Pierre Marchildon, Full-time Pilgrim of St. Michael

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Our Lady of Ephesus A few years ago while recovering from the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and subsequently learning of the life and works of Sister Marie De Mandat-Grancey, I became convinced that Sister Marie is a woman for our time. My husband Anthony and I have lived all our lives in the New York City area on Long Island where we met, married in 1981, and have raised six children. On September 11, Anthony, who has commuted to work in New York City for twentyfive years, stood on the street at the foot of the World Trade Center viewing with unspeakable horror as two planes attacked our city; our nation. He had recently left his employment at One World Trade Center in a career move. Tragically, in a matter of minutes, among the thousands who perished, many of Anthony’s previous coworkers and friends were brutally taken from this world. He returned to work a few months later to be haunted daily by the view from his new office window; a dark and desolate hole. At this same time, my friend Erin introduced me to a nun from the 1800’s who had captured her interest while she had visited Ephesus, Turkey; Sister Marie, the hidden nun who is Foundress of Mary’s House in Ephesus. This house is the once hidden holy place where Mary, Mother of Jesus, not only spent Her final years on this earth but was assumed into Heaven. My friend had been diligently working for the cause of Sister Marie’s beatification. As we parted, she pressed Sister Marie’s prayer card into my hand. Sister Marie, the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Charity, is responsible for acquiring and thereby protecting for all time the House of the Mother of God at Ephesus, Meryem Ana Evi, where Our Lady lived with St. John until Her Dormition and Assumption. Now in this new millennium she, like her beloved Mary’s house, is no longer hidden. But why? Later that year, my friend and I met to discuss Sister Marie, and a connection formed in my mind between the recent tragedy of September 11, 2001 and Sister Marie. The few pieces of Sister Marie’s story with which I had become familiar and the role of Mary’s House as a gathering place for Muslims and Christians added up in my mind to a beautiful possibility. I recall saying to Erin that day, “This isn’t only about recognizing a woman’s holiness; this is about world peace!” Later that evening, the date being 1/19, thinking about our discussion, it occurred to me that our meeting date of 1/19 was the exact reverse number of 9/11, the date of tragedy. Could the hatred of 9/11 be reversed with forgiveness and prayer through the intercession of Sister Marie, just like those numbers? The “Why Now?” question was answered. The world was ripe for healing in these times after 9/11, and the need for peace between Muslims and Christians was all too obvious. But to unwrap the answer to the “Why Sister Marie?” question would require some more study and prayer. What was clear, however, was that Sister Marie was the reason my friends and I were in discussion and prayer about the subject at all. Sister Marie’s love for Our Lady and Her house at Ephesus is shared with the Muslims. I was intrigued to learn that Mary’s House is a common pilgrimage destination for both faiths where they join in peaceful prayer; a place Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey Our Lady’s House of Ephesus in Turkey is venerated by Muslims and Catholics alike. where Christians and Muslims pray together in their own way to God the Father while honoring Jesus’ Mother, Mary. Muslims honor Mary as God’s only creature, along with Jesus Christ, to be conceived without the stain of sin, just as we Catholics implore the Mother of God under the title of the Immaculate Conception. Muslims visit this house to honor Mary, Mother of Jesus each August 15; coincidentally August 15 is the Catholic feast of the Assumption of Mary. The Assumption of Mary took place in this very house. Another beautiful dimension to this story is that our Greek and Armenian, Orthodox brothers and sisters also visit this holy house to pray and honor Her whom they call Theotokos, Mother of God. The division between the Eastern left hand of Christian Orthodoxy and the Western right hand of Christian Catholicism is an unnatural continuous rent in the Body of Christ; but in Mary’s house, Orthodox and Catholic kneel side by side. Before She was the Mother of Our Savior, Mary was a devout Jewish maiden who was raised by Her mother and father, St. Anne and St. Joachim, to be a devout Jewish wife and mother. This Mother given to all God’s children by Our Lord Jesus Christ from His holy cross calls all God’s children home to Her house. Clearly, Our Lady has established a common ground between different faiths of this world where She gathers them in a little place of peace. Even though some in the world may define different religions as enemies, God Our Father calls us all His children. The House at Ephesus can be thought of as an earthly symbol of Mary’s Heart where She accomplishes this fraternity; where She fulfills Her mission as Mother of all. Sister Marie’s essential