October 13, 2017

« Mama (Saint Zelie) does not leave her Rosary ; she prays every day despite her sufferings. We are all in admiration, for she has the courage and energy that nothing equals to it. A fortnight ago she was still praying her Rosary the whole time on her knees at the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary in my room, which she loves so much. Seeing her so sick, I wanted to make her sit down, but it was useless.” Marie, July 28, 1877, one month before the death of Zelie.

Dear friends of the “Family of the Louis and Zelie,”

The month of October is the month of the Rosary; the opportunity for each one of us to rediscover this simple prayer that seems outmoded, but that in reality is very powerful.

With the Rosary, we can contemplate, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, the whole life of Jesus, from the Annunciation until His Ascension in Jerusalem. By meditating on these moments in their lives, Jesus and Mary show us how we must react and what we must do in every situation we encounter.

Let us recall that during Her apparitions, the Virgin Mary repeatedly asks us to pray the Rosary. She even taught it to us and begged us to pray it.

Our Mother in Heaven knows that it is only for our good and for our salvation. In Fatima, for example, She said, just 100 years ago today, on October 13, 1917: “I am Our Lady of the Rosary. Continue to pray the Rosary every day.”

What we have also forgotten is that the Rosary is of great power, that the devil is afraid of it, and that the Blessed Virgin Mary protects her children who pray it faithfully, just like what happened during the Second World War:

How did German Jesuit missionaries survive the Hiroshima atomic bomb?

On August 6, at 2:45am, the B29 “Enola Gay” takes off from Tinian with the « Little Boy » bomb. At 9:15am, Commander Thomas Ferebee, Enola Gay bomber, launches the release of the nuclear bomb. It will have to explode at 555m above the ground to avoid excessive radioactivity of the soil. On their return, for 500km, the aviators see the giant mushroom, which in two minutes reaches 10,000m of altitude.

At the center of the explosion, it is 300,000 degrees Celsius. On the ground, 600m lower, it is 3,000 degrees Celsius.

Within a radius of 3km, 10,000 buildings are destroyed by the blast of the explosion, 50,000 by the fires. Hiroshima is then cut off from the world; the Japanese government will not be informed until late in the evening.

Up to 1,200m from the center of the explosion, the victims die instantly. Beyond that, the skin and muscles temporarily protected the internal organs. It was the radiation that ended the work, since the Japanese soldiers who were entrusted with gathering the victims died within a few weeks.

To return to the miracle, during the explosion, a group of German Jesuit missionaries who were devout followers of the prayer of the Rosary were spared from any radioactive contamination and any destruction even though their home was 100 meters from the center of the explosion (ground zero). The typical Japanese house in which they were located was also spared.

They died many years later (Fr. Hubert Schiffer lived until the age of 63; he was 30 years old at the time of the explosion on August 6, 1945).

Of course, when one tried to know, scientifically, how they got away so well, it could not be found out why. Yet they, the missionaries, explained that it was thanks to their daily prayer of the Rosary. The scientists did not believe them. Father Schiffer later said: “They have not understood anything yet.”

They lived for a long time, without losing hearing or sight, without any diseases due to radiation, or diseases inherent to the explosion.

“We believe,” they repeatedly testified, “that we survived because we lived the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the Rosary daily in this house. More than 55 years later, scientists are absolutely incapable of providing a plausible explanation.”

The Jesuits rightly so explained that they had received a sort of ‘protection shield’ from the Blessed Virgin Mary against the radiation and its short and long-term effects.

The same thing would occur in Nagasaki in the Franciscan convent of Saint Maximilien Kolbe, where the friars prayed the Rosary daily. This corresponds exactly to the words of the Virgin Mary to Saint Dominic and to Blessed Alain de la Roche: ‘Whoever confides in me through the Rosary will not perish’, and also ‘Those who will spread my Rosary will be assisted by me in all of their necessities.’

Another very similar and simpler story shows us the fruits of this simple prayer. Some time ago, I visited a family. The parents invited me to pray with them. The children were very agitated and it was difficult to pray. The dad then began a decade of the Rosary, having each child pray in turn the first part of the Hail Mary, and the calm returned. It was impressive.

This month, let us rediscover the prayer of the Rosary; alone, as a couple, as a family, in a community, in our parish. Let us imitate Saints Louis and Zelie who loved this prayer very much. We must not be discouraged and say that five mysteries are long and boring, but we can start little by little.

Those who wish will be able to download from our site a Rosary meditated with Saints Louis and Zélie.

We will pray with you every day during the prayer of the Rosary at the Shrine. We also entrust to you, in particular, the celebration of families that will take place at the end of October in Alençon with Father Daniel Angel.

We assure you of our prayers for your intentions and we wish you a holy month of the Rosary! May the Lord bless you through the intercession of Saints Louis and Zelie!

Father Jean-Marie Simar,
Rector of the Shrine of Alençon