F
Fraz94
Guest
Dear Friends in Christ,
P.S in order to set up this little “mini shrine within a mini shrine” I had to relocate St. Catherine Laboure, OLO of the Miraculous Medal, OLO Medjugorje and OLO Mount Carmel- so hope they like their new postions! Pray for me!
Code:
I have had a wonderful day- my mother, my sister and I all went to Westminster Cathedral where the three of us went to Confession and that to me is something special! I had been trying to encourage my mum to go to Confession for quite a while...afterwards in the shop next door (St. Pauls) I came across a beautiful statue of St. Margaret Clitherow, one of our English martyrs and I jumped at the chance to have it- I have been searching for a medal or a statue of her for ages, I said this to the lady in the shop and we both agreed that they were very rare and not easy to get your hands on (it was the only one on view). For those of you who haven't heard of her, St. Margaret Clitherow was a wife and mother living in Protestant Elizabethan England (some 500 years ago) where it was illegal to be a Catholic or to attend Mass. Margaret put her own life and that of her family's at risk by hiding a Priest in her home and teaching Catechism to local children in secret. Eventually the authorities found out and Margaret who was pregnant was arrested and taken into custody, at her trial the magistrate said to her that if she repented of her actions and promised never to do anything of the sort again she could go free and return to her husband and children, Margaret replied "whenever there is a Priest in need I will do everything in my hands to help him" for which she was sentenced to death and was crushed to death by a boulder!!! Her baby also died in the vile cruel execution that she accepted out of love for God, his Church and for defending his Holy Priesthood. Her hand was saved and is still in corrupt and preserved to this day in York! She is a huge example to us all and I know she isn't very much known outside of England, I would be interested to hear if anyone from other countries has heard of her and has devotion to her, I know that some traditional parishes in America have devotion to St. Thomas More and even St. John Fisher and I have heard to her as well, but I don't know to what extent she is known outside of England. She is just wonderful, I have so many favourite Saints and devotions but she certainly has my respect and I honour her now in this statue which as you can see has been placed in the corner of my little shrine. In the past I struggled with being proud to be English, I felt ashamed that "we" turned our backs on Rome and of the awful things that happened here- English people like Margaret Clitherow make me proud to call myself an Englishman and I have no problems with being such- and on top of that a proud English Catholic! I love my country and I am proud of her! The English Martyrs and Our Lady of Walsingham and her Ordinariate have helped me realise that, without the need to latch onto my Irishness or want to be a Spanish Catholic haha!
I now have a little "English Martyrs Shrine" on my Home Altar- as you can see...containing Our Lady of Walsingham- Patroness and Queen of England, St. Margaret Clitherow, a picture of St. Thomas More and a statue and image of St. John Southworth (whose mortal remains are in Westminster Cathedral- he was a Priest who was martyred). I am so pleased to have this and as an English Catholic I believe it is so important to honour Our Lady under her patronage of OLO Walsingham- just as in Mexico it is right to nationally honour her as Our Lady of Guadalupe, here we should honour her under this title- in Mexico I believe it is mandatory for every Church to have an image of OLO Guadalupe...well if I had my way it would be the same here with Our Lady of Walsingham! I also think that we should pay more attention to the martyrs who died for our faith in this our land, the Welsh have martyrs too- but as English Catholics we must never forget nor neglect our own- St. Margaret Clitherow is one of them!
Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us
St. Margaret Clitherow, pray for us
St. John Southworth, pray for us
St. Thomas More, pray for us
All ye Holy Martyrs of England, pray for us
St. George, Patron Saint of England, pray for us.