eucharistic Adoration.

 

The Saint's beautiful tomb found in the

parish church of Mindelstetten, Bavaria.

The greatest favor reported in this Saint's life occurred on November 22, 1914.  On that day, Anna celebrated the Mystical Marriage with Christ, sealing her profound union with him in this life and for all eternity.

Anna’s final illness was rectal cancer, which led to her holy death on October 5, 1925; her last words were, "Jesus, I live in you".  The funeral service that followed was the biggest ever remembered in Mindelstetten and Anna’s grave immediately became a place of pilgrimage where hundreds of cures and favors were recorded by the town's parish church.  She was beatified by the late Pope John Paul II in March 1999 ... and Canonized on October 21, 2012.  Her tomb (now within the parish church) continues to be a place of pilgrimage, especially among German Catholics.

A Reflection

“The righteous call out, and the Lord hears them; He rescues them from all their troubles.”  ~ Psalm 34:18

A Short Prayer

Dear St. Anna, pray for me that I might have an abundance of Faith and Fortitude during my own times of personal trial and illness.  Amen.

Saints & Holy Relics Make Nationwide News...

 

 

Portraits of America's new Saints:

St. Kateri Tekakwitha & St. Marianne Cope

 

The Canonizations celebrated on 10/21/2012 by the Catholic Church has garnered a surprisingly large amount of mainstream news coverage in the USA - both on television and online - during the past few weeks.  Undoubtedly, it probably had a lot to do with the fact that two of the seven new Saints had lived and died on American soil - the already-famous, St. Marianne Cope of Molokai (d. 1918), and the not-so-well-known (but equally virtuous), St. Kateri ("Katherine") Tekakwitha (d. 1680), a Native American from the Mohawk Indian Tribe.  

 

I was actually quite happy to see how many of the news stories prominently featured the two miraculous healings attributed to the intercessions of St. Marianne and St. Kateri, which were also approved by the Church as integral validations of  their respective Canonization Causes. Interestingly, both cures involved the devout use of Holy Relics... and since this little ministry is mainly dedicated to promoting devotion to the Saints and their sacred remains, I couldn't resist writing about it!

 

A small glass phial, filled with soil from

the original grave of St. Marianne Cope, sits

beside a veil-relic of the Blessed Virgin Mary

in this ministry's custody.  The soil was a gift

from a dear friend who received it from a

nun of St. Marianne's congregation.

 

In the case of the healing attributed to St. Marianne Cope, a woman named Sharon Smith from Syracuse, New York (the same city where St. Marianne originally became a nun), was dying from severe pancreatitis in 2005.  Upon hearing of her condition, a nun from St. Marianne's congregation pinned a plastic packet to Smith's hospital gown and prayed for the patient to be cured.  The small pack contained soil from Mother Marianne's original grave in Kalaupapa - a 3rd Class Relic - that was apparently a factor in the inexplicable healing that resulted soon after.

 

The miracle attributed to St. Kateri Tekakwitha involved the 2006 cure of a young boy - Jake Finkbonner - whose was dying from a severe infection of the infamous "flesh-eating bacteria" after medical treatment failed to stop it from spreading throughout his body.  Again, in this case, a nun placed a relic (1st Class) of the future Saint on the dying child and the advance of the killer bacteria was halted within hours. Below is a portion of a story about Jake's cure that I clipped from Yahoo:

 

According to the Bible, in the early years of the Church, God used St. Paul to cure the sick and to work incredible wonders for the benefit of the Faithful:

 

"Meanwhile, God worked

extraordinary miracles at the hands

of Paul.  When handkerchiefs or cloths

which had touched his skin were applied

to the sick, their diseases were cured

and evil spirits departed from them."

 

~ Acts 19:11-12

 

... and now, reading and watching all the news coverage about this past Canonization ceremony brings me joy and excitement because it just goes to show that God is still working the same miracles today; that the Church's devotion to the Saints and their respective relics still has relevance and spiritual value even in our modern times.  Thanks and praises be to God... and blessed be the Saints who accomplished his Divine Will!