22. The Power of Prayer and the Rosary Challenge with Cassandra Verhelst from the Hozana and Rosario App

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cassandre Verhelst (00:00):
The Cross has a vertical part and a
horizontal part.
The vertical part is ourrelationship to God and the
horizontal part of the Cross isour community, and an isolated
Christian is a Christian indanger.
So if we pray together, I thinkwe're stronger in our faith,
and we're stronger in ourpersonal faith and in our
community faith.
And the other thing is thatit's also a great example.

(00:21):
If you know someone that mightneed some help or need a push or
a pull in their faith, saying,well, I'm here for you and
concretely saying I'm here foryou through prayer as well, come
join my rosary group.

Sheila Nonato (00:38):
Hello and welcome to the Veil and Armor podcast.
This is your host, SheilaNonato.
I'm a stay-at-home mom and afreelance Catholic journalist,
Seeking the guidance of the HolySpirit and the inspiration of
Our Lady.
I strive to tell stories thatinspire, illuminate and enrich
the lives of Catholic women, tohelp them in living out our
vocation of raising the nextgeneration of leaders and saints

(01:01):
.

Co-Host (01:01):
Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour
podcast, where stories comealive through a journalist's
lens in mother's heart.

Hello friend, welcome to the Veil and Armour
podcast.
Are you anxious about theupcoming US presidential
election?
Our friends in France from theHosanna App are issuing a
challenge to get 50,000 peopleto pray the rosary by the end of
this month, and they're almostthere.
Let's listen to our friendCassandre talk about this Rosary
challenge and also thepossibility of miracles at

(01:33):
Lourdes, france.
As for election anxiety,Hozana, a social media prayer
app, encourages Catholics topray the rosary from today until
November 5th.
Let's pray to the Holy Spiritto inspire voters and guide our
leaders.
Welcome, Cassandre Verhelstfrom the Hosanna App.

(01:53):
You are the head of the Englishdivision of the Hozana prayer
app and I think you're on nowfor the third time or fourth.
We love having you come back.
So, and third, okay, and ourlisteners really appreciate
hearing from you.
So we uh we would love to haveyou on this month of october for

(02:14):
the month of the Holy Rosary.
Would you like to start offwith the Angelus?

Joseph Nonato (02:19):
So it's noon here , where so?
It's pleasure okay, okay soI'll go ahead in the name of the
Father and of the Son and ofthe Holy Spirit, amen.
So I'll say the first parts andthen please respond.
The angel of the Lord declaredunto Mary and she conceived of
the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary.

Hail Mary.
Full of grace.
Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,and Blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for sinners
now and at the hour of our death.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
Be it done to me according toThy word Que me sois fait selon
votre volonté.
Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou, o woman, andblessed is the fruit of thy womb
, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us
sinners now and at the hour ofour death for sinners now and at
the hour of our death.
Amen, and the Word was madeflesh Et il habitait parmi nous.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou, O my woman,and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us
sinners now and at the hour ofour death.
Amen.

Pray for us, oh Holy Mary, mother of God afin
que nous soyons rendus dignesdes promesses du.
Let us pray, pour forth webeseech thee, o Lord, thy grace
into our hearts that, as we, towhom the Incarnation of Christ,
thy Son, was made known by themessage of an angel, may, by his
passion and cross, be broughtto the glory of his resurrection
through the same Christ, ourLord.
Amen, Holy Mary, our hope, seedof wisdom, pray for us.

(03:38):
In the name of the Father andthe Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen, Our Lady of the Rosary,please pray for us.

Pray for us.
Great Thank you, Cassandre, anddid you want to add to anything
about what I had introduced you?

But did you want to add anything that the
listeners needed to know aboutyou?
No, I answered the angels inFrench because I am from Belgium
and living in France at themoment, but we lived in the
States a few years, so I canalso pray in English.
And living in France at themoment, but we lived in the
States a few years, so I canalso pray in English.
And I work at Hozana and Rosariothat are Catholic social prayer
apps that are a platform toreflect on the diversity of

(04:15):
church, and so differentcongregations and religious
communities and priests and laypeople like us can create
Novenas for this or that subject, create Novenas for this or
that subject and that they sharewith all other hodana users, so
for a feast day, or how to praywith the Bible or things like
that.
And the other app that we haveis rosario, and the point of
that is to become missionariesof the of the rosary and to

(04:37):
invite and pray the rosary withour friends and family, and so
the idea of the app is to creategroups of five people so that
each one has a decade per dayfor special intentions, and that
way you can, if you're familiarwith the rosary, use your
habits and your practice of therosary, to spread it to others

(04:59):
and for others to start learningand pray one decade at a time,
to step by step.

Um get to five full decades and so one rosary
per day, or more if it's a day,and there are over a million.

So that's what.
I do and there are over amillion users on Hozana and, um,
hundreds of thousands onRosario, um all around the world
, because we have four editionsof both apps.
And Rosario is particularlyclose to my heart as well,
because it allows you to praywith people that you don't know

(05:34):
across the globe, so that's alsovery neat.

It really speaks to the universality of our
Church, right, and how we're allin the Communion of saints.
It's amazing, so I love that.
The the whole idea that you canjust you can pray a decade and
throw it into this big bin of ofthe prayers from all around the
world, and it's going towardssomething that's actually very
useful, like leave it to thehands of Our lady and Our lord

(05:59):
to put it to people who need it,right.
So it's great you great you know, and yeah, it's great.
And like the Rosary, I mean,like when you talk about it like
, yeah, it's so awesome, it'slike the.
You know St.
Padre Pio talks about it aslike a weapon.
I think it was Pope Paul VIthat said you know, give me an
army praying at the rosary and Ican conquer the world.
And it was.

