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.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Magnificat Foundation, and the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Philadelphia released today a schedule for the ten days of events planned this month to celebrate the Magnificat Foundation's gift of a new reliquary containing relics of St. Therese and of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and to give as many people as possible an opportunity to pray in the presence of this reliquary, the first reliquary of a family.

Please see the first photos of the new reliquary and an explanation of its symbolism.