The Word of the Lord came to Jonah

“The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.” (Jonah 3:1)


Jonah wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. After all, spend­ing a few nights in a fish’s gut can be very persuasive. With a little imagi­nation, you can picture him trudging off in the direction of Nineveh— still dripping with seawater, but now determined to follow the leading of God.

For Jonah, it took radical mea­sures to convince him to respond to God’s call. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that for us! Instead, let’s get into the habit of trying to sense what God wants to say to us. It’s really not so hard. God has given all of us the gift of spiritual intuition. He wants to guide our lives. All we have to do is learn how to hear him.

Try to start small. For instance, if you get a sense that you should put aside a grumpy mood, maybe it is a word from the Lord. So ask for his grace to cheer up. If you get an inkling that you should join a minis­try in your parish, test it out. Maybe it’s God leading you. You’ve got to start somewhere! As you practice, you’ll get better at discerning God’s voice.

Give God a chance; believe that he wants to speak to you, and start to listen expectantly. The “word” that first came to Jonah was probably more like a sense in his heart than the sound of a human voice. It prob­ably wasn’t all that dramatic. But look at the fruit it ultimately bore! Well, you can expect to feel similar nudges throughout the day!

God’s word doesn’t come just through these inner senses, either. It can come through other people, as it did when Nathan spoke the word of God to David in 2 Samuel 12. It can come through Scripture, as it did for St. Augustine. It can even come through an enemy. The point is: God really wants to talk to us!

In your prayer every day, pay attention to the thoughts that come into your mind—especially the ones that fill you with love for the Lord or a desire to serve his people. Keep a journal of these thoughts, and see if you can detect a pattern to them over time. It just may be God talking to you!

“Speak, Lord, for I’m listening.”

Psalm 51:3-4,12-13,18-19; Luke 11:29-32

Early Medjugorje documentary - 1991

EARLY MEDJUGORJE DOCUMENTARY 1991 "Tell The World Not To Wait, 10th Anniversary - A documentary about Medjugorje, made in 1991, immediately before civil war broke in the former Yugoslavia. The documentary is introduced by the late Fr. Richard Foley, SJ..Early documentary about Medjugorje, from 1988.

When the area was still under communist rule.

Includes interviews with the visionaries, pilgrims, priests.

Stories of miracle healings. Crowded St. James church, full of pilgrims.

Father Richard Foley, S.J., was born into eternal life on 1/6/03. He was a Jesuit based in London, England, and was well known in the USA for his sermons, conferences and frequent appearances on EWTN. He was the author of three other popular books; The drama of Medjugorje, Mary and the Eucharist and God 2000

And they clapped for the homily--Religious Liberty Homily.

Uploaded by TheReligiousFreedom on Feb 9, 2012 On February 5, 2012 Father Sammie Maletta delivered a Homily at St. John the Evangelist Parish in St. John, Indiana. This Homily addressed how President Obama is threatening our Religious Freedom and declaring war with the Catholic Church. Please take a few moments to listen. No one sums it up quite like Father Maletta. Go to http://bit.ly/zPdgpw to fight the HHS Mandate
This is a must-listen. It is eleven minutes of a clarion warning which drives home where this president is taking our nation.  Catholics have discovered that Obama’s word means nothing. This priest explains that Obama could not care less about religions freedom.

Reflection of Our Lady's Medjugorje message of Feburary 25, 2012

Reflection (by Sr. Isabel Bettwy)

"Pray with the heart" was one of the first requests of Our Lady more than thirty years ago in her reported apparitions in Medjugorje. Many of us pray with words, recite formal prayers or use written forms of novenas, litanies and other prayers. All these are good. But Our Lady is asking more of us. She wants us to surrender our minds and hearts to her and to cry out to God from the very depths of our hearts. Words are not necessary. Silent adoration before the Blessed Sacrament-- just gazing upon the Lord, seeking to be in union with His Heart, desiring to be able to be more closely united with Him through the power of the Holy Spirit, opening our hearts to His heart--is a form of "prayer with the heart." Our Lady tells us where to start -- with the Sacred Scriptures. Reading a small passage from one of the Gospels, or even one of the Mass readings for the day, and pondering over its meaning for us, we can enter into deeper union with her and with Jesus. With Mary's encouragement prayer can become "joy for us" and we can experience deeper peace. Lent is a good time to start!

A clean conscience

It is … an appeal to God for a clear conscience.” (1 Peter 3:21)


While St. Peter is describing the Sacrament of Baptism here, he could just as easily be talking about Reconciliation. For what could pos­sibly be a better way to experience a clean conscience than going to con­fession? When we confess our sins, we are forgiven—completely!

But as we all know, the real chal­lenge is keeping our consciences clear after we have received abso­lution. It’s one thing to experience God’s forgiveness, but what will change us so that we don’t end up confessing the same things over and over again?

You may be surprised to find that the answer lies—again—in confes­sion! This sacrament doesn’t just empty us of the past; it also fills us with God’s grace for the future. That’s because in confession we meet the One who came to pardon our sins and to transform us so that we can be holy as he is holy. In con­fession, Jesus lifts the weight of our past sins from our shoulders so that we can go out into the world free from guilt, inspired by grace to say an even firmer no to sin than before.

Of course, we all face temptation, just as Jesus did in today’s Gospel. The good news is that because Jesus triumphed in the wilderness, we can find victory as well. How? First, by trusting that we are never alone. Jesus is with us in every sit­uation. Second, by knowing that he has given us the grace of confes­sion not only to forgive us but also to strengthen us against temptation. He is always teaching us, urging us on, and inspiring us with his grace.

So make sure you celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation this Lent. And when you do, know that the grace of this sacrament is there both to cleanse you and to fill you with divine power. It is an ongo­ing grace that brings you closer to Jesus and strengthens you against temptation.

“Thank you, Lord, for all the grace that comes with confession! Give me more confidence in your mercy and love.”

Lena Park-Inori-You Raise me up

Our Lady's Medjugorje Message of Feburary 25, 2012

“Dear children! At this time, in a special way I call you: 'pray with the heart'. Little children, you speak much and pray little. Read and meditate on Sacred Scripture, and may the words written in it be life for you. I encourage and love you, so that in God you may find your peace and the joy of living. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Do You Remember This Women?

Irena Sendler


Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98)


Warsaw, Poland


During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.

Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the  back of her truck, for larger kids. Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.

Ultimately, she was caught, however, and
the Nazi's broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out, in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

Later another politician, Barack Hussein Obama, won for his work as a community organizer for ACORN.

In MEMORIAM - 65 YEARS LATER

It is now more than 65 years since the Second World War in Europe ended.
This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!

Now, more than ever, with Iran, and others, claiming the HOLOCAUST to be 'a myth'. It's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again.

Dear Family of Mary

February 24, 2012

Dear Family of Mary!

We continue to examine the main messages according to Ivan. We are considering conversion. As I looked through Our Lady's messages on conversion, this message immediately caught my attention:

"Dear children! Today I want to wrap you all in my mantle and lead you all along the way of conversion. Dear children, I beseech you, surrender to the Lord your entire past, all the evil that has accumulated in your hearts. I want each one of you to be happy, but in sin nobody can be happy. Therefore, dear children, pray, and in prayer you shall realize a new way of joy. Joy will manifest in your hearts and thus you shall be joyful witnesses of that which I and My Son want from each one of you. I am blessing you. Thank you for having responded to my call." (February 25, 1987)

Our Lady describes the process of conversion as I have never heard it before. She makes conversion sound so wonderful. She first tells us that she wants to wrap us in her mantle. I have the picture of Our Lady scooping each of us up in her arms and wrapping us in her warm, soft shawl, as if we were little children. To be wrapped in Our Lady's mantle is to be surrounded by warmth and safety and peace. Such a wrapping sounds so inviting. If this is the way to begin conversion, I for one want to take that way.

