In God's Company 2

You must be Born of the Holy Spirit

2012-01-28T19:42:00.003-05:00

BORN OF THE SPIRIT
Father Steven Reilly, LC

John 3: 7b-15

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can this happen?” Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

Introductory Prayer: Lord, you know my needs better than I do. I turn to your Holy Spirit to teach me what to ask for in this prayer. I want to fulfill your holy will over my life. I love you, Lord, and I place all my hope in you.

Petition: Lord, increase my faith!

1. You Are the Teacher of Israel. Nicodemus was one of the leading teachers, yet here he tries to make a quiet request for information from Jesus. As a religious teacher he was well versed in the rules and regulations, but there was still a gap in his knowledge. He didn’t know about the Holy Spirit and the new existence that we receive by being born of “water and the spirit.” In a way, he can’t be blamed, since Jesus had not yet revealed it, but it just goes to show us how fundamental spiritual knowledge is in order to be a credible spiritual leader. As committed Catholics, we need to lead others to deeper faith. But will we do so to the degree that we know the faith and are living it in our hearts?

2. Being Born of the Spirit. Are we practical materialists? At times we become so enmeshed in the reality of daily life that we don’t give the slightest thought to the spiritual world, which is infinitely greater than the material one that consumes all our attention. Through our baptism, we are marked out for heavenly things. We bear on our soul the indelible mark that proclaims to the universe that we are children of God. Every time we take a spiritual breath, and glance heavenwards, we renew that birth in the Spirit through which the Lord claimed us as his own. Let’s never spend more than a minute as practical materialists!

3. Giving Testimony. Jesus speaks here about giving testimony. He wants us to be his witnesses as well. He wants us to continue to proclaim to the world the reality of the “heavenly things” that he revealed. Possibly the greatest testimony we can give is the happiness and charity of our lives. Joyful, charitable Catholics carry in their very demeanor the sign that their faith is authentic. Before you get angry, upset, or critical, ask yourself, “Is this the testimony of a life filled with the Holy Spirit?”

Conversation with Christ: Lord, thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit in my life. At times, I don’t always live in accord with the great blessing you have given me, but I know that your patience and mercy always give me another chance. Help me to love others and give them a glimpse of heaven through my charity.

Resolution: In my conversation today, I will try to say something that will plant a spiritual seed in others.
Lord, Let your Spirit shine on me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXnY-dcAR1g

Prayer for Healing

2012-01-28T19:24:00.003-05:00

A Prayer for Healing:

Heavenly Father, I call You right now in a special way. It is through Your power that I was created.

Every breath I take, every morning I wake, and every moment of every hour, I live under Your power.

Father, I ask You now to touch me with that same power. For you created me from nothing, You can now certainly recreate me. Fill me with the healing power of your Holy Spirit.Cast out anything that should not be in me. Mend what is broken. Root out any unproductive cells. Open any blocked arteries or veins and rebuild any damaged areas. Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infection.

Let the warmth of Your healing love pass through my body to make new any unhealthy areas so that my body will function the way You created it to function.

And Father, restore me to full health in mind and body so that I may serve You the rest of my life.

I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”

2012-01-26T14:57:00.004-05:00

Timothy and Titus

I remember you constantly in my prayers. (2 Timothy 1:3)

Born in Galatia, in present-day Turkey, Timothy was appointed by Paul at an early age as a fellow apostle. He accompanied Paul on many of his travels and became one of his closest associates. Later, Paul commissioned him to lead the church at Ephesus. From Scripture we can gather that Timothy was rather timid and needed lots of encouragement from his mentor. Yet we also know that Timothy died a martyr’s death after publicly denouncing the worship of the goddess Diana—in her own temple, no less!

So what gave this quiet pastor the courage to take such a bold stand? We could say that it was the grace that came to Timothy when Paul laid hands on him (2 Timothy 1:6). But there is more to it than that. Paul’s exhortation in itself must have been very inspiring. Timothy knew what his responsibilities as a bishop entailed, and he knew that God was with him. But he also needed strong encouragement to do all that God was asking of him.

Our world places a high value on self-reliance. But not even the great saints of the past operated alone.
Either they were part of a faith community or they were accountable to someone who could help them on their spiritual journey. As Timothy needed the support of Paul, we need the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We also need to give out that support as well. None of us will get to heaven by ourselves!

There’s a reason why Jesus told his disciples: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). It’s not that he isn’t with us as individuals. No, it’s that we function best when we are united as the body of Christ. As we gather in Jesus’ name, the Holy Spirit ministers not only to us but through us. It doesn’t matter how “little” our ministry, parish group, or small group is. It’s not little to God. So give thanks for your fellow believers. You really do need them!

“Lord, help me see the gift that my fellow Christians are to me—and the gift that I can be to them. Show me how to participate more fully in your body, Lord.”
Psalm 96:1-3,7-8,10; Mark 4:21-25

Saint Charles Church, Providence, R. I.

Medjugorie Sing Alleluia to the Lord

2012-01-25T19:12:00.002-05:00

Today, Let us just sing songs of praise the Lord.

Daily Grace: Let Prayer Become A Joy For You

2012-01-25T18:57:00.001-05:00

Daily Grace: Let Prayer Become A Joy For You: Dear children! With joy, also today I call you to open your hearts and to listen to my call. Anew, I desire to draw you closer to my Im...

Our Lady's Medjugorje Message to Marija of January 25, 2012

2012-01-25T15:40:00.000-05:00

Dear children! With joy, also today I call you to open your hearts and to listen to my call. Anew, I desire to draw you closer to my Immaculate Heart, where you will find refuge and peace. Open yourselves to prayer, until it becomes a joy for you. Through prayer, the Most High will give you an abundance of grace and you will become my extended hands in this restless world which longs for peace. Little children, with your lives witness faith and pray that faith may grow day by day in your hearts. I am with you. Thank you for having responded to my call. January 25, 2012

Mary of Medjugorje comes to save a young man.

2012-01-24T19:45:00.001-05:00

Mary of Medjugorje comes to save young man through apparition on the Internet!

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Published: January 23, 2012 Posted in: News & Information, Testimonies, Videos & PicturesTags:

I have heard many beautiful stories of Mary coming to a person and pulling them out of darkness in an instant, with her overwhelming embrace of love, and this is perhaps the most immediate conversion I’ve encountered. And, of all ways, it happened through the Internet!

The visionary Ivan and Cardinal Schönborn

As incredible and doubtful as it may be, Mary seems to be blessing people through her live apparitions, live-streamed through Mary TV. This wouldn’t make sense, except for the fact that God can do anything, and testimonies are verifying it. According to the Medjugorje visionary Ivan, Mary blesses those present to the live-streamed apparition, and any objects they bring to be blessed, just as she would those standing next to the visionary. (The next apparition to be broadcast will be January 31st through www.marytv.tv. Click on the link for details.) The theological assistant to Cardinal Schönborn, primary author of the Catholic Catechism, who supports the Medjugorje visionaries, clarified the Church’s teaching: “Section 12 of the ‘Enchirdion Indulgentiarum’ (the ‘Handbook of Indulgences’) can be taken analogically: Through broadcasts or digital transmissions, blessings will be received by those who participate ‘piously and devoutly’ and this includes also religious items brought with them, in the same way as if they had participated personally.” It would follow the mercy and kindness of God to bring His mother close to as many people as possible. The blessings may be an answer to the prayers those who lament not being able to travel to Medjugorje themselves.
I have no doubt that many would balk at this, or at least wonder; but before you assume God would somehow ignore modern day telecommunications to impart His grace in this way, read this story . . .

Coming Home through the Intercession of Our Lady

Scurrying down the steps, I frantically found myself in search of my gym shoes, which I’d misplaced the night before. I was due at the gym in five minutes to meet friends for a Thursday evening workout. Yes, once again, I was running late. At that exact moment, my phone rang. It was my mother: “Did you get a chance to watch Ivan’s and Marija’s apparition yet?” she asked. Responding impatiently, I replied “No mom, I’m already late as it is. I’ll watch it when I get back.” Sitting down to tie my shoes, I suddenly stopped. Feeling drawn towards the webcast of the Medjugorje visionaries’ apparition, and guilty for being reluctant with my mother, I gave in. It was the evening of September the 23^rd, 2010, and my life, as I knew it, was never going to be the same.

My senior picture at Bryan High School in Omaha, Nebraska, back in my "cool" days

Growing up I attended St. Bernadette Catholic grade school. Although tuition was expensive, the sacrifice my parents endured was worth the Catholic-based education my siblings and I received. Their sacrifice instilled in me a foundation I would newly discover later in life. When I was in grade school, we attended weekly Mass, including Sundays. After my eighth grade year, I decided to enroll in a public high school, solely for athletic reasons, and found myself going to Mass on Sundays only. And to be honest, the only reason I went is because my parents forced me and my twin brother to go; if I’d had it my way, I would have slept in until noon.
Life at this time was going as planned. I graduated from high school and entered my first year of college. College was exciting: new friends, new environment, living away from my parents. However, with this newly acquired freedom came the element of choice. I suddenly found myself choosing not to attend Mass. At this stage in my life, I became distant from God and the Catholic Church. I obtained a job working security at a downtown club and started traveling down a dead-end path. I found myself going home with various women whom I met at work. On several occasions, I ended up at strip-clubs until the early morning hours. With after-hour parties taking place weekly, there wasn’t a weekend when I was in bed sleeping before the sun came up. I would drive home intoxicated, past the church I used to attend, observing families arriving at morning Sunday Mass. The devil had me right where he wanted me, and I was only adding fuel to his fire. My life continued on this path for the next several years.
One evening my mother invited me to attend a speaking engagement at our local parish, where a man, having returned from the pilgrimage site of Medjugorje, gave a testimony of his recent trip to the small town located near Bosnia and Herzegovina. I reluctantly went, only because it would make my mother happy. As I sat there that night, I heard the man talk about a place where six visionaries were experiencing apparitions of Our Blessed Mother. I had no clue about Medjugorje, and to be completely honest, I didn’t care and wasn’t really paying attention. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

Myself and one of God's greatest gifts to me, my twin brother. We were born on December the 8th, the feast day of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception

Time passed until last September, 2010. As a gift, my mother gave me a book that left a great impression on me. The book was titled, Queen of the Cosmos: Interviews with the Visionaries of Medjugorje. I took the book to work where it sat on my desk for several weeks, collecting dust. One day while sitting at work, with an hour or so to spare, and nothing else to do, I did something that would forever impact the depths of my soul. I opened the book and began to read. In this book, the visionaries shared how they saw the Virgin Mary, as I’ve never heard Her described, comparing Her beauty to beyond our comprehension. As I continued to read, I began to fall completely in love with the lady whom they were describing. After reading the book in just two days, I knew nothing but understood everything. This young, pure, loving, vibrant woman was my Mother, and I was Her son. I developed a passion and curiosity for the apparitions of Our Lady of Medjugorje, and this marked the beginning of what I call my miraculous conversion through her intercession.
A week after I’d read the Queen of the Cosmos book, my mother informed me that an apparition would be streamed live through the internet to various parts of the globe; and not only this, but according to the visionary Ivan, special graces would be granted to those witnessing the broadcast of the apparition, no matter where they were located. Although I felt somewhat reluctant to take time to observe the apparition, I was extremely excited to see the visionaries Ivan and Marija communicate with the Mother of God.

The visionaries Marija and Ivan at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna for their September 23, 2010 apparition

The date was September 23, 2010, at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. As I sat witnessing this live event on the Internet, I felt someone surround me with her presence, as though she had entered the room. I quickly looked up, expecting to see someone standing there. I didn’t see anyone, yet the person’s presence was becoming more and more intense. I describe it as if someone were standing with their face inches from yours, but you’re unable see anyone. At that moment, I felt a love that was not of this world, a love more pure that anything I’ve ever experienced. I was so overcome with the love radiating from this person in the room with me that I began to cry. In my humanity, I couldn’t comprehend the love that was being bestowed upon me. I could feel it radiating off of me. I compare it to someone running a high fever, being able to physically feel the heat emanating from his body. And I knew exactly who was in the room with me. I yelled out, “Mary!” “Mary!” “Mary!” while crying uncontrollably. My heart expanded like fire, “Mary!” I exclaimed. “Mary, I love you!” “I love you, Mary!” This love became so intense I put my hands over my face and continued crying. I asked aloud, “What’s happening to me?” “What is happening?” and cried, “Mary!” “Mary!” “Mary!” in between sobs. Finally, unable to stop my tears, I yelled out, “Show me yourself!” “Let me see you, Mary!” “Mary, please. I know you’re here. Please allow me to see you with my eyes!”
That night of September 23rd, 2010, I was twenty-four years old, still very young, and with my whole life ahead of me. However, after feeling the love of Mary, I was truly ready to die. I never saw her with my eyes, but I felt her with my whole being. Knowing that I could never receive that same love from anything or anyone here on Earth, I was ready to leave this world and go with Our Blessed Mother. It was a love so indescribable that at one point I cried out, “Mary, I’m ready to go. Mother, if you want to, take me with you, I’m ready.” And I meant this from the depths of my soul.
Growing up Catholic, I had received the Sacrament of Reconciliation many times, confessing my sins, not out of sorrow, but due to the fear of hell. As I sat wondering if my tears were ever going to cease, I realized that for the first time in my life, I was truly sorry for everything I’d done. I mean I was truly sorry from the bottom of my heart. I managed to pick my head up, and with tears streaming down my face, for the first time, I looked to God and said, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” And I truly meant it.
After experiencing this miraculous conversion, I did one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my life. I gave my yes to God; I gave Him complete control over my life. I figured I’d messed things up enough; and by turning the reigns over to Him, I couldn’t go wrong. Ever since giving God and Mother Mary my yes, I’ve been blessed with many gifts. Six months after my conversion, my mother and I flew to Sacramento, California, for a Medjugorje conference. To our surprise, the Medjugorje visionary, Marija, was present there. If you recall, Marija was one of the visionaries I observed at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. At the conference, I was able to meet and receive a hug from Marija: an incredible gift from God and Our Blessed Mother!

My Mother and I at the 2011 Sacramento Marian Conference. Here I was able to meet and be present with Medjugorje visionary Marija Pavlovic during her apparition with Our Blessed Mother.

My life hasn’t been the same since the evening of September 23, 2010. I have taken Our Lady’s messages to heart: fasting, praying the rosary, receiving the sacraments. I also recently joined a Bible study on campus. I have to laugh because growing up I was always extremely close to my mother. God saw that I was slipping away from Him and knew exactly what to do. He sent His Mother to bring Me back to Him. There isn’t a day or hour that goes by when I’m not thinking about Mary. I love her so much, and I’m so happy to have her as my Mother. I recently heard a man quote a wonderful phrase that I knew directly related to me. He said, “When my time comes. When I die and leave this world and am standing in front of Jesus at Heaven’s gates, Jesus will look at me and say, “Oh yes, My Mother has told Me all about you.” I’m so thankful for Our Lady’s intercession. She saved my life and healed my soul, bringing me closer to Her Son. I can’t help but feel excited, as I sit in anticipation, wondering where this new found love will lead me next.
Adam Holubar (Omaha, NE) Article taken from www.medjugorjemiracles.com by Christine Watkins

**Read more stories, such as this, in the book, Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Conversion through Mary’s Intercession.**

About the Author

Christine Watkins is an inspirational speaker and the author of Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Conversion through Mary's Intercession by Ave Maria Press. See www.christinewatkins.com, www.holychoices.org, and www.enliveningfaith.org

Jesus, I Love You

2012-01-24T16:39:00.003-05:00

Medjugorje: New Confessionals are finished in March

2012-01-23T16:27:00.001-05:00

by Jakob Marschner

Work is moving forward on Medjugorje’s 36 new outdoor confessionals. New photos from the construction site show the raw walls in red bricks to have emerged north of St. James’ Church. Taking the total number to 61, the confessionals are expected to be fully built in March, ready for the new pilgrim season.

http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/

God, however, can do and has done all things.

2012-01-23T16:01:00.003-05:00

CAN'T CANT

"David was told, 'You cannot enter here.' " -2 Samuel 5:6

Yesterday was the 39th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion. This precipitated the development in the USA of what Pope John Paul II called the "culture of death." We are so entrenched in this culture of death, violence, and the degradation of the human person that it seems impossible to change the situation.

We have been told we cannot stop Planned Parenthood, cannot change the "politically correct" to the "God-correct," cannot expect people to be pure, and cannot stop our government from financing the holocaust of babies in the womb. Of course, by our own power, we cannot do anything (Jn 15:5). So our pro-death, anti-life enemies are correct.

God, however, can do and has done all things. "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in My eyes also, says the Lord of hosts?" (Zec 8:6) "Ah, Lord God, You have made heaven and earth by Your great might, with Your outstretched arm; nothing is impossible to You" (Jer 32:17).

So don't be discouraged. Jesus already has won the victory of life over death when He died on the cross and rose from the dead. God's love has conquered death (see Sg 8:6). Planned Parenthood and the "politically correct" are destined to be thrown into the same garbage dump of history as the Third Reich and the Soviet Union have been. Jesus alone will stand the test of time. He alone will reign supreme.

Worship Jesus, "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life" (Jn 14:6), "the Resurrection and the Life" (Jn 11:25).
Father, thank You for saving me from the "culture of death."
"David grew steadily more powerful, for the Lord of hosts was with him." -2 Sm 5:10

Dissenting and indifferent Catholics in the voting booth have significantly contributed to putting the most anti-life president ever to occupy the Oval Office into power.
http://en.gloria.tv/?media=247756

Father Reinaldo Cardoso is finally heading home..

2012-01-21T14:30:00.007-05:00

Fr. Reinaldo Cardoso

THE RHODE ISLAND LIFE A SERIES

Ailing priest returning to his ‘first love’

After a 40-year absence from East Timor, a nation that has long held his heart, Father Reinaldo Cardoso is finally heading ‘home’

By G. WAYNE MILLER JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

PAWTUCKET — In deciding to return to East Timor, where he spent the first years of his priesthood long ago, the Rev. Reinaldo Cardoso understood that this journey will almost certainly be his last, at least of the temporal sort.

He is 77, in frail health. He believes his earthly life will end on that island between Australia and Indonesia, the place he calls his “first love.”

He reached his decision last summer while living at the Jeanne Jugan Residence, a nursing home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, where he has lived since 2005.

“I went to the chapel days and days and nights to pray,” he says, from his wheelchair in a sun- filled room at the home. “I told God, ‘If you want me to go, you better send me the Holy Spirit, because without him I can do nothing. I cannot even support myself in the flight because it is too long.’ ”

God, he says, answered. And he received an offer of assistance from a friend, the Rev. Domingos Cunha, a native of East Timor whom he met in the 1960s as a novice missionary on the island. Father Cardoso taught the younger Cunha in an East Timor seminary. He placed the vestments on him at his ordination. Separate paths brought them both to America.

“A real priest,” Father Cardoso says. “A real brother.”

And so, medical arrangements having been made, the younger priest will accompany the older one on his journey to East Timor, where Father Cardoso will be a chaplain and spiritual director of Seminario Maior for Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva. Like Father Cunha, the bishop was one of Father Cardoso’s students, four decades ago.

Fathers Cardoso and Cunha board a plane on Tuesday. The first leg of their journey will bring them to the Azores, Father Cardoso’s native land.

“I want to show him my island, the place where I was born, and say goodbye to some friends –– priests from my town there –– and some schoolmates I have.”

They plan to reach Dili, the capitol of East Timor, on Jan. 19.

“I don’t plan to come back,” Father Cardoso says.

Born in December 1935 on the Azores’ São Miguel Island, Father Cardoso was the third of the13 children –– one girl,12 boys –– of a government transportation official and his wife, both Catholics. None of his siblings was called to serve their church. Father Cardoso’s calling came as a child, during Mass.

“At my right side was an altar dedicated to Santa Lucia,” he says. “The altar in front was the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the left side was the Blessed Sacrament. And I started to think to go into the priesthood that day. So at age 12, I left the village to Terceira Island for the seminary. I arrived in September 1948.”

A priest in New Bedford, where his grandparents had moved, helped pay his expenses to the seminary in Terceira. Through reading, he became fascinated with East Timor, which for centuries had been a Portuguese colony. He wanted to be a missionary there –– and with the support of the first bishop of Dili, who had family ties to the Azores, he arrived in 1960, shortly after his ordination.

During the next dozen years, he learned three of the languages of East Timor. He taught in a high school and the seminary. He was diocesan secretary and chancellor.

“I was so in love with East Timor that I say I never go anyplace else.”

He did finally, in 1972, when he took his first vacation with his parents, who had also moved to New Bedford. The political situation in East Ti-mor, meanwhile, was deteriorating –– again. Brutally occupied by the Japanese in World War II, East Timor was invaded by Indonesia, which coveted its oil. East Timoreans were imprisoned, tortured and killed. Priests, including Father Cardoso’s friend Father Cunha, were persecuted.

Father Cardoso could not return.

From New Bedford, he came to Rhode Island, where he served at two parishes with Portuguese-speaking congregations: Our Lady of the Rosary in Providence and St. Anthony in West Warwick. All the while, he supported the opposition in East Timor, serving as a liaison between residents there and American clergy, politicians and others who might influence foreign policy.

“I was in this country fighting always, every day, for the liberation of the people of East Timor, for their human rights.”

In 1999, the Indonesian occupation ended.

