Archbishop Carlson ordains 8 Priests this Summer
Archbishop Carlson ordains 8 Priests this Summer
From Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis:
Archive for the ‘Culture of Life’ Category
Catechesis on the 5th Commandment
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010Nat’l. Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima to visit St. Mary, Salem on Monday, June 28, 2010
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Monday, June 28th – Visit of the National Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima to St. Mary Church in Salem:
The National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of the USA is a lovely hand-carved Image of Our Lady of Fatima given to our country by the Bishop of Fatima in 1967 and crowned by Cardinal O’Boyle in the National Basilica in Washington, DC in 1971. The Statue was blessed by Pope Paul VI during his visit to Fatima in 1967.
The statue will be received in Salem before the 8:15am Mass on Monday, June 28th, and remain in the church throughout the day for veneration and prayer. At 12 Noon, the Rosary of Our Lady will be prayed, with a short talk by Mr. Bill Sockey. At 5:30pm, a Latin Mass in the Extraordinary Form will be celebrated, followed by Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. At 7:00pm, a talk on Our Lady of Fatima will be given by Mr. Bill Sockey, who travels the United States with the National Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima Statue. Light refreshments will be served in the lobby of the school follwoing this evening talk.
Please mark your calendars for this special opportunity given to our parish and arranged by Msgr. Charles Mangan, Director of the Marian Apostolate for Sioux Falls. For more information on the National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, you may go to:
http://www.wafusa.org/statue_tours/statue_tours.html
Bishop Aquila on the CHA USA, etc.
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
BISHOP AQUILA OF FARGO ON THE CATHOLIC HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATION U.S.A.:
Self-described Catholic groups who endorsed the health care bill despite objections “severely damaged” the common good and diluted the pro-life witness of the U.S. bishops and the Catholic faithful, asserted Bishop Samuel J. Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota in a recent statement.
Bishop Aquila said it was “truly tragic” that some “so-called ‘Catholic’ groups” came out in support of the legislation.
“The Catholic Health Association (CHA), Catholics United and some small groups of religious orders have supported the Act,” the bishop explained. “In recent days, most sadly of all, these groups have received gratitude from pro-abortion forces.”
These groups, Bishop Aquila stressed, acted “in direct contradiction to the bishops” who are the “guardians” of authentic Christian teaching.
“The actions of these groups have betrayed the common good, undermined the teaching authority of the Church, and have disregarded the courageous witness by the Bishops and the many millions of faithful Catholics to the gift and dignity of human life,” he continued. “We now face the reality of severe damage to the common good by the expansion of abortion throughout our land because of the counter-witness of these groups.”
Additionally, the bishop said, these groups and some Catholic legislators and laity have “weakened the bonds of communion” within the Church and diluted “her witness to justice for all, from the moment of conception until natural death.”
He then reported that the groups’ influence was evident in North Dakota, whose U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy cited the encouragement of “Catholic nuns” to defend his vote for the legislation.
Bishop Aquila lamented that some Catholics are “more faithful to their political parties and ideological beliefs than to the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Church.”
“Rather than being a leaven in their respective party and in society for the good, by ignoring the primacy of the truths of our Catholic faith, they pave the way for secularism and a culture of death.”
Speaking about the effects of the health care reform bill itself, the bishop said although it seeks to expand access to health care especially for the poor and uninsured, at the same time it “allows for the violation of the sacredness of human life” by expanding federal funding for abortion.
“As Catholics, we cannot support something which helps some people while, at the same time, allows and funds, in part, the destruction of the most innocent among us, the unborn, and does not provide adequate conscience protection for those who are pro-life,” he added.
The executive order purporting to apply Hyde Amendment restrictions to the legislation “falls short,” in the bishop’s view, as its efforts to address shortcomings are “highly likely” to be legally invalid.
“The legal and policy advisors of the U.S. Catholic Bishops have noted the executive order cannot and does not fix the statutory problems of funding abortion, it cannot and does not make up for the absence of conscience protections that are missing from the statute, and it does not strengthen existing conscience protections,” he explained.
Bishop Aquila’s statement concluded by calling for Catholics to “remain steadfast” in witnessing to the human dignity of the unborn child and to the need for conscience protections for pro-life medical professionals and institutions.
