Handmaids and Warriors Newsletter: June 2026

This is Alice’s June newsletter.  I explained Alice’s monthly newsletter here.  This month focuses on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Before the newsletter, let us pray: For Pope Leo XIV

Hail Mary, full of grace…

Hail Mary, full of grace…

Hail Mary, full of grace…

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

 

Handmaids of Mary

St. Michael’s Warriors 

                                                                 June 2026 Newsletter

 

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

 

Recently we celebrated the feast of Pentecost ending the Easter season.  Bishop Fulton Sheen, in an article on the Descent of the Holy Ghost on the apostles, said, that if Christ never left us, Christ would always be outside of us. By sending the Holy Ghost, He now dwells within us.

Bishop Sheen gave this analogy of how The Holy Ghost is an encounter with love.  “There was a boy who gave his parents a hard time.  He didn’t like brushing his hair, washing his face, and he had a surly disposition.  Whenever he went out the door, he slammed it.  One day he came to breakfast, his hair was combed, his faced washed, he was pleasant to everyone in the family, and, when he left, he closed the door quietly.  “He had met Susan…..”

He (the Holy Spirit) will be to us a cloud by day and a  brightness of flaming fire in the night, ever guiding, ever leading us on, unswervingly to our home beyond the grave.

I pray: Love of the Holy Spirit be thou the source of all the operations of our minds, that they may ever be conformed to God’s good pleasure.

Some unfinished business from last month: regarding Pope Pius IX and the Holy  Face of Christ, I neglected to mention the purpose of the devotion to the Holy Face is to make reparation for sins against the first three commandments:  First Commandment, against denial of God.  Second commandment, blasphemy such as using God’s name in vain.  Third commandment, the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days.  Our Lady of La Salette, whose sorrow was in the breaking of these commandments, gave us these words, “Fight, children of light; you, the few who can see!  For now is hot time of times, the end of all ends.  The Church will eclipse: the world will be in dismay.  It is time you filled the earth with light.  I am at your side.”

Recently I discovered there is a Holy Face medal. You can order it for free here.  Or send a self-addressed envelope with two first class stamps to: Holy Face Association, P. O. Box 821, Champlain, NY 12919-0821. 

 Prayer to the Holy Face by Mother Maria-Pierina (Carmelite):

O blessed Face of my kind Savior, by the tender love and piercing sorrow of Our Lady as she beheld you in your cruel Passion,

Grant us to share in this intense sorrow and love, to fulfill the holy will of God to the upmost of our ability.  Amen

The Holy Face is a weapon.  In our Blessed Mother’s own words, the medal is a weapon for defense, a shield for courage, a token of love and mercy, which My Divine Son wished to give the world in these troubled times.

There have been so many Holy Days this past month: Pentecost, Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, Sacred the Heart of Jesus. It is feast after the sorrow of lent.

The feast of Corpus Christi reminds us of the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Sadly, it was noted by a priest in his sermon, only 39% of Catholics believe in the real presence.  As we processed with the Holy Eucharist in the streets of our Parishes, and as the Pope processed in the streets of Madrid, Spain, Corpus Christi Sunday reminds us of the True Presence.

“When all the world is comfortless,  

   And wrapped in gloom as black as night.

Remind us, Lord, in our distress

  One spot on earth is always bright-

          The Tabernacle.”

In conclusion as a tribute to Bishop Fulton Sheen in commemoration of his beatification, I offer his favorite poem to our Blessed Lady, “Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue.”

Lovely Lady dressed in blue -------

Teach me how to pray!

God was just your little boy,

Tell me what to say!

Did you lift Him up, sometimes,

Gently on your knee?

Did you sing to Him the way

Mother does to me?

 

Did you hold His hand at night?

Did you ever try

Telling stories of the world?

O! And did He cry?

 

Do you really think He cares

If I tell Him things -------

Little things that happen? And

Do the Angels' wings

 

Make a noise? And can He hear

Me if I speak low?

Does He understand me now?

Tell me -------for you know.

 

Lovely Lady dressed in blue -------

Teach me how to pray!

God was just your little boy,

And you know the way. 

 

Handmaid of the Handmaids,

Alice

If I may, I loved Aaron Neville's version of "Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue."  He does take a few liberties with the lyrics, but I think the liberties actually improve it as a song.

Sunday Meditation: One Through Prayer

I know most of the country has transferred Ascension Thursday to Sunday, today.  For us in the Archdiocese of New York, last Thursday was Ascension Thursday and today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  Frankly that’s how it should be, and I definitely prefer it this way.  For the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A, Jesus continues his high priestly prayer.  He prophesizes his departure, and then prays for those given to Him.

Three years ago on this Gospel I highlighted what Jesus said was the means to eternal life: “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”  I consider this to be very important.  To know God through Jesus Christ is eternal life. 