Father Cardoso is a modest man, and makes no claims about his role. But the 2004 book “The Heaviest Blow: The Catholic Church and the East Timor Issue” proclaims: To him can be attributed the “‘breaking open’ of the East Timor issue in the United States as a whole, as well as the Catholic Church.”

Father Cardoso’s health has taken him on another journey: strokes have left him partially paralyzed with “so many operations, eight of them.”

More recently, “I went to the dining room by myself. Somebody call me, I turn around, and I fall and I break my left hip. So back to the hospital to be operated on. I have a few pieces of metal in my leg, some screws, you know. But one thing I have learned with this sickness: I started to understand the reality of the humanity of Christ, how human he is. And the suffering of Christ for me now is something to meditate.”

When he arrives in Dili after his last great temporal journey, Father Cardoso will consider himself home.

“It is my country,” he says, “my first love.”

A land abundant with good souls, he says.

“I love the people of Timor because they are a real church. A church of kindness, a church of love and respect for people –– and helpful. They help one another so much. And they are good, very good. My dear friend, if you go to East Timor for a month or two –– I bet you a million dollars, if I have it! –– that you go back again and again.”

He will say goodbye to American friends before his final trip back, but there will be no party, no airport sendoff on Tuesday.

“As I came quietly, I’ll go quietly. Everything is prepared.”

Friends wishing to contact Father Cardoso in East Timor may send email to frrcardo so@gmail.com This account will be monitored by a priest friend, with appropriate messages forwarded to Father Cardoso. gwmiller@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7380

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / JOHN FREIDAH

The Rev. Reinaldo Cardoso will fly to the Azores, his birthplace, then to East Timor.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / JOHN FREIDAH

Father Cardoso at the Jeanne Jugan Home in Pawtucket. All the years he ministered here, he supported the political opposition in East Timor, serving as a liaison between residents there and American clergy, politicians and others who might influence foreign policy.

Ivan Points To Adoration For Strenght

2012-01-20T15:47:00.001-05:00

Adoration of Jesus in The Blessed Sacrament is a paramount source to keep going at a difficult time, visionary Ivan Dragicevic says in a new interview. Ivan also confirms the seers to share a number of identical secrets, tells to be half finished writing his book, and calls the relationship between New Orleans and Medjugorje “important and significant”.

Ivan Dragicevic

It is urgently needed for man to follow and live the Virgin Mary’s messages from Medjugorje. It is not always easy, particularly not when times are difficult. But there are sources to turn to for strength, and meeting with Jesus in The Blessed Sacrament will make everything easier, Medjugorje visionary Ivan Dragicevic says in the January issue of The Medjugorje Star.

“Our Lady told me a couple of times,“I know my children are trying to live my message”. If people are trying, this is a very good step.” Ivan says.

“Living in this world today especially at this time, sometimes it is hard, even for me. I am trying every day. We need to be following, following Our Lady’s messages. We need to always be fighting to live the messages.”

Adoration in Medjugorje

The struggle is spiritual in nature, and it is not intended for man to fight it alone:

“Everything will be easier if we put Jesus first. Our Lady recommends going to Adoration of Jesus. In Adoration you meet Jesus; and when you meet Jesus, Jesus tells you everything you need. After you start Adoration of Jesus, everything else is easier” Ivan tells The Medjugorje Star.

“Joy, joy, joy can only be in Jesus. Nobody can give joy except Jesus. Reading the Bible, you will see joy. That is what Our Lady is asking, to read the Bible. Our Lady asks for confession to cleanse ourselves of sin. When the Holy Spirit and grace comes in your heart, there is a river of love. A river of joy then becomes your heart. Remove all negative and you will be open for the Holy Spirit.”

Seers share a number of secrets; book half finished

The statue of Jesus outside Saint Louis Cathedral, New Orleans. Ivan calls the city's relationship to Medjugorje significant and important

During the interview, Ivan confirms the Medjugorje visionaries to share a number of the same secrets entrusted to them by the Virgin Mary. Visionary Vicka Ivankovic said the same in the mid-1980s but later the notion sprung up that The Permanent Sign is the only future event known with certainty by all the visionaries:

“Our Lady does not give six visionaries 60 different secrets. Some secrets are the same. When I stay in Medjugorje in the summer when most of the visionaries are there, I talk to some of them during coffee time, especially Jakov and Mirjana. We talk of the same secrets.” Ivan tells The Medjugorje Star.

Two other noteworthy bits from the interview deal with the book that Ivan says he is writing with The Virgin Mary’s help, and about Medjugorje’s relationship to New Orleans where the interview was conducted by Mimi Kelly of The Mir Group in early November 2011:

“I am working for a long time on my book. The book is half finished. I need more time. So many papers stay on my table. The last couple of years I have been so busy with traveling and speaking in churches. Privately, Our Lady gives me things especially for priests, young people, family, and children” Ivan says.

And about New Orleans:

“I think New Orleans is my second home. I come one or two times a year. New Orleans is a foundation for Medjugorje. After the apparitions began in 1981, some of the first pilgrims came from New Orleans. The relation between Medjugorje and New Orleans is important. It is significant.”

Spirit Daily is circulating this article

http://is.gd/IQhLjM

Temporary Inconvenience – Permanent Improvement

2012-01-19T20:45:00.006-05:00

Temporary Inconvenience – Permanent Improvement

By June Klins http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/

About thirteen years ago, a woman I know was having a crisis in her family, and needed nothing short of a miracle for the problem to be resolved. So she began to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays on bread and water for her family situation. Her friends and family were less than enthusiastic about her fasting. They said that people would think she was a fanatic, and that she would make herself sick. Despite the negativity around her, she stuck with it. Within a year, not only was the problem resolved, but it was resolved in a way that could only have been orchestrated by God! In thanksgiving, she continued to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, but now she was fasting for Our Lady’s intentions, for Her peace plan.

She is amazed at all the blessings that have come her way during these years. She attributes it to prayer and fasting. She has also experienced some major trials, but claims that the fasting, along with prayer, has helped turn some difficult situations into blessings.

Our Lady has been asking us for 30 years now to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. But how many of us take this request seriously? Most of us can come up with all kinds of excuses why we cannot fast. A poster that my colleague hung up in our shared classroom says, “You can’t possibly hit the ball if you’re thinking about all the possible ways you can miss.” Isn’t that the truth? We don’t need to hit a home run on the first time at bat. Visionary Vicka suggests that we start out slowly in fasting, doing perhaps a modified fast and then work up to one day of fasting before eventually working up to two days.

When I first came back from Medjugorje, I wanted to live the messages, but like everyone else, I did not think I could do a bread and water fast, so I began doing a “Lenten” type fast on Wednesdays and Fridays – not eating between meals. I did that for months before I worked up to the bread and water fast. It really is not as hard as it seems. I read somewhere that one way to encourage yourself to persevere on fast day is to tell yourself that it is only temporary, and that tomorrow you can eat normally. “Temporary inconvenience – permanent improvement!” And oh, what an improvement it is!

Ask for the grace and it will be given to you. Our Lady would not ask us to do something that was not possible to do. Our Lady knows that our fasting will not only help Her peace plan for the world, but will help our own lives as well. Ask and you shall receive. With God all things are possible.

Of course, if your health does not permit, Our Lady would not want you to do a bread and water fast, but there are many other things you can fast from on those days – sweets, TV, computer, gossip, complaining, etc. Vicka tells us that Our Lady says that a bread and water fast is the best way to fast, but not the only way to fast.

.

In the last few months, there has been a much more serious tone to Our Lady’s messages, as if time is running short. I feel Her prompting me to help Her gather an army of people who will fast and make a difference in the world. I hope to include more fasting articles and stories in this newsletter over the coming year, to encourage everyone to persevere. If you have a story or a tip to share about fasting that you think will help our readers, please send it to us for possible publication.

Please help dry Our Lady’s tears. Remember, fasting is only a temporary inconvenience.
http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/

AND AMAZING GRACE: Teresa Fama's Medjugorje Testimony - 1987

2012-01-19T17:39:00.002-05:00

AND AMAZING GRACE: Teresa Fama's Medjugorje Testimony - 1987: ALWAYS PROTECTED UNDER HER MANTLE MY PILGRIMAGE TO MEDJUGORJE SAVED MY HUSBAND’S LIFE By Teresa Fama -- THE MEDJUGORJE STAR Little ...

Dear Family of Mary

2012-01-18T23:46:00.005-05:00

Gabriel brings God's call to Our Lady!

(c)Bernard Gallagher, used with permission

January 19, 2012

Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children! Today I wish to call you to pray, pray, pray! In prayer you shall perceive the greatest joy and the way out of every situation that has no exit. Thank you for starting up prayer. Each individual is dear to my heart. And I thank all who have urged prayer in their families. Thank you for having responded to my call." (March 28, 1985)

Yesterday I mentioned Our Lady's offer, the way out of every situation that has no exit. Prayer is that way out! Prayer changes everything. Fr. Jacques Philippe writes about the power of prayer to change our lives. He believes that every situation we find ourselves in has within it a "call" from God. It is a call that leads to new life, and can be found through prayer. He writes:

The answer to the question "What call is the situation addressing to me?" does not exist before the situation exists. It is not a ready-made response or a kind of psychological projection. It is similar to grace; it is like a gift. It comes in the opening of the heart and the beginning of prayer. Often one finds it in the encounter with the Word of God, and often it has the unexpected newness that is the mark of the Spirit. It gives peace and liberates.

Often one's pre-existing responses have little to do with God's true call. They reflect one's habitual way of thinking, the coping strategies one has grown accustomed to. At first they may seem very spiritual and edifying. But they are not the will of God. To hear the true call of the Spirit, one must know one's self and listen to others who often see things more clearly. Then we generally detect pretty quickly what comes from God and what comes from the "flesh", as Paul calls it - which might also be called the wounded psyche.

It may be one's habit to blame oneself for life's problems. Or to blame others. Or to think one must be heroic in a way that God doesn't ask. A person may have a fear of weakness, believing what he or she must always be strong. Some of us are in denial; some are always taking flight. These are paths that lead to rigidity, worry, and tension.

The responses that come from the Spirit are different. They are in harmony with the Word of God; they have the flavor of evangelical sweetness, of humility and peace, a note of simplicity and realism. They are also characterized by freshness and newness, and give rise to confidence. Although it sometimes takes courage to accept them, they are not restrictive in nature, not imposed from the outside, but are part of an interior dynamism that respects freedom. They lead us out of our repetitious scenarios and produce true changes. They produce a renewal in our lives that can only come from God. (Rev. Jacques Philippe. Called to Life. Scepter Publishing, 2008, P. 63-65)

Pre-existing responses can create the situations we live in that seem to have no exit. They box us in, create unhappiness and fear. Pre-existing responses are very often sinful. But God's call to us will set us free, bring us new life, and bless everyone around us as well. God's calls to us are the way out of the situations in our lives that have oppressed us.

Prayer is necessary, if we are to hear God's call to us. Prayer opens our hearts to understand God's plan and His way. As our Lady says, "Pray, pray, pray!"

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2012

Alberta Sequeira speaks from the heart.

2012-01-18T22:35:00.001-05:00

Alberta Sequeira Four Time Award Winning Author

Need a public speaker for your conference or company event? Alberta Sequeira speaks from the heart after losing a husband and daughter to alcohol abuse. Her topic is "The Effect of Alcoholism on the Whole Family." She offers a deeper talk for private events with abusers. Email and request a quote at memoirs@albertasequeira.com.

She is also available for an hour talk on her "Spiritual Renewal Within" after her pilgrimage to Medjugorje in Bosnia.

Ms. Sequeira is a co-host on Authors Without Borders Presents on the NBTV-95 Cable Station where she interviews other writers and authors. She is a co-founder of Authors Without Borders (www.awb6.com).
Click here.
Vist her Blog at www.albertasequeira.wordpress.com.

2011 Became The Busiest Year in Medjugorje

2012-01-18T22:12:00.004-05:00

By Jakob Marschner

In 2011, the total number of Holy Communions distributed during Mass in Medjugorje went above 2 million for the first time. The number of concelebrations by priests was likewise record-high in passing 40,000, also for the first time.

Priests were involved in two Medjugorje records in 2011: Never before did so many of them come - and never before did they distribute so many Holy Communions to parishioners and pilgrims

2,027,900 Holy Communions would be enough if all the inhabitants of Houston, Texas, were to receive the Body of Christ one time each. Yet the number does not stem from Houston, but from Medjugorje where more than two million distributed Holy Communions in one year was registred for the first time in 2011.

The number climbed from 1,571,800, a rise of 29 percent compared to 2010 which was itself a record year. 1,378,600 Holy Communions were distributed in Medjugorje in 2009, according to parish statistics.
A record number of priests handed out the more than two million Holy Communions. 41,094 concelebrations of Mass were registred in Medjugorje in 2011, up from 38,227 the previous year. The figures are not descriptive of the actual number of visiting priests, as most concelebrate more than one Mass during their stay in Medjugorje.

The current Medjugorje boom in Italy accounts for some of the progress, though not all of it. 8,171 Italian concelebrations took place in 2011, up from 7,270 the year before and 4,718 in 2009.

http://is.gd/zoDvK0

The sword of the Holy Spirit

2012-01-18T18:53:00.002-05:00

"THE SWORD IN THE STONE"

"Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, Who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war." -Psalm 144:1

David killed the giant Goliath with a stone and a sword (1 Sm 17:49, 51). Jesus is "the Stone Which the builders rejected" and "the Keystone of the structure" (Mt 21:42; Ps 118:22). The Holy Spirit, working through the Word of God and prayer (Eph 6:17-18), is the Sword. We will be victorious over giants - such as Planned Parenthood, secular humanism, materialism, racism, denominationalism, nationalism, violence, starvation, and even Satan himself - if we are founded on the Stone, Jesus, and wield the Sword, the Spirit.

In Jesus, we are more than conquerors (Rm 8:37). "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rm 8:31) Sooner or later, "at Jesus' name every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father: JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!" (Phil 2:10-11) "

There is One greater" in us "than there is in the world" (1 Jn 4:4). The Holy Spirit will renew the face of the earth (Ps 104:30). Victory is already won by Jesus, and we live the victorious life through the Spirit. The Stone and the Sword will destroy every giant. Through Jesus and in the Spirit, be a David.

Father, Son, and Spirit, may I understand the effects of Your living inside of me.

Jesus "said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' The man did so and his hand was perfectly restored." -Mk 3:5

Who Decides

2012-01-17T19:24:00.004-05:00

This is Amelia

Brick Walls

by crivera75on January 12, 2012 · 521 Comments · in Amelia, Featured Stories

I am going to try and tell you what happened to us on January 10, 2012, in the conference room in the Nephrology department at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

We arrived for our regular Nephrology visit with Amelia’s doctor who has seen her for the last three years. She examines Amelia and sends us for labs. I ask about the transplant and she says we have about six months to a year until she needs one. She tells us she reserved the conference room and when we get back from labs, we can meet with the transplant team and he can tell us about the transplant process.
After the labs, Amelia falls asleep in her stroller and we are called back to a large room with a screen and about sixteen chairs. Joe and I get comfortable and leave a space between us to fit the stroller. After about five minutes, a doctor and a social worker enter the room. They sit across from us but also leave a space between the two of them.
The doctor begins to talk and I listen intently on what he is saying. He has a Peruvian accent and is small, with brown hair, a mustache and is about sixty five years old. He gets about four sentences out ( I think it is an introduction) and places two sheets of paper on the table. I can’t take my eyes off the paper. I am afraid to look over at Joe because I suddenly know where the conversation is headed. In the middle of both papers, he highlighted in pink two phrases. Paper number one has the words, “Mentally Retarded” in cotton candy pink right under Hepatitis C. Paper number two has the phrase, “Brain Damage” in the same pink right under HIV. I remind myself to focus and look back at the doctor. I am still smiling.
He says about three more sentences when something sparks in my brain. First it is hazy, foggy, like I am swimming under water. I actually shake my head a little to clear it. And then my brain focuses on what he just said.
I put my hand up. “Stop talking for a minute. Did you just say that Amelia shouldn’t have the transplant done because she is mentally retarded. I am confused. Did you really just say that?”
The tears. Oh, the damn tears. Where did they come from? Niagara Falls. All at once. There was no warning. I couldn’t stop them. There were no tissues in conference room so I use my sleeve and my hands and I keep wiping telling myself to stop it.
I point to the paper and he lets me rant a minute. I can’t stop pointing to the paper. “This phrase. This word. This is why she can’t have the transplant done.”
“Yes.”
I begin to shake. My whole body trembles and he begins to tell me how she will never be able to get on the waiting list because she is mentally retarded.
A bit of hope. I sit up and get excited.
“Oh, that’s ok! We plan on donating. If we aren’t a match, we come from a large family and someone will donate. We don’t want to be on the list. We will find our own donor.”
“Noooo. She—is—not—eligible –because—of—her—quality– of –life—Because—of—her—mental—delays” He says each word very slowly as if I am hard of hearing.
“STOP IT NOW!” The anger is taking over. Thank God. Why did it take so long to get here?
The social worker is writing some things down. Not sure what. She casually gets up to take a call. My eyes follow her to the phone and I see Joe’s face. His mouth is open, his face is pale and he is staring straight ahead of him at the white board.
Rage fills the room. I point in his little, brown pudgy face. “Do not talk about her quality of life. You have no idea what she is like. We have crossed many, many road blocks with Amelia and this is just one more. So, you don’t agree she should have it done? Fine. But tell me who I talk to next because SHE WILL HAVE IT DONE AND IT WILL BE AT CHOP.”
I see the social worker quickly writing down what I just said. Joe hasn’t moved. Amelia is still asleep.
The social worker decides to join the conversation. “Well, you know a transplant is not forever. She will need another one in twelve years. And then what? And do you have any idea of the medications she will need to take to keep her healthy?”
I speak through gritted together. “YES, I HAVE DONE ALL MY RESEARCH.”
She smirks a little. “Well, what happens when she is thirty and neither of you are around to take care of her. What happens to her then? Who will make sure she takes her medications then?”
In a voice that mimics hers, I snort, “Well, what happens if you die tomorrow? Who will take care of your children? Your responsibilities at work?” She breathes in and her eyes widens. “Right!” I throw at her. “Neither of us can predict the future and we shouldn’t try. But if Amelia does not have this transplant she has no future!”
The doctor interrupts. He puts his hands up and tries to take a stern voice with me. “These medications she has to take after the transplant, they are very dangerous. They can cause seizures. We have to get the dose exact. They may cause brain damage.”
“DO OTHER CHIILDREN WHO HAVE A TRANSPLANT TAKE THIS MEDICATION?”
“Yes, but it is different for her. She is already brain damaged and mentally retarded.”
He pauses as if he is choosing his words carefully. “I have been warned about you. About how involved you and your famliy are with Amelia.”
The devil himself could not have produced a more evil laugh. “Ha! Warned! That is funny! You have no idea…”
I am beginning to realize I want this over with so I can move onto the next person who will help me with the transplant. So I say the words and ask the questions I have been avoiding.
“So you mean to tell me that as a doctor, you are not recommending the transplant, and when her kidneys fail in six months to a year, you want me to let her die because she is mentally retarded? There is no other medical reason for her not to have this transplant other than she is MENTALLY RETARDED!”
“Yes. This is hard for me, you know.”
My eyes burn through his soul as if I could set him on fire right there. “Ok, so now what? This is not acceptable to me. Who do I talk to next?”
“I will take this back to the team. We meet once a month. I will tell them I do not recommend Amelia for a transplant because she is mentally retarded and we will vote.”
“And then who do I see?”
“Well, you can then take it the ethics committee but as a team we have the final say. Feel free to go somewhere else. But it won’t be done here.”
They both get up and leave the room.
I look at Joe who is sobbing trying to get the stroller and Amelia’s backpack. I break down with him before we head to the parking garage.
I hope you are disturbed, troubled, distressed, when you read this. I hope you share it with many, many people. Although I did not know this yesterday, this is very common and happens across the map. I have researched and researched and researched transplants and the MR, as they are called in the medical journals, and it is appalling. We are in the year 2012 and my child still does not have the right to live, the right to a transplant, because she is developmentally delayed.

Come Holy Spirit, I need thee

2012-01-17T14:59:00.001-05:00

http://en.gloria.tv/?media=244696

Come to us Holy Spirit as you came to the apostles.
Open our minds that we may see the hidden things of God.
Send love into our hearts like a Flame of Fire,
that our lives may be changed by the power of your Spirit,
to do God's work on earth,
and bring people with us to heaven.
Amen.

God's Blessing

2012-01-16T22:38:00.001-05:00

Fr. Edward Sousa Jr. giving God's blessing to
Nancy Latta

God’s blessing

For the feast of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the Jews have a beautiful tradition: They offer one another a symbolic fruit, a pomegranate, (reminiscent of The Song of the Songs), and say, “May God give you as many blessings as there are seeds in this pomegranate!”

So, in this first month of the year, I too wish you this great abundance of blessings for 2012! Above all, let's remain in deep communion with Pope Benedict who fights for the Church and counts on our prayers!

It is important to remember that all true blessings come from God and not from luck or chance. Luck does not really exist because God is master of all things and He leaves nothing to chance. Chance is a fabricated invention of man, and when someone tells me “Good luck”, I answer, “God bless you!” Just like the seeds of a pomegranate have no space left between them, but are instead beautifully interwoven into each other, God leaves no space to void.