(06:20):
You know, it's really amazing.
And especially when you thinkabout the configurations of the
rosary, it's like okay, well, inthe idea of the Hozana app or
the Rosario, it's like you canpray 10 Hail Marys per decade.
You know they have those littletiny finger rosaries.
You can have them in yourpocket and as you're walking
down the street there, you justpray a decade.
It should be something that islike living and breathing for

(06:41):
all of us as Catholics, asChristians.
You know to be holding the handof Our Lady as we're walking
down the street you know aslittle children are with their
mother, you know.

So it's great?
Yeah, absolutely.
And something I discovered nowthat I work at Rosario and
Hozana is the fact that Ithought that I had to pray my
Rosary in one go, but actuallyno one asks you to pray in one
go.
You can split your rosary intodecades along the day, and so I
do one before I start work, I doone when I want to take a
coffee break and I go down thestairs to get some coffee, and

(07:16):
so I'm incorporating Our Ladyand the prayer of the rosary
throughout my whole day, which Ithink is super strong as well,
because you're living andbreathing through prayer, rather
than just finding, trying tofind half an hour, and then gosh
, I don't have half an houranymore, because now I'm just
too tired at the end of the day.

(07:37):
And so that was a whole, a newtake and fresh idea for me to
the idea to split my rosary,which was not something I did
before.
So I don't know what yourthoughts are on that, but I
think that was something thatreally helped me get going and
and increase my, my devotion to,to Our Lady.

Yeah, I know it's a.
It's really great to sort ofsort of break it down.
I remember when I was, when Iwas younger, somebody I was
talking to a priest and he said,well, you should probably just
try to make sure that you getinto praying the whole thing all
at once, because it really thatwhole meditative prayer it
takes a little bit for us to getgoing right.
But it is also the idea thatyou were saying you know, break

(08:17):
it down into the day, whereyou're just constantly shooting
a text or like a spiritual textor a phone call to your mother.
You know, I remember that whenI was off to university, it was
always a practice in our familythat on Sunday night all of us
who were away at university hadto call home or my mother would
take offense.
You know what I mean.
So it was sort of like the samething.

(08:39):
Yeah, you build it in your dayand I like how you said it.
It's like, okay, well, I'mgoing down for coffee, I'm going
to pray a rosary, I'm going topray a decade, I'm going to my
next break there, I'm going topray a decade, and so on and so
forth.
So you build it into littlemile markers of your day where
you say, okay, I'm notforgetting about my mom, about
Mother Mary, and so, therefore,you're walking hand in hand with
her.
It's a great thing and, aspeople start to get used to this

(09:03):
more and more, it's greatbecause, you see, the rosary is
not something that is foreign topeople.
To many people in the churchnow, it's something that is not
just hanging on the rearviewmirrors of people's cars anymore
.
It's something people areactually praying.
So it's a great thing andthanks for the apostolate that
you're doing on this, because Ithink it's really helping, yeah.

And I'm just we're curious about how did you
come to the faith?

I'm lucky to have been baptized when I was
little and to have parents thatare Catholics, and they grew up
in Catholic homes, so thereligion was always kind of
there.
We moved around quite a bitwhen I was younger and so we
didn't.
I don't have any memories orrecollections of going to church

(09:57):
.
When we were in Belgium, whenwe moved to the States, I
remember we went about once amonth, but we were brought to
catechism.
So that's something, althoughwe didn't go to, but we were
brought to catechism.
So that's something.
Although we didn't go to Church, we went to Catechism, which
was now that I'm a Catechismteacher.
I don't understand how that'seven possible, but I forgot that
.
That was my situation 12 or 15years ago, but so we didn't go

(10:24):
much to Church.
And when we moved to France, um,my parents put us so again in
the Catechism of the of theChurch and in Scouts, and so
there were some obligations togo to Mass.
And you know, as, as I Ievolved in those, um, in those
circles, I became friends withother children that went to mass
, and so, because I wanted tosee them, I went to church on

(10:46):
Sunday, and so I think the firststep was going more often to
church, so maybe twice a monthnow and we were switched from
one Catechism group to another.
That was for a much wider groupof children, from children from
sixth grade to um, to senioryear to 12th grade, and so, um,

(11:11):
we were so lucky because it wasa couple, Andre and Madeleine,
who I think are going to besaints, because they just they
had maybe 20 years of thisprayer group where every friday
night they hosted about 35 kidsthat came for um right after
school until after dinner.
Um, and that's where I startedreally to build my personal

(11:33):
faith.
And I think the strongest momentI had is when, during one of
those prayer times where youknow if you have 35 rowdy kids,
it's not always very intense,but I could feel I heard someone
tell me I love you and and Iheard it in the back of my nose
and I thought in my head, Ithought, whoa, I mean, I'm not

(11:54):
making this up, um, I'm notmaking this up.
And I felt a little pressure onmy shoulder at the same time and
I probably know Gary Chaplin's"five love languages and mine is
the physical touch and Ithought, gosh, this person is
telling me that they love me andthey're using the thing I know
how to react to.
And so I thought, ok, well, Imean that's it, and it happens

(12:16):
through prayer.
I mean the Lord is completelytelling me that he exists and
that he wants me to, and that hereally wants me to know that
he's there, and so I think thatwas maybe the strongest moment,
and that he wants me to and thathe really wants me to know that
he's there.
And so I think that was maybethe strongest moment and from
there on that, confirmed myfaith.

(12:37):
It was actually after myconfirmation now that I think
about it, or at the same time,and so that kind of started my
own desire to go, because Iwanted to go and not because I
wanted to see my friends orbecause my parents proposed that
we went to church and at thesame prayer group, you know it

(12:59):
led me to continue through auniversity and then after
university, and I had asked theLord, because we often talk
about the fact that our ladyholds our hands, our Lord holds
our hand and guides us throughthrough life.
But I thought, gosh, I mean Ineed something stronger, because
if you hold my hand I can justslip away.
I need you to hold my my umwrist because it's much harder
to leave when someone's holdingyour wrist.

