22. Let's Pray for America, The Power of Prayer and the Rosary Challenge with Cassandra Verhelst from the Hozana and Rosario App

It's a week before the much anticipated U.S. election!
Do you feel anxious about the election? What's a Catholic response to the anxiety, worry and divisiveness of politics today?
Hozana App is suggesting we turn to our Catholic faith and the Holy Rosary!

In Episode 11: The Rosary - A Catholic Response to the Paris Olympics with Veil + Armour, Cassandre Verhelst, the head of the English Division of the international app said, "An isolated Christian is a Christian in danger."

Let's hear Joseph and Sheila's conversation with Cassandre, who is in Paris, France. They dove into the transformative power of prayer and how, in times of anxiety like an election period, the collective strength of community prayer becomes a beacon of hope. Cassandre shared her unique insights into an inspiring Rosary Chalelnge that aims to unite 50,000 individuals worldwide in prayer, and how tools like the Hozana and Rosario apps are facilitating these global connections of prayer in the digital age.

Our discussion also found its way into the personal realm, as Cassandre shared about her own faith journey. After joining Catechism classes and youth group in the U.S. and in France, she drew closer to the Church, and it was a time where the nurturing community and catechism classes played a crucial role. We also explored the significance of the Rosary, likening its repetitive nature to meditative practices that ground us amidst chaos. Together, we highlighted the importance of introducing this spiritual tool to the younger generation, fostering a deeper connection to faith through innovative methods.

Lastly, we journeyed to Lourdes, a sacred site of pilgrimage that holds special meaning for many Catholics. We marveled at the modern legacy of Blessed Carlo Acutis and celebrated the enduring inspiration offered by saints, both past and present. From experiencing the healing waters of Lourdes to witnessing communal acts of faith, these stories resonate with the ongoing impact of spirituality in our lives. As we wrapped up the episode, we extended an invitation to join the Rosary Challenge and connect with our vibrant community, encouraging listeners to share the blessings of prayer and unity.

How to Participate in the Rosary Mission to Pray for America:

Open or download the Rosario app by clicking here.
Select "New group" and then "I have an invitation code."
Enter the code: PRAYFORAMERICA to join this prayer week.

The Hozana Christian Prayer App  and the Rosario App can be found at: https://www.hozana.org
or as an app in the App Store

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Power of Prayer
• 10:25 Cassandre's Faith Journey
• 22:14 The Power of the Rosary
• 26:48 Blessed Carlo Acutis and the "New Media" Saint
• 42:42 Lourdes, Miracles and Healing
• 54:49 Want to join the Rosary Challenge?

Transcript

Cassandre Verhelst: 0:00

The Cross has a vertical part and a horizontal part. The vertical part is our relationship to God and the horizontal part of the Cross is our community, and an isolated Christian is a Christian in danger. So if we pray together, I think we're stronger in our faith, and we're stronger in our personal faith and in our community faith. And the other thing is that it's also a great example. If you know someone that might need 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 for you through prayer as well, come join my rosary group.

Sheila Nonato: 0:38

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.

Co-Host: 1:01

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

Sheila Nonato: 1:10

Hello friend, welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast. Are you anxious about the upcoming US presidential election? Our friends in France from the Hosanna App are issuing a challenge to get 50,000 people to pray the rosary by the end of this month, and they're almost there. Let's listen to our friend Cassandre talk about this Rosary challenge and also the possibility of miracles at Lourdes, france. As for election anxiety, Hozana, a social media prayer app, encourages Catholics to pray the rosary from today until November 5th. Let's pray to the Holy Spirit to inspire voters and guide our leaders. Welcome, Cassandre Verhelst from the Hosanna App. You are the head of the English division of the Hozana prayer app and I think you're on now for the third time or fourth. We love having you come back. So, and third, okay, and our listeners really appreciate hearing from you. So we uh we would love to have you on this month of october for the month of the Holy Rosary. Would you like to start off with the Angelus?

Joseph Nonato: 2:19

So it's noon here, where so? It's pleasure okay, okay so I'll go ahead in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So I'll say the first parts and then please respond. The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary and she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Cassandre Verhelst: 2:34

Hail Mary.

Joseph Nonato: 2:36

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

Cassandre Verhelst: 2:42

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

Joseph Nonato: 2:47

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

Cassandre Verhelst: 2:58

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

Joseph Nonato: 3:08

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.

Cassandre Verhelst: 3:12

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

Joseph Nonato: 3:17

Pray for us, oh Holy Mary, mother of God afin que nous soyons rendus dignes des promesses du.

Joseph Nonato: 3:22

Let us pray, pour forth we beseech thee, o Lord, thy grace into our hearts that, as we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ, thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may, by his passion and cross, be brought to the glory of his resurrection through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen, Holy Mary, our hope, seed of wisdom, pray for us. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen, Our Lady of the Rosary, please pray for us.

Sheila Nonato: 3:45

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

Cassandre Verhelst: 3:55

But did you want to add anything that the listeners needed to know about you?

Cassandre Verhelst: 4:01

No, I answered the angels in French because I am from Belgium and living in France at the moment, but we lived in the States a few years, so I can also pray in English.