But how does one “know God”?  Read Jesus’s last paragraph here; He tells us.  (1) Belonging to God through Jesus, (2) keeping God’s word, (3) knowing that everything comes from God, (4) receiving God’s word, and (5) understanding and accepting God’s word.

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,

“Father, the hour has come.

Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,

just as you gave him authority over all people,

so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.

Now this is eternal life,

that they should know you, the only true God,

and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

I glorified you on earth

by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.

Now glorify me, Father, with you,

with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

 

“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.

They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,

and they have kept your word.

Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,

because the words you gave to me I have given to them,

and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,

and they have believed that you sent me.

I pray for them.

I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,

because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours

and everything of yours is mine,

and I have been glorified in them.

And now I will no longer be in the world,

but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”

~Jn:17: 1-11

 

 

Since almost all of the rest of the country is on a different liturgical schedule, it is difficult to find pertinent homilies for the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  This children’s animation from Singapore (I think) called, “St. Joseph’s Corner,” does an excellent job of explaining the readings.

 

St. Joseph’s Corner:

The Seventh Sunday of Easter comes between the Ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  It is a time when the Church remembers what it means to wait on God’s promise.  The readings show the disciples gathered in prayer holding on to hope for what is to come…The Gospel shares the prayer of Jesus for His friends asking the Father to keep them safe and united.  The Seventh Sunday of Easter of Year A invites us to reflect on our faith while we wait for God to act.  It is a call to trust, to pray, and to hope, and to stay close to others who share the same hope.

 

On the Seventh Sunday of Easter of Year A, it aligns with the theme of trusting God while awaiting His work.  [It] invites us to reflect on Jesus’s prayer before He leaves His disciples.  He prays for Himself, His followers, and all who will believe in Him.  His words remind us of the importance of our relationship with God, the need for unity, and the call to love one another.

 

Perhaps that was intended for children, but that was pretty deep for adults too!

I’m going to go all the way to Nigeria for the pastoral homily.  I really enjoyed Fr. Martin Badejo’s homily who outright tells us his central theme: “Cultivate the Habit of Prayer.”

 

Fr. Martin:

This Gospel passage is referred to as the Priestly Prayer of Christ…He asks the Father to glorify Him.  He speaks of the source of eternal life as knowing the Father and Him whom the Father sent.  Then he prays about his disciples as well.  He makes his prayer directly to the Father for them so that the Father will protect them in the world, for they are in the world and He is going back to the Father.  In this short passage we find a lot of themes condensed together; such themes include the unity between the Father and Jesus, the glorification of Jesus, the connection between Jesus and heaven as he lifted up His eyes to pray, the meaning of eternal life, the concern and care of Jesus for his disciples, the manifestation of the Father's name to the disciples.

 

If there is one thing [Jesus] teaches us it is that we also must cultivate the habit of prayer.  In that prayer of Jesus we observe the fluency of His words and His request from the Father.  This can only be possible on the pre-existing Foundation of a Unity which derives from consistency [of] communication.  In other words if he had not been consistently united with His Father and in contact with the Father His communication with the Father at this point would not be as fluent…That communication which sustains relationship is very necessary even between us and God.  Jesus never for once took it for granted that since He's the son of God or because He is co-equal with the Father then He does not need to pray.  He communicated with the father all the time; in fact even his breath was prayer.

 

We should learn from the Lord. We should cultivate the habit of prayer.  We should let our lives be an acceptable offering to the Father.  This can be effectively done and suitably achieved by the foundation of a constant communication with Him.  It must become for us a habit to talk to God.

 

Make sure you watch Fr. Martin to the end where he will take up a guitar and sing a Gospel song.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: " I pray for them.”

 

We sang “One Love Released” as our communion hymn today at Mass and I thought it was beautiful.

 

 

One bread, one body, one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.

One prayer, one blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.

 

Is not this bread we share, the body of our Lord?

Is not this wine we drink, the blood of Christ outpoured?

 

One bread, one body, one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.

One prayer, one blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.

 

I am the bread of life, eat and you shall live.

To those who share this meal, my strength I'll always give.

 

One bread, one body, one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.

One prayer, one blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.

 

Unity is necessary.  I can’t stand those that would splinter the Body of Christ.  One!

Handmaids and Warriors Newsletter: May 2026

I have a new feature to present here on my blog.  This is a newsletter written by one of my fellow Lay Dominicans of my fraternity, Alice.  Alice writes a monthly newsletter for two groups, a male group dubbed the St. Michael Warriors and women’s group she calls the Handmaids of Mary.  The intent of the groups are to pray for the guidance and protection of the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV.  The only requirements for her groups are, in addition to whatever prayers you normally pray daily, to pray three Hail Mary’s and one St. Michael the Archangel prayer for the Pope.  If you are interested in joining her group and receiving her newsletter, leave a comment and we’ll figure out how to get your email on her list. 

