Are We Beyond Sodom and Gomorrah?
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“All we can do now, is pray!” When all else fails, when there is nothing left to do, we pray. A last ditch effort; we’ve tried everything else; it’s out of our control; now all that is left is to pray. Instead, we should begin by praying, recognizing that the most powerful tool we have is Prayer.
Saint Paul said: “Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the Principalities and the Powers, against the world rulers of the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high.”
Now, we are in the best of times; we are in the worst of times. Our battle is not with humans, as St. Paul tells us. It is truly a battle, possibly the final battle for our souls and those precious souls of our families. What is the armor of God? What better armor can you wear than that of the Virgin Mary? Who did you run to when you were a child? Wasn’t it to Mama? We need our Mama. I remember when I was a child, and I would have a nightmare. Who did I run to? My mother! And what did she say? “Did you pray before you fell asleep?” Each time, I had forgotten to pray. Then, when she sent me back to my bed with, “Now say your prayers and you won’t have any more bad dreams.” I really didn’t have too much confidence that it would work. Although her reassuring words turned out to be prophecy, I never believed. But, it always worked!
“Put on the armor of God.” Who was chosen by God to bring into the world His Son, to care for Him, to parent Him, to teach Him, to protect Him, to love and cherish Him? Was it not Mother Mary? Did Jesus not perform His first Miracle through the intercession of the Blessed Mother? As we journey with Jesus and Mary in this book, we see how many times the Mother of God, and our Mother, interceded for us, how many times she had to make the decision for us, at the cost of her most precious Son. And she said yes! If she did that, knowing her Son would suffer, how much more would she do now, as we turn to her, praying the Rosary, the one hundred and fifty roses we place into a bouquet for her.
The Lord and His Mother, the Angels and the Saints have always been interwoven. When we wrote of the Miracles of the Eucharist, we not only learned more about the Holy Eucharist, we discovered Mother Mary and her connection with the Eucharist. We encountered the Saints: how they lived and died for the Eucharist. We learned of the presence of the Angels during the Mass. When we wrote of Mother Mary we became more fervently aware of the Eucharist, the Saints and the Angels. When we wrote of the Saints, we could see the love they had for the Eucharist, how they all turned to Mother Mary and how many relied on the help of the Angels. We could see the work of the Angels in Jesus and Mary’s life and in the lives of the Saints.
The greats of our Church turned to the Lord, to His Mother, to the Saints who had come before them, and to the Angels. They knew they needed help and they were not past asking for it. Our Popes all prayed the Rosary. It brought Pope Pius XII through the horrible second World War. Pope John XXIII prayed 15 decades of the Holy Rosary, every day. Our dear Pope John Paul II has a Rosary on him, at all times. In his private chapel, as he prays for guidance and direction from the Lord before the Blessed Sacrament, you can bet he is turning to the Lady who saved his life May 13th, 1981. Beside his Bible and Office (Breviary) you are sure to find the Rosary. When we interviewed the Archbishop of Zaragoza, and filmed the Shrine of Our Lady of Pilar, we were invited into the Archbishop’s private Chapel. As with our beloved Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Fulton Sheen, there beside his Bible, and his Office, was hanging a Rosary!
How many times, Dear Friends, have you been there to save us, even from ourselves? Bob and I were still in the business world. On this particular day, I was receiving some very upsetting phone calls from customers and manufacturers. Time came for me to pick up my grandson from high school; he was not old enough to drive. As I drove toward his school, I became concerned that the anger that had invaded my heart and soul might spread to my boy. Seeking peace, as only the Lord and His Mother can provide, I prayed the Rosary for a half hour, right up to the parking lot of his school.
Rob (my grandson) got in the car, and we then tried to get onto the freeway. I was in the far right lane trying to merge into traffic. I could barely squeeze into the slow lane on my left. Cars were barely moving. Finally, having entered it, I tried to get into the faster lanes, to no avail. I was blocked in: first by the car in front, then by the car in the rear, and then by the car on the left who would not move up and give me room to get in, no matter how much I flashed my left-turn signal. Well, this was not helping my former attitude a bit. Now, I was really getting upset!