Medjugorje is a place of great blessings; this is no secret. But, by living the messages of Mary, abandoning sin and adjusting our lives to the Gospel, every one of us can become a blessing for others, and make of their work, their home, their life, a flood of blessings.

Priests are the ones who give the greatest blessings. The Gospa said, “When a priest blesses you, dear children, it is my Son who blesses you. The blessing of a priest is greater than mine. If priests knew what they give when they bless, they would bless day and night!” In January, at Medjugorje, the Franciscans go to the homes of the Croatians to bless their houses and families. May all the parishes of the world resume this powerful tradition!

A friend from Kerala, a father of a family very close to God, told me that one time he was attending Mass but he had to leave the church quickly after Mass because of an important trip to another town. Since the mass lasted longer than usual, he first considered leaving before the end. But then he thought to himself, “No, I do not want to miss the final blessing!” and he stayed to receive it. Later on, as he was driving, he was caught in a very serious accident that involved many cars around him. It was a very bloody scene. But though he was in the accident, he was left completely uninjured, which was inexplicable. He then heard an inner voice saying, “Because you received my blessing at Mass, your life was spared!” Excerpt from http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com/

AND AMAZING GRACE: Leah Darrow Conversion Story - fashion model turns...

2012-01-16T14:24:00.002-05:00

Leah Darrow

AND AMAZING GRACE: Leah Darrow Conversion Story - fashion model turns...: share Former model turns talents toward Christian life Telegram photo by Cole W. Eberle COLUMBUS - Wearing a pleated blue skirt, black hi...

THE AGONY OF DEFEAT

2012-01-14T13:59:00.001-05:00

"It was a disastrous defeat." -1 Samuel 4:10

I've been gazing at a statue of the Pieta. Mary has just suffered a disastrous loss. Before her very eyes, her Son Jesus was brutally tortured and crucified. She stood near His cross (Jn 19:25), pierced with a sword of sorrow (Lk 2:35) far more painful than any spear. Now she is holding the body of her Son, looking heavenward in a gaze of docility tinged with unspeakable suffering. Though Mary suffered a disastrous loss, she suffered in righteousness and faithfulness.

The Israelites under the priesthood of Eli and sons were steeped in sin and idolatry. By their hardness of heart, they "defeated God's plan in their regard" (Lk 7:30). They were defeated in battle, losing four thousand men (1 Sm 4:2). Then they brought God into the picture without bringing their lives under His lordship. They fought again, and were defeated disastrously, losing thirty thousand men (1 Sm 4:10). Israel's defeat was suffered in faithlessness, not righteousness.

If we live as faithful disciples of Jesus, storms (Mt 7:25), futile labor (Mk 6:48; Is 49:4), and trials (Jas 1:2; Sir 2:1) will come our way, in addition to our daily crosses (Lk 9:23). If we live in sin, we will suffer its consequences and defeats. Let's make certain our sufferings come in righteousness rather than sinfulness. Repent immediately! Live in faithfulness.

Father, may we faithfully work in Your vineyard in holiness and let You turn our mourning into dancing in Your own perfect time (Ps 126:4-5; Ps 30:12).

"Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out His hand, touched him, and said: 'I do will it. Be cured.' " -Mk 1:41

Pope urges priests to administer Sacrament of the Sick more often | CatholicHerald.co.uk

2012-01-13T23:01:00.001-05:00

Pope urges priests to administer Sacrament of the Sick more often CatholicHerald.co.uk

Mirjana speaks out to Medjugorje Critics

2012-01-13T15:11:00.002-05:00

Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo with her husband Marko

during an apparition

http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/1642/mirjana-speaks-out-to-medjugorje-critics/

When the apparitions began in Medjugorje, 16 years old visionary Mirjana Dragicevic attended Sarajevo’s best secondary school, and was happy with her family. Overnight her pleasant life was replaced by threats and interrogations. ”I always wanted to ask those who considered me a liar: Why should I lie? What would I gain by lying?” the seer asks in a new book.......

Changing Churches

2012-01-12T17:02:00.001-05:00

"The Lord came and revealed His presence, calling out as before, 'Samuel, Samuel!' Samuel answered, 'Speak, for Your servant is listening.' " -1 Samuel 3:10

In Samuel's time, the "Church" was not hearing God. "A revelation of the Lord was uncommon and vision infrequent" (1 Sm 3:1). In addition to being spiritually deaf, it was spiritually blind and asleep (1 Sm 3:2). This pitiful condition of God's people was nauseating to God (see Rv 3:16), but the Lord did not leave them.

The Lord was still present in a special way through the ark of the covenant, and "the lamp of God was not yet extinguished" (1 Sm 3:3). The Lord was not only present but active. He repeatedly called the boy, Samuel, giving him such a powerful gift of prophecy that not a word of Samuel's was without effect (1 Sm 3:19). Through the prophetic ministry of Samuel, the whole Israelite nation turned to the Lord within twenty years (1 Sm 7:2).

We likewise may feel the Church is dead. We claim that the Church makes us sick, and we're trying to justify our leaving the Church. However, the Lord is calling us to stay and to prophesy to the dry bones until they begin to rattle and come to life (Ez 37:4ff).

Jesus is calling children like Samuel, old folks like Abraham and Moses, persecutors like Saul, businessmen like Matthew, and teenagers like Mary. Don't quit. Quit saying: "Listen, Lord, Your servant is speaking," and instead say: "Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening" (see 1 Sm 3:10).

Father, I resolve to quit complaining about the Church and start being a fully active member of it.

Daily Grace: Fixing to a Cross

2012-01-11T22:55:00.001-05:00

Daily Grace: Fixing to a Cross: Jesus went out, along with His disciples , to the villages of Caesarea Philippi ; and on the way He questioned His disciples , sayin...

Rosary and Healing Service

2012-01-09T12:58:00.001-05:00

ATTENTION NEW LOCATION

AND NEW DAY!

Rosary and Healing Service

Fr. Joseph Whalen, M.S.

Fr. John Welch, M.S. inspirational talk

THURSDAY JANUARY 12 7:00 PM

Every 2nd THURSDAY of the month!

7:00 PM

St. Gabriel the Archangel Church
151 Mendon Street
Upton, MA 01568

For more info contact:

(508) 603-1430

only 40 miles from Boston!
only 35 miles from Providence!

October Baby Movie--A Pro-Life Movie Showing the Pain of Abortion

2012-01-07T14:19:00.000-05:00

October Baby” tells the story of 19-year-old Hannah. A health crisis turns her world upside down when her parents are forced to reveal that Hannah was adopted and the survivor of a failed abortion. The news sends Hannah reeling and on a journey to find her birth mother.
Dothan native Rachel Hendrix plays Hannah. The movie also stars John Schneider, Jason Burkey, Chris Sligh and Jasmine Guy.

October Baby - In Theaters March 2012!
http://octoberbabymovie.net/
"I was glued (to the screen). I am now an October Baby Activist!, It's something I have to be a part of." Mark Hall Casting Crowns; "We urge you to see this movie ...

Dove Worldview:
This is a terrific and touching story and this film should be seen by those who recognize the horrors of abortion. Hannah is the survivor of an attempted abortion although she doesn't know this for many years. You might just need a hanky for this sensitive and touching film.
Hannah has many health issues including epilepsy and she is asthmatic. She battles discouragement too. She writes in her diary that she feels worthless. This movie is about her journey to discover who she really is. Her adopted parents help her to learn the truth about her background. They long to hold on to her as she is, in their eyes, a gift.

Rachel Hendrix is fabulous as Hannah and John Schneider is terrific as her adopted father Jacob. After Hannah learns about the protection of her adopted parents, she is angry and heads out to learn the truth about her birth mother. In the end she discovers why her parents protected her and her love for them is strengthened.

We urge you to see this movie soon! We are recommending it for twelve plus due to its sophisticated theme. It just might change your life! We are awarding the movie five Doves and our "Family-Approved" Seal to this awesome movie!

He Will Baptize You With the Holy Spirit

2012-01-06T14:49:00.001-05:00

Meditation: Mark 1:7-11
NAB Reading at USCCB.org

“I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:8)

When people compare John the Baptist with Jesus, John doesn’t usually come out looking too good. He tends to be portrayed as a tough guy preaching a fire-and-brimstone gospel—not a very approachable fellow. By contrast, Jesus is seen as more of a soft touch. He’s often portrayed as a gentle fellow, smiling as he heals people and tells us to love each other. John wants to tell us what we’ve done wrong, but Jesus wants to be our friend.

But is this contrast justified? In today’s reading, John is anything but a hardnosed preacher. All he wants to do is point people toward Jesus, the one who was going to give them the Holy Spirit. He told the people that the reason for his call to repentance wasn’t to heap guilt on them. Rather, it was so that they would be ready to receive the salvation Jesus had come to bring. Interestingly enough, when Jesus does appear on the scene, he preaches the very same message of repentance—in the exact same words!—that John did (Mark 1:14-15). It seems that both John and Jesus had more similarities than differences after all!

These similarities between John and Jesus can give us some insights into our own call to preach the gospel. They tell us that, just like John and Jesus, we too need to capture the excitement and hope embodied in the phrase: “The kingdom of God is at hand!” At its heart, the gospel is good news about a God who calls us to his side. It’s the good news about a merciful God who wants to wipe away all our sins and set us free from guilt. It’s the good news about a God who wants to welcome us into his kingdom—forever!

It is a great privilege to be called to do the same work that John and Jesus did. It’s a great privilege to show people the way into the kingdom of heaven. Whether it is through our words or our example, we can become ambassadors for the Lord.

So what’s the good news you’re going to share today? How will you announce the kingdom?
“Lord, teach me how to share your good news with the people around me.”
1 John 5:5-13; Psalm 147:12-15,19-20

Saint Andre Bessette, Miracle Worker

2012-01-05T23:43:00.003-05:00

January 6, 2012
St. Andre Bessette

Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children! Also today, I call you to prayer. Little children, prayer works miracles. When you are tired and sick and you do not know the meaning of your life, take the Rosary and pray; pray until prayer becomes for you a joyful meeting with your Savior. I am with you, little children, and I intercede and pray for you. Thank you for having responded to my call." April 25, 2001

On this beautiful feast day of Saint André Bessette I want to share a couple of the thousands of miracles he worked through the intercession of St. Joseph. It is good to hear about miracles once in a while, as they build our faith and strengthen our hope. Saint André Bessette did many, many miracles. He was always sick himself, he was poor and weak and simple, but he knew one things, that God loves His people, and that St. Joseph is a foster father for all of us. With this faith, the saint brought healing to thousands.

These healings are recounted in a biography of Saint André by Brother Andre Marie:

As the school's doorkeeper, Frère André saluted and bid farewell to the many guests who came to the college. Having a keen interest in their spiritual welfare and a sympathetic ear for their problems, the little doorman could often tell who was in need of his prayers or counsel. One day he noticed on the face of a guest - the father of a boarding student - a preoccupied, strained expression. When Brother André learned that the man was worried about his sick wife, he told him, "But she is not so sick as you think. At this very moment she became better." The man was quite cynical, for he knew that his wife had been ill for many years. Yet upon arriving home, his wife greeted him at the door, perfectly healthy, in good spirits, and inquiring about the couple's children. The man later learned, upon speaking with his wife's nurse, that she had asked to be taken out of bed exactly when Brother André pronounced the words, "At this very moment, she became better."
....On another occasion, when the porter was in the infirmary, he saw a student sick in bed. He told the boy, who had been ordered to rest by the school doctor, to get up. "You're not sick, you lazy bones! Go and play with the others." This the boy did, in perfect health and good cheer. The story of the incident soon spread around the college. Teachers, the doctor, students and parents alike marveled at the miracles wrought by the confident prayer of the young brother.

...The piety that he had toward the Patron of the Universal Church was simple and childlike too: "When you invoke Saint Joseph, you don't have to speak much. You know your Father in heaven knows what you need; well, so does His friend Saint Joseph." "Tell him, 'If you were in my place, Saint Joseph, what would you do? Well, pray for this in my behalf.'" To the people who came to him with their troubles - and thousands did - the friend of Saint Joseph recommended the use of sacramentals, like Saint Joseph's oil or a Saint Joseph medal. Most of all, he recommended persevering and confident prayer, usually prescribing a novena to his powerful benefactor.
...A typical example of the favors wrought through the intercession of Saint Joseph is this one: A girl at a convent school not far from Quebec was severely injured when another child struck her in the right eye with an oar. The doctors tried to save the eye, but paralysis of the optic nerve set in, causing the girl to lose her sight. The sisters at the school had heard of the cures at the Oratory and procured a medal of Saint Joseph which had been blessed there. They decided to make a novena. For nine days, all the Sisters and students received Holy Communion and prayed to the foster-father of Jesus, applying the medal to the child's eye. There was no progress at all during the course of the novena, but they remained confident. On the ninth day, after everyone had received Holy Communion, the child opened her eye to see the chapel's statue of Blessed Joseph. Before the cure, the seriousness and permanence of the damage had been verified in writing by two competent ophthalmologists. Later, these two declared that the eye was perfectly cured, with no trace of injury. Neither could explain the cure.

http://catholicism.org/br-andre.html Saint André Bessette: Montreal's Miracle Worker by Brother André Marie - October 25th, 2004)

Aren't these miracles amazing!! I want to share one more miracle, one that Denis and I experienced through Saint André. In 2010 we were facing an impossibility. The building in Medjugorje that would house Mary TV's studios, was unfinished, and being damaged by the weather. We had run out of funds and could do no more work on it. We were stuck. And so Denis began praying to the then "Blessed" André for a miracle. We knew he was to be canonized on October 17, 2010. And so we were asking him to finish the building as a gift for Our Lady on his great day. We prayed and prayed. No money came, and so we thought there was no answer to our prayer. But at Christmas of that year we got an email from our friend, Leo, congratulating us because the building was being worked on. We had no idea what he was talking about. We soon found out that the building was indeed being worked on, in fact it was being finished outside and in. We discovered that the co-owner of the Mary TV building had been able to borrow the money to finish the exterior and his portion of the inside. Our prayers had been answered, but in a way we could never have imagined. The building is now being used by our partner to house pilgrims, and our studios are slowly being finished. Thank you, Saint André!

Today, we want to thank Saint André, and ask him for yet another miracle. We are at a crossroads with Mary TV. We have many opportunities this year to stream Our Lady's apparitions, and to begin our work in Medjugorje in earnest. We need St. Joseph to provide for Mary TV so that we can broadcast Our Lady and her school to the world. Please join us in submitting this request to St. André Bessette. He came through for us in 2010, and we feel sure he will not fail us now!

Thank you, Saint André, for teaching us how to have simple faith and humble love for Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Help us to continue on this road to heaven. Pray for us!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Cathy Nolan
http://www.marytv.tv/MaryTV/

Souha’s Most Beautiful Confession

2012-01-05T16:17:00.001-05:00

Apparition Hill

Souha’s Most Beautiful Confession
By Sister Emmanuel

A group came from the Middle East to spend a few days in Medjugorje, wanting to make a holy pilgrimage. Among them was Souha, a married woman whose husband is a doctor. She came without him because he was working. Souha had a secret that left her without peace. Soon after her arrival, she went to see a priest from her group and confided to him that she had an abortion. The child that she was expecting was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, and she and her husband did not want him. They decided together to have him removed from the womb and had an abortion performed. Her heart was still restless however and Souha asked the priest, “It’s not a sin, is it?” The priest answered, “But yes, my daughter, it is a sin! A grave sin! You must go to Confession!”

Souha was not convinced and she shut herself within her denial. Yet she asked the Blessed Mother for a sign to know whether she should confess this act. In the evening, at the apparition of the Gospa on the hill with Ivan, Souha was with her group. As soon as the Blessed Mother arrived, Souha unexpectedly bent over with her nose on the ground. She remained like this for a while and when she came back up after the apparition, her friends saw her crying. She told them, “Please call a priest, I must go to Confession right away!

I do not know what happened to her during the apparition; her friends respected her secret, but Our Mother acted.
In tears, Souha made the most beautiful Confession of her life. Yes, she touched the horror of sin and it made her cry. She accepted God’s mercy towards her. Her inner peace was at last restored. Now she is free! What a contrast on her face! What light! She witnesses to her friends that she feels a deep joy, as never before in her life.

In Medjugorje, some pilgrims groups have a fine tradition. The guide suggests that each pilgrim receives the responsibility of praying for a particular person of the group during the whole pilgrimage. Thus the first or second night, each one must draw from a little basket the name of another pilgrim. That evening, out of the 150 people in the group, who received the name of Souha and the call to pray for her? A young woman with Down’s syndrome!

That same night, Souha’s husband called, and after hearing his wife’s story, tells her, “You know, I am calling you because I find it strange that you are over there praying to God, while I am here performing abortions. It is not right! Today, I have decided not to do that anymore.” He also was crying over the phone. The whole day, he had the feeling that something was happening to his wife and he was ready to take this giant step professionally. Souha could not believe her ears.

This happened last August. Now Souha, her husband and their children are living differently. They put God in the first place. They practice the sacraments and go to Mass almost every day. They give testimonies. After this memorable pilgrimage, they were wondering how to make reparation for such a past when they suddenly received a call from an orphanage needing help. Sisters were asking them to care for an orphaned child. They saw this as the answer from God; they were grateful to Him and decided to do everything in their power for the child.

And what has become of the aborted baby? In Medjugorje, Mary says of these unborn children, “They are with me.” This child is certainly praying for his parents and for all his little companions who, today, are programmed never to see the sun.

I am asking myself the question: did the baby really have Down’s syndrome? For I see more and more examples of wrong diagnostics: many mothers decide to keep their child whatever the handicap, and often, the child is born perfectly normal. Bizarre! To be meditated!

But God is wonderful! For this family, He changed evil into good. Now hundreds of children (perhaps even thousands) will never be aborted by this doctor who now fights for life.

“Dear children, tonight I invite you to pray in a special way for the unborn children. Pray especially for the mothers who kill their children. Dear children, I am sad because so many children are killed. Pray that there are no more such mothers in the world.” (To the Medjugorje Prayer group, 3/03/90)
Children of Medjugorje, http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com/

You Are Invited, Come, And See

2012-01-04T16:52:00.003-05:00

Meditation: John 1:35-42
NAB Reading at USCCB.org

“Come, and you will see.” (John 1:39)

A card arrives in the mail. You open it to find it is an invitation to a dear friend’s wedding. You are honored to be invited, and you quickly mark your calendar. Every time you pass the calendar, you find yourself anticipating the day until it finally arrives.

This is how God wants us to read today’s Gospel passage. He wants us to know that today, and every day, Jesus is offering us an invitation. He is inviting us to come and see.

When Jesus offered this invitation to Andrew and his friend, the two quickly stopped what they were doing and followed him. They must have felt honored that Jesus wanted to spend time with them— time away from the crowds, time just with them. At that moment, the only thing that mattered was that they had the privilege of being with the One whom John had just identified as the Lamb of God. And their lives were completely changed.

Every day, Jesus is knocking on your heart, inviting you to come and see the love and wisdom he has for you. It’s amazing, but it’s true: Jesus really enjoys spending one-on-one time with you, just as he does with each and every one of us. Jesus has so many things he wants to show you. He has so many ways he wants to reveal himself to you. Imagine yourself as a child, standing in wide-eyed wonder at the sight of something new and marvelous. That’s how Jesus wants us to approach our prayer time. What will I see today? What will the Lord say to me? How will he change my heart?

What a privilege it is to follow the Lamb of God! Jesus Christ, the Lord of all creation, comes to you every day, puts his arm around you, and talks with you. He wants to fill you with grace and strength. He wants the words “Come, and you will see” to be your refrain today and every day. He is waiting for you.

“Jesus, thank you so much for your invitation! Yes, I want to come and see all that you have for me this day. Open my eyes to the wonder of your love so that I can know you more.”

1 John 3:7-10; Psalm 98:1,7-9

Daily Grace: Open Yourselves to the Father

2012-01-03T19:14:00.002-05:00

Daily Grace: Open Yourselves to the Father: Message of January 02, 2012 "Dear children; As with motherly concern I look in your hearts, in them I see pain and suffering; I see a wounded...

The Holy Name of JESUS

2012-01-03T17:00:00.002-05:00

January 3
The Holy Name of JESUS

Today the Church celebrates the optional memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite this feast is celebrated on January 2. In the liturgical revisions of Vatican II, the feast was removed, though a votive Mass to the Holy Name of Jesus had been retained for devotional use. With the release of the revised Roman Missal in March 2002, the feast was restored as an optional memorial in the Ordinary Form on January 3.

The Church reveals to us the wonders of the Incarnate Word by singing the glories of His name. The name of Jesus means Savior; it had been shown in a dream to Joseph together with its meaning and to Our Lady at the annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel.

Devotion to the Holy Name is deeply rooted in the Sacred Scriptures, especially in the Acts of the Apostles. It was promoted in a special manner by St. Bernard, St. Bernardine of Siena, St. John Capistrano and by the Franciscan Order. It was extended to the whole Church in 1727 during the pontificate of Innocent XIII. The month of January has traditionally been dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus.
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus which is kept on the First Sunday in the year; but if this Sunday falls on January 1, 6, or 7, the feast is kept on January 2.