The next step in conversion is not as easy. She beseeches us to "surrender to the Lord your entire past, all the evil that has accumulated in your hearts." But think about it. If we are safely in the arms of Mother Mary, won't it be much easier to let go of our shame, guilt, anger, resentment, pride and lust? Safely wrapped in Mother Mary's arms, we can let go of all those things we have tried to use to make us feel safe, things that just don't help us and in fact actually hurt us.

"I want each one of you to be happy, but in sin nobody can be happy." Sin always looks like the answer to a problem at first glance. It isn't until we have sinned that we discover that what we expected to help us has become our greatest difficulty. Sin doesn't make us happy, it solves nothing.

"Therefore, dear children, pray, and in prayer you shall realize a new way of joy." Wrapped in Our Lady's arms, covered with her mantle, we can pray, because we are safe, unburdened, and at peace. We can open our hearts to the Lord, be honest with Him, and talk to Him about our mistakes and sins. In that safety, we can find the "new way of joy". We can find the way of peace, of selfless love, of service. We can find the way of holiness. Through prayer, Jesus will show us how to turn away from our sins and our negative pasts and then how to live in His light and love, and we will be happy!

"Joy will manifest in your hearts and thus you shall be joyful witnesses of that which I and My Son want from each one of you." The very hearts that are full of accumulated evil will become like clear vials of crystal, holding the new wine, the joy of God. Our hearts will sparkle with joy, and they will radiate to all those we meet, inviting them to the same joyful conversion we have experienced.

"I am blessing you." Conversion is a miracle. Our Lady's blessing, her mantle of love, moves us towards conversion. This Lent, may we turn to Mother Mary and ask her to wrap us in her mantle every time we enter prayer. Wrapped in that warm, cozy mantle, we will find prayer and conversion a delight.

"Dear children! Today I want to wrap you all in my mantle and lead you all along the way of conversion."

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2012

Spirit of Christ

10/02/2012 02:54:00: Holy God, cleanse the leporsy of my sin and pride.
 Renew a right spirit in me, may I partake of the Body and the Blood,
 ever to gain the cross and lose my life for You.

A SPIRIT FILLED LENT

SPIRITED LENT

"Your Holy Spirit take not from me." -Psalm 51:13

Today, the Church marks our foreheads with an ashen cross as we begin the season of Lent. The ashes represent the death of a way of life. We repent to the very depths of our being. We deny ourselves in an ever deeper way, take up our daily cross, and follow Jesus (Lk 9:23). We turn away from sin and turn to God with our whole heart (Jl 2:12). We even turn away from good things that the world has to offer in order to devote ourselves entirely to God (see Jl 2:16). Moreover, we make a new beginning by throwing ourselves on the providence of God, allowing Him to repay us if and when He sees fit (Mt 6:18).

One of God's greatest provisions is the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit provides life-giving water in the desert of Lent (Jn 7:37). The Holy Spirit helps us become holy in every aspect of our conduct (Rm 8:5ff; 1 Pt 1:15). The Spirit burns away complacency and stirs up zeal (2 Tm 1:6-7).

Fr. Al Lauer, founder of One Bread, One Body, said, "The more I say 'No' to myself, the more I say 'Yes' to the Holy Spirit." This saying is a key to help you unlock the Lent of a lifetime. When Jesus went into the desert for forty days, He was led by the Holy Spirit (Mt 4:1). When you're in the middle of the desert, that's a good time to be saying 'Yes' to the Holy Spirit rather than 'No.' It's the Holy Spirit Who fights against temptations and helps you in the self-denials of Lent (Gal 5:17).

Repent now! (2 Cor 6:2) "Be reconciled to God!" (2 Cor 5:20) Deny yourself. "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22).

Prayer: Father, I receive the Lenten ashes today as a sign of my desire to receive the Holy Spirit in a life-changing way this Lent.

Promise: "Keep your deeds of mercy secret, and your Father Who sees in secret will repay you." -Mt 6:4

Praise: "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim Your praise" (Ps 51:17).
Holy Spirit Come,   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LtEBxh8LHM

An 11 year old child teaches us.

An 11-year old teaches us! Little Chiara is riddled with cancer. Last January, she came from the United States with her father, her grandmother, her godmother and some friends. Her family wanted to implore the Blessed Mother to help their little girl.

 Her mother stayed home with her 2 younger children. During the deep enconter we had with her, we would never have guessed that the doctors had not given her long to live. She was leading the conversation with surprising joy and serenity, cracking jokes and reassuring everyone by her positive spirit. Then, with the simplicity of a pure heart, she explained to me, "You know, Jesus will decide for me, I know that He will make the best decision. I am confident! Either I will be healed and I am happy, or I will not be healed and I am happy too! In both cases, I win because I know that it is He who decides".

She said to her family, "If I die, I will go to heaven and I will wait for you there!"

Chiara was able to meet Vicka who kissed her tenderly and prayed for her for 20 minutes. Chiara said to her, "You know, Vicka, I am not afraid to die! If I live, I win. If I die, I win! In both cases I'll be with Jesus!" Vicka answered her in her ear, "You are right, you have no reason to be afraid!" Her father was deeply moved and he confided to us, "I realize that Chiara actually did not need to come to Medjugorje, she already had peace in her heart. But it is us (her family) who needed to come ! Here we have found peace."
http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com/

In The Last Days

Saint Paul Said In Second Letter to Timothy
Feast Day: June 29

~The Last Days~

2 Timmothy 3:1-5

1 Remember that there will be difficult times in

the last days. 2 People will be selfish, greedy, boastful,

and conceited; they will be insulting, disobedient to

their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious; 3 they will be

unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; 4 they

will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride;

they will love pleasure rather than God; 5 they will hold

to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real

power. Keep away from such people.

Peter's Message
Acts 2:14-21

14 Then Peter stood up with the other eleven

apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the

crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem,

listen to me and let me tell you what this means.

15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose;

it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 Instead, this is

what the prophet Joel spoke about:

17 'This is what I will do in the last days, God

says: I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons

and daughters will proclaim my message; your young

men will see visions, and old men will have dreams.

18 Yes, even on my servants, both men and

women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and

they will proclaim my message.

19 I will perform miracles in the sky above and

wonders on the earth below. There will be blood, fire,

and thick smoke;

20 the sun will be darkened, and the moon will

turn red as blood, before the great and glorious Day of

the Lord comes.

21 And then, whoever calls out to the Lord for

help will be saved.'

The Sterile Life of the Everyday Atheist

The Sterile Life of the Everyday Atheist

“Atheism is the death of hope, the suicide of the soul.”

BY BISHOP THOMAS J. TOBIN
2/16/11


It seems that there’s been a resurgence of atheism recently, across the nation, and certainly here in Rhode Island. The epicenter of this godless movement, at least for the moment, is in Cranston, Rhode Island, where a fierce battle over a public high school prayer banner has pitted believers against non-believers.

With that backdrop I’ve been thinking about atheism recently, and the toll it takes on the human person, and my reflections are well-summarized in the quotation, from an anonymous source, referenced above: “Atheism is the death of hope, the suicide of the soul.”

In the title I refer to an “everyday atheist,” for here I’m thinking not so much about philosophers or scientists who adopt atheism as a hypothetical construct, although they too have a problem explaining the ultimate mysteries of life. But I’m thinking more about the person who claims to be an atheist and then tries to live without any reference to God. This is the “practical and existential atheism” which Blessed John Paul II described so well in his writings.

The life of the everyday atheist must indeed be a very sad, sterile and hopeless experience.

If you don’t believe in God, how do you explain the reason for your existence? After all, you can’t refer to a Creator, or a divine plan. If you’re not created in the image and likeness of God, as the Bible tells us, from what source do you derive your human dignity? Or are you nothing more than an accident of arbitrary biological forces? Does your life have any more value or meaning than other living creatures – even the simplest life forms that crawl in the mud or swim in the seas?