Cassandre Verhelst: 4:05

And living in France at the moment, but we lived in the States a few years, so I can also pray in English.

Cassandre Verhelst: 4:13

And I work at Hozana and Rosario that are Catholic social prayer apps that are a platform to reflect on the diversity of church, and so different congregations and religious communities and priests and lay people like us can create Novenas for this or that subject, create Novenas for this or that subject and that they share with all other hodana users, so for a feast day, or how to pray with the Bible or things like that. And the other app that we have is rosario, and the point of that is to become missionaries of the of the rosary and to invite and pray the rosary with our friends and family, and so the idea of the app is to create groups of five people so that each one has a decade per day for special intentions, and that way you can, if you're familiar with the rosary, use your habits and your practice of the rosary, to spread it to others and for others to start learning and pray one decade at a time, to step by step.

Sheila Nonato: 5:05

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.

Cassandre Verhelst: 5:13

So that's what. I do and there are over a million users on Hozana and, um, hundreds of thousands on Rosario, um all around the world, because we have four editions of both apps. And Rosario is particularly close to my heart as well, because it allows you to pray with people that you don't know across the globe, so that's also very neat.

Joseph Nonato: 5:39

It really speaks to the universality of our Church, right, and how we're all in the Communion of saints. It's amazing, so I love that. The the whole idea that you can just you can pray a decade and throw it into this big bin of of the prayers from all around the world, and it's going towards something that's actually very useful, like leave it to the hands of Our lady and Our lord to put it to people who need it, right.

Joseph Nonato: 6:01

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's like the. You know St. Padre Pio talks about it as like a weapon. I think it was Pope Paul VI that said you know, give me an army praying at the rosary and I can conquer the world. And it was. You know, it's really amazing. And especially when you think about the configurations of the rosary, it's like okay, well, in the idea of the Hozana app or the Rosario, it's like you can pray 10 Hail Marys per decade. You know they have those little tiny finger rosaries. You can have them in your pocket and as you're walking down the street there, you just pray a decade. It should be something that is like living and breathing for all of us as Catholics, as Christians. You know to be holding the hand of Our Lady as we're walking down the street you know as little children are with their mother, you know.

Cassandre Verhelst: 6:54

So it's great?

Cassandre Verhelst: 6:55

Yeah, absolutely.

Cassandre Verhelst: 6:57

And something I discovered now that I work at Rosario and Hozana is the fact that I thought that I had to pray my Rosary in one go, but actually no one asks you to pray in one go.

Cassandre Verhelst: 7:05

You can split your rosary into decades along the day, and so I do one before I start work, I do one when I want to take a coffee break and I go down the stairs to get some coffee, and so I'm incorporating Our Lady and the prayer of the rosary throughout my whole day, which I think is super strong as well, because you're living and breathing through prayer, rather than just finding, trying to find half an hour, and then gosh, I don't have half an hour anymore, because now I'm just too tired at the end of the day. And so that was a whole, a new take 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 your thoughts are on that, but I think that was something that really helped me get going and and increase my, my devotion to, to Our Lady.

Joseph Nonato: 7:56

Yeah, I know it's a. It's really great to sort of sort of break it down. I remember when I was, when I was younger, somebody I was talking to a priest and he said, well, you should probably just try to make sure that you get into praying the whole thing all at once, because it really that whole meditative prayer it takes a little bit for us to get going right. But it is also the idea that you were saying you know, break it down into the day, where you're just constantly shooting a text or like a spiritual text or a phone call to your mother. You know, I remember that when I was off to university, it was always a practice in our family that on Sunday night all of us who were away at university had to call home or my mother would take offense. You know what I mean. So it was sort of like the same thing.

Joseph Nonato: 8:39

Yeah, you build it in your day and I like how you said it. It's like, okay, well, I'm going down for coffee, I'm going to pray a rosary, I'm going to pray a decade, I'm going to my next break there, I'm going to pray a decade, and so on and so forth. So you build it into little mile markers of your day where you say, okay, I'm not forgetting about my mom, about Mother Mary, and so, therefore, you're walking hand in hand with her. It's a great thing and, as people start to get used to this more and more, it's great because, you see, the rosary is not something that is foreign to people. To many people in the church now, it's something that is not just hanging on the rearview mirrors of people's cars anymore. It's something people are actually praying. So it's a great thing and thanks for the apostolate that you're doing on this, because I think it's really helping, yeah.

Sheila Nonato: 9:25

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

Cassandre Verhelst: 9:35

I'm lucky to have been baptized when I was little and to have parents that are Catholics, and they grew up in Catholic homes, so the religion was always kind of there. We moved around quite a bit when I was younger and so we didn't. I don't have any memories or recollections of going to church. When we were in Belgium, when we moved to the States, I remember we went about once a month, but we were brought to catechism. So that's something, although we 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 Catechism teacher. I don't understand how that's even possible, but I forgot that. That was my situation 12 or 15 years ago, but so we didn't go much to Church.

