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Rosaries: From Pink & Blue to Black & Gold
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Why Is The Rosary In The Image?
When the image of Vessel of the Preborn Jesus was originally rendered as a pencil sketch, the umbilical cord, not the Rosary was uniting Preborn Jesus to the Blessed Mother. Yet, the Lord revealed His desire for a most significant detail to the image. While making a quiet Holy Hour at church and in deep prayer, the noon church bells rang, bringing to mind the mystery of the Incarnation. As I prayed The Angelus (the words from Luke's Gospel account of the Angel Gabriel's message to Mary) something quite remarkable occurred. Immediately the image of Vessel of the Preborn Jesus appeared in my mind. Amazingly, the umbilical cord on the image slowly transformed into the most Holy Rosary! The very first deed of mercy with our apostolate was to use variegated pink and blue cord (representing the umbilical cord) to make rosaries for pro life. The inspirational theme from that moment forward always centered on Preborn Jesus encircled by the Rosary. -
From Preborn Life to Eternal Life
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The Bookmark
It finally happened on December 19, 2022 at Vento's Pizza in East Liberty. I was blessed to sit down with Franco Harris to gift him the gold medal of Mary, blessed by my bishop, as a keepsake for Franco. It was meant to be a remembrance for Franco to unite him to his mother, Gina, for the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the "Immaculate Reception" - the greatest play in NFL history.
What many didn't know until
Franco told the story (not only to me, but to several news sources) was that his family was gathered at his parents' NJ home to watch the game, but at the time the historic play was about to occur, his mother sensed something was wrong. He told me that his Italian mother. who did not speak English, put one of her Italian albums on and, that during the very moment of the Immaculate Reception, the "Ave Maria" was playing on that Italian music album.
Franco humbly accepted my gift of the gold medal for this special golden anniversary and said:
"THE AVE MARIA CONNECTS
IT ALL TO MY MOTHER AND TO ME, THAT'S A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF IT."
As you pray on each bead, the beautiful Ave Maria's provide the background to the scriptural scenes of this "Bible on a String.
The center of the Rosary features the replica of the gold medal of Mary Ark of The New Covenant that I gifted Franco. The gold cross is symbolic of the phenomenal gold cross I filmed in awe over the sky above Cranberry Township at sunset on December 20, 2022, just 7 hours before Franco passed.
During my meeting with Franco, amongst many things, in great depth we lovingly talked about his mom and my mom and that heaven is the true goal in life as I shared much about my favorite scripture passage, Hebrews 12:1:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and Persevere in Running the Race that Lies Before Us."
After hearing the news of Franco's passing, I thought, how ironic, we all cheered for Franco, and in his heavenly reward, as part of the
"cloud of witnesses," Franco will be cheering for us to "Persevere in Running the Race that Lies Before Us."
May this black and gold Ave Maria rosary bring you peace.
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1st Saturday Free Ave Maria Rosaries!
