Episode Transcript  

One

St. Maryam of Bethlehem (Maryam of Jesus Crucified) 

We celebrate the feast of St. Maryam on August 26th, but that is also the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa, so we will talk about her life today. Maryam was born in I’billin, a small village between Nazareth and Haifa in Palestine, now Israel, on January 5th, 1846. Though her nickname was the “Little Arab,” she is a Catholic Palestinian who was declared a Saint on May 15th, 2015. I want to share her life with you because I think her motto, if you will learn to live it, will transform your life. 

Her parents died when she was just three years old, leaving her and her brother Paul orphaned. They were soon split up and given to different relatives. Maryam went to live with her uncle’s family, who moved to Alexandria, Egypt, in 1858. As was the custom at that time, a marriage was arranged for Maryam when she was twelve years old. But she refused because she had promised to give herself to Jesus in consecrated virginity to be his bride alone. She begged, but her uncle would not change his mind, so she turned to the Blessed Virgin Mary for guidance. She was inspired to follow the example of Catherine of Siena, who, facing a similar situation, cut off all her hair. So, Maryam did the same and arrived at the engagement party completely bald. Well, the boy rejected her, and her uncle, enraged, disowned her and made her one of the servants of the family. 

Longing to be reunited with her brother, who still lived near Nazareth, she learned of a Muslim man who was going there on business, so she asked him to carry a message to her brother. During their conversation, the Muslim learned of her plight and tried to convert her to Islam. She declared Jesus to be God and flatly refused to convert. In a rage, he unsheathed his scimitar and slashed her throat. To hide the murder, he dumped her body in a grotto in the countryside. For the love of Christ, Little Maryam had borne witness to her faith to the point of shedding her blood. She was a martyr, but her story wasn’t over yet.

Two

Cared for by the Mother of God

Maryam recounted what happened next. She was taken to heaven, had a vivid experience of God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit as well as Mary, Joseph, and many saints. Then a voice spoke, which said, “Maryam, your book is not finished.” 

When she awoke in the grotto, the most beautiful woman dressed in blue sewed up the mortal wound to her neck and nursed her back to health. Each day the woman in blue would feed her an otherworldly soup. It was so good that little Maryam looked up, and as children do, said, “More?” Then the woman spoke, saying, “Remember, Maryam, don’t act like other people who think they never have enough. Instead, always be content! The Lord who is good, will send you all you need.” Our Lady explained that she must welcome everything as coming from the hand of God and that she must give thanks for everything. 

“Always be content” became Little Maryam’s motto. Now, “always be content” does not mean, suck it up, accept things as it is because there is nothing you can do anyway. It means trust in Divine Providence. God is so involved in your life that everything that happens to you, He wills or allows for one purpose: to expand your soul to receive more of God. 

We should always be content because God is already enough.  

Three

A Long Journey

Our Lady told little Maryam she must never go back to her Uncle’s house; that she would first become a religious sister in an order dedicated to St. Joseph, and then as a Carmelite, and finally she would die in Bethlehem. 

After Our Lady nursed Maryam back to health, she took her to the local Catholic Church and told Maryam to go to confession. When Maryam came out, Our Lady had disappeared. She explained the whole story to the priest, and he promised to help her. He arranged that Maryam would go to work for Catholic families in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and then a French family living in Beirut, who soon went back to Marseille, France, taking Maryam with them. 

When she was 19, Maryam entered the sisters of St. Joseph in Marseille. But by the time she was 20, she had so many mystical experiences and so many miraculous events surrounding her that the Sisters of St. Joseph suggested she join the Carmelites, a contemplative community, in Pau, near Lourdes. Just as Our Lady told her. 

In 1870, the Carmelites sent her to Mangalore, India, to establish a new convent. There, Sr. Maryam received the Stigmata, the wounds of Jesus in her hands, feet, and side. She received continual visits from Jesus, Mary, saints, souls in purgatory, and attacks from demons. So great were mystical experiences and miracles that the mother superior again didn’t know what to do with her, so she sent her back to France. 

Maryam was totally misunderstood and rejected by her community, but she lived by her motto, “Always be content!” Everything that happens to you comes from God; He either wills it or allows it. If He allows something difficult, He does so to give Himself to you in a greater way. So, she trusted Him. 

Four

A Convent in Bethlehem

Jesus appeared to Maryam seven times, asking her to go back to her homeland, to Palestine, to build a new Carmelite convent in Bethlehem. And each time Jesus appeared to her, He gave her explicit instructions on how to gain permission from the Vatican and precisely how to build the convent. Jesus wanted the convent in Bethlehem to be designed like a fortress with a tower because Jesus told her this was to be a place of spiritual combat to defeat the powers of evil by love, prayer, and sacrifice to bring the victory of Light over darkness. 

In 1875, she arrived in Bethlehem and built the convent just as the Lord had instructed. To this day, it stands and is in operation. 

Then, just as Our Lady foretold, when Maryam was just 32 years old, she fell and broke her arm. Gangrene set in, which was very hard to cure in those days. And she died on August 26th, 1878.

Five

Always be Content!

In Philippians, St. Paul writes, “I never complain, because I have learned, in whatever state I am, to always be content. I know how to be poor and I know how to be rich too. I have been through my initiation and now I am ready for anything anywhere: full stomach or empty stomach, poverty or plenty. There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength.”

We must stop living in the world like orphans. God is Our Father. He is watching over everything. Here is how God wants us to live like his sons and daughters: Spend time with God in prayer. Think, ask for guidance, make plans, take responsibility, and do what is in your power. 

Be discriminating. Know what you can control and do what you can. Know what you can’t control - leave that to God. But “Always be content!” because in everything, the Father is giving you Jesus, and He is enough!

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you. 

• Write down the phrase ‘always be content’ and place it somewhere that it can always be a reminder.

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