Cassandre Verhelst: 10:25

And when we moved to France, um, my parents put us so again in the Catechism of the of the Church and in Scouts, and so there were some obligations to go to Mass. And you know, as, as I I evolved in those, um, in those circles, I became friends with other children that went to mass, and so, because I wanted to see them, I went to church on Sunday, and so I think the first step was going more often to church, so maybe twice a month now and we were switched from one Catechism group to another. That was for a much wider group of children, from children from sixth grade to um, to senior year to 12th grade, and so, um, we were so lucky because it was a couple, Andre and Madeleine, who I think are going to be saints, because they just they had maybe 20 years of this prayer group where every friday night they hosted about 35 kids that came for um right after school until after dinner. Um, and that's where I started really to build my personal faith.

Cassandre Verhelst: 11:33

And I think the strongest moment I had is when, during one of those prayer times where you know 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 I heard it in the back of my nose and I thought in my head, I thought, whoa, I mean, I'm not making this up, um, I'm not making this up.

Cassandre Verhelst: 11:57

And I felt a little pressure on my shoulder at the same time and I probably know Gary Chaplin's "five love languages and mine is the physical touch and I thought, gosh, this person is telling me that they love me and they're using the thing I know how to react to. And so I thought, ok, well, I mean that's it, and it happens through prayer. I mean the Lord is completely telling me that he exists and that he wants me to, and that he really wants me to know that he's there, and so I think that was maybe the strongest moment, and that he wants me to and that he really wants me to know that he's there. And so I think that was maybe the strongest moment and from there on that, confirmed my faith.

Cassandre Verhelst: 12:37

It was actually after my confirmation now that I think about it, or at the same time, and so that kind of started my own desire to go, because I wanted to go and not because I wanted to see my friends or because my parents proposed that we went to church and at the same prayer group, you know it led me to continue through a university and then after university, and I had asked the Lord, because we often talk about the fact that our lady holds our hands, our Lord holds our hand and guides us through through life. But I thought, gosh, I mean I need something stronger, because if you hold my hand I can just slip away. I need you to hold my my um wrist because it's much harder to leave when someone's holding your wrist. And after I asked that I have an incredible grace of, when I pray to our Father, to feel a slight pressure on my palms and when I tell my fiancé this, I was kind of embarrassed because I thought, "osh, she's going to think I'm crazy, but for me that's really how I know that the Lord is right there with me, because I feel this. I mean for me that our Father is the moment when your heart is the closest to the Lord, because you're reciting something that's universal to the church, everybody says and everybody knows, and that's what he taught us, those are the words he told, that he taught us. So I think that's those he taught us. Those are the words he taught us. So I think those are two strong moments that kind of defined how I got to the faith, how I chose it and how it doesn't leave me anymore Because I have this grace that sometimes, of course, it disappears, not like Mother Teresa who is going through her spiritual droughts and the dryness of not feeling anything. So that's kind of what I wanted to, what I felt in my heart.

Cassandre Verhelst: 14:34

And I had the chance also to live in Spain at a moment, and there's this prayer group called Hakuna that sings worship songs in Spanish and one of their songs asks Lord, help me pray, help me think without feeling, or helping to know without feeling. And so you know when you're, when you're very touched by, by what you feel inside and your emotions and how the Lord speaks to you. Well, sometimes, when there's not that, when there's not someone touching your palms or or pressing on your shoulder, it's harder. And so you know, I have these little lights on my way, that I can remember and that help me kind of guide my path. And so I was.

Cassandre Verhelst: 15:15

I'm so lucky for all of that, and I was also able to be a Catechism teacher at my parish for two years. And you know, when you receive, you also have to give, and so by giving and by explaining to younger children well, why do I believe? How does that affect my life? How can I show my faith not only through my words, but through my actions? And that was something that also confirmed the fact that I wanted to be a Christian, and I want to have the.

Cassandre Verhelst: 15:42

Catholic faith, and so that's kind of the joy of my journey. And now I work for a Catholic prayer App. You know, when you come out of university and your parents have paid you know quite a big sum for you to get a higher education and then you decide to suspend 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, the idea of Hozana is that it's a social media for prayer, and so people pray for each other and you lay an intention and it appears in the feeds of other users and and what I find incredible is when I tell people, yeah, I work at Hosanna, and they tell me, oh, yeah, yeah, I prayed a lot for Michelle, or I prayed a lot for Robert and we exchanged messages. And when I hear that, I tell myself, well, how lucky are these people that don't know each other and that are praying for each other. I mean, you talked, Joe, about the communion of saints. It's really the horizontal part of the cross.

Joseph Nonato: 16:50

I mean there's the lord and me, and there's me and everybody else that's believing in christ, and and so that's kind of the joy that I that I have today to be working at Rosario and Hozana to be working at Hozana yeah, it's just what you've done is basically made that prayer group that you were, that you said that your your youth, of being a child that was growing up in the faith there, you know, and you've just extended that to the international sphere, you know.

Joseph Nonato: 17:16

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 that everybody you know has in their hands all the time anyways, you know, and now we can actually extend this into the, the prayer realm, and and making that thing and I like what you said before in one of the previous, uh, you know people already doing this, all right, and so, uh, you're, you're taking the internet, which could be used for bad, but also making it for something very holy. You've sanctified the internet with this particular app. That's amazing.

