4/30/13

Coming Events at St. Anthony of Padua Church


3 day novena at Saint Anthony of Padua Church 1359 Acushnet Avenue, New Bedford, Ma 02746  Tel-508-993-1691 

 Monday June 10, 11, 12 and Concluding Thursday June 13   

Each evening at 6:30pm Mass Homily by Franciscan priest Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic, OFM  (From the parish of Medjugorje)

Blessing with St. Anthony relic.

Inner peace in Medjugorje”

Fr. Robert Bahcic: “People feel inner peace in Medjugorje”

date: 29.04.2013.
Fr. Robert Bahcic, a member of the Slovenian Franciscan Province, was in Medjugorje in the end of April. Fr. Robert spent last seven years living in Rome in the Franciscan General Curia, where he served for the first three years as a guardian priest. At the same time, he was also responsible for the bulletin “Fraternitas” that brings news about the activities of the Franciscans in the world. “I was in Medjugorje on several occasions, but this is the first time that I took some time for myself only. I found lots of faith here. There is something in Medjugorje that attracts people to pray and to meditate; this is where they feel inner peace. This is indeed richness that needs to be spread”, said Fr. Robert.
http://www.medjugorje.hr/en/
 

4/29/13

Video Testimony of the day when Fr. Slavko died


Video testimony of a woman who was on the hill when Fr. Slavko Barbaric died on Mary TV - Fruit of Medjugorje Episode  sixty - four
http://marytv.tv/fruit-of-medjugorje-ep ... janet-grey


4/27/13

WILL YOU RECEIVE THE SPIRIT


The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit." -Acts 13:52

Jesus promised that we who believe in Him can do even greater things than He did (Jn 14:12). We have such power because whatever we ask in Jesus' name will be given us (Jn 14:14). We can pray in Jesus' name, that is, we can know and want His will because of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:16-17).

 The Holy Spirit will convict us of worldly ways (Jn 16:8), give us the mind of Christ (see 1 Cor 2:16), and help us to pray in our weakness (Rm 8:26). Then we will do greater works than Jesus did. We will change the world for Jesus not by our might or power but by the Holy Spirit (Zec 4:6).

Three weeks from tomorrow will be Pentecost. We have been preparing for this for over seventy days. The Lord wants to give us the greatest Pentecost of our lives and to renew the face of the earth (Ps 104:30). Will we be receptive to such a radical, life-changing outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Will we let the Lord make us much more receptive in the next three weeks? Will we receive power from on high (Lk 24:49) to pray in Jesus' name and to do greater works than Jesus did?


 Father, let it be done to me according to Your word (Lk 1:38).

 "The Gentiles were delighted when they heard this and responded to the word of the Lord with praise. All who were destined for life everlasting believed in it. Thus the word of the Lord was carried throughout that area." -Acts 13:48-49

4/26/13

Medjugorje: Positive Report Has Been Given To Rome

by Jakob Marschner

Well-informed source confirms short note from Medjugorje news portal: The Vatican Commission of experts who have examined the events of Medjugorje for three years has delivered a positive report. But still it may be long until Pope Francis formally decides on the case, we are told.

Thumbs up for Medjugorje: Previous leaks indicate that the Vatican Commission is very positive of the fruits of Medjugorje whereas the question of the authenticity of the apparitions is expected to be kept open by a time when the visionaries say the apparitions are still going on
Thumbs up for Medjugorje: Previous leaks indicate that the Vatican Commission is very positive of the fruits of Medjugorje whereas the question of the authenticity of the apparitions is expected to be kept open by a time when the visionaries say the apparitions are still going on

Medjugorje gets a positive review in the report from the international Vatican Commission of experts formed by Pope Benedict XVI in March 2010. The Commission has handed over its report to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), a well-informed source confirms to Medjugorje Today.

“However, the time taken for a decision could be long from Pope Francis” says this source.

News of a positive report from the Commission was first reported on April 24, on the Facebook page of the local news portal Brotnjo Info. Quoting no sources and passing on no further detail, the news note basically said the report had been delivered. Medjugorje Today learns that this was due to have happened by the end of March.   Source   http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/

4/25/13

Message from Our Lady of Medjugorje through Marija: April 25, 2013


 
"Dear children! Pray, pray, keep praying until your heart opens in faith as a flower opens to the warm rays of the sun. This is a time of grace which God gives you through my presence but you are far from my heart, therefore, I call you to personal conversion and to family prayer. May Sacred Scripture always be an incentive for you. I bless you all with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Comment on Photo: 

 Photo by Barbara Goodier, USA . I took this on October 2nd, 2010 at the time of Mirjana's apparition. A few of us were praying the Rosary at the Crucifix on Sr. Immanuel's property. We were looking towards the Blue Cross on Apparition Hill and saw the sun spinning. That's when I took the picture. May you receive a special blessing from the Lord today!
Barbara G.  

 

