7. A Million Roses for Mother Mary with Cassandre Verhelst of the Rosario App

As the May flowers bloom, it signals the time for honouring Our Blessed Mother in this month of May. It is also the time when we honour our mothers for Mother's Day, celebrated during the same month. In this week's episode, our Veil and Armour podcast welcomes Cassandre Verhelst, the Hozana App's Development Manager of the English Edition.

Cassandre speaks with Sheila from Paris, France. She introduces us to the newly released and transformative Rosario App by Hozana, a remarkable prayer platform designed to unite believers in prayer . The new Rosario App is challenging believers from around the world to pray a million decades of the Rosary. If this challenge is met, these prayer roses will be turned into a gift of a million roses at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. Cassandre's passion for this project shines as she recounts how the app not only unites users in spiritual solidarity, but also keeps track of our collective progress toward the lofty goal of a million Rosary decades. Hear how this digital sanctuary is redefining the way we offer our devotions and celebrate the maternal embodiment of faith.

This week's episode weave personal tales with the rich tapestry of history, showcasing the enduring strength and grace of women through the lens of Our Lady. We uncover the profound symbolism nestled within the Rosary and the veil, touching upon the notion of Our Blessed Mother as the new Ark of the Covenant. Sheila also recounts the miraculous power of prayer she witnessed as a young girl during the Philippines' peaceful People Power revolution. Through these personal stories, we pay homage to the maternal figures in our lives, drawing inspiration from Our Lady's unwavering "Yes" to God and her steadfast courage at the Crucifixion. Join us for an episode that honours the spiritual journey of womanhood, and explores the depths of faith and devotion through heartfelt discussion and historical insights.

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Chapters

• 0:04 Prayer App for Mother Mary
• 10:53 The Veil and Armor Podcast

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hello and welcome to the Veil and Armor podcast. This is your host, Sheila Nonato. I'm a stay-at-home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist, Seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of Our Lady. I strive to tell stories that inspire, illuminate and enrich the lives of Catholic women, to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints.

Speaker 2: 0:27

Please join us every week on the Veil and Armor podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist's lens and mother's heart.

Speaker 1: 0:36

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Veil and Armor podcast. Guess what month? It is the month?

Speaker 2: 0:42

of Mama.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Mary. Today we will talk about our Blessed Mother and Mother's Day. There's a new app that is laying down a challenge for people around the world to pray a million decades for Our Lady. In this month of May, we have an interview with Cassandra Verhulst from the Hosanna app, who will be speaking with us from Paris, france. Let's have a listen. So welcome to our next guest, cassandra Verhulst, and if you can, please introduce yourself and where you're from and the app that you're working for.

Speaker 3: 1:17

Well, thank you, sheila, for having me. I'm happy to be here. I'm originally from Belgium but now living in France, so crossed one border, not too far, and I'm working at Hosanna that's launching a new app called Rosario and on which we want to get people to pray the rosary together in groups of five, so that people can, through prayer, be connected and pray towards a common objective and common goal, and so we try and get groups of five to be shared, to be created with your grandmother and your three cousins, or with your friends from your high school that you're close with, in order to every day pray one decade of the rosary, so that together you pray the rosary, the full rosary, and that's seven days a week, to always ask the Virgin Mary to pray for us and to intercede for us.

Speaker 1: 2:09

I forgot I started doing this in my last podcast. Do you mind if we pray the Hail Mary? Of course, yeah, okay, let's start with that. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Speaker 2: 2:20

Amen.

Speaker 1: 2:20

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, jesus.

Speaker 3: 2:28

Holy Mary, mother of God present is now and at the hour of our death.

Speaker 1: 2:33

Amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, thank you. So it's a new app, so it's separate from Hosanna, correct? Yeah, okay, and when is it?

Speaker 3: 2:44

launching. It's launching on the 1st of May. It's had a huge success in France, and so we thought well, we must share this with the rest of the world. And so, on the 1st of May, we're launching the app, and we're launching it off with a big bang, with big challenge to get the whole world to pray. 1 million decades in 31 days. Decades in 31 days, one million decades. If we manage that, we're going to transform these spiritual roses into real roses that we're going to lay at the feet of Our Lady in Guadalupe, the biggest marital shrine of the world. And so the idea is to concretize these spiritual gifts that the world has been praying into something real and something visible, something beautiful, and so we need all the people we can get to start praying on the app.