If you don’t believe in God, how do you approach the question of your ultimate destiny? Is it simply a question of living a few years and then returning to the dust? Are you no more than an insignificant cipher in the long history of the universe, here today and gone tomorrow? Is there no final judge, no accountability for the way you lived on earth? Is there no spark of immortality, no heaven, no eternal life where the human soul is released from its earthly shackles? And when you die, are the precious bonds of love you forged with family and friends erased forever, never to be enjoyed again?

If you don’t believe in God, how do you integrate the ups and downs of everyday life into some meaningful pattern? How do you make sense of the suffering and pain that inevitably comes your way? What is there that keeps you from getting depressed? Unlike people of faith, you can’t ask anyone to pray for you, nor can you depend on the intercession of the beloved saints. And when a loved one dies, you can’t pray for them, for their eternal happiness and peace, can you?

If you don’t believe in God, what is there to celebrate in life, beyond those things that are merely superficial and passing? Don’t you occasionally envy the joy that religion brings to families of faith – in moments of Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, and religious weddings when God blesses the commitment of lovers? What do you celebrate on Christmas and Easter, or do you just withdraw to the silent, darkened solitude of your home? And what about Thanksgiving Day? Someone wrote that, “An atheist’s most embarrassing moment is when he feels profoundly thankful for something, but can’t think of anyone to thank for it.”

If you don’t believe in God, how do you navigate the secular world that is, nonetheless, infused with references to the God whose existence you deny? How do you manage to use, without a compromised conscience, our currency that proclaims our trust in God? Aren’t you offended every time you recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or sing God Bless America, or America the Beautiful? Do you leave the room when public events are bookended between invocations and benedictions? Do you avoid cities and towns named after things religious – like Providence, for example? Do you close your eyes every time you pass a Church with a religious name? Your daily existence must be really miserable.

My question is this: If you don’t believe that God exists, why do references to Him bother you so much? Can’t you just shrug it off as you would other fables or fairy tales? Why does God bother you – unless of course – way down, deep inside, at some subliminal level, you’re still wrestling with the possibility that God really does exist?

You see, some people are allergic to the sun. But they can’t hide the sun or make it disappear, so they get help to deal with their allergies. Some people are “allergic” to God. But they can’t make Him disappear either, and that causes a reaction. In the end, though, God will not be denied.

As Christians, we don’t persecute atheists or belittle them. We will, however, defend our core beliefs and values whenever they’re attacked. We should be patient with atheists and try to understand the difficulties that arise from their limited worldview. And most of all, we should pray for atheists and conduct ourselves in a way that convinces them of the goodness of our faith. In that way, perhaps, they too will come to know the “Unknown God” in whom they “live and move and have their being.” (Acts 17: 22-28)
http://www.thericatholic.com/

Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.

Mark 8:34–9:1

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.” (Mark 8:35)

Jesus’ words about saving and losing our lives would inspire only fear in us if all we looked at were pain and loss. Praise God, then, that he wants to open our eyes to see a fuller picture of his plan of sal­vation. Jesus didn’t die just so we would lose our old lives. He died so that we could receive his risen life! We can look upon the cross with awe, wonder, and anticipation of the good things God promises. Because Jesus died on the cross, our hearts can be cleansed and our minds made anew.

Jesus invites us to new life,
 not just in heaven someday, but here and now. We can exhaust ourselves by giving in to fallen desires and chasing the things of this world. But if we do, we risk losing the treasure of the life God intended for us. As we come to “deny” ourselves and turn our lives over to Jesus, we are given a new and better existence.

Jesus isn’t asking us to deny our­selves every pleasure—that’s not the point. He wants us to deny the sinful drives within us that seek to control our lives. He wants us to turn our hearts to God so that the Holy Spirit can empower us to live according to the new life we received at baptism. Independence, unforgiveness, legalism, worldly approval, self-glorification, perfec­tionism: They only lead to unhappi­ness. These are the things that Jesus came to put to death in us.

Yes, there is loss through the cross. But what do we lose? Slavery to sin. And what do we gain? A cleansed conscience, freedom from patterns of sin, intimacy with God, and a rediscovery of who we are in God’s sight! Jesus longs to see us stop thinking we must gain vic­tory on our own over the things that threaten our spiritual well-being. He longs to see us surrender our self-sufficiency so that we can receive the power of his Spirit to live a new life. Let’s look to him for our heal­ing and deliverance.

“Father, show me what I must lay down at the foot of the cross so that I can become the person you intended me to be. I want to trust Jesus’ promise that whoever loses his life will save it.”

James 2:14-24, 26; Psalm 112:1-6

The Word Among Us

A Medjugorje Winter Wonderland

It hasn't snowed like this in Medjugorje since the 1950s check out IHS's footage of a Medjugorje Winter Wonderland! (http://www.ihs312.org/)

JOIN US ON AN ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME AS WE TOUR THE PLACE WHERE "HEAVEN HAS TOUCHED THE EARTH!"

Medjugorje Commission Will Finish in 2012



Cardinal Vinko Puljic


By Jakob Marschner

Later this year the Vatican Commission that investigates the events of Medjugorje will end its work and report to the Pope, says Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo who is a member of the Commission himself. Work is still going on but we must be finished this year, the highest ranking prelate of Bosnia and Hercegovina told a press conference on Tuesday.

Before the end of 2012, the excitement of millions of people worldwide will come to an end. The Vatican Commission on Medjugorje plans to have rendered its final report to Pope Benedict XVI when the bells ring in 2013, Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo informed during a press conference on February 14.

”Later this year we want to finish our work and give our opinion to the Pope so that he can express his judgment. I can not talk about what the Commission does because I am bound to secrecy. Our work is still going on. This year, however, we must finish it” Cardinal Puljic informed according to ASCA, an Italian news agency.

If the Commission stays on the schedule laid out by Cardinal Puljic, it will have worked little less than three years when it renders its report to the Pope. Presided over by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Commission was announced by the Vatican on March 17th 2010.

Spirit Daily is circulating this story
http://is.gd/aBROgt

19 Facts About Abortion In America That Should Make You Very Sick

19 Facts About Abortion In America That Should Make You Very Sick


Every single day, a silent horror kills more Americans than were killed on 9/11. Every single year, this silent horror kills about as many Americans as have been killed on all the battlefields in all of the wars in U.S. history combined. This silent horror is called abortion, and it is a national disgrace. Overall, more than 50 million babies have been slaughtered since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. We have become a nation with so little regard for human life that nobody even really talks that much about this issue anymore. But the truth is that it is at the very core of what is wrong with America. As I have written about previously, we have become a nation that is obsessed with population control, and we have been exporting this sick philosophy all over the globe. As you read this, there are workers from U.S. organizations and UN organizations (both funded by your tax dollars) that are on the other side of the world setting up"family planning services" for women in poor countries. The goal of these organizations (just like we see in the United States) is to reduce the number of poor children being born. The sick control freaks that run things have decided that overpopulation is a plague that must be eradicated and that mass murder is the answer.

Unfortunately, there are very few people that are still willing to speak out strongly against abortion in America. So the carnage is just going to go on and on and on.What will the history books say about a nation that murdered 50 million of its own babies?

The following are 19 facts about abortion in America that should make
you very sick....

#1 There have been more than 53 million abortions performed in the
United States since Roe v. Wade was decided back in 1973.


#2 When you total up all forms of abortion, including those caused by
the abortion drug RU 486, the grand total comes to more than a million
abortions performed in the United States every single year.


#3 The number of American babies killed by abortion each year is
roughly equal to the number of U.S. military deaths that have occurred
in all of the wars that the United States has ever been involved in
combined.