So I helped Alice edit her May newsletter, and I enjoyed it so much that I thought it might be a nice feature on my blog. I offered to post her newsletters and she agreed. I want to be clear, this is all Alice’s writing below.  I just tweaked the language a little bit.  This dovetails nicely with today’s Solemnity of the Ascension.

Before the newsletter, let us pray: For Pope Leo XIV

Hail Mary, full of grace…

Hail Mary, full of grace…

Hail Mary, full of grace…

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

 

Alice’s newsletter:

 

  St. Michael Warriors

                                                        Deus omnes amat et malum non praevalebit

                                                       “God loves everyone and evil will not prevail”

 

                                                                            He has Risen

                                                                       He has Risen Indeed!!!

 

As promised in March I write Mary’s answer to a Joseph when he asked Mary “how may I serve you” when they were betrothed.  Mary was 14 years of age, Joseph 33 a native of Nazareth and one of the descendants of the royal race of David. In her shyness Mary called on the angels to attend her when she spoke to Joseph. In the glorious company of angels Mary spoke to Joseph, “my lord and spouse, I acknowledge myself as more beholden than any other creature to God, so at a tender age I consecrated myself to God by a perpetual vow of chastity in body and soul;  I beseech thee my master, to help me in fulfilling this vow while in other things I will be thy servant, willing to work for the comfort of thy life as long as mine shall last.”

The most chase Joseph, full of interior joy at the words of his spouse, replied,  “My mistress, in making known to me thy chaste and welcome sentiments, I had not opened my thoughts to you before knowing your own; I desire thee to know at the age of twelve years I made a perpetual vow of chastity to the Most High.  On this account I will gladly ratify this vow in order not to impede thy own.  I promise to aid thee in serving and loving Him according to thy full desires.” 

By Divine operation the two most holy and chaste spouses felt an incomparable joy and consolation.  They immediately set out from the temple in Jerusalem and settled in Nazareth.

As in past letters I called to mind the apparitions of Mary who comes to earth to show us the way for our times.  Our Blessed Mother reminds us how peace will come to the earth if we follow her messages. Mary wants us to know, as in Our Lady of Guadalupe, that she loves us.  As in Our Lady of Fatima, she wants to show her wounded heart asking us for consolation.  As in Our Lady of La Sallette, she wants us to see her weeping over the abuse of Sundays.  Mary also brings gifts to help us to defeat Satan: the rosary, the scapular, the Miraculous Medal, the springs of holy water for healing the sick.  These are the treasures found only in the Catholic Church.

There are many Catholic treasures that help us in times of need. Such a as when  Pope Pious IX, who during the French Revolution, Rome was being ransacked, displayed in the Vatican the Veil of Veronica and the relic of the true cross.  The Veil of Veronica began to have a strange glow for everyone in the city to see,  the people prayed  to these relics and the French were driven out of Rome.

Another mighty prayer to drive Satan away also happened at the same time of the French Revolution, the prayer the Golden Arrow given to a Carmelite nun by Jesus who said, “this Golden Arrow prayer will wound my heart delightfully and heal the wounds inflicted by the blasphemy of using Gods name in vain.” 

GOLDEN ARROW PRAYER 

  Let us pray: May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most mysterious, and unutterable 

Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored, and glorified in heaven and on earth and under the earth by all the creatures of God and by the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar.

 If we would say that prayer whenever we heard the name of God taken in vain it would console the Sacred Heart delightfully!

So now the Thursday of Holy Ascension is upon us …He goes before us to prepare a place for us, so that where I am you may be also…. In my father’s house there are many mansions.

 

Alice

Handmaid of the St. Michel Warriors

Notable Quote: “Prayer is Already Love” by Madeleine Delbrêl

I have seen Madeleine Delbrêl’s name come up in the meditations in the Magnificat magazine before, but I was not aware who she was.  The Vatican declared her as Venerable, which means she might one day be a saint.  She is sometimes called the French Dorothy Day, and indeed there are quite a few parallels.  Delbrêl grew up in an agnostic home, and famously wrote an atheist manifesto at the age of seventeen and lived a Bohemian lifestyle.  When her also atheist boyfriend broke up with her to join the Dominican Order—that must have been some discussion—she started to re-evaluate her beliefs and ultimately had a religious experience and conversion.  I’m not going to get any more biographical but if you wish to learn more you can read from Catholic World Report, “Madeleine Delbrêl’s “writing reenchants everyday life….through Christ’s love” and from America, ”Who is MadeleineDelbrêl—the “French Dorothy Day” Pope Francis made venerable this weekend?”  

 

Now for her magnificent quote on prayer.

