Mother, Queen, Model: Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Saturday, June 9, 2018

J.M.J.


Saint Mary Teresa of Calcutta, the twentieth century's version of Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), founded the Missionaries of Charity.

Several times each day, those Sisters, while assembled in the Chapels of their various convents, sing a brief hymn to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It goes like this: "O most pure and loving Heart of my Mother and my Queen, Grant that I may love thee, love thee daily more and more. Grant that I may love thee, love thee daily more and more."

I have chanted that hymn with hundreds of Missionaries of Charity after offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for them, imparting Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament, hearing their Confessions or giving them a conference. No matter how often I join them in honoring the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I am struck by their childlike, sincere veneration of and love for Jesus' Mother.

This simple yet profound hymn takes about twenty-five seconds to sing. But length must not deceive. The genuine sentiments expressed and the theological truths outlined in this musical composition provide a welcome key not only to the Missionaries of Charity and their apostolate in serving "the poorest of the poor" but also to the very essence of the Christian life.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary, who is our Mother, Queen and Model, is the focus of this melodious prayer. Two important characteristics of Our Blessed Lady's Heart are recognized and hailed: purity and love.

The purity of Mary is seen in her complete dedication to her Creator. She never wavered from following Him and adhering to His Will. Her chastity and virginity also manifest that deep purity of heart for which Our Blessed Mother is well known. She cheerfully embraced the unique vocation that God had bestowed on her.

The love of Mary is observed in her loyal service of God and neighbor. She spent herself in promptly obeying the Almighty's commands and responding to the spiritual and bodily needs of others. Whether doing something extraordinary--like miraculously conceiving through the power of the Holy Spirit and bringing Christ forth while retaining her Perpetual Virginity--or something routine--like taking care of Jesus and Saint Joseph by attending to common household chores--Mary was a servant par excellence. Nothing was too grandiose or too small for her to accomplish if God in fact directed her to do so.

Now that we acknowledge Our Lady's purity and love, what is our response? To love her "daily more and more." This is nothing other than the desire of Christ: that each day we learn to love His Mother more. Our happy task is straightforward: to love Mary as Jesus does.

We cannot fully imagine the love the Son has for the Mother. Jesus treasures Mary and would do anything for her. How He must delight in answering her requests! And her requests are those that come from her children. When our petitions are in accord with the unfathomable plan of God, then Mary makes them her own and raises them to her beloved Son.

We are grateful that God has given to us that pure and loving Immaculate Heart. We honor her. We ask her help. We imitate her. And we strive, like the spiritual daughters of Mother Teresa, to love her daily more and daily.

O most pure and loving Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Our Lady's Messenger, Venerable Patrick Joseph Peyton (1909-1992): First Saturday, June 2, 2018

J.M.J.

On December 18, 2017, Pope Francis declared the Reverend Father Patrick Joseph Peyton, C.S.C., (1909-1992) to be “Venerable,” meaning that the virtues he practiced are considered to be heroic. Who is this Irish-born priest who is recalled for his dedication to Christ and his love for Our Blessed Lady and her Holy Rosary?

County Mayo was the home of this priest, who was the sixth in a poor family of four girls and five boys. Patrick would drop out of school as a young man but, as an adolescent, he sensed that God was calling him to the Holy Priesthood.

The nineteen year-old Patrick and his brother, Thomas, decided to immigrate to the United States and settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania. In 1932, both men entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Notre Dame, Indiana.

Despite experiencing a serious health problem in October 1938, which was determined to be tuberculosis, Patrick eventually entered Holy Cross College in Washington, D.C. to prepare for Final Vows and was ordained, with his brother Thomas, to the Holy Priesthood on June 15, 1941 in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend.

It was not long before his well-known work of promoting devotion to Our Lady and her Holy Rosary began to span many miles.

A reflection on Father Peyton’s efforts offers the following points for our reflection and application.

1. His labors always adhered to the will of his Superiors. He lived his Vow of Obedience, imitating Christ in His submission to His Father.

2. “From the Cross to Life.” The cross of physical maladies is a heavy one. But joy results when it is embraced! Father Peyton’s grave bodily trials did not stop him from giving himself completely to God’s plan. And whenever the Will of the Lord is accepted, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is made manifest in that person’s life.

3. Father Peyton shunned not the economically destitute, the wealthy, the unlettered or Hollywood luminaries. He neither feared the famous nor was enamored by the jet-setting way of existence. He invited all to participate in the building of the Kingdom of God by honoring His Ever-Virgin Mother.

4. Father Peyton did not shy away from doing the “big things” for God, like the Rosary Crusades and Rallies, the intercontinental travel and the making of movies. Precisely during the frightening period of the “Cold War,” he exhorted all to travel the path of peace.

5. “The Rosary priest” did not allow his spiritual life to take a back seat to his prodigious work. He did not forget that, first and foremost, he was a Religious and a Priest, notwithstanding his prestige and authority. In 1962, Supreme Knight Luke E. Hart of the Knights of Columbus wrote about his time with Father Peyton: “His great piety, his unflagging zeal and his intense earnestness carry you away. You feel that you are in the presence of a saint and you want to share with him his hopes and aspirations and contribute what you can to the success of his efforts.”

Father Peyton is remembered, too, for his oft-quoted saying, “The family that prays together stays together.”

He was concerned about the welfare of the family. During a Rosary Crusade, he said: “The restoration of family prayer is a basic need, and if it is given the chance it will prove itself to be the most efficacious and powerful protection against the dangers of our age.”

How apt his words are in our twenty-first century: “The person with the Rosary in hand has the key to learning the most important of all lessons: the love of God for us, the destiny He has in store for us and the way he is helping us to reach that destiny.”

On June 3, 1992, Father Peyton, with Rosary in hand, died in San Pedro, California and was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery located at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

(With gratitude to: www.holycrsscongregation.org; www.wikipedia.org; “The Rosary Priest” by Father Richard Gribble, C.S.C., in Columbia (March 2018), pages 22-25.)