#4 Approximately 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of the
destruction of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. Every single
day, more than 3,000 American babies are killed by abortion.


#5 It has been reported that a staggering 41 percent of all New York
City pregnancies end in abortion.


#6 According to Pastor Clenard Childress, approximately 52 percent of
all African-American pregnancies now end in abortion.


#7 One very shocking study found that 86 percent of all abortions are
done for the sake of convenience.


#8 According to the Guttmacher Institute, the average cost of a first
trimester abortion at the ten week mark is $451.


#9 The average cost of a vaginal birth with no complications in the
United States is now over $9,000.


#10 A Department of Homeland Security report that was released in
January 2012 says that if you are "anti-abortion", you are a potential
terrorist. Unfortunately, there have also been other government
reports that have also identified "anti-abortion" protesters as
potential threats.


#11 A while back one Philadelphia abortionist was charged with killing
seven babies that were born alive, but witnesses claim that he
actually slaughtered hundreds "of living, breathing newborn children
by severing their spinal cords or slitting their necks."


#12 Some abortion clinics have been caught selling aborted baby parts
to medical researchers.


#13 Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger once said the following....

"The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant

members is to kill it."


#14 In a 1922 book entitled "Woman, Morality, and Birth Control",

Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger wrote the following....

"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race."


#15 Planned Parenthood performs more than 300,000 abortions every single year.


#16 Planned Parenthood specifically targets the poor. A staggering 72
percent of Planned Parenthood's "customers" have incomes that are
either equal to or beneath 150 percent of the federal poverty level.


#17 There are 30 Planned Parenthood executives that make more than
$200,000 a year. A few of them make more than $300,000 a year.


#18 Planned Parenthood received more than 487 million dollars from the
federal government during 2010.


#19 The following is one description of the five steps of a partial

birth abortion....

1) Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby's legs with forceps.

2) The baby's leg is pulled out into the birth canal.

3) The abortionist delivers the baby's entire body, except for the head.

4) The abortionist jams scissors into the baby's skull. The scissors

are then opened to enlarge the skull.

5) The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted. The

child's brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead

baby is then removed.

How can we murder our own children?

Unfortunately, there are organizations out there such as Planned
Parenthood that spend millions upon millions of dollars trying to
convince the American people that abortion is okay.
And every single year, politicians from both political parties
continue to vote to give hundreds of millions of our tax dollars to
Planned Parenthood.
Our politicians talk about how we need to spread our values to the
rest of the world, but what kind of "values" do we really have when we
have such little respect for human life?

There is no hope for America as long as this mass slaughter of
innocent children continues to go on all across the United States.
Please share this list of facts about abortion in America with as many
people as you can. We need to wake the American people up. Most
Americans spend their days in an entertainment-induced haze and take
very little time to think about the issues that really matter.

And if you think that the issue of abortion does not matter, then you
are dead wrong.
The mass murder of more than 50 million American babies is something
that cannot be ignored.
Their blood is crying out to us from the ground where it has been spilled.
Yes, this article is going to make a lot of people uncomfortable, but
it is the truth.
Isn't it time that someone started telling the truth in America?

Whitney Houston - Yes Jesus Loves Me

Mary’s Eyes

Visiting the Sick/Mary’s Eyes


Rod Dreher February 7th, 2012 Share


I spent the late morning out at my mom and dad’s place, interviewing them a second time for the book I’m writing about my sister. For lunch, we ate the last of the ribs I brought home from Johnson’s Boucaniere. Afterwards, I headed to Baton Rouge to visit S., one of my sister Ruthie’s chemo buddies, with whom I’ve become friends since we moved to Louisiana. S.’s cancer had gone into remission, but came back not long before my sister died. She’s still fighting it.
S. is a prayerful Catholic. For the past 10 days, she’s had in her house a Rosa Mystica statue of the Virgin Mary. It’s about 18 inches tall, and she has it on her coffee table. I had never heard of this particular devotion, even during my Catholic years, but S. says this is one of two (I think) such statues in south Louisiana. Both are passed around among Catholics who are very ill or otherwise in distress. S. told me that she and others sometimes see moisture forming in the eyes of the statue during prayer. She showed me a couple of images on her iPhone purporting to document this, as well as other eerie alterations on the statue’s face during and immediately following prayer. We were sitting right next to the statue the whole time. I didn’t notice anything unusual about it.

We talked for a while about how her cancer treatment was going, and things that have been on her mind. After a while, she asked me if I had time to stay and pray her daily rosary with her. Sure, I said. We knelt down to pray, and I could see at the bottom of the statue’s right eyelid moisture forming. It was strange. It was definitely not there when I first saw the statue, and I had not moved more than two feet from it the whole visit. Nobody ever touched it. We prayed the rosary together, and asked God’s help and blessing for the sick, and others in need of mercy. When we had finished, S. said, “Do you see that?”

Yes, I did see that. There were two small beads of liquid appearing on the lower lid of the statue’s right eye. They had been there since we started to pray. I took the photo above with my iPhone camera.

Make of that what you will. I know better than to try to say what that was, or what it meant. I believe this kind of thing can and does happen, miraculously. All I’m willing to say about this particular incident is that these “tears” weren’t there when I first examined the statue — and I examined it from a number of angles, both before and after this incident. Nobody touched the statue while I was there. The liquid appeared to have emerged as we knelt to pray.

In any case, I don’t really care whether this was a small miracle, an optical illusion, or what have you. I used to be really into this sort of thing, but not so much anymore. I mean, I believe it can be authentic, but I don’t think much about this stuff anymore. It’s not the important thing. The important thing that happened today was my visit with S., and the great encouragement I received from being with S., who is so strong and full of faith, despite her dire situation with cancer. It was so great to pray with her. I’m not one who prays easily with people outside of a liturgical setting, but this was wonderful. S. sat through so much suffering with my sister, and, well, it’s good to be with her and to talk about Ruthie. As I left, she gave me three white roses from a vase next to the statue — one for my sister’s family, one for my mom and dad, and one for my family. They looked fresh, but S. said they have been in that vase since the day the statue was brought to her house. They haven’t decayed.

I had intended to go by LSU tonight to visit the Tunnel of Oppression, and write satirically about it. But when I drove away from S.’s place, I didn’t want to disturb the sense of peace and blessing I had from having been with her. So I just came on home, and was grateful for that.

Medjugorje: Commemoration Day of Murdered Franciscans

Commemoration Day of Murdered Franciscans

2nd Commemoration Days of Murdered Herzegovinian Franciscans were held in Siroki Brijeg from February 4 to February 7, when we commemorated 67th anniversary of brutal execution of Herzegovinian Franciscans.

On Friday, February 10, we are celebrating Memorial of Blessed Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac and it is also the day when we remember all murdered Franciscans from the parish of Medjugorje. Holy Mass at 6 p.m. is going to be celebrated for the following Franciscans who were brutally murdered during the Second World War: Fr. Krizan Galic, Fr. Jozo Bencun, Fr. Marko Dragicevic, Fr. Mariofil Sivric, Fr. Grgo Vasilj and Fr. Jenko Vasilj. We will also remember and pray for all of the parishioners who were murdered during the First World War, the Second World War and during the recent Homeland War.

.

Fr. Jozo speaks of the Martyrs of Siroki Brijeg
October 2000.

You see on your right here, there is a tomb, a very interesting tomb. When the Communists came here fifty-five years ago, they found thirty Franciscans here in the monastery and they told them that there was no more God. And those soldiers that came were inspired by terrorism telling them that there was no more God, there was no more church, there was no more priesthood nor the need for them.

They were told to remove their habits. But not one of those thirty Franciscans was willing to even enter into a debate about this. An enraged soldier took the crucifix from the wall, threw it at the feet of the Franciscans and said, "Now you can choose, this is your last chance, choose - death or life."

