Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Critical Role Of God's Mother at This Time

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The Critical Role Of God's Mother at This Time

If we wish to be full members of Jesus Christ, all the manifestations of His life must be inside of us in a real way. Now the greatest manisfestation of that love is the Immaculate Conception...Mary His Mother... and our Mother... through whom He willed to be born and bring us our eternal salvation.

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When we have in ourselves a place for the Love of Jesus for Mary, when we love Mary together with Jesus, we fulfill God's desire; and then as a consequence, Mary comes to us with her love of Jesus.

Mary takes everything that is ours and in return she gives everything that is uniquely her possesion: her desire for God to be loved. Her only purpose is that Jesus be loved, and she intercedes constantly that His love be poured into our hearts. The Mother of God directs our entire existence to the love of God the Father in Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Every time Jesus turns to Mary asking: Mother what do you desire? She has only one answer: Son that you be loved with Your own love...the love You gave to me to love You... and which You now wish to share with all of Your children who choose this grace!

Barbara Kloss and AP Marcus

You can receive complimentary materials to make your Consecration to God through Mary’s Immaculate Heart (important spiritual protection at this time in salvation history) at myconsecration.org... where you can also learn about Our Lady of Las Lajas.

You can learn more about our Lady of Fatima at www.wafusa.org.

God Bless you and your work,

Deacon Bob Tony

Deacon Bob Ellis Anthony Mullen
Executive Director MyConsecration.org
World Apostolate of Fatima, USA 222 S. Manoa Road
A Pontifical Association of the Faithful Havertown, PA 19083
visit us at: www.wafusa.org visit us at: www.myconsecration.org

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Friday, March 30, 2012

Fighting over Feet

Vortex


Dear Friend in Christ,

As we prepare for the remembrance of Our Blessed Lord's Passion and Death, there could hardly be a more insulting way to begin this, than with a major liturgical abuse. But unfortunately, such an abuse has become extremely common. Please take a few minutes to watch this episode of the Vortex and pass it to your family and friends.

GOD Bless you and your loved ones,

Michael Voris
~senior executive producer at RealCatholicTV.com


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From Fr. Z's Blog: Card. Dolan’s video about Holy Week and Easter

THERE MAY BE DIGITAL 'ARTIFACTS,' BUT NOT WHEN YOU ALSO SEE A 'RAINBOW' WITH NAKED EYE

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"It lasted about an hour. When we saw this 'miracle,' we immediately did the Rosary. This rainbow was visible for over an hour in the classroom. I believe Mary heard our daily intentions and wanted us to know that she is always here for us. Whatever you may thinK, a miracle happened in kindergarten."

Read more here: http://www.spiritdaily.com/Photos2012.htm

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Christian Persecution in India and Syria Update

Fides

ASIA/INDIA - Hindu Fanatics beat Christians in Karnataka

Mundargi (Karnataka) - Allegations of conversions and then violent beatings: is what the Hindu extremists of the movement RSS ("Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh", "National Volunteer Organization") did against the Christian Protestant Pastor Mallikarjun Sangalada, 37, and other four Christians of his community. The umpteenth episode of gratuitous violence which occurred in the district of Mundargi Gadag, in the Indian state of Karnataka (South India). The Pastor, with his wife and 3 children, carries out his ministry in a small local community that, in several villages, has a total of about 60 members.
On Wednesday, March 28, the Pastor went to a prayer meeting at the house of a believer in Dhoni, about 15 kilometers from his village. After the prayer meeting, the Pastor, along with four other believers, began distributing some leaflets inviting locals to a Christian community festival. This made some Hindu fundamentalists very angry and attacked and beat them without mercy. Then they dragged the five to the police station in Mundargi, denouncing them for "forced conversions from Hindus to Christianity".
The "Global Council of Indian Christians", an organization that defends the rights of Indian Christians, by contacting the local police was able to secure the immediate release of the three Christians. Later a lawyer intervened who, after a few hours, managed to secure the release of the pastor and other believers. It is likely that the Pastor must appear before a magistrate because they are accused of "fraudulent conversions".
In 2011 there were over 1,000 incidents of attacks against Christian people or places in Karnataka, which according to Fides sources, "seems to be the most violent and insecure state": among the 1,000 cases registered, over 140 are severe episodes of persecution against Christians , characterized by false allegations of "forced conversions". Recently Bishops, Christian leaders, movement and association leaders, state politicians, gathered for the Convention of the "Federation of Christian Associations of Karnataka" (FKCA) have launched an appeal to the civil authorities asking them to ensure the protection of Christian Indians and respect for religious freedom. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 30/3/2012)