Holy Name of Jesus
his feast marks no progress in the development of the Church year. It merely embellishes the occasion just observed when the Child received the Name Jesus as had been foretold by the angel. The feast is meant to impress on us Christians the dignity of the Holy Name. It is a relatively new feast, stemming out of devotional piety. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to find in it some liturgical or ancient Christian dogma. What did a name signify originally? The name should express the nature of a thing. Thus Adam in paradise gave the animals names in accordance with their being. Among the Jews God's name expressed His essence, Yahweh, i.e., I (alone) am who am (and cause all else to be). The Jews had the highest respect for the name of God, a reverence that finds continuation in the Our Father: "Hallowed be Thy Name."

Persons who played prominent roles in the history of salvation often received their names from God Himself. Adam — man of the earth; Eve — mother of all the living; Abraham — father of many nations; Peter — the rock. The Savior's precursor was given the name God assigned him. According to divine precedent, then, the name of the Redeemer should not be accidental, of human choosing, but given by God Himself. For His name should express His mission. We read in Sacred Scripture how the angel Gabriel revealed that name to Mary: "You shall call His name Jesus." And to St. Joseph the angel not merely revealed the name but explained its meaning: "You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." The Messiah should not only be the savior, but should be called Savior. With Jesus, therefore, the name actually tells the purpose of His existence. This is why we must esteem His name as sacred. Whenever we pronounce it, we ought to bow our heads; for the very name reminds us of the greatest favor we have ever received, salvation.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
*Prayer to the Holy Name of Jesus* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5PVYIAiBYc&feature=player_embedded
http://www.straphaeloil.com/daily_updates

Like the sunrise gets brighter and brighter until the Son is there.

2012-01-02T18:33:00.003-05:00

Uploaded by vocationcom on Apr 4, 2011
How does a young man go from an atheistic upbringing to a Protestant conversion to yet another conversion to the Catholic Faith? How does that same young man hear his call to become a priest? Listen to Fr John Bartunek's captivating story of his amazing journey to the priesthood. Fr John Bartunek is a priest with the Legionaries of Christ.

Vicka Asks Pilgrims For Prayers

2012-01-02T14:26:00.003-05:00

Vicka always had time and compassion for the suffering,
sometimes at her own expense. Photo: Marco Piagentini

Vicka Asks Pilgrims For Prayers

by Jakob Marschner

While visionary Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic enjoys excellent spiritual health, her physical shape could be better, and on the last day of 2011 she asked pilgrims to remember her in their prayers. On the preceeding evening, a few thousand pilgrims gathered for a public apparition to Ivan Dragicevic, despite heavy rain and mudslides on Apparition Hill.

During a meeting with pilgrims on December 31, Medjugorje visionary Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic asked the attendees for prayers.

“At eight o’clock, Vicka gave her testimony at Sister Kornelija’s orphanage. She has the usual measure of energy and joy, and was as always engaging. However, we noted that Vicka does not pass through a good time. She was very thin and asked us to remember her in our prayers” the Italian photographer Daniel Miot reports from Medjugorje.Throughout her 30 years as a visionary, Vicka’s health has often been fragile. She has voluntarily accepted much of her suffering as a penance for the conversion of sinners and for other purposes. Therefore, on previous occasions she has expressedly asked people not to pray for her.

While the sun was out when Vicka spoke to the pilgrims on the last day of 2011, weather conditions were severe on the evening before when a few thousand pilgrims made their way to visionary Ivan Dragicevic’s public apparition on the top of Apparition Hill through heavy rain and mudslides.

Ivan Dragicevic

“It was beautiful, unique and, although very wet, as special as ever. I was impressed to see so many people praying together and with such devotion, despite the bad weather conditions” Daniel Miot tells on his blog.

After the apparition on December 30, Ivan reported this message from the Virgin Mary:

“Dear children, the Mother blesses you with joy. Be carriers of my messages in this tired world. Welcome my messages with responsibility. Dear children, pray together with me for the plans that must be realized. Especially tonight, I call you to pray for unity of the Church and my priests. Dear children, pray, pray, pray. The Mother prays with you and intercedes before Her Son for each one of you. Thank you also today for having responded to my call, and for accepting my messages, and living my messages.”

Spirit Daily is circulating this story

http://is.gd/yrkZCR

Our Lady's New Year message to Mirjana

2012-01-02T13:33:00.001-05:00

Mirjana Soldo

Dear children; with motherly concern I look in your hearts. In them I see pain and suffering; I see a wounded past and an incessant search; I see my children who desire to be happy but do not know how. Open yourselves to the Father. That is the way to happiness, the way by which I desire to lead you. God the Father never leaves his children alone, especially not in pain and despair. When you comprehend and accept this you will be happy; your search will end; you will love and you will not be afraid; your life will be hope and truth which is my Son. Thank you. I implore you, pray for those whom my Son has chosen. Do not judge because you will all be judged.

Medjugorje message, January 2, 2011

Mary, Mother of God

2012-01-01T18:08:00.003-05:00

"Dear children, today, the first day of the New Year, I invite all of you to live the messages which I give you. You know, dear children, that because of you, I have stayed here this long in order to teach you to walk on the road to holiness. Therefore, dear children, pray constantly, and live all the messages which I give you. I do it with a great love for God ~ and for you." BVM, Medjugorje, January 1, 1987

Our Lady's Apparition to Ivan Tonight

2011-12-31T15:00:00.005-05:00

Ivan

December 30, 2011 A.D.

On a very cold evening tonight, December 30, 2011, thousands gathered on top of Apparition Mountain for Our Lady’s apparition to Ivan. The following translation of the message is an initial translation from the Italian to English, and is the substance of the message. This is not an accurate translation. A more accurate translation will be made available later:

“Dear children, the Mother blesses you with joy. Be carriers of my messages in this tired world. Welcome my messages with responsibility. Dear children, pray together with me for the plans that must be realized. Especially tonight, I call you to pray for unity of the Church and my priests. Dear children, pray, pray, pray. The Mother prays with you and intercedes before Her Son for each one of you. Thank you also today for having responded to my call, and for accepting my messages, and living my messages.”

Our Lady prayed for a while over each one of us, and blessed us with Her Special Motherly Blessing. Our Lady blessed the religious articles that were brought to be blessed. Then Our Lady prayed especially for you, the sick present here. Then Ivan recommended all our needs, and our intentions. In a special way, Ivan recommended all the sick. Then Our Lady extended Her hands and prayed over us. She then left in the illuminated sign of the cross, saying, “Go in peace, my dear children.”

A more accurate translation, will be posted in the following days.
medjugorje.com

Dear Family of Mary

2011-12-30T14:19:00.003-05:00

The Duet family prays together on Podbrodo
(c)Mary TV 2010

December 30, 2011

Dear Family of Mary!

On this beautiful feast, we contemplate Jesus' life in His human family:

"When they [the Holy Family] had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him." (Luke 2: 39-40)
Jesus lived with His foster father and his mother, in Nazareth, like any other family. They ate together, slept together, worked together, and most assuredly prayed together. Their life was ordinary. But it was extraordinary too, because they lived a life centered of God. And it was blissful in the midst of the normal difficulties because they loved each other so deeply and perfectly. Love and prayer were the centerpieces of their family life, and so Jesus grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. Prayer and love grow incredible children!

Our Lady, the very Lady who visits us in Medjugorje, lived that life with Jesus. She knows the stresses and sacrifices of family life. She knows it all, and so her words to us about family in her messages from Medjugorje carry with them great authority. She is speaking from experience. Here are a few of the things she has said to us about family life:

"Dear children! I beseech you to start changing your life in the family. Let the family be a harmonious flower that I wish to give to Jesus. Dear children, let every family be active in prayer for I wish that the fruits in the family be seen one day. Only that way shall I give you all, like petals, as a gift to Jesus in fulfillment of God's plans. Thank you for having responded to my call." (May 1, 1986)

"Dear children! Today I invite you all to awaken your hearts to love. Go into nature and look how nature is awakening and it will be a help to you to open your hearts to the love of God, the Creator. I desire you to awaken love in your families so that where there is unrest and hatred, love will reign and when there is love in your hearts then there is also prayer. And, dear children, do not forget that I am with you and I am helping you with my prayer that God may give you the strength to love. I bless and love you with my motherly love. Thank you for having responded to my call." (April 25, 1993)

"Dear children! Today I invite you to prayer. Let prayer be life for you. A family cannot say that it is in peace if it does not pray. Therefore, let your morning begin with morning prayer, and the evening end with thanksgiving. Little children, I am with you, and I love you and I bless you and I wish for every one of you to be in my embrace. You cannot be in my embrace if you are not ready to pray every day. Thank you for having responded to my call." (August 25, 1995)

"Dear children! This is a time of grace for the family and, therefore, I call you to renew prayer. May Jesus be in the heart of your family. In prayer, learn to love everything that is holy. Imitate the lives of saints so that they may be an incentive and teachers on the way of holiness. May every family become a witness of love in this world without prayer and peace. Thank you for having responded to my call." (October 25, 2004)

"Today is a great day of joy and peace. Rejoice with me. Little children, in a special way, I call you to holiness in your families. I desire, little children, that each of your families be holy and that God's joy and peace, which God sends you today in a special way, may come to rule and dwell in your families. Little children, open your hearts today on this day of grace, decide for God and put Him in the first place in your family. I am your Mother. I love you and give you my Motherly Blessing." (December 25, 2006 Jakov)

God bless you all! Sunday is the great Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Mother of God!! Let's prepare for this feast by making our families more prayerful and filled with self-giving love!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
http://www.marytv.tv/MaryTV/

PS. I am adding the beautiful and powerful prayer of Fr. John Hampsch, C.M.F., "The Healing of the Family Tree". Our Lady wants us to bring our families to the Lord for healing and blessing. This prayer is a great beginning on the road to healing of the family.

~PRAYER FOR HEALING THE FAMILY TREE~

REV. JOHN H. HAMPSCH, C.M.F.

Heavenly Father, I come before you as your child, in great need of your help; I have physical health needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, and interpersonal needs. Many of my problems have been caused by my own failures, neglect and sinfulness, for which I humbly beg your forgiveness, Lord. But I also ask you to forgive the sins of my ancestors whose failures have left their effects on me in the form of unwanted tendencies, behavior patterns and defects in body, mind and spirit. Heal me, Lord, of all these disorders.

With your help I sincerely forgive everyone, especially living or dead members of my family tree, who have directly offended me or my loved ones in any way, or those whose sins have resulted in our present sufferings and disorders. In the name of your divine Son, Jesus, and in the power of His Holy Spirit, I ask you, Father, to deliver me and my entire family tree from the influence of the evil one. Free all living and dead members of my family tree, including those in adoptive relationships, and those in extended family relationships, from every contaminating form of bondage. By your loving concern for us, heavenly Father, and by the shed blood of your precious Son, Jesus, I beg you to extend your blessing to me and to all my living and deceased relatives. Heal every negative effect transmitted through all past generations, and prevent such negative effects in future generations of my family tree.

I symbolically place the cross of Jesus over the head of each person in my family tree, and between each generation; I ask you to let the cleansing blood of Jesus purify the bloodlines in my family lineage. Set your protective angels to encamp around us, and permit Archangel Raphael, the patron of healing, to administer your divine healing power to all of us, even in areas of genetic disability. Give special power to our family members' guardian angels to heal, protect, guide and encourage each of us in all our needs. Let your healing power be released at this very moment, and let it continue as long as your sovereignty permits.

In our family tree, Lord, replace all bondage with a holy bonding in family love. And let there be an ever-deeper bonding with you, Lord, by the Holy Spirit, to your Son, Jesus. Let the family of the Holy Trinity pervade our family with its tender, warm, loving presence, so that our family may recognize and manifest that love in all our relationships. All of our unknown needs we include with this petition that we pray in Jesus' precious Name. Amen.
St. Joseph, Patron of family life, pray for us. Our Lady Queen of Peace, pray for us.

THE PAIN AND PROMISE OF FAMILY

2011-12-30T13:41:00.002-05:00

"The Child's father and mother were marveling at what was being said about Him." -Luke 2:33

Many people idealize the Holy Family. Because Jesus is God, Mary is immaculate, and Joseph is holy, their family relationships must have been almost perfect. However, that's not the picture the Bible gives us of the Holy Family. The only scene from Jesus' childhood that we are told about is when Mary and Joseph lost Jesus for three days. You can imagine the peasant couple frantically searching for their twelve-year-old Boy in the metropolis of Jerusalem. When they finally found Him in the Temple, they asked: "Son, why have You done this to us? You see that Your father and I have been searching for You in sorrow" (Lk 2:48). You can almost hear the pain and bewilderment in Mary's voice.

Most people can relate to this trauma more easily than to the holiness of the Holy Family. Many of us are likewise searching for members of our families. We're searching for lost loved ones and for lost love. In sorrow and in pain, we search for acceptance, respect, encouragement, or hope. We can understand the pain of a three-day separation or even of three days in the tomb.

God's Word to us on this Holy Family Sunday promises us that our searching and sorrowing will end when we find Jesus. Then we will find love and peace for us and our families.

Father, by Your grace I decide to forgive everyone, especially my family members, as You have forgiven me (Col 3:13).

Medjugorje Pulls in Crowds of Pilgrims

2011-12-29T15:05:00.002-05:00

Uploaded by wish on Dec 27, 2011
24-Hour News 8 anchor Eric Halverson travels to Bosnia to experience the visions of Mirjana Soldo. She has been seeing visions of the Virgin Mary since she was a child on the mountainsides of Bosnia Herzegovina.

A Catholic Mom in Hawaii: Urgent Prayer Request for Father Rookey

2011-12-29T14:39:00.002-05:00

Fr. Peter Rookey-a year ago

A Catholic Mom in Hawaii: Urgent Prayer Request for Father Rookey

~Requesting prayers for a "special" priest.~

Daily Grace Blogsite: St. Bridget 12 Year Prayer - The Seven Wounds of Jesus...

2011-12-27T16:13:00.003-05:00

Daily Grace: St. Bridget 12 Year Prayer - The Seven Wounds of Jesus...: My dad has a great devotion to this beautiful novena that was given to St. Bridget of Sweden on the Passion and Death of Jesus. A few days ...

Make a Difference

2011-12-27T13:08:00.003-05:00

3 Letters from Teddy Stallard

If you've ever wanted to make a greater impact and empowering influence in your world, I hope you'll enjoy today's movie as a gentle reminder about the one thing that can transform any situation in literally 30 seconds or less: compassion.

What a little third grader says to his teacher at Christmas time instantly bypasses the head and goes straight to the heart of any issue, no matter what.

Watch Make A Difference:

https://ccd.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/7726/d787d58fa4b56c0c/20119310/53de6bb4dd5b5685

Our Lady's Message from Medjugorje of December 25, 2011

2011-12-25T14:00:00.003-05:00

“Dear children! Also today, in my arms I am carrying my Son Jesus to you, for Him to give you His peace. Pray, little children, and witness so that in every heart, not human but God's peace may prevail, which no one can destroy. It is that peace in the heart which God gives to those whom He loves. By your baptism you are all, in a special way called and loved, therefore witness and pray that you may be my extended hands to this world which yearns for God and peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

At the last daily apparition to Jakov Colo in 1998, Our Lady told him that from then on he would have one apparition a year, every December 25th, on Christmas Day. This Christmas, Jakov's apparition began at 3:30 pm and lasted 11 minutes. Our Lady delivered the following message:

*"Dear children! Today, in a special way, I desire to take you to and give you over to my Son. Little children, open your hearts and permit Jesus to be born in you, because only in this way, little children, you yourselves will be able to experience your new birth and set out with Jesus in your hearts towards the way of salvation. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Oh come, Oh come, Emmanuel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJn4sIH0GHA

Christmas in Medjugorje

2011-12-24T23:48:00.007-05:00

May this Christmas be for you a day of joy and peace. May Jesus visit you in your families and may he be born in the hidden place of your heart!

~Silent Night - Medjugorje's Choir~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ND4K5zMjxg

Daily Grace: Divine Babe

2011-12-24T13:12:00.001-05:00

Daily Grace: Divine Babe: "Let us put our hands in those of the Divine Babe. Let us say our Yes to his invitation "follow me" and we will be His. The way will be clear...

Emmanuel-God is with Us

2011-12-23T18:31:00.008-05:00

Painting by Joan Grayson of
http://sacredartbyjoangrayson.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE_tuMpIOho

Mary said:
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever."
Emmanuel, God is with us http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE_tuMpIOho

Reflection: Hannah prayed for the gift of a child

2011-12-22T19:01:00.002-05:00

“I prayed for this child… . Now I, in turn, give him to the Lord.” (1 Samuel 1:27-28)

Hannah had prayed fervently for the gift of a child, and God heard her prayer. Now she does something that seems difficult to understand: She leaves him with the priest Eli, offering him back to the Lord.

Why would Hannah give up a child she had so longed for? Because she knew that she had given birth only because God had been gracious to her. She also understood that everything we have, everything we are, is a gift from God. Her offering of her son was the ultimate expression of her gratitude and love.

In only a few days, we will celebrate the gift of the Christ child, God-made-man. God our Father sent his only Son to earth to become one of us. Like Hannah, he too gave up his only Son. Why would God do such a thing? It can only be understood through the lens of love. Only love would do such a thing.

How can we respond to such love? What will we say to our Father when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist? A simple “thank you” seems inadequate. But Hannah and another mother, Mary, can show us the way. We can freely give ourselves to the Lord.

It’s not easy to give our lives to the Lord. We may wonder: What will God ask me to do? Will I have to part with something I treasure? Just what will God do with this gift of self that I am giving to him?

Here is the best part of the Christian life: When you give your life to the Lord, he takes it, fills it with his grace, and gives it back to you transformed. He makes your life overflow with love and joy, with peace and purpose. And as a result, you end up happier and more fulfilled than you ever were—even if you are called into a new and demanding area of service, even as you take up the challenge to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. That’s what the love of God can do!

So don’t hold back. Even if you’ve done it many times before, give your life to Jesus this Christmas. And watch to see how he gives it back to you.

“Jesus, take my life. Let it be yours completely.”
(Psalm) 1 Samuel 2:1,4-8; Luke 1:46-56
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122211.cfm

Jesus, we Adore You

2011-12-22T17:19:00.002-05:00

Signs and Wonders

2011-12-21T23:43:00.003-05:00

* SIGNS AND WONDERS *

"Give new signs and work new wonders; show forth the splendor of Your right hand and arm." -Sirach 36:5

The writer of Sirach prayed for God to give new signs and new wonders. Micah prayed: "As in the days when You came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs" (Mi 7:15). The early Church prayed: Lord, "grant to Your servants, even as they speak Your words, complete assurance by stretching forth Your hand in cures and signs and wonders to be worked in the name of Jesus, Your holy Servant" (Acts 4:29-30).

Jesus promised that signs and wonders would accompany those who profess their faith (Mk 16:17). He also promised that we would do works greater by far than even His glorious works (Jn 14:12). Why? It's because whatever we ask for in His name He will do (Jn 14:12-14).

Therefore, we should ask the Lord to do signs and wonders in our lives and through us in the lives of others.

"Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!" (Is 7:11) May the Lord "enlighten your innermost vision that you may know...the immeasurable scope of His power in us who believe" (Eph 1:18-19). His "power now at work in us can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine - to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, world without end. Amen" (Eph 3:20-21).

A Healing: Testimony of Margarita Rodriguez who is sharing with us a Healing she received when Medjugorje visionary Ivan visited her parish.

2011-12-20T13:24:00.003-05:00

A Healing: Testimony of Margarita Rodriguez

" This is a Testimony by Margarita Rodrigues, who is now sharing with us a Healing she received when Medjugorje visionary Ivan visited her parish.

I want to share with you some wonderful news of the day we had in our church Saint Brendan's the visit of Medjugorje visionary Ivan and the apparition of the Blessed Mother.

On that day Our Lady asked her Son Jesus to take care of me. My big problem is that I have been short of breath- and that is because of my operation which was back in 1987. The doctor had to remove half of my diaphragm and since then I have been very short of breath, but about a year ago I became much worst, and my right lung collapsed.

I went to a specialist a Doctor of Pulmonary disease and he sent me to do a Scan, and also a test to see how my oxygen level was. The test showed that I had less than 60% function in my lung. So I was really bad, with my shortness of breath, I have to sleep with 3 pillows to be able to sleep, and when I am doing my housework I do it, and then I have to rest.

The doctor told me I am sorry Margarita I can do nothing more to help you, you have to live with this condition the best way you can.

I accepted what the doctor told me and that was fine and then I offered to Our Lord the little I have to offer Him.

I said to Jesus, I offer the little that I have to You because You have suffered so much for us, and our sins and You continue your suffering for us..

When I went to my church to talk to Father Fernando Heria with my friend Mary Fernandez and her husband Manolo to discuss the preparation of the day IVAN was coming to Miami and the Apparition

of Our Blessed Mother. It was then that Father Fernando asked me to pray and lead the Rosary.
I said yes of course -and I was so happy- but then I was worried because of my acute shortness of breath and my cough.

I prayed very hard to Our Mother and Her Son Jesus to help me to pray well, as they both knew of my
big problem. I asked them to help me--(remember I asked you also to help me in your prayers)-- so I could pray well the Rosary on that special day in front of so many people about 1500 persons.
When I went to the podium I felt that I was in a cloud, a Peace so strong came
over me, I felt different and I prayed the Rosary so well. Then after the Apparition of Our Blessed
Mother I also prayed the Rosary of Medjugorje, The Creed and the 7 Our Father's, the 7 Hail Mary's and the 7 Glory be's.

