Novena to Marcel Van from St. John Eudes (or today) to St. Monica (9 days from now)

Infinitely good Father,
You have given Marcel Van the mission of changing suffering into joy.
Inspired by the saints and comforted by the maternal solicitude of the Blessed Mother,
he totally surrendered himself to Your Love.

O sweet Jesus, grant that we may be inspired by Marcel, joyful through love, to follow him along St Therese's Little Way with simplicity and an unshakeable confidence in Your Love.

Holy Spirit of Love, attracted by Marcel's weakness, You set him on fire with Love.
Grant, we pray, that the Church may one day soon proclaim his sanctity, and please give us the grace we ask of You through his intercession, namely Suzie's complete, instantaneous, and lasting cure from cancer and Bosco's complete, instantaneous, and lasting cure from illness.

We ask this through Jesus' adorable and powerful name. Amen.

*   *   *

If you are just now tuning in, and if you had the hutzpah to say the bold prayer above with us, please don't let the "Suzie's complete, instantaneous, and lasting cure from cancer, and Bosco's complete, instantaneous, and lasting cure from illness" part throw you off.

Miss Marcel is, we hate to admit, a pseudonym. Along with "Aunt Suzie," a favorite appellation, it is the nom de plume of - well, I guess the cat is out of the bag, so get ready to sneeze - me, aka, Suzie.

And I do have cancer, which is quite as thrilling as you can imagine, except that (shhhh, don't tell the Congregation for the Causes of Saints!) it is not that serious. A little lump that will be removed on the feast of St. Monica, aka, the Seven Joys of Mary. No, I don't mean St. Monica is actually the Seven Joys of Mary, but rather her new feast on August 27 is, for Franciscans and those of us who adopt every liturgical calendar ever hinted at (because what child can ever have enough feasts, aka, days off?), also the feast of the Seven Joys of Mary! And also the 36th wedding anniversary (this year of Our Lord, 2024) of M and KC, dear friends without whose love and support, care and feeding, Miss Marcel would have long ago shriveled into a shell of her happy, robust self.

In other words, no worries! But we thought our little brother and St. Therese's, the Servant of God Marcel Van, could use this opportunity to show off his intimacy with Jesus. Marcel's cause, you see, though begun officially in 1997 (and worked for tirelessly by many minions including the great Anne de Blay and our own personal favorite, Jack Keogan), has gone nowhere fast, so we figured why not boost it with a little miracle?

Have you heard the one about the turtle who was mugged by a gang of snails?

"Okay," said the policeman, notebook in hand, pencil poised to write out the details. "Can you describe the assailants?"

"I don't think I can," said the turtle. "It all happened so fast."

I'm sure Marcel is saying the same thing as he lives it up in Heaven with the Communion of Saints gathered there:

"It all happened so fast! First Jesus whisked me up to Heaven, and next thing I knew I had a cause. Before I could catch my breath, Cardinal Van Thuan left off being my postulator to come stand beside me, both of us laughing while Therese announced he'd just been declared Venerable on earth."

Yes, our little brother has the distinction (it can hardly be the first time, but I find it endlessly amusing) of lagging behind in the race for sainthood while his postulator, now deceased, has sped ahead of him and claimed the title "Venerable," meaning his heroic virtues have been declared. Good job, dear Cardinal Francis Xavier Van Thuan! How about for your miracle for beatification you get Marcel made Venerable too?

But let's not muddy the waters. Focus. We're trying to obtain a more practical miracle so that when the Church declares Marcel a Venerable sort of guy, his next step (to be ranked among the Blessed) will be all ready and set to go. You see, you need a miracle (after you die; the ones before don't count for this, so relax) to be beatified - which used to be two miracles, but under JPII the process was simplified because hey, if you've got God's ear in Heaven, and He consents to give you (by "you" I mean the one with a cause, so again, no pressure on you personally, dear reader) whatever it is you're asking for on behalf of the likes of us left behind in exile, why should the blokes at the Vatican demand more? Their investigation into proposed miracles is so strenuous it's surprising anyone ever obtains a single one - no need for two!

