Our Lady of Pompeii – in our yard!! Taken August 6, 2016
(c)Mary TV 2016
JMJ
August 8, 2016
St. Dominic
Dear Family of Mary!
June 12, 1986 “Dear children! Today I call you to begin to pray the Rosary with a living faith. That way I will be able to help you. You, dear children, wish to obtain graces, but you are not praying. I am not able to help you because you do not want to get started. Dear children, I am calling you to pray the Rosary and that your Rosary be an obligation which you shall fulfill with joy. That way you shall understand the reason I am with you this long. I desire to teach you to pray. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Today is the Feast of St. Dominic! He is one of my favorite saints. In fact, we have a big statue which depicts St. Dominic, and St. Catherine of Siena, both receiving rosaries from Our Lady and Baby Jesus (see above). It is “Our Lady of Pompei” and is the image St. Bartolo Longo was given when he began his Rosary Campaign in Italy. His story is amazing!
This statue ended up in our yard a few years ago by a series of events that make me feel like it was meant to be here. The statue is huge, very heavy, and pure white. It was in a local chapel, and when the chapel was renovated, there was no room for it. A Medjugorje prayer group in our town decided it would be important to preserve the statue, and so together we arranged to store it, hoping to find a new church or chapel that would want it. It stayed in storage for several years. Then one day the warehouse was sold, and the statue needed to find a new home.
It was decided that our home was a good place for the beautiful marble statue. Denis and I prayed about where to place the statue. It was too heavy and big to come inside! We designated several spots in our yard, and then wrote them on little slips of paper. We prayed, and pulled out a slip. The spot? Right outside our picture window in the center of our yard! (This was the spot that Denis knelt in and prayed the Rosary over 40 years ago, asking Our Lady to let this be the home for our fledgling family! She came through with that request, and we have lived here 37 years!) Denis poured a slab of cement as a base, and then a fork lift and semi-truck delivered the statue, installing it on our cement slab! Whew!
Now we pray the rosary viewing this beautiful statue every morning and evening! It means so much to have two champions of the Rosary joining us. Truly they are a comfort and encouragement for Denis and me, as we try to respond to Our Lady’s call to pray the Rosary!
Here is a prayer to St. Dominic and St. Catherine, our companions in the Rosary!
Prayer to St. Dominic and St. Catherine
O holy Priest of God and glorious Patriarch, Saint Dominic, thou who wast the friend, the well-beloved son and the confidant of the Queen of Heaven, and didst work so many miracles by the power of the Holy Rosary; and thou, Saint Catherine of Siena, first daughter of this Order of the Rosary, and powerful mediator at Mary’s throne with the Heart of Jesus, with whom thou didst exchange thy heart; do you, my beloved Saints, have regard to my necessities and pity the sad condition in which I now find myself. On earth you opened your hearts to the miseries of your fellow-men and your hands were strong to help them; now in heaven your charity hath not grown less nor hath your power waned. Pray, ah, pray for me to the Mother of the Rosary and to her divine Son, for I have great confidence that through your assistance I shall obtain the favor I so much desire. Amen.
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2016