(13:20):
And after I asked that I havean incredible grace of, when I
pray to our Father, to feel aslight pressure on my palms and
when I tell my fiancé this, Iwas kind of embarrassed because
I thought, "osh, she's going tothink I'm crazy, but for me

(13:42):
that's really how I know thatthe Lord is right there with me,
because I feel this.
I mean for me that our Fatheris the moment when your heart is
the closest to the Lord,because you're reciting
something that's universal tothe church, everybody says and
everybody knows, and that's whathe taught us, those are the
words he told, that he taught us.

(14:04):
So I think that's those hetaught us.
Those are the words he taughtus.
So I think those are two strongmoments that kind of defined
how I got to the faith, how Ichose it and how it doesn't
leave me anymore Because I havethis grace that sometimes, of
course, it disappears, not likeMother Teresa who is going
through her spiritual droughtsand the dryness of not feeling

(14:27):
anything.
So that's kind of what I wantedto, what I felt in my heart.
And I had the chance also tolive in Spain at a moment, and
there's this prayer group calledHakuna that sings worship songs
in Spanish and one of theirsongs asks Lord, help me pray,
help me think without feeling,or helping to know without

(14:50):
feeling.
And so you know when you're,when you're very touched by, by
what you feel inside and youremotions and how the Lord speaks
to you.
Well, sometimes, when there'snot that, when there's not
someone touching your palms oror pressing on your shoulder,
it's harder.
And so you know, I have theselittle lights on my way, that I
can remember and that help mekind of guide my path.

(15:12):
And so I was.
I'm so lucky for all of that,and I was also able to be a
Catechism teacher at my parishfor two years.
And you know, when you receive,you also have to give, and so
by giving and by explaining toyounger children well, why do I
believe?
How does that affect my life?
How can I show my faith notonly through my words, but

(15:34):
through my actions?
And that was something thatalso confirmed the fact that I
wanted to be a Christian, and Iwant to have the.
Catholic faith, and so that'skind of the joy of my journey.
And now I work for a Catholicprayer App.
You know, when you come out ofuniversity and your parents have

(15:56):
paid you know quite a big sumfor you to get a higher
education and then you decide tosuspend it all on the Lord, you
have to be convinced he exists,um, which I am, and and now my,
my joy is because this, theidea of Hozana is that it's a
social media for prayer, and sopeople pray for each other and

(16:17):
you lay an intention and itappears in the feeds of other
users and and what I findincredible is when I tell people
, yeah, I work at Hosanna, andthey tell me, oh, yeah, yeah, I
prayed a lot for Michelle, or Iprayed a lot for Robert and we
exchanged messages.
And when I hear that, I tellmyself, well, how lucky are

(16:41):
these people that don't knoweach other and that are praying
for each other.
I mean, you talked, Joe, aboutthe communion of saints.
It's really the horizontal partof the cross.

I mean there's the lord and me, and there's me
and everybody else that'sbelieving in christ, and and so
that's kind of the joy that Ithat I have today to be working
at Rosario and Hozana to beworking at Hozana yeah, it's
just what you've done isbasically made that prayer group
that you were, that you saidthat your your youth, of being a
child that was growing up inthe faith there, you know, and

(17:13):
you've just extended that to theinternational sphere, you know.
So that's uh, it's amazing how,all of a sudden, using something
that everybody where's my phone, my phone's on the other side
there but something thateverybody you know has in their
hands all the time anyways, youknow, and now we can actually
extend this into the, the prayerrealm, and and making that

(17:33):
thing and I like what you saidbefore in one of the previous,
uh, you know people alreadydoing this, all right, and so,
uh, you're, you're taking theinternet, which could be used
for bad, but also making it forsomething very holy.
You've sanctified the internetwith this particular app.
That's amazing.

It's good stuff.
I think it's Pope Benedict XVIthat said that the internet was
the seventh continent that wehad to conquer.

Yeah, very wise man.
So what is it like to be likein France?
Right, you're living in France,in the place where the rosary
itself was so like.
It was developed like St LouisMarie de Montfort, right?
I mean the development of therosary as I understand it.
You know, we started off likebasically in Ireland with the
150 Psalms, and then it's sortof like people were using 150

(18:21):
Our Fathers, and then eventuallyit somehow morphed over into
150 Hail Marys, with each of itwith its own individual mystery,
each Hail Mary.
But it wasn't always fivemysteries, right?
If you really look at up untilthe 1700s, until it was
formalized, even you know StJean-Baptiste de La Salle.
He was raised spiritually underthe Sulpicians, under St

(18:43):
Sulpice, and they have like sixdecades in their particular
rosary, right, but each of thedecades has its own particular
mystery, you know, the last oneis the only one I remember
because it's the one that standsout.
The sixth one, I think theymeditate on the Immaculate Heart
of Mary or something like that.
But you know the whole formatthat we have right now.
We have three differentmysteries, or four different
mysteries, you know, and fivedecades each, and that kind of

(19:06):
thing was only just a recentthing, so recent as in like from
the 1700's on.
But yeah, how is it the life ofthe rosary in France?
There must be something amazingto say.
Well, it came from thisparticular land, you know, and
now it's saving people allaround the world through the
intercession of Our Lady.

Yeah well, what I find incredible is the,
the desire and you know wetalked about the fact that we
work in the "Church tech um, butthis thing actually exists and
there's so many people that arewilling to um to make prayer
more known, but also to make therosary more known, um.