Bishop Tobin of Providence, RI and Bishop Brandt of Greensburg, PA take actions against religious Sisters and Catholic Health Association over stand on health reform
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010WASHINGTON (CNS) — At least two U.S. bishops have taken actions to indicate their disapproval of the support some women’s religious communities and the Catholic Health Association gave to the final version of health care reform legislation. Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt of Greensburg, Pa., has directed diocesan offices, parishes and the diocesan newspaper not to promote the “vocation awareness program of any religious community” that was a signatory to a letter urging members of the House of Representatives to pass the health reform bill. In Providence, R.I., Bishop Thomas J. Tobin asked the Catholic Health Association to remove the diocesan-sponsored St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island from its membership rolls, saying that CHA leadership had “misled the public and caused serious scandal” by supporting health reform legislation that the bishops opposed. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was against the measure because its provisions on abortion funding and conscience protections were morally unacceptable. When the bill passed, the bishops reiterated their decades-long support for providing access to health care for all but expressed regret that health care reform came with the possibility of expanded abortion funding and urged vigilance that an executive order by President Barack Obama would, as promised, ensure no federal funds will be spent on abortion. Some Catholic groups reacted with enthusiasm to the passage of health reform and Obama’s executive order, and others said the order would have no effect on abortion funding.
Lives of Unwanted Especially Sacred
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Archbishop Carlson at Communion in St. Peter's, Rome
Archbishop Carlson at Communion in St. Peter's, Rome
The Archbishop’s Column (from the Catholic Review)
January 13, 2010
by The Most Rev. Robert J. Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis
Have you ever felt unwanted? It’s a horrible feeling that strikes at the heart of your soul. Rejection is always painful, but to be rejected for who you are is perhaps the most painful experience a human being can have.
When I was in grade school, we played games where two boys representing the leaders of opposing teams would take turns choosing their teammates. I was never the first boy chosen, but I also wasn’t the last. I wonder how that boy felt? Did he wonder why he wasn’t good enough? Did he feel guilty or angry or ashamed? As awful as it must have been to be the last boy chosen, he at least got to play with us. He wasn’t totally rejected (even if we didn’t know how to make him feel really wanted).
What about the boys and girls who were never chosen at all — the unborn, the handicapped, the homeless children who couldn’t go to school?
In his encyclical “Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life),” Pope John Paul II writes, “By his incarnation, the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every human being. This saving event reveals to humanity not only the boundless love of God … but also the incomparable value of every human person” (“Evangelium Vitae,” #2).
Every human life is sacred. Every person is a child of God who possesses incomparable dignity and worth, no matter his or her state in life or personal gifts and talents. Regardless of who we are; what our background is; the state of our physical, emotional or mental health; our accomplishments; our race, religion or cultural heritage; our age; or our social status; every individual human being is precious in the sight of God and should also be valuable in the eyes of fellow human beings.
No one is unwanted by God. His love embraces all. Think for a moment of the power of that statement. Can it really be true that the God who made the universe in all its vastness and complexity knows and loves each and every one of us, including (or perhaps especially) those of us who have been rejected by parents, families, communities or society as a whole?
Can it really be true that God sees in us (all of us, everyone of us) something that is worth more than we can possible imagine — something that far exceeds silver or gold, power or prestige, fame or fortune?
Yes!
Every human is wanted by God because every person has been given the gift of life. This gift is a share in God’s own being that is more precious than anything we can possibly imagine. Life itself is the treasure given to us by God to be nurtured and protected and shared generously with others. Nothing on earth is more valuable than human life. That’s why deliberately taking a human life by murder, abortion, euthanasia, infanticide or any other means is such a grave sin. God alone gives life and only He can take it back again.
No one is unwanted by God. That’s why we reverence all life, why we help the handicapped and care for the infirm and the elderly, why we encourage and assist women with unplanned pregnancies through the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Fund and why we speak out forcefully against all attempts to treat society’s unwanted human beings as somehow less valuable than they truly are in the sight of God.
No one is unwanted in God’s family. We don’t always show it as clearly as we should, but all are welcome. All are valued. All are members of the Body of Christ, the Church.
All life is sacred — especially those who feel unwanted or who have been rejected by the unjust, unloving and inhuman laws, policies and social practices of this and every other age.
As Pope John Paul taught us, “Even in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every person sincerely open to truth and goodness can … come to recognize … the sacred value of human life from the very beginning until its end, and can affirm the right of every human being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree. Upon the recognition of this right, every human community and political community itself are founded” (“Evangelium Vitae,” #2).
When God chooses His team, everyone is first. No one has to wonder, “Does God really want me?” God wants everyone. That means He wants you and me, and every human being who has ever lived, and everyone who is yet to be conceived.
“Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice, and cleaving to Him; for that means life to you and length of days” (Dt 30:16, 19-20).
Feast of the Holy Innocents
Monday, December 28th, 2009
COLLECT: Let us pray. O God, Whose praise the martyred innocents did this day proclaim, not by speaking, but by dying, put to death in all of us the malice of sinfulness that our lives may also proclaim Thy faith, which our tongues profess. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
From Saint Matthew 2,13-18: And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him. Who arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod: That it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry: and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
A PRAYER FOR YOUTH by the Venerable Pope Pius XII:
SEND FORTH, O LORD, Your divine Spirit, the distributor of gifts, the gentle guest of the soul and its sweet rest, on these young people, fresh and pure as tender roses when in the early morning they offer their delicate perfume and the bright color of their petals, just burst from the bud, to the sun as it bathes them in light and warmth.
O God of goodness, if in Your infinite wisdom You decide not to spare them pain, if You see that they have need of this initiation, this purification, this refining crucible, this proof of patience, this enlightenment of the spirit, this sign of human solidarity, this touchstone of love, then at least grant them the abundance of Your grace to sustain their trusting souls; strengthen them in danger; and reassure them in the uncertainties of the way. Grant that by their virtue they may always be the consolation and the joy of their parents and teachers, an example to all of a manifestly Christian life.
Direct them toward those ideals of tenderness and compassion, of prayer and action, of charity and sacrifice, which the admirable designs of Your providence have planned for them. And after You have bestowed on them the necessary but transient goods of earth, give to their souls, longing for You, O Lord, the imperishable goods of heaven, where You are the light and the infinite happiness of souls for all ages. Amen.
(Translated by the Reverend Martin W. Schoenberg, O.S.C., 1957)
Prayer of the Holy Childhood
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
PRAYER OF THE HOLY CHILDHOOD
by the Venerable Pope Pius XII
O JESUS, You were born a tiny baby so that all children may feel You are their brother and know that You love them. Behold us from all over the world, gathered around You, to tell You today with one voice that we love You and want to resemble You in our minds, our hearts, and our lives.
You draw us to Yourself and how we appreciate Your invitation.
You open wide Your arms and how happy we are to rest on Your bosom.
But all Your little ones, dear Jesus, are not here.
The greater number of those born with us do not know You as yet. They do not know that You are looking for them, that You are waiting for them, that You ask those who love You to give themselves as the gift most pleasing to You and most desired by You.
We pray for them, Jesus, as we pray for ourselves.
Grant that the good news of Your coming and of Your kingdom may reach them in all corners of the world.
Grant that to Your name, O Jesus, there may resound everywhere the Hosanna sung in Your honor by the children of Jerusalem on the day of Your triumph. And may our tongues, made eloquent by You, restore to You, our brother, our friend, and our master, the praise which the pride of men denies You.
Amen.
(Translated by the Reverend Martin W. Schoenberg, O.S.C., 1957)
A Christmas Day Prayer to Christ the Newborn Savior, the Way, the Truth and the Life
Friday, December 25th, 2009
Praise to You, Lord God!
You have become one of us — You have become man, while still retaining all your power and holiness as God!
You, O Lord, made the journey of the unborn child. By being an embryo, a fetus, and a newborn, you joined all unborn and newborn children to you!
From the beginning of history, O Lord, You were the Creator of every human life. Now, with Christmas, You join Yourself in an unthinkable way with the life You created.
Let this Christmas, O God, fill all of us with awe and wonder at how close human life is to You. Cleanse the world of all that tarnishes and rejects this gift. Purify our hearts of all that fears this gift.
Let our Christmas joy be the joy of welcoming every human life! Amen.
by Father Frank Pavone, Founder of Priests for Life: www.priestsforlife.org
Please note: The above holy card is a copy of one very much loved by St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. The first line of the Latin beneath the picture (There is no savior beside me) is taken from Hosea 13:4: But I am the Lord thy God [Who brought you] from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt know no God but me, and there is no savior beside me.
Dec. 12: Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Tomorrow morning at 10:00am, a Sung Mass (Usus Antiquior) will be celebrated at St. Mary Church, Salem for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness/Empress of the Americas and of the Culture of Life.
The Proper of the Mass can be found here: Proper of the Mass: Our Lady of Guadalupe
HE HAS NOT done this for any other nation…. (Ps. 147:2; Comm Ant)
“My little son, there are many I could send. But you are the one I have chosen” (Our Lady to St. Juan Diego at Guadalupe, 1531).
FROM CATHOLIC CULTURE: The opening of the New World brought with it both fortune-seekers and religious preachers desiring to convert the native populations to the Christian faith. One of the converts was a poor Aztec Indian named Juan Diego. On one of his trips to the chapel, Juan was walking through the Tepayac hill country in central Mexico. Near Tepayac Hill he encountered a beautiful woman surrounded by a ball of light as bright as the sun. Speaking in his native tongue, the beautiful lady identified herself:
“My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am. I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains its existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is Lord of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church in this place where your people may experience my compassion. All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and in their sorrows will know my Mother’s Heart in this place. Here I will see their tears; I will console them and they will be at peace. So run now to Tenochtitlan and tell the Bishop all that you have seen and heard.”