 

Praying is establishing normal relations between God and ourselves.  It is converting, returning our spirit, our heart, our will towards God who is constantly our Father and Creator.  Prayer is already love.  It asks for love; it receives love.  But because we are sinners it will always be at times heavy-going, painful, and disconcerting.  From one angle it is already love.  From another it is a kind of necessary but voluntary virtue.

          ~Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl

 

I have taken the quote from Magnificat’s October 2024 issue.  “Prayer is already love,” that knocks my socks off!  “It asks for love; it receives love.”  When I’m deeply praying, I am feeling that.  I know that’s true. 

 

One definitely needs to seek her books out.

 

Faith Filled Friday: Pope Pius X’s Prayer to Saint Joseph

In the devotional magazine Magnificat, Anthony Esolen has a monthly feature called Poetry of Praise where each month he analyzes a different prayer.  In the September 2024 issue he analyzed the prayer to St. Joseph composed by Pope Pius X.  Esolen selected this prayer in honor of Labor Day which occurs early in that month.  I’m not going to quote any of Esolen’s analysis—and it’s quite good and interesting—but I was so struck with the prayer that I wanted to present it to you. 

 

 O Glorious Saint Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work in a spirit of penance for the expiation of my many sins; to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my natural inclinations; to work with thankfulness and joy, considering it an honor to employ and develop by means of labor the gifts received from God; to work with order, peace, moderation and patience, never shrinking from weariness and trials; to work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self, keeping unceasingly before my eyes death and the account that I must give of time lost, talents unused, good omitted, and vain complacency in success, so fatal to the work of God.

 

All for Jesus, all through Mary, all after thy example, O Patriarch, Saint Joseph. Such shall be my watch-word in life and in death. Amen.

 

It is also interesting the prayer calls to work with “order.”  When I was in college I had a part time job working in a supermarket in the produce department.  It was a blessing not only for the money I earned but because there were times I got to work with my Uncle Val, may he rest in peace, who also worked there.  He was a good mentor, and he taught me well.  I remember some of his principles.  One was to always to be organized.  Work like a gentleman he used to say.  This prayer captured my Uncle Val perfectly.  Thinking back, it felt like I was a child working under the tutelage of St. Joseph.  I built quite a relationship with my Uncle Val.  He became my favorite uncle.  The power of working together builds such bonds.  You might even call it a religious bond.  Uncle Valentino, I miss him so. 

I particular like the line in the prayer “to work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self.”  Besides applying that to the labor by which I earn my living, that also applies to the labor of this blog, which is sort of labor of love.  What I write here perhaps is putting into labor the “gifts received from God.”  May it be worthy of God’s trust. 

If you want it to hear prayer read, you can listen to it on this clip. 

 

Many people pray this prayer before starting work.  What a wonderful idea.

 

Sunday Meditation: Peter’s Mother-In-Law

The long first day of Jesus’s ministry as delineated in the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark continues from last week’s reading.  Remember it is still the Sabbath and Jesus returns after preaching at the synagogue to Peter’s home.

 

On leaving the synagogue

Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.

They immediately told him about her.

He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.

Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

 

When it was evening, after sunset,

they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.

The whole town was gathered at the door.

He cured many who were sick with various diseases,

and he drove out many demons,

not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

 

Rising very early before dawn, he left

and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.

Simon and those who were with him pursued him

and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."

He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages

that I may preach there also.

For this purpose have I come."

So he went into their synagogues,

preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

~Mk 1:29-39

There are three parts to this Gospel reading, and almost everyone focuses on Jesus’s healing of Peter’s mother-in-law.  Most of the homilies I could find focus on that, and perhaps that’s because it is the most narratively drawn, and also because of the all the speculation that Peter’s wife must have existed if Peter has a mother-in-law.  The second part of the reading recalls how after word got out that Jesus was a healer, how after the Sabbath’s sunset everyone in town brought someone over for healing.  The third passage seems out of place, and frankly I could not find a homily that brought all three passages together.  So I will expound on the third passage after you hear Dr. Brant Pitre explain the first two passages.

 

So with the healings at Peter’s door, the long day ends, and in the morning Jesus secludes himself to pray.  When the apostles find him, he tells them to come with him and continue his preaching in more villages.  Why is this passage connected with the previous passages?  Notice, He says that they are go to other synagogues to preach and drive out more demons. 

First I want to point that this third passage summarizes the Dominican (the Order of Preachers) charism succinctly: seclusion in contemplative prayer but then an outbound meeting of people to preach.  Dominicans are both contemplative and itinerant.

Second, the prayer serves as a restoration of energy to perform the preaching and works of mercy.  To use an automotive analogy, one has to fill the tank in order to travel.  Prayer re-energizes the body to meet the demands of ministry.  This is a lesson for our apostolates and ministries.  

 

Meditation: "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.  For this purpose have I come."