That was on a Friday January 21,2011 but it wasn't until Sunday the 23rd that I realized that I was fine and that I didn't have any shortness of breath. I didn't tell my husband anything at that time! I wanted to be sure first. I started checking myself and I began doing things in the house and I felt fine, and when I went to bed that evening I said OK now I am going to do a big test.

I took the 3 pillows away that I always had to sleep on and I was perfect,- I was breathing perfectly- and then I said now the final test- the way I always like to sleep, FLAT completely, with my stomach in the
mattress and I slept perfectly all night. Since that day I continued sleeping that way with NO SHORTNESS OF BREATH.

I feel so good, and so happy. Yesterday afternoon I went to see my Doctor and I told him what happened and that I was feeling fine, and that I was no longer short of breath. He was so surprised and said to me when "Our Lord wants to do something for someone HE does it and HE did it for you Margarita."

So now I am beginning to tell about my healing and I wanted to share with you this beautiful news.
Margarita is from Miami Florida

Medjugorje Visit Cured Boy From 19 Tumors

2011-12-19T16:30:00.002-05:00

Joshua de Nicolo

Medjugorje Visit Cured Boy From 19 Tumors
by Jakob Marschner

For eight months, 2 years old Joshua battled a last stage cancer that brought him through a transplantation, 80 chemotherapy cures, and 17 radiotherapy sessions. When nothing worked, his parents took their son to Medjugorje. Back home, tests showed 19 tumors and all bone metastases to be gone as the beginning of Joshua’s now complete recovery.....
http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/4034/medjugorje-visit-cured-boy-from-cancer/

Medjugorje preparing for the coming of Jesus

2011-12-19T16:03:00.005-05:00

~Medjugorje is preparing for Christmas~

Early Holy Masses at 6 a.m. are celebrated since November 28, and that is preparation for all of the parishioners for the feast of Birth of Jesus. Novena started on Thursday, December 15 with Rosary at 2 p.m. on Apparition Hill and will last until December 23rd. Radio station “Mir” Medjugorje is broadcasting early Holy Masses and that began on Friday, December 16th, 2011.

The evening prayer programme begins with Rosary at 5 p.m., Holy Mass at 6 p.m. and regular prayer programme follows afterwards. Confessions are available from 5.30 a.m. until 7.30 a.m., and during the evening prayer programme. In the last few weeks members of Cenacolo community are making a set for live Nativity Scene that will take place during Christmas season outside the church of Saint James. medjugorje official
Melinda Dumitrescu - Emmanuel - Music from Medjugorje http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nseaAu6QoXk

Spirito Santo--Come Holy Spirit Fall Afresh on us

2011-12-18T13:55:00.001-05:00

Melinda Dumitrescu - Spirito Santo - Music from Medjugorje

Hail, Favored One

2011-12-18T13:15:00.005-05:00

Meditation: Luke 1:26-38
View NAB Reading at USCCB.org

“Hail, favored one!” (Luke 1:28)

Face-to-face with the mighty angel Gabriel, Mary was “greatly troubled” (Luke 1:29). Gabriel announced God’s plan for her to conceive through the Holy Spirit and bear a son who would inherit the throne of David and rule forever. And Mary, despite not having all the answers, was able to say: “May it be done to me according to your word” (1:38).

The words are so simple, so faith-filled, that we might miss out on what was behind them. By saying “yes” to the angel, Mary also said “no” to many things. She closed the door on an alternative life that had its own attractions: a life of quiet contemplation, out of the limelight, surrounded only by friends and family; a life of simple joys and everyday challenges. And yet with just a few words, she put aside all her dreams to embrace God’s dreams instead.

We can read this passage and marvel at Mary’s faith—and lament our lack of faith in comparison. But it’s important to see that when he greeted her, Gabriel called Mary full of grace, not full of faith. Mary’s “yes” to God was the result of the grace God had given her, not the result of her own willpower and forceful personality.

This is a key point for all of us. For in the final analysis, faith is not something we drum up on our own. It’s a gift given to us by a gracious, generous God. It’s a grace that he pours into us, a potent seed that is waiting to be plunged into the soil of our hearts. We may think we have weak faith, but the truth is God has given us all the faith we will ever need. We just have to learn how to yield to this great gift.

So what do you think? Can you say “YES” to God today? Yes, you can. God’s gift of grace guarantees it!
Father, thank you for the gift of faith. Knowing you is the greatest joy of my life.”

Melinda Dumitrescu - Voici que l'ange Gabriel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXFOKQTYQQE&feature=related

Be Faith- Full

2011-12-17T13:48:00.002-05:00

FAITH-FULL?- Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see." —Hebrews 11:1

Faith is an assurance. This confident assurance concerns what we hope for but can't see. We are saved by faith in Jesus (Eph 2:8). "All depends on faith" (Rm 4:16). Without faith, it's impossible to please God (Heb 11:6).

The conquerors of the world are those who have faith that Jesus is the Son of God. When Jesus comes back a second and final time, He will be looking to see if there is any faith left on this earth.

Therefore, we definitely need faith. Faith is a gift from God. He gives us the gift of faith by giving us Himself. We accept the Gift of God Himself by totally giving our lives to Jesus. Then we can have a deep, personal relationship with the Father through the Son and in the Spirit. In this relationship, we develop a deep faith. If we resist the temptation to take control of our lives, if we don't try to provide all our needs ourselves, we will see God father us and deepen our faith in Him. If we take up the daily cross, we will believe ever more deeply in the crucified Jesus.

*If we let it be done unto us according to God's word (see Lk 1:38), we will develop faith in the Holy Spirit, Who teaches us to hear Him by hearing His word.

The purpose of life is to have faith, grow in faith, and walk by faith in God .

"The wind fell off and everything grew calm. Then He said to them, 'Why are you so terrified? Why are you lacking in faith? —Mk 4:39-40

Fr. Jozo's reflection of Our Lady's Medjugorje message of January 25, 2009.

2011-12-16T16:19:00.005-05:00

Fr. Jozo Zovko

Message of January 25, 2009
“Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May prayer be for you like the seed that you will put in my heart, which I will give over to my Son Jesus for you, for the salvation of your souls. I desire, little children, for each of you to fall in love with eternal life which is your future, and for all worldly things to be a help for you to draw you closer to God the Creator. I am with you for this long because you are on the wrong path. Only with my help, little children, will you open your eyes. There are many of those who, by living my messages, comprehend that they are on the way of holiness towards eternity. Thank you for having responded to my call.

My dear brothers and sisters,

While my heart is hearkening to this message, it is raining outside. It has been raining for days and the rain is becoming oppressive, because the horizons are veiled with leaden clouds, which, firmly riveted to the cold winter sky, are tirelessly pouring down their winter load. Amidst the gurgle of the rain I hear Mother’s voice and Her repeated call to prayer. As an excellent teacher She leads us through the experience in the nature. Namely, when this rain stops and the spring sun shines up, and the earth dries up a bit, farmers and gardeners will go out into their fields and gardens. They will start cleaning them, preparing them for the spring sowing. Nourished and cultivated, the earth will open and receive the seed. It will give it all the conditions for it to spring up, to grow and bear fruit.
What is happening with our prayer!? Is it pouring, like this winter rain, onto the cold earth, jaded and tired with rain, which is unbearable not only to us but also to the earth it is flooding. Rivers and brooks react with floods, their beds being overfull.

No! Our prayer is pouring into the Most Pure Heart of our Mother and mediator of all graces. She bears our prayer to Jesus with love. Such prayer, like the sound seed, bears its fruit. A sower does not scatter around and does not throw his seed in vain. He does it with responsibility and with a great hope that he would reap abundantly. It is these fruits that we live on. Our salvation and the salvation of our souls is the ultimate purpose of our earthly life. Can a man be saved if he does not pray!? Can earth give fruit if it is not tilled, if it has not been sown!? Experience tells us that it is not possible.

To be in love with eternal life is not an illusion, it is not a false dream, something impossible, unreal. Already while sowing, the sower sees in his heart the ears of grain, ripe ears, which are the fruit of his sweat and of the earth he ennobles and to which he gives over his seed with love. Likewise a believer – who joins his hands in prayer, whom love calls to pour out his praises, his love, his deprecation to the Lord – does not waste his time, does not fool himself like a drug addict in search of a false sensation, but rather enjoys the vicinity and beauty of God with the greatest hope and peace, and wishes that this grace may never cease. He is like Peter on Mt Tabor while he was praying with Jesus. He spontaneously poured his joy out of the heart asking that they may for ever remain in that gracious vicinity: It is good that we are here, it is so nice here, let us move to live here…!

Likewise a praying man, living the togetherness with God, wants to be in His vicinity. All worldly things are in the service of our eternal goal. Everything is for us and we are for the Lord. We have to be vigilant all the time that we may not be seduced by any glare of earthly things and programs, goals and values. We must not stop in front of a creature and not see the Creator. On the contrary, everything has to serve us to come to the Lord and to serve Him. He is our God and our everything. Everything is inferior to Him and to His love.

*Think of all brothers and sisters who have chosen the wrong way! Our Lady who loves us, tells us without fear that we are on the wrong way, if anything has separated us from His love. Day after day in a motherly way she helps me open my eyes lest I should choose the way of error, the way of sin, the way of ruin. Jesus also speaks about a wide and easy road, in contrast to a narrow and steep one leading to the final goal. How important it is for me to have my eyes open! If a blind man guides a blind man, they will both fall into a pit – says Jesus. Our Queen of Peace sees and loves; She knows and intercedes for us all to direct us to the right and only path, and that is holiness, that is the way of peace, that is the way leading to Jesus.

How badly do I need your help, O Queen of Peace, so that my eyes may open: the eyes of the heart, the eyes of the spirit by which I recognize the other side of life and of worldly values.
Oh, how persevering I must be and daily live Your messages that my eyes may open!
How hard and scandalous it is to listen to the people who judge You, who do not even follow Jesus’ principles: “Look at the fruits. You will know the trees by their fruits, and distinguish between good and bad ones.” The man who does not pray, who does not fast, who does not listen to and read the Word of God – is such man in a position to judge You and Your messages!?

We are called and instructed in a special way by this message, too, what it means to live the messages of the Queen of Peace. Let us ponder this whole month on this message with the depth of the heart and love. We are called to prayer that flows out of our hearts like the living seed into the heart of the Virgin, and She presents it to Jesus, not against us, but for our salvation. Without Her mediation there is no salvation for us. Jesus included His Mother in the plan of salvation, and said to us: “Here is your Mother.” We need the Mother. Without Her we cannot vanquish our enemy, the Dragon with seven heads and ten horns, as St. John sees him in the Revelation.

*Why has She been with us so long!? Why are we on the wrong path? Which is the wrong path? Do you, as a member of our praying family, recognize and distinguish between the right and the wrong path?! We are in a world of false values. Imagine so many false teachers who shamelessly, through all media, teach you and call your children to immoral and permissive way of life. Look at these teachers and their calls to distractions in which they strip you and your family of human and Christian dignity and morals. Look at the teachers who show you the way of life where everything is permitted. Theirs is a way of life where there is no sin, no conscience. Is it possible that a man can build his future if he is brought up without God and His commandments, without the tenets of Christian faith?

We daily meet ruined people; we meet disappointed, humiliated, and frustrated people. How to help them? “Only with my help will you open their eyes”, said the Queen of Peace. Oh, what a lot of blind men we have in our midst!

My dear praying family, be extended hands to all who are seeking help. Be in prayer and fasting for all those who have fallen or gone astray. Be apostles and witnesses to those who are under the influence of false teachers. Be a hope to all who have been overpowered by the sin of addiction to drugs, alcohol, chance games, fornication, and by the sin of hatred. Be at least a small light to those on whom the darkness of evil and curse has fallen. I implore you to do more than before for your brothers and sisters, so that the following words of the Mother could be applied to us and to our praying family: “Thank you for having responded to my call.”

This month we are going to pray for the following intentions:

For all of us that it may bee seen and felt that our citizenship is in Heaven, that is, that each of us lives and works for eternity. That we may live and bear witness to our faith. That this-worldly may be in the service of the eternal and heavenly.

For all pilgrims who are confused by the controversial statements of irresponsible people about Međugorje and the messages, that they may persevere in seeking the Mother and find the necessary graces. For all the members of the New Commission that they may be led by the Holy Spirit and find out the whole truth, and impart it responsibly to the Church.

For all the visionaries and parishioners of Međugorje, that they may not stop being the chosen parish, who have the task to help and inspire by their life all those coming to Međugorje. For all priests, preachers and confessors that the Lord may give them His light, His peace, and the fatherly love for all sinners and pilgrims.

Dear brothers and sisters, through fasting and prayer abandon yourselves to the call of the Mother, and let Her word produce ample fruit in everybody. Praying for all of you, that you may persevere in the call and comprehend that we are on the way to holiness, is
Yours faithfully,
Fra. Jozo Zovko
1-29-2009 Siroki Brijeg

Lame Girl Cured During Apparition to Medjugorje visionary Ivan Dragicevic.

2011-12-16T13:56:00.006-05:00

Silvia Busi, now 23, tells the story
of her healing
and conversion in Medjugorje.
Photo: Daniel Miot, guardacon.me

Lame girl was cured during apparition
by Jakob Marschner on Dec 16, 2011

All the medical tests were negative when Silvia Busi fell very ill at 16. Within days, the all-normal Italian girl found herself in a wheelchair, unable to move her legs. Nine months later Silvia’s illness disappeared as suddenly as it had come about, during an apparition to Medjugorje visionary Ivan Dragicevic.

"The gift of faith is the biggest one I got, she says."

http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/3988/lame-girl-was-cured-during-apparition/

A Family On Our Route

2011-12-15T14:44:00.004-05:00

Fr. Kevin Scallon & Sr. Briege Mc Kenna

A family on our route

Recently, we rejoiced over Sr. Briege McKenna's presence at our home. She is that nun who, with Fr. Kevin Scallon, travels the world to make Jesus in the Eucharist loved and to use her gift of healing among others. Fr. Kevin, as well, has much to share with us...

One Christmas night, as he was on the road towards his nephew's house, he found himself stranded on the side of the road at 9:00pm. It was impossible to get his car started and he still had an hour drive ahead of him. There wasn't a soul in sight since he left Dublin. By the light of the Christmas moon he saw a cottage on the far side of the roaddirectly across from where he was parked.

There was a light burning in the window, so he decided to ask the people in the house for the use of their phone. He went through the little white wooden gate, up the path and knocked on the door. After a moment, a youngish man opened the door and greeted him warmly. Looking past him into the house the priest saw a young woman with a baby in her arms. She was holding the baby's little head close to her cheek. She smiled at the priest who asked the man if they had a phone. He replied very gently, "No we don't, but if you walk back to the town there is a man there who has a bicycle shop and he will let you use his phone. You can't miss the house. It's to the right of the supermarket." The priest thanked the couple and wished them a Happy Christmas. "Will the car be alright there?" he asked the man. "Oh yes, I'll see to that," he replied.

So, on that bright dry moonlit Christmas night the priest walked back to the town and found the bicycle shop. On the way he could not stop himself from thinking of his encounter with the couple and their baby, and especially by the strange aroma in the house. It was not an Irish smell. For some reason it reminded him of his recent visit to the Holy Land. And why was the house lit only by candles?

The owner of the bicycle shop opened the door, and listened as the priest recounted his predicament. He permitted him to call his nephew, and as he waited, the bicycle-man's wife offered him tea and Christmas cake which he gladly accepted. She talked about the weather, and how Christmas was so quiet this year, etc. Sure enough, the nephew arrived within the hour. They said goodbye to the couple and departed. They stopped at the priest's stricken vehicle to discover that the fan belt was missing. They returned the next day with a local mechanic to fetch the car.

Having done the necessary repairs, the priest turned to pay a visit to the young family and headed for the little white gate. He could not find it. There was only the hedge, and beyond it, a simple green field with no house anywhere to be seen. On the return journey the nephew spoke the whole time. As for Fr. Kevin, he remained silent. It was the Feast of the Holy Family.

Dearest Gospa, may this Christmas be for us the best Christmas of our life! Please enter into our homes, in our rooms and in our hearts! Come and place in them the treasure of treasures, your Newborn Baby, and teach us to adore Him as you adore Him!
Sister Emmanuel + http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com/

Praying with the Heart

2011-12-14T15:25:00.004-05:00

Fr. Jozo Zovko

PRAYING WITH THE HEART - Fr. Jozo Zovko, o.f.m.

In the first days of the apparitions, we really competed with each other, seeing who could pray more rosaries each day. That was unhealthy competition. Although Our Lady was exhorting us to pray not that way, but with our hearts, we did not understand what it meant to pray with the heart. That night she said to us, "This evening, before you start praying, you should all forgive one another." We thought, "That's something simple, we do that in every Holy Mass!" But by no means was it easy; it was quite an effort. It meant that everyone who had built up hostilities within his heart had to give them to God immediately with love and joy. I explained what Our Lady's request meant and asked all the faithful if they understood.

Everyone said yes, but no one did anything. We felt as if we were in a desert, and we were even a little afraid. Moreover, Our Lady would not allow us to pray until we had personally reconciled with each other - until we had forgiven each other from our hearts. A silence came over us; it seemed to last forever. We suffered a desert-like anguish, and it grew later and later.

Everyone felt very depressed. A fight was raging within us. Finally I suggested, "Let's pray the rosary, that we may become able to forgive." So we began praying what we call "the Psalter," all three groups of the mysteries of the rosary. After about half an hour, a voice announced in the church, "Lord, I have forgiven. Please forgive me!" Everyone began crying and sobbing loudly. This prayer touched our hearts, and floodgates of tears were opened. We all had the desire to say, "We have forgiven. Please forgive us, too!" And everyone looked for a hand, any hand, to hold. With relieved hearts, we continued our prayer. After the prayer there was a true celebration of reconciliation throughout the whole village.

The morning that followed will go down in the history of Medjugorje. Overnight the people had torn down all the walls in their hearts, walls which had been separating them from one another. The next morning, everywhere in the village, people went to houses in which they had never set foot before because of one incident or another; many had even stopped greeting one another. Farmers can be petty, too. Hate and estrangement often had developed. But now, in their neighbor, they recognized their brother. In their neighbor they recognized Jesus. It occurred to them sadly why, for such a long time before, they had been unable to have such joy and beauty. And so I no longer have to ask anymore, "Do you want to forgive? Do you believe in God the Father?" We now carry out our baptismal promises day by day, everyone making an effort, even if only mentally: "I reject Satan... I believe in God..."

It was then that people saw the Croatian word "MIR", meaning "PEACE", in capital letters in the sky. I, too, witnessed this event. The letters moved as if animated, streaming towards us like a car's headlights. It felt like we were experiencing the end of the world. I cannot imagine anyone ever forgetting such a thing - not the letters, but the interior experience, I mean. It is engraved within our hearts, into our lives, and into our entire being, the meaning of "Medjugorje" - engraved within the new man, within children of God who love and forgive.

The Call to Confession - Father Jozo Zovko

2011-12-13T16:21:00.006-05:00

Fr. Jozo Zovko

The call to Confession-Fr. Jozo

"The call to monthly confession. That is the sacrament through which peace flows, the spiritual anointing, forgiveness. I ask you to remember. I desire as your brother, as your friend and the one who loves you, the one who places you in his heart and promises to pray for you and your families and your intentions, as such a desire to say something that is above all -- There is no confession without a priest!

Perhaps this is the greatest reason why the Anglican pastors want to be Catholic, to leave sin. Jesus gave the priesthood. In the Hall of the Last Supper, our Holy Father wrote a most beautiful letter to us, in the Hall where the priesthood was born and again reminding all of the priests on the greatness, on the grace, of the source of where and how the roots began.

When Jesus said, "How fervently I long to be this night with you." Why? Because He desired to give the Priesthood to us. And He gave it. Without the priest there is no forgiveness of the sins. There is no Eucharist. And practically speaking, there is no Church. "Let us start to pray for priests."

Pope John Paul II prayer to the Holy Spirit

2011-12-13T16:13:00.000-05:00

Say Merry Christmas

2011-12-12T15:24:00.001-05:00

Uploaded by saymerrychristmas on Oct 24, 2011
Download your FREE Sheet Music at www.saymerrychristmas.net and together we can make 'Say Merry Christmas' the biggest Christmas song of all time. MP3 downloads are available on iTunes and Amazon.

The American Christian Life United Choir - Join in!

Every Christmas, the media and PC police tell us, the Christian majority, what we can do and say to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. If you've had "enough" of this biased propaganda and believe in the true meaning of Christmas...now's your chance to fight back and bring Christ back into Christmas.

As you know, Christmas is being twisted and turned, pushed and pulled by politically correct merchants who enjoy the ride on the Christmas sleigh...but won't give Christ the recognition and honor he deserves. So, let's challenge these stores with our wallets...and patronize only the stores that celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

If we do what the kids say in the song "If it don't say Merry Christmas in the window...then you don't go in that store" you'll be amazed at how fast the word gets-out. And maybe once again, Christmas will become...what it was...and what it was always meant to be, a Celebration of Christ's Birth!

Each download will be registered as an "authentic" vote for bringing Christ back into Christmas. So, let's terrify the media, by showing proof positive, that we Christians, all 230 million of us, are sick-and-tired of being the piñata...for every misguided, politically motivated cause!

