Stolen and Recovered (Catholic Caucus)

ncr ^ | June 20, 2009 | Joseph Albino

[NYer]

According to legend, a Roman merchant of the late 15th century who traded on the island of Crete stole a miraculous icon from one of the churches there and brought it back to his home.

On his deathbed, the merchant gave the icon to a friend and asked him to donate it to a local church. However, the friend’s wife fell in love with the icon and insisted on keeping it in their home. Subsequently, the friend also died without having given the icon to a church.

At a later date, the woman’s 6-year-old daughter had a vision. The Blessed Mother told her to tell her mother and grandmother that she wanted the icon placed within a church called St. Matthew’s on the street between the Basilica of Mary Major and the Basilica of John Lateran.

The mother wavered. Her daughter became ill and repeated the message. When the icon was placed in St. Matthew’s on March 27, 1499, the daughter recovered her health. At St. Matthew’s, the icon would be venerated for the following 300 years.

Today the icon — Our Lady of Perpetual Help — is enshrined in the neo-Gothic Church of St. Alphonsus on the Esquiline in Rome, named for St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori (1696-1787), founder of the Redemptorist Order. But the church is popularly known by the many pilgrims who flock to it as the Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

June 27 is the feast day of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

There was a time when the icon was missing, its location forgotten. From 1739 to 1798, St. Matthew’s and an adjacent monastery were run by Irish Augustinians who had been exiled from Ireland. However, when Napoleon and his army took over Rome, the Augustinians removed the icon to another of their churches: Santa Maria on the Via della Conciliazione in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. St. Matthew’s church and monastery were subsequently destroyed during the war.

When the Redemptorists came to Rome in January 1855, they purchased the land on which the original St. Matthew’s had stood. In 1869, they built the Church of St. Alphonsus on the Esquiline. The church is adjacent to the general house of the Redemptorist fathers, where the father general of the order and his consultants live.

A Jesuit Helps

On Feb. 7, 1863, a famous Jesuit, Father Francesco Blosi, was preaching at the Church of the Gesù and made an appeal. Father Blosi said if anyone knew the whereabouts of the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, it should be returned, restored and made available for public devotion. Father Blosi pointed out that the icon had been in the former St. Matthew’s on Via Merulana and had been called the Virgin of St. Matthew and the Virgin of Perpetual Help.

During the same time period, the chronicler of the Redemptorists discovered written references to St. Matthew’s, which had housed an icon of the Mother of God known for “great veneration and fame for its miracles.”

Listening to Father Blosi’s appeal was Father Michael Marchi, a Redemptorist who had been an altar boy at the Church of Santa Maria near the Vatican. He recalled that the icon had been moved to that church by the Augustinians when Napoleon arrived on the scene. The location of the icon had also been pointed out to him by an Augustinian brother.

When the icon was rediscovered in 1865, Pope Pius IX gave it to the Redemptorists, who had requested the icon so that it could once again be located in a church between St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. On June 23, 1867, the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was crowned by the dean of the Vatican chapter, officially recognizing that the Marian icon had been rescued from oblivion.

Pius also gave the Redemptorists a directive to spread devotion throughout the world to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. However, the Redemptorists are more inclined to say that it was Our Lady who took the Redemptorists around the world in order to spread the devotion.

In Rome, pictures that are considered to be miraculous are usually crowned, and on the icon both the Blessed Mother and the Child Jesus were crowned at some point after the icon arrived in Rome. In addition, the Redemptorists added a precious stone to the neckband of Our Lady. However, in 1990, the Vatican Museum and the University of Rome undertook a general restoration of the icon and removed both the crowns and jewel in order to return the icon to its original appearance.

The icon, which is about 21 inches by 16 inches, has a prominent place above the tabernacle. In 1995, the icon, which is painted on willow wood, underwent another restoration and was re-exposed in a simple setting of bronze and gold. It has been placed in a controlled atmosphere, and there are metal supports to protect the wood from bending.

Focal Points

The icon has features that are particular to icons made in Crete, such as the halo around Our Lady’s head. It is one of a family of about 20 icons called the Virgin of the Passion, most of them from Crete.

There are two focal points to the icon. One is the eyes of Our Lady, which seem to follow the viewer; the other is the hands of the Christ Child grasping his Mother’s hand. The usual explanation given for the icon is that Christ is shown his forthcoming passion by the two archangels, who have in their hands the instruments of Our Lord’s passion. Frightened by a view of his future passion, the child leaps into the lap of his mother, and, in the process, one of his slippers falls off. One foot is turned up, symbolic of Christ’s humanity.

