Under the Care of Our Blessed Mother

Last Saturday I had the joy of being able to attend the profession of perpetual vows of three seminarians at the National Shrine of Divine Mercy.  They were: Br. Alexander Chung MIC, Br. Timothy Childers MIC, and Br. Christopher Reyes Orante MIC. One of the seminarians, Br. Alexander Chung, we have featured on our blog in the past.

One of the things we have done through the Children's Rosary is to offer a monthly Mass for seminarians: that they will grow in holiness and lead us in love.  The children also pray for the seminarians when they meet in their prayer groups. There is something beautiful about children praying for their future shepherds as the children will be the future flock.  What child or family would not love to see a holy Priest leading their parish or helping in the missions throughout the world.  It seems a wonderful connection to foster between the children and the young men saying, "yes" to a life of service of Our Lord.

I was struck at the end of the Mass after the men had vowed a life of chastity, poverty, and obedience forever, they did one more thing before they processed out of the Church.  Each man took a rose and placed it at the foot of Our Lady and knelt in prayer before her.  We in the pews do not know what each man said to Our Blessed Mother but we all could see that they came before her with deep reverence.  They were beginning a new phase of their lives and before they met the world as new men professed to God, they sought to give Our Lady a gift. As a Mother, she surely found great joy in seeing the fruits of many prayers and sacrifice.  Young men going out to the vineyard to help bring souls to Christ.
   
In looking at the young men I could not help but think of the children kneeling before Our Lady in their Children's Rosary prayer groups.  At the end of each decade, a child places a rose at the foot of Our Lady. They too ask her for grace and place themselves under her care just as these young men were doing.  

As the children have prayed for these men, I was very touched to hear from Br. Chung that on this very important day when he was giving so much to Our Lord, he said a prayer for the Children's Rosary as he processed into the Church.  We are so grateful for such prayers.

After the reception which followed the evening Mass, the sun set and the sky grew dark.  As we were walking to the car, we could see what looked like an electrical storm.  Lights from different parts of the sky lit up behind the clouds.  It was an incredible thing to see.  There was no rain or thunder only the illumination of different parts of the sky.  During our hour and a half drive home to Connecticut the electrical show continued.  My husband just kept uttering, "incredible". During such an amazing display in the sky our daughter said from the back seat of the car, "it looks like a party in heaven".  Indeed one could imagine that there was great celebration that night both on earth and in heaven.