4/24/13

Reaping the Whirlwind

There is, among faithful Catholics, a dismay, and even an understandable anger at the events unfolding at the Supreme Court these past days related to to gay unions. And even if the court were to uphold traditional marriage (which does not seem likely), or merely return the matter to the States,  it seems quite clear where our culture is going regarding this matter, approving things once, not so long ago, considered unthinkable.
What then to do with our dismay and anger? It is too easy to vent anger, which is not only unproductive, but in the current state of “hyper-tolerance” for all things gay, angry denunciations are counter-productive.
Rather our anger should be directed to a wholehearted embrace and living out of the biblical vision of human sexuality and marriage. Our anger should be like an energy that fuels our zeal to live purity, and speak of its glory to a confused and out-of-control culture.
The fact is, traditional marriage has been in a disgraceful state for over 50 years, and heterosexual misbehavior has been off the hook in the same period. And, if we are honest, heterosexual misbehavior and confusion has been largely responsible for bringing forth the even deeper confusion and disorder of homosexual activity, and particularly the widespread approval of it.
We have sown the wind, and now reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7).
Our anger, dismay and sorrow are better directed inward toward our own conversion to greater purity as a individuals, families and parishes, than outward toward people who will only interpret it as “hate” and bigotry” anyway.
A few thoughts to frame our own reflections in how we have gotten to this place of darkness in our culture.
1.  The fundamental flaw in modern thinking about human sexuality, the “Ur” (root) problem, is the (sinful) declaration that there is “no necessary connection” between human sexual activity and procreation. Here is the real taproot of modern confusion about human sexuality and all the disorders that flow from it. Such notions began as early as 1930 in the Lambeth Conference where the Church of England was the first Christian Denomination to serious brook this sinful notion. The thinking gained steam through the 1950s, via Margaret Sanger et al. and came to full (and ugly) flower in 1960s with the pill and the sexual revolution.
2. Any 8th grade biology student ought to be able to see the flaw in the “no necessary connection” argument. For if sex has no necessary connection to procreation but can be only for fun or pleasure, then what are the sperm and ova doing there? Did not nature and nature’s God intend some connection. Alas, what even an 8th grader can see, was set aside and/or became unintelligible to a generation obsessed with its passions. Claiming to be wise they became fools and their senseless minds were darkened (Rom 1:22-23)
3. Once the necessary connection between sex and procreation was set aside, contraceptives moved from being something related to prostitution to being a downright “noble” thing to use and promote. Sex became a frivolous plaything and promiscuity became widespread, since the most obvious consequences of sinful, frivolous and out of control behavior, now seemed to be to largely preventable. Promiscuity exploded on the scene and was celebrated in popular culture, in the music, on T.V. and so forth. Enter the further explosion of sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood and exploding divorce rates. Because guess what? Contraceptives were not full-proof (or should we say “foolproof”). It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature and our “no-necessary connection” insistence  thus ushers in all these disorders.
4. But never mind all that, we didn’t learn, we just doubled-down. Next we put marriage in the shredder by further declaring that there is no necessary connection between marriage and procreation. More pills and condoms please. Divorces continued to skyrocket, as birthrates plummeted.
5. In a parallel trend, single parent families entered the scene in a big way. For if it is true that marriage does not have any necessary connection to children, then apparently having children has no necessary connection to marriage. As single parent families rise, so do juvenile delinquency rates, and teen suicides. SAT scores and graduation rates, however, went down.
6. But never mind all that. What was needed is more condoms! Never mind that contraceptives and the underlying “no necessary connection” distortion ushered all this pain and distortion in. No! what we need is some more hair of the dog that bit us. More contraceptives! The government should promote and provide them free.  In fact, start giving them to children and teens. After all, with decades of sexual misbehavior, who is really able to control themselves? And any one who suggests we ought to try is called puritanical, judgmental, unrealistic and a likely Christian. Let’s add free abortion to the mix and pass laws that permit parents to be kept in the dark when their daughters are taken to abortionists.
OK, you get the point, we heterosexuals have been involved in a down spiraling series of distortions and sexual misbehavior for over fifty years now. And this misbehavior is widespread and even celebrated in our culture.
Add to this terrible picture, the scandalous silence of pulpits, the shrugging over flagrant fornication, cohabitation and high divorce rates by Church leaders, parents, and other community leaders.
Yes, we have sown the wind. And now comes the whirlwind. Enter the “gay” community who have in effect called our bluff and illustrate the absurdity of our “no-necessary connection” philosophy. For, if sex has “no necessary connection” to procreation, and can just be about what pleasures you, or is just your way to show “care” for another, if this is the case, what’s wrong with homosexual behavior? And if marriage is just about two adults being happy and there is “no necessary connection” to procreation, why can’t homosexuals “marry”?
Welcome to the whirlwind. Yes, we heterosexuals have misbehaved for over fifty years now, and, in process dispensed widespread confusion about sex and distorted its purpose. We have loved the darkness, and now the darkness deepens with the obvious absurdity of homosexual “marriage” a misnomer before it is even uttered. But so is contraceptive marriage.
Is Homosexual activity disordered? You better believe it. But so is contraceptive heterosexual activity since it is no longer ordered per se to procreation. In fact, it is rightly argued that contraceptive sex is really just mutual masturbation, it is not true or ordered human sexual activity at all. It is disordered, for it is not ordered to its proper end.
The grave disorder of homosexual acts and the equally grave celebration on them in our culture is a very deep darkness. Scripture calls homosexual activity παρὰ φύσιν “para physin” (contrary to nature – cf Rom 1:26). Any cursory examination of the structure and design of the human body (which is revelation) makes it clear that the man is not for the man, the man is for the woman. The woman is for the man, not another woman. Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? (Mk 8:18)
In Romans 1:17ff St. Paul and the Holy Spirit describe a culture that has gone very dark. For the men of St. Paul’s day “suppressed the truth by their wickedness” (v. 18). And this suppression of the truth led to an ever deepening darkness wherein their thinking became futile and their senseless minds were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools (vv 21-22). And darkness led to depravity wherein: God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lieBecause of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in their bodies the due penalty for their error. (v 24-27).
Some Protestant preachers have warned over the years that God would punish this nation for celebrating homosexual activity. But St. Paul’s point is even more poignant: The widespread acceptance of homosexual activity IS God’s punishment. It is a punishment that does not single out homosexuals, it is a punishment on us all. We are collectively very confused, and the darkness grows every deeper. We have sown the wind, we are now reaping the whirlwind.
The faithful Catholic is right to be dismayed and angry. But allow this anger to fuel commitment to living and speaking the truth. Do not direct it merely to wrath or scapegoating. Let this anger fuel your commitment to speak the truth about human sexuality to your children and grandchildren, to be silent no more, embarrassed no more. Speak plainly and boldly, clearly and with charity. But let your anger fuel commitment to the truth, by what you say and how you live. Be angry, but do not sin (Eph 4:26).
Most of us have contributed to the darkness of these times and need to repent. Perhaps we have bought into the lie of contraception and spread it. Perhaps some have been promiscuous. Other too may have been pure, but were too silent to the impurity around them. And having sown the wind, we reap now the whirlwind. It’s time to repent. It’s time to be angry but sin not.
Update:
Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion here. I think it is now necessary to close to any further comments. First it is Good Friday and time to focus on the Lord who died for us poor and confused sinners, who endured our darkness to bring us light. Secondly, the remarks have turned largely poisonous and I’m getting some pretty awful remarks.
Trackbacks show that this post was linked to by a couple of “gay” interest sites because the tide has rather suddenly turned and the discussion has drifted from the point of the original post. The initial hit backs came at the post mostly from the contraception dissenters and that was ugly enough but now things are getting even uglier in the combox and the topic in the thread is morphing too much.
I admit to opening the door to “gay” push-back. I am very clear, as is the Catechism, that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and that this is obvious not only from Scripture but also from biology. Our bodies are simply not built or designed for what homosexuals do.
But as is well attested in the article, there are many ways in which Heterosexuals also offend against the proper ordering of sex and thus also engage in disordered sexual practices.
For what it is worth, as a closing comment the point of the post was to wade into the current “marriage equality” (I would call it the “marriage redefinition”) debate with the perspective that we are all to some degree responsible for the current darkness. 50 years of heterosexual misbehavior and redefining the meaning of both sex and marriage has set the stage for cultural whirlwind we are currently in. Many moderns are currently exulting in its lusty breezes, but as I argue, it is rooted in darkness and the body count of the sexual revolution (literally and figuratively) is very high. We all have much to answer for, whether as outright sinners in these matters or as all too silent “saints.”
Clergy are high on the hit list for our silence. But, as can be seen, these issues are hard to discuss well, and with the proper balance of courage and compassion. Yet still we ought to have spoken long before things got so dark and hot.
I do not deny my anger at the current situation that many of my interlocutors accuse me of (as if they were not also angry). My point is to suggest that we who are believers be angry without sin. To use the energy that anger supplies to do whatever personal repenting is necessary, to become ever clearer on the central issues and the “why” of biblical and Church teaching, and to courageously witness to the beauty and truth of a proper understanding of human sexuality.
I want to write more next week and focus a bit more on what the Church must finally offer to those of homosexual orientation (namely the call to live as celibates in heroic witness to the truth of God’s Revelation) if she is to be faithful to Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and Natural Law.
Peace to all even if you think badly of me. Veritatem in Caritate!
Msgr. Charles Pope

