pray for us, la Cachita, and for Cubans throughout the world

image at Cuban Heritage Collection,
Richter Library, University of Miami

Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Cuba (Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre) may not be as well known in American culture as Our Lady of Guadalupe. But one can find Our Lady of Charity’s image in churches around the world.

Wherever Cuban refugees have resettled, they have brought with them their devotion to la Caridad.

She is in a side chapel at the pre-eminent Marian shrine in the United States, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

She stands to the right of the altar at the open-air of St. Andrew by the Sea Catholic Church in North Padre Island, Texas.

[Just last year, an image of La Cachita, Cuba's beloved patron, was given a place of honor in the Vatican gardens.]

And in Miami, just south of the downtown skyscrapers, there is a beautiful shrine built in her honor by Cuban exiles 40 years ago.

“La Virgen de la Caridad is the most profound symbol of the Cuban nation,” said Bishop Felipe de Jesús Estévez of St. Augustine, FL. “The British have their queen, the Cubans have la Caridad. Even before Jamestown, El Cobre kept this gracious statue.”

Read more about her in my article on Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre here.

And for a personal reflection on what she means to me, drop by here.

Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, pray for Cuba.

Our Lady of Charity, pray for all Cubans, 

in the island as well as exiled throughout the world.

Pray for us, la Cachita, that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ.

Mother, help our faith!

San Alfonso Retreat House, NJ

Mary of the tents, Iraqui Christian's refugee camp

watching over Santiago de Chile

Pastoral Center, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City

I don't remember if I've shared this with you before, so here's hoping and praying it be new to you (in some form) today!

This beautiful prayer was introduced to the world by Pope Francis on June 29, 2013, the first year of his pontificate. It was the final prayer in Lumen Fidei [The Light of Faith], his first encyclical letter as pope. 

Chartres Cathedral, crypt church

Sainte-Mère-Eglise, France

I prayed with these words this morning, and it occurs to me that if you haven't discovered it already, some of you may appreciate it as well.

I've included with it here some of my (current!) favorite images of Mother Mary--and I've tried to label where they're from.

on the side of the road, near Sorrento, Italy

door of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral, OkCity

Let us turn in prayer to Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of our faith.

Mother, help our faith! 

Open our ears to hear God’s word and to recognize his voice and call. 

Awaken in us a desire to follow in his footsteps, to go forth from our own land and to receive his promise. 
Help us to be touched by his love, that we may touch him in faith. 
Help us to entrust ourselves fully to him and to believe in his love, especially at times of trial, beneath the shadow of the cross, when our faith is called to mature. 
Sow in our faith the joy of the Risen One. 
Remind us that those who believe are never alone. 
Teach us to see all things with the eyes of Jesus, that he may be light for our path.
And may this light of faith always increase in us, until the dawn of that undying day which is Christ himself, your Son, our Lord!

Ephesus, Turkey

Finisterre, Spain

Antigua, Guatemala

watching over the town of Agropoli, on the Italian Amalfi coast

and let it begin with me

"MAY A POWERFUL CRY FOR PEACE 

GO UP FROM EVERY LAND!"

~Pope Francis

“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?” 

~Dorothy Day

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When the moments of crisis and violence around the world and in our country feels too overwhelming for me... when I start to feel helpless before the power of evil that I see, hear, smell, touch, seemingly everywhere I go... when my own heart begins to wonder, what difference does it make?...

I remember an ordinary, unwed woman living in a run of the mill, inconsequential village who, with her “yes,” gave birth to the Son of God.

I remember a mother whose prayers and petitions for her son’s conversion, brought about a priest, an illustrious bishop, who is also a renowned Doctor of the Church.  

I remember a simple, honest man from Okarche, Oklahoma, who after failing his second year of seminary Theology, became a missionary for the faith—and eventually, a martyr—ministering the people of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala.

I remember the miracles in my own life, the abundant moments of grace that come about when I humbly and faithfully get on my knees in prayer and examine, “am I doing my part?”

Yes, let there be peace on earth—and let it begin with me.

Our Lady Queen of peace,

pray for us sinners,

now and in the hour of our death.