July 28 will mark 42 years since Blessed Stanley Rother gave his life for the Gospel and his parishioners while serving in the Oklahoma mission in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala.
In February, thanks to your generosity and prayers, we dedicated the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine, providing his permanent resting place and a destination for pilgrims from around the world to venerate Blessed Stanley, to draw close to him as they learn from his heroic life and seek his intercession.
Since that day, more than 120,000 pilgrims have visited the shrine, some returning to the practice of their Catholic faith and the sacraments for the first time in years! Some come as pilgrims, others as seekers who are drawn to this real-life flesh and blood missionary disciple, priest and martyr. His life is easy to admire. His example is a challenge to follow.
It has been my privilege to continue to tell his story and introduce Blessed Stanley to more and more people outside of Oklahoma and the United States. During the week of his feast day, I will be making a presentation at the Napa Institute to share Blessed Stanley’s life of faithful witness and martyrdom with clergy, religious and lay Catholic leaders from around the country, many of whom are unfamiliar with our Oklahoma priest-martyr.
Part of this effort is to share his story and make Blessed Stanley more widely known, but more importantly it is meant to invite more and more people to follow his path of discipleship and seek his intercession through prayer. For Blessed Stanley to be canonized, to become a saint of the Catholic Church, he must be credited with a verified miracle. That only happens if we pray for his heavenly assistance and seek his intercession! Even if you’ve never sought the intercession of a saint, please consider doing so as part of your observance of his feast day this year and beyond.
Accompanying my column in this issue of the Sooner Catholic is the official intercessory prayer, which I encourage you to pray as you ask Blessed Stanley’s intercession at home, in your parishes or during a visit to his beautiful shrine. Pray ardently and persevere in prayer!
If you’ve already prayed for Blessed Stanley’s intercession and believe you received a special favor, or even a miracle through his intercession, I encourage you to share your story online at archokc.org/rothermiracle.
Blessed Stanley’s Cause for Canonization opened in 2007 under the leadership of Archbishop Beltran and with the hard work of many dedicated volunteers who compiled documentation that resulted in a massive 1,100-page Positio that I presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome in 2014. In 2016 – a relatively short time after opening a Cause – Pope Francis declared Blessed Stanley a martyr who died in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith), clearing the way for his beatification, which took place in September 2017 in Oklahoma City with more than 20,000 people in attendance! He is the first official martyr from the United States and the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified. Quite an honor for a quiet farmer from Okarche!
The next step in Blessed Stanley’s Cause is canonization, which would give the Church its first saint from Oklahoma! Praying for his intercession is the most important way we can help this happen. If you need a miracle in your life or in the life of someone you love, remember that Blessed Stanley needs a miracle too!
We are fortunate God has given us such a great gift in raising up Blessed Stanley Rother as an attractive role model, faithful witness and powerful intercessor in our midst. It is easy to share his story, which we all can do with our friends, family, fellow parishioners and the wider public. Especially at this time, we need the witness of Blessed Stanley and other models of fidelity to remind us that God is with us.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He never abandons his flock to wolves. We pray that he will continue to raise up authentic witnesses and good shepherds like Blessed Stanley to guide and protect his flock.
Blessed Stanley Rother, pray for us!
Prayer for Blessed Stanley Rother’s Intercession
Blessed Stanley, our brother, you poured out your life in service and
spilled your blood as a witness to the faithfulness of God’s love. Pray
for us now and intercede on our behalf, as we ask you to walk with
us on our journey through life, that the redeeming presence of Jesus,
might touch us now and restore us to wholeness and peace. I ask
that your prayer accompany us; may the mercy of Christ, echoed in
your ministry and your martyrdom, renew us and bring us the graces
necessary to heal our brokenness, illumine our darkness, and restore
the losses in our lives, that we may be, finally, one with you in praising
God forever in heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen