St. Jude Messenger Volume III, Issue I | страница 3

Director's Letter
Dear Friend of St. Jude and Our Lady,
T
his January marked the closing of the 800th
jubilee of the Dominican Order, in which I
am a priest. I was privileged to attend the
closing mass of the Jubilee, celebrated by Pope
Francis at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in
Rome, the oldest Christian church (dedicated in
324) in the west and the official “mother church”
of all Roman Catholic faithful.
During mass I noticed that one of the massive
marble sculptures lining the church was none
other than our friend and protector, Saint Jude!
How fitting that St. Jude, Apostle and cousin of the
Lord, should have a place at the very heart of the
Catholic Church, the official cathedra of the pope.
Seeing our Holy Patron, I thought immediately of
you and brought your petitions before God and
St. Jude in this magnificent church.
Petition, one of the four basic types of prayer, is at
the heart of what it means to be Christian. God
wants us to bring all our needs, great and small,
to Him. To open the door to His fatherly love for
us, God sends us His saints, especially St. Jude
and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who never tire of
interceding for us.
God sent the Blessed Virgin Mary to us in a spe-
cial way 100 years ago, when Our Lady of Fatima
appeared before three simple shepherd children
on a hillside in Portugal. She called herself “The
Lady of the Rosary” and told Lucia:
“I promise to assist at the hour of death with the
graces necessary for salvation all those who, in
order to make reparation to me, on the First Sat-
urday of five successive months, go to confession,
receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the
Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an
hour, meditating on the … mysteries of the Rosary.”
Through Mary’s Immaculate Heart, God gives
us the gift of His mercy, a treasure sorely needed
in today’s world.
As patrons of the Rosary Shrine of St. Jude, be
assured that the Dominican Friars are praying
the Rosary daily for you and your loved ones. In
this 100th anniversary of Fatima, I invite you to
consider praying the Rosary more often, whether
that means returning to an old devotion for you
or starting a new one. It is one of the best ways
to meditate on the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ
and to become aware of God’s presence in our
hearts and in our lives.
FR. GABRIEL GILLEN, O.P., AT ST. JOHN LATERAN IN ROME
Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P.
Director, Rosary Shrine of St. Jude
ST. JUDE MESSENGER • VOLUME III, ISSUE I
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