Mary, Mother of Good Counsel

October 8, 2024                   

Hi! How is each and every one?  While I could not manage to start this post, I was inspired to first look for a title and somehow I thought of Our Lady of Good Counsel.  Maybe the reason could be because in the article below Carl sought some counseling.  I thought each of us truly need some counseling on how to manage ourselves in facing different issues in our daily life.  In these situations it is always good if not best to run to Our Lady, Mother of Good Counsel when a spiritual director or guide is not at hand.  Our Lady as a good mother is always beside us to counsel us and to top it all to lead us to her son, Jesus, who will tell us what to do or what others related to the issues should or could do.  

Let me just give you a background on Our Lady of Good Counsel from catholicnewsagency.com:  On the feast of St.  Mark, April 25, 1467, at the close of a festival in Genazzano, Italy, a cloud descended upon an ancient 5^th century deteriorated church, dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel.  When the cloud disappeared, the festive crowd found a small, fragile image of the Blessed Virgin and Child on a thin sheet of plaster.  The painting is said to have hung in mid-air, suspended without support, floating, on a small ledge.  This particular fresco is said to date to the time of the Apostles. It had long been venerated in Albania’s capital city, Scutari.

Much of the church of Our Lady of Good Counsel was destroyed in World War II, but the image remained intact and in place.  The miraculous image is still there today after more than 500 years.  Countless miracles have been attributed to the prayerful intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel. 

Many pilgrims visit the church in Genazzano, and take part in the annual spring celebration, observed on April 25.  Elsewhere in the world, the feast is celebrated April 26.

                                              

                                                       Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary –La Naval de Manila

Two Saturdays ago I met with a young friend, a freshman student of nursing.  We talked about her studies, street life commuting to and from school, family life, social relations and her spiritual life as well. when I mentioned to her about October being a month dedicated to Our Lady and October 7 being the feast day of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, she expressed wonder and asked what about May, isn’t it also dedicated to her?

“Oh yes, you are right, both months - May and October are months dedicated to Our Lady aside from many other declared feast days of Our Lady in other months throughout the year,” I affirmed.

Our Lady is most loved as our mother in Heaven and in the Philippines. Each and every Filipino has to be grateful for and faithful to each and every one of our Filipino family’s, regional and national customs and traditions as a practicing Catholic Nation, much beloved by God.

Allow me at this point to give a brief summary on Our Lady of the Rosary from DRM, 2019 ed.:  Pope St. Pius V established this feast in 1573.  The purpose was to thank God for the victory of Christians over the Turks at Lepanto – a victory attributed to the praying of the rosary.  Clement XI extended the feast to the universal Church in 1716.  The development of the rosary has a long history.   First, a practice developed of praying 150 Our Fathers in imitation of the 150 Psalms.  Then there was a parallel practice of praying 150 Hail Marys.  Soon a mystery of Jesus’ life was attached to each Hail Mary.  Though Mary’s giving the rosary to St. Dominic is recognized as a legend, the development of this prayer form owes much to the followers of St. Dominic.  One of them, Alan de la Roche, was known as “the apostle of the rosary.”  He founded the first confraternity of the Rosary in the 15^th century.  In the 16^th century the rosary was developed to its present form – with the 15 mysteries (joyful, sorrowful and glorious). In 2002, Pope John Paul II added the mysteries of Light to this devotion.

Now a brief summary of the devotion of praying the Holy Rosary from theholyrosary.org:

The Holy Rosary:  “Say the Rosary every day… Pray, pray a lot and offer sacrifices for sinners… I’m Our Lady of the Rosary.  Only I will be able to help you. …In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Our Lady of Fatima

The Rosary means “Crown of Roses”.  Our Lady has revealed to several people that each time they say a Hail Mary they are giving her a beautiful rose and that each complete Rosary makes her a crown of roses.  The rose is the queen of flowers, and so the Rosary is the rose of all devotions and it is therefore the most important one.