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ASIA/SYRIA - Christians being targeted by armed Islamist gangs

Damascus (Agenzia Fides) - Armed Islamist gangs, that pollute the Syrian Liberation Army, have targeted some believers in the ongoing conflict in Syria: is what several sources say to Fides in the Christian community in Syria, of various denominations. Despite the assurances by the Revolutionary Council of Homs and the Syrian National Council on the fact that "there is not an ongoing denominational war against Christians", Fides learns about alarming stories and testimonies that show how the Islamist, Salafis and Wahhabis groups, seek to seize or manipulate the Syrian opposition.
Some Christian families confirm to Fides that they were evicted from Homs because "considered close to the regime". Over 10 thousand Christians have fled from the town of Kusayr, on the border with Lebanon, following pressure from Sunni Islamist groups, a local priest told Fides. According to Fides sources, after the first few months of fighting, the army of the opposition "have been joined by the Islamist armed gangs, mercenaries, Lebanese Sunni militants".
Christians who do not want to join the popular uprising are increasingly marginalized and then "considered enemies" of the revolution. Not only: the Islamist gangs have been driven out from the district of Hamidiya in Homs some Christians who declared themselves in favor of the opposition, even present within the local coordination of opposition groups. As a source tells Fides, the militants broke into their house and told them: "All your assets are to be for Islam; go away, otherwise we will kill you".
Meanwhile, many homes, roads, buildings in the Christian district of Homs are currently littered with mines and explosives, to prevent a possible Syrian regular army advance. Last week a representative of the Syrian Catholic community tried to meet with members of the Syrian army of liberation to ask to save a historic and cultural heritage (historic buildings and places of worship) which shows the traces of centuries of the Christian faith in the city. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 30/3/2012)

 

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Mary TV Daily Reflection 3/30/2012

Apparition Hill Supplicants
(c)Mary TV 2011

Meditate on the wounds of Jesus 


March 30, 2012

 

Dear Family of Mary!

 

"Dear children! Today, in a special way, I invite you to take the cross in the hands and to meditate on the wounds of Jesus. Ask of Jesus to heal your wounds, which you, dear children, during your life sustained because of your sins or the sins of your parents. Only in this way, dear children, you will understand that the world is in need of healing of faith in God the Creator. By Jesus' passion and death on the cross, you will understand that only through prayer you, too, can become true apostles of faith; when, in simplicity and prayer, you live faith which is a gift. Thank you for having responded to my call." (March 25, 1997)

 

This Sunday we will begin Holy Week with Palm Sunday and the reading of the Passion according to Mark. We will meditate upon the wounds of Jesus all week long. We will see Him persecuted, slandered, rejected, reviled, tortured, mocked, disfigured, betrayed and finally killed. Almost every wound that can be sustained by man will be inflicted on Jesus. We will have plenty of time to meditate upon those wounds.

 

Some of the wounds Jesus receives will be wounds we have received as well. Will we be able to forgive our enemies like Jesus? Will we allow Jesus to touch those wounds and heal them through forgiveness?

 

Some of the wounds Jesus receives will be wounds we have inflicted on others. Will we be able to ask forgiveness for our sins? Will we confess our sins to Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and experience His forgiveness?

 

Some of the wounds Jesus received will have been inflicted and received by our ancestors. The effects of those wounds still live on in us. Can we pray for forgiveness for the sins and the sinners? Can we bring our family tree to Jesus for healing?

 

This is the challenge we have starting Sunday. We are being offered a chance to bring healing to our souls, our families, our communities and the world, through forgiveness and repentance. Jesus will be doing the hard work. He offers us a chance to be healed. All we have to do is open our hearts in all honesty and let Him enter in with His love and forgiveness. He will heal us, our enemies and our ancestors, and provide a future filled with hope and joy for our descendants.

