ETERNAL WISDOM
MOTHER TERESA on CHARITY and THE CHALLENGES OF TRUE LOVE:
During a speech in 1994 at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C., she said, “I can never forget the experience I had in visiting a home where they kept all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them into an institution and forgotten them – maybe. I saw that in that home these old people had everything – good food, comfortable place, television, everything, but everyone was looking toward the door. And I did not see a single one with a smile on the face. I turned to Sister and I asked: “Why do these people who have every comfort here, why are they all looking toward the door? Why are they not smiling?” I am so used to seeing the smiles on our people, even the dying ones’ smile. And Sister said: ‘This is the way it is nearly every day. They are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten.’ And see, this neglect to love brings spiritual poverty… When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread. But a person who is shut out, who feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person who has been thrown out of society – that spiritual poverty is much harder to overcome.”
THE ROSARY HOUR PODCAST NEWSLETTER |
SPECIAL ON SPIRITUAL POVERTY
23 DECEMBER 2023 | Our Lady’s Saturday | 2nd Edition Reviewed by Izzy / KR
Dear Readers: This is Amelia! It is two days until Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are so happy to introduce yesterday’s Advent Consecration Journey feature for Day 32: Street Patrol led by Lucio Abbruzesse, our podcast friend who leads very soon this night an evening winter Street Patrol through downtown Toronto, Canada at 6:30 P.M to serve the homeless and those struggling this winter.
This “patrol” marks is the Annual Christmas meeting — a street mission that Lucio, who has run Street Patrol for now 29 years from the downtown core near the AGO, has continued for this evening’s Christmas distribution of Christmas cheer.
Weeks ago, the Rosary Hour Podcast asked Lucio to define “Charity” for our readers for the 2nd Joyful Mystery.
Here is his answer:
“Charity is opening up our hearts to love our neighbour as God and ourselves.” (Lucio, Street Patrol, Toronto)
WHAT DOES TRUE CHARITY MEAN?
“THE HUNGER FOR LOVE”
One of the first things Lucio teaches through Street Patrol is the idea that “hunger for love” is greater than material hunger.
Lucio always begins the patrol by telling participants serving that their 1 on 1 encounters with the homeless are ones truly about rediscovering the “hunger for love”, and addressing first and foremost that “terrible loneliness and being unwanted, unloved – being abandoned by everybody”.
This is the core lesson of every patrol that Lucio wants his patrollers to take away from this experience: we are Christ for others.
TONIGHT’S PATROL IN TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA STARTED at 6:30 PM
Participants tonight will have brought socks, drinks, sandwiches, candy canes and friendship to those in need. Lucio walks the patrol group through the downtown streets from St. Pat’s, the meeting point.
(We’ll let you know how it went in a future post!)
Lucio describes the patrol in the following poster: street patrol is… “walking the streets of Toronto offering food and friendship to those in need.”
LIVE NEAR THE AGO? or McCAUL?
If you get this message and happen to live right near 137 McCaul Street, you can find out from Lucio when the next patrol is and then head over to the steps of St. Patrick’s Church near the AGO to join Lucio etc. for this little pilgrimage to those in need of friendship and food in Toronto.
HELPING THOSE IN NEED:
If you are inspired by tonight’s patrol, and want to join Lucio for a future patrol, or start your own patrol in your own city, the Rosary Hour Podcast recommends keeping it simple:
bring a bag of simple ham / cheese sandwiches and/or just simple cheese sandwiches to give those you encounter, or grab some quick granola bars to add to a bagged lunch / dinner.
Or, if you are able, bring some juice boxes or half water bottles so you can serve drinks as well.
Finally, if you could please pray the Rosary for those people participating tonight and those they encounter.
Let’s unite in prayer for those struggling with material and spiritual well-being and help Lucio and his team by asking for God to watch over them as they serve the homeless and the marginalized in Toronto as you read this post. You can be with them in spirit and root them on here:
More info here in this old YouTube overview of Street Patrol:
THE FRUIT OF THE 2nd JOYFUL MYSTERY IS CHARITY! [2nd Edition]
Tonight, we invite our readers around the world to be part of another great youth initiative in Portugal.