(19:47):
There's an initiative calledglobal 2033, um, which is
starting off in France.
I don't know if it'll gainmomentum and be worldwide, but
the idea is to get every Frenchperson, or every French Catholic
to pray the Rosary every day by2033.
I don't know how, if we'regoing to get there, but it would

(20:08):
be just amazing.
But there's, there's reallythis desire to.
I mean, the Rosary is an easyprayer, it's rich and it helps
you grow closer to the Lord, butit's not.
I don't think it's widelyprayed.
I don't know how it is in theStates, but I know that there's

(20:29):
a big difference between thosethat follow more traditional
types of Mass in Latin and sothat are much more aware of the
Rosary and are much moreeducated to pray the Rosary,
whereas those that are more inthe diocese spheres have much
less education.

(20:49):
Spheres have much lesseducation.
So I think that what'sinteresting is to see this
desire of a few around, you know, around the country, to change
that, to make sure thateveryone's praying the rosary.
And what I find prettyimpressive is that, you know,
Our Lady asks in each one of herapparitions to pray more and to
pray the rosary.
And I thought, well, if I meanmothers repeat things often, but

(21:13):
if, if our, our celestialmother is asking us this so
often, it's that we haven'tunderstood it yet, we're not,
we're not there yet.
And so I mean, I think this,this, this initiative and this
idea to you know, to have therosary more present in our life,
is is is really moving, and andmoving, and it's in 2033.

(21:35):
So we're good, we have the timeto get there.
And you know, if you start offwith one decade a day, and then
maybe two, and then three, thenfour, then five, I mean the
important is that you're, you'remeditating on Jesus's life with
Mary, that Mary's helping yougrow closer and be closer to Him

(21:57):
.
And so I think, to recap, theidea is that there's a lot of
energy and a lot of desire toget people praying the rosary,
and everybody.
And so in France we have thisnew initiative.
I hope it'll, you know, be ableto be brought to the rest of
the world, but it's, it's prettyimpressive.
And you know, when we launchedRosario, we asked I don't know

(22:18):
about, I think it was 13,000people what the Rosary brought
to them.
And the answer was peace.
And um, it was peace.
And well, I forgot that.
What the other one was, becausepeace is what it brings to me.
So I just remembered what themost important was.
But, you know, in thisstressful world where people

(22:41):
don't believe in faith anymore,or in God anymore, where there's
no faith, where it's disposable, it's convenience, disposable,
it's um convenience, it's well,there's one thing that can you
know, appease you and and makesure that your north is aligned
with the lord, and that's, youknow, bring the rosary that's
amazing.

So the 2033, why did they pick 2033?
Is because 33 the years of ourlord, or the number of, or is
there any particular reason for?
Well, I mean correct me if I'mwrong, but I think jesus died
when he was 33 years old, sowell that, yeah, that's so.

Is that any particular reason for that?
Well, I mean, correct me if I'mwrong, but I think Jesus died
when he was 33 years old.

Well, yeah, is that the only reason why, or is
there something special attachedto that?

Yeah.
No, no, no that's the reasonwhy.

Oh, okay, that's great stuff.
I mean, I'm a teacher and youtake a look at Saint
Jean-Baptiste de La Salle,basically, you look at the way
that he taught is thatrepetition is the mother of
learning, right?
And, as you're saying Our Lady,every single time she shows up,
she keeps on repeating pleasesay the rosary.
But even the rosary in itselfit's interesting because we

(23:43):
really meditate on that wholeidea that repetition is the
mother of learning.
Well, what are we doing?
Every single time we say theRosary, repeating you know five,
our Fathers, six Our Fathers atleast.
You know six Glory Be's atleast.
And then we're repeating 53times the Hail Mary, Holy Mary,
Mother of God, pray for ussinners.
So it really like, you know,when you think about it, it's

(24:04):
the poor man's Bible, as somepeople you know, some saints
have said.
It's the poor man's world.
You're really just meditatingon the life of our Lord through
the eyes of Our Lady, and soyou're sitting at her feet and
you're learning from her, as amaster of prayer, how to talk to
our Lord.
And I don't know, as you werespeaking there, the thing that

(24:26):
was coming to my mind,especially when you were
mentioning meditation, you seethat people are clamoring for
this.
They're clamoring formeditation.
How many yoga studios haveincreased all around the city
internationally?
And how many people will bewilling to sit there and I don't
know chant something and try togo deep inside themselves, to

(24:48):
try to center themselves onthemselves, right?
But when we pray the rosary, alot of people don't realize, and
even Catholics don't realize.
When you're praying the Rosary,you're meditating, because
you're repeating the words overand over again and you're just
going to lose sight of likeyou're going to lose your mental
focus on the Hail Mary.
But you know that your mouth ispraying it, your body's praying
it because you've decided tosit there.

(25:09):
You're holding a Rosary, soyour body's praying it, but then
, as your lip is moving now,your mind is drifting to other
things.
If you can grab that now, itbecomes like second, third layer
.
It's a very integrated prayerand really you can really sit at
the feet of Our Lady and reallyshe will bring you to Our Lord.
So it's an amazing thing and,as you said, you know the world

(25:32):
will be conquered with the HolyRosary.
So 2033, go France.
That's awesome, right?
Canada should do that too.
You know, join together withFrance.

Yeah, I'll mention it and I am just
listening to you talking aboutthe internet and youth, how in
your youth you were inspired toyou.
God sought you out and youanswered his call.
And I'm just thinking about, um, actually, my one of my friends

(26:05):
have made this.
It's like a Mother Mary bookfor for children, for babies
actually, and it's made out ofcloth.
It's made out of cloth and I'mjust thinking about you know how
to teach our children how topray the rosary, how to get to
Mary.
You know some people say, whodon't understand the Catholic
faith, oh you're praying to Mary.
But we're actually, if we lookat the Rosary, we're praying to

(26:29):
Jesus through Mary, through theeyes of his mother, how he grew
up and how he suffered and thenhe resurrected.
So we're being brought to Jesus, to God, through Mary, and
we're not praying to her oranything like that.
And I'm also just thinkingabout, in terms of the youth,

(26:51):
the connection with the youth.
Actually, we have somethingspecial coming to toronto um, a
relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis,who is called, who has been
called "od's influencer, yeah,the saint of the new millennium.
Um, he's, yeah, part of hisheart is coming to toronto at
the end of the month of October.
And just, do you have a specialsort of connection to him as

(27:15):
well, knowing like he's?
He's worked on the internet andyou know he's kind of, you know
he was he, he was, he playedvideo games and he's kind of
this new saint for the youth.