Download "Say Merry Christmas" today!...make "your" voice heard with "your" vote...and we'll make "Say Merry Christmas" the biggest Christmas song of all time! Call your "radio station" and ask them to play "Say Merry Christmas" ...We have the strength in numbers...
Let's use it!

Fr. Jozo's Reflection on Our Lady's Message of Dec. 25, 2007

2011-12-12T13:37:00.003-05:00

"Dear children! With great joy I bring you the King of Peace for Him to bless you with His blessing. Adore Him and give time to the Creator for whom your heart yearns. Do not forget that you are passers-by on this earth and that things can give you small joys, while through my Son, eternal life is given to you. That is why I am with you, to lead you towards what your heart yearns for. Thank you for having responded to my call." (12/25/07)

This is a Christmas message and also the last message of this year. In the time leading to Christmas, we were witnesses of our preparation and maximum effort and activity in preparing the way to the Lord who was to come.
To all those with open hearts the Holy Mother and Virgin is able to say: "With great joy I bring you the King of Peace, that He may bless you with His blessing." How many hearts have received this precious gift of the King of Peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and in Holy Communion! They have done so in complete unity with the Church, which was preparing them to open their hearts for that great gift - the King of Peace - through prayer, fasting, dawn Masses and the Sacraments. This peace and joy of Christmas shines from joyful hearts.

Such believers are completely different from those motivated by purchasing gifts to bring joy to their own hearts and to the hearts of others. Because this is not possible, once again, those individuals were deceived and disappointed. After the feast, they remained even more empty and tired. This is not Christmas. They lack Jesus, the King of Peace. They lack peace and His joy, which He gives to the prepared hearts, families and the Church.

Life and a frantic rush inspired and moved by the inclination and desire of a goal to possess and enjoy has never been blessed. In fact it is worthless. It is most sad to recognize and to live in the vicinity of someone who lives only for things. Our heart and our nature long for something higher than things or pleasure. Our hearts can be satisfied and filled only by their Creator, by God who came as Christ, the King of Peace.
Therefore, this warm Motherly teaching is for each of us: "Adore Him and give time to the Creator for whom your heart longs." Our manger scenes in Churches and in families are not decoration or folklore. They are a place of prayer and adoration of the King and Lord. It is so important for us to find time to dedicate to prayer and thanksgiving for His birth and our salvation. A manger where a family does not gather and take time for prayer is an empty sign to us and to our children. It is almost on the level of false display windows and illuminated cities, which in an external way show their tradition but not the faith, gratitude and love for the Mother and the Child given to us.

Our Lady calls us to adore Jesus, our King. From the beginning, She has been asking for this in Her messages. This is why our prayer community in its program lives from the Eucharist and adores the living and present Jesus in the Holy Sacrament. Unfortunately, some members easily dispense and free themselves from Adoration on Thursdays, or fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays. In Adoration we are so close to Him. We are at His feet, listening to His teaching of grace and receiving His blessing and peace. Our life and our heart longs for Him. Every time we meet together in prayer, in reflection on the message of the Queen of Peace and in Adoration of the most Blessed Sacrament, we give important time to Him for whom we long.

My dear ones, once again, our good Mother cautions us not to forget that we are passers-by in this world. It is painful to listen to or speak to a person who acts and lives as if he will never die or account to God for his life. It is difficult to meet people who, sunk in their selfishness, feel no responsibility for others with whom they share their life and gifts and who do not think at all about those who are to come after them. Because of this, we have polluted the air we breathe, poisoned the food we eat and poisoned the family in which we are born and raised. We have poisoned the earth, the hearts and everything that we have seized in our selfishness as solely our own. If we are not aware that we are passers-by on this earth and that things of this earth are not our goal or of greatest value, most certainly we have forgotten eternal life and the un-passing joy that our King of Peace and Savior brought and gave to us by His birth. This especially pertains to technology and offers of pleasure and enjoyment. Christmas and its celebration are not a time of pleasure and entertainment but a discovery of what is not passing and is eternal. All of this is a gift to us for which we must be grateful.

We must take time in song, prayer and in listening to the Word of God to give thanks to the Lord.
In a most beautiful way, the Mother explains to us that She is with us to lead us towards that for which our hearts long. We are like a child in front of a shop window stopping before our toy, our dreamed of desire, trying to force our mother to enter into the shop and to buy it for us. If a child does not succeed, he cries and throws a tantrum, putting his mother in an uncomfortable position and she most often gives in. How are we to pass through this world of consumerism and of great offers when it seems to us that somehow we need all this? Everyone else has this or that new product, so why shouldn't I?

Permit me to share a story with you. A hermit walked through a city. He walked by all the shop windows and all the shops. He enjoyed looking at the most beautiful things that people were buying and taking home.

He was whole-heartedly grateful for everything: for beautiful clothes, expensive shoes, all the food products and an abundant market of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. At the end of the day he prayed: "How wonderful and good you are, Lord. Thank you for all the most beautiful things that my brothers and sisters are buying. Thank you for everything, but especially thank you for the gift that I do not need any of those things. Thank you that I am perfectly happy and free because I can be without all that I have seen." This is the freedom that we need. We have become addicted to technology and such expensive things telling ourselves that we cannot be without them. As a consequence, we are not free.

On the same day, when Our Lady gave this message through Marija, Our Lady explained through the visionary Jakov not to seek joy in the things of this world but to open our hearts and to accept God.
On everything we touch we leave behind our fingerprints, and simple expertise reveals the person who has touched the item. It is the same with our hearts in watching advertising on television, newspapers, and other media. An identifiable imprint of our addiction or our freedom remains.

God wants us to be free. He does not want us to live for things, but for Him who is our peace and our all. Let us persevere in the Motherly school of Our Lady. Let us not reject it or superficially take it to heart. This message, in particular, is completely Gospel based; "Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven and come follow Me (Mt. 19, 21-22)."
Jesus I Believe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfVV9DcihWc&feature=related

The Virgin Mary Appears In Prison.

2011-12-11T14:13:00.003-05:00

The Virgin Appears In Prison

The Medjugorje Sentinel, by Padraig Caughey

In 1982, when I was 26 years old, I was captured by the British Army and thrown into the Curmlin Road Jail. Belfast, in the North of Ireland. At the time, I was extremely bitter and full of hate, not believing in God at all, and very angry at the Catholic Church, which I considered pro-British. The years of rage and violence during the Troubles had taken their toll on me, and I was increasingly suicidal. The only thing that stopped me from killing myself was the knowledge that it would bring great pain to my family.

One night as I entered my cell. I found lying on the floor, a news- paper photo of Padre Pio, bearing his stigmata. I do not know how it got there, as neither myself nor my cell-mate were believers. Anyway, as I looked at the marks of the Passion on Padre Pio's hands, I thought, "The old fool did it with a screwdriver!" I wondered how he had never gotten blood poisoning or been caught cheating during such a long life. That night as I was going to sleep, I said in despair, "Padre Pio, go to God, and ask Him to prove to me that He really exists in the space of one 'Hail Mary.' If He does not, I will know for certain that He does not exist, and I can go ahead and kill myself."

Our Lady Appeared! As soon as I had said, "Hail Mary," my eyes flooded with tears in rivers down my face, for there, standing at the end of my bed, in great glory, was the Mother of God Herself. Extraordinary holiness, beauty, majesty, purity, motherliness, love, and kindness... indescribable! She said, "Now you believe."

I could only nod, and say, "Yes, I believe,"

Then She said, "Faith, without love, is vain. You must forgive; do you forgive?" Then I saw before me, picture forms of all whom I had hated, while Mary's voice gently kept asking me, "Do you forgive, do you forgive, do you forgive?"... as each picture passed before me.

She then said, "Now is there anyone, anyone at all, to whom your bear hate?"There was no one; I forgave them all. It was as though the weight of the universe was lifted from my soul.

For the first time, Mary smiled. "Now you have faith, and now you have loved; but now you must pray, for prayer is the food of faith. Pray... pray the Rosary," and She held a set of beads towards me.

I was embarrassed, and said, "I am sorry. I have forgotten how to say them."

Then Mary said with great firmness, "I, Myself, will teach you," which She did. I cannot tell you the joy I felt. It was as though I was reborn. I found it hard to say the Rosary at first, but then I came to love it.

Eventually, I ended up saying it all the time. The way that Mary taught me to pray the Rosary was not at all as we prayed it when I was a child. Her way was slow and thoughtful... so meaningful to me, and such a joy to feel truly in the presence of Jesus and Mary while it was being prayed. When I left prison, I entered a Cistercian Monastery for three and a half years. I am certain, that for the rest of my life, I will never forget Our Lady's visit, and always thank Padre Pio, Our Lady, and God for that wonderful night in prison which changed me and saved both my life and my soul.

Dear children! Today I call you to prepare yourselves for the coming of Jesus.

2011-12-10T14:02:00.003-05:00

Dear children! Today I call you to prepare yourselves for the coming of Jesus. In a special way, prepare your hearts. May Holy Confession be the first act of conversion for you and then, dear children, decide for holiness. May your conversion and decision for holiness begin today and not tomorrow. Little children, I call you all to the way of salvation and I desire to show you the way to Heaven. That is why, little children, be mine and Decide with me for holiness. Little children, accept prayer with seriousness and pray, pray, pray. Thank you for having responded to my call. Our Lady's message from Medjugorje of November 25, 1998

The Disappearing Priest

2011-12-09T19:47:00.003-05:00

Saint Elijah's Church in Tihaljna

The Disappearing Priest
By Tony Zuniga

Fr. Jozo is considered by many to be a living saint. He went to prison to protect the six visionaries when the communists attempted to jail them. Maime [my wife] and I went to his Mass at St. Elijah’s church, about an hour from Medjugorje. And even though we were told that the Mass would be in Croatian, and that we would not understand it, we were asked to just simply look at Fr. Jozo and listen. God would do the rest. We did, and God did.

At the moment of Consecration, when the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ during the Mass, Fr. Jozo repeated Jesus’s words, “This is My Body!” As he slowly raised the Sacred Host, I heard two loud thumps to my right. Startled, I turned my head in that direction. Two women who were standing nearby had just dropped hard on their knees, as if hit by a two by four. I found out later that one of them did not believe in Jesus, and the other one did not believe in Mary. Apparently their conversion took place in an instant. tant.

Then my own miracle happened. When I turned back toward the altar to see Fr. Jozo, he disappeared right in front of my eyes. The Sacred Host remained floating in mid air, but Fr. Jozo just wasn’t there. I rubbed my eyes. I looked under and around the altar. All I could see was the Sacred Host, floating and vibrating, about three feet above the altar. My heart was pounding. So I turned to Maime to tell her to look, but could not reach her. The church was packed with people, and Maime had her head down in adoration. So I turned to the left, and saw another woman staring and looking towards the altar, shocked, just like I was.

After Mass, I went directly to this woman. Before I could ask her anything, she asked me, “Are you going to tell me about the disappearing priest?” My heart leaped with joy. For a moment I thought I had imagined things, or I was the only one who had experienced this. But this woman challenged me, “What did this miracle mean to you?”

I answered quickly and without hesitation. “Jesus Christ is above everyone and everything, including His own Mother, more important than the priest, and all of us. He is the center of our existence, the core of our being, the King and Lord of our lives, the Master of our destiny, our friend and personal Savior!” The woman smiled and said, “Good! Now, go out into the world and tell everyone you meet what you saw and experienced here.”

The miracle of Medjugorje, however, is not the outer, incredible manifestations we see with earthly eyes, but the continual transformation, in tremendous numbers, of the lives and souls of people who go there. Many who went to Medjugorje had never been inside their churches in forty or fifty years. Today, they are daily communicants. Marriages are strengthened and blessed. Young people who lived in sin, from drugs, to sex, to hatred, and kids who had abandoned their families and forgotten about Jesus are liberated from all evil, and now feel free and forgiven. Today, after returning from Medjugorje, they go out and preach the Good News wherever they find themselves. The people of God have returned to God and are now rejoicing.
Editor’s note: The above is an excerpt from the book Mother of the Most Beautiful Love in the World, Copyright 1995. http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/

Dear Family of Mary

2011-12-09T14:35:00.005-05:00

Mary TV Reflection
December 9, 2011
Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

Dear Family of Mary!

I love Saint Juan Diego. Everything about his life speaks of the little way. He was a small one, someone who would be overlooked by the "powers that be". He lived a hard and simple life, farming and working with his hands. His people had been subjugated by the Aztecs, and so they were badly used. He welcomed the Franciscans who came with the Spanish conquest, being baptized quite soon after they arrived. He saw the beauty of Christ, and went to Mass when he could, walking 15 miles one way.

It was on one of those 15 mile treks that Our Lady appeared to him. He knew he was nobody. And so he was sure she had made a mistake. But Our Lady persisted, and she sent Saint Juan Diego to the Bishop with her request. The Bishop wisely asked for confirmation of Saint Juan Diego's story, and that is how we have the tilma! But what I love the most are the words Our Lady said to St. Juan Diego on the day of the miracle when he was trying to evade her. He had found out that his uncle was ill, and so he wanted to go assist him. But Our Lady cut him off at the pass and said:

"After hearing Juan Diego's chat, the Most Holy Virgin answered: "Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who am your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything. Do not be afflicted by the illness of your uncle, who will not die now of it. be assured that he is now cured." (And then his uncle was cured, as it was later learned.)" ( http://www.sancta.org/nican.html )

"Am I not here who am you Mother?" I just love it! I think that Our Lady is the same kind of mother for us today in Medjugorje. Listen to this message:

*"Dear children! Today also I invite you to prayer, so that through prayer you come still nearer to God. I am with you and I desire to lead you on the path to salvation that Jesus gives you. From day to day, I am nearer to you although you are not aware of it and you do not want to admit that you are only linked to me in a small way with your few prayers. When trials and problems arise, you say, "O God! O Mother! Where are you?" As for me, I only wait for your "Yes" to present to Jesus for Him to fill you with His grace. That is why, once more, please accept my call and start to pray in a new way until prayer becomes joy to you. Then you will discover that God is all-powerful in your daily life. I am with you and I am waiting for you. Thank you for having responded to my call." (May 25, 1992)

Our Lady waited for Saint Juan Diego on the hill at Tepeyac. She waits for us on the hills of Medjugorje. She waits with her love, her protection, her care, and her call. She wants to help us, and she wants us to become a help to her other children. Saint Juan Diego presented the flowers to the Bishop, and Our Lady left her image on his tilma, an image that to this day is converting thousands of people. We go to Medjugorje and Our Lady imprints her image on our hearts, and we then come home carrying her loving image to our families and friends. If we remain faithful to her, thousands will be converted through our lives lived in her image.

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
(c)Mary TV 2011

The Holy Spirit Speaks through the Darkness

2011-12-09T13:10:00.001-05:00

Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur, Touched By Grace
The Holy Spirit Speaks through the Darkness
It never ceases to amaze me how the Holy Spirit can speak to us if only we are open to it. We might open a book and find just the passage we need to answer a question that has been bothering us or a friend might call at the moment when life is falling apart and offer the encouragement that is desperately needed. Somehow, God provides what we need when we need it. As a former spiritual director of mine was fond of saying, “There are no coincidences, only God-incidences.” I had an experience like that just this past week.
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Wednesday morning, I had the strong feeling that I should go to morning Mass. It was 7:50 a.m. My local Church has an 8:15 mass. My children were occupied and my husband was home so I could go; I hadn’t eaten yet so I knew I could go to communion. There was nothing standing in my way, so I decided to heed the call and go.
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The first reading was from the book of Tobit (Tobit 3:1-11). It told the story of two people begging for death. The first was Tobit who had been blind for four years. He felt like a burden to his family. As Tobit states, “be pleased to take my life from me; so that I may be delivered from earth and become earth again. Better death than life for me, for I have endured groundless insult and am in deepest sorrow.”
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The second suffering soul was Sarah. She had been married seven times, yet each time her husband died before the marriage could be consummated. For this, she was taunted by her father’s serving girls. She decided that life was no longer worth living. She made the decision to hang herself, but then she thought better of it, knowing that such an action would only bring shame to her father. She decides, “I should do better not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to let me die and not live to hear any more insults.” Ultimately, the Lord would take pity on both Tobit, who would eventually be healed of his blindness, and Sarah, who would be married to Tobias and live happily with him for many years.
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The homily that morning focused on trusting in God even in our darkest hour, trusting that God has a plan that will come to fruition in God’s time, not ours. This was a message I desperately needed to hear. Yes, it is something that I am well aware of, but sometimes one does need a reminder. Both Tobit and Sarah had good reasons for feeling discouraged. As someone who has suffered from depression for over twenty years, discouragement often seems like my constant companion and darkness often prevails. I can be fine for a while, and then I will wake up one morning and feel like I was hit by a two by four during the night. It is like a dark curtain has fallen and life seems meaningless.
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Anyone who thinks that people choose to be depressed has never truly experienced depression. I have been in that place where I have begged for death more times than I care to admit. As a teenager, I was suicidal. Only my fear of hell kept me alive. As an adult, I have more perspective. I know the curtain will eventually lift, although sometimes it can take months. I have learned how to function in spite of my feelings so that even those closest to me are unaware of what I am going through. Only my faith carries me through until the light eventually comes again. Yes, I know what it is to suffer in the darkness and throw myself on God’s mercy. This message of trusting in God was one that I needed to be reminded of. I need to believe that God has a plan. The Holy Spirit reached out and spoke to me through the darkness. For that, I am incredibly grateful.

Secret History: The Fascinating Prophecies that Led up to a Famous Alleged Apparition

2011-12-09T00:05:00.002-05:00

The old church in Medjugorje

Secret History: The Fascinating Prophecies that Led up to a Famous Alleged Apparition

It's impossible to know how the Vatican will rule on it (abiding, as we will, by any such ruling), but there certainly are aspects about the famous apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina that continue to intensely intrigue.

Previously, we have written about how the happenings there seemed to have been prophesied. This occurred a number of times. There was a famous Catholic charismatic priest, Emiliano Tardif, from Santo Domingo, who, in a "word of knowledge" at a conference, saw it coming. There was also a prediction, of sorts, from an Irish-American nun, Sister Briege McKenna. Those were immediately before the occurrences – in fact, earlier the very same year and month: June, 1981.

Farther in the past, however, and with more detail, there was a villager named Mate Šego, born in 1901, died 1979, who, as we have reported, often spoke of a future time when, "My Gospa [Our Lady] will come – blessed are they who remain in prayer.”

"I'm telling you this now!" he was quoted as prophesying. "I will not see any of this but you, children, will! There will be lots of buildings not like houses we have now – some of the buildings will be huge. Our folks will sell their land to foreigners who will build hotels. Medjugorje and the surrounding hills will be a holy place. There will be so many people on our Crnica you won't be able to sleep at night. They will come for my Gospa! Be kind and hospitable to those who come here and all will go well for you."

Šego was an illiterate man who was only half-listened to at the time. Obviously, aspects of what he foresaw came stunningly true: Once tobacco fields and houses made of rough-hewn stone, Medjugorje is now a pilgrimage city the size of Lourdes with religious shops, pansions, and even hotels densely clustered around the church, many of them largely built with foreign money to provide for pilgrims whose numbers continue to swell (even as a Vatican commission studies the events; in September alone, 5,441 priests concelebrated Mass there, or 181 a day, distributing 300,500 Hosts).

But there was more. Older than that were the prophecies of an elderly woman named Marićuša who tended to sheep on the hillsides and likewise saw a tremendous future in which Our Lady would appear and a "white army" would also come (this perhaps the white-clad United Nations peacekeepers during the Yugoslavian civil war in the 1990s).

Meanwhile, in 1933, the large Cross on a massive hill/mountain known then as Śipovac (Rosehip Hill), now called Kriźevac (Hill of the Cross), was erected at the behest of parish priest named Father Bernardin Smoljan, who in 1945 was murdered by Communists in Mostar. Father Smoljan wanted to also build a new church, but the impoverishment of the area prevented that until 1969, when the original quake-damaged church [above] was replaced by the now-famous two-tower one.

If it was all a hoax – these intimations of something tremendous in the area's future – it was certainly a long-running one!

It is all detailed in a splendid new book, Medjugorje: What's Happening? by Father James Mulligan of London.

In 1974 there was also what Father Mulligan calls a "naive painting" by a local artist, Vlado Falak, of Šurmanci (an adjacent hamlet), depicting the Blessed Mother in the sky above the new church with Cross Mountain in the background. That was seven years before six children began receiving their apparitions! The picture had been displayed in the choir loft of the church – where many later apparitions would occur (as well as in the rectory and sacristy).

What was it that seemed to pre-ordain this area?

No one can really know how places here and elsewhere are chosen and figure into God's master Plan, nor the role of history (and even pre-history: this is old caveman territory). It is a fact that Franciscans have ministered here for many centuries – since the Middle Ages, with legends that Saint Francis himself once walked the craggy, dolomite-stone hillsides of former Yugoslavia.

The blood of martyrs has been spilled in this vicinity. In 1941 – during World War Two – a train with six cars filled with women and children was sent to Šurmanci. They were led up the mountains and thrown alive off the precipices. Sixty-nine Franciscans in Hercegovina were killed in 1945 (some buried alive at a nearby monastery called Široki Brijeg) and a total of 617 priests slain by Communists in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. Later, the priest who served as pastor of Medjugorje at the time of the initial apparitions would be imprisoned by Communists, who intimidated the bishop, threatened to detain the seers, and tried to keep villagers away from the hill of apparitions. Intriguing, to say the least.

