Saint Philomena The Wonder Worker (poem)

The king and queen no baby had;
They longed to be a mum and dad;
To pagan gods they prayed each day;
But still no baby came their way.

Then good advice was given them;
It proved to be a priceless gem;
Christians are what you should be;
Then a baby blessing;
You shall see!

When this was done;
The grace was granted;
And with little Philomena;
They were enchanted! 

When little Philomena had reached twelve years;
Bad news filled up their eyes with tears;
On their country small and poor;
The emperor of Rome;
declared a war !

Let’s go to Rome;
The King told wife and daughter;
To plead with the emperor;
to prevent this slaughter.

At the mighty
Emperor’s court;
They pleaded with him;
the war to abort.

The emperor had a new idea;
He said there’s nothing more to fear.
Give me your daughter;
To be my wife;
And I promise her;
A wonderful life! 

The offer took them
By surprise;
A refusal would mean;
Their country’s demise.

The king and queen were filled with gladness;
But Philomena was overcome by sadness.

To be a bride of Christ;
She’d already taken a vow;
No way would Philomena;
Let it be broken now. 
The answer was a steadfast no;
The emperor now his force would show! 

To the dungeon Philomena was deployed;
All manner of torture was employed;
It was all to no avail;
The emperor’s methods were doomed to fail.
Because God Himself defended her soul;
Philomena kept her eyes on her heavenly goal. 

The maiden Philomena;
Was strengthened by faith and grace;
Until the day she could behold;
God face to face.

Finally the maiden Philomena was beheaded;
And the onlookers wept;
For many centuries in the catacombs;
She silently slept.   

At last her relics were located;
And the excavators were elated;
When Philomena’s relics,
Were bought up to the ground;
Miracles started to abound !

Some folks thought that miracles;
Had stopped with the Bible;
With Philomena;
They had a revival.

The sneering cynics;
Who had announced God’s demise;
Were by Philomena’s miracles;
Dealt a surprise.

Saint Philomena’s fame;
Spread everywhere;
And people ran to her;
Pleading in prayer.

No one was forgotten;
No one was left out;
The cripples;
The dying;
The sad;
And the needy;
All of them found;
Her miracles speedy.
 
From heaven she surveys;
All of our needs;
And on our behalf;
With God she pleads. 

Say a prayer to Saint Philomena;
And light her a candle;
Because there is no problem;
That she cannot handle.

There’s one thing more;
We should not ignore;
From her grave of silent obscurity;
She has come back to teach us;
About goodness and purity. 

 by Mary Ann Matulis

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Mary’s habit – the Holy Scapular

He is not Dead, but Sleepeth.” 

In one of the most sanguinary battles of the Franco-Prussian war, during which so many died of their wounds that they were obliged to bury all the dead in a common grave, we have an instance of how wonderfully God watches over the faithful clients of His Blessed Mother. 

Among those who were lying on the field of battle, was a young officer, apparently dead, who was really only in a swoon, consequent on the sufferings produced by his wounds. The Colonel, seeing him in this condition, had hastened to find someone to assist in carrying him to a place of safety; but on his return, he found, to his distress, that the young man had already been borne away to be buried with numbers of his comrades. Greatly afflicted, he hurried to the place where the corpses were piled together, awaiting burial; but, alas! under such circumstances, it was almost impossible to distinguish the features of his friend, in spite of close examination, so disfigured were the bodies which lay before them. 

At last a sudden idea came into the Colonel’s mind, and he called out: “Examine the clothes, for my friend wore a Scapular, and a medal of the Immaculate Conception.” They did what he desired, and our Blessed Lady, guiding their search, they almost immediately found the young officer. He was then placed on a stretcher, and taken to hospital, where he received proper attention, and completely recovered his health.

It is needless to say that, as soon as he was able, he gave due thanks to our Immaculate Queen, who had stayed the awful fate which seemed in store for him.

Today is Mother’s Day

Our parish priest is on holidays and we have a retired priest filling in for the month.  At the end of the Vigil Mass last night, Father gave each mother present at the Mass, a signed card (for mother’s day) with the following quote of St Therese on it:

The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother. 

The card was decorated with roses. I was especially pleased because I have been praying to St Therese for a very important intention and that has given me encouragement regarding that matter. 

I know that Mother’s Day is a secular celebration and is also commercialized at that, but Anna Jarvis (the American lady)* who started it to honour her own mother never intended it to be that way. 

In this age where abortion has become so widespread, it does not hurt to give a genuine approach to mother’s day, recognizing the importance of mothers and babies. No pope, priest, layperson, scientist, king, queen, president**, teacher, tradesman, etc., ever got here without a mother*** yet mothers are so despised. They are supposed to go to hospital, get the baby out and turn up at their ‘real job’ in the office, in the parliament, on the board of executives etc. next week. 

Today is not only mother’s day, but it is also my own mother’s birthday. She has always liked the film: The Song of Bernadette, since it was first released in 1943 when she was a child, so I am giving her a DVD of that film. 

*Anna Jarvis was never a mother herself. (She never married). 

**President Obama your own mother Anne made sure you were born and grew up.  Let other babies be born and grown up. I send the same message to Hillary and to many other politicians and others around the world. 

***There are two exceptions to this. Adam and Eve never had an earthly mother, because they started out as adults with a lot going for them.