Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena (ULRA)

The Magi followed a star which spoke to them through a divine grace. They were attentive and obedient with promptitude to the inspiration given them by God and they made haste to Bethlehem. They left their country, their riches, their families and their quiet in order to follow a star which went before them; the dangers of such a journey, the fatigues of pilgrimage which might last for weeks or months, the fear of awakening in a Roman Empire hostile to them, mattered nothing to them. They arrived in Bethlehem in the humble stable of the Son of God-made-Man. Presiding over His Mystical Body, Mary is present as co-operatrix in the world’s salvation and as Mother of Divine Grace. And, so it is consummated, Bethlehem is not merely the birthplace of Our Redeemer; it is the cradle of the Church! The poor stable of Bethlehem held within it all the riches of Heaven and Earth. The gifts brought by the three Kings to the Infant Jesus sublimely express the three characters of the God-Man. Gold which signifies that charity which unites us to God; Frankincense which signifies prayer that brings God into man’s heart; and Myrrh, self-abnegation, suffering, mortification, whereby we are delivered from the slavery of our corrupt nature. The relics of the three Kings are kept in a magnificent Shrine, a superb Cathedral and one of the grandest Churches of the Christian world, the Cathedral of Cologne. There, they are honored as Prophets and Apostles.

We pray for you and your family, your spiritual strength, physical health and material needs, family unity, protection from every evil, and for your perseverance and a holy death.

I impart to all of you, my priestly blessing:

In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

With the prayers and respect,

Fr. IVAN KOLODIY
Byzantine Rite, Greek-Catholic Church, UKRAINE

After the Magi departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in his sleep, saying, “Arise and take the Child and His Mother, and fly into Egypt; and be there until I have called for thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the Child to destroy Him.” Let us look into the mystery of the Ways of God as a means of achieving His high purposes. Here, we see the unconditional pliability of the soul which is essential for perfection. Do we have this unquestioning obedience to the dispositions and permissions of God’s fatherly providence over our whole lives? “Arise, fly into Egypt.” No questions asked, no consideration of circumstances, no pause for excuse. They start off without delay on this long and dangerous journey to Egypt. In God’s judgment, there was something eminently divine and surpassingly loving in this supreme test of the quality of the obedience of Mary and Joseph, and of their conformity to His ever wise and loving providence: Perfect, ready and entire execution of God’s holy Will. What a lesson for us all is their blind obedience, absolute trust and unconditional compliance to the Will of God.

“I have come from Heaven not to do My Will, but the Will of Him Who sent Me.” (John 6: 38)

The respectful and confident love which good children bear to their father, makes them resolve to love not only according to the commandments he imposes, but also according to the desires and preferences he manifests. The purpose of the Incarnation and Redemption of the Eternal Son of God was not merely to open Heaven and enable human souls to enter there, just saved and nothing more. NO, the purpose was to open Heaven so fully that all the places and thrones forfeited by the rebel angels should be filled by deserving human beings and should be filled gloriously. What of the Gold, Incense and Myrrh He is expecting you to offer today: Your Lives, Your Treasures and Your Aspirations? Hold nothing back; Trust Him, love Him, give yourselves absolutely and entirely over to His Divine Pleasure!

I remain, one with you, in the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

PATTI MELVIN, Director ULRA

Let us pray for one another.

Miracles Begin

The solemn ceremonial for the reception of the relics was fixed for Sunday, August 11th. Before dawn, Mugnano was the gathering point for crowds of people from neighboring villages. All came to see the new saint. “Would she work miracles?” Each one – old, young, prosperous and destitute – had urgent requests to be made at her shrine.

They were met by the excited inhabitants who greeted them with the story of the cure of Don Francesco at Rome, the rapping of the Bishop in the carriage, the change in the statue’s looks, and many other wonders which had accompanied the shrine from Naples. Every story about Philomena would spread like wildfire. They must have heard, too, about the cure of the gangrened hand, of the bearer who was in pain, of the beam of light on the road, of the shrine growing heavy and light again, of the whirlwind which could not blow out the candles, and of the rain on the parched fields. You know the energy with which a Neapolitan will even explain the importance of taking a left and not a right-hand turn; imagine, then, the little knots of people in front of the church before it was opened! Had our great-grandmothers been there, they would have supposed that a revolution was being planned.

The apparent ringleader of the furious mob was Angelo Biano. He was marching up and down, waving his arms. You see, he had been bedridden with gout for months and unable to go to work. He had to sit groaning in his bed, nothing but an expense and a care to his poor relatives. When he heard of the new saint who was coming, he prayed to her during the whole of that Friday night before her arrival to grant him the grace to see and kiss her relics. He vowed that, if she would cure him before morning, he would accompany the procession to the church. His prayer seemed unheard, for his pains increased beyond measure. A depressing answer from the new saint. But Angelo was not so easily put off. Somehow, his hope also increased. When he heard the bells and the bombs announcing that she was drawing near Mugnano, he dragged himself up, grimaced and shed tears with the pain, somehow dressed himself, seized his stick, and tumbled out of his house into the street. There, he was cured. He ran to join the procession, shouting the news and praising God and Philomena. The church was opened and the crowds poured in. It was not much quieter inside than outside.

