Some twenty centuries ago in the Ancient Holy City of Jerusalem, thirteen men were assembled to celebrate the Pascal Feast of The Passover in a place that has come to be known as “The Upper Room”.

What happened then and there would forever change the course of the history of mankind. Their mentor and teacher was He whom they had called “The Master” and His twelve followers were referred to as His apostles. For three years He had led them on a journey that was seeking spiritual truth, administering healing to the sick, and the saving of wayward souls as they proceeded on their evangelical mission as “The Fishers of Men”!

On that same eve which would be thereafter known to Christians the world over as “The Last Supper”, the Christ and the Lord had established the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist to perpetuate his presence here on earth that would ever be in union with His eternal spirit in Heaven. That first Holy Communion Celebration was performed when He said “This is My Body and this is My Blood; Do this in remembrance of Me.”

He had prophesized to those gathered chosen ones that His days were numbered by providence and that He was going to be offered up as the supreme sacrifice as the Son of God and of Man to atone for the sins of the all humanity from the beginning to the end of time. Later in that same room He reaffirmed the legitimacy of the institution of the priesthood and the Sacrament of Penance saying “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

He reassured them of the promise of eternal life to all those who followed in His footsteps and believed that He was indeed the true Messiah; and that through Him the gates of heaven would be opened unto them by way of His Glorious Resurrection! Soon after that bitter sweet feast He entered Gethsemane and was faced with the Agony in the Garden. He was assaulted with unyielding pangs of total isolation to such an extreme that it caused Him to actually physically sweat blood while unceasingly praying for supernatural strength in the anticipation of His Passion.

He was then put through an unjust trial and scourged at the pillar, crowned with thorns, condemned to execution, and commanded to carry his heavy implement of torture to Golgotha (the place of the skull). There for the sake of our salvation He faced the last and most extreme suffering stages by His brutal crucifixion that was yet the beginning of His subsequent victory over death. While nailed to cross that became “The Tree of Triumph”, He uttered His last words and scriptural lamentations.

He petitioned, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” even while He was undergoing and enduring excruciating pain beyond comprehension as many of those responsible were looking on with distain and pitilessness, even jeering as they blurred into one mass of hate personified.  By this act of ultimate charity, He put into practice what He had been preaching to His disciples when He was amongst them. Through His quintessential example, He was reaffirming the full measure of His teachings of the virtue of forgiveness, and the turning of the other cheek to those who persecute and bear false witness against us.

He knew whilst in their midst that He would soon be leaving and going back to His Father’s House from whence He came and had taught them those principles of love and instructed them to do likewise so that they could carry His message of loving reconciliation throughout the world, knowing full well that they would be also persecuted in doing so, but the merits and rewards of Paradise would be His everlasting gift to them in the end. As He predicted, the crown of martyrdom came prematurely for majority of them.

He, in those final moments, beheld His Mother Mary standing at the foot of the cross with heroic courage and devotion, emotionally pierced with the seven swords through her heart of purity foretold by Simeon the Prophet in the temple some thirty three years before. Yet she was undeniably accepting God’s Divine Will once again by her fiat and undeterred loyalty to her beloved Son in her capacity as “Our Lady of Sorrows”.

He looked down upon her in that fateful hour, and they gazed into one another’s tearful eyes overflowing with mutual heart-rending empathy as He said “Behold thy Mother!” Thus He presented and bestowed upon humanity His most precious personal pearl and earthly treasure as an everlasting gift of remembrance. In doing so He was sharing her maternal love, protection, and infinite intersession, with all His Spiritual children. Ever since that very moment her intercessory prayers were set in motion and linked to all the generations that followed as “Our Lady of Perpetual Help”.

He prayed His final farewell prayer: “Father into your Hands I commit My Spirit!”, which flowed from out of the depth of his battered and beaten being, thoroughly and completely exhausted and exasperated to the point of expiration. With His last breath He called out in a pained to the bone chilling groan: “It is finished!” Then the Earth quaked, the curtain of the temple tore, the tombs of the departed opened, the dead rose, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, and the blind saw. A sudden darkness fell across the land and those disbelievers’ faithless foundations shook to the core.

