[00:00] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[00:38] Our Lady of Ransom, Our Lady of Mercy, Our Lady of Walsingham, St. Joseph, our patron saints and guardian angels, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today is the feast day of Our Lady under all those titles, Our Lady of Mercy, for those who maybe were ever ministered to by the Sisters of Mercy, this is Our Lady of Mercy, which

[01:12] is known in other places, especially in Spain, and even in England, was originally Our Lady of Ransom. And of course, today is Our Lady of Walsingham, which is the feast day of the special shrine dedicated to Our Lady that came about through an apparition to a woman in the 11th century in England, in which Our Lady appeared to her and asked her to, and showed her a blueprint

[01:43] of her holy house in Nazareth, and it became a great pilgrimage site in England in the Middle Ages. It was the house, you might say, was built even before the House of Loreto was translated from Dalmatia to Loreto, Italy. So this is like the late 1000s that Our Lady appeared to this lady named Richeldus and

[02:13] asked her to build this replica of her house at Loreto. That's why it was called the Nazareth of England, Our Lady of Walsingham, which was, of course, a beautiful shrine dedicated to Our Lady, and the statue was burned and destroyed by the infamous King Henry VIII when he broke from the Church. Later in the 20th century, the chapel was restored, Our Lady of Walsingham, and both

[02:47] Catholics and Anglicans make pilgrimages to this shrine. There's a Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham and there's a Protestant one. We pray that Our Lady will bring about a reunification of the Anglicans back to the true Church, not this false church that they think has some kind of legitimacy, which of course does not. We pray that Our Lady will bring back her separated children to the true Church.

[03:24] Today we also call to mind, because up above on the rude beam, which most people probably don't even know is up there, is of course Our Lady and St. John at the foot of the cross. This is where Our Lady of Ransom really has a Franciscan connection, because you see up there the words in Latin. I can't tell you what they are right now because I can't see them, but it's from the passage of St. Bonaventure, who wrote about his Bible commentary on who is the valiant woman, talked

[03:59] about in the book of Proverbs, and he has this to say, "Who shall find a valiant woman? Far and from the uttermost coast is the price of her. This is the price of which the apostle says, 'You have been bought at a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.' This price had to be great to redeem the whole world and the entire human race.

[04:33] Hence, it was necessary that the price have a divine and human nature. Where is that price found? Nowhere but in the womb of the glorious Virgin. Thus it is read in Isaiah, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel.' Emmanuel is translated God with us. It was not fitting that a virgin should have anyone as son but God, nor for God to have

[05:05] as a mother but a virgin. That price then could only be found in the virgin. Who is this price? This price by which we are able to reach the kingdom of heaven belongs to this woman, the Blessed Virgin. And this is where this passage above in Latin is taken from. It is hers because taken from her, offered by her, possessed by her. Taken from her in the incarnation of the Word, offered by her in the redemption of the human

[05:37] race, possessed by her in attaining the glory of paradise. She brought forth this price. This is the passage. She brought forth this price, paid this price, and possesses this price. And another word for this price, of course, is the ransom. Our Lady paid the ransom for us. She was the only one that could pay the ransom. No one could offer the ransom on our behalf except Our Lady who had the ability to, because

[06:12] of her Immaculate Conception, be the mother of the ransom, which is Christ. And so today as we honor Our Lady of Mercy or Our Lady of Ransom, we pray and ask Our Lady to really ransom all those captives who are still caught up in sin. You know, the Mercedarian fathers for whom Our Lady of Ransom was established in Spain in the 1200s was to release the captives or to go and take the place of those who had

[06:46] been taken captive by Muslims into captivity. It was either to go and minister to them, make themselves ransom. You might offer themselves to release someone who was in captivity or to go there and to pray and to minister to those who were in captivity so they wouldn't lose their faith. Because many times those Christians that were taken captive by the Muslims were trying to force them to renounce their faith.

[07:18] And so the Mercedarian fathers and brothers would offer themselves, first of all, as a ransom to take that person's place or to go there and join them in their captivity so that they would not falter. What a great vocation that was, what a heroic vocation that is. And some people may think, well, there's no need to do that anymore, but there's a lot of human trafficking going on in our world today.

[07:49] A lot of the white slavery is, of course, taking place in Muslim countries. So it hasn't stopped. It's still going on today. The human trafficking, the white slavery that is being practiced throughout the world. I want to pray for those people who are in such terrible conditions. Pray that someone will end this injustice to human beings. But we need to pray and ask Our Lady especially to intercede for all those who are enslaved

[08:24] to the other far even more dangerous snares of the devil, which, of course, are the many vices that are being promoted in our world today, especially the falsehoods that are being foisted upon our children in schools with the whole nonsense about transgenderism and the homosexual lifestyle that is being promulgated, propagandized to our children

[08:57] and young people. We need to pray and ask Our Lady that she will help release those people from the captivity of falsehood and lies and, of course, human lusts and all the other vices that enslave men's hearts. Let's pray today also for England, for the reunification of all of our separated brethren in England back to the true Church founded by Christ.

[09:29] The ransom has been paid. Our Lady has helped to pay it. And we thank Her for paying that price and ask Her that we too can cooperate with Her in helping to buy back those who have been ransomed by Our, uniting our sufferings and our prayers to Her great sacrifice at the foot of the cross with Her Son. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.