Well, it's exciting because indeed he's
going to become the new saint ofthe internet.
I don't particularly have aconnection to him, but I was
just impressed by his.
What I remember from his storyis that he wanted just to grow
closer to the Eucharist and togrow closer to the Lord, and

(27:49):
we're putting our talents andusing what we have at our hands,
and he had at his hands hisdesire to you know, to use
internet for good.
We're doing the same, and so Ithink that's a sweet parallel
that we can draw, and I'mexcited to know.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Ithink we don't know his
canonization date yet.

I'm not sure about that.
I have to double check.
I think it's coming soon, butI'm not sure exactly 100 yeah,
well, it'll be this year, Ithink.

Um, so no, so I think, just, you know,
using his, his story and and andbeing inspired by, you know
what others have done and how wecan copy that, because we have
this great library and examplesof saints that precede us and
you know you have some that aremore closer to your way of

(28:43):
living because they're they'recloser to you in modern times,
but just maybe their, theirattitude and their way of of
being can inspire you and liftyour heart and lift your soul
and and guide you.
And we actually have a novenaon Carlo Acutis on Hozana.
But I think the the brilliantpart of all of this app and this

(29:03):
internet and and the fact thatyou can, you know, kind of take
what you want from and and beinspired from different saints,
is really inspiring.
And you know, speaking ofpicking up different saints, I
haven't followed the CarloAcutis Novena yet because I'm
trying to create a new one forhis canonization as well.
But just, I was so happy tolearn about St Therese on Hozana

(29:28):
this year because Therese ofLisieux sorry, because you know,
she actually made me laughshe's an 18th century saint.
She's much farther away from methan Carlo Acutis Acutis.
Sorry, but they're just asinspiring because just as just
as modern, just as present and,just as you know, real because

(29:54):
they left traces of theirwriting, because they left
examples.
So the richness of the saintsthat we can look up to.

Yes, and we know that France is the eldest
daughter of the church and oneof the most famous pilgrimage
sites is in Lourdes, and we hadthe privilege of actually going
there in 2019, together as afamily with our two kids, and in
your email you were saying thatyou have been a volunteer there

(30:27):
.
Can you tell us?
Well, first of all, tell uswhat is Lourdes, where is it,
how do you get there?
And then, what did you do there?

I'd be interested to know how it
differs in an internationalpoint of view than in a French
point of view, because Lourdesis really known to, at least in
the French culture, to heal thewounded and to heal the sick,
and so people often go therewhen when they're when they're
sick, because there's the holywater of Lourdes, the blessed

(30:54):
water of Lourdes, that's um thatcan help you um heal.
And so there's the sanctuary.
Is just incredible, and it'sfunny because I have showed a
picture of Lourdes to my littlebrother yesterday telling him
you have to go, henry.
So you know it was present allthe time, um, in all of our, in
a lot of our conversations, andin the sanctuary, um, you have

(31:17):
the, you have so many churches,but you also have the grotto
where our lady appeared tobernadette, a little girl that
didn't know how to read or write, um, because she was.
She had to help out at home tofeed the family and she was on
her way to get wood to light thefire so that her mother could

(31:38):
cook.
When the Virgin appeared to herand she appeared several times
she asked Bernadette to wash herface with the mud of the grotto
to be able to see clearer.
And so there's a wholesignificance in that grotto

(32:00):
where the Virgin appeared, and Ithink young Catholics, in
France at least, have a specialattachment to that, because we
bring the sick of our diocesesto Lourdes during the whole
summer.
All the dioceses relate to eachother, one after the other, and

(32:21):
so I had the chance to do boththings be on the receiving side
so help the sanctuary, host andhave people come.
And I think the most impressivepart of that was at the moment
when you help with communion,because you have priests that
leave the altar, that go intoall directions, because there
are people in the undergroundchurch all around the altar and

(32:45):
you accompany them with anumbrella, because you have to
show where the communion pointsare, and it's this
semi-organized chaos where justhands are brought to the Lord
from all sides.
So when a priest is handing outcommunion, he gives it at 360
degrees because people are justcoming from all sides and you
have I mean the image andsymbolism is super strong

(33:11):
because you have these poorhands that are together and that
are asking for the Lord to comeinto them.
And I mean I just whenever Ithink of Lord, I think of that
and I also think.
And so then, on the reverseflip side, you help a lot of
young people go and help thesick of their diocese go to Lord

(33:31):
.
So you go by train it's lesscommon now, but that's how it
started off.
You put the sick into the traininto your hometown and you
bring them to Lourdes andthey're taken out at the train
station and they're brought totheir hotels or to the places
where they're staying, and soyou spend a week with people

(33:52):
that are old or sick or and youknow, the degree of disability
varies from just an old personthat can't move anymore to
people that are really mentallyill or that are disabled, and
you bring them for one week toMass to pray the Rosary, to pray
at the grotto, to get bathed inthe water, to go lay a candle,

(34:17):
just to breathe the freshmountain air.
Because Lourdes is in the southof France, and so you have to
take a long.
It takes a long time to getthere, you have to be motivated,
but it's a great.
I mean Sheila, you were tellingme it's, you guys went as a
family.
It's so impressive to go and tosee all of these people
reunited to help and to praytogether in the same spot, and

(34:38):
so I mean there's this intensityof prayer that's present on the
whole site and that's beautiful, and so I don't have a.
I mean maybe you guys want toshare your story.
I mean maybe you guys want toshare your story, but it's just
impressive to see how muchprayer there is in so many few

(34:59):
square meters.