Cassandre Verhelst: 17:49

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

Joseph Nonato: 17:57

Yeah, very wise man. So what is it like to be like in France? Right, you're living in France, in the place where the rosary itself was so like. It was developed like St Louis Marie de Montfort, right?

Joseph Nonato: 18:10

I mean the development of the rosary as I understand it. You know, we started off like basically in Ireland with the 150 Psalms, and then it's sort of like people were using 150 Our Fathers, and then eventually it somehow morphed over into 150 Hail Marys, with each of it with its own individual mystery, each Hail Mary. But it wasn't always five mysteries, right? If you really look at up until the 1700s, until it was formalized, even you know St Jean-Baptiste de La Salle. He was raised spiritually under the Sulpicians, under St Sulpice, and they have like six decades in their particular rosary, right, but each of the decades has its own particular mystery, you know, the last one is the only one I remember because it's the one that stands out.

Joseph Nonato: 18:54

The sixth one, I think they meditate on the Immaculate Heart of Mary or something like that. But you know the whole format that we have right now. We have three different mysteries, or four different mysteries, you know, and five decades each, and that kind of thing was only just a recent thing, so recent as in like from the 1700's on. But yeah, how is it the life of the rosary in France? There must be something amazing to say. Well, it came from this particular land, you know, and now it's saving people all around the world through the intercession of Our Lady.

Cassandre Verhelst: 19:25

Yeah well, what I find incredible is the, the desire and you know we talked about the fact that we work in the "Church tech um, but this thing actually exists and there's so many people that are willing to um to make prayer more known, but also to make the rosary more known, um. There's an initiative called global 2033, um, which is starting off in France. I don't know if it'll gain momentum and be worldwide, but the idea is to get every French person, or every French Catholic to pray the Rosary every day by 2033. I don't know how, if we're going to get there, but it would be just amazing. But there's, there's really this desire to. I mean, the Rosary is an easy prayer, it's rich and it helps you grow closer to the Lord, but it's not. I don't think it's widely prayed. I don't know how it is in the States, but I know that there's a big difference between those that follow more traditional types of Mass in Latin and so that are much more aware of the Rosary and are much more educated to pray the Rosary, whereas those that are more in the diocese spheres have much less education. Spheres have much less education. So I think that what's interesting is to see this desire of a few around, you know, around the country, to change that, to make sure that everyone's praying the rosary.

Cassandre Verhelst: 21:00

And what I find pretty impressive is that, you know, Our Lady asks in each one of her apparitions to pray more and to pray the rosary. And I thought, well, if I mean mothers repeat things often, but if, if our, our celestial mother is asking us this so often, it's that we haven't understood 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 the rosary more present in our life, is is is really moving, and and moving, and it's in 2033. So we're good, we have the time to get there. And you know, if you start off with one decade a day, and then maybe two, and then three, then four, then five, I mean the important is that you're, you're meditating on Jesus's life with Mary, that Mary's helping you grow closer and be closer to Him. And so I think, to recap, the idea is that there's a lot of energy and a lot of desire to get people praying the rosary, and everybody. And so in France we have this new initiative. I hope it'll, you know, be able to be brought to the rest of the world, but it's, it's pretty impressive.

Cassandre Verhelst: 22:14

And you know, when we launched Rosario, we asked I don't know about, I think it was 13,000 people 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, because peace is what it brings to me. So I just remembered what the most important was. But, you know, in this stressful world where people 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 make sure that your north is aligned with the lord, and that's, you know, bring the rosary that's amazing.

Joseph Nonato: 23:01

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

Cassandre Verhelst: 23:09

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

Joseph Nonato: 23:14

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

Cassandre Verhelst: 23:19

Yeah. No, no, no that's the reason why.

Joseph Nonato: 23:22

Oh, okay, that's great stuff. I mean, I'm a teacher and you take a look at Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, basically, you look at the way that he taught is that repetition is the mother of learning, right? And, as you're saying Our Lady, every single time she shows up, she keeps on repeating please say the rosary. But even the rosary in itself it's interesting because we really meditate on that whole idea that repetition is the mother of learning. Well, what are we doing? Every single time we say the Rosary, repeating you know five, our Fathers, six Our Fathers at least. You know six Glory Be's at least. And then we're repeating 53 times the Hail Mary, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. So it really like, you know, when you think about it, it's the poor man's Bible, as some people you know, some saints have said. It's the poor man's world. You're really just meditating on the life of our Lord through the eyes of Our Lady, and so you're sitting at her feet and you're learning from her, as a master of prayer, how to talk to our Lord. And I don't know, as you were speaking there, the thing that was coming to my mind, especially when you were mentioning meditation, you see that people are clamoring for this. They're clamoring for meditation. How many yoga studios have increased all around the city internationally? And how many people will be willing to sit there and I don't know chant something and try to go deep inside themselves, to try to center themselves on themselves, right?

Joseph Nonato: 24:50

But when we pray the rosary, a lot 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 over and over again and you're just going to lose sight of like you're going to lose your mental focus on the Hail Mary. But you know that your mouth is praying it, your body's praying it because you've decided to sit there. You're holding a Rosary, so your 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, it becomes like second, third layer. It's a very integrated prayer and really you can really sit at the feet of Our Lady and really she will bring you to Our Lord. So it's an amazing thing and, as you said, you know the world will be conquered with the Holy Rosary. So 2033, go France. That's awesome, right? Canada should do that too. You know, join together with France.

