The Bethany Sibs

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Discipleship, dying, Eternal Life, Faith, friendship, spirituality

Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus
July 29, 2026

Today, we pray with three fascinating friends of Jesus: Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Let’s shake them out of the Bible today and let them live in our imaginations.

The three are usually named in the above order, inviting us to imagine Lazarus as the younger brother of two unmarried older sisters.

Martha, likely the oldest, is the most practical. Mary, the middle sister, is the romantic, wrapped in tales of perfumed hair, contemplative sitting, and tearful pleading. Lazarus, who has little to say in scripture, actually looms large in their story!

Thinking about the Bethany trio today, I remember a similar family from my childhood neighborhood. Helen, Agnes, and Mickey O’Rourke were amazingly like the Bethany Sibs in many ways. 

Helen, the oldest, had become a young and childless widow many years before I knew the family. By the 1950s, she was elderly, but still meticulously kept the home while the younger two worked. 

Agnes was about a decade younger and had a long career as a Bell Tell operator. She once spoke of wanting to become a Pink Sister, one of the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters whose monastery stood not far from our neighborhood.

Mickey, in his 40s, was a police officer who was known to enjoy his bachelorhood.

The O’Rourkes were devoted to one another. When Agnes was widowed, the other two assumed loving responsibility for her. In turn, Agnes, always the most vigilant and practical of the three, undertook responsibility for their guidance. 

The three kept a hospitable home where neighbors enjoyed their easy camaraderie and delightful Irish wit. They shared a happy, supportive, and generous life.

Then Mickey was shot and killed by a drunken reveler on New Year’s Eve.

Think about the devastation in his sisters’ hearts. Think about the deadly silence that fell upon their joyful home.  Think about their neighbors’ fumbling efforts to offer help or hope.

It was into a grief like this that Jesus arrived one ancient afternoon in Bethany. Read about it in John, chapter 11.

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This story offers so many points for meditation and prayer. You know where your heart softened at the story of the O’Rourkes. Maybe that is where your prayer should rest today as you ponder the Bethany family. 

  • Did Helen’s early widowhood touch your heart — her possible loneliness, blessedly softened only by the love of her siblings? Then pray with Martha.
  • Did Agnes’s quiet self-sacrifice move you — setting aside religious life to sustain her family? Then pray with Mary.
  • Did Mickey’s sudden death awaken memories of your own losses? Then pray with Lazarus.
  • Was it the shock and sadness of those who so helplessly wanted to heal the hurtful situation? Then pray with the unnamed neighbors whose remarks pepper the bible account.
  • But give these first prayers only short attention. Let your real meditation engage your feelings when you hear the words, “Lazarus, come forth!”, and you see the funeral bindings start to fall! Is there something dead in you that longs to rise again?

The O’Rourke sisters did not have their brother restored in the way that Lazarus was restored. But finally, their deep faith did revive their joy and unshakeable trust that they would all meet again in God’s time.

All these very real people offer us encouragement for our own faith and spiritual resilience. Why not spend some time with them?

Music: Come Out, Lazarus – Stephen McWhirter

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