One by one the Franciscans came forth and embraced Jesus. Jesus humiliated at being thrown on the floor. And each one, one by one, said, "You are my God and my everything." One by one they were taken outside,and they were thrown into the flames to be burned, here in the garden. Those were thirty brothers who went forth to their death with song. Some of them sang Salve Regina, others sang The Litany of Our Lady. They all blessed their enemy and forgave them.

Visionary Mirjana, says priests are the bridge to the coming Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

http://www.medjugorjemiracles.com/2012/02/visionary-mirjana-who-has-received-all-ten-medjugorje-secrets-says-priests-are-the-bridge-to-the-coming-triumph-of-the-immaculate-heart-of-mary/

Healing: Novena Helps Cancer Survivors

Eva Lindquist

Posted By The Catholic Free Press


February 2, 2012

By Patricia O’Connell
CFP Correspondent


NORTHBOROUGH – Eve Lindquist was diagnosed with a rare form of intestinal cancer.

She endured six surgeries and 27 courses of radiation.

In February of 2006, she and her husband, Russell, attended the Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Bernadette, held each year at St. Bernadette Parish.

“We prayed for a total healing, and it happened,” she recalled.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the novena, named after Our Blessed Mother’s apparition in Lourdes, France to Saint Bernadette Soubirous. Lourdes is now a famous Catholic pilgrimage site.

Many favors have been granted to the faithful who come to pray at St. Bernadette Parish each February, according to pastor Father Stephen M. Gemme. He said people travel to the novena from all around the Worcester Diocese and also from the neighboring Archdiocese of Boston.

Following the novena, Mrs. Lindquist started to feel much better. She regained her strength. She felt healthy again.

At the end of 2006, she told her husband she wanted to go back to work. Soon after, she found a position as executive director of Visitation House in Worcester, a home for pregnant women in crisis.

“It’s a miracle,” she said about her recovery and her job of helping women in need. “The Blessed Mother sent me to this house.”

The position is demanding and the hours are long. Yet, Mrs. Lindquist, 67, despite being so sick at one point, is up to the task.

“I’m completely healed,” she noted.

Mrs. Lindquist is acutely aware of the power of prayer, which can bring dramatic healing.

Before her diagnosis, she worked at St. Paul Cathedral’s rectory, preparing meals for seven priests, including Bishop Emeritus Reilly. All of them, she said, were praying for her.

The Lindquists also went to the Our Lady of Lourdes novena at St. Bernadette, which is their parish, prior to the cancer diagnosis. Now, though, they don’t miss a year.

Mr. Lindquist goes each of the nine nights. Mrs. Lindquist does too, unless she’s out of town. Even then, she still prays the novena from a prayer booklet.

Kathleen McShane, another member of St. Bernadette’s, also had cancer. It came as a shock, during a routine visit to her dentist five years ago.

“I don’t like the look of that tooth,” she was told.

Mrs. McShane has endured a grueling schedule of five surgeries, in an attempt to keep her cancer at bay.

When we spoke, she’d recently had another procedure. But it was successful, she reported.

“I don’t have it anymore,” she said. “I have no cancer right now.”

Because the cancer was in her mouth, surgeons have removed part of her jaw. This has affected her speech. She also has no salivary glands, requiring her to always have water on hand.

For Mrs. McShane, life has changed. She was once a lector at St. Bernadette’s. She was very involved in different ministries. No longer able to drive, she depends on friends from church to take her to Mass. She is no longer able to attend the annual March for Life in Washington, DC.

Yet, Mrs. McShane realizes she’s also incredibly fortunate.

“I’m grateful to be alive,” she said.

“Yes, I would never stop thanking God for my blessings,” she added. “Never.”

Father Gemme said the Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Bernadette has evolved in its 20 years of existence. Originally, it was more of a local event, with the pastor of the parish preaching for nine nights.

Now, this year, each of the nine nights will feature a different speaker. Bishop McManus will open the novena on Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. Bishop Emeritus Daniel P. Reilly will close the novena on Feb. 18. Both bishops will offer Mass on those nights.

On Feb. 18, the church will be adorned with visible proof of the power of prayer.

“On the last night of the novena, people will bring a yellow rose if they feel their prayer has been answered and also to honor Our Lady, and many people bring flowers forward during the last night, and the entire sanctuary of the Church will be filled with yellow roses,” said Father Gemme.

He Has Done All Things Well

“He has done all things well.” (Mark 7:37)

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a healing as dramatic as the one Mark described here? It would be amazing to see the look on a deaf woman’s face as she hears her first words or to see a blind man gaze in awe and wonder as his eyes are opened. It’s too easy to confine God’s mighty acts to extraordinary events long gone. He acts just as powerfully every day—and in lives just like ours!

Some of us have speech imped­iments that hinder how, and how often, and to whom we talk about God. Thought and speech freeze up when opportunities arise, and we say nothing, only to endure our own reproaches later: “I should have said … Why didn’t I tell them …” Somehow, the words just never make it into sound, and we feel powerless.

Some of us have deaf ears or blind eyes that keep us from hearing the good news or seeing the kingdom of God around us. All we can see are the mundane realities of life. Nothing exciting ever happens, and we see no sign of the kingdom among us. And hearing the good news is reserved for Sunday mornings.

Some of us walk with a pro­nounced limp, habits of sin that we continually struggle against: anger, gossip, jealousy, judgment, lust, and the like. We resist and strive and repent, only to fall again. In our hearts, we long to soar like eagles, but all we seem able to do is trudge along on the ground.

Sometimes we just don’t look at ourselves and think: “God has done all things well, including me, with my own strengths, talents, and temperament.” But no matter how unlikely it seems, it is still undeni­ably true: God has done all things well. He did a good job of creating you. He has a good plan for your life. He even has a really good future in store for you in heaven!

Look at yourself in the mirror today and declare it: “God has done all things well—including me!” And if you immediately begin to think of arguments to counter that truth, recall today’s Gospel.

“Jesus, you know my life better than I know it myself. Touch my heart today and heal me.”

1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19; Psalm 81:10-15

A Catholic Mom in Hawaii: Quis ut Deus#links

A Catholic Mom in Hawaii: Quis ut Deus#links

Who is like God?




According to Father Charles Arminjon, the above was the war-cry uttered in heaven at the very beginning of time. This was cried out right from the moment when Lucifer the most "dazzling and radiant of the archangels" rebelled against God and became the ugliest and basest of the devils.

Ivan Says Root Of Crisis is Spiritual



Ivan Dragicevic


Ivan Says Root Of Crisis is Spiritual
by Jokob Marschner

The world is not in an economic, but in a spiritual recession for this is the cause of every other recession, visionary Ivan Dragicevic said on February 1 in Ann Arbor, USA. The world is spiritually sick, and can only be cured through spiritual healing in the family, Ivan further said. Both in Chicago and in Kalamazoo the seer reported messages from the Virgin Mary.

It is inaccurate to talk about the current crisis as a mainly economic one. And it will be insufficient if only economic steps are taken to counter the crisis, Medjugorje visionary Ivan Dragicevic told 1,000 people in a full church in Ann Arbor, USA, on February 1.

“This world today is spiritually sick. In these times in which we are living, especially in the last few years, we oftentimes hear the word recession. That the world is in a recession, an economic one. But this world is not in an economic recession. No” Ivan said.

“Today’s world is in a spiritual recession. Because every spiritual recession creates and produces every other recession” he added, according to a video recording transcript that rests with Medjugorje Today.

If the root cause of the crisis has gone under-reported, so has the solution, Ivan further told:

“We cannot expect that this world will be healed, that this society will be healed, if the family is not healed. The family must first of all be healed. Spiritually healed. That is why Our Lady is calling us to so much prayer. Through these 30 years Our Lady is calling us and wishes to lead us out of this darkness and lead us on the path of light and the path of hope.”