Sheila Nonato: 25:45

Yeah, I'll mention it and I am just listening to you talking about the internet and youth, how in your youth you were inspired to you. God sought you out and you answered his call. And I'm just thinking about, um, actually, my one of my friends have made this. It's like a Mother Mary book for for children, for babies actually, and it's made out of cloth.

Sheila Nonato: 26:11

It's made out of cloth and I'm just thinking about you know how to teach our children how to pray the rosary, how to get to Mary. You know some people say, who don't understand the Catholic faith, oh you're praying to Mary. But we're actually, if we look at the Rosary, we're praying to Jesus through Mary, through the eyes of his mother, how he grew up and how he suffered and then he resurrected. So we're being brought to Jesus, to God, through Mary, and we're not praying to her or anything like that. And I'm also just thinking about, in terms of the youth, the connection with the youth.

Sheila Nonato: 26:52

Actually, we have something special 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 his heart is coming to toronto at the end of the month of October. And just, do you have a special sort of connection to him as well, knowing like he's? He's worked on the internet and you know he's kind of, you know he was he, he was, he played video games and he's kind of this new saint for the youth.

Cassandre Verhelst: 27:27

Well, it's exciting because indeed he's going to become the new saint of the internet. I don't particularly have a connection to him, but I was just impressed by his. What I remember from his story is that he wanted just to grow closer to the Eucharist and to grow closer to the Lord, and we're putting our talents and using what we have at our hands, and he had at his hands his desire to you know, to use internet for good. We're doing the same, and so I think that's a sweet parallel that we can draw, and I'm excited to know. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we don't know his canonization date yet.

Sheila Nonato: 28:13

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

Cassandre Verhelst: 28:21

Um, so no, so I think, just, you know, using his, his story and and and being inspired by, you know what others have done and how we can copy that, because we have this great library and examples of saints that precede us and you know you have some that are more closer to your way of living because they're they're closer to you in modern times, but just maybe their, their attitude and their way of of being can inspire you and lift your heart and lift your soul and and guide you. And we actually have a novena on Carlo Acutis on Hozana. But I think the the brilliant part of all of this app and this internet and and the fact that you can, you know, kind of take what you want from and and be inspired from different saints, is really inspiring. And you know, speaking of picking up different saints, I haven't followed the Carlo Acutis Novena yet because I'm trying to create a new one for his canonization as well.

Cassandre Verhelst: 29:22

But just, I was so happy to learn about St Therese on Hozana this year because Therese of Lisieux sorry, because you know, she actually made me laugh she's an 18th century saint. She's much farther away from me than Carlo Acutis Acutis. Sorry, but they're just as inspiring because just as just as modern, just as present and, just as you know, real because they left traces of their writing, because they left examples. So the richness of the saints that we can look up to.

Sheila Nonato: 30:05

Yes, and we know that France is the eldest daughter of the church and one of the most famous pilgrimage sites is in Lourdes, and we had the privilege of actually going there in 2019, together as a family with our two kids, and in your email you were saying that you have been a volunteer there. Can you tell us? Well, first of all, tell us what is Lourdes, where is it, how do you get there? And then, what did you do there?

Cassandre Verhelst: 30:34

I'd be interested to know how it differs in an international point of view than in a French point of view, because Lourdes is really known to, at least in the French culture, to heal the wounded and to heal the sick, and so people often go there when when they're when they're sick, because there's the holy water of Lourdes, the blessed water of Lourdes, that's um that can help you um heal. And so there's the sanctuary. Is just incredible, and it's funny because I have showed a picture of Lourdes to my little brother yesterday telling him you have to go, henry. So you know it was present all the time, um, in all of our, in a lot of our conversations, and in the sanctuary, um, you have the, you have so many churches, but you also have the grotto where our lady appeared to bernadette, a little girl that didn't know how to read or write, um, because she was. She had to help out at home to feed the family and she was on her way to get wood to light the fire so that her mother could cook. When the Virgin appeared to her and she appeared several times she asked Bernadette to wash her face with the mud of the grotto to be able to see clearer. And so there's a whole significance in that grotto where the Virgin appeared, and I think young Catholics, in France at least, have a special attachment to that, because we bring the sick of our dioceses to Lourdes during the whole summer.

Cassandre Verhelst: 32:17

All the dioceses relate to each other, one after the other, and so I had the chance to do both things be on the receiving side so help the sanctuary, host and have people come. And I think the most impressive part of that was at the moment when you help with communion, because you have priests that leave the altar, that go into all directions, because there are people in the underground church all around the altar and you accompany them with an umbrella, because you have to show where the communion points are, and it's this semi-organized chaos where just hands are brought to the Lord from all sides. So when a priest is handing out communion, he gives it at 360 degrees because people are just coming from all sides and you have I mean the image and symbolism is super strong because you have these poor hands that are together and that are asking for the Lord to come into them. And I mean I just whenever I think of Lord, I think of that and I also think. And so then, on the reverse flip side, you help a lot of young people go and help the sick of their diocese go to Lord.