4/23/13

Crippled Women Healed in Medjugorje

by Jakob Marschner

After 18 years on crutches, Linda Christy from Canada arrived in Medjugorje in a wheelchair. Doctors are unable to explain why she could leave it and walk on Apparition Hill. Because her spine is still deformed, and her other medical tests also look the same as before she was cured.

linda christy canada cured healed healing spine injury medjugorje miracle
Linda Christy

Medical science cannot explain how Linda Christy from Canada left her wheelchair in June 2010 in Medjugorje, after 18 years with a crippling spine injury.

“I experienced a miracle. I arrived in a wheelchair, and now I walk, as you can see. The Blessed Virgin Mary healed me on Apparition Hill” Linda Christy tells Radio Medjugorje.

Last year, on the second anniversary of her healing, she handed over her medical documents to Medjugorje’s parish office. They testify to a double miracle: Not only did Linda Christy start walking but also her physical-medical condition remains the same as before.

“I brought all the medical findings that confirmed my condition, and there is no scientific explanation as to why I am walking. My spine is in such a bad shape that there are places where it is not even coherent at all, a lung has moved six centimeters, and I still have all the spine diseases and deformities” she says.

“After the miracle happened to my spine, it is still in the same poor condition it was, and therefore there is no medical explanation as to why I can stand on my own and walk after I walked on crutches for 18 years, and spent a year in a wheelchair.”    source  http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/

4/22/13

Experiences of pilgrims

The experiences of pilgrims


date: 18.04.2013.


More pilgrims started arriving to Medjugorje in this period after Easter when weather is so beautiful. The journalists of Radio Mir Medjugorje spoke to some of them.
“My name is Maria Degola and I am coming from Verona, Italy. This is my third time to Medjugorje and I came here in 1990 for the first time. That is when I experienced complete silence during the apparition time, despite the big crowds that was around me. I thought about what made me come there in those days. My second visit to Medjugorje was in 2003, after my husband and my daughter, that was only 34, had died. One of my friends told me: “Maria, you should go to Medjugorje, so God could give you strength to overcome all that you have been going through.” That is what I did. This time, I arrived with my son Francesco who has Down syndrome. We were in Fatima last year and this year we came to Medjugorje.”
Trisha and Ron, married couple, came from Texas, the United States. Trisha says: “I came out of love to Our Lady who saved my life and completely changed it and returned me on the way to God. I came to thank and to pray here, both of us are really happy that we are in Medjugorje and that we are part of all of this.” Ron added: “If we had never arrived here to Our Lady, we would have never fallen in love in Christ, in Holy Mass, in our faith. God works here in a simple way by softening human hearts. After we had arrived home from this place, our hearts have been melted and that is how we had already been for several times here.”
Rossana is a pilgrim that comes to Medjugorje for three years now. “I was in Fatimi and in Lourdes, but Medjugorje attracts me because I feel Our Lady’s presence the most here, while in those two places it is more of a memory of Our Lady’s presence. This is where one feels that, this is where I am at peace. It is always beautiful to come to Medjugorje, to be strengthened spiritually and to bring with me home to Italy that huge fulfillment.”
Fr. Teodolino Antinori from San Maurizio said that he came to Medjugorje long ago, in 1997 for the first time. He said: “I heard that someone spoke about the apparitions when I was at the retreat and that is how I slowly got to know Medjugorje. I am bringing groups of pilgrims here at the moment. It is always honour for me to come here and to encounter Mother of God. I always feel her presence that guides me and instructs me to stay here. For me, as a priest, that is something new and special, something that is so evident in the sacrament of Holy Confession. I am here with one of my groups and I always thank God for being in Medjugorje.“  Source  http://www.medjugorje.hr/en/

4/21/13

Jakov: We do not realize what we recieve

by Jakob Marschner

The Virgin Mary stays in Medjugorje for so long because she is our Mother and loves us immensely. So little is needed for us to start loving her back. But we do not understand the gifts at our disposal, says visionary Jakov Colo who appeals to firm decisions for a new attitude.

jakov colo medjugorje visionary seer veggente
Jakov Colo

Mankind at large, and even many Medjugorje visitors, are far from understanding the real significance of more than 31 years of the Virgin Mary’s daily apparitions, visionary Jakov Colo recently told pilgrims in a lecture passed on by Glasnik Mira, the official parish magazine.

“You need to turn to God and Our Lady, and promise that you will start to live with Him today, that from now your life is changing, that as of today you want to be an example to everybody, that you will love God and share God’s goodness with everybody” Jakov said.

medjugorje visionary seer veggente jakov colo apparition apparizione
Jakov as a teenager in the 1980s, when he still had daily apparitions. Since they ended on September 12th 1998, he has had an apparition once a year, on Christmas Day

“This is what Our Lady teaches here in Medjugorje. We do not realize how much grace we receive. Do you see how long Our Lady is appearing here? Mary comes for so long. She is coming here because of us, because she is our Mother, because we are immensely loved. The Madonna said in one of her messages: “Dear children, if you knew how much I love you, you would cry of joy!”

“That is Our Lady’s love for us, and so little is needed for us to start loving the Madonna! Let this day mark our promise to Our Lady: that we will begin to love her as our Mother, that she may be the Mother of our entire lives. Let us think about something else. At the end of each message she is giving us here in Medjugorje every month, Our Lady says: “Thank you for having responded to my call.”

“How big it is! Our Lady tells us very much, and every day we should give thanks for ​​it, thank God for the gifts He has given us because we do not understand what gifts we have. From today, let us pray that we feel the gifts of God in our hearts, that we feel and accept God and His Mother in our hearts” Jakov said.    Source  http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/

4/20/13

The Child with Down-Syndrom and the Dog


19/04/2013 The sweet heart of a dog towards a child.
 Very moving!

Dear Dzhokhar, You don’t know me, but you tried to kill my family.


Mike Rogers SJ · 621 followers
19 hours ago near Rome, Lazio ·

  • Dear Dzhokhar,

    You don’t know me, but you tried to kill my family.