The visionary went over the Virgin Mary’s main messages from Medjugorje, the necessity of living holiness through prayer, fasting, and the Sacraments of the Church. He said he disagrees when people call the message demanding, and repeated that lack of time is not the problem, rather lack of love of God:

“Our Lady does not ask for what we are unable to accomplish and do. She gives us what we are able to do” Ivan said.

“Our Lady is calling us to accept all of those things she is giving to us with love. A message that is accepted with love becomes life-giving. That is why Our Lady over the years has been awakening us from the spiritual coma the world is in. She wishes to strengthen us in faith and in prayer.”

“Prayer from the heart teaches us how to pray with love and out of love so that our prayer is an encounter with Jesus, a conversation with Jesus, so that we can lead that prayerful life filled with peace and love” Ivan further told the audience.

A rarely or never before reported detail about the apparitions likewise surfaced in Ann Arbor:

“To be with Our Lady every day is to be with her in Heaven, because a part of Heaven comes with her. Behind her you can see the light of Heaven” Ivan said.

Messages given in Chicago and Kalamazoo

Whereas no message from the Virgin Mary was received in Ann Arbor, the visionary reported messages from his public apparitions on January 29 in Chicago, IL, and Januar 31 in Kalamazoo, MI.


“Dear children, today also I am calling you to personal conversion. You be the ones who will be converted, and in your lives be witnesses. Love, Forgive and bring the joy of the Risen One to this world where my Son died, and where people do not feel the need to seek Him and discover Him in their lives. You be adorers of my Son and may your hope be hope to those whose hearts do not have Jesus. Dear children, thank you again today for having responded to my call” the Virgin Mary said on January 31, according to MaryTV’s transcript of video tapes from the live-streamed event.

Ivan's apparition in Ann Arbor

“Dear children, today also I wish to invite you to open your hearts and yourselves to the Holy Spirit so a river of love can flow and cleanse your heart. Pray for holiness in families. Your mother prays for and with you, interceding to my Son. Go in peace, my dear children, Thank you for having responded to my call” the message said on January 29, according to third year seminarian Edward Looney who was present during the apparition in Chicago.

“It is is not necessarily 100 percent accurate, like I may be missing a few words, but all the main concepts – river of love, prayer for families, etc. – were all a part of it” Edward Looney tells Medjugorje Today.

Ivan now has Illinois and Michigan behind him on his Winter/Spring tour of the US East Coast. His next public apparitions will be in Massachussetts on February 9 and 10. Ivan’s complete schedule can be seen in the Calendar.

The Holy Father shared a profound and deeply encouraging message about sickness and suffering.

In his Sunday Angelus, the Holy Father shared a profound and deeply encouraging message about sickness and suffering.
"One day Jesus said: 'those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick'. On that occasion He was referring to sinners, whom He had come to call and to save, yet it is nonetheless true that sickness is a typically human condition wherein we experience our lack of self-sufficiency, our need of others. In this context we could say, paradoxically, that sickness can be a 'healthy' moment in which to receive attention from others and to give attention to them! Yet it is still a trial, and can become long and difficult. When healing does not come and suffering continues, we can become crushed and isolated, our lives sink and become dehumanised. How should we react to this attack of evil? Certainly with the appropriate cures - over recent decades medicine has made enormous progress for which we are grateful - but the Word of God teaches us that there is a decisive and basic attitude with which to face sickness: faith in God and in His goodness".

"Even in the face of death, faith can make possible what is humanly impossible. But faith in what? In the love of God! This is the true response which radically defeats evil. ... We all know people who have borne terrible suffering because God gave them profound serenity. I think of the recent example of Blessed Chiara Badano, who died in the flower of her youth because of a terrible illness. When people went to visit her, they received light and faith from her! Yet nonetheless, when we are sick we all need human warmth. What sick people need even more than words is serene and sincere proximity".

"Let us too act like the people who lived in Jesus' time. Let us spiritually present all sick people to Him, trusting in His desire and power to heal them. And let us invoke the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, especially upon people undergoing the most extreme forms of suffering and abandonment".

~From the Diary of Saint Sister Faustina~
Once when I was suffering greatly, I left my work and escaped to Jesus and asked Him to give me His strength. After a very short prayer I returned to my work filled with enthusiasm and joy. Then, one of the sisters [probably Sister Justine] said to me, "You must have many consolations today, Sister; you look so radiant. Surely, God is giving you no suffering, but only consolations." You are greatly mistaken, Sister," I answered, "for it is precisely when I suffer much that my joy is greater; and when I suffer less, my joy also is less." However, that soul was letting me recognize that she does not understand what I was saying. I tried to explain to her that when we suffer much we have a great chance to show God that we love Him; but when we suffer little we have less occasion to show God our love; and when we do not suffer at all, our love is then neither great nor pure. By the grace of God, we can attain a point where suffering will become a delight to us, for love can work such things in pure souls.

Brief talk by Patrick Latta in Medjugorje on the Infant of Prague

Medjugorje Patrick Latta - Infant of Prague from Jennifer Cochrane on Vimeo.

Prayer Meeting, Mass, Healing Service, Confessions

Prayer Meeting!

Every 2nd THURSDAY of the month!

7:00 PM

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

For more info contact:
802-343-0573
http://www.straphaeloil.com/
Mass, Healing Service, Confessions with
Fr. Joseph Whalen, M.S.
Fr. John Welch, M.S.
refreshments served
only 40 miles from Boston!
only 35 miles from Providence!
All Welcome!

LIFE-LINES

LIFE-LINES

"Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?" -Job 7:1

Most people can relate to Job, for they have endured tragedies, deaths in their families, sicknesses, pain, and sufferings. Even those who have so far had easier lives know that life can be, and almost inevitably will be, hard. We all have the question of Job: "Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?" We feel as if we "have been assigned months of misery" (Jb 7:3). Our days and nights drag on ever so slowly (Jb 7:4), while at the same time life passes all too quickly.

We cannot change the drudgery and slavery of our human condition. For example, Paul tried for years to rise above our human condition; finally, he was forced to cry out in desperation: "What a wretched man I am! Who can free me from this body under the power of death?" (Rm 7:24) Unlike Job, Paul amazingly received an answer to this previously unanswerable question. The answer was: "Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rm 7:25).

Only Jesus can make life worth living. He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn 14:6). He is "our only Master and Lord" (Jude 4). "There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved" (Acts 4:12).

 Jesus, I believe You are reaching out Your hand to me (see Mk 1:31). By faith, I take Your hand. You are my Savior and my only Hope.

 You, risen Jesus! Your resurrected glory has given every part of our lives great meaning. Alleluia!

Sun Miracle Followed Mirjana to Naples

Sun Miracle Followed Maijana to Naples. by Jakob Marschnner.
When the audience left the sports hall in Naples after visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo’s apparition on February 2, a number of people saw the sun pulsate and dance in the sky. While a video indicates the incident in Naples to have been less obvious than certain sun miracles from Medjugorje, witnesses maintain that what they saw was indeed a sun miracle.

Claimed sun miracle in Naples, Italy, on February 2nd 2012

For some who had attended visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo’s apparition on February 2 in Naples, Italy, the visit from the seer was not the only impulse from Medjugorje that morning. Some people, descriptions of their number spanning from “many” to “a group”, also saw the sun pulsate in the sky by the time they left Palavesuvio sports hall.

Mirjana's apparition in Naples

“When I was looking at the sun, I saw something that I have never seen before. I could look directly at it without glasses and without being annoyed, and after we looked away I could look at it without being blinded. The sun was yellow ocher and rotated counterclockwise around itself, outside of an orange that had throbbed: it slowly crept up and shrank, it looked like dancing. People are free not to believe me but I assure you it is true” a woman only identified as Alessandra tells the major regional newspaper Il Mattino.