Well, okay, another miracle is needed for canonization, but here's why.

When a holy dear departed soul is declared Blessed by the Church (that is, when someone is beatified), it means that this person is in Heaven seeing the Face of God. Cue fireworks! This is true success! - Not the beatification part, but the Beatific Vision part, for after all, what are we made for but eternal bliss in knowing and loving God eternally? I can't wait!

But let's say a person is beatified and we now know he's in Heaven, then the Church needs to know if God wants this person-in-Heaven universally honored by the WHOLE Church across the world, not just by the person's family, friends, diocese, religious order, or special clients who can publicly honor him with liturgies and statues and such after he's blessed. 

To take an example, Blessed Pier Giorgio, whose centenary the Church is currently celebrating (yay Peter George!), is in Heaven - we know that because we are calling him Blessed, and as St. Augustine pointed out, no one is Blessed until his happiness is forever, which only happens in Heaven. And because Blessed Pier Giorgio is from Italy, the Italians are mighty proud of him. And because he went to Heaven relatively young, he's often beloved by young people. And because he was super athletic and climbed mountains, he's invoked (or should be!) by other mountain climbers and athletes. And because he's super good looking, and more importantly he was really kind, let's admit it, we all love him! But when his next miracle comes through (and I hear from the google elves that it's just a matter of approval, though I only have their word for it so far), the Church will be saying this:

"Okay, we admit Blessed Pier Giorgio is already a universal favorite, but after he was beatified, someone back there in row 377 asked for a miracle through his intercession, and since God granted not just the miracle for his beatification to show us P. G. was in Heaven, but also a second miracle just for fun (and to let PG show off), we now know God wants EVERYONE to honor Saint Pier Giorgio. In case there was anyone who didn't already love him, from this moment on we encourage everyone to ask his intercession and enjoy his friendship and good example, so go for it!"

You get the idea.
But again, here's dear Marcel having so much fun playing games in Heaven (as he liked to tell Jesus he would), that he hasn't advanced a single step in the Process down here. So we figured, let's give him a chance, let's call on him and give him a specific job that should take him no more than 15 minutes tops, just like cleaning his room used to do in the old days when he was stuck in exile with the rest of us.

If we start a novena today, it will end on the day I'm supposed to have my surgery, but the day before that, August 26th (feast of the Transverberation of St. Teresa's heart), they'll be taking some images to make sure the doctor knows just where to scoop out the tiny bit of cancer, and wouldn't it be fun if they found just plain me and no cancer? Then not only would the surgeon (who's a great guy) get to sleep in the next day instead of operating on me, but Marcel - the one we're asking to whisper to Jesus what we need and obtain our miracle of no cancer - would get his miracle.

​Here's a photo of the Transverberation of St. Teresa's heart, which event Carmelites celebrate on August 26, the day we're going to surprise the radiologist (God willing):

Wonderfully, I'm just remembering that August 26 is also the day Jesus told St. Anthony Mary Claret that He would remain sacramentally in St. Anthony perpetually between their Holy Communions. I talk about this at length in Something New with St. Therese: Her Eucharistic Miracle, so if you need a good book to pass the time while waiting for our miracle, you can get your copy HERE.

But what of the day we start the novena? As I hinted in the title above, you're welcome to start or join in whenever you stumble upon this post, but in order to finish on my surgery day, we're beginning officially on our today, which is August 19, feast of the infamous St. John Eudes.

Infamous? you say, curious and all agog.

Well, yes, infamous ever since the hilarious repartee about St. John Eudes that Jesus shot back at Marcel in one of their conversations. In case you're on a buying spree, you can buy Conversations HERE and read the whole story for yourself, but while we've got your attention, we'll tell it in a nutshell right now.

When our dear Marcel Van was a young novice with the Redemptorists, each New Year's he chose a slip of paper on which was written the name of a saint who would be his special patron for the next year. In his Conversations (with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese), Marcel writes on January 1, 1946 the following dialog he had with Jesus about his new saint for the year:

Jesus: Marcel, for the new year I wish you an abundance of everything: much love, much joy, much suffering. I wish that you eat a lot, that you have a lot of fun, that you sleep a lot, that you work a lot . . . in a word, I wish everything for you in abundance. Were you surprised yesterday to receive Saint John Eudes, of whom you had never heard, as your patron for the year? It's very strange is it not? Is that what has made you sad?