    You couldn’t have known, but my brother ran bandit in the marathon and trained for months. My sister in law was an amazing and supportive wife as she always is and was ready to run the last 5 miles with him.. Your bomb was at the finish line that they were trying to cross.

    My Mother, Father, and Sister, were waiting for them at the finish line. You didn’t know it, but my mother thinks that she saw you down there. My sister is only three years younger than you, and you set off a bomb in front of her.

    You don’t know me, but you tried to kill some friends of mine.

    One of my best and closest friends was working in the store in front of which you or your brother laid down a bomb. That bomb exploded, and gave her the worst day of her ilfe.

    I was a high school teacher, your bomb wounded one of my most promising students with shrapnel.

    Dear Dzhokhar, you tried to destroy a community that I left behind for Rome, but from which I draw so much of my strength and identity.

    You killed a child who was a part of the community who made me the man I am today. Martin may have grown up to be a BC High boy... and his family is well loved in the community which surrounds that school.

    You tried to drive a city which gave me courage in the face of cancer into complete and utter fear. But you tried to do this to a city which knew how to make a 10 year old me unafraid.

    Dear Dzhokhar, you may have crossed the threshold of the building in which I lived to compete in an athletic event, but we have never met, and you tried to Kill my family, a friend, my students, and destroy my community.

    Dear Dzhokhar, you failed. Did you ever think that you would make it out? The US captured Bin Laden, and Saddam.. there was no chance you would escape. This is not the measure of your success, though.

    Dear Dzhokhar, you failed because Boston was not bowed or afraid. You set off a bomb, and the city gave blood for victims. You escaped initial capture and the city opened its doors to strangers. You were at large and making more bombs, and we gathered in prayer at Garvey park and the Cathedral. You went on a rampage, and people stayed home in an orderly fashion and opened their homes to the police during the search. Dear Dzhokhar, you failed, because light cast out the darkness, and the man who knew that his boat just didn’t look right wasn’t afraid to call it in.

    Dear Dzhokhar, for all of this, I can’t hate you..

    Today I thought about the fact that you are only 19... you are just a kid. You must have been so afraid today. You were a victim like so many are victims, you were bought something you shouldn’t have been brought into because you likely didn’t and couldn’t know any better.

    I am glad that you are going to prison, and I hope that you will have many long years there in supermax in Colorado. I hope that no one I love will ever be threatened by you again, but I can’t hate you.

    I can’t hate you because whatever you brought into Boston was enough hate for a good long while, I won’t and can’t hate anymore.

    I can’t hate you because I remember being 19, I thought many things were a good idea which weren’t. I never would have went where you were, but I was certainly not an adult at 19.

    I can’t hate you because, even though you did unspeakable things... somehow you are still my brother and your death can never be my gain.

    *I can’t hate you, and not just because I am a Catholic, and a Christian, and because in a couple of months I will be a priest, I am a human and I simply can’t hate you.

    Dear Dzhokhar, I still have hope for you.

    The rest of your life will be in prison. I have seen men change their lives there. I hope that you won’t be executed, because I know that we can hold you, safely, for the rest of your life.

    I can’t say what your story might be there... but I know that I, as a Christian, and you, as a Muslim, believe God to be merciful... so I can’t help but have hope for you...

    Dear Dzhokhar, you’re a kid. I can’t hate you, or fear you. I am glad you are in custody, I am glad you can’t hurt anyone else or yourself anymore, but I can’t hate you.. and I WON’T fear you.

    Dear Dzhokhar, I will pray for you. Next year, when my friend and my brother cross that finish line on Boylston, your brother’s cause will have lost for good. I will pray that you will know, somehow, the same kind of love that my brother, sister-in-law, mother, father, sister, friends, and students all have given me.

    Dear Dzhokhar, I will pray for you. When the first pitch is thrown on Patriot's day at Fenway, I will pray that somehow you will know joy... the joy that makes us fully human and offers the possiblity of real repentance... the joy that Red Sox baseball fills me with every year.

    Dear Dzhokhar, I will pray for you next year when the first shot is fired in the annual reenactment of the battle of Lexington in Concord, that you will come to know that PEACE and LOVE are the only ways in which world will ever be changed.

    Dear Dzhokhar, I don’t and can’t hate you. I am glad you are in custody, but you are just a kid, and you lost. I will love and pray for you, because somehow your sin was turned for good, and my community and the people I love will only be stronger in the end.

    Dear Dzhokhar, Godspeed.

Reflections on Medjugorje Part # 1


Reflections on Medjugorje Part # 2


Reflections on Medjugorje Part # 3


Also:  Mary Calls us to Conversion
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoWQC_DC2lM&list=UUwYyPB5jQGSw3Z2qqyAaUmA&index=6

4/19/13

Children of Medjugorje Newsletter


April 15, 2013

Dear Children of Medjugorje, praised be Jesus and Mary!   

1. On April 2nd, Mirjana received her monthly apparition in her home, with only a few visitors because of heavy rain on the village. After the apparition, she gave us the following message:

"Dear children, I am calling you to be one with my Son in spirit. I am calling you, through prayer, and the Holy Mass when my Son unites Himself with you in a special way, to try to be like Him; that, like Him, you may always be ready to carry out God's will and not seek the fulfillment of your own. Because, my children, it is according to God's will that you are and that you exist, and without God's will you are nothing. As a mother, I am asking you to speak about the glory of God with your life because, in that way, you will also glorify yourself in accordance to His will. Show humility and love for your neighbor to everyone. Through such humility and love, my Son saved you and opened the way for you to the Heavenly Father. I implore you to keep opening the way to the Heavenly Father for all those who have not come to know Him and have not opened their hearts to His love. By your life, open the way to all those who still wander in search of the truth. My children, be my apostles who have not lived in vain. Do not forget that you will come before the Heavenly Father and tell Him about yourself. Be ready! Again I am warning you, pray for those whom my Son called, whose hands He blessed and whom He gave as a gift to you. Pray, pray, pray for your shepherds. Thank you."  
.
2. "Without the will of God, you are nothing" ? In this message, the Blessed Mother wasn't afraid of provoking us so much so that some people even started being astonished. All the better!  This helps us to move forward! 
.
Jesus said to Saint Catherine of Siena "I am He who is, you are she who is not". And yet, she was a great saint! Some might think that Jesus is being contemptuous. In fact, it is the opposite.  He is telling her, I am on the side of Being, you are on the side of the Void, we are therefore made for one another, I will give you the gift of my All, and you will give me the gift of your Nothing, and thus we will be unfailingly united! He also told her, "Make yourself a vessel and I shall make myself a torrent." That is the key to this message!  If we humbly open our heart to God, but wide open, we enable him to become a torrent inside of us, to give himself entirely to us and pour his grace into us, which is already like being in the entranceway of heaven. If our Ego doesn't dominate everything within us, then we leave all the room free for God and we can enjoy His bliss. 
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We know that true peace, Shalom in Hebrew, means to be "complete", entirely filled with the presence of God, and with no emptiness inside of us.  Then God is "all in all", as Scriptures says.

