Issue 12 - March 2020
Mary, The Cause of Our Joy!
St. Patrick - March 2020
A visit to Catholic sites in
Boston, Massachusetts
St. John's Seminary
A beautiful statue of Our Lady, Mother to many priests, stands in the courtyard of St. John's Seminary in Boston. This Seminary, once filled with aspirants to the holy priesthood - of young men wishing to consecrate their lives to God and His Church - is now only a shadow of it's former glory, sadly, yet another fruit of Vatican II!
The entrance to St. John's Seminary

The seminary was founded in 1884 and was originally staffed by the Society of Saint Sulpice. In 1911, Cardinal William H. O’Connell presided over the expansion of the Seminary and replaced the Sulpicians with a faculty of diocesan priests.
Noble statues at the Seminary of St. Patrick, the patron saint of the Boston diocese , and St. Francis de Sales, a Doctor of the Church.
The Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
The world famous Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was founded in 1870 in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston , Massachusetts , sometimes known as "The Mission Church". The Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province have ministered to the parish since the church was first opened.

A plaque on the iron fencing outside the Basilica states the following:
"Many of the families who owned and staffed the breweries along Roxbury's Stony Brook were German and Irish Catholics. In 1869, the largely German order of Redemptorists priests established a Mission here on Parker Hill. The present Basilica was built in 1876. It's architects were Schickel and Ditmars, also of German heritage. The Roxbury puddingstone used in the massive Romanesque-style edifice was quarried next door. By 1920, the great Church had defined the district as "Mission Hill. - The Bostonian Society "
These walls and pillars used to echo with the Redemptorists' preaching the eternal truths of Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell, filling the (at least) fourteen confessionals with penitents and the communion rails were lined with thirsty souls hungry to receive the Living God.

All this before Vatican II!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help






The great Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on the Gospel side of the High Altar (the original believed to have been painted by St. Luke) who has worked many, many miracles in body and soul for all who turn to Her!



Here are just a few of the crutches of the hundreds of people miraculously cured, a frequent occurrence with this great Lady of Perpetual Help and proof of Her powerful intercession! Our Lady's lovely Icon can be seen in the background.
Inside the Basilica, a beautiful Altar dedicated to the Sacred Heart.
Also in the Basilica, a painting of St. Patrick baptizing the pagan war-lords, submitting themselves to
Christ the King.
One of the images adorning the Basilica, of the angels helping souls to Heaven.
Here is a closeup of the lower portion of the image, showing an
 angel assisting a soul out of Purgatory.
Side Altar with it's Tabernacle and ornate painting of the Crucifixion. The words underneath the painting read:
"O most compassionate Jesus, we pray Thee, help the souls of Thy servants whom Thou has redeemed by Thy Precious Blood."
One of the plaques of the
Stations of the Cross
that adorn the Basilica
A painting of Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer. Some consider St. Clement the "second Founder" of the Redemptorists, as it was he who carried the Congregation of Saint Alphonsus Liguori to the people north of the Alps. St. Clement, among many other holy characteristics, is known for his great devotion to the Holy Eucharist.
A painting of Our Lady of Fatima later added to the Basilica, showing in this representation, the June 1917 vision to the three Children, of Our Lady holding Her Holy and Immaculate Heart.

"I am the Lady of the Rosary. When my Immaculate Heart triumphs the world will have peace."

Notice that She shows us the weapons of our times: Her Immaculate Heart, the Rosary, and the Scapular

Another painting in the Basilica, of the Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help being presented to Pope Pius IX by the Redemptorists.

According to tradition, this was when Pope Pius IX told the Redemptorists: "Make Her known throughout the world!"


One of the many exquisite confessionals in the Basilica.

These hallowed enclosures were, in former times, filled with penitents purifying their souls with the salvific Sacrament of Penance.

Now lamentably, they show forth yet another fruit of Vatican II: for instead of streams of grace pouring forth from them, now they house only mops, storage, and decorations!
From Light to Darkness
Not too far from the Basilica dedicated to Her who crushes the head of the Serpent is the infamous meeting house of the Freemasons, appropriately called The Green Dragon Tavern, "Headquarters of the Revolution."

An excerpt from the greendragaonfreemasons.org states: "... the Freemasons kept the Green Dragon Tavern running as a tavern and bar. The Freemasons used the first floor for their meeting rooms. The basement tavern was used by several secret groups and became known by historians as the 'Headquarters of the Revolution'. The  Sons of Liberty , Boston  Committee of Correspondence  and the  Boston Caucus  each met there. The  Boston Tea Party  was said to have been planned there and  Paul Revere  was sent from the Tavern to Lexington on his famous ride."