PRAY THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES HERE WITH an ORIGINAL set of ROSARY MEDITATIONS WRITTEN BY PADRE NUNO ROCHA’S YOUTH GROUP who were also DELEGATES / PARTICIPANTS OF WORLD YOUTH DAY 2023 (LISBON).
All of them returned to his parish with RENEWED ZEAL TO TEACH THE ROSARY!
Below, they have written and wish to share a set of their own meditations that each of these five members of Padre Nuno’s parish composed for the children and parishioners in Padre Nuno’s Catechesis classes all of whom pray the Rosary before the 11H30 Family / Children’s mass every single Sunday.
This was the set of meditations read on the first Sunday of Advent, and by way of update, Padre Nuno has implemented a Rosary that is led by youth and children 52 weeks a year.
This new initiative is sustained by the Youth Group GNR who are modelling for the children as young adults / young professional what they brought back from World Youth Day: a solid conviction about the importance of praying the Rosary, and a desire to inspire others in their community (and country) by leading the Rosary every first Sunday of the Month.
Read about JMJ / WORLD YOUTH DAY HERE in ENGLISH:
WORLD YOUTH DAY 2023 DELEGATES | ORIGINAL ROSARY MEDITATIONS 2023
Advent Reflections by: Tomé, Zé Pedro, Gustavo, Maria, and Nuno.
All prayers curated by Padre Nuno Rocha, S. José Parish on the Camino to Santiago on the Atlantic Coast of Portugal:
This Youth Group also put together a “Digital Toolkit” for the members of the Parish to follow the Terço (5 decades of the Rosary).
This document is posted to Rosary On The Camino Project for pilgrims on the Camino to participate in the Holy Rosary and is sometimes placed as a handout beside the bulletin.
Padre Nuno has also composed an essay introducing the Rosary on “The Secret of Joy” that will introduce the Mysteries of the Rosary and the Rosary Prayers curated by him for this community Rosary.
He has also finished a recording of the Rosary that will be available in a 20 minute presentation format soon via the following site as an audio to help pilgrims visiting Portugal to pray the Rosary during their pilgrim journeys.
Fr. Elias Mary Mills (FI) has recorded for the Rosary Hour Podcast the ENTIRE ENGLISH version of Padre Nuno’s Rosary with Children’s Rosary member Amelia, which they accomplished during a 2 hour session on Dec. 8. They pray five decades and all the prayers chosen by Pe. Nuno.
Fr. Elias is the former rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe envisioned by Cardinal R. Burke, and he is a priest of the Knights of the Immaculata, and his love for living the consecration to Our Lady has been a great inspiration to our team as Fr. Mills has also taken the time out of his busy schedule to help our teams help our followers finish this 33-day consecration Advent journey. He has shared his notes about Consecration Day via the spirituality of St. Maximillian Kolbe and these will be available very soon as today is Day 33!
Thanks, Fr. Elias!
If you missed his video, here it is:
P.S. Here is the sample of the Rosary handout designed by the World Youth Day group with the Spiritual Direction of Padre Nuno.
This Digital Toolkit design was imagined by Gustavo, Nuno and Tomé and it is used every First Sunday before the Holy Mass as a Solemn Rosary.
All the prayers model the format prayed at the Chapel of the Apparitions at the Shrine in Fatima, Portugal.
Padre Nuno has also added the “Meu Deus”, as well as the prayer taught to St. Catherine Labouré in Paris, France every decade with the Fatima prayer taught to the 3 children of Fatima in 1917 by Our Lady of the Rosary.
Padre Nuno also includes the Litany after the Salve Regina as well as the Consecration to Our Lady which is a prayer that is recited after every single Rosary in his city and generally is the case throughout the Archdiocese of Braga and other major city centre parishes in Portugal.