The Holy Rosary is considered a perfect prayer because within it lies the awesome story of our salvation.  With the rosary in fact we meditate the mysteries of joy, of sorrow, of glory and of light of Jesus and Mary.  It’s a simple prayer, humble so much like Mary. 

It’s a prayer we can all say together with Her, the Mother of God.  With the Hail Mary we invite Her to pray for us.  Our Lady always grants our request. She joins Her prayer to ours.

Therefore it becomes ever more useful, because what Mary asks She always receives, Jesus can never say no to whatever His Mother asks for.

In every apparition, the heavenly mother has invited us to say the Rosary as a powerful weapon against evil, to bring us to true peace.  With your prayer made together with your heavenly mother, you can obtain the great gift of bringing about a change of hearts and conversion.

Above all each day, through prayer you can drive away from yourselves and from your homeland many dangers and many evils.  It can seem a repetitive prayer but instead it is like two sweethearts who many times say to one anther the words: “I love you”…

The new mysteries

The Saint John Paul II on October 16^th, 2002 with the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae on the most Holy Rosary declared that the following year would be the “Year of the Rosary”.  For the first time in centuries a change was made in the rosary.  He has added 5 new mysteries of the rosary:  the “Luminous Mysteries” or “Mysteries of Light”.

At this point I am moved to share with you a joyful experience I credit to Our Lady’s work.  The week before the birthday of Our Lady on September 8, I had the inspiration of inviting the household staff to pray the Rosary to Our Lady after lunch when there is nobody around in the Oratory.  It will only take twenty minutes to pray the complete Rosary. I had the intention to start on her birthday.  But I was only able to mention it the next day to one of them and passed on to her the task of inviting the others as well.  The next day she told me about her successful venture and so we started to pray the rosary to Our Lady, September 9 up to this day.  Charity is to wish what is good for the others and to pray and to work on what is possible.  I am certain each one of them is happy being able to do so.  Surely it makes their day more meaningful and fulfilling. And Our Lady is happy for them and with them praying her favorite prayer.

Following now is the continuation of our divine longing for justice (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 6).

First Episode – Carl and Sandee

Patience ultimately facilitates our divinization by reminding us of the higher goal that we are pursuing very moment. Patience helps us to attend to both the immediate and the ancient wounds in our hearts and souls; it enables us to take the time we need to cultivate a godly plan of action.

Carl often felt attacked, criticized, and put down even when others swore that they didn’t mean to hurt him.  He was quick to shut down any interaction that even seemed like it would be potentially hurtful.

“As far as I was concerned, it didn’t matter whether they meant to hurt me or not,” Carl said.  “I’d been through enough garbage in my life.  I didn’t need to take any more from people no matter where it came from or why it happened.”

His quick temper was especially hard on his wife and children.  When his wife let him down in some small ways, or if she dared to express a disappointment in even the gentlest manner, he would quickly go on the offensive.  He was unwilling to brook any resistance or hesitation his children’s part if he asked them to do something.  He expected them to do it immediately.  It was this expectation that finally forced a change.

“I was working on a project, and my son, Ben, walked in,” Carl remembered.  “I asked him to get a tool for me.  He said that he couldn’t, and I stopped him cold.  I shouted at him and told him that I wasn’t putting up with his laziness or disrespect and that he better get his ass in gear.  He started to cry, and I told him if he didn’t stop, I’d give him something to cry about.”

Cal’s wife, Sandee, heard the exchange and rushed into the room, her hands and face covered in blood.  She had a terrible nosebleed and asked Ben to run and get her some paper towels to stanch the bleeding so that she could clean herself up.  She called Carl a bully and told him that if he didn’t learn to get control of himself, he’d have to leave.

“She was standing there bleeding all over the place, screaming at me and all I could think was, ‘What have I done?’” Carl said.

Carl called a counselor that day and started working on dealing more effectively with anger.  “I learned that I didn’t have to just ride the wave of my feelings,” he said.  “I always thought that if I felt angry, I didn’t have a choice but to go with it.  But my counselor helped me realize that just like a wave, anger peaks and then crashes.  If you can wait to respond until the wave collapses on itself you’ll feel more in control and be able to respond in a more thoughtful, respectful way.

