Love One Another as I Have Loved You

In a February multinational study published in the Journal of Religion and Health, researchers from Italy, Poland, and Spain surveyed 361 practicing Catholics to learn how praying the Rosary affected their mental and spiritual well-being.

“The study of benefits linked to meditation and prayer has provided a considerable amount of empirical evidence revealing their positive influence on health, coping, resilience and flourishing,” an abstract from the research read.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Feast day: June 27

Patroness of the Republic of Haiti and Almoradi, Spain

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and Our Mother of Perpetual Help is the title given to a 15th-century icon that originated in the Keras Kardiotissas Monastery and has been in Rome since 1499. Due to the promotion of the image by the Redemptorist Priests since 1865 many reproductions have been made and venerated.

Here is a list of the meaning of some of the elements of the icon:

• Mary’s eyes, filled with compassion and love, are directed toward us.

• Our Lady is clothed in the colors of virgins (red) and of mothers (blue). These are also royal colors.

• The star on Mary’s veil reminds us that she is the dawn announcing the coming of Christ.

• The Christ Child grasps his mother’s hand as though he is frightened by what he sees.

• In His hurry to reach his mother, Jesus has almost lost one of his sandals. He became human, like us, in all things but sin.

• On Our Lady’s left and right, we see the reasons for the child’s fear. On the right is the Archangel Gabriel, holding a cross and four nails. On the left is the Archangel Michael, holding a lance and a gall-sop of Christ’s Passion. This vision of the instruments of the crucifixion has driven the young Jesus to his mother’s protective embrace.

"Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through— we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize— “God has strengthened me and I didn’t even know it!”"

~ Oswald Chambers

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”

‭‭—1 Peter‬ ‭4:12-16‬ ‭(ESV‬‬)

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"...Surely she must be the Mother of God if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and she gave birth to him!" - #SaintCyrilofAlexandria