MARIE-ROSE
FERRON
Robert
Trabold
Quiet warm breeze
blows over the grave site.
Sun is strong
feel noon heat coming.
Quiet in the cemetery
no one around.
Noise of a few passing
cars on their way to someplace.
Made a long trip
pilgrimage to come here.
Wanted to meet a holy
person, feel the presence at the
grave.
Marie-Rose suffered
her wounds reflected
violence and harshness
of life, the world.
I feel the same
that is the reason
I came here asking
Marie-Rose’s help.
I feel the violence of
the world, wars
hatred. I long for
peace, justice.
We have no answers
to the problems.
Marie-Rose did not
have answers either.
She put her confidence
in Jesus. Gave to Him
her world, its people.
That is the example for me.
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PILGRIMAGE INTO
SILENCE AND MYSTERY
Robert Trabold
Recently, I had the opportunity to
make a contemplative pilgrimage to Massachusetts where several stigmatics lived
and died. Stigmatics are people who during their lifetime had the wounds of
Jesus on their body. So far there have been five American stigmatics and two of
them lived in Massachuetts and Rhode Island and one Venezuelan stigmatic, Marie
Esperanza, worked there and founded a spiritual and retreat center. This was
the third time that I have made this pilgrimage and I always have found it a
very profound experience to visit their grave sites and the houses where they
lived and suffered. One of the stigmatics was Marie Rose Ferron, 1902 – 1936,
who was of an immigrant family from Québec and lived most of her life in
Woonsocket, Rhode Island. She was quite famous and many people came to visit
her asking for advice for their problems and healings to their illnesses. The
second one was Audrey Santo, 1983-2007, who live in Worcester, Mass. She was a
very young person when she received the stigmata of Jesus. For Audrey Santo,
one can visit a small shrine in the house where she lived, the room where she
suffered from the wounds and her gravesite at a local cemetery.
In visiting these sites, I had a
profound sense of their presence. As they helped and counselled people in their
life, there were still present and wanted to hear about our needs and those of
the world. In the three pilgrimages which I have made over the years, these
were contemplative ones where I went by myself.
I wanted to enter into silence and meditation. At the two gravesites, I
had a deep experience of their presence and that of Jesus. I told them of my
concerns for the contemporary world with its violence and wars and also my
personal problems. I did not do much talking because they knew already what my
problems were. I rested in the silence of the gravesites and the house and left
there the problems which disturb me and our world. This silence and peace which
I experienced carried over into the rest of the day and gave a contemplative
aura to the whole week. I did not do much talking during the week except for a
few passing conversations with people in the hotel.
While I was there, there was a
questioning on my part about the mystery of human beings having the wounds of
Jesus on their body. Certainly, the
whole reality of the suffering and wounds of Jesus is a big mystery. He was a good man and had such a painful
ending, so unjust and violent. When we look at our world, we are quite
disturbed by the endless violence, hatred and wars which plague us. How and
when will it all end? What is the meaning of it all? Jesus and these stigmatics
labored under the sufferings of their wounds. Their wounds are like the problems,
violence and wars of our world and we have to bear them as the stigmatics
carried the wounds of Jesus on their body. Certainly, Jesus must have felt
confusion and pain of his quick and sudden death. The stigmatics also felt the
similar confusion with the presence of the same wounds of Jesus on their body. Ultimately,
in the life of Jesus and the stigmatics, it was faith that got them through.
Jesus had his Easter Sunday and the stigmatics had the same faith which got
them through all their trials.
In visiting Massachusetts with the
houses and grave sites of the stigmatics, they gave me the message that we have
to carry the burdens of our life and those of our violent world. We do not have the answer to all these
things. Someday when we reach eternal life, things will be put into place but
for now on earth, we have to live in mystery and much darkness. In this
pilgrimage, I believe that I received insight and strength to continue on and
not give up on life and the world. I have to keep on living following the path
of Jesus and living in the same darkness and questioning that He experienced. We
get strength from the words of St. Paul, “For those who have faith, all things
will work out for the good.”
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I am anxious to know of the reaction
of the readers to this poem and article. I would appreciate it if you would
leave your reaction in the comment box.
Question: Have you reflected on the mystical wounds and experience of the
stigmatics and what is their meaning for our life and world?
Please leave also your name and
e-mail address and I can contact you for other important spiritual information.
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