Suddenly, I felt the car go out of control! I tried to steer the wheel; it was locked! I shot out my right arm to block my grandson from going through the window. I shouted, “No, Lord, not him.” The car stopped dead! My foot started to shake. It was still on the brake which had not worked. I had tried to push the brake pedal through the floor board. When my trembling had subsided, I got out of the car on my side. On Rob’s side, we were on the edge of a precipice about forty feet above the road below.
A highway patrolman came to our aid. He shook his head and said there was no earthly reason why we were not dead. The tow truck arrived. The driver used some expletives, I will not repeat, and shook his head as he helped us into the cab of his tow truck. Our car was helplessly raised in the air behind us. When we arrived at the gas station, the mechanic dialed the phone for me. I burst into tears, as I tried to tell Bob what had happened. I really didn’t know myself.
The mechanic later told Bob if Rob and I were not standing there in front of him, and if the highway policeman had not verified the story, he would not have believed it. He showed us how the axle had snapped in two, severing the wheel from the rest of the car. The wheel should have spun off; we and the car should have capsized and plunged into the road and the cars below. Instead, it became wedged in the fender, and prevented the car from moving and turning over. No one could explain it at the time. They had never seen anything like it. It was as if someone had jammed the wheel, bracing the car.
Was that an Angel who had wedged the wheel beneath the car? Were they Angels who blocked my path, and locked me in the right lane, not allowing us to go into the fast lane? If we had been in the fast lane, we would have been going so fast, not only would we have died but we would have taken other lives with us. There would definitely have been a pile-up. Maybe it was someone else’s Angel who interceded. Maybe it was the Guardian Angel of someone who would discover the cure for Cancer.
Or could it be, it was that God heard my cry and called upon our Guardian Angels to save my grandson? Or was it the Queen of Angels to whom I had been praying the Rosary before I picked up my grandson. Had She summoned her army of Angels? After all, our grandson had always loved her. He had been in the Junior Legion of Mary when he was a little boy. Did she have a special plan for him?
We believe that all wars are Religious Wars, all battles between Principalities and Powers, good fighting evil. We fight with guns and bombs instead of prayer. Mothers’ sons and daughters die; families lose their husbands and fathers, wives and mothers, sisters and brothers; and the world is poorer for the loss of these precious loved ones. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We have a more powerful form of combat - on our knees. These are just a few instances where Mother Mary was asked for her intervention through the Rosary, and she said yes!
I know that there are countless more examples of battles fought and won through the Rosary, but forgive us if we just cite these few.
It was the sixteenth century, and the Body of Christ was being attacked from all sides. On one side, poor innocent believers were falling to an enemy from within the Church. The Church in Europe would lose 6,000,000 of her most precious, faithful children to heresy. As they did not know what was happening, they did not fight. They did not pray for our Mother Mary’s intervention. And so, they were lost to us. Praise God, they are now coming back home to their Church, and they are so very beautiful. Could it be the many rosaries said by their families and friends?
As this sneak attack was going on, other enemies of the Church were attacking. Turkish forces were overtaking much of Christian Europe. As this wave of followers of Mohammed invaded a country, they not only took lives, they took souls. The name of Christ was not heard in these lands for up to 700 years. They knew that they would never be able to subjugate their conquests unless they could take away all hope. Had Satan told them of his motto over the gates of hell, “All you who enter here, abandon all hope.”
But they were not victorious where people prayed! The Turkish fleet was attacking Austria. The Austrian fleet under Don Juan was no match against the superior Turkish fleet. It looked as if another country would be lost to Islam. Her family is in danger? They need her? Mary to the rescue! Pope Pius V sent out word to the forces of Christ, to pray the Rosary. A Rosary Crusade was waged on the knees of the faithful, and the battle was won.
To the eyes of the world, the Austrian fleet was outnumbered. But there was a powerful general that could not be seen by human eyes. It was Mary and her Heavenly Army of Angels! Although the Austrian fleet appeared finished, they were not. They were joined by the Angels, with Michael the Archangel in front. Swords of faith drawn, they were poised, just waiting for their Queen’s command. The Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was placed at the helm of the ship leading the Austrian fleet into battle, to victory.
