Out of sight, out of mind

[Weedy]

Out of sight, out of mind

Christ is gone away; he is not seen; we never saw him, we only read
and hear of him. It is an old saying, "Out of sight, out of mind." Be
sure, so it will be, so it must be with us, as regards our blessed
Savior, unless we make continual efforts all through the day to think
of him, his love, his precepts, his gifts, and his promises. We must
recall to mind what we read in the gospels and in holy books about
him; we must bring before us what we have heard in church; we must
pray God to enable us to do so, to bless the doing so, and to make us
do so in a simple-minded, sincere, and reverential spirit. In a word,
we must meditate, for all this is meditation; and this even the most
unlearned person can do, and will do, if he has a will to do it.
--Bl. John Henry Newman

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March 23rd - Blessed Rafqa Shabaq al-Rayes, Visionary
(also known as Rafka, Rebecca, Pierina, or Boutrosiya)

Born in Hemlaya, Lebanon, June 29, 1832; died October 23, 1914;
beatified November 17, 1985.

Too often we forget that there are other rites within the Catholic
Church beyond the Roman Rite. Blessed Rafqa (Rebecca) is God's gift to
the universal Church from the Maronites, which hale from Lebanon.
Raqfa, like the bride in the Song of Songs, listened to her Beloved's
call: "Come from Lebanon, my promised bride, Come from Lebanon, come
on your way. Look down from the heights of Amanus, From the crests of
Senir and Hermon, The haunt of lions, The mountains of leopards. The
scent of your garments Is like the scent of Lebanon. She is a garden
enclosed, My sister, my promised bride; a garden enclosed A sealed
fountain Fountain of the garden, Well of living water, Streams flowing
down from Lebanon!" [vv. 4:1-15].

Pierina (Petronilla), the only child Mourad Saber Shabaq al-Rayes and
his wife Rafqa Gemayel, was named after Saint Peter on whose feast she
was born in the land of the Canaanites and Phoenicians. This blind
seer, known as the "Little Flower of Lebanon," the "Purple Rose," and
the "Silent, Humble Nun," related the story of her life to her mother
superior months before her death.

Life in Lebanon was not easy even in the 19th century and was made
more difficult for Pierina by the death of her mother when she was six
years old. She worked as a house maid in Syria for four years
(1843-1847) and a few years later (1853) entered the Marian Order of
the Immaculate Conception as a postulant at the convent of Our Lady of
Liberation in Bikfaya. Saint Maron's Day 1855 she was received as a
novice and took the name Anissa (Agnes). Five years later she
witnessed the massacre of Christians in Deir-el-Qamar. In 1871, her
order was united with that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to form the
Order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Each nun was given the
choice of entering the new order, another existing order, or being
dispensed from her vows.

Throughout her life, Raqfa was gifted with extraordinary revelations
by voices, dreams, and visions. In 1871, Sister Anissa went to Saint
George's Church in Batroun to pray about the future of her vocation.
That night she dreamed that Saint Antony the Hermit told her to become
a nun in the Baladiya Order of the Maronites. At the age of 39 (July
12, 1871), she responded to the dream by entering the ascetic Baladiya
Order at the cloistered convent of Saint Simon in El-Qarn, where she
was known as Boutrosiya from Hemlaya. She made her perpetual vows and
received the veil from Father Superior Ephrem Geagea al-Bsherrawi on
August 25, 1873, and took the name Rafqa (Rebecca).

As a member of an ascetic order, in 1885, Rafqa asked our Lord to let
her share in His suffering. From that night on her health began to
deteriorate. Shortly she was blind and crippled and still she imposed
greater penances upon herself, such as eating only the leftover scraps
of food. She continued to share in the prayers of the community and
its work by spinning wool and knitting of stockings. By 1907, Sister
Rafqa was totally paralyzed and in constant pain, but by uniting her
suffering with Christ's she was able to bear all with joy, without
complaint.

Four days after her death, her superior, Sister Doumit experienced the
first of many miracles wrought at the intercession of Blessed Rafqa
(Hourani, Zayek).


Saint Quote:
O wondrous exchange, eternal life is promised to us by the humility of
the Lord, who bowed himself down to our pride.
--St. Augustine, Confessions

Bible Quote:
Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge him
before My Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32)


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From The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori:

O my Jesus, and art not Thou, then, true king of the universe ? And
how is it that Thou art now become king of sorrow and reproach? See
whither love has brought Thee ! O my most lovely God, when will that
day arrive whereon I may so unite myself to Thee, that nothing may
evermore have power to separate me from Thee, and I may no longer be
able to cease to love Thee! O Lord, as long as I live in this world, I
always stand in danger of turning my back upon Thee, and of refusing
to Thee my love, as I have unhappily done in time past.

O my Jesus, if Thou foreseest that by continuing in life I should have
to suffer this greatest of all misfortunes, let me die at this moment,
while I hope that I am in Thy grace ! I pray Thee, by Thy Passion, not
to abandon me to so great an evil. I should indeed deserve it for my
sins; but Thou dost deserve it not. Choose out any punishment for me
rather than this. No, my Jesus, my Jesus, I would not see myself ever
again separated from Thee.
Amen.