Speaker 1: 3:27

That's wonderful, and so how do we keep track of how many people are praying?

Speaker 3: 3:31

Every time you complete your decade, you click a button to say I've prayed, and so the app counts the number of decades that have been prayed per day. Right now, there are already 35,000 people praying on the app in groups of five, or they're praying the whole rosary by themselves, and they're praying for a special intention, for example, with their parish, or for something that's happened in their local community or in their country. In France, we have a little boy that disappeared a few months ago, and so we've had a lot of people pray and pray for his body to be found, and so every time a person clicks on the app and says I've prayed, it counts towards the total number of 1 million decades, and that will start on the 1st of May and run up until the 31st.

Speaker 1: 4:14

Wow, and is there a cost? How do we do this Download? And yeah, all free, okay.

Speaker 3: 4:20

It's all free and that's the whole point of it, because prayer is free and should be free, and that's the way we believe, at Hosanna and at Rosario, that it should be done. You go onto your app store and you download Rosario, or through the link that we can share, and it'll take you to the application where you sign up in the easiest way possible by typing yes into a form that says I take the resolution to pray a decade every day, or to pray the resolution every day, depending on what you want to commit to. And that's how you register. And then, once you've said yes, you're put into a group that you create with your friends and your family, or that you join with other people that are praying for the same thing, and so it's simple as that. You download the app, you type yes and you get going.

Speaker 1: 5:06

Beautiful. So I guess the launch of this app is coinciding, obviously, with the month of Mother Mary in May.

Speaker 3: 5:14

And another great coincidence is that, and as we offer and send roses for Mother's Day to our mothers here, we thought, well, it just makes natural sense to do the same thing for the person that's praying for us every day and that's keeping an eye on us from heaven. And so it just makes perfect sense. And in France, it's also during the month of May, mother's Day, and we have little special flowers on the 1st of May that we offer to each other. And so we thought, well, it's a perfect significance and a perfect way to materialize this great initiative. And if you can tell, me about the Hosanna app.

Speaker 1: 6:02

that's also a free app. Yeah, how many users do you have now?

Speaker 3: 6:07

We have about a million and a half users that are spread across the world, and so the point of hosanna is we have the firm belief that prayer can change the world and internet has changed the world, and so if you combine both, you can unite the power of prayer with the power of internet and you can make the world a better place through that. That's our motto and why we're developing all of this, and so hosanna offers spiritual um guides, so through novenas or through retreats that are a bit longer or shorter three days or up to a month for special intentions. So, for example, right now in europe, the first of may is the feast of saint josepher, and so we're praying to find a good job, to find work, to find meaning in our work, and for nine days leading up to Saint Joseph's feast, there's also novenas to pray for lost causes. With Saint Rita, there are novenas proposed by the Diocese of Paris, and then, for example, for Lent, there's 40 days with here, works and be aware and pray with the intention of that. So basically, if I recap, hosanna is just a platform where people can find spiritual food to nourish their prayer and to help them with their prayer if they have a special intention that they want to pray for. And then there's also a whole page where you can put in your intention and people will pray for other intentions.

Speaker 3: 7:30

And, for example, it was my birthday last Monday and, without me knowing, without me putting my intention, 11 people prayed for me. Because it was put on the app of 11 people saying it's Cassandra's birthday, please pray for her. And I have another friend that was whose little girl had heart problems, and so on. The app said well, I, could you please pray for Madeline and her heart problem? And 15 people prayed for her, little Madeline, and she had the a nice expression saying you can find the worst on internet, but you can also find the best, and so I thought that was pretty strong.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Yes, absolutely. It's seems like social media is the new mission territory. Do you agree? Absolutely. You don't need to go into a country. You can cross borders on the computer and on the phone.