Blessed Maryam of Bethlehem, a great mystic from Galilee, called herself the "little nothing", and this was her joy. 
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The holier a man is, the more that man is aware of his nothingness before God, but also the more comfortable he is with that nothingness.  True humility consists in being before God in all one's truth, and this truth makes us free, happy. For God, there is no difference between people in terms of how important they are, rich or poor, VIPs or not VIPs, the winners and the losers.  We are all poor, but some may have already realized this, whereas others not yet. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven," Jesus tells us. And all He wants is our happiness! 
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A wonderful guiding light is given to us by Saint Therese of Lisieux, ''the Little Flower''. By a stroke of genius, she tells us about the "little way", how to walk safely with God until we reach heaven.  She knew she was poor, small, incapable of doing any good on her own. But instead of being sad about it, on the contrary she experienced great joy!  "What God likes to see in my little soul is the way I love my littleness and my poverty; it is my blind hope in His mercy, this is my only treasure...."  And then later she says, "The weaker one is, without desires or virtues, the more ready he is for the operations of this consuming and transforming love." (Letter of 17.09.1896, to Sr Marie du Sacré-Coeur.) She knew how Jesus loved children and those who resemble them, and a child is after all the one person who knows that he must receive everything from adults.
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The world teaches just the opposite! In order to please people, you must be ''somebody''. What an illusion! How I thank the Mother of God for her message! Once again, she cures us from the false pictures of happiness that the world enforces on us, and she plunges us into the reality that never wanes and that will make us men and women who may stand and boast not for ourselves, but for God who lives within us! Mary makes of us Christians who are not afraid of losing the root of our joy, because this joy is placed in God and is completely secure. While the world is offering us fleeting and superficial satisfactions which eventually plunge us in anguish, God offers to quench our deepest thirst, and that enables us to be who we truly are, children of God who possess everything. "My child, everything that is mine is yours!" says the Lord (Luke 15). 
www.childrenofmedjugorje.com

Sister Emmanuel +
(Translated from French

I Am Calling You


"Pray for the Holy Spirit to descend upon you"
 
"Begin to invoke the Holy Spirit each day. The most important thing is to pray to the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit descends on the earth, then all becomes clear and all is transformed.” (Advent 1983)
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" The important thing is to pray for the Holy Spirit to descend upon you. When you have the Holy Spirit, you have everything." (Friday, Oct. 21, 1983)
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"Pray to the Holy Spirit that He enlighten you and you will thereby come to know all that you want.” (Sat. May 26, 1984)
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 “Dear children! In this time, I call you all to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon every baptized creature, so that the Holy Spirit may renew you all and lead you on the way of witnessing your faith – you and all those who are far from God and His love. I am with you and intercede for you before the Most High. Thank you for having responded to my call.”  Message of May, 2009
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Dear Children!Today I call you, through prayer and sacrifice, to prepare yourselves for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Little children, this is a time of grace and so, again, I call you to decide for God the Creator. Allow him to transform and change you. May your heart be prepared to listen to, and live, everything which the Holy Spirit has in his plan for each of you. Little children, allow the Holy Spirit to lead you on the way of truth and salvation towards eternal life. Thank you for having responded to my call. May 25, 1998
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Dear children! At this time of grace, I call you to prayer. Little children, you work much but without God's blessing. Bless and seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to lead you at this time so that you may comprehend and live in the grace of this time. Convert, little children, and kneel in the silence of your hearts. Put God in the centre of your being so that, in that way, you can witness in joy the beauty that God continually gives in your life. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, May 25, 2001
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Dear children! Today I pray for you and with you that the Holy Spirit may help you and increase your faith, so that you may accept even more the messages that I am giving you here in this holy place. Little children, comprehend that this is a time of grace for each of you; and with me, little children, you are secure. I desire to lead you all on the way of holiness. Live my messages and put into life every word that I am giving you. May they be precious to you because they come from heaven. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, June 25, 2002
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Dear children! You are not conscious of the messages which God is sending you through me. He is giving you great graces and you do not comprehend them. Pray to the Holy Spirit for enlightenment. If you only knew how great are the graces God is granting you, you would be praying without ceasing. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, November 8, 1984
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 Dear children! As I call you to prayer for those who have not come to know the love of God, if you were to look into your hearts you would comprehend that I am speaking about many of you. With an open heart, sincerely ask yourselves if you want the Living God or do you want to eliminate Him and live as you want. Look around you, my children, and see where the world is going, the world that thinks of doing everything without the Father, and which wanders in the darkness of temptation. I am offering to you the light of the Truth and the Holy Spirit. According to God's plan I am with you to help you to have my Son, His Cross and Resurrection, triumph in your hearts. As a mother, I desire and pray for your unity with my Son and His works. I am with you: You decide. Thank you. (June 2, 2011)
Come, Lord Jesus, Send Us Your Spirit.

Reflections on Medjugorje Part 1


4/18/13

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses

He continued on his way rejoicing. (Acts 8:39)


Just before ascending into heaven, Jesus told his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Book of Acts is filled with exciting accounts of how Jesus’ followers—empowered by the Spirit—took up this commission. And each account reveals yet another aspect of the power that we all received when we were baptized.

When you see the word “power” in the New Testament, chances are that it is a translation of the Greek word dunamis—the same word at the root of the English word “dynamic.” Philip’s encounter with the treasurer of the court of the queen of Ethiopia is just one example of how dynamically the Spirit can work through believers. It was the Spirit who put Philip at the right place at the right time and energized him so that he could tell this Ethiopian official about Jesus and bring him to conversion.

Far from being just an exciting story, this account tells us that God wants to energize us as well. He wants to empower us to bring people to conversion. There are so many today who, like the Ethiopian, are just waiting for someone to explain Jesus to them. And as Pope Benedict XVI said, “The world needs people capable of proclaiming and bearing witness to God who is love… . The Church’s mission is the extension of Christ’s mission: to bring God’s love to all, proclaiming it with words and with the concrete testimony of charity.”

The Spirit is eager and ready to empower us just as he empowered Philip. And just as the heart of the Ethiopian treasurer was prepared to receive the gospel, so too is the Spirit still preparing the hearts of those who are seeking him today. Just look around you. God will bring people to you—all you have to do is to rely on the Holy Spirit and follow his guidance.

“Lord, open my eyes to see the depth of your love for the people around me. Open my mind to the guidance of your Spirit. Open my mouth to proclaim your word wherever you ask me to go.”

