Our Lady offered some guidance at our Way of the Rose meeting in Woodstock on Thursday night to mark the beginning of our 54-Day Novena. Her topic was “the Column of Saints.”
She began: “When you hear of a column, you normally think of a vertical structure – something built with tools and made from wood or metal or stone. Its purpose is to elevate, to support a platform or a roof. But the Column of Saints is not that kind of column.”
“I will repeat what I said on August 22, 2011: ‘If you rise to say the rosary tonight, a Column of Saints will support your prayer.’ You will notice that I said nothing about elevation, nothing about lifting up. Nor is that column like other columns: it is not something you can build. The Column of Saints builds YOU. It SUPPORTS you. It is in your bones, your sinews, and your cells. It IS your bones, your sinews, and your cells. It is also the ground beneath your feet. And you yourself are that ground.”
“The Column of Saints is not like a column that supports a church. There is nowhere you can go that you do not stand directly atop it. The whole Earth is a column that supports you – from within as well as from without.”
“I speak to you with one voice about these matters, but the voices below Me are many. This is the Column of Saints.”
“About this matter of religious belief that plagues the current age like a vestigial organ it can find no use for. No one expects you to believe in anything for which you do not feel the power of its presence within you. Your bones support you. You believe in your bones. From your bodies you call forth children, music, art, beauty, good deeds. These emerge from you like flowers. You believe in these as well.”
“Step outside and raise your foot. Then bring it down as hard as you can. If your foot goes through the ground as if it were made of air not dirt, then you are free to doubt Me. If not, then do not doubt Me. I don’t monitor your faith. I support you. I am there when you call. So test Me. Pray. Speak to me about your concerns.”
“For some these may be a long 54 days. For others, they will feel quite short. Either way, 54 days are 54 opportunities to test Me to see if I am there. I would like you to perform a graft. Whatever your prayer intention is for this novena, graft it onto the following short prayer: Say to me, ‘Lady, are you there? Show me are you there, Mother. Let me feel your presence.'”
“Don’t phone it in. Come to me directly and speak to me as Someone who is really present and right beside you. Sometimes people talk to Me like I am not really there. They pray, they speak to me, but without any real expectation that they will feel My presence in return. That is not the way to pray. For the next 54 days, graft your petition onto My actual presence. Know that I am there.”
In response to some questions by our members:
“…Learn to trust the sun before it rises, and the moon after it sets. There are things you can’t know with your head that you can know with your heart, and things your heart can’t know that you can know with your feet. So get grafted. And get grounded in your life.
“…All things return to their Mother. Anything that doesn’t seek its Mother is going nowhere. Literally. Learn to trust that I am present. The Column of Saints stands below you to support you. But it is also above you and all around you. And it is within you, too.”
“…Remember, you yourself are the instruction manual for this Column of Saints and how it works. You will learn what it is from the bottom up. Just remember to perform the graft. Talk to Me. I am there.”
(Painting by Magdalena Korzeniewska)