In this less than three-minute film posted today, see an interview with Father Antonio Sangalli, the vice-postulator of the cause for canonization of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, and footage of pilgrims praying before the "family relics' in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. 

The Wisely family of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, gathered around the reliquary of the Martin family on Sunday, November 10, 2013

Yesterday afternoon, at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, I was deeply touched to see the Wisely family of Phoenixville come in to pray as a family before the first-ever reliquary that is a shrine to a family.  I am happy to think that a mother, father, and children can now pray together in the presence of the relics of a mother, a father, and a child, and I hope that many other families will receive graces by doing so. 

I have been in the Cathedral with the reliquary over three days, and it is a beautiful contemplative experience of graces at once personal and universal, as though  God wants this Magnificat week to foreshadow the graces God is going to pour out on this diocese through the presence of the reliquary of this family.  The reverent atmosphere that surrounds them is itself healing. I was deeply moved to see a young married couple who came from Washington, D.C. by train to pray in the presence of the reliquariy; young mothers bringing their infants to the reliquary to pray; many couples praying before the intertwined wedding rings that form part of the design of this family reliquary; a family from Maryland who venerated the reliquary both Saturday and Sunday; and persons who prayed the whole afternoon.

Even if you plan to pray in the presence of the relics at Carmel, I encourage you to visit them in the Cathedral this week if you can.  Through and including Friday, you can pray in the presence of the reliquary from 7:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m.  Prayer services for public veneration are at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 13th and again at 1;30 p.m. on Thursday, November 14th.

Click on the image to see it as a slightly larger PDF.  Download it here.  Please circulate it. Note that, especially if you are coming to Philadelphia from out of town or if you do not know your way around all parts of the city, the events of November 9-16 are your best chance to pray in the presence of the relics in the center of town.  The Cathedral Basilica is centrally located, there is paid parking nearby, and transportation to and from the airport is not difficult.

The relics of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin are venerated at Sainte-Therese Church in Metz, northeastern France.  The first two minutes of this film shows a priest speaking in French about the Martin spouses; the rest shows the music, the prayer, and the visit of the reliquary to a Carmelite monastery.