Saturday, February 12, 2005
I’ve been thinking about the scent of roses & fruit in our last meditation & class on Wednesday ... The strong fragrance of roses & myrrh is usually associated with the Presence of Our Lady - but the fruitlike scents, those I have never heard of ... Perhaps She was saying to us that to read the Desert Fathers was like partaking in the most sublime Heavenly food ... That they - & their words - were a sublime Gift to the world, to sustain us in these hard times ...
I must say their poems are most beautiful & profound, perhaps more beautiful than anything I have ever read. At least those we read in class last week.
Monday, February 14, 2005
More French letters from Africa, for the Living Rosary Association. A woman from the Congo (Brazzaville), now in England, asks for our prayers - she is afraid they will not allow her to stay in England & then she will have to return to “the misery of war” of her home country. A letter from Tchad, from our member Basile: “We received your package and thank you infinitely for this gesture of great charity. You are our guide, and your presence and correspondence gives us comfort. Many of our members are sick and many have died. Please keep them in your prayers. And our country, Tchad. The violence here exposes us to many dangers.” I wrote to Patti, the director of the Living Rosary, & gave her the translation. Patti wrote back to say they are in her prayers & that she would send them many more things, sacramentals, to help their morale & courage.
I thought back to his letter from March, 2004. Curious, I went back to my files. I had written Patti that Burundi & Tchad both seemed postally open to us again, after many years of being closed. I had written: “We’ll see”. At one time five or six French-speaking African nations were postally closed to us - because of internal wars & rebellions, massacres.
Basile had written that Tchad had been postally closed for some years & that was the cause of their silence. Then he wrote: “We would like you to know that concerning the terrible events of September 11th in America, our members of the Living Rosary Association residing in Moundon, Tchad, would like to send you their deep condolences. During that sad time, we declared four days of prayer, saying the rosary, and nine days of novena prayers for this sad circumstance in your country. For this, our ninety five members, including priests and nuns, grouped in the chapel, saying the rosary for the entire time. There were forty men and boys and fifty five women and girls. The theme of the novena we prayed was: Peace, Forgiveness and Tolerance.” Then he enclosed a list of names, people who wished to become members of the Living Rosary & receive their decade mystery to say each day. He asked for nothing.
I was deeply touched. Those members, the men & boys & women & girls & nuns & priests - were living in a country postally closed to the rest of the world because of the internal wars & violence. To be a Christian in Tchad, even in peaceful times, takes much courage. And yet these members prayed for - days, all clumped in their small & undoubtedly sweltering & dusty little chapel - for America, the richest nation in the world, a nation that rarely thinks about them much less prays for them.
I thought about the young nun that had written to us from her convent during the ebola crisis - they were quarantined in their convent. The young seminary student in Cameroun, on his first parish assignment - to a prison, to convert the prisoners ( “Quelle misere” he wrote). During the Rwanda genocide, I received letters from that poor country. Afterwards, from priests who had nervous breakdowns & had been sent to Belgium to recover. From Burundi, many years ago, a letter from one of our members who taught in a girls’ high school there. The last words of his letter asked for our prayers, “We can now hear the guns coming closer, pray for us.” I never heard from him again.
And yet through the wars & other dangers, many miracles. Letter after letter describing miracles & favors from God. Our members on that continent putting their Faith in God, living their Faith in a way perhaps rarely found in this country.
Then there are the “crooks” - they sell for money what we send them for free, often pretending to be nuns or priests. They always seem to have the most interesting postage stamps, probably bought on the black market - old issues, overprinted & surcharged. Besides the stamps, they are fairly easy to spot; they ask for many things, hundreds of prayer cards, scapulars, miraculous medals, rosaries, blessed oil etc. & send us multiple letters with similar requests under different names, but in the same handwriting. In the Living Rosary, each new member is assigned one decade & mystery of the rosary, to say each day for the rest of their life. The goal is to gather as many prayers for Our Lady as possible, so that Her Immaculate Heart may triumph over Old Nick. (I believe that we are the only organization in this country that sends free sacramentals to poor counties.) Sometimes Patti & I have discussions on this problem: if our main goal is to get more people saying the rosary, then the crooks are on our side. So occasionally we send them the sacramentals anyway, even though we know they are selling them. Usually, I tell the crooks we do not have the postage money to send them things, & they should pray for us. This response serves a dual purpose: The Living Rosary sometimes does not have the postage money to send things to even our honest members, & I know the crooks will pray their little hearts out that we receive money - & secondly, they will think they are safe in their scheme & not change their plan to some other method that might get past us.
The hardest letters right now are coming from the old Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (not to be confused with the Congo, Brazzaville). And so we send them our prayers & fill their requests for sacramentals & their decade of the rosary to say each day. Many times an orphanage will write us asking for financial help or prayers. When I tell them we do not have the money but they have our prayers they send a letter back, in a shaky old script thanking us & sending us their prayers in return. These letters are very precious to me. The people in these countries very much need our prayers, & I hope that many of you who read these words will include them in your prayers.
We now how millions of members, from all over the world. Nuns & priests, bishops, & simple homeowners & parents, siblings - each with their own story & aspirations. My Heart opens when I read these letters, even the crooks are seeking happiness - they are just looking in the wrong places to find it. I pray for them as well. Since translating for the Living Rosary I have begun to sign all letters “Que Dieu vous benisse et vous protege toujours” (May God bless & protect you always). I end my letters to the crooks with this phrase as well, with an added inner prayer that they be protected from evil.
Tonight as I write these words, I feel my Love & compassion and prayers for these many members, some who have become good friends of mine, others who I have heard from only once or twice - fill my own small heart with the Higher Love, encompassing them all & then all beings, radiating out into the world.
And to all who have read this journal entry: Que Dieu vous benisse et vous protege toujours.
A Mystic’s Journal Saturday, February 12 - 14, 2005
Moderator: figaro