She would wait ever so patiently, day after day, till her task was complete, lovingly longing to join Him in His Kingdom as the Crowned Jewel and Queen of Heaven.  She has been designated to fulfill the singular most important regal position and matriarchal mission as “Mediatrix of all Graces”.  He had granted her the permission to be the emulating prism of the eternal healing light beaming from His Sacred Heart, radiating rays of eternal love beyond the brightest of the bright.

She worthily fulfills His Divine Will by pouring out the abundance of overflowing graces through her outstretched hands upon her children who implore her protection. As times of personal trial come throughout your life, you may think of the humility of Mary as she was visited by the Angel Gabriel and she gave her fiat: “I am the handmaid of The Lord; Be it done unto me according to thy word.”  You can take Him at His word and accept His Most generous invitation to continually embrace and sincerely seek her priceless consolation with all of your heart without hesitation.

She is that same Woman Clothed in the Sun, who will continue to step on the head of the ravenous ancient serpent as proclaimed in the book of Revelation.  As one of her devoted sons and daughters she will take you under her wing and graciously will respond to your call, and will ever present your prayers and petitions to her Son, and He will lift you up in spirit above this earthly plane of temporary pain, so that you can view it from His prospective at a higher elevation without fear or trepidation.

She shines so brightly that she is known as “The Star of the Sea” without which many would be lost and  misguided by the compass of confusion and sail too far out into the horizon, losing sight of their eternal direction. She casts a line to those who have drifted off shore and been swept out into the sea of desperation by following their own inclinations instead of God’s navigations. Her guiding light beams for all to see, and she welcomes into her lifeboat those who believe in her tender motherly affection.

She rescues those who find themselves struggling in the breaking waves at the surface of an emotional ocean, when overwhelmed with the fear of sinking and drowning in the bottomless depths of disabling depression, facing anxiety, trials, and tribulations. Her confidence gives courage, endurance, fortitude, and heroic constitution in weathering the initial storm of darkness and heartache, and will instill a glimmer of hope renewed.

She will be there for you even though there will still be inclement forecasts in this world that is often drenched in a veil of tears. You can take solace in being forever sheltered by her enveloping mantle of protection when threatened by gales and soaking torrential rains. Willingly she will compassionately tuck you close beside her under her insolated umbrella of protective.

She always hears your voice from wherever you call, and you can rest assured that you will be picked up whenever you fall and be shielded from the threatening clouds and lightning strikes. She will shade your view from being burned by impurity’s penetrating rays and prevent the pain of sin and strife from entering the windows of your soul. You will be safely immersed in her serene pool of gentle joy in the absence of all fear that she has reserved just for you as her faithful one and those who you invite and hold dear.

She especially petitions the Divine Physician for the ability of the mending of broken hearts, and applies a miraculous healing balm that will ever soothe and gradually close the deep wounds of uncertainty, alienation, and self-incrimination that often accompany grief and loneliness that no doctor’s remedy or words of wisdom are sufficient to cure. Thereafter, with her golden needle and thread in hand, she is forever piecing together we worn and torn ragdolls of emotional brokenness to let us re-envision the image our entire existence.

She begins to refurbish our fragility and makes us once again feel the dignity of being whole, interiorly, outwardly, and ascetically, blessing us with an appealing twinkle of light and crystal clarity in those once glassy and unfocused eyes. It is as if we were granted the opportunity to begin a new fresh out of the box, unwrapped from the confining restraints of restricting ribbon and bow, sitting atop a glass shelf in a notable department store’s picture window, with a joyful countenance, attracting a smile from all those who pass by.

She then Intercedes and interweaves her graces within our lives and the souls of our ancestry and  the spiritually frayed and temporally tattered tapestry depicting our family tree, caringly and carefully repairing it one stitch at a time, restoring it to its original natural beauty that the Creator first designed. Thereafter it is reconstructed as a formidable oak with a sturdy trunk, limbs, and vibrant leaves; accented, enhanced, and all encompassed by a tightly woven lush forest of various foliage and evergreen scenes.

Therefore may you ever be faithful and continue to reflect on those final, fateful hours and give praise to Him, who is the King Supreme, and follow the example of She who gives Him humble homage as His Mother and His Queen. Then you will ever be enlightened with the holiness of spiritual wisdom and celestial understanding and enjoy His promised Eternal Life of the world to come, while continuing to flourish and grow wherever you are planted in His creation here below!

“By Thy Cross and Resurrection Thou hast set us free!”

“Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us!”