“Now, when I feel my anger building, I just close my eyes and imagine the wave.  I try to breathe through it.  Once it rolls in to shore, I ask myself if there’s anything I need to do to solve the problem or if this is something I just need to let go of.  I’m able to let a lot more things go than I ever used to, and I feel okay about it.  When I can’t let something go, I’m able to address it in a way that gets other people to actually listen to me.  I’ll always feel sad about the time I lost to my anger, but I’m grateful that I’m learning to be more patient.  It really is helping me be a better man.”

Carl and Sandee describe a fairly common domestic situation where wrath can have a powerful negative impact and patience can bring profound healing.  In the beginning of his story, Carl describes one of the chief confusions among people who struggle with the sin of wrath, namely, they believe that their only alternative to acting out their anger is stuffing their rage.  Many Christians believe that this is how they are meant to deal with their anger, but this is unacceptable.  In his Book of Pastoral Rule, St. Gregory the Great counsels:  “Anger seethes all the more when corralled by the violent guard of an indiscreet silence.”

As St. Gregory the great observes, patience does not require us to stuff our emotions; instead it gives us a chance to breathe in the calming breath of God so that, infused with grace, our anger might become a medicine that treats the wound of injustice rather than a poison that spreads it.

But if this is true in such common situations as the domestic drama between Carl and Sandee, what about more serious situations?  How do the temptation to wrath and the virtue of patience play out in situations where there is a long-standing injustice?

The Holy Father called for a day of prayer and fasting last October 7, marking one year of the attack by Hamas terrorists on Israel. Although that day has passed let us continue being united in prayer to/with the Holy Father’s intention. Following is the announcement.  Let us reflect on its message and continue praying the Holy Rosary to Our Lady.  Let us drown evil with our daily prayers and mortifications and an abundance of good works and good living.

Catholic News Agency

October 2, 2024

VATICAN— Pope Francis has called for a global day of prayer and fasting on Oct. 7 to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel amid escalating violence in the region.

The pope’s surprise announcement, made at the end of his homily at Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, comes the morning after Iran launched hundreds of missiles towards Israel following the launch of the Israeli military’s ground offensive in Lebanon.

Pope Francis said on Oct. 2 that the Church is always at the service of humanity “especially in his dramatic hour of our history, as the winds of war and the fires of violence continue to ravage entire peoples and nations.”

“I ask everyone to take part in a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the world,” he said.

Pope Francis also revealed that he will personally go to Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major on Sunday to pray the rosary on the eve of the anniversary “to invoke the gift of peace through the intercession of Most Holy Mary.”

The pope made his plea for peace during the opening Mass for the second assembly of the Synod on Synodality, which is taking place at the Vatican Oct. 2-27.

Speaking to the more than 400 priests, bishops, cardinals, and lay Synod delegates gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Mass on the feast of the Guardian Angels, the pope invited the members of the Synod to join him in the Marian basilica to pray the rosary for peace.

“Brothers and sisters, let us resume this ecclesial journey with an eye to the world, for the Christian community is always at the service of humanity, to proclaim the joy of the Gospel to all. We need it, especially in this dramatic hour of our history, as the winds of war and the fires of violence continue to ravage entire peoples and nations,” he said.

“To invoke the gift of peace through the intercession of Most Holy Mary, on Sunday I will go to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where I will pray the Holy Rosary and address a heartfelt plea to the Virgin; if possible, I also ask you, members of the Synod, to join me on that occasion.”

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has urged the importance of “prayer, fasting and penance” for peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land. The cardinal published a prayer for peace which he has asked Catholics to pray along with the rosary during the Marian month of October.

 

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Once again I am moved to quote St. Augustine:  “Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times! Such as we are, such are the times” (Sermon 80:8).

We have more than enough to talk with Our Lord in the quiet moments of our dialog with Him throughout the day and the whole week.   Let us savor those moments and listen to what he says and then do them as He tells us.

See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,                    

Guadalupinky