Yeah, I know, to get to Lourdes is not easy, as
you were saying.
If you're going to go there,you have to be pretty deliberate
about it and you have to havesome sort of planning.
And the two times that I'vegone to Lourdes some kind of
miracle happened, because Ididn't plan it at all.
We set it up there but I wasstruggling to get there.
But you can see the faith and,I think, maybe our Blessed

(35:20):
Mother.
I was always trying to wonderwhy is it that our Blessed
Mother picked that place?
You know where?
If obviously you think about it, you know what's going to
happen later.
The poor are going to have togo, they're going to, but you
really think about it.
Our lady probably went into themountains there because we're
going to have to work together,right, as a church and, as you
were saying, like people put ontrains, brought there, they're

(35:40):
going to have to be taken off,and it's like, okay, well, it's
not just an individual thinganymore, it's not an individual
faith, it's everybody workingtogether as again going back to,
as we were saying before, thecommunion of saints, right, we
all have to help each other outin order to bring ourselves to
our lord and, and, as you'resaying, that with that, with the
, the communion going out, youknow, we've the people go to to,

(36:01):
to lords there, to go and talkto our lady, to be with our lord
, and then that symbolism wherethe, the priests leave the, the
altars.
Now our Lord, who has alwaysbeen extending himself to us
it's confirmed there, right, ourLord is reaching back out to us
, right?
So it's a beautiful thing.
Well, what a blessing for youto have worked in Lourdes and

(36:22):
have that well, a lot moreaccessible to you than it is to
us here in Canada, obviouslybeing in Lourdes, but, wow, what
a great, what a great place.
France you have that, plusSaint-Michel, plus all bunch of
other things, sacré-cœur, man,you know we owe a lot to France.

So yeah, and I mean, Sheila, you were saying
the Pope told France France,fille née de l'Église, so eldest
daughter of the Church, staytruthful to the promises of your
Baptism.
I mean, we're so lucky to havesuch a rich cultural Catholic

(37:02):
history in our country and nowit's up to us in the 21st
century to keep that going andto make sure that we do stay
faithful to our promise of ourBaptism and to evangelize and to
live with the Lord and to bringpeople to Lourdes so that they
can be closer to the Lord and bewith the Virgin Mary and go to

(37:25):
the rue du Bac, where Our Ladyalso appeared to Catherine
Laboure and gave her themiraculous medal.
I mean, there's so many thingsand I don't know if you know
this, but all of the burialapparitions in France.
When you trace them on a map,they make an M, so that's pretty

(37:47):
impressive as well.

I totally did not know that.

(38:20):
But no one of the things youwere saying before is like okay,
well, the youth are quietlydoing, you know, prayer groups
and whatnot, and the rosary, itjust got me to think.
The church just like a flowerthe flowers don't grow in noise,
right, like roses don't grow innoise, they grow in silence.
And you can see that the Churchis growing very, very strong,

(38:44):
but without making a whole lotof noise, and it's coming from
the youth now, where the rosaryis becoming a thing, obviously,
adoration is becoming a thing.
I imagine the popularity ofLourdesords is increasing in
other places in France.
So, while a lot of people canbe cynical and say, well,
everything's lost and the churchis going the wrong way and

(39:05):
whatnot, you can see how theyouth, especially the youth, are
really falling in love with ourLord through Our Lady, and it
seems like this is going to betaken back at some point, right
when people will conquer becauseof love, and it's a wonderful
thing.

And you're saying the youth and start young
, and I saw that you guys hadthe Rosary also in your hands.
But start young, start whenyou're a baby.
We received these at work thatare teething Rosaries and so
it's for a baby to put theirteeth on.
But just having these around,just showing that you know
you've got to get familiar withthe optics as well.

Make it something so it's not foreign to the
children, right, foreign to yourchildren.
That's good stuff, and Iimagine you and your fiancé pray
the Rosary a lot together,right like uh, because it brings
that, brings you and we go toadoration yeah, well, that's
good stuff.
When I was dating Sheila there,uh, we would.
If we couldn't be together topray the rosary, I would call

(40:09):
her up and we pray the Rosarytogether, you know so, every
night and whatnot.
It's a good.
It's a good practice, yeah.
Yeah.

Absolutely, and is there anything?

coming up with Hosanna or Rosario during
this month of the rosary.
Well, yeah, actually completelyPauline Jarrico, which is the
Blessed Pauline Jarrico whostarted the concept of living
rosaries and her objective Idon't know if we talked about
this last time, Sheila, but herobjective in the 19th century in
Lyon in France, was to getpeople to pray the Rosary as

(40:48):
well, and so she divided thethree mysteries because there
were only three at that timeinto groups, three or four, into
groups of people, and sotogether they said the different
mysteries, and so we took thatidea when we created Rosario,
and so for her you know, tocommemorate her we launched the
Pauline Challenge, which is wewant to get Rosario users to
also be missionaries of theRosary and to go out and invite

(41:11):
people that they know to praythe Rosary with them.
And so every week of October,we have a different group of
people you can reach out to, soyour parish, your family, people
that you know that are around,that know a person in need or a
person that's suffering, andinvite them to for one week.
It's not a big engagement orcommitment, I mean for one week.

(41:33):
You pray a decade each for thespecial intention, and that way
you get people to start prayingthe Rosary and put it into their
daily routine, and so that'swhat's going on for the month of
rosary is to be missionariesand to spread the, spread the,
the joy of the of the rosarywith others.
And so our objective, um,because we like objectives is to

(41:53):
get 50 new, 50,000, new,000 newhearts consecrated and offered
to Mary.
And for the moment, as of the14th of October, we're at 14,000
, no, no, 25,000 new hearts.
So we're halfway there.

