The Feast of Saint Valentine
February 14, 2010
There are three particular and critical issues that confront the faithful of our times, weighing on our hearts and challenging our faith. How can we hope for peace in a post 9/11 world? Why do we find ourselves looking away from the Cross of our Crucified Savior? What has happened to the priesthood and how can we help our beloved priests? Of course these are universal questions that could be asked in some form or another of many eras and generations, but in these times these questions seem to uniquely define our contemporary embrace of our one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic faith.
Mary’s House is heaven’s answer to these questions. And the Church has given Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey the title Foundress of Mary’s House. She is the one who God has chosen to give Mary’s House to the world, not only two hundred years ago but again today. Sister Marie’s fidelity to her vocation and God’s will in her life, particularly His invitation to find Mary’s House, never waivered. Heaven’s reply to the heartfelt questions of our time is Mary’s House which we have received through the charity and fidelity Sister Marie.
Sister Marie’s gift of Mary’s House brings hope for peace and a natural, almost effortless ecumenism by way of consecration to Jesus through Mary. Mary's House is a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality...Mary's Immaculate Heart. We are invited to enter in, and this simple act is an outward sign of an interior consecration to Mary. It is Sister Marie who points the way to Mary’s House and it is she who has opened the door.
In Mary’s House different faiths gather around Mary's hearth, Her Heart. Muslims and Christians pray side by side in peace as they come to honor Mary, a Jewish mother. Could this be the mission of Sister Marie in these times? Marian devotion across religious lines? It is this theme that serves the hope for peace through Our Lady’s intercession. Saint Louis de Montfort teaches us that when we say “Mary” she says “God.” In this Mary fulfills her role as mediatrix of all grace. The Blessed Mother brings her children together and prepares them for her Son. It is a fulfillment of Our Lady’s request at Fatima, and many other places, that all people be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. She asks this of us so she may bring us to Jesus, Lord and Savior.
Inter-faith dialogue is a necessary element of this effort. Our Holy Father has been on the forefront of this effort. Muslim clerics have also extended their hands to Christian leaders in an effort called A Common Word. For lay people it seems preferable to let the clerics dialogue while we pray in the peace and quiet of the Common Ground of Mary’s House; this side by side with Muslims, who out number Christian pilgrims to Mary’s House and who, with us, love and honor Mary. Even without physically visiting Mary’s House in Ephesus, Turkey, the faithful can “spiritually enter Mary’s House” in prayer and there join their prayers with all pilgrims for peace through the intercession of Mary. This is our hope for peace in a post 9/11 world.
The second critical issue of our time that Mary’s House addresses is a desperately needed and proper re-focus of the faithful on The Cross of Calvary. This will point us to the source and summit of our faith, the Holy Eucharist.
Mary’s House brings us back to the basics: God sent His Son to redeem the world. In a world that would prefer not to look upon the suffering Savior on the Cross, that would prefer only to think of the joys of the Resurrection, Mary’s House reminds us of how the Mother of God spent her days after Christ’s Ascension to the Father. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich tells us that the Blessed Mother walked and prayed the Stations of the Cross each day in tears. Not only did she pray them, she formed the Stations herself, carving symbols into rocks placed at intervals along a path behind her house in Ephesus. Mary suffered with Jesus. Her tears fell for us whom she embraced as her own children at the Foot of the Cross. That ground, the very first Stations of the Cross behind her House in Ephesus, is a uniquely holy place.
Also, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich tells us that Mary had the first devotional Cross on a little altar in a niche in her bedroom adorned with two small vases of flowers. Mary was devoted to the Cross. She, more than any other human being, understood the price paid for our souls. In Mary’s House she reminds us of this and asks us to pray with her at the Foot of the Cross, to not forget, to praise and thank her Son.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the re-presentation of the Sacrifice at Calvary. So by the Way of the Cross, Mary’s House refocuses us on the Holy Eucharist.
The infant Church’s Holy Sacrifice of the Mass took form in Mary’s House. St. John came to visit Mary and Mass was offered. Mary welcomed, loved, taught, and prayed for all who came; consecrated priests, disciples, converts, all. The Holy Eucharist was the central focus of their gatherings; Holy Communion was lived in a radical and pure way. Mary’s House reminds us of our calling to be a people of the Cross and the Eucharist.