Cassandre Verhelst: 33:31

So you go by train it's less common now, but that's how it started off. You put the sick into the train into your hometown and you bring them to Lourdes and they're taken out at the train station and they're brought to their hotels or to the places where they're staying, and so you spend a week with people that are old or sick or and you know, the degree of disability varies from just an old person that can't move anymore to people that are really mentally ill or that are disabled, and you bring them for one week to Mass to pray the Rosary, to pray at the grotto, to get bathed in the water, to go lay a candle, just to breathe the fresh mountain air. Because Lourdes is in the south of France, and so you have to take a long. It takes a long time to get there, you have to be motivated, but it's a great.

Cassandre Verhelst: 34:26

I mean Sheila, you were telling me it's, you guys went as a family. It's so impressive to go and to see all of these people reunited to help and to pray together in the same spot, and so I mean there's this intensity of 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 to share your story. I mean maybe you guys want to share your story, but it's just impressive to see how much prayer there is in so many few square meters.

Joseph Nonato: 34:59

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 have some sort of planning. And the two times that I've gone to Lourdes some kind of miracle happened, because I didn't plan it at all. We set it up there but I was struggling to get there. But you can see the faith and, I think, maybe our Blessed Mother. I was always trying to wonder why 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 to go, they're going to, but you really think about it.

Joseph Nonato: 35:33

Our lady probably went into the mountains there because we're going to have to work together, right, as a church and, as you were saying, like people put on trains, brought there, they're going to have to be taken off, and it's like, okay, well, it's not just an individual thing anymore, it's not an individual faith, it's everybody working together as again going back to, as we were saying before, the communion of saints, right, we all have to help each other out in order to bring ourselves to our lord and, and, as you're saying, that with that, with the, the communion going out, you know, we've the people go to to, to lords there, to go and talk to our lady, to be with our lord, and then that symbolism where the, the priests leave the, the altars.

Joseph Nonato: 36:10

Now our Lord, who has always been extending himself to us it's confirmed there, right, our Lord is reaching back out to us, right? So it's a beautiful thing. Well, what a blessing for you to have worked in Lourdes and have that well, a lot more accessible to you than it is to us here in Canada, obviously being in Lourdes, but, wow, what a great, what a great place. France you have that, plus Saint-Michel, plus all bunch of other things, sacré-cœur, man, you know we owe a lot to France.

Cassandre Verhelst: 36:41

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, stay truthful to the promises of your Baptism. I mean, we're so lucky to have such a rich cultural Catholic history in our country and now it's up to us in the 21st century to keep that going and to make sure that we do stay faithful to our promise of our Baptism and to evangelize and to live with the Lord and to bring people to Lourdes so that they can be closer to the Lord and be with the Virgin Mary and go to the rue du Bac, where Our Lady also appeared to Catherine Laboure and gave her the miraculous medal. I mean, there's so many things and I don't know if you know this, but all of the burial apparitions in France. When you trace them on a map, they make an M, so that's pretty impressive as well.

Joseph Nonato: 37:48

I totally did not know that. But no one of the things you were saying before is like okay, well, the youth are quietly doing, you know, prayer groups and whatnot, and the rosary, it just got me to think. The church just like a flower the flowers don't grow in noise, right, like roses don't grow in noise, they grow in silence. And you can see that the Church is growing very, very strong, but without making a whole lot of noise, and it's coming from the youth now, where the rosary is becoming a thing, obviously, adoration is becoming a thing. I imagine the popularity of Lourdesords is increasing in other places in France. So, while a lot of people can be cynical and say, well, everything's lost and the church is going the wrong way and whatnot, you can see how the youth, especially the youth, are really falling in love with our Lord through Our Lady, and it seems like this is going to be taken back at some point, right when people will conquer because of love, and it's a wonderful thing.

Cassandre Verhelst: 39:24

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

Joseph Nonato: 39:48

Make it something so it's not foreign to the children, right, foreign to your children. That's good stuff, and I imagine you and your fiancé pray the Rosary a lot together, right like uh, because it brings that, brings you and we go to adoration yeah, well, that's good stuff. When I was dating Sheila there, uh, we would. If we couldn't be together to pray the rosary, I would call her up and we pray the Rosary together, you know so, every night and whatnot. It's a good. It's a good practice, yeah. Yeah.

Sheila Nonato: 40:17

Absolutely, and is there anything?

Cassandre Verhelst: 40:26

coming up with Hosanna or Rosario during this month of the rosary. Well, yeah, actually completely Pauline Jarrico, which is the Blessed Pauline Jarrico who started the concept of living rosaries and her objective I don't know if we talked about this last time, Sheila, but her objective in the 19th century in Lyon in France, was to get people to pray the Rosary as well, and so she divided the three mysteries because there were only three at that time into groups, three or four, into groups of people, and so together they said the different mysteries, and so we took that idea when we created Rosario, and so for her you know, to commemorate her we launched the Pauline Challenge, which is we want to get Rosario users to also be missionaries of the Rosary and to go out and invite people that they know to pray the Rosary with them. And so every week of October, we have a different group of people you can reach out to, so your parish, your family, people that you know that are around, that know a person in need or a person that's suffering, and invite them to for one week. It's not a big engagement or commitment, I mean for one week.