So, with all of these prayers around the world,
is there any published miraclesor do you have any miracles that
we can talk of from Hosanna orRosario?
Yet.
Not yet, but you have to keeppraying.
Okay, yes, this is good.

There are a lot of jobs that have been found
, a lot of friendships that havebeen made, a lot of houses and
health issues that have resolved, but no miracles given to the
dioceses yet.

We'll get there.

And I brought the Lourdes water.
This is from 2019 and Iactually kept it outside the
fridge for like a year and itdidn't like.
It was fine, it didn't have anymold or anything.
But then I thought you knowwhat to keep it safe, I'm going
to put it in the fridge, but fora year it was out and there was
nothing.
But I have given this tosomebody who blessed her

(43:05):
stepfather with it and he hadrecovered from an illness
because of the holy water.
The Holy water.
But I'm just wondering do youremember when you were there was
the?
Were the baths open?
Can you explain to us what isit like there for people who, to
be honest, I didn't even knowabout the baths if I had gone to
lourdes I wouldn't even knowabout it because I hadn't heard

(43:28):
about it but like, were you?
Were you there when it was openand what is it like?

I actually went exactly when it was closed,
but which wasn't a problembecause it was the ritual of the
water which replacedtemporarily the bathing.
But so the idea is that youplunge yourself into cold water
because the water of Nour iscold.
There's the river that runsthrough and you can also take

(43:57):
the water home.
And you arrive and you'regreeted by a hospitality that
their only job is to bathepeople.
And so I have my Lourdes.
Friends are Claudie andIsabelle, who are 70-year-old or
80-year-old ladies that havebeen going for 20 or 30 or 40
years, and every time they comethey come um to bathe people, so

(44:20):
that's their special mission.
You have people whose specialmissions are to help with the
grotto, to help with them, um,with the liturgy of the Mass,
and those are there just tobathe.
And so you arrive um and you'reseparated between men and women
, and so the women go on to oneside and you're invited to come
with just yourself or with yourfamily members, the ladies that

(44:46):
are accompanying you, and you'rebrought and you're plunged, so
they put a towel on you and thenyou can take your clothes off
and then you're plunged into thecold water.
You say a Hail Mary and thenyou're plunged into the cold
water, you say a hail mary, andthen you're taken out again and
and then you say a quick prayer,um, with the ladies that bathe
you and with your group that'saccompanying you, and then you

(45:06):
also have um.
So that was, that's now again.
And before the, before the covid, and during the covid, there
was also was also the gesture ofthe water, where you washed
your face and washed your handswith the water of Lourdes, which
was a reminder to the messagethat Bernadette received from

(45:26):
Our Virgin to wash herself withthe water of the grotto.
She had to dig in the dirt tofind the water and wash herself
with that water, and so that'show it works.
She had to dig in the dirt tofind the water and wash herself
with that water, and so that'show it works.
And it's really intense becauseyou see people coming with all

(45:48):
of their burdens and that aremaking this effort of going into
the cold water for Our Lady andoffering their hearts to her
and all of their worries andtheir desires and their wishes.
So that's the highlight, Iwould say, of being in Lourdes
is being able to bathe, becausewhen you're part of the
hospitality that's hosting, youcan help bathe the people.

Yeah, I remember doing the bathing.
It was very emotional.
But also, you know, you sitthere and there's an image of
Our Lady on the wall and theytell you like, pray to Our Lady
and then give her everything andthey're sort of coaching as to
what to say.
And then they would, you'dbathe and you'd be completely
immersed and you'd bring her outand you're right, it's freezing
cold.
Is the hospitality people?

(46:32):
They're standing waist high inthat and they're like person
after person.
And they're not like youngpeople, right, they're like
elderly volunteers and they'restanding waist high in freezing
water, you know, and bathingpeople out, person after person.
You think, man, what asacrifice.
But they do it out of serviceto the people and of love.
So it's really great.
But you can see the tremendousfaith in Lourdes.

(46:56):
It's amazing.
And then you go out and thenyou see the big candles there
where everybody's sort of youknow, offering up prayers to Our
Lady and whatnot.
That's great.
How long did you spend there inLourdes like to volunteer?

The three times I went it was for a week.
So for a week you go around allthe different services and you
help with the flowers, you helpwith the sewing, because all the
liturgy um clothes and all ofthem um hats of the bishops for
when they come are made on site,and you help with the cleaning,
you help with the preparationof the intentions, with the

(47:30):
readings, and then one and thenthe other weeks it was to to
bring the sick to um, to all ofthese different stations can.

Can anybody volunteer for that?

Yep yeah, really I'm counting on you next
time okay, that sounds good.

When we went, we went in November and, uh, we had
the place to ourselvespractically right, so it was no
crowds we had to fight.
We just went right to thegrotto and went to the baths and
it was like maybe a 15-minutewait.
But you know, I'd been thereonce years ago.
It was right in the middle ofthe summer, I think it was in
July.
You had to wait a long time fora lot of stuff, right, but

(48:07):
because of all the pilgrims thatare there.
But for you to be there forthree times for a week each, my
goodness, you know that thewhole place is yours right, you
know okay if people canvolunteer for that, I'll
definitely think about doingthis.
Okay, we're going back toLourdes, yeah.

I'll share our story.
This is actually in our firstepisode of the podcast.
We went to Lourdes because hewas he's a reservist Reservists
in the Canadian army.
So he was deployed overseas inthe Middle East.
He'd been away, I think, threemonths and he had a two-week
leave vacation and so we met inBarcelona.

(48:45):
Actually, we went to SagradaFamilia, it was beautiful.
Then we had this crazy I was tobe honest, I was trying to plan
this trip from Canada, trying tofind all the train, like the
train system.
I could not figure out thetrain system.
I couldn't figure out how toget to Lourdes from Barcelona by
train.
So I gave up.
So he said, why don't we justrent a car?

