a year of prayer: 365 Rosaries

Today, April 9, we celebrate he feast day of Saint Casilda of Toledo (approximately 950-1050). While little is known about Saint Casilda, what we do know is inspirational—especially at a time when both inter and intra-religion conflicts continue to exist. The life of Saint Casilda reminds us that the Lord calls us to love and acceptance of all people, and challenges us to open our hearts to those we disagree with or do not understand.

Saint Casilda was born the daughter of a Muslim king in Toledo, Spain. Raised Muslim, she embraced her faith and felt a strong desire to help others—including the many Christian prisoners detained in Spanish prisons. In her kindness, against the orders of her father, Casilda often visited the prisoners, smuggling in food and bread for them in the folds of her dress. As holy legend recounts, on one occasion Casilda was stopped by prison guards who demanded she disclose what she was hiding in her clothing. Upon revealing the folds of her skirt, the bread she carried miraculously transformed into roses. Saint Casilda is oftentimes depicted in religious art carrying a basket or bunch of roses of this reason.

As a young woman, Saint Casilda fell ill, likely from a hemorrhagic fever common at the time, for which there was no cure. She refused the assistance of the best Muslim physicians, and instead, traveled down the Iberian Peninsula to the Shrine of San Vicente, known for it’s healing waters and miraculous cures. There, through her faith and holiness, she was cured of her illness, and later baptized into Christianity.

Saint Casilda lived the remainder of her life as an anchoress (until she reached the age of 100!) in quiet penance and solitude, contemplating the wonder of God, and praying for those on earth. She died peacefully, having served her creator well while practicing two faiths on earth.

Saint Casilda reminds us of the divides that exist between religions today (as well as within our own Church), and models for us the simple love and acceptance of others that the Lord calls us to. Rather than judge the imprisoned Christians, she brought them food. Rather than return to her family and argue with them about their faith, she chose to avoid the conflict, praying for them from afar. How often do we seek our arguments? How often do we judge members of our own and other faith communities? How might we better serve the Lord and draw others to Him through the practice of love, charity, and acceptance?

Today, we celebrate the feast of Divine Mercy, remembering on the Octave of Easter, the mercy of the Lord. Proclaimed by Pope John Paul II (who is also celebrating beatification today), at the canonization Mass of Saint Faustina, this day “from now on throughout the Church this Sunday will be called Divine Mercy Sunday.”


Prior to her canonization, Pope John Paul II had actively promoted the message of Saint Faustina, regarding the Divine Mercy of Jesus. Saint Faustina had recorded in her diary the specific devotion to Jesus, given to her by the Lord. She stated that anyone who participates in Mass and receives both the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist on Divine Mercy Sunday, is assured by Jesus of the full remission of their sins. In his encyclical on the Mercy of the Lord, Pope John Paul II developed and explained a spiritual and doctrinal basis for our faith in the mercy of God. By linking the revealed truth about God’s mercy to one of the most solemn Sundays after Easter itself, he illumined the fact that the liturgy already proclaimed the divine mercy. The truth has been embedded for two millennia in the worship of the Church.



Today, during Mass, we sing from Psalm 118, “His mercy endures forever.” In the Gospel of John we remember that gift of “Peace” given to the disciples by the Risen Christ, showing the marks of His suffering and Passion, and demonstrating the saving grace and mercy of His death and resurrection. They, like ourselves, are filled with joy as He provides to the disciples the power of God’s mercy for the sinner, the gift and sacrament we know as Reconciliation: “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Cardinal Justin Rigali of Saint Louis noted regarding Reconciliation, “This beautiful Sacrament was presented to the Church by Christ himself on the day of his Resurrection, hence this Sacrament of Mercy is supremely relevant also in this Easter season.”

As we gather around the table of the Mass, we realize that Divine Mercy Sunday (while possibly given a new name) is not a new feast established to celebrate Saint Faustina's revelations. Indeed, it is not primarily about Saint Faustina at all — nor is it altogether a new feast! This solemn Mass recovers an ancient liturgical tradition, reflected in a teaching attributed to Saint Augustine of Hippo about the Easter Octave, which he called "the days of mercy and pardon," and the Octave Day itself "the compendium of the days of mercy."

We may doubt like Thomas. We may struggle and fall. But we can remain confident in the Divine Mercy of the Lord, given to us in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, and present in the sacraments. We need only look to the Eucharist for a vivid reminder of Our Lord’s unending mercy and love, both during the Easter season and throughout the year.

Today, Easter Sunday, we celebrate with great joy the Resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ! Alleluia! The Resurrection of the Lord is also the first Glorious Mystery of the Holy Rosary. We can imagine that Our Blessed Mother, Mary, having been foretold of His birth by an angel, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and suffered with Him as he died on the cross, knew that Her Son, Our Lord, was unlike any other. Her heart—the heart of a mother—died with Christ, but like ourselves, was reborn in the Resurrection!


We, like Christ, die a thousand times in sin, rising again in the forgiveness of Our Lord. Monsignor Romano Guardini writes, “This dying and entombing of the old self is a constant process within us through every struggle against evil, through every conquest of self, through every suffering which is bravely borne, through every sacrifice of love and charity. But through this dying of the old self, the resurrection of the new man is also accomplished.” We are reminded on Easter Sunday that our own lives must be those of conversion and resurrection. That our daily pain and struggle against sin brings us closer to the newness of life. After the pain of Good Friday, and the silent waiting of Holy Saturday, we find the love and forgiveness of the Lord on Easter morning.


1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8Then they remembered his words.



9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.



17He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"

Holy Saturday.

The bleakest of days.

Holy Saturday marks the day after. It is the day that the disciples of Jesus stood in shock, in horror, in guilt, in sadness, in utter desolation. It was a day of mourning, of fear, and of silence-- complete silence, as if the entire world had gone quiet. As if the Lord, Himself, had grown silent.

For the disciples, it was a day of hopelessness. All that they had hoped in, all that they had believed, all that they had expected to come to pass had died on a cross. They were deserted. They didn’t know what would happen next. They were afraid.

And they waited.

The first disciples of Jesus didn’t have the hope-giving knowledge that we do. They didn’t know what was about to transpire, how the world was to be changed forever. It is this knowledge that we have that allows us to continue on, to hope, to look forward to the glorious new day about to dawn.

But the disciples sat in disbelief and grief. They no longer had anything to hope in. They sat in silence, hearts broken, lives shattered.

Today, we know the truth. We know that the Lord answered their silence with the most profound of words- Resurrection. We know that by tomorrow, the tomb will be empty and Jesus will have risen in glorious triumph over death. And yet, like the first disciples, we remain silent all too often in our lives. We lose hope all too often. We despair all too often. We turn away from the promise of Christ all too often.

And on Holy Saturday we are reminded of this. Good Friday reminds us that our loving God died for our sins and saved us. Holy Saturday reminds us that despite this, we lose faith and turn from God every day in small ways. And Easter Sunday reminds us that God continues to love us, regardless of our sins. He is our light in the time of darkness, our comfort in the time of pain, our hope in the time of loneliness, fear, and despair.

Tomorrow, like the disciples of Christ, we will run joyfully to the empty tomb. But today, Holy Saturday, we are called to sit in our pain. We are called to sit in our loneliness, taking final stock of our lives prior to the dawning of Easter. We are called to pause, while the entire world groans in the pain and suffering of uncertainty and loss. We are called to wait, in silence, for the coming of Our Lord.



22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.


26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. (Romans 8: 22-27)