Man’s weapons could not defend their land, but roses in the form of rosary beads moved Jesus’ Heart and through His Mother Mary, He did the rest. Jesus, I trust in You!
We’re in the seventeenth century and the Turkish forces are still forging ahead, hell-bent on conquering and subjugating all of Christian Europe. We find ourselves in Vienna, in 1683. The Emperor of Austria’s forces are exhausted and discouraged. They are badly outnumbered and weary from battle. The Emperor in a last ditch effort, sends word to King John Sobieski, Sovereign of Poland, imploring his help.
Now, this was not the first time that King Sobieski faced overwhelming odds in battle. But the pendulum swung so overpoweringly in the enemy’s favor, he did not know if this was to be his death rather than his victory. As the Turkish invaders were converging on Vienna, King John Sobieski turned to Our Lady of Czestochowa: “Give us victory, My Lady, grant us your help and salvation. As for me, do whatever you choose. I’ll accept your will, whether it’s life or death.”
Suddenly a thought came to him: “Instead of honoring her (Mother Mary), we have passed a lot of responsibility on to her. Seeking honor and glory for ourselves, we’ve left the toil to her. But she has accepted it. I don’t know why she loves us, yet she does love us, even if we repay her with ingratitude and disloyalty.”
“Give us victory,” he prayed, “and let it be your victory alone.” He came before the people and asked them to join him in publicly placing all their trust in Our Lady. He knelt humbly before his Queen, Mary most holy and one by one all the people knelt with him. He began the Apostles Creed, reminding them what they believed, and what so many before them had died for. All the faithful prayed, only now, the prayers took on different meaning. They were no longer just words; they were a battle hymn: This is what we believe; and for this we die, rather than deny our Lord.
As they continued the Rosary, now reciting the Lord’s prayer, the words “thy Will be done” took on new meaning. They were truly commending their lives to the Father, self-abandonment, the trust of children, of whom Jesus said: “The Kingdom of Heaven is theirs”. The King placed his troops and all of Vienna under the protection of Our Blessed Mother. Man, woman and child, peasant and noble, King and soldier all intoned, with one voice and one hope, the supplication, “Mary help us”. And help them, she did.
80,000 Christian troops, with King John Sobieski in front, defeated a fierce Turkish army consisting of 250,000 barbarians.
Now, the Turkish army was known for their inhumane treatment of soldiers and citizens. The mere thought of them approaching a village would bring terror into the hearts of men as well as women. What gave these people the courage to fight and win? The Mother of God, “Mary, Help of all Christians”. What gave them the power and the ammunition to use against the enemy? The Rosary!
World War II was raging and ravaging nation after nation in Europe and in Asia. No country was safe from the relentless forging ahead, onslaught of the godless Nazi and merciless Japanese forces. World War I, “the war to end all wars” had done no such thing. Adolf Hitler, the man everyone thought was a harmless maniac, no one to pay any attention to, was conquering most of Western Europe. The tiny nation of Japan, which was negotiating with our government right up to the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, was determined to rule the rest of the world.
The atrocities that our service men shared after they returned home gave us a clue to the inhumane torture they underwent in prison camps. The rules governing the treatment of prisoners, that had been set up by the Geneva Convention, before World War I, did not seem to apply to the members of the Axis, as the Nazi-Japanese alliance was called. They acted as if they were exempt from this governing body which was given the authority to insure humanitarian treatment to all prisoners of war. The Nurenburg trials brought out the open defiance of the Nazis as witnesses came forth, testifying to the monstrous genocide and barbaric experimentation done on civilians as well as prisoners of war.
The Japanese fleet was ominously approaching the tiny nation of Sri Lanka. They were not equipped, in the smallest way, to defend themselves against the powerful Japanese Navy. It seemed all was lost. Then, the Bishop of Sri Lanka turned to Mother Mary. He knew that her Son Jesus would not refuse her anything. He promised the Lord he would build a Cathedral in His Mother’s honor if they were saved from the enemy that was almost upon them. He placed his small island under the protection of Mother Mary. We can just see Mother Mary covering them with her mantle, blocking the people of Sri lanka as they knelt praying the Rosary. We can see her Heavenly Army of Angels spreading their wings, swords drawn. Did they blind the eyes of the invading fleet so that they could not see the small nation? No one knows! But as resolutely as they had been converging on Sri Lanka, they turned around and did not attack the small island. Why had they left them alone? Ask Jesus and Mary when you see them!