Marcel: Yes, little Jesus, I am very sad. After having asked You insistently, You have given me neither Your name nor that of Mary and You have not even left me that of my sister Therese. You always tell me that You give me all I ask; and yet, after having begged You so much, You have not given me what I desired. Truly, You do not keep Your word. I am very sad because of it, little Jesus.

Jesus: Come, come, Marcel, what did I say to you the other day? I told you that I would choose a very strange patron for you. So, how can you reproach me for not having kept my word? . . . it is necessary that you enlarge the circle of your relations with your brothers and sisters, the saints . . .

Marcel: So, Jesus, why have You not given me my father Saint Alphonsus? And who, therefore, is Saint John Eudes, little Jesus? I know absolutely nothing about him; I only heard of him for the first time yesterday.

* * *  And here's the line which always makes me smile and laugh:

Jesus: Saint John Eudes, Marcel, is Saint John Eudes, that's all. He is a saint who loved me a lot during his life, after his death he ascended to heaven with me and the Church canonized him . . . And now, I want to give you him as your patron of the year. Marcel, you are so fussy; even if you know nothing of Saint John Eudes, that's of no consequence and I am not obliging you to know any more about him. The only thing that you must know is that I have chosen him for your patron of the year. And since I have chosen him for you, why would it not be as suitable as another. Do not be sad, Marcel. And even if you were sad, you would not be able to change is since you have already eaten some sweets in his honour; if you were going to change, all the saints would make fun of you and you would be very ashamed.

*  *  *
Well, it turns out that St. John Eudes is not only Saint John Eudes, he's also up for consideration as a Doctor of the Church! But let's face it, now that St. Therese is a Doctor, we've got our lifetime reading plan in place, so don't be afraid I'm going to give you another link to another book you need to order and not have time to read . . . instead, I'm going to copy a terrific little bio I just read on the infamous St. John Eudes, because though Jesus didn't elaborate, that's where we come in!

Who is St. John Eudes?
I'm so glad you asked! 

From the website of his religious order and refined by our editorial team:

Born in France on November 14, 1601, St. John Eudes’ life spanned the century immediately following the glorious Council of Trent, which heralded the dawn of a golden age of sanctity and mystic fervor.

No fewer than seven Doctors of the Church had lived in the previous century, including St. Francis de Sales, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. John of the Cross. Their influence, along with that of St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Philip Neri, was still fresh as St. John Eudes came onto the scene.

He was educated by the newly founded Jesuits in rural Normandy, later to be known as the land of St. Therese of Lisieux. He was ordained into the Oratory of Jesus and Mary, a society of priests based on the model of St. Philip Neri’s Oratory in Rome and recently founded by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, a man renowned for his holiness and named “the apostle of the Incarnate Word” by Pope Urban VII. Rounding out St. John Eudes’ heritage is the influence of the Discalced Carmelites. His spiritual director, Cardinal Bérulle himself, had brought sisters from St. Teresa of Avila’s convent in Spain to help found the Carmel in France. John Eudes would later become spiritual director to a Carmelite convent himself. Their cloister prayed constantly for his missionary activity.

As an avid participant in a wave of re-evangelization in France, St. John Eudes’ principal apostolate was preaching parish missions. Spending anywhere from 4 to 20 weeks in each parish, he preached over 120 missions across his lifetime, always with a team of confessors providing the sacrament around the clock, and catechists meeting daily with small groups of parishioners.

Early in his priesthood, an outbreak of plague hit St. John Eudes’ native region and he rushed to provide sacraments to the dying. The risk of contagion was so great that no one else dared to approach the victims. In order to protect his Oratorian brothers from contagion, St. John Eudes took up residence in a large empty cider barrel outside of the city walls until the plague had ended.