For nine days, the population prayed before the saint, the ninth day was marked by many miracles. This suggests that the other eight days were not. The whole of that week, in spite of their greetings, prayers and offerings, Philomena lay like Sleeping Beauty, pretending not to hear them. They must have tired of their loving and deferential praises, and began to coax her. Although she was a saint and a martyr, to them she was also a little girl of thirteen. They understood that Philomena was a Christian like themselves, only a much better one whose own troubles were over, she was in Paradise now and had every opportunity of getting for them what they needed. They said to her, “Look, darling, look at my poor arm now! You see how bad it is. You remember what you did for the lady at Naples, don’t you darling? Well, now you are going to do something like that for poor Rosamaria, aren’t you, my pretty?”

But, Philomena didn’t do a thing!

Angela Guerriero had a ten-year-old son who was crippled and unable to stand. Fervently, she prayed for eight days without a sign of cure for her boy. On the ninth day, just as she had bowed her head at the Elevation, she heard a slither beside her. Turning around to see if Modestino had fallen, she saw him running up the aisle to Philomena to thank her for his cure. Forgetful of everything, his mother cried out, “A Miracle! A Miracle!”

Everyone’s head was raised. They saw Modestino stand on his own bare brown feet. Everyone cried just as loud as Angela had done and the church resounded with their thanksgiving. After Mass, Modestino walked round the town showing everyone his straight legs and feet. His dear mother wept tears of joy.

Everyone in the town pushed to get into the church for Vespers. This was impossible; the church could not hold them all. One woman, carrying a heavy two-year-old baby, pushed and struggled in vain to get inside the church. Having suffered with smallpox, her child was incurably blind. During the sermon, when the crowd was standing more or less still, she managed to edge her way, inch by inch, to the shrine. Not very polite behavior during a sermon. She dipped her finger in the oil of a lamp which was burning before the shrine and anointed the baby’s eyes with it. Instantly and without pain, the scarred eyelids opened and the eyes beneath them saw the light of the lamp. The baby laughed with joy and made a grab at it.

Cries and shouts of triumph echoed throughout the church. The crowd outside pushed and struggled to get in and see what had happened. The preacher shouted his loudest in the hope of calming the congregation. He feared lest someone might be trampled upon or crushed in the excitement. But no one would pay the slightest attention to him. They wanted to see the baby. With difficulty, the good man got hold of the child, carried him high over his head to the pulpit and there he sat for all to see. The miraculously cured baby preached a sermon far better than the priest could do by sitting there dazed with the noise, the lights, the faces and the world of sight.

The full flood of miracles began: a cripple of twelve years was cured, a beggar whose rags hardly covered him obtained strength of limb that he might once again earn his living; a blind man left a most precious ring at the shrine as a “love offering” and was completely cured upon his return home. Another cure of blindness was the girl from Nola, whom the best physicians could not help. She refused to leave the shrine, saying she would stay there till Philomena cured her. She would not even go out to take a meal. Kind neighbors brought her a little food, which she ate in the church. At nightfall she had to leave. Just as she was being led away blind as ever, she saw the side windows of the church and those in front glowing with the last light of the sunset. She began to rejoice. The next morning she returned with still more confidence to the church. She remained there the whole of next day. Upon coming out of the dim place, she saw a hedge by the roadside and men like trees walking. At noon the following day, surrounded by prayerful devotees, she was heard to exclaim, “I can see the statue in the Shrine!” A little later, she saw the details of it as well as the church. When rejoicing crowds brought her back to her lodging that night, she showed her hostess that she could thread a very fine needle with silk. Don Francesco had intended, after the novena, to take the shrine from the church and put it in his own private chapel. He had meant the little saint to be his counselor and friend. By now, she was the counselor and friend of the whole of Mugnano. It would be a rash act to try to take her out of the parish church. A chapel was prepared. On the 29th of September, Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, the shrine was moved to this chapel after a Solemn High Mass. Another High Mass was sung at the new altar above the relic and the Te Deum chanted. The Translation of Saint Philomena was complete.

Share Your Gift of Faith

For centuries, our cherished Catholic faith has been passed from person to person, parent to child, etc. Each of us carries in our heart a special memory of how God first graced us with the knowledge of the faith and how Our Blessed Mother, Saint Philomena, Venerable Pauline Jaricot and other saints changed our lives and brought us closer to Christ.

In our work in the Universal Living Rosary Association, we see first hand how millions of souls are currently living without that knowledge of God and are living outside of His grace. We have been given a beautiful opportunity to carry out Christ’s work and pass on our faith and blessings to others who would otherwise never be introduced to Our Lord, the Savior of all mankind. Just as we pray for the souls in Purgatory who have no one to pray for them, we should also make it a part of our life’s mission to pass on our faith to as many souls as possible who have no one else to pass it on to them, who don’t know Our Lord and His promise of salvation.

This is the box we send out to the foreign Missions $77.95. It contains Rosaries, Scapulars, Miraculous Medals, Cord & Oil, Newsletters, Calendars, Catechism books, 2 TAN books, large color prints, lists and encouragement for our Promoters.

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