“I ​​swear, I saw it myself. At first it was blinding but at some point I saw a dark sphere inside the sun that marked off the edges, creating a kind of twirl that made ​​the sun look like whirling around itself” a young man only identified as Giovanni tells the newspaper.

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Spirit Daily is circulating this article

Five Healings



Pilgrim Rosary


Five Healings

By Richard Bingold


In the fall of 1994, I received a call from the Reverend Father Vince Malone, pastor of St. Barbara's Church in Winchester, Massachusetts. He had been approached by Maureen O'Connor, my friend in Reading, about my coming to give testimony and pray over his parishioners.

Fr. Malone and I set a date. When I arrived a day early to prepare, I received a call from a woman who asked me to visit her nephew, Jamie, 27, who had been critically injured in an automobile accident and had been in a coma for the past seven months.

I asked my good friend, Bruce Ellavsky, an FBI agent, with whom I had visited Medjugorje, to go with me to the hospital. Jamie was lying on his bed on top of the sheets and his condition took us by surprise. Bruce and I exchanged questioning frowns of pain and concern: still in a coma, the young man was in a spastic state, shaking without stop.

I opened its case, and, holding it steady, placed the Miraculous Pilgrim Rosary across Jamie's body. In an instant, he slept as if he had been sleeping at peace all the while. Again, Bruce and I exchanged glances, but now with looks of surprise, relief and wonder.

I said, "Let's pray," then I placed my hand on Jamie's forehead and prayed for a minute, not more than two. Seeing him so peaceful, we stood peacefully. Five or six minutes passed. Bruce and I exchanged a glance and prepared to depart. But just before we did, I placed a large picture of Our Lady above his bed.

The following night, some 300 attended the solemnity at St. Barbara's Church. After my testimony, the main aisle filled with those who, one at a time, came forward to be prayed over. Shortly after I began, a woman stood before me and said, "I am Jamie's mother."

I was totally surprised. She told me that, though her son would require months of therapy, he had that very morning awakened from his coma. And then she lifted her head and looked me in the eye. "I have my son back," she said.

That simple statement would have made the service complete, but there was more to come – another four hours of stories of suffering and Our Lord's mysterious ways.

Immediately behind Jamie's mother stood two young women, who turned out to be sisters, suffering from bipolar disease, the modern name for manic depressive disorder. Both were on medication and both had husbands who were abusing them, one verbally and the other physically. They came up to me, arm in arm.

"We know you," one said. "We had a dad that was a drinker and out of fear we would hide under the day bed when he would come home, placing our baby brother in between us."

The other sister said, "We don't want you to pray for us, but rather we ask you to pray for our girlfriend, Susan, who lives about an hour away, in Lenox, Massachusetts. Susan is dying of Leukemia. She was in remission and now she is told she has about two months to live."

She was to have come with them tonight, the sister told me, but it was too risky, for she was hemorrhaging. I was very moved by their unselfish request, and I proceeded to pray for Susan. In addition, I quietly prayed for these two generous women.

By the end of the service, which had taken some four hours, the church was empty but for the two sisters, at that moment in the very first pew, heads bowed, praying before the statue of Our Lady of Medjugorje and the Pilgrim Rosary.

"They are in a bad way," Fr. Vince Malone said, "see if you can console them."

I went forward and, standing near them, asked, "Have you ever asked Our Heavenly Father to remove this depression from you?" They looked up, their expressions saying in so many words, "Are you kidding?"

With that, I said, "Why don't we go ask Him!"

One each side of me, I took them by their hands, led them toward the main altar, saying to them, "Kneel and pray to our Heavenly Father, and from the bottom of your hearts, beg Him to remove this depression from you, in whole or in part, whatever is His will for you."
I got up and went to pack up to leave. Fr. Vince came through the church at that moment, and seeing them in front of the tabernacle asked what they were doing. I said, "They are praying to Our Heavenly Father." Fr. Vince responded, "Oh! O.K." And we left them there, praying.

Some three months later, I received a call from one of the sisters. She said, "Richard, have I got a story to tell you. My sister and I have not had a moment of depression since that night. I am totally off my medication and my sister is on the mildest prescription. Our husbands are now behaving so well. We had the most joyous and peaceful Christmas you can imagine."
I said, "Praise God!"

"But that's not why I called you," she said. "I want to tell you about Susan. We called her the next morning to relate the evening. Susan asked what time we had prayed for her. We told her about 7 p.m. Susan said that she had felt well at dinner and had got up to go to the bathroom to check her bleeding and found her bleeding had all dried up."

I waited at the other end of the line, wondering what would come next.

"Richard, since then, Susan has been to every doctor in Boston General Hospital and none can find a trace of the cancer."

As of this writing, August 15, 2010, Susan is still cancer-free. This event happened in the fall of 1994.

COMMENTARY:

The events that took place at St. Barbara's Church were certainly very profound. This story reflects on the power of God to heal those who come to Him with humility and faith. We are weak souls that find it hard to trust (faith). Yet, time and time again, Our Lord shows us the way to Him. We question too much and trust too little. Yet through His mercy, He shows us how to come to Him. He draws us near so we may witness His Mercy.
Source  http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/

Catholic Church Rejects Surrender Terms from Obama

Catholic Church Rejects Surrender Terms from Obama

Cliff Kincaid — January 30, 2012

My Catholic priest, Father Larry Swink, delivered a homily on Sunday that I told him would make headlines. In the toughest sermon I have ever heard from a pulpit, he attacked the Obama Administration as evil, even demonic, and warned of religious persecution ahead. What was also newsworthy about the sermon was that he cited The Washington Post in agreement—not on the subject of the Obama Administration being evil, but on the matter of its abridgment of the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

What is happening is extraordinary and unprecedented. The Catholic Church is in open revolt against the Obama Administration, with Fr. Swink noting from the pulpit that priests across the archdiocese were joining the call on Sunday to rally Catholics to resistance against the U.S. Government. He said we are entering a time of religious persecution and that Catholics and others will have to make a final decision about which side they are on.
The issue is what the Catholic Bishops have called a “literally unconscionable” edict by the Obama Administration demanding that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans.

At a time when the media are full of reports about who is ahead and behind in the polls, and who will win the next Republican presidential primary, this incredible uprising in the Catholic Church is something that could not only overshadow the political campaign season, but also may have a major impact on the ultimate outcome—if Republicans know how to handle it. This matter goes beyond partisan politics to the growing perception of an unconstitutional Obama Administration assault on religious freedom. To hear the Catholic Bishops and Priests describe it, our constitutional republic and our freedoms hang in the balance.

The administration claims there is a religious exemption in the mandate, but the bishops say it is so narrow that it fails to cover the vast majority of faith-based organizations, including Catholic hospitals, universities and service organizations that help millions every year. “Ironically,” they say, “not even Jesus & his disciples would have qualified.”

The bishops go on, “Now that the Administration has refused to recognize the Constitutional conscience rights of organizations and individuals who oppose the mandate, the bishops are now urging Catholics and others of good will to fight this unprecedented attack on conscience rights and religious liberty.”

Interestingly, The Washington Post, as Father Swink indicated, agrees with the bishops. The paper said, “In this circumstance, requiring a religiously affiliated employer to spend its own money in a way that violates its religious principles does not make an adequate accommodation for those deeply held views. Having recognized the principle of a religious exemption, the administration should have expanded it.”

So why would the administration pick a major fight with the Catholic Church? There are two main reasons. (1) The administration wants to please its progressive and feminist, secular pro-abortion base. (2) The administration believes Catholics are divided on the issue and will ignore their leaders and follow Obama.
Support for the latter explanation comes in the form of the Obama Administration’s efforts to co-opt the Catholic Church, primarily through appointing nominal Catholics to high-level positions in government and keeping funding going to the church for “social justice” causes. Another player in this effort is the hedge-fund billionaire George Soros, an atheist who nevertheless has found groups that are “Catholic in name only” to accept his financial largesse. These groups, including Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, are designed to give the impression that Catholics are less concerned about issues like stopping abortion and protecting the sanctity of traditional marriage than passing government health care. The Obama/Soros gamble may be backfiring.

