Fr. Kevin Dillon is the Pastor of St. Boniface Martyr Parish, Sea Cliff, Long Island, NY.
When I was in college back in the early 1980’s I had an accident on the morning I was scheduled to take a final exam. It was not a car accident, but an accident in my parents’ bathroom in Williston Park. I awoke much earlier than usual around 4:00 AM and the exam was not scheduled until 12:30 that afternoon. Perhaps it was anxiety, although the course was enjoyable and relatively easy and the professor was very reasonable and fair. It may also have been the fact that it was the last final of the semester and I was ready for vacation and Christmas. Nonetheless, I got up and went into the bathroom to shower and brush my teeth. When I got into the bathroom, I felt sweaty, cold and “light-headed” and sat at the edge of the bathtub because I felt as if I was going to faint, and FAINT I DID! The next thing I knew my father was trying to pry open the bathroom door to reach me lying face down in a pool of blood. Apparently, I cut myself directly under my eye because of a sharp prong at the bottom of a radiator. My father was attempting to help me get up, and I all I keep saying was where’s mommy? I want mommy. Talk about insulting my poor father! Both my mom and dad took me to Winthrop Hospital in Mineola where I had plastic surgery performed directly under my eye, so there would be no scarring.
No doubt, sometimes many of us just want our mother; perhaps just for soothing comfort. We live in frightening and uncertain times. All we need to do is look back two weeks ago at the shooting in the night club in Orlando, FL. This crime was a horrible act of depraved indifference against individuals who were just enjoying a Saturday night out on the town. It is a frightening and sad fact of contemporary life to live with the uncertainty of a surprise attack where innocent and law abiding people are just out having a good time. As one commentator put it, NO PLACE IS SAFE OR IMMUNE FROM SUCH AN ATTACK; life can, indeed, be scary.
What are we to do? If we look back at history, there are other periods of turmoil and uncertainty as well. One such period was the Middle Ages when Pope Pius V asked Christians to seek Our Lady’s intercession for the defeat of the Muslim Ottoman Turks against Christianity under the title Our Lady Help of Christians. Throughout the centuries, Catholics have relied on Mary’s intercession and sought her help for a variety of causes.
In 1866, Pope Pius IX entrusted the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help to the Redemptorists with the mission to MAKE HER KNOWN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. Today the icon is known to millions of devotees praying and celebrating with Mary, the outpouring of God’s abundant graces and unconditional love. The title is quite appropriate for Mary, because she loves us, her children, unconditionally, as all mothers do. Our world certainly needs her intercession and assistance at this tragic and frightening time in history.
Here at St. Boniface, Martyr on Monday,
June 27 at 7:30 PM in Church we will hold a prayer service in honor of the SESQUINCENTENIAL ANNIVERSARY of this devotion. Christians and Christianity are under attack; Religious Liberties and religious Freedoms are being taken for granted at best and subtly being eroded and rescinded at worst! Another very beautiful title for Mary is Our Lady of Peace. We desperately need peace in our world and ourselves. Today, more than ever we face so many difficulties; PLEASE CONSIDER ATTENDING THIS SPECIAL PRAYER SERVICE INVOKING OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP!
Fr. Kevin’s letter appears each week in print and online in the St. Boniface Martyr Parish Bulletin.
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