And the Vatican? Father Mulligan relates the account of a meeting in Linz between Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Medjugorje priest Father Slavko Barbarić at which time, referring to the apparitions, Cardinal Ratzinger told the Franciscan that "the Church does not want to repress anything that is bringing good spiritual fruits" (reported in Nasa Ognjista, 1991, number 10). Father Mulligan says that according to taxi drivers and others in the village the future Pope first visited the site incognito in 1985 as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Among the alleged witnesses: an Irish pilgrim named Mary E. Smith who was with a friend named Anita Curtis and recalls that "we were sitting on the steps outside the sacristy. Cardinal Ratzinger walked right by us at half-a-meter's distance. He put his head down and to the left, toward the wall of the church, as if he did not want to be recognized by the general body of pilgrims. He was dressed in civilian clothes: a white, short-sleeved shirt open at the neck and a light gray pair of trousers. I also recognized his snow-white hair."

Seers have declined to comment on whether the future Pope has been there (there are reports of three visitations), but it is documented that the Vatican has regularly sent "observers."

Meanwhile, it was Cardinal Ratzinger who later sent away a local bishop from Mostar who had sought to reject the apparitions. It is also reported that in October 2009, Monsignor Edmond Farhat, former apostolic nuncio of Austria, went to Medjugorje with a group of 2,000 pilgrims and related that he had spoken to Pope Benedict about going and that the Pope was "delighted."

Still, no one knows what the current commission will recommend, and how the Vatican will react to that recommendation. (We will abide by whatever final decision the Church renders.) A final word on Mate Šego: he also prophesied, enigmatically, that one day there would be a lake in Medjugorje, where now, in summer dryness, there is cracked earth.
http://www.spiritdaily.com/ & http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/

What Ever Happen to Christmas???

2011-12-08T13:52:00.001-05:00

Rosary and Healing Service with Fr. Joseph Whalen ,MS

2011-12-08T12:44:00.002-05:00

PRAYER MEETING

Rosary and Healing Service

with Fr. Joseph Whalen ,MS

Inspirational talk by Fr. John Welch,MS

Tuesday, December 13th

7:00 PM

Temp Flex Cable
26 Milford Rd
South Grafton, MA 01560
contact: Rose 508-425-6420
Every 2nd Tuesday of the month!
Refreshments served afterwards
only 41 miles from Boston!
only 35 miles from Providence!
http://www.straphaeloil.com/

It's A War

2011-12-07T20:16:00.002-05:00

As attacks against the Catholic Faith are stepped up in the West, including the United States, at least one very prominent Cardinal ( Cardinal Burke ) is saying it would be no surprise to start seeing Catholics arrested.

Revelation, Saint Maria Faustina

2011-12-07T16:43:00.004-05:00

Saint Maria Faustina

~REVELATION~

Today [December 7, 1937] is the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. During the midday meal, in an instant, God gave me to know the greatness of my destiny; that is, His closeness, which for all eternity will not be taken away from me, and He did this in such a vivid and clear fashion that I remained wrapped up in His living presence for a long time, humbling myself before His greatness.

It is with great zeal that I have prepared for the celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. I have made an extra effort to keep recollected in spirit and have meditated on that unique privilege of Our Lady. And thus my heart was completely drowned in Her, thanking God for having accorded this great privilege to Mary.

I prepared not only by means of the novena said in common by the whole community, but I also made a personal effort to salute Her a thousand times each day, saying a thousand "Hail Marys" for nine days in Her praise.

Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska

Father Barron on The God Who Doesn't Need Us

2011-12-06T19:36:00.000-05:00

R.I. Governor excludes Christmas from State House Ceremony.

2011-12-05T13:20:00.000-05:00

Bishop Thomas Tobin

Providence, R.I., Dec 3, 2011 / 12:55 pm (CNA).- A 17-foot Colorado blue spruce is standing tall at the center of controversy in the Rhode Island State House rotunda for what is being – or more importantly, not being – called.

Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee has invited the public to a “Holiday Tree Lighting” ceremony next Tuesday at the State House, leaving many, including Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, to question the governor’s choice of such secular terminology in referring to a symbol most commonly associated with the Christian celebration of Christmas.

"Governor Chafee's decision to avoid the word Christmas at the State House ceremony is most disheartening and divisive," said Bishop Tobin, in a statement released to the media Tuesday night.

"It is sad that such a secular spirit has swept over our state. The Governor's decision ignores long held American traditions and is an affront to the faith of many citizens. For the sake of peace and harmony in our state at this special time of the year, I respectfully encourage the Governor to reconsider his decision to use the word Christmas in the state observance."
Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Chafee said in a statement that he is only following in the footsteps of how previous governors have termed the event.

“Use of the term ‘holiday tree’ is a continuation of past practice, and does not represent a change of course on my part,” the governor said.

The governor, attempting to diffuse the controversy, then suggested that those with opinions on both sides of the tree issue instead refocus their energy on helping the less fortunate.

“I would encourage all those engaged in this discussion – whatever their opinion on the matter – to use their energy and enthusiasm to make a positive difference in the lives of their fellow Rhode Islanders.”

Father Timothy Reilly, chancellor of the diocese, reaffirmed the irony of Chafee’s message.

“In the governor’s attempts to unify, his decision has done quite the opposite,” Fr. Reilly said. “The irony is that we see more confusion and lack of unity. Christmas is a precious and sacred word in our faith vocabulary.”

Fr. John Codega, pastor of St. Brendan Church, Riverside told WPRO News that Christians are “frustrated” with Chafee’s decision.

“The governor is continuing to turn his back on the faith community,” Fr. Codega continued, adding that by suggesting that Rhode Island lawmakers and others involved in the debate should focus their energy and enthusiasm on feeding those less fortunate, Chafee is insulting the faith community.

“These are the people that are serving the poor,” Fr. Codega emphasized, noting that St. Patrick Church on Smith Hill, the site of a Christmas tree lighting scheduled for next Tuesday, Dec. 6, serves those less fortunate through several outreach ministries including a soup kitchen and food pantry.

According to Fr. James Ruggieri, pastor of St. Patrick Church, the tree lighting will begin at 5 p.m. with a prayer service on the front lawn of the church, located at 244 Smith St. The service will be led by Bishop Tobin, and will be followed by the singing of Christmas carols.

“The idea is to light a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree,” said Fr. Ruggieri. “It’s to call attention to the true meaning of Christmas, which exists because of Christ’s birth.”

Rep. Doreen M. Costa, (R—Exeter, North Kingstown), who sponsored a resolution passed by lawmakers in January, declaring the annual State House tree to be called a “Christmas tree and not a ‘holiday tree’ or any other non-traditional terms.”
Costa, a parishioner of St. Francis de Sales Church, North Kingstown, said, “I think that the governor has overstepped his bounds. This is one way of keeping Christ out of Christmas and I won’t allow that.”

The lawmaker added that there would be a “Christmas tree lighting” outside of her office, Room 106, on Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. She asked those attending to bring nonperishable food items to be distributed to local food pantries.

Joseph Cavanagh, a Pawtucket attorney, asked, "Is there really any question that Dec 25th is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ?”

Cavanagh argued that civilization has used the Christmas tree for centuries to remind people of “that momentous event which forever changed the world.

“Why then does our governor insist on ignoring reality as he unfortunately does with so many other fundamental issues, such as marriage and abortion, the intentional killing of defenseless children?” Cavanagh questioned.

Cavanagh emphasized that members of the faith community need to pray, then act, to stop the spread of “dangerous secularism, which the governor espouses.
“The notion of a "holiday" tree is sad nonsense,” he said.

Printed with permission from the Rhode Island Catholic, newspaper for the Diocese of Providence, R.I.

Heregovina Zemlja Svjetlosti

2011-12-04T15:36:00.003-05:00

Hello friends, A friend just posted this on Facebook and I wanted to share it with you, it's so beautiful. We only see a small corner of Herzegovina when we go to Medjugorje, but it is a beautiful country ~~ and this clip ends with beautiful pictures of Medjugorje: - I hope you enjoy it!
"Thank You Maureen"

Jesus Proclaimed the Good News of God's reign.

2011-12-03T12:48:00.002-05:00

~LOVE CONNECTION~

Jesus "proclaimed the Good News of God's reign, and He cured every sickness and disease. At the sight of the crowds, His heart was moved with pity." -Matthew 9:35-36

In a world of bad news, God's Word is Good News. In His Word today, the Lord promises to answer our prayers, provide all our needs, give us clear direction, make us fruitful, be our light, and heal our wounds (Is 30:19-21, 25-26). The Lord loves us and expresses His love in many personal and practical ways.

However, many people do not receive all this love from the Lord. They may have refused to let the Lord be fully involved in their lives, or we the Christian people may be the problem. The Lord Jesus often expresses His love for people through the members of His body, the Church.

When Jesus wants to touch somebody, He may use our hands. To visit the sick, He will often use our feet. To speak His Word, He will use our mouths. To love, Jesus will use our hearts. Therefore, if God's people don't obey Him, then many people throughout the world are deprived of fully knowing God's love. So we should pray for many more workers to take Jesus' love to the world (Mt 9:38), and we should be the first to answer our prayer.

This Advent, in a special way, touch, walk, speak, work, and love in Jesus' name. Let His love come to and through you.

* "The gift you have received, give as a gift." -Mt 10:8 *

Daily Grace: Only honest eyes can see the way........

2011-12-03T12:34:00.001-05:00

Daily Grace: Only honest eyes can see the way........: He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green,...

Our Lady's message to Mirjana of December 2, 2011

2011-12-02T14:18:00.002-05:00

Dear children, as a mother I am with you so that with my love, prayer and example I may help you to become a seed of the future, a seed that will grow into a firm tree and spread it's branches throughout the world. For you to become a seed of the future, a seed of love, implore the Father to forgive you your omissions up to now. My children, only a pure heart, unburdened by sin, can open itself and only honest eyes can see the way by which I desire to lead you. When you become aware of this, you will become aware of the love of God – it will be given to you (as a gift). Then you will give it (as a gift) to others as a seed of love. Thank you. December 2, 2011

Anyone who hears My words and puts them into practice is like the wise man who built his house on rock." -Matthew 7:24

2011-12-01T19:04:00.001-05:00

HARD ROCK

"Anyone who hears My words and puts them into practice is like the wise man who built his house on rock." -Matthew 7:24

On this fifth day of Advent, the Church reads to us about "a strong city" (Is 26:1), "a nation of firm purpose" (Is 26:3), and a house "solidly set on rock" (Mt 7:25). God's Word is calling us to be strong, firm, and solid by building our lives on obedience to the Lord, the "eternal Rock" (Is 26:4). If we are totally committed to Jesus and obey His Word, our lives will stand no matter how terrible the circumstances.

At this time of the year, some parts of the world are hit by major winter storms. This is also true spiritually. We may find ourselves in a "great period of trial" (Rv 7:14), "a great contest of suffering" (Heb 10:32), or "the distress of many trials" (1 Pt 1:6). We may understand all too well what Job went through. We may even fill up in our bodies "what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. When the spiritual weather gets this bad, when it gets this stormy and cold, only those Confirmed by the Holy Spirit and trusting in Jesus, the "eternal Rock," will stand.
"Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal Rock." -Is 26:4

Come and see

2011-11-30T17:18:00.006-05:00

Fr. John McCaffery ofm
http://www.crownofstars.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Come and See...

• An appeal from Fr John McCaffery OFM

Whether you are a priest, lay person or religious, I would like you to read these few words. As you know it was Jesus himself who was the first to apply the title Mother of Christ to the Church when he said: “My brothers and sisters are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” (Luke 8 : 21)

We are all called to grow into a spiritual maturity resembling Mary and this is brought home to us by St Francis of Assisi when he wrote to his brothers: “We are Mothers of Christ when we carry him in our hearts and our bodies through divine love and a pure sincere conscience: we give birth to him through holy works which should shine as an example before others.”

Today, Mary as a Mother is concerned about us, a concern which shines through her messages at Medjugorje. These messages are based on the Gospel and on the official teaching of the Church, and so are sound, orthodox and Catholic in content.

On this basis alone a Catholic is not only free to adopt the messages of Medjugorje, but is in fact called to live them, which are nothing less than the challenge of the Gospel. This inspires us today to greater prayer, penance and, as a result, to peace in public and private life.

Can an obedient Catholic accept the contents of private revelation prior to an official judgment of the Church on the apparitions? The answer is yes provided the person tales the trouble to examine the orthodoxy of the messages and finds nothing incompatible with the Gospel or Church teaching.

If you have avoided Medjugorje – then, please, I beg you to do so no longer. At least read and reflect on the messages. Mary is simply begging us to take the Gospel to our hearts and to live it with passion and conviction. Yes it is a challenge, but is there anything wrong in that?

May the Lord and his Mother bless you.

• Fr John McCaffery OFM

Posted by pilgrim at 10:00 AM http://www.crownofstars.blogspot.com/

Father Jozo Zovko is going to serve in Zagreb

2011-11-30T13:59:00.003-05:00

Fr. Jozo Zovko

Father Jozo is going to serve in Zagreb
by Jakob Marschner on Nov 30, 2011

World-famous Medjugorje priest Fr. Jozo Zovko relocates from Austria to Croatia. From December or early next year he will live in the Franciscan monastery in Zagreb. Fr. Jozo has all the usual rights of a priest but has accepted not to talk about Medjugorje in public until the Vatican Commission has finished its work.
Before long Fr. Jozo Zovko will again be able to greet his Franciscan brothers in Croatian when he meets them in his home monastery....More http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/3753/father-jozo-is-going-to-serve-in-zagreb/

Jesus Rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. - Luke 10:21

2011-11-29T19:32:00.004-05:00

THE TRUE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

"Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit." -Luke 10:21

God's plan, including His plan for Christmas, is hidden from the learned and the clever, and revealed to the merest children (Lk 10:21). This does not mean that Christmas is for kids. "Merest children" are not people young in age; they are adults who completely depend on the Lord and have become "merest children" by the Spirit. Thus, Christmas is neither for kids nor adults, but for people of any age who have become new creations, transformed by the Holy Spirit. The true Christmas spirit is the Holy Spirit. Christmas is for those Living in the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit of Christmas is "a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord" (Is 11:2). It is primarily a Spirit of justice. If we have and give the true Christmas Spirit, the poor and afflicted will be judged with justice (Is 11:4). If we have the true Christmas Spirit, we are leading people to Christ, Who will then give these people His heart for the poor and for justice.

The true Christmas spirit is the Holy Spirit leading us to depend totally on Jesus and to give justice to the poor and oppressed. The true Christmas spirit is that of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph at the manger in Bethlehem.

Father, may I unlearn the worldly Christmas and learn the real one.

Come Emmauel

2011-11-29T16:13:00.003-05:00

28/11/2011 20:04:38: Dwell within our hearts, Pure Savior of the world.
come, emmanuel

Medjugorje priest did not believe at first...

2011-11-28T16:28:00.002-05:00

Fr. Branimir Musa
http://www.crownofstars.blogspot.com/

Monday, November 28, 2011

Medjugorje priest did not believe at first...

Fr Branimir Musa OFM, Superior of the Franciscan Monastery at Humac (near Medjugorje) reveals that there was a time he did not believe in the Medjugorje phenomenon.

• At the beginning I did not believe in Medjugorje. I was a student at the time and for me Medjugorje was at a distance. At that time I looked at Medjugorje from a political perspective. There were problems in Poland, in Kosovo, in America. Then I thought it was the last steps of the Communists who were trying to stay in power. They wanted to create fear and make themselves stronger in that way.

When I came to Medjugorje for the first time I just came to examine; I was like Thomas; I wanted to put my finger in the palm. I came to Medjugorje and I saw so many people there and they were praying, but it was my own pride and selfishness.
I said to myself, “Let the old ladies pray, that feeling will soon be gone.” But when I became a priest and started hearing Confessions, then, against the will of the bishops and priests, conversion starts happening. People just start living different lives. That is so positive and that’s what the miracle is, that’s the strength that cannot be defined.

You can just say that God is working. But there is something else: if you are not ready to allow Jesus and Our Lady to come into your heart, conversion will never happen. If you are not going to pray in the way that God prays, that prayer won’t exist.

Very often it happens that when we are praying we just talk to ourselves, we are just putting our wishes on a piece of paper. We just have to abandon ourselves to God and say, “Here I am. Do with me whatever you want, and I want what you want me to do.”

Medjugorje has been happening now for many years. I know all the priests who have worked there. So many priests came there from different other places, and I can really say to you that everything would have fallen apart had not the Spirit of God been there, if it was not the wish of God and Our Lady. If it depended on our strength, nothing would have happened there. However, you see millions of people coming there. It’s really hard to say how many people have visited Medjugorje so far, we just know how many Holy Communions are distributed. One priest in America said to me, “The Rosary was not prayed in my church at all, but since Medjugorje, people started praying the Rosary, so I started praying the Rosary with them. Now, every evening we pray the Rosary in our church.”

I spent five and a half years in Medjugorje and we really worked hard there, hard work: confession, prayer Holy Mass, meeting pilgrims, talking with people, and that gave us a tremendous amount of joy.

If I had not been sent to Medjugorje I don’t know what would have happened to me. Medjugorje helped me to be a joyful person, to try to understand my priesthood in the right way. Medjugorje helped me to meet all of you.

When it comes to who have been to Medjugorje already, or maybe have heard what is happening there, I would say to you: “You are the messengers, the heralds of the message: Let us return to Christ.” Our Lady says to us: “My children, the joy is in my Son, the hope is in my Son, and the solution of problems is in my Son.”

Medjugorje truly is a gift, and Medjugorje lives in the world of today, and from what I have seen, thanks be to God that this is so. When it comes to the opinion of the official Church you have to be wise and to understand that the Church has to make the step aside and wait. For example, if you work in a company and you are a person who makes decisions, you won’t make an important decision straight away, You will take some time for that and reflect upon it.

What is the position of Medjugorje in the Church? We never advertised. We never actually wrote about what is happening. Not many things were published. There was a kind of rule: Come and see... and I think it is very good when people come and see. I know that it is good and necessary to send, as often as possible, reports to the Church, so that the Church may consider it in a more serious way. The Church has many difficult problems, it’s not easy for the Church. Take into consideration our human weaknesses and you will see and realise how many problems there are. We should not criticise each other, we should not criticise our priests and our bishops. What we have to do is to decide to fix that house together, as God said to St Francis: “Go and fix my Church.” So each one of us has to go and start fixing the Church with prayer and faith.

The initiative to pray always comes from God. God says, “Listen, Israel.” The initiative always comes from God so that things are good. What does it mean to pray? It means to speak, to listen, and it means to act. Listen to what God is saying, what God wants from me, what God wants me to be. It’s true that we say to God, “God, I want this, God, I want that.” But God already knows that I need all this, so to pray means to think in the way God thinks, to be one with Him, and to act towards people in the way that God wants. God won’t punish and God always acts in a positive way. If we act together with God then we will act in a positive way as well. We have to be people of hope and people of good will, not be cold-hearted, but to be warm-hearted. I have to embrace you and say to you, “I love you because God has created you.”
Posted by pilgrim at 11:02 AM http://www.crownofstars.blogspot.com/

Revelation from Saint Maria Faustina--Confession--Fountain of God's Mercy

2011-11-28T16:10:00.000-05:00

~REVELATION~

Today the Lord said to me, Daughter, when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul.
When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls.
Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1602

Today, I went to confession to Father An. [Andrasz] I did as Jesus wanted. After confession, a surge of light filled my soul. Then I heard a voice: Because you are a child, you shall remain close to My Heart. Your simplicity is more pleasing to Me than your mortifications.
Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1617

Divine Mercy Shop in Medjugorje

2011-11-26T23:46:00.002-05:00

A new order based on Our Lady's messages

2011-11-26T14:00:00.002-05:00

I have come to tell the world
that God exist.

A new order based on Our Lady's messages
by Mosie » Sat Nov 26, 2011 11:45 am

*There is a new Order called Apostles of Peace, founded by Fr. Michael Sevigny, already approved by Cardinal O'Malley of Boston, based on Our Lady's messages in Medjugorje.

They are having a prayer meeting Sunday, November 27th. This is short notice but there is a number here for more information for anyone interested who lives in the Massachusetts, USA area.

Prayer Meeting, Weymouth, MA -- The Apostles of Peace, a Marian community, will host a Prayer Cenacle on the monthly Medjugorje message to the world at Immaculate Conception Convent, 1199 "R" Commercial Street, from 4:00-5:30 p.m. Questions, please call Sister Angeline at 781-812-1603. All are invited.

Daily Grace: Prepare the way of the Lord.

2011-11-25T17:48:00.001-05:00

Daily Grace: Prepare the way of the Lord.: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be fill...

Our Lady's message to Marija of November 25, 2011

2011-11-25T14:07:00.002-05:00

Marija Lunetti

Dear children! Today I desire to give you hope and joy. Everything that is around you, little children, leads you towards worldly things but I desire to lead you towards a time of grace, so that through this time you may be all the closer to my Son, that he can lead you towards his love and eternal life, for which every heart yearns. You, little children, pray and may this time for you be one of grace for your soul. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, November 25, 2011

Jesus I Believe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfVV9DcihWc&feature=related

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T23:05:00.001-05:00

O Gracious God, we give you thanks for your overflowing generosity to us. Thank you for the blessings of the food we eat and especially for this feast today. Thank you for our home and family and friends, especially for the presence of those gathered here. Thank you for our health, our work and our play. Please send help to those who are hungry, alone, sick and suffering war and violence. Open our hearts to your love. We ask your blessing through Christ your son. Amen.