Juan, age 57, and who had never been to Tenochtitlan, nonetheless immediately responded to Mary’s request. He went to the palace of the Bishop-elect Fray Juan de Zumarraga and requested to meet immediately with the bishop. The bishop’s servants, who were suspicious of the rural peasant, kept him waiting for hours. The bishop-elect told Juan that he would consider the request of the Lady and told him he could visit him again if he so desired. Juan was disappointed by the bishop’s response and felt himself unworthy to persuade someone as important as a bishop. He returned to the hill where he had first met Mary and found her there waiting for him. Imploring her to send someone else, she responded:
She then told him to return the next day to the bishop and repeat the request. On Sunday, after again waiting for hours, Juan met with the bishop who, on re-hearing his story, asked him to ask the Lady to provide a sign as a proof of who she was. Juan dutifully returned to the hill and told Mary, who was again waiting for him there, of the bishop’s request. Mary responded:
”My little son, am I not your Mother? Do not fear. The Bishop shall have his sign. Come back to this place tomorrow. Only peace, my little son.”
Unfortunately, Juan was not able to return to the hill the next day. His uncle had become mortally ill and Juan stayed with him to care for him. After two days, with his uncle near death, Juan left his side to find a priest. Juan had to pass Tepayac Hill to get to the priest. As he was passing, he found Mary waiting for him. She spoke:
“Do not be distressed, my littlest son. Am I not here with you who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Your uncle will not die at this time. There is no reason for you to engage a priest, for his health is restored at this moment. He is quite well. Go to the top of the hill and cut the flowers that are growing there. Bring them then to me.”
While it was freezing on the hillside, Juan obeyed Mary’s instructions and went to the top of the hill where he found a full bloom of Castilian roses. Removing his tilma, a poncho-like cape made of cactus fiber, he cut the roses and carried them back to Mary. She rearranged the roses and told him:
”Call me and call my image Santa Maria de Guadalupe”.
It’s believed that the word Guadalupe was actually a Spanish mis-translation of the local Aztec dialect. The word that Mary probably used was Coatlallope which means “one who treads on snakes”! Within six years of this apparition, six million Aztecs had converted to Catholicism. The tilma shows Mary as the God-bearer – she is pregnant with her Divine Son. Since the time the tilma was first impressed with a picture of the Mother of God, it has been subject to a variety of environmental hazards including smoke from fires and candles, water from floods and torrential downpours and, in 1921, a bomb which was planted by anti-clerical forces on an altar under it. There was also a cast-iron cross next to the tilma and when the bomb exploded, the cross was twisted out of shape, the marble altar rail was heavily damaged and the tilma was…untouched! Indeed, no one was injured in the Church despite the damage that occurred to a large part of the altar structure.
In 1977, the tilma was examined using infrared photography and digital enhancement techniques. Unlike any painting, the tilma shows no sketching or any sign of outline drawn to permit an artist to produce a painting. Further, the very method used to create the image is still unknown. The image is inexplicable in its longevity and method of production. It can be seen today in a large cathedral built to house up to ten thousand worshipers. It is, by far, the most popular religious pilgrimage site in the Western Hemisphere.
PRAYERS ASKING OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE’S INTERCESSION:
I. PRAYER FOR ALL VICTIMS OF ABORTION
Holy Mother of God and of the Church, our Lady of Guadalupe, you were chosen by the Father for the Son through the Holy Spirit.
You are the Woman clothed with the sun who labors to give birth to Christ while Satan, the Red Dragon, waits to voraciously devour your child.
So too did Herod seek to destroy your Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and massacred many innocent children in the process.
So today does abortion killing many innocent unborn children and exploiting many mothers in its attack upon human life and upon the Church, the Body of Christ.
Mother of the Innocents, we praise God in you for His gifts to you of your Immaculate Conception, your freedom from actual sin; your fullness of grace, your Motherhood of God and the Church, your Perpetual Virginity and your Assumption in body and soul into heaven.
O Help of Christians, we beg you to protect all mothers of the unborn and the children within their wombs. We plead with you for your help to end the holocaust of abortion. Melt hearts so that life may be revered!
