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Mary, Aqueduct of Graces, Pray For Us

by Kevin Yono

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Over the last two days, we have had the privilege to visit quite a few wonderful places. The most moving for me was the Church of St. Anne's right next to the pools of Bethesda. Inside St. Anne's Church there is a crypt where it is said that Our Blessed Mother was born. It was very moving for all of us seminarians to be at the birthplace of Our Lady because she has an integral role to play in every vocation. In some sense, we can go to her in prayer first so as to more humbly approach our Lord Jesus in all our needs. Mary has always held a special place as Mother in my life. She has always helped me to love our Lord in gentleness and strength in all the good and difficult moments in my life. I know that without Mary my vocation as a priest would surely fail, so being at the place where St. Anne gave birth to Our Blessed Mother was a great grace.

It was very fitting that the site was located right outside of the pools of Bethesda and the ancient dam that guided the waters into the city of David. After all, Mary herself is called the Aqueduct of all graces. Also, the Pool of Bethesda is where Jesus himself had healed an infirm person who had been waiting at the pools for 38 years to be healed but could not enter the healing waters (see John 5). He could not reach the waters in time because someone would always get there before him. Our Lord approached Him and healed him, but the greatest gift was not the physical healing: it was the spiritual healing from within. It's a personal encounter with Jesus that really changes one's life. The healing done by Jesus at the pools of Bethesda demonstrated that God can work outside of traditional medicinal healing and seeks to encounter us even more than we seek to encounter him. The pools of Bethesda gave me a chance to deeply pray for those who suffer from illness and who desperately await the healing grace of our Lord. The pools gave me a chance to pray for all our benefactors and supporters. Know that we are praying for all your intentions and especially for those of you who are seeking healing of any kind, physical or spiritual.

That afternoon we also visited a Church commemorating St. Stephen, the first martyr of our Church. We also saw the Damascus Gate where he was most likely stoned at. This encouraged me to follow our Lord more strongly, even to martyrdom if He so wills it. St. Stephen's Church had a very moving statue of Our Lady holding the Rosary which deeply inspired me to pray from the heart. The following day we had the unique opportunity to go behind the City walls of David were the Maccabean Wars took place and we walked the temple mount. The architecture was very impressive and much more advanced than I would have thought. The views were beautiful and it gave me a better feel of what the city looked like before all the modern construction.

Kevin Yono

Kevin Yono is a second-year theologian studying for the Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle.

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Sacred Heart Major Seminary is a Christ-centered Catholic community of faith and higher learning committed to forming leaders who will proclaim the good news of Christ to the people of our time. As a leading center of the New Evangelization, Sacred Heart serves the needs of the Archdiocese of Detroit and contributes to the mission of the universal Church.