LEAFLETS for the prayer with Maria Assunta Pallota
I - BUT WHAT IS THIS PERFUME?
Ambiance:
background music
Incense
Reader
From the Canticle of Canticles 1: 2-4
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,
for your love-making is sweeter than wine,
delicate is the fragrance of your perfume,
your name is an oil poured out,
and that is why girls love you.
Draw me in your footsteps, let us run.
The king has brought me into his rooms;
you will be our joy and our gladness.
We shall praise your love more than wine;
how right it is to love you.
Leader
Like love, perfume, by its very nature, cannot not give itself. Invisible to all, yet perceptible
to all, it is experienced even in darkness … this is what love is like when it is given
gratuitously, or even wasted foolishly: humble, often hidden, but perceptible by all, even in
the darkness of death and sin. In fact, Jesus on the cross, after having given all he had,
offers all he is: on the cross, he breaks the vase of his body and from it gushes froth the
perfume of God’s love for the whole world …
ASSUNTA SPEAKS TO US THROUGH HER LIFE …
Reader 1
“What is this?”
A sweet, light, delicate perfume
Which is spread around us; there was a delicious odour, like balsam, incense, rose, violet..
In a little while, the room and the house were filled with it.
I thought Father or a Sister had spread some powder or perfume, but it was not so.
All those who were in the house were questioned:
No on knew what to answer; no one could explain this …
What, then, could this mysterious odour be?
We looked at one another stupefied, shaken.
“This perfume is coming from heaven”
Such was everyone’s thought and word.
We turned towards Maria Assunta who was dying slowly. (Official Document, page 235)
Reader 2
“The mysterious perfume stopped immediately after death, but did not delay to make itself
experienced all night in the room of the deceased.
The death of such a virtuous and dear sister, instead of drowning the community into
discouragement or sorrow, seemed to have brought about an extraordinary joy. No one felt
sad any more.
The orphans and the Christians of the village, from the moment they learned about the
decease, seemed to be in a festive mood.
The next day, a crowd of people invaded the house which was still impregnated with the
delicious perfume.
Those good Chinese people were beside themselves with joy and enthusiasm … the
whole Chinese village, men, women, children and many people coming from afar,
accompanied sister to the cemetery.
When we returned, with tears in our eyes, God had prepared another consolation for us.
The whole house was inundated with the perfume, but this time it was even stronger, more
violent, of longer duration: it disappeared only towards evening f the following day, at the
precise hour three days previously when sister Assunta died …”
(Witness of M. San Sinforiano)
SILENCE
Reader
HARMONY (Accompanied by musical background)
If I go down
Into my interior being
And scrutinise
Each corner of my heart,
I discover one
deep and unknown
where I know
I can meet you
Lord …
It is the most hidden place
and yet the brightest;
It is imperceptible and yet occupies the immensity of my space;
It is the smallest
yet contains all my riches;
It is pure desert,
yet at the source of which I draw;
It is the most silent
yet it is there that there is all the harmony of my being.
And from this coffer
Precious and secret
The notes of my harmony come forth
Which, like a perfume of most precious ointment
from a crushed alabaster
spread their fragrance
and ring out
a song of hope and gratitude,
a song of offering
because in creating me, you have called me …
Called by name, let us receive the gift of the Father’s love …
(each one receives a small vase of perfume)
LISTENING TO THE WORD John 12: 1-8
From the Gospel according to John
Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had
raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and
Lazarus was among those at table. Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure
nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was filled
with the scent of this ointment. Then Judas Iscariot – one of his disciples, the man who
was to betray him – said, ‘Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and
the money given to the poor?’ He said this, not because he cared for the poor, but
because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to
the contents. So Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone; let her keep it for the day of my burial. You
have the poor with you always; you will not always have me’.
SILENCE
Leader
When Mary of Bethany broke the alabaster jar, the oil of gladness that had consecrated
Jesus as king and prophet, priest, altar and victim flowed over his head; like the perfume,
his blood, too, would be shed for the multitudes.
Why this “waste”? Why this folly of love?
Only a total gift initiates a new world …
In the total gift of self is vibrated the original beauty of when God created the world and
humans in his own image.
In your response of love for Him “Draw me unto you, we shall run!” and a new creation is
initiated …
(Each one pours out the perfume from her own vase in to a contained placed at the foot of
the altar or tabernacle, or the Crucifix, as a sign of total gift of self to Him …)
LET US PRAY THE PRAISES OF GOD WITH FRANCIS OF ASSISI
All together
You are holy, Lord, the only God, and your deeds are wonderful )Ps. 76:15)
You are strong, You are great, You are the Most High (Cf. Ps 85:10)
You are the Almighty, You are the King of kings (cf. Ps 135:2)
You are good, all good, highest good, Lord God, living and true (cf. 1Ts 1:9)
You are love, You are wisdom,
You are humility, You are patience,
You are beauty, You are gentleness (cf. Ps 70:5)
You are rest, You are peace.
You are joy and gladness, You are our hope, You are justice,
Yu are temperance, Yu are all our riches and you suffice for us.
You are beauty, You are gentleness,
You are our protector, Yu are our saviour and defender (cf. Ps 30:5)
You are strength, You are our refuge (cf. Ps. 42:2)
You are our hope, You are our faith, You are our charity.
You are all our meekness, You are our eternal life
Great and wonderful Lord,
God almighty, merciful Saviour.
FINAL SONG