It’s true that the bishops went along with Obama’s health care scheme, even lobbying on its behalf. But now they seem to be realizing that the plan was a Trojan Horse designed to force population control measures on the people of the United States. It will be difficult for the bishops to continue working with the administration on other issues, like immigration. They have drawn a line in the sand. They cannot back down.

Father Larry Swink of Jesus The Divine Word Catholic Church in Huntingtown, Maryland, is not alone in his tough language. Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik posted a letter on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh’s website that said, “It is really hard to believe that it happened. It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, ‘To Hell with you!’ There is no other way to put it.” He added, “This whole process of mandating these guidelines undermines the democratic process itself. In this instance, the mandate declares pregnancy a disease, forces a culture of contraception and abortion on society, all while completely bypassing the legislative process.”

You know it’s serious when the bishops are talking about heaven and hell.

Indeed, Fr. Swink opened his discussion of what he described as the evil nature of the Obama Administration by reading from scripture about Jesus casting out demons. He saw the order on health care coverage as the start of religious persecution. The congregation joined him in calls of “Amen” when he challenged them to stand tall with the church.

You cannot expect the secular Washington Post to go along with such rhetoric. But even its liberal editorial writer saw the ramifications of the health care order, perhaps anticipating the confrontation that we now see developing. From the point of view of this liberal paper, the Obama Administration is not only undermining religious freedom but risking a major backlash to its overall “progressive” agenda and even a second term in office.

Some may see this battle as just another church-state dust-up that will be resolved through litigation. But when apocalyptic imagery is used, such as what I heard at my church on Sunday, one must wonder if there is an awakening on the part of the Catholic community and if there is something else going on here besides politics as usual. In short, is the Catholic Church beginning to finally recognize the real nature of the Obama Administration?

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About the author
Cliff Kincaid

Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org.

Warriors for Life’ not stopped by radicals’ attack

R. I. Catholic
http://www.thericatholic.com/

‘Warriors for Life’ not stopped by radicals’ attack

BY RICK SNIZEK, Editor2/2/12

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — Days after the Diocese of Providence agreed to open an emergency day shelter at the request of the City of Providence to help reduce the number of homeless – including members of the Occupy Providence movement – about two-dozen anti-life protesters from Occupy Providence disrupted the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee’s 39th annual Pro-Life Rally last Thursday.

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Waving anti-life signs in the faces of speakers, pushing and shoving aside pro-life participants and shouting over the closing prayer offered by Father Bernard A. Healey, director of the Rhode Island Catholic Conference, and chief lobbyist for the Diocese of Providence, the protesters attempted to intimidate the crowd of nearly 150 pro-lifers gathered in the Statehouse rotunda.

Someone also threw condoms at the crowd from an upper level of the Capitol, with packets raining down upon students from La Salle Academy’s Pro-Life Club.

Speaking for a large group of 12 legislators present on the steps of the rotunda in support for the pro-life legislative agenda, Rep. Jon D. Brien (D-Woonsocket), vowed over heckling from protesters that the lawmakers would remain committed to the cause.

“We intend to push the pro-life agenda,” Brien said. We’re proud, we’re strong and we won’t back down.”

Among the 150 pro-life supporters participating in the rally were student pro-life groups representing Bishop Hendricken High School, LaSalle Academy and St. Mark’s Parish Youth Group, Cranston.

The protesters, many carrying signs with messages such as “Abortion is Health Care,” “Anti-Choice is Anti-Woman,” “Abortion Doctors are Heroes” and “Jesus was an Occupier,” shouted, “We’ll be back!” in response.

Father Healey suggested that the anti-life protesters had embarrassed themselves with their “wild antics and hooliganism” days after the diocese opened a day shelter, a condition for Occupy Providence to vacate Burnside Park, where they set up camp Oct. 15.
“The pro-life cause cannot be stymied by shouts and screams of a few radicals,” he said.

“They fear the truth that abortion is evil and so attempted to shout it down. However, the large turnout of legislators and supporters committed to the culture of life will never stop giving a voice to the voiceless and innocent unborn. While they profess the freedom of speech and freedom to assemble, such rights are only extended to those who share their radical beliefs.”

Barth E. Bracy, executive director of the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee, said he was “outraged” by the actions of the protesters.

“They were trying to shut down our ability to speak. It is ‘thuggery’ and it bodes very poorly in our society,” Bracy said.

Although RISRTL had expected perhaps a dozen protesters from the nearby Occupy Providence movement to attempt to counter their rally at the Statehouse, Bracy said he witnessed the underpinnings of a more concerted effort to thwart pro-life supporters.

“They did this with military precision,” Bracy said. “These people have been trained in how to disrupt events.”

During the first half of the rally, the protesters trickled in to the Statehouse, largely keeping to the periphery and holding signs. But during the second half, as they began to coordinate their efforts, the circle began to tighten at the center of the rotunda, with protesters stepping in front of pro-life supporters, trying to cover their signs with anti-life messages.

Capitol Police stepped in several times, telling individual protesters to stop disrupting the rally. No one was ejected from the rotunda.

Bracy said he spoke with two protesters, one of whom identified himself as “Dallas,” and said they were representatives of Occupy Wall Street – a movement that originated in New York City’s Financial District on Sept. 17 to protest against major banks, corporations and Wall Street, saying those institutions are to blame for the economic recession.

On Oct. 15, a group calling itself Occupy Providence established an encampment at Burnside Park to show solidarity for the movement.

A group representing Occupy Wall Street was in Providence Thursday during a national tour to show support for local groups, and Bracy believes they helped to organize the local Occupiers to more effectively disrupt the rally.

“Had they not been there, I think we would have had five to 10 kids,” he said.

Bracy said that while the occupiers claim to represent 99 percent of Americans, they fail to factor into their statistics that more than half of all Americans consider themselves pro-life.

“Like many people, I haven’t yet been able to figure out exactly what the Occupiers stand for,” Bracy said. “Their actions today indicate that they stand for abortion and oppose the pro-life movement.”

Neil Grant, 16, a junior in Bishop Hendricken’s pro-life group, and a member of the diocese’s Human Life Guild Board, also felt inspired by the challenge pro-lifers received from the protesters.

“I think the fact they’re coming out and protesting is a sign that we’re winning,” he said.

“It’s good to have confrontation because it brings out the truth and shows which side is right.”
Grant said that support for the pro-life movement among young people is growing, noting that there are about 25 Bishop Hendricken students who are members of the school’s pro-life group.

Marking the 39th anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the U.S., the pro-life supporters gathered to memorialize the 54 million unborn babies who have lost their lives to abortion since 1973, according to RISRTL. The organization also notes that approximately 23 percent of pregnancies each year in Rhode Island end in abortion.
“They don’t seem to have very much respect for life,” Joseph Daly Jr., a member of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Wakefield, said of those protesting the rally. “We’re either pro-life, or pro-death.”

At the conclusion of the rally, Kevin McDevitt, a board member of Rhode Island State Right to Life, was in the rotunda listening to pro-life supporters and standing next to a mother and her two young girls, ages 4 and 9, when packets of condoms were thrown onto the group from above.

“The remarks were constantly being interrupted by belligerent pro-abortion protesters,” McDevitt said. “Suddenly, packets of condoms fell on and around us from the protesters on the floors above. I was appalled and highly offended that young children were attacked in this fashion.”

Elena Curran, 16, a La Salle junior, and member of the school’s pro-life group, said she was undeterred by the disruption of the protesters, which she said, only served to energize their group in its mission.

“We know what’s right,” she said. “I’m just glad to be a warrior for life.
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