Posted on 01/02/2005 3:39:32 PM PST by NYer
by Fr. Antonio (A Maronite Priest)
posted on September 10, 2004. 11:00 am
It was Wednesday June 5, 2002, when I received a call on my pager.
- Father Antonio, there is a woman who is dying here at the hospital in Ann
Arbor. Her family is asking for a Catholic priest to come and give her the last
sacrament. Can you please come?
Sure. It would be the first experience to anoint someone after 10 months of
priesthood. My ministry as a priest was more focused on giving Jesus Christ
to His people through the Eucharist (saying Masses) and the Sacrament of
Reconciliation (hearing confessions). I was also offering spiritual direction to
a good number of people.
I drove 15 minutes from home. I arrived at the hospital and entered the room.
There was a woman lying in her bed, dying. Her eyes were closed. Her family
was gathered around her: the husband, the sons & their wives. They were
comforting each other. I opened the book of prayers and prepared the oil. We
prayed. I anointed the woman. After the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick,
I asked the family to pray with me the rosary. I believe that the presence of
Mary can give great comfort for the womans soul.
The husband approached me as if he was embarrassed. He whispered saying:
- Father, my wife never believed in rosaries. She never prayed the rosary. She
never liked it.
- She will like it now, I said it, with my Lebanese accent and a Maronite spirit.
We started praying the rosary. When we reached the 4th sorrowful mystery, the
woman opened her eyes. The sons approached their mother to see what was
going on. They were crying, amazed.
At the end of the Rosary, I asked the sons:
- What did you see?
- Her eyes were filled with peace, one of her sons answered.
I knew that Mary was present. I knew that she comforted that woman. It didnt
matter whether that woman prayed the rosary in her life or not, whether she
liked it or not. It doesnt matter for Mary for she is a mother not a judge. Mary,
who was present under the cross at the moment of Christs death, is also present
at the moment of our death. This is why we pray: Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Beautiful! Thanks for posting that.
Thank you for posting that! My mom has had two similar experiences. Unfortunately, I've had two aunts pass away in the past year or so. My mom was able to be at the bedside of both of them. She said the rosary daily to them both even though they weren't Catholic. Both responded to my mom (positively)even though neither were able to communicate anymore. I love Mary, our mother!!
Mary, Mother of Jesus, is someone we can all pray to for help in our daily lives. Mothers intercede. That's what they do.
MARIAN DEVOTION - Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God
A Homily on the Dormition of Our Supremely Pure Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
Great story, NYer. Thanks! The Most Holy Theotokos is always a great source of comfort in the metaphorical foxholes of life, perhaps especially at the end!
"A title like that will cause YOPIS-followers to go into apoplexy just from seeing it, you know. Tsk-tsk."
Wow. With not a single Prot comment on the thread, you fire the "YOPIS" shot. Nice. Does your comment count as "protestant bashing"? Is "Catholic bashing" therefore now allowed?
FormerLib is Orthodox, not Roman Catholic if I am not mistaken. What is YOPIS?
"Is "Catholic bashing" therefore now allowed?"
To my formerly protestant, then agnostic, and now Catholic (but always military) mind, I guess that's what freedom of religion means. You're allowed to "bash" other religions verbally, so long as you don't actually interfere with people in the real world.
The very word "tolerance," after all, requires that there's something that we disagree with or even despise, but which we are through an act of will tolerating.
From a Catholic perspective, when Catholic-bashing occurs here on FR, it's generally an opportunity to say, "No, that's not what Catholics believe." For it is true, as Archbishop Sheen said, that "There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Churchbut there are millions who hate what they mistakenly think the Catholic Church teaches."
What puzzles me is that there are some people who refuse to be persuaded no matter how many times you tell them that they are misinformed as to some Catholic tenet, and no matter how much material you post from Church sources showing what the Catholic tenet actually is. These discussions take the form...
"You Catholics are bad for believing X."
"We don't believe X; we believe Y."
"No, you don't. You believe X."
"Here's documentation that we believe Y."
"No, you don't. You believe X."
"Y."
"X."
"Y."
"X."
"Y."
"X."
...et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It's a puzzlement.
I think it's this, more than anything else, that gives Catholics an attitude about protestants. From my childhood and youth as a Protestant, I can remember many sermons ripping Catholic "idolatry," drinking of alcoholic beverages, "the Whore of Babylon," and so on. But I have never heard protestantism torn into like that in a Catholic homily.
Yes, we believe that the Catholic Church posesses the fullness of Revelation, while protestant churches only teach a part of it. But when we get to the "and therefore" part of the syllogism, there is a real difference in attitude between the way Catholics regard protestantism and the way *some* protestants view Catholicism.
Perhaps it is significant that Catholics who convert to a protestant denomination tend to be bitter and angry toward Catholicism, while protestants who convert to
Catholicism tend to look back on their protestant experiences not with bitterness and anger, but as something that, while good, was ultimately insufficient.
It seems to me that "YOPIOS" is pretty mild, especially given the protestant emphasis on sola scriptura, but if you want to take a slap at Catholicism in retribution, I won't mind. Maybe some productive discussion will ensue.
Often seen in the form, "YOPIOS," it is an acronym for "your own personal interpretation of scripture."
Actually, I'd expect Proti's to regard threads with "Mother of God" in the title the same way that I treat threads with "Arminian" in the title (Hint: I don't go there).
Excellent post.
Are there any Nestorians on FR?
Ok, thanks!
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