Many of the Catholics in Germany, who refused to follow Hitler and his henchmen, suffered at the hands of the S.S. and the Gestapo. Thousands were sent to Concentration Camps. In one village, where there is a Shrine to Our Lady of Alt Otting, near Munich, on the eve of the end of the war, a Priest and six villagers were executed. What was their crime? They had gone to the Allied forces to plead with them to not harm the Shrine to Our Lady. For this, the Nazis brutally murdered them.
The shadow of the hammer and sickle was covering more and more of Eastern Europe. As Hitler scorched the earth, the Soviet troops watched and waited. They would have their fun, next. In 1945, the Second World War ended, but for too many that did not mean peace. Instead a new enemy was marching. God alone knew what horrors that would mean. The people of Austria waited and trembled.
Their worst fears came to pass. Russian troops occupied their land. A feeling of helplessness began to spread through the villages; the faithful began to turn to the Mother of God, their Maria. They could not fight with man’s weapons; they were plainly outnumbered. They would fight on their knees. They prayed as if with one mind and heart, families, whole villages, men and women alike, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, all pleading for Our Lady’s intervention.
They had been forced to hail Hitler (Heil Hitler). And many of their families had died rather than pay tribute to this pagan who had set himself up as God. Now, as they prayed the Fifteen decades of the Holy Rosary, they hailed their Mother and their Lord Jesus. And their Heavenly Family heard them and came through. The Russian troops just turned around and marched out of Austria. Without any worldly reasoning, the Russian troops just pulled out. There was no explanation ever given why they just upped and left. As quickly as they had appeared, they disappeared.
What made them do it? Could it be that the Mother of God, their Maria, and her Son, summoned Their Heavenly Army of Angels and with the Rosary as ammunition, the Russians, knowing they were outnumbered, retreated?
Brazil has always been a country of the haves and the have nots. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. The many poor live in cardboard houses, while the few rich live in mansions. Sanitary conditions are virtually unknown for most of the citizens of Brazil. It is a nation of many Old Testament Lazarus’ who would relish some scraps from the tables of their own “rich man”.
It is a natural breeding ground for Communism to infiltrate and spread. When your child’s stomach is swollen from starvation and his lips are parched from lack of water, when you see your family dying before your eyes because their is no medical aid for them, any promise of hope sounds better than what you have.
It looked as if an even greater monster would swallow up the innocent souls of Brazil. It was the eve of the elections. The Communist party had campaigned well and hard. It was a shoo-in. Victory was certain! The celebrations had already begun in the Communist Party Headquarters. Did the poor not realize they were, like so many of their Hispanic brothers and sisters, only trading one kind of inequity for another?
Who would tell them? There was no other voice they would listen to. The Communists made it sound so good. They had promised them change. And any change was better than what they had. The poor would have a chance at education, health care, better living conditions, benefits from Big Brother (the Communist Party) unlike anything they had ever dreamed of. It sounded so good! It looked as if the faithful, the poor who had no earthly wealth, only Heavenly riches, would trade in their God and their Mother Mary for the godless paganism of Communism, without even knowing that was what they were doing.
Dusk had fallen. The streets were dark, except for some lights streaming out from the buildings. Suddenly, light started to cut through the darkness. It seemed far off, almost diffused, flickering. From a distance, it appeared as if waves of rays were flowing upward toward Heaven. As the light came closer, all the eye could see were Brazilian women processing, carrying candles, singing litanies to our Lady and praying the Rosary. They, like so many of us, when we are in danger, were crying out to Mama. And she was turning to her Son, as she did at Cana. And He was now, not changing water into wine; He was changing men’ hearts of stone into hearts made for Him alone. Through the Rosary, it was as if Jesus was walking the earth once more, and the veils were lifting from the people’s eyes, and they could see the Communists for who they were.
The sure Victory became the surprising, but devastating Defeat!