A more biblical explanation for the slipper falling off is the Old Testament custom of throwing a sandal onto a field to reclaim property. Because humanity, fallen as a result of original sin, needed to be brought back to God, the fallen slipper is a symbol of redemption.

In the church, behind the icon, is a triptych mosaic of three relatively large figures of the Holy Family. The Blessed Mother is pictured on one side. On the other side St. Joseph is pictured adoring the Christ Child. The painting is unique because Christ is painted after the resurrection, with his bodily wounds evident.

Many groups arrive with their own priests who say Mass at the shrine. A perpetual novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help takes place in English Thursday afternoons at 5 p.m. This draws a number of Filipinos who work in Rome because the devotion is popular in the Philippines. Following the novena, 100 to 200 Filipinos enjoy a social meeting in an adjacent hall.

Poles in Rome also flock here for devotion to the icon on Sunday mornings, which is preceded by 9:30 a.m. Mass in Polish.

The Choir of St. Alphonsus, including laypeople and Redemptorists, sings at the Sunday Masses and on special feast days. Both the Polish and the Filipinos have their own choirs.

Joseph Albino writes

from Syracuse, New York.

The Church of St. Alphonsus on the Esquiline

Santuario Del Perpetuo Soccorso

Via Merulana 31

00185 Rome, Italy

011-39- 06-49490689

Omph-Roma.org

[NYer]

Oh Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke your powerful name, the protection of the living and the salvation of the dying. Purest Mary, let your name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, Blessed Lady, to rescue me whenever I call on you. In my temptations, in my needs, I will never cease to call on you, ever repeating your sacred name, Mary, Mary. What a consolation, what sweetness, what confidence fills my soul when I utter your sacred name or even only think of you! I thank the Lord for having given you so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely uttering your name. Let my love for you prompt me ever to hail you Mother of Perpetual Help. Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for me and grant me the favor I confidently ask of you.
(Then say three Hail Marys).

[Salvation]

Some strong testimony in this story. Wow!

[Salvation]

Vultus Christi

Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help

By

Father Mark

 on June 27, 2009 6:45 AM |

Introit

Rejoice we all in the Lord,
as we keep festival in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
whose solemnity makes angels joyful
and sets them praising the Son of God.
V. Joyful the thoughts that well up from my heart,
I shall speak of the works of the King (Ps 44:2).

Gaudeamus is a magnificent festal chant originally composed for the virgin martyr Saint Agatha, and then adapted to other occasions. It is used on a number of other feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, making it familiar enough to be sung with a certain jubilant ease. The gentle balancing of the first mode melody evokes the ceaseless, sweeping joys of the heavenly liturgy celebrated by "the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands" (Ap 5:11). The verse, drawn from Psalm 44, the exuberant messianic wedding song, is placed in the mouth of the Church, the Bride of Christ, as she declares the wonders wrought through the intercession of the Virgin Mother of Perpetual Help.
Collect

Lord Jesus Christ, by whose gift Mary Thy Mother,
that Mary whose glorious image we revere,
is our Mother too, and ready at all times to succour us,
we pray Thee grant that we,
who earnestly beg her maternal help,
may be counted worthy to reap through all eternity
the fruit of Thy redeeming work.
Thou who art God living and reigning with God the Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
forever and ever.

As are many liturgical prayers of recent composition, the Collect is addressed to Christ rather than to the Father. Orations addressed to the Son are exceptional in the Roman liturgy; in the East they are the norm. While it is not traditional to direct the Collect to the Son in the classic Roman liturgy, there are moments when it can be quite fitting to do so. The feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help may be one of those moments.

The Collect refers straightaway to the gift of the Virgin Mary's motherhood extended to every disciple of her Son, the very mystery that will be evoked in the Gospel; and to the veneration of her glorious image. It acknowledges that Mary is perpetually ready to help us, and asks that, through her motherly power, we may reap through all eternity the fruit of Christ's redemption. The last phrase is certainly an allusion to the charism of the Redemptorists, custodians of the miraculous icon and, in the tradition of Saint Alphonsus, tireless preachers of Mary's universal mediation and inexhaustible clemency.

Reading (Ecclesiasticus 24:23-31)

As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour:
and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches.
I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.
In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.
Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits.
For my spirit is sweet above honey,
and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.
My memory is unto everlasting generations.
They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst.
He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded:
and they that work by me, shall not sin.
They that explain me shall have life everlasting.