The 33-day consecration journey has featured all three sets of mysteries as curated by Padre Nuno, with the meditations by St. Louis Marie de Montfort and scripture, just translated to English. We’d like to thank Fr. Elias Mary Mills for recording all the Fatima prayers in English for our listeners so they can learn them in English and then in Portuguese.
These we hope will be available in 2024 when our technology is back up and running.
Here is page 1 and 2 as imagined by the World Youth Day Youth Group presenting Fr. Nuno’s prayer cycle for the Rosary before the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Tomorrow, this Rosary will be prayed by his Catechesis classes with all the children guiding the parish in the prayer of the Rosary:
and
If you have a youth group who returned from World Youth Day and wishes to find a new way to give back to the community, invite them to borrow this set of meditations from Padre Nuno’s youth group, and perhaps ask if they might be inspired to create their own Digital Toolkit (with the pastor’s spiritual direction) and to pick one Sunday a month to lead a future perpetual Sunday Rosary before the Mass in 2024!
Thanks to Tomé, Zé, Gustavo, Nuno and Maria for inspiring our readers around the world in 24 countries to pray the Rosary every day.
Read about their story of JMJ (World Youth Day) soon via oterco.substack.com.
P.S. Here is an idea:
make a poster for your Rosary and invite others to pray it together by putting up a sign at the front door! Let’s get people to the mass 30-40 minutes beforehand to pray the Rosary together and prepare our hearts for Christ who comes to us every single mass where His mother, Our Lady, stands beside Him, waiting for us to adore Him and give our Hearts to Him!
If you require some help explaining the Rosary to youth on Christmas Day, use Fr. Anthony’s video here:
If you wish to teach the prayers of the Rosary in English, please invite youth to learn the prayers via Fr. Peter Turrone’s video here:
33-DAY CONSECRATION JOURNEY FINISHES TODAY!
We’ll be posting Day-33 to the 33 Day consecration journey very very soon! Thank you for your patience! Day 34 will go up tomorrow.
Participants can conduct the consecration in the morning, afternoon, or even as late as tomorrow evening OR at 11:59 / midnight (24+ hours from now) or any time Dec 25th if preferred.
We’d like to thank Fr. Elias Mary Mills who took the time to support our teams (Children’s Rosary and the Rosary Hour podcast) and help us to figure out how to end this consecration!
CONSECRATION IN LATIN:
He has shared the following consecration for our 33-day consecration newsletter - this was composed by: St. Maximillian Kolbe. He has provided the Latin as well, here:
O Immaculata, coeli et terrae Regina, refugium peccatorum et Mater nostra amorosissima, Tu cui Deus totum ordinem misericordiae committi voluit, ego N.N. indignus peccator, ad pedes Tuos me provolvo suppliciter petens, ut me totum et totaliter tamquam rem et proprietatem Tuam assumere et de me, de omnibus potentiis animae et corporis, de tota vita, morte et aeternitate mea,
quidquid Tibi magis placet facere digneris. Utaris etiam, si hoc Tibi placet, me toto et totaliter ad hoc quod deTe dictum est: “Ipsa conteret caput tuum” (Gen 3:15) et “Cunctas haereses sola interemisti in universo mundo” (Officium BMV) exsequendum, ut in Tua immaculata et misericordissima manu aptum sim instrumentum ad gloriam Tuam in tot deviatis ac tepidis animis introducendam et quam maxime augmendandam et ita dulcissimum Regnum S[acratissi]mi Cordis Iesu quam maxime extendendum, ubi enim Tu intras ibi et gratiam conversionis et sanctificationis impetras, per Tuas enim manus omnes ad nos gratiae ex Corde Sacratissimo Iesu perveniunt.V. Dignare me laudare Te Virgo sacrata.
R. Da mihi virtutem contra hostes Tuos.
We’ll post the info today and tomorrow via several sites. Please Click below to link to the site itself theholyrosary.substack.com!
COMING SOON:
"What is Charity?" Lucio's Street Patrol in Toronto, Canada lives the 2nd Joyful Mystery on December 23 at 6:30 PM: tonight pilgrims with sandwiches & warm socks meet the homeless before Christmas Eve