 

"Dear children! Today, in a special way, I invite you to take the cross in the hands and to meditate on the wounds of Jesus."

 

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2012

 

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

SEVEN SORROWS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY [Friday During Passion Week]



"And thy own soul a sword shall pierce." St. Luke, 2:35

Today, the Friday after Passion Sunday (old calendar), Holy Mother Church asks us to recall the principle sorrows of Mary, our Sorrowful Mother. Rightly is our Blessed Mother called the Sorrowful Mother. She is indeed the Mother of Sorrows. She is the Queen of Martyrs. In fact, Her whole life was a martyrdom. The sufferings of the poor, for instance, She had to bear all through Her life. Mary was poor, as poor, perhaps poorer, than the poorest of us.

A thread of sorrow ran through all Her years in that She could see ahead to the time when Her only Son, now an Infant, now a little curly-headed Boy, now an obedient and respectful young Man, would have to die a most painful and disgraceful death.

And oh, Her sufferings during the Passion of Jesus, Her anguish as He carried His cruel cross, Her agony as She stood beneath that cross watching Him die. Who could ever measure Her grief or count Her tears?

It was most fitting that the woman whom God gave us for our heavenly Mother should be a Mother of Sorrows, a woman who had to suffer. As we all know, suffering is the lot of every human being. There is not, nor was there ever, a man, a woman, or a child but had to suffer. No person ever living that had not at least one sword in his or her heart, at least one sorrow, at least one affliction.

Sometimes we judge other people saying, "But so and so has no trials in his or her life?" How do we know that? Can we see into their interior? Most often we only see one side of the story. The fact is: Every human being has some sort of sorrow. Is it not consoling then that we children of Mary have for a Mother one who has borne a many-sworded sorrow? As children of Mary, we are all glad that we have such a Mother who suffered too; because only one who has suffered can rightly console, can satisfactorily comfort the sufferings of others. As Scripture says, '[God] comforts us in all our afflictions and thus enables us to comfort those who are in trouble, with the same consolation we have received from Him. As we have shared much in the sufferings of Christ, so through Christ do we share abundantly in His consolation.' (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). Certainly Mother Mary shared in Christ's sufferings!

Yes, everyone has a cross. Bitter indeed are some of our crosses--death of dear ones, sickness, poverty, misunderstanding, difficulties in our home and in our work.

What is your cross? Thank God for it. Ask Our Lady to show you how to carry it. Our Blessed and Sorrowful Mother, She who sits at the side of Her divine Son, with whom She suffered here on earth, Mary is now in Heaven waiting to help you, waiting to console you, waiting to be a sympathetic Mother to you.

Next Friday (Good Friday) we will recall Her principle sorrows. She had many more, but Mother Church centers our attention on the seven swords that pierced Her tender Heart:

1. The prophecy of Simeon that a sword of sorrow would pierce Her Heart, was a bitter pain.
2. The flight into Egypt made Her experience the sadness of exile and the loss of Her home.
3. The three-day loss of Jesus made Her Heart ache with anxiety.
4. What anguish when She met Jesus on the way of the cross.
5. One would think Her Heart would break as She stood beneath the cross at Christ's death.
6. Only a mother who holds a dead child in her arms can know anything of Mary's grief as She held Jesus taken down from the cross.

7. Only a mother who puts a child to bed in a grave can understand at all how Mary felt at the burial of Jesus.

Mary, our Sorrowful Queen, reaches out Her sympathy and help to everyone who suffers. She, more than any other woman, knew the pang and pain of sorrow. We can go to Her and take others to Her also. We can then be Our Lady's consolers!

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
[Adapted from a homily by Rev. Arthur Tonne, O.F.M.]

As we approach Holy Week and the Easter Triduum, we provide this classic hymn to the Mother Co-redemptrix, one of the most beautiful ever written, for your Lenten meditation.

At the Cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.

Through her Heart, His sorrow sharing,
All His bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword has passed.