Cassandre Verhelst: 41:33

You pray a decade each for the special intention, and that way you get people to start praying the Rosary and put it into their daily routine, and so that's what's going on for the month of rosary is to be missionaries and to spread the, spread the, the joy of the of the rosary with others. And so our objective, um, because we like objectives is to get 50 new, 50,000, new,000 new hearts consecrated and offered to Mary. And for the moment, as of the 14th of October, we're at 14,000, no, no, 25,000 new hearts. So we're halfway there.

Joseph Nonato: 42:09

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

Cassandre Verhelst: 42:27

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

Joseph Nonato: 42:40

We'll get there.

Sheila Nonato: 42:42

And I brought the Lourdes water. This is from 2019 and I actually kept it outside the fridge for like a year and it didn't like. It was fine, it didn't have any mold or anything. But then I thought you know what to keep it safe, I'm going to put it in the fridge, but for a year it was out and there was nothing. But I have given this to somebody who blessed her stepfather with it and he had recovered from an illness because of the holy water. The Holy water. But I'm just wondering do you remember when you were there was the? Were the baths open? Can you explain to us what is it like there for people who, to be honest, I didn't even know about the baths if I had gone to lourdes I wouldn't even know about it because I hadn't heard about it but like, were you? Were you there when it was open and what is it like?

Cassandre Verhelst: 43:35

I actually went exactly when it was closed, but which wasn't a problem because it was the ritual of the water which replaced temporarily the bathing. But so the idea is that you plunge yourself into cold water because the water of Nour is cold. There's the river that runs through and you can also take the water home. And you arrive and you're greeted by a hospitality that their only job is to bathe people. And so I have my Lourdes. Friends are Claudie and Isabelle, who are 70-year-old or 80-year-old ladies that have been going for 20 or 30 or 40 years, and every time they come they come um to bathe people, so that's their special mission. You have people whose special missions are to help with the grotto, to help with them, um, with the liturgy of the Mass, and those are there just to bathe. And so you arrive um and you're separated between men and women, and so the women go on to one side and you're invited to come with just yourself or with your family members, the ladies that are accompanying you, and you're brought and you're plunged, so they put a towel on you and then you can take your clothes off and then you're plunged into the cold water. You say a Hail Mary and then you're plunged into the cold water, you say a hail mary, and then 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's accompanying you, and then you also have um. So that was, that's now again.

Cassandre Verhelst: 45:09

And before the, before the covid, and during the covid, there was also was also the gesture of the water, where you washed your face and washed your hands with the water of Lourdes, which was a reminder to the message that Bernadette received from Our Virgin to wash herself with the water of the grotto. She had to dig in the dirt to find the water and wash herself with that water, and so that's how it works. She had to dig in the dirt to find the water and wash herself with that water, and so that's how it works. And it's really intense because you see people coming with all of their burdens and that are making this effort of going into the cold water for Our Lady and offering their hearts to her and all of their worries and their desires and their wishes. So that's the highlight, I would say, of being in Lourdes is being able to bathe, because when you're part of the hospitality that's hosting, you can help bathe the people.

Joseph Nonato: 46:11

Yeah, I remember doing the bathing. It was very emotional. But also, you know, you sit there and there's an image of Our Lady on the wall and they tell you like, pray to Our Lady and then give her everything and they're sort of coaching as to what to say. And then they would, you'd bathe and you'd be completely immersed and you'd bring her out and you're right, it's freezing cold. Is the hospitality people? They're standing waist high in that and they're like person after person. And they're not like young people, right, they're like elderly volunteers and they're standing waist high in freezing water, you know, and bathing people out, person after person. You think, man, what a sacrifice. But they do it out of service to the people and of love. So it's really great. But you can see the tremendous faith in Lourdes. It's amazing. And then you go out and then you see the big candles there where everybody's sort of you know, offering up prayers to Our Lady and whatnot. That's great. How long did you spend there in Lourdes like to volunteer?

Cassandre Verhelst: 47:08

The three times I went it was for a week. So for a week you go around all the different services and you help with the flowers, you help with the sewing, because all the liturgy um clothes and all of them um hats of the bishops for when they come are made on site, and you help with the cleaning, you help with the preparation of the intentions, with the readings, and then one and then the other weeks it was to to bring the sick to um, to all of these different stations can.

Joseph Nonato: 47:39

Can anybody volunteer for that?

Cassandre Verhelst: 47:42

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

Joseph Nonato: 47:46

When we went, we went in November and, uh, we had the place to ourselves practically right, so it was no crowds we had to fight. We just went right to the grotto and went to the baths and it was like maybe a 15-minute wait. But you know, I'd been there once years ago. It was right in the middle of the summer, I think it was in July. You had to wait a long time for a lot of stuff, right, but because of all the pilgrims that are there. But for you to be there for three times for a week each, my goodness, you know that the whole place is yours right, you know okay if people can volunteer for that, I'll definitely think about doing this.

Joseph Nonato: 48:20

Okay, we're going back to Lourdes, yeah.