The citizens of the Philippines had suffered at the hands of President Marcos and his wife Imelda, who made a sport out of selfish, excessive spending while their people starved. How the people had loved President Marcos! How they had embraced him and his bride. How they in turn had betrayed them. It seemed as if there was no hope for the people. When someone attempted to better conditions and try by election to bring about reform, he was killed. Cory Aquino’s husband was such a man. He was returning to Manila to run for office against President Marcos. He was assassinated as he deplaned the aircraft, in front of his wife and family.
Cory Aquino fearlessly rose up to continue her husband’s mission. And, the people responded. They went out into the streets and processed, walls of humanity marching forward, flowers in one hand and rosaries in the other, fingering the beads of their rosaries as tanks with their young men came toward them. When it seemed as if neither side would give in, suddenly the soldiers climbed down from their tanks and joined the faithful, taking beads into their hand, their guns replaced by the armor of God, the Rosary.
There are those who say, Our Lady appeared in the sky, to the soldiers in Marcos’ army, and pleaded with them not to hurt her children. There is a statue there in the square, to commemorate this time when despair disappeared and hope appeared, when for a moment the world could see the day when the “lion would lay down with the lamb”!
Is there power in the Rosary? The Rosary has lived on, in the hands of the faithful, in freedom and in captivity. But in a few years, a man and a woman, who had the power to do good but chose evil, will be forgotten.
As we have been writing about the Victories of the Rosary, we started to understand what we believe the Lord is saying through this book: There is hope! Be not afraid! See how I have responded when you have turned to My Mother through the Rosary. I have given you a means, a gift. All you have to do is reach out and pray. I am listening!
The city of New Orleans in the Louisiana territory was originally a French settlement in 1718, then became a Spanish settlement in 1763, and then again a French settlement, before Napoleon Bonaparte sold it to the United States in 1803. This can all be said in one sentence, but the ramifications of such change were monumental.
A little community of French Ursuline nuns came to New Orleans in 1727, to educate the settlers, and help in the hospital. All went well until 1763 when the city came under Spanish rule. Many Spaniards came, and with them Spanish nuns. Now the Ursulines were predominantly Spanish, with a remnant of French nuns.
In 1800, the French took back New Orleans. It was only eleven years since the French Revolution had devastated France, and most particularly, the religious in France. Tales reached the Mother Superior of the Ursulines (who was Spanish), of whole communities of nuns being decapitated, subjected to inhumane atrocities, priests exiled or killed in France. She feared for her community. She wrote to the King of Spain, Charles IV, asking permission to leave New Orleans immediately with her sisters. Soon after having sent the petition, she and fifteen Spanish nuns left for Havana.
All that was left were seven French Ursulines, but they kept everything going. The Mother Superior, Mother St. Andr‚ Madier, longed for the strength of her cousin, Mother St. Michel. She wrote, pleading with Mother St. Michel to come to New Orleans and take charge of the community. She was well known for her leadership ability and piety. Mother St. Michel was strong, having gone underground when the Revolution began. In the south of France, with the help of another woman, she had begun to rebuild her community, and open a girls’ boarding school in Montpelier. When she received word from Mother Andr‚, of their plight she dropped everything and set out for the New World.
That’s when the trouble began, and Our Lady was put in charge. Mother St. Michel appealed first to her Spiritual Director. He refused her permission to leave France. The state of the religious communities in France was a shambles. A woman of her qualifications was needed in France. He sent her to the Bishop. His refusal was even louder than the Spiritual Director. He almost screamed at her, “The Pope alone can give this authorization....the Pope alone!”
Now if you consider that Pope Pius VII was imprisoned by Napoleon, and being transported from Rome to Versailles, and that he was completely incommunicado, you can realize the futility of the whole situation. However, Mother St. Michel was a feisty nun. She wrote a letter to the Pope anyway. The thrust of her letter was as follows:
“Most Holy Father, I appeal to your Apostolic tribunal. I am ready to submit to your decision. Speak. Faith teaches me that you are the voice of the Lord. I await your orders. “Go” or “Stay” from Your Holiness, will be the same to me.”
