Our Lady’s Tears in “La Salette” and the Rogate
We know that our Holy Founder is very devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, in a special way, to the “Bambinella,” whose feast day falls on September 8. However, in this article, I would like to focus my reflection on the Father Founder’s devotion to our Lady of “La Salette,” whose apparition also happened in France on September (19) 1846.
I wonder why the Father Founder was so devoted to our Lady of “La Salette”. Is there any connection between our Lady of “La Salette” and his works and spirituality? We could easily intuit that maybe because Melanie Calvat, one of the visionaries, was instrumental to the early Daughters’ of the Divine Zeal formation. But upon reading some writings of the Fr. Founder and going back to history, I realized that there is a deeper connection.
Let us reflect on one of the secrets revealed by our Lady to Melanie. It is her call to do penance, repent and return to God to escape his imminent punishment that has a strong connection to the Rogate. Our Lady said: I address a pressing appeal to the earth. I call upon the true disciples of the God living and reigning in the heavens; I call upon the true imitators of Christ made man, the one true Savior of men; I call upon my children, my true devotees, those who have given themselves to me so that I may lead them to my Divine Son, those whom I bear as it were in my arms, those who have lived in my spirit; finally, I call upon the Apostles of the Latter Times, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in contempt of the world and of themselves, in poverty and humility, in contempt and silence, in prayer and mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world. It is time for them to emerge and come enlighten the earth. Go, show yourselves to be my dear children; I am with you and in you provided your faith is the light enlightening you in these evil times. May your zeal make you famished for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ. Do battle, children of light, you, the few who see thereby; for the time of times, the end of ends, is at hands.
These urgings of our Lady sound so similar to that of St. Hannibal Mary’s conviction that human salvation can happen only when there are good and holy apostles who will lead the people back to God. Only the Catholic priesthood can spread the light of the truth all over the world… How can the souls find salvation without ministers? (Rogationist Anthology (RA), p. 407). And yet our Lady calls not only for priests but all her children and true devotees to do the battle for her Son. This is also exactly what the Father thinks when he said: the divine Rogate ergo must be considered…also in relation to the persons that God raises for the good of his Church and for the souls…As some persons sow and others harvest some people water…and others come home happy with the reaped sheaves…some separate wheat from straw and others keep it…others distribute it…(RA, p. 408). Why this call for everybody to do the battle?
Our Lady of “La Salette” is in tears, deeply sad; weeping silently while sitting on a rock, holding her most beautiful face with her two hands, sorrowful for the love of souls and for the great pains of the offenses against God (Rogationist Spirituality 4, p. 71). But these tears of hers are not without hope; rather, it was fully loaded with hope as she calls for the Apostles of the Latter Times to be the front liners in the fierce battle for her beloved Son, to save souls from final damnation. Indeed, St. Hannibal Mary reflected that to the sorrows of our Lord are joined the sight of his most holy Mother’s sorrows, the Queen of Martyrs, who was the only one able to penetrate in depth the abyss of the intimate sorrows (RA, p. 467) her Son suffered in his divine Heart, an abyss of interior sorrows so intense that he could have died at any moment of pure pain if his divine omnipotence had not maintained his life up to the last moment (RA, p. 466). Our Lady’s invitation to do the battle is to ease her Son’s sufferings for the loss of so many souls. For this reason, our Lady of “La Salette” is also called our Lady of Mercy because she is the Reconciler of Sinners. However, St. Hannibal Mary believes that this can only be a reality if we pray the Rogate. We can only have the Apostles of the Latter Times if we ask for them from the Lord of Harvest. If you ask me for workers for the souls’ harvest, I will give them…if you do not ask me for them, you will not have as many good workers (Apostles of the Latter Times) as you need (RA, p 399) to reconcile them with God.
The Daughters of the Divine Zeal (FDZ) in Messina, the native place of St. Hannibal Mary and where the FDZ was founded, were in great and urgent need of help in the management of the pious works and the orphans and the formation of the sisters (cf., Rogationist Spirituality 4, p. 92). Messina is believed to be a beloved city of the Blessed Mother, who blessed her people through a letter she sent to them after Messina converted in 42AD after a visit of the apostle Paul. Vos et ipsam civitatem benedicimus (We bless you and the city), the Blessed Mother wrote in her letter. The Father Founder believed deeply that the Mother is always tenderly extending her maternal protection to the city of Messina. In fact, the coming of Melanie was, for the Father, a way for the Blessed Mother to protect the FDZ, who was in great need of a holy example, guide, and formator at that very time. St. Hannibal Mary firmly believed that Melanie was sent by the Blessed Mother to Messina so that the FDZ might not perish (cf., Rogationist Spirituality 4, p. 91) and to materialize her hope of having more Apostles of Latter Times through the unceasing prayer of the Rogate of the Daughters of the Divine Zeal and Rogationists.
Fr. Marcelino Diaz II, RCJ, is currently the Responsible for the Rogamina Community of the St. Matthew Province in Mina, Iloilo, Philippines. The Rogamina Community aims to follow Jesus’ call for unceasing prayer, especially for more and holy vocations, in the monastic-contemplative lifestyle.