But the infernal Serpent's victory is only temporary. For when Pope Pius IX promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 he declared: "The Most Holy Virgin, united with [Christ] by a most intimate and indissoluble bond, was, with Him and through Him, eternally at enmity with the evil Serpent, and most completely triumphed over him, and thus crushed his head with Her Immaculate Foot ." May Her Victory come soon!
'Postcards' from the Mass Circuits
A Baptism
The newly baptized Joshua Benedict!
He is one of nine special blessings bestowed upon this good family.
A Marriage
This lovely young couple, the newly married Mr. and Mrs. James and Ariana Lackey, were joined in Holy Matrimony by Fr. Hewko on February 15th in North Carolina. Like a fairy-tale come true, they celebrated their marriage at Castle McCulloch,
a beautiful pre-Civil War Castle, surrounded by a moat!
An Extreme Unction
This is Sister Bernadine, a Poor Clare nun since she was sixteen years old, having
made her Profession over seventy years ago!

Fr. Hewko recently visited her in the nursing home, gave her Extreme Unction, and she was able to receive Holy Communion. Sr. Bernadine asks for prayers for herself and her Sisters, who sadly went along with the Vatican II changes, an effect of false obedience.

In the picture below, she is pictured some years ago, second from the right.
Letter from Father Hewko
✠

March 2020
 
Dear Fighters of the Church Militant,
 
The Prophet Isaias called Our Savior “ a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with infirmity ” (Isaias 53:3). Let Him be our study and focus this Lent!

St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, writes that to save us from Hell, Jesus Christ assumed extreme pain and humiliation. St. Alphonsus Liguori says, “To satisfy the divine justice, it would have been enough for Him to have suffered any pain; but no, He wished to submit to the most bitter insults and to the sharpest pains, in order to make us comprehend the malice of our sins , and the love with which His Heart was inflamed for us !” ( The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ , by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Meditation 8, p. 414).

Our Savior calculated from all eternity that His Sacred Body would be fitted to suffer extreme pain. St. Paul says of Christ, “ a Body Thou has fitted to Me ” (Hebrews 10:5). This Immaculate Flesh of Christ conceived in the Virgin Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Ghost, would be a Body most sensitive, most acute in its nervous system. The delicate nerve-endings would be susceptible of indescribable sufferings! In a word, Our Lord’s Body was fine-tuned to suffer, like a musical instrument perfectly fine-tuned to respond to every strike or pluck.

St. Alphonsus adds that all the sufferings of the Sacred Passion were constantly present to Our Lord’s mind from the moment of His Conception, all during His Infancy, Childhood, Manhood, and Public Life. He saw them all in detail and cheerfully embraced them to perfectly accomplish His Father’s Will, Who wished that He be sacrificed for our salvation! “ Then, I said, ‘ Behold, I come: in the head of the book it is written of Me that I should do Thy Will, O God! ’” (Psalm 39:8), as if He said: “Behold Me, O My God: I cheerfully offer Myself to Thee without reserve!” This, according to St. Paul was the very oblation which obtained for us the divine grace. “ In the which will, we are sanctified by the oblation of the Body of Jesus Christ once ” (Hebrews 10:10).

But what induced the Sacred Heart of Jesus to sacrifice His Life, drowned in so much suffering and sorrow, for our salvation?

St. Paul answers: He was led, even forced, by the love which he bore us: “ Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us ” (Ephesians 5:2).

“ He hath delivered Himself for us! ” St. Alphonsus adds that it was love that drove Him to give His back to the whips of the scourging; His Sacred Head to the thorns; His Sacred Face to the spit, slaps, and punches; His hands and feet to the Nails; and His own Life handed over to Death!

Raise our eyes and let us look at the Man of Sorrows! Look at Our Lord Jesus Christ! Adore Him, and see Him hanging on those nails; the entire weight of His Body is sustained by wounds in His hands and feet; each member, each limb suffers its own specific torment without any alleviation of pain! The three hours during which Our Lord remained on the Cross were three hours of excruciating (“ ex - cruce ,” literally, pain like that “from the Cross”) agony. Every movement, even to breathe, added to the intense agony and sorrow. Indeed, this “Man of Sorrows” died in pure pain and suffering!

Let’s make our own, this prayer of St. Alphonsus:

“And what Christian, O my Jesus, can believe that Thou hast died for him on the Cross, and not love Thee? And how have I been able to live so many years in such forgetfulness of Thee, as to offend Thee so often and so grievously a God Who has loved me so intensely? Oh, that I had died before I had ever offended Thee! O love of my soul! O my Redeemer! Oh, that I could die for Thee, Who hast died for me! I love Thee, O my Jesus, and I wish to love nothing but Thee.”
 
In Christ Crucified,

Fr. David Hewko  
Contacts and Resources

  • Correspondence mailing address and Mass Requests and Stipends: Rev. Fr. David Hewko, 16 Dogwood Road South, Hubbardston, MA 01452

  • Donations: Checks can be made out to Sorrowful Heart of Mary Inc., P.O. Box 72, Rossville, KS 66533 or electronic donations can be made via PayPal.