In the middle of Upstate New York, 30 minutes outside of Cooperstown sites a small shrine to our Lady of Rosa Mystica. The location, Angel Hill ins Edmunston, NY, determined by understanding numbers provided to Mother Leonardo in the 1960’s, were not random but in fact a geographic location far from her home in Italy. Mother Leonardo’s spiritual director was none than Padre Pio himself. When she came to visit the property and ask our Lady what she wanted here miracles followed. She spent 40 days in fasting and prayer, receiving and communicating with Our Lady…and after several rough starts the shrine continues to grow.

Our Lady’s message under the title Rosa Mystica is one of asking for prayer because priests were losing their way, and sacrilege would follow. Today I know our priests, bishops and Pope are in crisis. One just has to look at the fruit of the labors in the last sixty years to make your own assessment. Although originally delivered in a small Italian town to Mother Leonardo, it came here as well because those coordinates delivered to here by Mary.

We lost respect for the sanctuary, a Pope cancelled public worship worldwide during Covid, makes deals for communist countries to select bishops from their own version of the church, we have a mass with rubrics theologically foreign to the history of the church, and so much more. We replaced religious teaching schools with laity, and costs went up exponentially. The reach of the schools consequently decreased, as did the size of families. And the winnowing of our church continues in most places.

Not all is lost. We did have some priests recognize over zealous nature of some pastors in the pre-Vatican II era. We have much greater recognition in preaching and in recognizing the role of laity in building the kingdom of God…and how we too should move towards sanctification in our lives. So good fruits do exist, we just have to open our minds and look for them.

Our Lady does not appear in easy to get to locations, and the trek here was a wonderful ride. Yet it reminds me of how Fatima and Lourdes must have looked when Our Lady appeared to children doing their chores.

I found myself here because a year ago I opened my coaching business on the Feast of Rosa Mystica, July 13th. Then a month ago, I heard about this House of Prayer from a favorite podcast -US Grace Force. It all lined up and so here I am. Listening for direction on what to fix, what to do, and beginning to surrender myself anew to the work of the Lord through his Blessed Mother.

-ehw