O how sad and sore distressed
Was that Mother highly blessed
Of the sole-begotten One!

Christ above in torment hangs,
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying, glorious Son.

Is there one who would not weep,
'Whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold?

Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother's pain untold?

Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
She beheld her tender Child,
All with bloody scourges rent.

For the sins of His own nation
Saw Him hang in desolation
Till His spirit forth He sent.

O sweet Mother! Font of love,
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with yours accord.

Make me feel as you have felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ, my Lord.

Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Savior crucified.

Let me share with you His pain,
Who for all our sins was slain,
Who for me in torments died.

Let me mingle tears with you,
Mourning Him who mourned for me,
All the days that I may live.

By the Cross with you to stay,
There with you to weep and pray,
Is all I ask of you to give.

Virgin of all virgins blest!
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share your grief divine.

Let me to my latest breath,
In my body bear the death
Of that dying Son of yours.

Wounded with His every wound,
Steep my soul till it has swooned
In His very Blood away.

Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
Lest in flames I burn and die,
In His awful judgment day.

Christ, when you shall call me hence,
Be your Mother my defense,
Be your cross my victory.

While my body here decays,
May my soul your goodness praise,
Safe in heaven eternally.
Amen.

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From Mark Mallett: Warnings in the Wind

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Our Lady of Sorrows, by Tianna Mallett

THE wind is blowing hard today, as it often does when I sense Our Blessed Mother compelling me to give a warning. We exchange tears, and when the moment is right, I sit down to repeat what I believe she has been saying over the past few days, weeks, and months in a word that has finally ripened…

Read more… » http://www.markmallett.com/blog/2012/03/warnings-in-the-wind/#more-8145

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From CatholicHack: The Sacred Heart Of Jesus Novena [video]

http://CatholicHack.com/ This Holy Week I desire to pray a Novena for all Catholic men... for their marriages, for their families, for our society, for our Church, and for the world at large. That God may show his tender mercy for such wayward children... I will ask for the intercession of my patron saint, St. Padre Pio, to implore our Lord for His grace upon us all. If you want to join, visit the website and leave a comment. Thanks! More


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News You May Have Missed

FROM NEW OXFORD REVIEW
------------------------------------------------------------------

Here, Kitty Kitty... Failure to Launch, Parte Seconda... "Italian Big Babies"... Holy Dumping Ground... Up to His Old Tricks... Sr. Marie's Black Habit... Awaiting the Corduroy Messiah... and more

Read all about it...

http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=0112-news

 

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Mary TV Daily Reflection 3/29/2012

woman on Podbrodo with Rosary

(c)Mary TV 2011

May prayer become a need for you... 


March 29, 2012

 

Dear Family of Mary!

 
"Dear children! Also today, with joy, I desire to give you my motherly blessing and to call you to prayer. May prayer become a need for you to grow more in holiness every day. Work more on your conversion because you are far away, little children. Thank you for having responded to my call." (March 25, 2012)

 

"May prayer become a need for you..."

 

Human beings are needy.  

 

For example, we need food. Our bodies burn up energy and build new cells all the time. The fuel for that activity has to come from somewhere! So we take in our nutrients by eating. We need food.

 

We need to breathe oxygen rich air. The air we take in infuses that oxygen into our blood stream through which it is delivered to our cells and gives them what they need to use the food/energy we consume. We need air.

 

We need water. A big part of our body is made up of water, and we need to replace it regularly. Without water, we would die very quickly.

 

We need to regulate our temperature, and protect ourselves from extreme heat and cold, so we need clothes. We need a place to live where we can manage of all the food, clothes, and other things we need!

 

Well, you get the idea. We are needy creatures. We depend on so much for our life. Not a moment goes by that we don't "need" something for our existence. Our bodies teach us about needing.

 

We also need a great deal on the social level. We are social creatures. We need others, to love us, cooperate with us in meeting our "needs", to raise us if we are children, to join us in the journey of life, as a family. We need others.

 

And in this message Our Lady tells us we need something else. "May prayer become a need for you..." Why does she say it this way? She doesn't say, "May air become a need for you", or "May water become a need for you..." No, we all know that we need these basic building blocks for our bodily life. Our bodies tell us we need them. But prayer? Is it possible that we don't know that we need prayer?

