When this column appears, I will be just returning from a Medical Mission to Yoro, Honduras. I will be taking pictures and will show you some of them in the weeks to come. However, today, I wish to share with you a couple of pictures from my walk on the beach on February 19^, 2010 just hours before I left for Honduras.

I took the pictures in the late afternoon and didn’t realize how the pictures could move my soul. One of the pictures is a Rosary that I placed on an abandoned sandcastle. I was stunned to see that the halo of stars around Our Blessed Mother appeared Rose while the stars shouted out blue. My Rosary does not have any color but silver.

Because the picture caught my attention, I journeyed even deeper into the Mystery of God’s love for us. When I walked on this day, I meditated on all twenty mysteries including those of joy, light, sorrow and glory.

Our Beloved Mother, Mary said very few things that are recorded in the Scriptures.

How can this be since I do not know man?

Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word..

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my Savior…

Son, why have you done this to your father and me, did you not know we were searching

for you for these past three days?

They have no wine.

Do whatever he tells you.

And then she was at the foot of the cross. She didn’t need to say anything. She simply suffered the piercing of her heart by a sword. When a sword was plunged into the side of Jesus releasing the wine and water…Mother Mary’s heart was ravished with a sword.

She didn’t have to say anything.

The pictures of the poor really don’t need any words. They all simply say what Jesus said on the cross:

I THIRST!

They thirst for clean water, health care, food, shelter, justice, hope, happiness, love and joy to begin with. When Jesus began his ministry he quoted from the prophet Isaiah:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has sent me to proclaim Good News to the poor…

This is taken from Isaiah, chapters 61 and 58.

So Jesus was well aware of and agreed with Isaiah chapter 59:

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:

releasing those bound unjustly,

untying the thongs of the yoke;

Setting free the oppressed,

breaking every yoke;

Sharing your bread with the hungry,

sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;

Clothing the naked when you see them,

and not turning your back on your own.

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

and your wound shall quickly be healed;

Your vindication shall go before you,

and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer,

you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!

Mother Mary basically said the same thing in the Magnificat. She sang to Elizabeth with John the Baptist in her womb:

“God has shown might with his arm,

dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.

He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones,

but lifted up the lowly.

The hungry and poor he has filled with good things;

the rich he has sent away empty…” (Luke 1:51-53)

What an honor it was to walk with the poor and see Jesus raise them up!

Blessings and Gratitude!

Love, joy, peace,

Father Ron Moses +

www.tearinthedesert.com

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