Sheila Nonato: 48:23

I'll share our story. This is actually in our first episode of the podcast. We went to Lourdes because he was he's a reservist Reservists in the Canadian army. So he was deployed overseas in the Middle East. He'd been away, I think, three months and he had a two-week leave vacation and so we met in Barcelona. Actually, we went to Sagrada Familia, it was beautiful.

Sheila Nonato: 48:48

Then we had this crazy I was to be honest, I was trying to plan this trip from Canada, trying to find all the train, like the train system. I could not figure out the train system. I couldn't figure out how to get to Lourdes from Barcelona by train. So I gave up. So he said, why don't we just rent a car? So we rented a car. He drove from Barcelona to Lourdes, but we drove when it was almost nighttime. Not advisable, not advisable, so we will. Yeah, so if night was falling and it was also November, so it was getting cold wintertime and the roads were a little icy and it was dark and we were also kind of getting lost and not sure, we thought, oh, we'll just stop by a McDonald's. There's no McDonald's.

Sheila Nonato: 49:37

It's like we're in the mountain passes and it was dark, we were getting lost, we were in a forest 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 grace of God and Our Lady, we got to Lourdes, I think after midnight and we didn't fall off a cliff, we were fine. But yeah, so our story there was we had suffered a loss. I had a miscarriage a year before Was it nine months before and the doctor had told me well, you might have to accept that you might not be able to have children anymore. So I said, all right, fine, that's God's will. So I went there and I went to L children anymore. So I said, all right, fine, that's God's will. So I went there and I went to Lourdes and when we did the baths and it was cold, it was really cold Went in there crying. It was a very overwhelming experience, just praying to Our Lady, and I felt like a sense of relief, not relief, but the burden being unburdened, yeah, the burden of the loss of the baby kind of lifting off of me and I was just giving it to God and giving it to Our Lady and I thought, yeah, that's what I came like you were saying, peace that's what I experienced is peace. I wasn't sure if it was healing, but in a spiritual way it was healing in an emotional way.

Sheila Nonato: 50:56

So we came back and I was with my two young daughters. They were two and four, or is it three and five? Anyway, they were young and I came back and I think a few weeks later I went to the doctor just to check up on. You know how's it, you know how are things going, and then, and then I had to tell him, guess what we're expecting. So that's our third child, and he was born during the pandemic. But yeah, so that was the gift that Our Lady had given us, even though we thought all hope was lost. So you just, I guess you never know that you should be open to a miracle, because you never know. I mean, there are times when the miracle doesn't happen. But there there might be a miracle waiting for you If you just reach out to Our Lady and to Our Lord. What? What do you think about miracles?

Cassandre Verhelst: 51:48

Well, they're incredible. I mean, I just hearing your story, it makes me smile and makes me want to thank the Lord. But I mean, of course there are miracles. That's just how the Lord works. I haven't been lucky to experience one myself, but there are so many things that you can't explain and that you just need to thank the Lord.

Cassandre Verhelst: 52:17

And I don't know what qualifies as a miracle, because it's something you know. Maybe you weren't meant to not have any more children, but just someone misdiagnosed you and you think it's a miracle. But they might have not thought it was a miracle. They might've not thought it was a miracle but it's. It's just, you know, accepting, accepting that graces fall onto you and that, um, you know you had to change, change the disposition of your heart from oh gosh, we can't anymore, to yes, now we can again. And I think maybe that's you know, the miracle comes from up there, but the miracle also happens if you're open to seeing it. I just give grace for miracles because it's, I mean, that's what keeps your faith alive, to know that the Lord is working in different people's lives yes, absolutely.

Sheila Nonato: 53:09

Did you have anything else to say?

Joseph Nonato: 53:11

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 for sharing that. And give us one more plug there for the Hosanna and the Rosario app please, just so people know where to go and what the promotion or the thing that we're trying to do again, Global 20 33, please mention that all again.

Cassandre Verhelst: 53:33

Yeah, well, you know, learn and start praying the Rosary with your friends and your family on the Rosario app that's available on the app stores. And the Hozana is either a website or an app as well. Where you can, you know, get to know the saints through novenas and and start to pray for each other. And if you have an intention on your heart, you can put them on the intention pages so that they'll be put into people's prayer spaces so that people can start praying for you, and that's on the Hozana website, hozana dot org. And so, for the month of the rosary, we're trying to get 50,000 new hearts offered to Mary, so 50 new thousand people that are starting to pray the Rosary on the app.

Joseph Nonato: 54:13

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

Sheila Nonato: 54:25

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

Joseph Nonato: 54:35

Give us our warmest regards, will do.

Sheila Nonato: 54:40

Thank you so much, thank you.

Joseph Nonato: 54:41

Thanks, sir.

Sheila Nonato: 54:43

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 comment and a review, please. We'd love to hear from you.

Sheila Nonato: 55:05

Thank you to Cassandra Verhelst of the Hozana App for telling us about the Rosary Challenge during these uncertain times. To join and help to reach their goal 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 the show notes. It's the final week of the month of the Holy Rosary and we will have more episodes to bring to you. Thank you and God bless. Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armour podcast.

Co-Host: 55:39

I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel and please spread the word. Let's be brave, let's be bold and be blessed together.