Holy Mother, we pray to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart for all mothers and all unborn children that they may have life here on earth and by the most Precious Blood shed by your Son that they may have eternal life with Him in heaven. We also pray to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart for all abortionists and all abortion supporters that they may be converted and accept your Son, Jesus Christ, as their Lord and Savior. Defend all of your children in the battle against Satan and all of the evil spirits in this present darkness.
We desire that the innocent unborn children who die without Baptism should be baptized and saved. We ask that you obtain this grace for them and repentance, reconciliation and pardon from God for their parents and their killers.
Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the infinite power of merciful love. May it put an end to evil. May it transform consciences. May your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of hope. May Christ the King reign over us, our families, cities, states, nations and the whole of humanity.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary, hear our pleas and accept this cry from our hearts!
II. PRAYER COMPOSED BY POPE ST. PIUS X
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mystical Rose, make intercession for the Holy Church, protect the Sovereign Pontiff, help all those who invoke thee in their necessities, and since thou art the ever Virgin Mary, and Mother of the True God, obtain for us from thy most holy Son the grace of keeping our faith, of sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life, of burning charity, and the precious gift of final perseverance. Amen.
(One Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father…in gratitude for the Miraculous Portrait as a continuing miracle and testimony.)
October 16: Feast of St. Gerard Majella
Friday, October 16th, 2009
St. Gerard Majellla
TODAY, Friday, October 16th, the optional memorial (in the new liturgical calendar) of St. Margaret Mary or St. Hedwig. It is also the feast of St. Gerard Majella in houses/churches of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. In these times when human life is so threatened, I annually offer the Mass of St. Gerard Majella because he is the patron of expectant mothers (along with St. Raymond of Nonnatus), and a patron of children, a good confession, and of those falsely accused.
St. Gerard Majella was born in Muro Lucano, Italy, on April 6, 1726, into a family of humble circumstances. From his parents Gerard learned the love of prayer and sacrifice. When his father died, Gerard, being the only son, had to provide for his family by working as a tailor. At the age of 14 he sought to enter the Capuchin friary but was rejected because of his poor health. After a short time as the domestic servant of the bishop of Lacedonia, he returned to tailoring but earned a minimal income.
In April 1749 after attending a Redemptorist mission in Muro, Gerard succeeded in getting himself accepted by the congregation. Following a trial period and a year of novitiate in the house at Deliceto, he professed religious vows on July 16, 1752. Gerard was noted for his observance of the Redemptorist rule, and collecting money for the material needs of the community. His presence to people who were weighed down by poverty and illiteracy was a sign of hope to them. Gerard had great empathy and testified to trust in the love and the compassion of God.
During his five years as a lay brother in the congregation, Gerard was remarkable for his apostolic zeal, patience in sickness, love for the poor, deep humility in the face of false accusation, heroic obedience, spirit of penance and constancy in prayer. He wrote numerous letters of spiritual direction. The Lord favored him with many spiritual gifts, including prophecy, the reading of people’s hearts, and the gifts of miracles. He died at Materdomini on October 16, 1755.
Gerard was beatified by Leo XII on January 29, 1893, and canonized by St. Pius X on December 11, 1904. He is invoked as patron of mothers, especially in time of pregnancy. Couples hoping to conceive a child also seek St. Gerard’s intercession.
The shrine of St. Gerard Majella is at the basilica in Materdomini, Italy.
For a more detailed biography of St. Gerard, go to: http://www.saintgerard.com/his_story_p1.html
For more information on the Saints and Blesseds of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists), go to: http://www.redemptorists.net/prayers-saints.cfm#4
For information on the National Shrine of St. Gerard, go to: http://www.saintlucy.net/saintgerard.htm
St. Gerard with the Poor
PRAYERS ASKING ST. GERARD’S INTERCESSION:
For Motherhood:
O good St. Gerard, powerful intercessor before the throne of God, wonder-worker of our day, I call upon you and seek your help. While on earth, you always fulfilled God’s designs; help me, too, always do God’s holy will. Beseech the master of life, from whom all parenthood proceeds, to bless me with offspring, that I may raise up children to God in this life and heirs to the kingdom of God’s glory in the life to come. Amen.
For Mother with Child:
O almighty and everlasting God, through the Holy Spirit, you prepared the body and soul of the glorious virgin Mary to be a worthy dwelling place of your divine Son. Through the same Holy Spirit, you sanctified St. John the Baptist, while still in his mother’s womb. Hear the prayers of your humble servant who implores you, through the intercession of St. Gerard, to protect me amid the dangers of childbearing and to watch over the child with which you blessed me. May this child be cleansed by the saving water of baptism and, after a Christian life on earth, may we, both mother and child, attain everlasting bliss in heaven. Amen.
St Gerard in Glory