Song: Give Thanks.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBpv-ZzcQD8

Dear Family of Mary

2011-11-23T19:42:00.005-05:00

Father and Doctor Erich shares his testimony in
Vienna Used with permission from Christian Stelzer

November 24, 2011
Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children! Today when Heaven is near to you in a special way, I call you to prayer so that through prayer you place God in the first place. Little children, today I am near you and I bless each of you with my motherly blessing so that you have the strength and love for all the people you meet in your earthly life and that you can give God's love. I rejoice with you and I desire to tell you that your brother Slavko has been born into Heaven and intercedes for you. Thank you for having responded to my call." (November 25, 2000)

Today is the anniversary of the death of Fr. Slavko Barbaric, O.F.M. Fr. Slavko died on Mount Krizevac after completing the Way of the Cross. He remains with us all as an example and an intercessor. Thank you, Fr. Slavko.
Today I want to share this beautiful testimony given in Vienna at St. Stephens Cathedral, on November 17, 2011. Dr. (Rev.) Erich Cohen (I am not sure of the spelling of his name) shared of his journey from a family with no faith to the priesthood. His story is intertwined with Fr. Slavko in a special way. (The video of this testimony may be found at www.marytv.tv on the video entitled "Ivan's sharing" in the video player entitled Ivan & Cardinal Schoenborn in St. Stephens Cathedral.)

Witness of Dr. Erich Coehn at St. Stephens Cathedral, November 17, 2011:

Yes May Jesus Christ be praised! I am happy that so many people have come to give honor to the Mother of God. In a message she told us: "Be witnesses" and so I wish to give witness to the glory of God and to the Mother of God, who has done so much good in my life.

I come from a family in Tyrol in which faith played no role whatsoever. We were very far away from God, but there was a woman, my Grandmother. She was praying. She was praying for us. She has interceded for us and through her intercession much good has come. She became old, and forgetful. She even forgot to pray, we could say. But in me, God had listened to her, and he planted the seed of faith in my heart.

It began with a crisis. I was in love, and I was looking for the meaning in life. I was thinking about what is important and what is not important. And I found a passage from the Bible in my memory, and it said, "Do unto others what you would have done unto you." And so I thought, if this is in the Bible, I don't need to reflect much more. I will read the Bible, it will be quicker. So I started to spend a lot of time with the Bible, and take a lot of time to read it. I was about 20 years old. I was a student. People came to me, like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the sect of Moon, and they invited me to walk with them, and I actually walked with those sects for a time. It was not easy to get out of those sects. It was not easy.

But I had a very strong experience, and I felt the love of God. And that experience brought me to search for this God. Where does he live, this God? I was allowed to experience God while in the sect of Moon and the Jehovah's Witnesses. I woke up one day and I knew where my home was. I began to know who I was and whom I belonged to. I don't know why. I was living in Innsbruck, in the middle of the city. I went to the window, and the whole city was full of people. There were people on both sides if the street. And I said to them, "Why are you standing in the middle of the street?" And they said, "The Pope is coming to Innsbruck." And I said, "OK." I was standing on the road, and truly, the Pope came in the pope mobile. And he drove straight past the house I was living in and was so close to me. I have never been with him since then. He was 2 meters away, the road was a very narrow one and I was so close to him. And then I went to celebrate the Mass of the Pope, with everybody. It was a very deep experience.

In the spiritual battle [in my soul], the topic was, "Is Jesus really present in the Eucharist or is it just a piece of bread?" That was my spiritual battle. I decided that Jesus is present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. I decided He was there. And I was a member of the Catholic Church from then on. Every Sunday I went to Mass after that, and I was in love with God. I can say that as the Mass continued, when the Pope held up the Cross and he said, "Behold your mother, Behold your son," I didn't know what to do with Our Lady at the time. I didn't understand the Mother of God.

But I was busy with Hildegard of Bingen, and her medicine. And in one of her writings she spoke about Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. And I read in a brochure of Fatima something about this [Heaven, Hell and Purgatory] as well. And when I looked it up, it matched [with what Hildegard had written]. And so I thought "How could the visionaries of Fatima know something of Hildegard of Bingen?" So what happened in Fatima must be true. And that is how I found the Mother of God.

I began to pray the Rosary. Praying the Rosary brought freedom in me, a deliverance in me. When I prayed it for the first time, there was truly dirt and dust around me, and I felt that the dirt and dust was around me and in my soul. I knew it. And I saw that the Rosary is the strongest prayer of protection because we take refuge under Our Lady's mantle. So how did I reach Medjugorje?

My sister did not have much faith and she was talking badly about Medjugorje and making jokes about it. And I said, "If my sister speaks badly about Medjugorje there must be something to it." So how would I get there? I asked and found out about a lady from Innsbruck who did trips to Medjugorje. And that lady didn't do trips in 1993 because there was a war. So she told me to go to Herbert Lebeirer and he told me a bus from the north of Germany, from Bingen, was going to Medjugorje. So I took that bus from Bingen. Just as Hildegard of Bingen was the one to show me the path to Our Lady first, I happened to take a bus from Bingen to go to Medjugorje for the first time - a little detail.

I had a good friend who is a Carthusian. At the time he was a Merciful Brother. He gave me a "Golden Book". He said that when the time has come, then read a bit in that Golden Book. Well without knowing it, I was beginning the Consecration. I didn't know that Medjugorje actually existed, but on the 30th day of that Consecration, I was in Medjugorje. And during the apparition time I made my Consecration to Mary. This is how I arrived in Medjugorje.

I became active in prayer groups, prayer circles. For me this was a very special time because the family of the prayer circle kept me in the faith, encouraged me and carried me. And so I can say that prayer groups, prayer circles are very important now.

Then I finished my studies. I became a medical doctor. After studies, after I began to work, I thought to open my own medical practice. [But first] I thought I would pray a bit, and so I went to the Community of the Beatitudes and lived for a while in Austria. I liked the group very much and I wanted to enter them, and to stay there. But I went to Medjugorje for one year and then things were done I thought. I was going to get married, perhaps stay in Medjugorje as a doctor. There were very few of them at the time. And I was happy with that plan, with what I thought would be my life.

*But on one Friday we were doing the Way of the Cross, in November. It was the 24th of November. It was a day when it was raining. And I thought to myself, would I do the Way of the Cross on Krizevac or wouldn't I? It was wet, cold and slippery, and I didn't feel like going. So I had my little battle and I said, "Yes, I will join the Way of the Cross with the parish."

*And when I reached the top, Fr. Slavko was before me, with the group of the parish. When I arrived at the 13th Station, I saw young people running, upset, and I thought they were completely crazy, because in the rain you don't run on that slippery earth, on Krizevac, it is very foolish. But I went up and I saw a priest sort of sitting between the rocks. I saw Fr. Slavko was dying. He was already dying. We prayed together and in that moment, it was a mystical moment I must say, the rain stopped, a little rainbow appeared over the church. We all saw it. The clouds had full sun on them. I knew Fr. Slavko had joined heaven.

*Six of us carried him down. It was very difficult to carry him down. He was dead, but from the back he banged my back, knocked on my back with his arm. And I remembered that when I spoke with him for the first time that I perhaps had a vocation, he knocked my chest with his hand. First he knocked my heart in my chest, and this time he banged me on my back, saying, "Come on, get going!" And then I went down into the church and without a reason I started to cry for one or two hours in the church. And since that moment, Fr. Slavko has interceded for a great gift for me, a great grace. It is not to look at myself, but to trust in God and serve man. That was the beginning of my path to the priesthood. I then decided to be a priest.

I left the community. I went to Rome. I went to the seminary. I went to the diocese. I became a deacon, I was consecrated. And three years ago, I became a priest. And so I can say that the Mother of God has always been my companion, all my life. Until now she has guided me. She has protected me in very difficult situations. I want to encourage you to always accept this protection. She is here for us. She helps us. She is a great grace. And the vocation for many goes through Medjugorje these days. I want to thank the Mother of God for everything she has done for us and all she is doing for us through her presence. I want to thank Fr. Slavko for his graces and his help. And I want to thank Blessed John Paul II; I want to thank him, who gave birth to me into the Church. He bore me into the Church.

I wish you a beautiful evening full of blessings. And may the Mother of God live in your hearts together with Jesus! (Reverend and Doctor Erich Cohen, Vienna, 11/17/2011)

On this Thanksgiving Day in the USA, we all give thanks for Fr. Slavko Barbaric and his steadfast witness to Our Lady of Medjugorje. And we thank Our Lady for her steadfast love for each of us!

Have a blessed day in Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
http://www.marytv.tv/

A Reflection for Today

2011-11-23T13:39:00.009-05:00

apostleshipofprayer on Nov 22, 2011 Reflection for 11/23/11
“Long live Christ the King!”

Blessed Miguel Pro

Today the Church celebrates the optional memorial of Miguel Augustin Pro, priest and martyr.

Miguel Agustin Pro was born January 13, 1891, in Mexico. From his childhood, he was known for his high spirits and happy personality. The son of an affluent mining engineer and a pious and charitable mother, Miguel had a special affinity for the working classes.

At 20, he became a Jesuit novice and shortly afterwards was exiled due to the Mexican revolution. He traveled to the United States, Spain, Nicaragua and Belgium, where he was ordained in 1925. Father Pro suffered greatly from a severe stomach disorder. When his health did not improve after several surgeries, his superiors permitted him to return to Mexico in 1926.

At this time, the revolutionary government in Mexico had banned all religious practice. The churches were closed and priests were in hiding. The government was particularly focused on finding and persecuting priests. Father Pro became a great master of disguise and spent the remainder of his life in a secret ministry to the Mexican Catholics who helped hide him from the authorities. In addition to fulfilling their spiritual needs, Fr. Pro also assisted the poor of Mexico City with their temporal needs. In all that he did, he remained filled with the joy of serving Christ, his King.

Falsely accused in a bombing attempt on the President-elect, Pro became a wanted man. On November 18, 1927, he was arrested and sentenced to death without the benefit of any legal process.On November 23, the day of his death, Father Pro prayed, forgave his executioners, bravely refused a blindfold, and faced the firing squad with his arms extended in the form of a cross, proclaiming, "Viva Cristo Rey!" ("Long Live Christ the King!)

A Prayer Composed by Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J.

According to one of Fr. Pro’s biographers, Rec. M.D. Forrest, M.S.C., the following was composed shortly before his death:

"Does our life become from day to day more painful, more oppressive, more replete with afflictions? Blessed be He a thousand times who desires it so. If life be harder, love makes it also stronger, and only this love, grounded on suffering, can carry the Cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. Love without egotism, without relying on self, but enkindling in the depth of the heart an ardent thirst to love and suffer for all those around us: a thirst that neither misfortune nor contempt can extinguish... I believe, O Lord; but strengthen my faith... Heart of Jesus, I love Thee; but increase my love. Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee; but give greater vigor to my confidence. Heart of Jesus, I give my heart to Thee; but so enclose it in Thee that it may never be separated from Thee. Heart of Jesus, I am all Thine; but take care of my promise so that I may be able to put it in practice even unto the complete sacrifice of my life."

Dear Family of Mary - The homily of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn:

2011-11-22T23:48:00.006-05:00

Cardinal Christoph Schonborn speaks of Our Lady of Medjugorje! 2011
Used with permission from Christian Stelzer

November 23, 2011
St. Clement I
St. Columban
Blessed Agustin Pro

Dear Family of Mary!

I have transcribed the homily of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, given on November 17, 2011 at St. Stephens Cathedral. It is very moving. There is much to pray over in his words. (Remember this is a transcription of a talk translated into English from German. It may be a little rough, but it is so moving! You can also view it on our webpage, http://www.marytv.tv/. )

The homily of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn:

Praised be Jesus Christ! May you always be praised!

Dear brothers and sisters, here in the Cathedral, via radio, television, all of you who are connected with us, united with us, dear brothers in the priesthood, in the deaconate, dear brothers and sisters from Croatia! --
There is a moment when the pilgrims go to Jerusalem, and that moment is one of the greatest moments of joy. It is like the pilgrims of Santiago of Compostela when they are on the Monte de Gozo - Mountain of Joy, after hundreds and perhaps thousands of kilometers, they see the aim of their pilgrimage for the first time. This is the same on the Mount of Olives when the pilgrims come and see Jerusalem for the first time from the Mount of Olives. This is the place where the pilgrims break out in jubilation and sing the Psalm "How I rejoiced when I heard them say 'Let us go unto the house of the Lord!' Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, great city, built so strongly and sturdily. To you all the peoples come!" (cf. Psalm 122)

Today is one of those moments. Like on the Monte de Gozo, from the Mount of Olives, when I look into the Cathedral, when we see all of you brothers and sisters from the presbytery here, we can only rejoice! How much did I rejoice when I was told we go together to the mountain of the Lord. Yes, how I rejoiced when I was told we may go on pilgrimage to the Mother of God, to come to her who comes to us, who is with us. To come to the Lord who is with us!

And Jesus bursts into tears...incomprehensible for the apostles and the disciples, now at the goal of the pilgrimage, with His gaze resting upon Jerusalem, Jesus breaks into tears, He cries. The tears of Jesus...

Here in front of us we see the Icon, the beloved Icon of Maria Posc. Why is it here? Because she cried. It is the miracle of tears. In 1697 in Eastern Hungary, Maria Posc. Floods of tears flowed for days from her eyes. Soldiers came and took the icon apart to look for the trick, the cheat. It was only the piece of wood, the painting, and she cried. She cried. The tears of Jesus... the tears of the Mother of God...

Why did Jesus cry over Jerusalem? Because they did not recognize the hour, the hour of their visitation, of their grace. The hour of grace. Because they didn't recognize what brings them peace, what is their happiness. Brothers and sisters...how is it today with Jesus? Is He crying over us? Is He crying over Austria? Over Europe? Is the Mother of God crying?

Brothers and sisters, sin, sin, sin is the reason He cries. Sin is the reason why Mary cries. Oh, had you only recognized what makes for peace, in what is your happiness. Sin is unhappiness. And it is being sold as happiness. You convince yourself that it is happiness and so it remains hidden before your eyes. How painful when we do not see any longer in what is our happiness, what truly brings us peace, what God wants to give us because He wants to make us happy. Grace, the grace He wishes to bestow on us and give to us.

Brothers and sisters, may we, should we, today, ask ourselves the question through the Gospel that the Church is presenting to us today? "Lord, am I today a reason for you for tears? Am I a reason for your crying? Am I the reason why you cry? Are we Christians the reason for you to shed tears? Do you have joy in me? Are you joyful with me, or am I for you a reason of sorrow and pain? We may ask ourselves this question. Do I bring joy to Jesus with my life? Can the Gospa be joyful about me and about my life?

Jesus did not remain with His tears. He didn't stop there. Jesus does not stop at the tears that He sheds over us. He doesn't stop at the tears that He sheds over us, over our sins. He walked down from that hill, down into Jerusalem. He walked into the city, into His beloved city, into the temple, the House of His Father. Instead of stopping at His tears, He gave His life. He went to the Mount of Olives and He took everything upon Himself, all our guilt, all our failure, all our sins, the sin of the Church, the sin of the world. He carried it all up onto the Cross. And therefore, we must never stop with our sins. We must go beyond and ask Jesus "What did You do with our sins? You changed them. You transformed them. You redeemed us from our sins. You gave us new life.

The reading from the book of the Maccabees, the Church loves this book because it puts before our eyes so clearly what the early Christians lived and what many Christians in communist countries lived, in persecution, bitter, torturous, cruel persecution. When King Antiochus wanted to erase the Jewish religion, he only wanted to allow a state religion, meaning a state cult, like the cult of Lenin, or Stalin, or Hitler. Nothing else was allowed to exist next to it. And many fell from their faith. Many adapted, compromised. Adapted to the times they were living in. "We have to go with the signs of the times, we have to be fashionable, modern. We have to get rid of these old burdens, this old stuff." This is how they joined with the pagans and sacrificed to the Gods. They became modern, very up to date for their time.

But a few said, "No. We will stay with the Faith of our fathers. We will stay with the Faith we have been given. We will stay with the alliance that He made with us." They risked their lives for that. Two days ago we had the reading of the old Eleazar. At 87 years old, he preferred to give his life rather than give a bad example to the young people. We shall hear of the 7 sons of the mother who died the death of martyrdom, in order to stay faithful to the faith. We must ask ourselves what about our faith? How is our faith life? Have we adapted so much that we can be pushed right under the door, without a profile, without character, without edges, without strength? Many tell us we have to be fashionable, we have to be modern; we have to adapt to our times, that finally the church must be modern so that she can be accepted by the people of today, the modern people.

But what must we give up in order to be accepted? And will we truly be accepted when we have totally adapted? Is it not exactly the opposite, precisely the opposite? But the Church teaches us the story of the Maccabees, those who were faithful to Faith, those who did not adapt, those who kept the alliance with God. They were the ones who became the carriers of hope for the others. Of course, they paid the price of great suffering. This [is like the] testimonies of faith in our neighboring countries, the communist countries, the testimonies of faith in the times of the Nazis, and the testimonies of faith today.

Brothers and sisters, I will just give a little example, a small example. In a school in Vienna, in one high school, I was visiting the religion class and in the corridor a pupil talked to me. He said, "Mr. Cardinal, I have faith and I am very lonely here." That is the situation of many young Christians today in our country, in our midst, and it takes courage [for them] and [they] need strengthening, and [they] need intercession so that [these] young people who are living in a surrounding in which it is completely normal to adapt so that we live as is usual, that they may stand firm for the Faith and live according to the Faith. For to live that today, you need the courage of heroism like at the times of the Maccabees. That young man was not killed, nor did he kill anyone because that is not the path of a Christian. Mattathias did it, but that is not the path for a Christian. But apparently Heaven wants to strengthen us for something. Obviously the Mother of God wishes to strengthen and fortify her children in Faith, to give them courage to stand for the faith, to stand by the faith and to stand up for faith.

When the Mother of God sends such strong signs today, signs of her turning towards us, of her Motherly care for us and about us, so that she talks to us as children, beloved children, then she wishes to encourage us and give us the strength for that.

I could not be at the Youth Festival in Medjugorje this year, I could be there with the heart, with the many, many young people...Or the two million who drove to Madrid in the boiling heat of the summer, not to the beach (perhaps afterwards also) but in order to be with the Holy Father together, to listen to him, to hear him, and to pray with him. That is hope!! And the Lord rejoices about that, the Gospa rejoices about that. Over that she does not shed any tears. But all the same, we need the witness of the tears of Jesus.

Lord, when you look at me, when I look at you, I know that you have reason to cry about me, but I know also that you also came to free us from our sins. You died for us, for our sins and you wish to show us the burden and weight sin has, it cost You Your life. We are so precious to You that we cost You Your life. Gospa wishes that we, her beloved children, that we may be happy. Oh may you recognize what makes for peace. How many times does she speak of peace? She wishes that we would have peace, first in us, then among us between us. When the Lord now will renew His sacrifice in our midst, His giving up of Himself for every one of us, then we may ask Him, "Lord, grant me the grace to be the reason for your joy! Show me how I can be joy for You. Your mother shows us how we can be joy for You. She shows us through her path to peace. Amen."
(Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, St. Stephens Cathedral, November 17, 2011, Homily)

In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2011

Medjugorje: 11th Anniversary of Fr. Slavko’s death

2011-11-22T17:24:00.004-05:00

11th Anniversary of Fr. Slavko’s death
date: 21.11.2011.

On Thursday, November 24, we will commemorate the 11th anniversary of Fr. Slavko Barbaric’s death. Fr. Slavko was born on March 11, 1946 in Dragicina, and he was educated in Cerin, Visoko and Sarajevo. He graduated in Graz and received his doctor’s degree in Freiburg. He was ordained in 1971, and since that time he was active in several Herzegovinian parishes. He became familiar with the events in Medjugorje in 1982, and from that time became servant of Our Lady in everything he did: prayer, talks and testimonies, prayer encounters throughout the world, his fatherly love and acceptance of all pilgrims, his care for addicts, poor and abandoned children. He also organised various events like: Peace Walk, seminar for priests, Youth Festival, seminar for married couples, seminars of prayer, fasting and silence. All of these events became essential part of Medjugorje programme.

Fr. Slavko died on November 24, 2000, after having completed prayer of the Way of the Cross on Cross Mountain. He was buried in Kovacica cemetery.

We will commemorate his death by climbing Cross Mountain and praying the Way of the Cross at 2 p.m., and celebrating Holy Mass at 6 p.m. in the church of St. James.

~Our Lady's Message of November 25, 2000~
"Dear children! Today when Heaven is near to you in a special way, I call you to prayer so that through prayer you place God in the first place. Little children, today I am near you and I bless each of you with my motherly blessing so that you have the strength and love for all the people you meet in your earthly life and that you can give God’s love.
*I rejoice with you and I desire to tell you that your brother Slavko has been born into Heaven and intercedes for you. Thank you for having responded to my call."
Medjugorje Official

President Kennedy's Last Speech before his Assassination.

2011-11-22T13:46:00.001-05:00

Irapuato — 22/11/2011 04:15:35:
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC) on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was fatally shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and the latter's wife, Nellie, in a Presidential motorcade.