During his missions he heard countless confessions, including those from women forced into prostitution. Realizing they needed intense healing and support, he began to found “Houses of Refuge” to help them get off the street and begin a new life. In 1641 he founded the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge to continue this work. They would live with the penitent women and provide them with constant support. Today, these sisters are known as the Good Shepherd Sisters, inspired by their fourth vow of zeal to go out seeking the “lost sheep.”

Occasionally, St. John Eudes would return to the site of a previous mission. To his dismay, he found that the fruits of the mission were consistently fading for lack of support. The crucial piece in need of change was the priesthood. Previously, the only way to be trained as a priest was through apprenticeship to an already ordained priest, and understandably the result was inconsistent. In 1643 St. John left the Oratory and founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary to found a seminary; his innovation was a response to a proposal of the Council of Trent. 

At a mission in 1648, St. John Eudes authored the first known Mass in honor of the Heart of Mary. In 1652 he built the first church under the Immaculate Heart’s patronage: the chapel of his seminary in Coutances, France. During the process of his canonization, Pope St. Pius X named St. John Eudes “the father, doctor, and apostle of liturgical devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.” The Heart of Jesus because he created the first Feast of the Sacred Heart in 1672, just one year before St. Margaret Mary Alacoque had her first apparition of the Sacred Heart.

Although his Marian devotion was intense from a tender age, the primary inspiration for this feast came from St. John Eudes’ theology of baptism. From the beginning of his missionary career he taught that Jesus continues His Incarnation in the life of each baptized Christian. As we give ourselves to Christ, our hands become His hands, our heart is transformed into His heart. Mary is the ultimate exemplar of this. She gave her Heart to God so completely that she and Jesus have just one Heart between them. Thus, whoever sees Mary, sees Jesus, and honoring the Heart of Mary is never separate from honoring the Heart of Jesus.

At the time of this writing, Bishops the world over have requested that the Vatican proclaim St. John Eudes a Doctor of the Church. For more information on the progress of this cause, on his writings or spirituality, contact [email protected].

*   *   *

Isn't that amazing???

And here's an extra little bit of Therese trivia to finish off the story:

St. Therese, the Little Flower, said she would have wanted to go join the Good Shepherd sisters (or some such order, but I think she may have been thinking of St. John Eudes' order) if she hadn't been accepted in Carmel, and she would have enjoyed no one knowing she wasn't a Magdalene. She loved so much! And she loved Magdalene (as well as Magdalenes) so much! I was trying to find the exact quote from her regarding this desire, but the Holy Spirit hid it from me and gave me instead an old post from MMM on Mary Magdalene. If you click on her name in bold, you can read that post after this one - for some, over ten words is too much, but in case you are in the other class of people where, when it comes to the saints, you can never read enough, you can find more of Mary Magdalene and Therese and Marcel HERE.

Meanwhile, I found a new prayer to Marcel with which I thought we'd end our post. That way we can remind ourselves, in the midst of all these giants, of the little sprout we're calling on for our miracle. And please join me in thanking God for a mini-miracle He's giving me today: there's a Miss Marcel East whose wedding anniversary is today, and I get to eat Lebanese food with her in person even though we live 3000 miles apart (on any normal day)!

Miracles are in the air, so don't forget to ask for some extras when you're saying our prayers to Marcel. I'll include your intentions too, and before we know it, we'll be rejoicing over more miracles than we can submit to Rome in a lifetime!

Marcel, you who were the hidden apostle of Love, so humble and so small,
Marcel, you to whom Jesus entrusted the mission of turning suffering into joy,
Marcel, you who lived in trust and filial tenderness with Jesus and Mary,
Marcel, you who told us that "God is Father and the Father is Love,"
Marcel, you who became Thérèse's spiritual little brother,
Join us in our trials and be our support.
Through the grace we ask of you (namely Suzie's complete, instantaneous, and lasting cure from cancer, Bosco's complete, instantaneous, and lasting cure from illness, and all the other healings and miracles we need), grant us from the Heart of Jesus an increase in faith, hope, and love.
Heavenly Father, now let the faithful who pray to You in the power of the Holy Spirit with Your servant Marcel Van see the efficacy of his intercession in answering their requests, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen!

Draw me, we will run!!!