Speaker 3: 8:19

Totally, and you can pray with people that have the same devotion as you, and you can pray with people that are desiring profoundly the same peace or that are going through the same hardships. And nothing lifts you more and gives you more hope than prayer, both because you can feel the Lord speaking to you through your prayer and because you know that you're being supported by all of your brothers and sisters in Christ. And we talk a lot about the communion of saints. Well, it's not limited to just your parish or to just your circle. You ask people that you don't know them to pray for you and, through social media, to have strangers share the same thing and share the same faith and share the same convictions helps you know that you're not alone and realize that if so many people believe in God, it's that God is there and listening to us and guiding us absolutely, yes, yes, that's beautiful.

Speaker 1: 9:11

I am looking forward to checking out the app and thank you for joining us today. Was there anything else that you wanted to?

Speaker 3: 9:18

add Just to thank you, Sheila, for showing and making sure that many people know about the fact that the Virgin Mary is a powerful interceder.

Speaker 3: 9:29

Thank you, and I don't know if you had a Mother's Day message for mothers out there, mothers are the best example of saintliness that we can follow, because without them the world doesn't run and without them we don't know towards what we're headed to, and it's not very clear because it's not in my mother tongue. We're headed to work too, and it's not very clear it's because it's not in my mother tongue. But basically that moms make the saints of the world and moms shape those that are praying and those are acting in the world beautiful.

Speaker 1: 9:59

Thank you so much again and I appreciate your time. I really do I. I wish you all the best. I not wish I. I pray for the success of this campaign. Wouldn't it be amazing to see one million roses for Our Lady of Guadalupe? I'm looking forward to seeing that. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 3: 10:17

Thank you All the best. Thank you, sheila, for taking the time to and for wanting to relay this, because I just want to get as many people on board as possible, and especially in North America, because we have many people in France already praying. We already have 35,000 people connected, but not yet many in North America.

Speaker 1: 10:33

Thank you so much. God bless and have a great, blessed week. Thank you, sheila, take care, thank you, bye-bye, goodbye, bye-bye. Thank you to Cassandra for speaking with us about the Rosario app. If you'd like to find it on downloading platforms, it is spelled R-O-S-A-R-I-O. We hope you can join the challenge. Why is the rosary a special devotion to Our Lady?

Speaker 2: 10:57

Heaven, our true home, seems almost impossible to reach. That's why Our Lady gave us the rosary to help us, her children, on the spiritual journey towards Heaven.

Speaker 1: 11:09

In my daughter's reflection. She invites us to turn our gaze towards Our Lady and towards Heaven. This is where our podcast apostolate gets the term veil from the Veil and Armor podcast. Our Lady is always depicted in images wearing a veil, which was the custom of the time. In Jewish tradition, the Ark of the Covenant is the large gold-plated wooden chest that housed the two tablets of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God. According to Jewish tradition, it is said to have a golden top, called a mercy seat, where God would dwell. The Ark served as a religious symbol where people could meet with God, although never see Him face to face. No one was allowed to enter except the high priest, who entered once a year during Yom Kippur. The Ark was often inside the tabernacle behind a curtain or a veil made of blue, purple and scarlet yarns and hung on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold. We recall in the New Testament when Jesus died on the cross and the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. According to the tradition of Jesus' time, what was holy was usually covered by a veil. In the same way, our Lady, who wears a veil, is covered and represents the new Ark of the Covenant With Jesus in her womb, our Blessed Mother became Jesus' tabernacle.

Speaker 1: 12:30

According to the Catholic Traveler blog, there is a relic of a sacred veil housed in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, italy. Twice a year, once on the Feast of the Assumption and once on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the veil is displayed. It is believed to be a gift to Mother Mary from the Magi, and it is made of a precious silk veil to swaddle baby Jesus. In the year 1319, a prince had donated the veil to the Basilica after he picked it up during the Crusades. The Catholic Traveler blog writes that tests over the years confirmed the veil to be ancient and that of a type of silk used during the time of Jesus and Mother Mary. Mother Mary is our example of womanhood and femininity. She is the counter-cultural hero whose humility and surrender to God showed her strength, not her weakness. Now we come to the armor part of our podcast name the armor of faith in the rosary.