Sister Marie knew all this! As a faithful Daughter of Charity, Sister Marie’s life of self- giving found its source and sustenance in Jesus Crucified and the Holy Eucharist. She had read the book of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s private revelations and believed it with all her heart. She knew how the Stations of the Cross and the Holy Eucharist were honored in Mary’s House. She knew why God had placed her in Turkey. And she loved Our Lady so very much…it was her devotion to the Cross, the Holy Eucharist and Our Lady that motivated her to find Mary’s House. Her heart and soul were on fire to find Mary’s House. In these times we are the beneficiaries of that holy zeal of Sister Marie.
The third critical issue of our time that challenges our faith is the suffering witness we find in the exercise of the gift of the Catholic priesthood. We have so many questions. Sister Marie’s gift of Mary’s House answers these questions and shows us how to encourage and console our priests. After all, Sister Marie knew as do we, that Our Lady is Queen of Apostles and Mother of Priests.
This is the Year for Priests as designated by Pope Benedict XVI. It was in Mary’s House at Ephesus that not only did St. John take care of Mary, but Mary took care of Jesus' beloved priest, St. John, and all the priests who came her way. She prayed for them as if they were her own Son, the Eternal High Priest. And of course she still does. According to Blessed Catherine Anne Emmerich, Our Lady spent her last days in her home teaching and nurturing the newborn Church and her priests.
Mary's House, and the care she gives there to priests, is especially relevant considering the sorrows and sufferings of her beloved priest sons in all times, but particularly recently. This reason alone for opening the Cause for Sister Marie, is so critical for the health of the living Body of Christ. Priests give us the Holy Eucharist. No priests, no Eucharist. No Bread of Life! It’s that simple.
It is my prayer that the Cause for Sister Marie will help focus the faithful on the need to assist with the healing and care of priests by bringing recognition to Mary's House. In Mary’s House, a symbol of her Immaculate Heart, Our Lady will tend to their souls and broken hearts in these times just as she did while living in her house two thousand years ago.
Father Carl Schulte, CM, is the author of the manuscript for a book entitled A Guiding Star. It is the story of the life of Sister Marie. The title of his book is a sign for us. Sister Marie is indeed a new guiding star for these times. The life and contributions of Sister Marie have abundant graces to offer this generation. She is a model of selfless charity in a world that teaches selfish indulgence. She is a mirror reflecting the tender, unfathomable light and love of Christ to a people who have become lost in darkness and are in need of a Savior. She points us again to the very reason for practicing charity and the supreme example of ultimate love: Jesus Crucified and the re-presentation of that sacrifice in the Holy Eucharist.
Sister Marie has given a tattered war-torn world which seems to have lost all hope for peace, a sure beacon of hope: Mary’s House. In Mary’s House, Christians, Orthodox, and Muslims pray side by side in peace; this in the home of a Jewish mother. This precious treasure, Mary’s House, inspires a vision and hope for inter-religious peace in this world.
Like Mary’s House, hidden for hundreds and hundreds of years, Sister Marie, too, has remained hidden until now. Why is God presenting Sister Marie to us now, in these times? Could it be that her mission is a mission of peace for the world, a call to love our Crucified Savior, and an invitation to offer respite for priests? Sister Marie dedicated her earthly life to the Children of Mary.[1] Now in her eternal life is she continuing this dedication by calling all of Mary’s children home?
Mary’s House is called Panaya Kapulu in Turkish, or Doorway to the Virgin. Sister Marie has given us the Doorway to the Virgin! She stands waiting to welcome us at the Doorway to the Virgin’s Heart, beckoning us with her spirit to come in. Then once in Mary’s Heart we know that the Blessed Virgin will bring her children to her Son. Sister Marie is a sign post, pointing the way, opening the door to the Mother and comforter of all, to the sure and direct way to The Truth and The Life…the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Ad Jesum per Mariam, to Jesus through Mary, through the intercession of Sister Marie.
In his recent pilgrimage to Mary’s House in Ephesus the Holy Father had this instruction for the faithful:
“From here in Ephesus, a city blessed by the presence of Mary Most Holy
- who we know is loved and venerated also by Muslims -
let us lift up to the Lord a special prayer for peace between peoples.”
~Pope Benedict XVI, Papal Homily at “Mary’s House” Ephesus, Turkey, November 29, 2006
Let us answer our Holy Father’s invitation to lift up a special prayer for peace by joining together in the prayer for the beatification of Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey:
[1] The Children of Mary was a confraternity founded by the Daughters of Charity under the direction of Saint Vincent de Paul in the early 1800s, based upon the private revelations of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Catherine Laboure. These sodalities were devoted to the care and catechizing of orphans and pupils in the schools and institutions of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul.
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