(49:06):
So we rented a car.
He drove from Barcelona toLourdes, but we drove when it
was almost nighttime.
Not advisable, not advisable,so we will.
Yeah, so if night was fallingand it was also November, so it
was getting cold wintertime andthe roads were a little icy and

(49:27):
it was dark and we were alsokind of getting lost and not
sure, we thought, oh, we'll juststop by a McDonald's.
There's no McDonald's.
It's like we're in the mountainpasses and it was dark, we were
getting lost, we were in aforest and I thought we were
going to fall off a cliff.
I wasn't sure, it was very dark, we couldn't see, but by the

(49:49):
grace of God and Our Lady, wegot to Lourdes, I think after
midnight and we didn't fall offa cliff, we were fine.
But yeah, so our story therewas we had suffered a loss.
I had a miscarriage a yearbefore Was it nine months before
and the doctor had told me well, you might have to accept that

(50:10):
you might not be able to havechildren anymore.
So I said, all right, fine,that's God's will.
So I went there and I went to Lchildren anymore.
So I said, all right, fine,that's God's will.
So I went there and I went toLourdes and when we did the
baths and it was cold, it wasreally cold Went in there crying
.
It was a very overwhelmingexperience, just praying to Our
Lady, and I felt like a sense ofrelief, not relief, but the

(50:33):
burden being unburdened, yeah,the burden of the loss of the
baby kind of lifting off of meand I was just giving it to God
and giving it to Our Lady and Ithought, yeah, that's what I
came like you were saying, peacethat's what I experienced is
peace.
I wasn't sure if it was healing, but in a spiritual way it was

(50:54):
healing in an emotional way.
So we came back and I was withmy two young daughters.
They were two and four, or isit three and five?
Anyway, they were young and Icame back and I think a few
weeks later I went to the doctorjust to check up on.
You know how's it, you know howare things going, and then, and
then I had to tell him, guesswhat we're expecting.

(51:16):
So that's our third child, andhe was born during the pandemic.
But yeah, so that was the giftthat Our Lady had given us, even
though we thought all hope waslost.
So you just, I guess you neverknow that you should be open to
a miracle, because you neverknow.
I mean, there are times whenthe miracle doesn't happen.
But there there might be amiracle waiting for you If you

(51:41):
just reach out to Our Lady andto Our Lord.
What?
What do you think aboutmiracles?

Well, they're incredible.
I mean, I just hearing yourstory, it makes me smile and
makes me want to thank the Lord.
But I mean, of course there aremiracles.
That's just how the Lord works.
I haven't been lucky toexperience one myself, but there

(52:12):
are so many things that youcan't explain and that you just
need to thank the Lord.
And I don't know what qualifiesas a miracle, because it's
something you know.
Maybe you weren't meant to nothave any more children, but just
someone misdiagnosed you andyou think it's a miracle.
But they might have not thoughtit was a miracle.

(52:33):
They might've not thought itwas a miracle but it's.
It's just, you know, accepting,accepting that graces fall onto
you and that, um, you know youhad to change, change the
disposition of your heart fromoh gosh, we can't anymore, to
yes, now we can again.
And I think maybe that's youknow, the miracle comes from up

(52:54):
there, but the miracle alsohappens if you're open to seeing
it.
I just give grace for miraclesbecause it's, I mean, that's
what keeps your faith alive, toknow that the Lord is working in
different people's lives yes,absolutely.

Did you have anything else to say?

no, thank you very much, cassandra, for
sharing your time with us.
You're wise beyond your years.
It's a very good.
So thank you very much,cassandra, for sharing your time
with us.
You're wise beyond your years,it's very good.
So thank you very much forsharing that.
And give us one more plug therefor the Hosanna and the Rosario
app please, just so people knowwhere to go and what the
promotion or the thing thatwe're trying to do again, Global
20 33, please mention that allagain.

Yeah, well, you know, learn and start
praying the Rosary with yourfriends and your family on the
Rosario app that's available onthe app stores.
And the Hozana is either awebsite or an app as well.
Where you can, you know, get toknow the saints through novenas
and and start to pray for eachother.
And if you have an intention onyour heart, you can put them on

(53:54):
the intention pages so thatthey'll be put into people's
prayer spaces so that people canstart praying for you, and
that's on the Hozana website,hozana dot org.
And so, for the month of therosary, we're trying to get
50,000 new hearts offered toMary, so 50 new thousand people
that are starting to pray theRosary on the app.

Okay, there you go 50,000 folks.
We're going to shoot for that,and also 2033,.
We're going to join France intrying to get everybody to pray
the rosary every single day.
Okay, right on.

Thank you so much again, cassandra.
We appreciate your time.
We really appreciate your time,so thank you.
God bless to you and to yourfiance as well.

Give us our warmest regards, will do.

Thank you so much , thank you.

Thanks, sir.

God bless, take care.
Bye.
Thank you so much.
Bye.

Co-Host (54:49):
If you like our podcast , please like, share and
subscribe.
You can also leave us a commentand a review, please.
We'd love to hear from you.

Thank you to Cassandra Verhelst of the Hozana
App for telling us about theRosary Challenge during these
uncertain times.
To join and help to reach theirgoal of 50,000 people praying
the Rosary by the end of October.
Please download the Rosario App.
Enter the code PRAYFORAMERICA.
All this info will be in theshow notes.
It's the final week of themonth of the Holy Rosary and we

(55:27):
will have more episodes to bringto you.
Thank you and God bless.
Thank you for listening to theVeil and Armour podcast.

Co-Host (55:39):
I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom
today.
Please subscribe to our podcastand YouTube channel and please
spread the word.
Let's be brave, let's be boldand be blessed together.

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22. The Power of Prayer and the Rosary Challenge with Cassandra Verhelst from the Hozana and Rosario App

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