contribution to assist Our Lady by the acquisition and preservation of this house has been a crucial link in this story heretofore appreciated by very few. Thankfully, one such devotee kept a diary. The Holy Virgin’s House: The True Story of Its Discovery is the journal of Father Eugene Poulin, a Lazarist priest and contemporary of Sister Marie. At the outset of his record, we find Father Poulin a skeptic of what he calls “women visionaries,” particularly A.C. Emmerich, the Catholic mystic whose detailed visions would later lead to the re-discovery of Mary’s house at Ephesus. Sister Marie, on the other hand, already had a lively faith in Emmerich, convincing Father Poulin to read the mystic’s vivid account of sacred history, particularly the passages relating to Our Lady’s life in Ephesus while in the care of the Apostle John. Not only was Father Poulin immediately (and some might say, “miraculously”) impressed by Emmerich’s compelling and inspired work, he agreed to assist Sister Marie in her search for the holy house, conducting an expedition using A.C. Emmerich’s testimony as a “map.” Within a few weeks, he had found the house, and Sister Marie was arranging for its purchase with the help of her generous family in France. Father Poulin writes a most profound testimony to tell the world of Sister Marie’s selfless generosity, her valiant persistence and dedication, and his debt of gratitude to her that he entreats us to share with him and all of Christendom. He offers us a compelling reason for our zeal for the cause of Sister Marie and her mission in these times. He writes: “The Lord, who sees and organizes things, had taken care to put before us a soul in love with beauty and goodness, who was ready to give herself to everything good. A great soul, devoted, ardent, pious, and generous; the noble Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey. She was, as God had chosen her to be, the terrestrial Providence, like Panaghia’s Mother! For twelve years she has been charged of this valiant religious enterprise; she has never failed. “Oh! How happy I am to give her all the respect she merits! Also, could these writings make known to posterity, long after us, to whom France, the Catholic Church are in debt for Panaghia! The Lord gave me this opportunity to say loudly what I had in my heart for a long time, to acquit what I deemed to be a serious debt. It is done. Praise be to God! “Sister Marie has opened the door of Mary’s House so that all God’s children might enter. Every time we pray with Sister Marie, our hearts and souls are united and placed inside the Home of Mary by the Foundress of Mary’s House. Muslims, Orthodox, and Christians all joined together in the home of a Jewish Mother.” Is it any wonder the cause for beatification of Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey would be begun in New York, a city so recently devastated by murderous aggression cloaked in the guise of “religion?” Let us thank God for Sister Marie without whom this beacon of peace, Mary’s House, might have been forever lost. Just as the Holy House at Ephesus is a place of healing, brotherhood and peace, so will Sister Marie’s intercessory prayer and rise to beatification bless our bruised and battered city, country, and indeed the whole world. Out of that dark and desolate hole springs forth a flower of hope for all of God’s children. © 2007 By Lorraine Fusaro Page 20 “Michael” Journal, 1101 Principale St., Rougemont, QC, Canada — J0L 1M0 Jan.-Feb.-March 2008 Tel.: Rougemont (450) 469-2209; Montreal area (514) 856-5714; Fax (450) 469-2601; www.michaeljournal.org
Esotericism or “New Age” In our world of today, we can fi nd many “alternative” means of healing and spirituality. We can be tempted to use these methods because of our natural inclination to fl ee pain and suffering. If only we understood that suffering with Christ also unites us in a profound way with His suffering on the Cross, we would realize that what the “New Age” religions offer us is only a false freedom from suffering. The New Age belief system hits us where we are the most vulnerable, through our personal pride, because we believe that we are able to heal ourselves without the help of God’s grace. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that: “All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others — even if this were for the sake of restoring their health — are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion.” (2117) Here are some excerpts taken from a Vatican document on the subject of New Age issued by the Pontifi cal Council for Culture and Religious Dialogue entitled: “Jesus Christ, Bearer of the Water of Life.” It is useful to distinguish between esotericism, a search for knowledge, and magic, or the occult: the latter is a means of obtaining power. Some groups are both esoteric and occult. At the centre of occultism is a will to power, based on the dream of becoming divine. Mind-expanding techniques are meant to reveal to people their divine power; by using this power, people prepare the way for the Age of Enlightenment. This exaltation of humanity overturns the correct relationship between Creator and creature, and one of its extreme forms