Psalm 66:8-9, 16-17, 20; John 6:44-51
Word Among Us

4/17/13

Sherry Wilcoxson tells her story on "Fruit of Medjugorje

         
Sherry Wilcoxson      

(c) Mary TV 2013

"Sherry Wilcoxson tells her story on "Fruit of Medjugorje" 

J.M.J.
April 17, 2013
Dear Family of Mary! 

"...God has sent me among you so that I may help you. If you so wish, grasp for the Rosary. Even the Rosary alone can work miracles in the world and in your lives."(January 25, 1991) 

Today, I want to share the transcript from the testimony of Ron and Sherry Wilcoxson, episode 62 of "Fruit of Medjugorje". (You can watch the show, here is the link: http://www.marytv.tv/fruit-of-medjugorje-episode-archive/598-fm061-04-08-13

This story of love and faith somehow conveys the sheer power of the Rosary. I feel that we all need to increase our faith in the power of the Rosary, and this story will help us to do just that. Here is Part One - Ron and Sherry Wilcoxson:

4/16/13

Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit


"Stephen meanwhile, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked to the sky above and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand." -Acts 7:55

Stephen was surrounded by a "stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears" (Acts 7:51). These people had always opposed the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51) and could not be expected to respond in a godly way to Stephen's challenging speech. Stephen was well aware of this, but he did not tone down or mince his words. Stephen came on strong, and "those who listened to his words were stung to the heart; they ground their teeth in anger at him" (Acts 7:54). "The onlookers were shouting aloud, holding their hands over their ears as they did so. Then they rushed at him as one man, dragged him out of the city, and began to stone him" (Acts 7:57-58). "With that he died" (Acts 7:60).

Stephen, the first martyr, was not naive. He had an exceptional wisdom (Acts 6:10). Stephen was not a victim of circumstances. He knew what he was getting into. He risked and gave his life to be like Jesus. Stephen was courageous. He knew that Jesus had died violently to give us salvation, and Stephen was willing to imitate Him. Stephen was obedient. Like any human being, Stephen didn't want to die a violent and painful death. Like Jesus, however, Stephen said to God the Father: "Not my will, but Yours be done" (Mt 26:39. Stephen was loving. Stephen, like Jesus (Lk 23:34), even forgave His murderers (Acts 7:60).
Stephen was like Jesus. How about you? "If we have been united with Him through likeness to His death, so shall we be through a like resurrection" (Rm 6:5).

 "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59).

 "I Myself am the Bread of Life. No one who comes to Me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in Me shall ever thirst." -Jn 6:35

4/15/13

US Rep Chris Smith: What a Powerful Speech Against Abortion


Will Americans Ever be Told the Horrifying Details of Abortion?
"Mr. Speaker, will the decades-long major national news media cover-up of the brutality—and violence—of abortion methods ever end?

"Will Americans ever be told the horrifying details as to how—and how often—abortionists dismember, decapitate, and chemically poison innocent babies?

"Will Americans ever be informed by a conscientious, unbiased news media that in the past 40 years, over 55 million child victims have been brutally killed by abortion—a staggering loss of children’s lives that equates to the entire population in England? And that many women have been hurt physically, emotionally, psychologically—and according to the Center for Disease Control over 400 women have actually died from legal abortions.

"Will Americans ever be told that of the 55 million children, Planned Parenthood alone claims responsibility for destroying over 6 million babies and that just two weeks ago a Planned Parenthood leader in Florida testified at a legislative hearing on a state initiative to protect born alive infants that even when a child survives an abortion, the decision to assist or kill the born alive infant should be “up to the woman, her family and her physician.” In other words, even if a child intended to be aborted survives the assault, the choice to kill remains—so called after birth abortion. Isn’t that extreme child abuse?

"Murdering newborns in the abortion clinic, it seems to me, is indistinguishable from any other child predator wielding a knife or a gun. Why isn’t that that child seen as a patient in need of medical care, warmth, nutrition and dare I say—love?

"Now another national media cover up! In this case, even when a Jeffrey Dahmer-like murder trial of an abortionist named Kermit Gosnell, who ran the benign-sounding Women’s Medical Society, unfolds in a Philadelphia Courtroom replete with shocking testimony of beheadings, unfathomable abuse, death, and body parts in jars. To this day, the national news media remains uninterested, indifferent—AWOL. Why the censorship? Gosnell’s “house of horrors” trial fails to attract any serious and meaningful national news reporting.

"Dr. Kermit Gosnell is on trial for eight counts of murder. One count is for the death of a woman who died during an abortion at his clinic. Seven counts are for babies who survived their abortion and were born alive but then killed by severing their spinal cords with a pair of scissors.

"In the words of the Grand Jury report: “Gosnell had a simple solution for unwanted babies: he killed them. He didn’t call it that. He called it ‘ensuring fetal demise.’ The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking scissors in the back of the baby’s neck and cutting the spinal cord. He called that ‘snipping.’ Over the years there were hundreds of ‘snippings.’

"Indeed, the national news media has not only taken a pass and looked the other way, but their stunning indifference has done a grave disservice to Gosnell’s victims—the woman killed, other women injured and children slaughtered by Gosnell. Because of the national media’s indefensible silence—because of their failure to report—other women and children at other abortion mills might be at risk.

"Indeed, the Gosnell Grand Jury Report in January 2011 powerfully noted that an absence of press coverage—and gross negligence by health department personnel in Pennsylvania—enabled Gosnell to show a “contemptuous disregard for the health, safety, and dignity of his patients that continued for 40 years.”

"Some media commenters, however, are beginning to take note of the national news media bias and blackout in the case.

"Yesterday an editorial in the Investors Business Daily titled Newtown In The Clinic: Media Ignore The Gosnell Trial said
'Media Bias: A basketball coach who shoves and curses at his players merits constant coverage by a media also transfixed by Newtown. But a Philadelphia doctor on trial for murdering a woman and seven babies? It's ignored.

Those who get their news from the three major networks have probably not heard of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, now on trial in Philadelphia, charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder for killing seven babies who survived abortions and a woman who died after a botched pain-killer injection...

According to the Media Research Center, in one week Rice received 41 minutes, 26 seconds of air time on ABC, CBS and NBC in 36 separate news stories. Gosnell received zero coverage…

If Dr. Gosnell had walked into a nursery and shot seven infants with an AR-15, it would be national news and the subject of presidential hand-wringing.'

"In today’s edition of USA Today, columnist Kirsten Powers writes:

'Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven't heard about these sickening accusations?

It's not your fault. Since the murder trial of Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell began March 18, there has been precious little coverage of the case that should be on every news show and front page.'

"She goes on to point out:" 'A Lexis-Nexis search shows none of the news shows on the three major national television networks has mentioned the Gosnell trial in the last three months. The exception is when Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan hijacked a segment on Meet the Press.'