The letter had been written for three months, but there had been no way to post it. The conditions of the country were such that nothing was secure. So Mother Superior addressed Our Lady: “O Most Holy Virgin Mary, if you obtain a prompt and favorable answer to my letter, I promise to have you honored in New Orleans under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.” Part of the deal with our Lady was that a statue would be carved, which would be brought to New Orleans and made the protectress of the community.
Nobody acts more quickly than Mother Mary when she wants something done. Mother St. Michel’s letter left Montpelier on March 19, 1809, and permission was granted by His Holiness April 28. She left for Louisiana with her statue of Our Lady. She kept her word to Our Lady. As soon as she and her little group of nuns arrived in New Orleans, Our Lady’s statue was placed in the Convent Chapel, under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.
Devotion spread throughout New Orleans, even into other areas of Louisiana. There are two memorable miracles attributed to Our Lady of Prompt Succor’s intervention:
The first is the great fire of 1812.
The entire city of New Orleans was being ravaged by a devastating fire, which was fanned by incredible winds. The fire was heading straight for the little convent. One of the sisters place a statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in the window, and prayed for the aid of Mother Mary under this title. Within minutes, the winds made a forty-five degree turn in the other direction. Witnesses who saw the miracle proclaimed: “Our Lady of Prompt Succor has saved us!”.
One of the most famous incidents of Our Lady of Prompt Succor’s intervention in the city of New Orleans was during the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Andrew Jackson’s troops were greatly outnumbered by the British, their naval power far greater than anything we could handle. It was time for Mary. Mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters of the men fighting the great battle, flocked to the little Ursuline Chapel on the evening of January 7, 1815, and prayed the entire night. In the morning, these faithful servants of Mary, not having had any sleep, joined in the Sacrifice of the Mass, celebrated by a future Bishop of New Orleans, Fr. William Dubourg. At Communion time, a carrier brought news: The British had been defeated; the city of New Orleans had been saved. Once more, Our Lady of Prompt Succor had come to the rescue of her people.
The statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor remains in the little Ursuline Chapel in New Orleans, which has since been renamed the National Shrine to Our Lady of Prompt Succor. A yearly Mass of Thanksgiving is sung on January 8 of each year. The Shrine has been given esteemed honors from the Holy See. On September 27, 1851, Pope Pius IX authorized the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, and the singing of the Mass on January 8 each year. In 1894, Pope Leo XIII issued a decree, granting the “Solemn Coronation of the Miraculous Statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, exposed to public veneration in the Chapel of the Ursuline Convent, New Orleans”.
The Shrine to Our Lady of Prompt Succor is a powerful, authentic American Shrine in honor of the Mother of God, and in thanksgiving for all the favors granted through her intercession. Mary said to us at the Rue du Bac in Paris, when she gave us the Miraculous Medal in 1830, “But come to the foot of the altar; great graces will be poured out to those who ask for them.” Many tourists come to New Orleans every year for any number of reasons, including Mardi Gras. Take time to visit this powerful Shrine of Our Lady right here in our own country. Come to the foot of the Altar. She is waiting here for you. The address is
National Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor
2635 State Street - New Orleans, LA 70118
Particular thanks and credit must be given to Dr. Paul Hatrel, of New Orleans, whom we met on our first visit to New Orleans in 1987, and who gave us this information.
We see on our supposedly non-biased news reports on television, scenes of violence (often orchestrated by media cameramen) which show men and women, who are trying to defend defenseless unborn babies from being murdered, in an unsympathetic light. We do not approve of violence in any form, but we do take issue with the fuss made because of damage to buildings and the total disregard of the murdering of innocent unborn American children.
Why do we not see in the newspapers, and hear on television, about the faithful who fight on their knees with the Rosary as their sword? In New Orleans, a group of Pro-Lifers prayed 15 decades of the Holy Rosary outside of an abortion clinic (Delta Women’s Clinic). Members of the Rosary Novena for Life had been processing for months prior to this day. The Clinic was closed down within a week...on Magnificat’s Day of the Rosary Congress.
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, in this time of need for our Church and our country, please accept our prayers and ask your Son for mercy on us and our families.
We thank Father Harold F. Cohen, S.J., in particular, for his invaluable help in our presenting many of the victories of the Rosary in this chapter.