is Satanism. Satan becomes the symbol of a rebellion against conventions and rules, a symbol that often takes aggressive, selfi sh and violent forms. Some evangelical groups have expressed concern at the subliminal presence of what they claim is Satanic symbolism in some varieties of rock music, which have a powerful infl uence on young people. But it is not only something which affects young people; the basic themes of esoteric culture are also present in the realms of politics, education and legislation. It is especially the case with ecology. Deep ecology’s emphasis on bio-centrism denies the anthropological vision of the Bible, in which human beings are at the centre of the world, since they are considered to be qualitatively superior to other natural forms. It is very prominent in legislation and education today, despite the fact that it underrates humanity in this way. The same esoteric cultural matrix can be found in the ideological theory underlying population control policies and experiments in genetic engineering, which seem to express a dream human beings have of creating themselves afresh. How do people hope to do this? By deciphering the genetic code, altering the natural rules of sexuality, or defying the limits of death. In what might be termed a classical New Age account, people are born with a divine spark, in a sense which is reminiscent of ancient Gnosticism; this links them into the unity of the Whole. So they are seen as essentially divine, although they participate in this cosmic divinity at different levels of consciousness. We are co-creators, and we create our own reality. Many New Age authors maintain that we choose the circumstances of our lives (even our own illness and health), in a vision where every individual is considered the creative source of the universe. According to New Age beliefs, the journey is psychotherapy, and the recognition of universal consciousness is salvation. There is no sin; there is only imperfect knowledge. The identity of every human being is diluted in the universal being and in the process of successive incarnations. People are subject to the determining infl uences of the stars, but can be opened to the divinity which lives within them, in their continual search (by means of appropriate techniques) for an ever greater harmony Jan.-Feb.-March 2008 between the self and divine cosmic energy. There is no need for Revelation or Salvation which would come to people from outside themselves, but simply a need to experience the salvation hidden within themselves (self-salvation), by mastering psycho-physical techniques which lead to defi nitive enlightenment. New Age has a marked preference for Eastern or pre-Christian religions, which are reckoned to be uncontaminated by Judaeo-Christian distortions. Hence great respect is given to ancient agricultural rites and to fertility cults. “Gaia”, Mother Earth, is offered as an alternative to God the Father, whose image is seen to be linked to a patriarchal conception of male domination of women. There is talk of God, but it is not a personal God; the God of which New Age speaks is neither personal nor transcendent. Nor is it the Creator and sustainer of the universe, but an “impersonal energy” immanent in the world, with which it forms a “cosmic unity”: “All is one”. This unity is monistic, pantheistic or, more precisely, panentheistic. God is the “life-principle”, the “spirit or soul of the world”, the sum total of consciousness existing in the world. In a sense, everything is God. God’s presence is clearest in the spiritual aspects of reality, so every mind/spirit is, in some sense, God. When it is consciously received by men and women, “divine energy” is often described as “Christic energy”. There is also talk of Christ, but this does not mean Jesus of Nazareth. “Christ” is a title applied to someone who has arrived at a state of consciousness where he or she perceives himself or herself to be divine and can thus claim to be a “universal Master.” Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ, but simply one among many historical fi gures in whom this “Christic” nature is revealed, as is the case with Buddha and others. Every historical realization of the Christ shows clearly that all human beings are heavenly and divine, and leads them towards this realization. Basically, the appeal of the New Age has to do with the culturally stimulated interest in the self, its value, capacities and problems. Whereas traditionalized religiosity, with its hierarchical organization, is well-suited for the community, detraditionalized spirituality is well-suited for the individual. The New Age is ‘of’ the self in that it facilitates celebration of what it is to be and to become; and ‘for’ the self in that by differing from much of the mainstream, it is positioned to handle identity problems generated by conventional forms of life. New Age “spirituality” New Age spirituality consists of two distinct elements, one metaphysical, the other psychological. The metaphysical component comes from New Age’s esoteric and theosophical roots, and is basically a new form of gnosis. Access to the divine is by knowledge of hidden mysteries, in each individual’s search for “the real behind what is only apparent, the origin beyond time, the transcendent beyond what is merely fl eeting, the primordial tradition behind merely ephemeral tradition, the other behind the self, the cosmic divinity beyond the incarnate individual.” Esoteric spirituality “is an investigation of Being beyond the separateness of beings, a sort of nostalgia for lost unity”. They somehow deny history and will not accept that spirituality can be rooted in time or in any institution. Jesus of Nazareth is not God, but one of the many historical manifestations of the cosmic and universal Christ”. New Age comes in many different forms. Some of them are: witchcraft, palmistry, fortune-telling, and astrology. Is there just one Jesus Christ, or are there thousands of Christs? Jesus Christ is often presented in New Age literature as one among many wise men, or initiates, or avatars, whereas in Christian tradition He is the Son of God. Here are some common points in New Age approaches: The personal and individual historical Jesus is distinct from the eternal, impersonal universal Christ; Jesus is not considered to be the only Christ; the death of Jesus on the cross is either denied or re-interpreted to exclude the idea that He, as Christ, could have suffered; for Christians, conversion is turning back to the Father, through the Son, in docility to the power of the Holy Spirit. The more people progress in their relationship with God – which is always and in every way a free gift – the more acute is the need to be converted from sin, spiritual myopia and self-infatuation, all of which obstruct a trusting self-abandonment to God and openness to other men and women. Our problem, in a New Age perspective, is our inability to recognize our own divinity, an inability which can be overcome with the help of guidance and the use of a whole variety of techniques for unlocking our hidden (divine) potential. The fundamental idea is that ‘God’ is deep within ourselves. We are gods, and we discover the unlimited power within us by peeling off layers of inauthenticity. The more this potential is recognized, the more it is realized, and in this sense the New Age has its own idea of theosis, becoming divine or, more precisely, recognizing and accepting that we are divine. We are said by some to be living in “an age in which our understanding of God has to be interiorised: from the Almighty God out there to God the dynamic, creative power within the very centre of all being: God as Spirit”. The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ. He is at the heart of every Christian action and every Christian message. So the Church constantly returns to meet her Lord. The Gospels tell of many meetings with Jesus, from the shepherds in Bethlehem to the two thieves crucifi ed with Him, from the wise elders who listened to Him in the Temple to the disciples walking miserably towards Emmaus. But one episode that speaks really clearly about what He offers us is the story of His encounter with the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well in the fourth chapter of John’s Gospel; it has even been described as “a paradigm for our engagement with truth.” The experience of meeting the stranger who offers us the water of life is a key to the way Christians can and should engage in dialogue with anyone who does not know Jesus. The success of New Age offers the Church a challenge. People feel the Christian religion no longer offers them — or perhaps never gave them — something they really need. The search which often leads people to the New Age is a genuine yearning: for a deeper spirituality, for something which will touch their hearts, and for a way of making sense of a confusing and often alienating world. The heart of genuine Christian mysticism is not technique: it is always a gift of God; and the one who benefi ts from it knows himself to be unworthy. “Michael” Journal, 1101 Principale St., Rougemont, QC, Canada — J0L 1M0 Tel.: Rougemont (450) 469-2209; Montreal area (514) 856-5714; Fax (450) 469-2601; www.michaeljournal.org For Christians, conversion is turning back to the Father, through the Son, in docility to the power of the Holy Spirit. The more people progress in their relationship with God — which is always and in every way a free gift — the more acute is the need to be converted from sin, spiritual myopia and selfinfatuation, all of which obstruct a trusting self-abandonment to God and openness to other men and women. God is not identifi ed with the Life-principle understood as the “Spirit” or “basic energy” of the cosmos, but is that love which is absolutely different from the world, and yet creatively present in everything, and leading human beings to salvation. To those shopping around in the world’s fair of religious proposals, the appeal of Christianity will be felt fi rst of all in the witness of the members of the Church, in their trust, calm, patience and cheerfulness, and in their concrete love of neighbour, all the fruit of their faith nourished in authentic personal prayer. Page 21
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Pierre Marchildon, Full-time Pilgrim of St. Michael

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