"In a letter sent by Media Research Center President Brent Bozell and 20 prominent leaders call on the broadcast networks to stop censoring coverage of the trial, pointing out that as of April 4th, since the trial began ABC, CBS and NBC have given the story zero coverage in their morning and evening news shows.

"Again I ask. When will the media blackout stop? Will America ever be told about the brutality of abortion and the violence that is commonplace inside the abortion industry? Or will the media continue to censor this trial of the century, because it exposes an all too inconvenient truth that not only are unborn children destroyed in these killing centers, but that even babies who survive the abortion can’t escape the deadly hand of the child predator."15/04/2013 09:17:34

UNSTOPPABLE


"This man never stops..." -Acts 6:13

St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr:
   * was "a man filled with grace and power" (Acts 6:8),
   * was full of the Holy Spirit and faith (Acts 6:5),
   * was so full of wisdom that the international all-star team of debaters "proved no match for the wisdom and spirit with which he spoke" (Acts 6:8-10),
   * lived so full a life that, even though he was commissioned to handle the time-consuming job of distributing food, he still found plenty of time to witness about Jesus,
   * "worked great wonders and signs among the people" (Acts 6:8),
   * evangelized so powerfully that the Jews rated him as a greater enemy than the twelve apostles, choosing him as the first Christian to be killed, and
   * focused so intently and lovingly on Jesus that even while hostile enemies sought his life, he radiated heavenly joy (Acts 6:15).

The false witnesses who testified against Stephen managed to speak one true statement: "This man never stops" (Acts 6:13). Like Stephen, may we be so full of the Holy Spirit that we never stop serving, loving, praising, and sharing the risen Jesus.

 Father, may I imitate Jesus with the attentiveness, faith, and devotion of St. Stephen.

 "You should not be working for perishable food but for food that remains unto life eternal, food which the Son of Man will give you." -Jn 6:27

Priest Has Near Death Experience And Almost Goes To Hell

4/14/13

Medjugorje Visionary meets Author


 
 

On April 12, 2013, Alberta Sequeira, a four-time award winning author and Awareness Coach, of Rochester, Massachusetts, went to the event “A Night With Our Lady of Medjugorje and Ivan Dragicevic” at the St. Nicholas of Myra Catholic Church on Spring Street in North Dighton, Massachusetts.
Ms. Sequeira had been a former North Dighton resident for over thirty years, living on School Street as a teenager, and got married to Richard Lopes, and they lived on Old Somerset Avenue with their daughters, Debbie and Lori.

Alberta presented Ivan and his interpreter, Ann, an autographed book of her memoir A Spiritual Renewal: A Journey to Medjugorje.  In 1998, she had received a calling from Our Lady to travel on a ten day pilgrimage to Medjugorje, a tiny, remote village in Bosnia.  She met four visionaries and witnessed two out of the six having their daily apparitions with Our Lady, and Ivan was one of them who she had followed during the week.

“I would never have thought that I’d come home from my trip, write about my experiences with miracles that took me to those holy grounds, and my spiritual changes that brought me back to my faith and the Church.  My greatest and unexpected blessing will forever be fifteen years later, handing Ivan my life story of Medjugorje from the eyes of a lost soul coming home.”

Ms. Sequeira has gone to three events to see Ivan in Fall River, New Bedford and Medway, Massachusetts to see him during his apparitions.  No matter where Ivan is in the world, at exactly 6:40 p.m., Our Lady appears to him.  The Blessed Mother has been appearing to the six visionaries since 1981, and She has one more secret out of ten to give to two visionaries, before they will be revealed to the world.

It was the first event that Alberta had seen where Ivan stayed and greeted every person until the last one left church.  He and Ann were very personable.  Ivan stayed and talked about how Our Lady moves and looks during his apparitions.  After Our Lady appeared to him, he stated that there are many times that it takes him a few hours to adjust coming back to Earth.

Alberta feels that her greatest gift being in the presence of Ivan with his apparitions is absorbing the mystical act that Our Lady is actually coming down from Heaven and being in the same location She is occupying.  Mary blesses each one who goes to the events with Ivan.

On April 10, Alberta went to the St. Nicholas of Myra Church hall to see the introduction of a video on Medjugoje that Father Paul Fedak ran for the public.  Ms. Sequeira did a talk on her trip to Medjugorje and book signed.

Alberta is available to do a talk and book sign at your church or any event.  Her topics can range from her trip to Medjugorje, A Spiritual Change Within or The Effect of Alcoholism on the Whole Family after she lost her husband, Richard, and daughter, Lori, to alcohol addiction.
Alberta can be contacted for a quote at (508) 763-5902 for events. Her email is memoirs@albertasequeira.com. Visit her website at www.albertasequeira.com or blog www.albertasequeira.wordpress.com.

4/13/13

Today’s Meditation

 

Bible1aa 
Acts 6:1-7
Saint Martin I, Pope and Martyr


So they chose Stephen … (Acts 6:5)

After being filled with the Spirit at Pentecost, the apostles began to proclaim the risen Lord with boldness. As a result, many Jews in Jerusalem accepted Jesus as the Messiah, and the infant Church grew day by day. But with such a rapid increase in numbers came growing pains, too!

One of the challenges lay in the distribution of resources that members of the Church had donated for those in need: “The Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected” (Acts 6:1).

At this very early stage in the Church, all the believers were Jewish. However, some—the “Hebrews”—were natives of Palestine who spoke Aramaic and used the Hebrew Scriptures in their worship. Others were Jews of the Diaspora—immigrants to Jerusalem who had been born and raised in other countries. They were called “Hellenists” because they spoke Greek, and they used a Greek translation of Scripture. It seems that the “Hebrews” looked down on the “Hellenists” as second-class believers because they were foreigners.

The apostles didn’t abandon preaching God’s word to handle this problem. Rather, they proposed that the whole community select reliable men to make sure that no one was overlooked and that everyone was treated fairly. And so the Church resolved its first internal crisis in a way that preserved unity and provided for the care of the needy.

This sounds a bit like our Church today. There aren’t enough priests to go around, and occasionally people fall through the cracks. That’s why it is important that each of us keeps our eyes open for those who could use some help or encouragement. Both within and beyond our parish communities, there are many places where we can bring the presence of Christ—places that an everyday priest simply cannot reach.

Do you feel that God is putting a particular concern on your heart or asking you to meet a special need? Don’t ignore these urgings! They may mean a new beginning for you. And like the men in today’s reading, your service may lead you to become more fully empowered by the Spirit of the Lord!