I so regret that the reformed liturgy uses this text so sparingly in the context of Marian feasts. It is quoted by all the great Marian doctors and mystics. It articulates the ineffable experience of those who, having consecrated themselves to Mary, found themselves inwardly changed. The very last line is a promise to those who promote the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and explain its significance.

Gradual

All lovely and gentle art thou,
daughter of Sion;
beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
terrible as an army drawn up for battle (Ct 6:3,9).
V. What blessing the power of the Lord hath granted thee,
making use of thee to bring our enemies to nothing (Jud 13:22).

The Gradual artfully juxtaposes two traditional Marian texts. In the Canticle of Canticles the Church sees her as lovely, gentle, beautiful, radiant and . . . terrible as an army drawn up for battle. The imagery is related to that of the "woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Ap 12:1). The verse from the book of Judith says that it has pleased God to grant Mary a singular blessing, that of bringing our enemies to nothing. Again, this reflects the experiece of the Church through the ages, as well as the intimate experience of the saints who, in the thick of spiritual combat, had recourse to Mary and prevailed over the powers of darkness.

Alleluia

Alleluia, alleluia.
V. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou among women (Lk 1:28).
Alleluia.

The Alleluia Verse repeats the salutation of the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation at Nazareth; but here the words of the Angel serve to introduce another annunciation, the words of Jesus from the Cross on Calvary.

Gospel (John 19:25-27)

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen.
When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved,
he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son.
After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother.
And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.

The words of Our Lord to His beloved disciple, "Behold thy mother," are an invitation to contemplate Mary. In the context of today's feast of the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Perpetual Help, the words of the Crucified invite us to behold our Mother as she is depicted in her miraculous image. "And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own" (Jn 19:27). Wheresoever the image of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is given a place of honour, Mary herself is welcomed and received there. It has been said that there is scarcely a family in Ireland without an image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I have heard similar reports coming from the Philippines and from Haiti. When families, communities, and individuals welcome an image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in their homes, they are, in effect, imitating the Apostle Saint John. The presence of the icon expresses a spiritual desire to abide with Mary and to remain beneath her gaze in an attitude of total consecration to her.

Offertory

Remember, O Virgin Mother,
where thou standest before the face of God,
to plead on our behalf,
and to avert His anger from us (Jer 18:20).

The Church lifts this text directly from the prophet Jeremiah and, in the liberty that comes from the Holy Spirit, addresses it to the Virgin Mother. The antiphon acknowledges that Mary stands before the face of God to plead on our behalf: a clear allusion to her role as Mediatrix and Advocate. As Mediatrix, Mary participates in the work of her risen and ascended Son; as Advocate, she participates in the work of the Holy Spirit. We ask her to plead on our behalf that, in spite of our sins, the anger of God may be turned away from us.

Secret

By thy gracious mercy, O Lord,
and at the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary,
let this offering bring us prosperity and peace,
now and forevermore.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son,
Who is God, living and reigning with Thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
forever and ever.

Here the gracious mercy of God and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin meet. The Most Holy Eucharist is the fulfillment of what God, in His mercy, seeks to give us, and of what Mary, in her maternal solicitide, seeks to obtain for us: prosperity and peace.

Communion

Most worthy Queen of the world,
O Mary ever-virgin,
who didst bear Christ, the Lord and Saviour of us all,
intercede for our peace and salvation.

It is unusual that a Communion Antiphon should be addressed to the Mother of God. Here the Church calls her "most worthy Queen of the world" and "Mary ever-virgin who didst bear Christ, the Lord and Saviour of us all." All who partake of the Sacred Mysteries become, with Mary, bearers of Christ, the Lord and Saviour of all. The peace and salvation for which we ask Mary's intercession, are given us sacramentally in Holy Communion.

Postcommunion

May the august intercession
of Thy immaculate and ever-virgin Mother Mary help us,
we beseech Thee, O Lord,
that through her lovingkindness,
we, upon whom she has heaped lasting benefits,
may be freed from every peril
and made one in heart and mind.
Thou who art God, living and reigning with the Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
forever and ever.

This prayer alludes to the countless favours attributed to Our Mother of Perpetual Help. She has, in fact, "heaped lasting benefits" on those devoted to her. She continues to do so. We ask that we may be freed from the perils that threaten our souls and bodies, and we pray that the full effect of the Most Holy Eucharist be given us, that is: oneness in heart and mind.

The Redemptorists offer the Mass of Our Lady of Perpetual Help as celebrated in the current reformed liturgy here.