A Holy Gift
Father Roger Charest, SMM
Former managing Editor of the Queen of All Hearts Magazine
A Holy Gift
We had just checked into our hotel in Rome that late Sunday afternoon, last September 20th, when I received word from our Superior General’s office, in Monte Mario, that I had been invited to join the holy Father in a concelebrated Mass the following morning, in his private chapel, at Castelgandolfo. Obviously someone had requested this privilege for me on the occasion of my golden jubilee of ordination. I later found out that our Superior General, Father Gerard Lemire himself, had put in the request.
You may well imagine my surprise and the subsequent joy of the anticipation! However, there was one hitch: I was scheduled to lead my pilgrimage group to Assisi that day! “What should I do?” I asked my fellow pilgrims who, incidentally, seemed as much excited about my papal invitation as I was. “Go,” they said with one voice, “This is a chance of a life-time for you, Father”!
Of course, I didn’t need too much prodding. So it was arranged that our pilgrimage secretary, Matt Anderson, along with a professional tour guide, would take them to Assisi that day. Meanwhile, long before dawn that Monday morning, a taxi sped me outside of Rome up to Castelgandolfo. This is the Holy Father’s summer residence, where I was ushered into his private chapel for the Mass. With about twelve priests from various countries, the Sovereign Pontiff concelebrated the Mass in Italian that day.
I now consider the highlight of my golden jubilee year of priesthood is that great privilege of concelebrating the Eucharist with Pope John Paul II
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The Pope’s Devotion to Our Lady
Its true, I have always felt a great affinity and warm affection for the Holy Father. Especially because of his great devotion to Our Blessed Mother. I never dreamed I would be invited to concelebrate the Eucharist with him in such an intimate way. We tried to be one with him as he offered the Sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the world. I was not only praying for him, as I do at every Mass, but I was praying with him. And he was praying with me! What a beautiful thing a concelebrated Mass can be when one realizes the oneness of Christ’s priesthood and the power of the Eucharistic Sacrifice!
In the Pope’s private chapel in Castelgandolfo, I was not surprised to see, high above the altar, a beautiful icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, patroness of Poland, his native land. The Holy Father’s devotion to Our Lady is well known. As Andre Frossard wrote in his marvelous book on John Paul II’s life and beliefs, entitled: BE NOT AFRAID. “It springs from the Gospel of course, but it owes a great deal to a small book lost or forgotten for a century and a half, the Traite de la vrale dévotion â la Sainte Vierge, by St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, written about 1700″.
Turning Point
“The reading of this book,” the Holy Father said, “was a decisive turning point in my life. I say ‘turning point’ but in fact it was a long inner journey. A journey which coincided with my clandestine preparation for the priesthood . . . The Treatise is one of those books that it is not enough to ‘have read’ . I continually went back to certain passages. I soon saw that in spite of the book’s baroque style it dealt with something fundamental. As a result, my devotion to the Mother of God in my childhood and adolescence yielded to a new attitude springing from the depths of my faith, as though from the very heart of the Trinity and Jesus Christ . . .
The more my inner life has been centered on the mystery of the Redemption, the more surrender to Mary, in the spirit of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort, has seemed to me the best means of participating fruitfully and effectively in this reality, in order to draw from it and share with others its in- expressible riches”. (pp. 124-26).
Loyalty to the Holy See
Our readers are well aware that it has been the policy of The QUEEN over the years to foster loyalty to the Holy See. Following in the footsteps of St. Louis de Montfort who journeyed to Rome on foot to receive the Holy Father’s advice and blessing on his apostolate, our Community has always prided itself in its loyal attachment to the Vicar of Christ on earth. During the French Revolution the Montfort Missionaries were branded as Papists, and some were even put to death for their loyalty to Rome. In our Constitutions, approved by St. Pius X in 1904 and reconfirmed in 1949, we read; “The members of the Company of Mary consecrate themselves totally to the service of Christ through Mary. They also embrace the Cross of Christ and profess a filial devotion and complete obedience to his Vicar on earth”. (No. 6).
Is it any wonder then that, looking back, what I now consider the highlight of my golden jubilee year of priesthood is that great privilege of concelebrating the Eucharist with Pope John Paul II. He who, in my humble estimation, is probably the greatest Marian Pope the Church has ever known. I asked for his blessing not only for myself but also for my family, my co-workers in my Marian apostolate and for all who, in the spirit of St. Louis de Montfort, work for and eagerly await the Reign of Christ through Mary in our world!
