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Mary Undoer of Knots Byzantine Catholic Shrine
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Next Liturgy Saturday, May 25th at 4:00 p.m.
Liturgy Every Last Saturday of the Month @ 4 P.M.
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Are you having trouble discerning whether you should say the truth to someone in a troubled relationship?
Telling the Truth in Love
Christian speech is true--not only to its object but to itself--only when it is realized in love. John Shea formulated a principle in this regard that is as helpful as it is difficult: criticize someone precisely in the measure that you are willing to help that person deal with the problem that you have raised. If your commitment to help is nil, you should remain silent; if your willingness to help is moderate, your critique should be moderate; if you are willing to do all in your power to address the situation with the person, speak the whole truth. This is not unrelated to Aquinas' point about relating anger to justice: one should be perfectly right in one's criticism, but morally wrong if that critique is not made in the real desire to ameliorate (fix) the problem.
Bishop Barron: The Strangest Way, 107
How did the Shrine Start?
It is time for the Lord to act!
The Mission of Shrines
In the Catholic world of today about eighty percent of all shrines are dedicated to Mary. Annually the vast majority of pilgrims are destined for Marian shrines. For example, about ten million go to Guadalupe in Mexico, six million to Lourdes in France, five million to Czestochowa in Poland, four million to Aparecida in Brazil.
Shrines are not intended to be a sightseeing stop on a vacation trip; they are places of pilgrimage. Though most need to travel considerable distances and use vacation time to reach the shrines, pilgrimage is not a vacation-time visit, but rather an action of spiritual renewal.
Pilgrimage is an effort of the great journey of human life toward God. The life of the Christian person is a pilgrimage. Ours is a pilgrim Church. Ordinarily pilgrims endured privations in joining with others en route to a common goal. They unite with pilgrims of the past in prayer and in gratitude for a hallowed place.
All the actions of a pilgrimage are meant to be symbolic and instructive and transforming: the preparation, joining together with other pilgrims, the welcome at the shrine, the visit to the sanctuary, the celebration of the Eucharist, the return home. The purpose of the pilgrimage is to guide the pilgrim "to the essential: Jesus Christ, the Savior, the end of every journey, and the source of all holiness."
Vatican Council II spoke of Mary's "pilgrimage of faith." She precedes and encourages us in our own pilgrimage of Faith. Marian shrines are one expression of Mary's presence among us, the Church. John Paul II in Mother of the Redeemer referred to a "geography" of faith and devotion to Mary which includes those special places of pilgrimage where the People of God find the one who first believed and a strengthening of their own faith.
In today's world with millions of refugees and displaced persons, shrines are becoming gathering places for people uprooted from their homes and churches. At the first World Congress on Shrines and Pilgrimages in 1992 sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People, John Paul II expressed the desire that "persons whom life has treated harshly, the poor, the people who are distant from the Church" may find a welcome at shrines.
Hospitality extended to migrants and to all pilgrims at Marian shrines is an expression of the Virgin Mary's welcoming of God's word. Her example reminds all people that we come together in the great pilgrimage of life on this earth to everlasting life in our permanent home with God.
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!!!
Middle East Peace?
A solution by Pope Francis
Pope Francis states in his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti (On Social Friendship),
a prophetic vision for all people who seriously want to build a lasting peace.
1). Peace does not mean that all disagreements and differences have been eliminated.
2). Peace is not empty diplomacy, dissimulation, double-speak, hidden agendas and good manners that mask reality.
3.) Genuine Peace comes when we are able to face the hard truths about each other and our world.
4.) Peace requires that we confront our enemies not with hatred or the desire for revenge, but with a willingness to work through our serious problems in an effort to find common ground and achieve the common good.
5.) Those who were fierce enemies have to speak from the stark and clear truth. They
have to learn how to cultivate a penitential memory, one that can accept the past in order not to cloud the future with their own regrets, problems and plans.
6.) We build Peace not by forgetting or ignoring the past but by remembering it in a productive way. Pope Francis calls this a “penitential memory,” which involves remembering with both a deep sorrow for our own sins and a willingness to forgive those who have sinned against us.
7.) Peace cannot be achieved by covering up or denying the deep wounds of the past. Unless the truth is told, past grievances become like open sores that are extremely difficult to heal. Without acknowledging the truth about our past, our present is unsettled and our future is without hope.
8.) Peace demands rigorous honesty and the willingness to face, acknowledge and work through the consequences of the wrongs done to us (and by us) in the past.
9.) Peace is something we can never take for granted. It is not established “once and for all” but must be built continuously in every time and place through the hard work and prayer of people who long for it.
10.) Peace is the product of forgiveness and of respect for the fundamental rights and dignity of all. It is not simply the absence of conflict or warfare, but it is the proactive presence of a state of mind that promotes fellowship, harmony and co-responsibility among diverse peoples and cultures.
Did you ever think about or realize what the power of one Hail Mary can do?
My favorite story of 2023 was “The Astonishing Power of One Hail Mary,” as it focused on how a single prayer we should not take for granted can change even the lives of strangers.
Briefly, John Petrovich was jogging past a house and saw an ambulance in the driveway.
He had learned in childhood to say a prayer for those in need whenever he sees or hears an ambulance or police siren. He blessed himself and this time said a Hail Mary for the person inside.
The next week, as he ran on the same street, a woman stopped him. “You saved my life,” she told him. She described how she had blacked out and was dying. Regaining consciousness in the hospital, she had a vision of Jesus, who told her, “Everything is going to be fine; you’re going to be fine because this person prayed for you.”
She told Petrovich how “on the palm of his hand was your face. And I have to thank you for saving my life.” He was speechless.
This incident is a perfect example of how earnest prayer can “move mountains,” as Jesus said in the Gospel. If one Hail Mary has that power, imagine the power in a Rosary’s 50 Hail Marys. The prayerful man told the Register he is learning to put “more emphasis on why we should be praying for one another … for other people in their needs and wants before us.”
Mary Undoer of Knots Shrine
Wisdom! Be Attentive!
MATTHEW 25:1–13
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus recognizes the prudence of the ten wise virgins. In the Middle Ages, prudence was called “the queen of the virtues,” because it enabled one to do the right thing in a particular situation. Prudence is a feel for the moral situation, something like the feel that a quarterback has for the playing field or a politician has for the voters in his district.
Wisdom is, like prudence, a kind of vision, but it is, unlike prudence, a sense of the big picture. It is the capacity to survey reality from the vantage point of God, appreciating the grandest perspective. Without wisdom, even the most prudent judgment will be erroneous, short-sighted, and inadequate.
The combination, therefore, of prudence and wisdom is especially powerful. Someone who is both wise and prudent will have both a sense of the big picture and a feel for the particular situation.
This is the combination possessed by the saints. This is why so many of the saints could be both ethereal and practical. Think of Mother Cabrini—a woman with a remarkably broad vision who was also capable of negotiating with bankers and real estate brokers.