Speaker 1: 13:23

I shared with Canadian podcaster and speaker Tammy Peterson my experience of attending the peaceful revolution in the Philippines as a young girl, including seeing the iconic image on TV of Catholic nuns kneeling in front of military tanks armed only with a rosary. The soldiers did not fire upon the crowd. Instead, they accepted their gifts of food and flowers. It was the turning point of the revolution that led to peaceful change. Mrs Peterson shared my email with her husband, dr Jordan Peterson, who gave the comment Can faith stop tanks? It's likely the only thing that ever has. He wrote why was faith able to stop an armed tank? Why did faith save the people kneeling and praying that day? It is likely the only thing that ever has. He wrote why was faith able to stop an armed tank? Why did faith save the people kneeling and praying that day? It is because the greatest revolution is an interior one.

Speaker 1: 14:09

Dr Peterson talks about this in his Exodus series. The inner tyranny is the most difficult and the most important to overcome. Giving up oneself, giving up our own plans, our own wants and needs that is the greatest challenge. And so we turn to Mother Mary. Is her meekness, her humility, her surrender to God a sign of her weakness? Let's reflect upon what she did.

Speaker 1: 14:37

Our Lady said yes to the angel Gabriel to become the mother of God, a yes to the will of God to become the new Eve, to be the new vessel of God, as the new Ark of the Covenant. What did she say yes to? She said yes to hardship and to the cross. Having to travel on a donkey, nine months pregnant, from Nazareth to Bethlehem a distance of about 90 miles in four days is quite the feat. When she said yes to our Lord's birth, she also said yes to his suffering, to his death on the cross.

Speaker 1: 15:12

In a podcast featuring Queenie Yu and Tammy Peterson, queenie discussed the cross and how Our Lady showed her immense strength. She was standing at the foot of the cross, not laying down on the ground. From a mother's perspective, how much strength for a mother to see her only son in complete agony and torture, to be able to be there with him, to stand with him, to see his suffering in its totality, instead of being somewhere else. It is the same with mothers and spiritual mothers, whom we celebrate on Mother's Day, to celebrate your strength, your courage and your example, and our gratitude for your yes to motherhood and spiritual motherhood.

Speaker 1: 15:57

A special Mother's Day to women of strength my own mother, emma Imacolada. To my mother-in-law, nancy Nassing. To my sisters, crystal and Kate. My sisters-in-law Patricia Nu and Tam. To all the titas and cousins on the Dabu and Nonada side my Tita Bing, my Tita Winnie in Chicago, the strength of Tita Tess and Tita Emily, tita Carmelita, tita Cecil, tita Susan, tita Bernadette, tita Nora, tita Magda, and to spiritual mothers like my Aunt, lenita Raffi, who is a fighter and, thanks be to God, experienced a miraculous healing and recovery from a massive heart attack, and to my husband's aunt, dita Mati, who celebrated her 87th birthday today, another strong woman, and to Ata Cynthia, who has been the glue connecting the Nonado family in Canada.

Speaker 1: 16:54

I would also like to recognize Sister Ursula of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, who is in South Africa right now and who is the godmother of two of our children, and Sister Christina Kazimeric of the Felician Sisters, an upcoming guest. Sister Helena Burns, a daughter of St Paul and her mother and all religious sisters. We thank you and we celebrate you and my Tita Melly in Naga City, where my parents are from. Happy Mother's Day to you and we remember our grandmothers and great-grandmothers in heaven my grandmother Lola Pepang and Lola Mami, and my husband's grandmothers from the Nonato and Lukban families. We celebrate you all. I'm sorry if I cannot name everyone, but please know you're all in our prayers. Join us on our next episode as we talk about St Joseph and feature technologist musician and unconventional pro-life speaker, blaise Aline, as he celebrates his own mother.

Speaker 2: 17:52

I hope you have a day of rest and celebration. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day.

Speaker 1: 18:01

Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armor podcast.

Speaker 2: 18:04

I invite you to share this with another. Happy Mother's Day.