“Lord, I want to say yes to your call. Help me serve your people with love and generosity. Make us all one body, Lord!”
Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19; John 6:16-21

4/12/13

Army Chaplin Emil Kapaun Receives Medal of Honor

BY:


Among the dying, Capt. Emil Kapaun traded his watch for a blanket at a North Korean prison camp—and cut the blanket up and made it into socks for fellow prisoners.
President Obama awarded Kapaun (pronounced Ka-PAWN), an Army chaplain who died in that prison camp in 1951 at age 35, the Medal of Honor Thursday.
The son of Czech immigrants to a small Kansan town, Kapaun enlisted during WWII and was dispatched to the Southeast Asian theatre of war, where he gained a reputation for just appearing wherever the fighting was.
He returned home, received a masters in education from Catholic University, and picked up as a parish priest in Pilsen, Kan. But Kapaun reupped for military service in 1948.
“Serving in those parishes…it didn’t work out,” Kapaun told a fellow prisoner in the bleakness of the North Korean camp. “I mean…my God, Bob! Have you ever had to deal with one of those women’s committees of a church Altar Society?”
In Korea, Kapaun resumed his constant presence under duress. When enemy fire rendered his jeep inoperable, he took to riding a bicycle along the front lines. One of his fellow prisoners, Ray M. Dowe, Jr., wrote in the Saturday Evening Post in 1954 about the chaplain’s rides:
Helmet jammed down over his ears, pockets stuffed with apples and peaches he had scrounged from Korean orchards, he’d ride this bone-shaker over the rocky roads and the paths through the paddy fields until he came to the forward outposts. There he’d drop in a shallow hole beside a nervous rifleman, crack a joke or two, hand him a peach, say a little prayer with him and move on to the next hole.
Kapaun was awarded the Bronze Star in Korea for heroism in August 1950—the chaplain ran through enemy fire, dragging soldiers to safety—months before his detention.
Kapaun, right, and a doctor help an exhausted soldier in Korea.
Kapaun, right, and a doctor help an exhausted soldier in Korea.
But he was captured, uninjured, by the Chinese military in 1950, after refusing to leave wounded soldiers. The chaplain pushed away the weapon of a Chinese soldier standing over an American with a broken ankle, and the two were taken on the Tiger Death March to a North Korean prison camp, Pyoktong, with Kapaun carrying the solider for a time.
At Pyoktong, prisoners lived on less than 500 grams of millet a day and might die at three or four a night in a room.
Kapaun turned old t-shirts into bandages, and snuck out to wash old bandages and old garments for the suffering. He was called “The Good Thief,” delivering stolen food retrieved on trips inside guards’ areas. He recited American menus for starving prisoners, and led officers in “America, the Beautiful” and the national anthem (“God Save the Queen” for Brits in the camp). He fixed leaking water pouches with burned down soles of rubber boots; held a sunrise Easter Mass; and became a huge pain in the ass for Chinese guards trying to indoctrinate the prisoners, calling the Communists liars and mocking them:
“Where is your God now?” guards demanded.
“Right here,” he replied.
(Walt) Mayo one day heard a Chinese officer lecture Kapaun.
“Don’t ask God for your daily bread,” the officer said. “Ask Mao Zedong. He’s the one who provides your daily bread.”
“If this is an example of God’s daily bread,” Kapaun said, “then God must be a terrible baker.”
“He joked with them, and said prayers for them, and held them in his arms like children as delirium came upon them,” Dowe wrote in 1954. “But the main thing he did for them was to put into their hearts the will to live. For when you are wounded and sick and starving, it’s easy to give up and quietly die.”
Kapaun fell ill in the spring of 1951. Despite an apparently improved condition, guards took him away to a dingy, dark building to die alone. En route, Kapaun asked God to forgive the Chinese guards.
“Tell them back home that I died a happy death,” he told fellow soldiers.
Kapaun was declared a “servant of God” by the Catholic Church, considered a precursor to sainthood.
“People had lost a great deal of their civility,” Robert Wood told the Washington Post of the camp. “We were stacking the bodies outside where they were frozen like cordwood and here is this one man — in all of this chaos — who has kept . . . principles.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnoDaPBZcTM

4/11/13

God has given each of us his Holy Spirit

Come Holy Spirit
He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. (John 3:34)


Have you ever been inspired by the stories of the saints who did marvelous things in the name of the Lord? Have you ever been touched by stories of how the first Christians were able to pray with people and see them healed? Maybe you felt inspired to try to imitate them—only to find your enthusiasm wane. “I don’t have the words to say. I don’t have the gifts. I don’t even know how to do these things.”

Well, today’s Gospel passage is for you, because it tells us, loud and clear, that God has given each of us his Holy Spirit. Even better, he hasn’t just given us a little part, or more to some and less to others. Each one of us has the entire Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.

What does that mean? Your dreams of seeing loved ones come to the Lord can come true. Miracles really are possible. Changed hearts, forgiveness, transformation—they all have a chance!

It all starts as you wake up every morning and tell yourself, “I have the Holy Spirit in me.” Gradually the sense of powerlessness will give way to a new faith and confidence in what the Lord can do in you and through you.

Find a way to start. You could set a goal for yourself that by the end of next week, you will have told a co-worker about one way that God has worked in your life. You don’t have to get it perfect—especially not the first time—but you can be confident that you will get better with practice! Or maybe you can find a friend to go with you and visit a sick member of your parish. Together, you can offer to pray with that person and ask for Jesus’ healing power. Again, don’t be discouraged if you aren’t bold enough to do this right away. Don’t worry if the results aren’t remarkable at first. It takes time to learn how to work with the Spirit. Just remember: he lives in you, wholly, completely, and fully. He will form you into his vessel of grace!

“Lord, I believe that your Spirit lives in me. Grant me the courage to start stepping out in faith. I want to be a blessing to the people around me!”

Acts 5:27-33; Psalm 34:2, 9, 17-20

4/10/13

Vicka Returns To Hospital

by Jakob Marschner

Continuous problems with her back send visionary Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic to a hospital in Rome for up to ten days. Examininations will decide if another operation is needed. An eventual new operation will be the fourth on her back in less than 2 years. Meanwhile, Medjugorje prays.

vicka ivankovic mijatovic medjugorje seer visionary veggente april aprile 2013
Vicka last week, during one of her last meetings with pilgrims before she went to hospital on April 9

Visionary Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic left Medjugorje on Tuesday, to go to hospital where doctors will decide if her troubled back needs a fourth operation since the seer was accidentally injured by a pilgrim in June 2011.

“Goodmorning dear friends. It is a new morning with Vicka, then she leaves for her treatment in the hospital. Let us all pray that our dear friend returns home to her family and to our pilgrims even stronger and more healthy so that we can increasingly experience these joyful moments with her. Have a good trip Vicka, please come back soon to Medjugorje” official Medjugorje guide Anita Pehar informs on the Facebook page Informazioni da Medjugorje.

Medjugorje Today further learns that Vicka will go Gemelli Hospital in Rome, Italy, where Blessed Pope John Paul II was also hospitalized, and that Vicka will stay there for about 10 days.   Source  http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/