 

I think it is. Prayer provides the heavenly air we breathe, the living water we drink, the manna from heaven we eat, the protective mantel we receive for our spiritual journey. Prayer helps us to receive the sustaining, life giving stuff for our spiritual life, the life that is eternal. The problem is that we may not be in touch with our spirit, our soul, enough to know that it is starving and dehydrating and freezing and suffocating. We may be ignorant of our soul's need for prayer. And we need our soul/spirit to be fully alive and active in our lives, for it is from our spirit that we receive direction from God for our lives, and grace to be all that God has made us to be. Our lives may be full of problems because we are not in line with God. And we may be blaming our problems on the wrong things. Our poor, suffering soul may be dying from a lack of food, and we blame our subsequent unhappiness on not having enough money, or being too fat, or not having enough friends. You see, our spiritual life may be so neglected that we don't even know it is part of us.

 

"May prayer become a need for you..." Our Lady wants us to finally realize that we need prayer as much or more than we need food or water or air. We need prayer, because it is the way to life. Our Lady once said, "Let prayer, dear children, be your everyday food, especially when your work in the fields is exhausting you so much that you cannot pray with the heart. Pray, and then you will overcome any weariness. Prayer will be your joy and your rest." (May 30, 1985) It sounds like prayer is more sustaining than sleep, according to Our Lady!

 

Indeed, prayer powers our lives in the most wonderful ways. Our Lady has said that prayer will be our joy, that prayer provides grace, that we become more beautiful through prayer, that Jesus will give us everything we seek in prayer, that prayer is our food, that prayer will melt the ice in our brother's hearts, that by means of prayer we can defeat evil, etc. Prayer is a need for us.

 

But, here is the hitch. We will not understand how much we need prayer and how much it will change our lives until we decide for prayer and make a time for prayer every day. We are so desensitized and our spirits are so malnourished that we just don't know what we are missing. But we will never let go of prayer once we try it. It makes life go from black and white to Technicolor!!

 

"May prayer become a need for you..."

 

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

 (c)Mary TV 2012 

 

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

[Video] Pope Benedict XVI Says Goodbye to Cuba

Latin Anyone?

Vortex


Dear Friend in Christ,

Don't believe the lies that there is no excitement or energy bubbling up in the Catholic Church these days.  It's just that it's coming from a place you might never heard of.  Time to start listening. Please take a few minutes to watch this episode of the Vortex and pass it to your family and friends.

GOD Bless you and your loved ones,

Michael Voris
~senior executive producer at RealCatholicTV.com

For information on RealCatholicTV.com speaking engagements, click here.

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MADONNA’S NEW CD TRASHES CATHOLICISM

Donahue


March 28, 2012

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Madonna:

Mdna

 Even her fan base knows that she ages more like an aluminum can of beer than a vintage Cabernet. Madonna’s new CD, MDNA, isn’t breaking any records, and one of her flashy singles, “Girl Gone Wild,” didn’t make the Billboard 100; one critic, Chris Willman, even called it “the worst single she’s ever released.” He was too kind.

 The video of “Girl Gone Wild” shows the 53-year-old tramping around in black hot pants and stiletto heels while gyrating with well-greased topless guys adorned in tight black pants. The homoerotic show is so vulgar that YouTube says the video is not fit for those under the age of 18. YouTube has even asked Madonna to recut a video making it appropriate for the teeny boppers. Good luck.

 She is what she is. Which means she is more than obscene—she’s a Catholic basher. “Girl Gone Wild” begins with Madonna reciting the first few lines of “The Act of Contrition.” She must know it’s Lent. Then she prances around to the backdrop of a light-show configured to resemble a cross. The guy who is shown wearing a crown of thorns is no doubt meant as another Easter present.

 The CD also features “I’m a Sinner.” With lyrics such as “I’m a sinner, I like it that way,” Madonna makes it clear that she always has Catholicism on her mind: “Hail Mary full of grace” is followed by a quip about Jesus, St. Christopher and St. Anthony.

 Madonna likes narcotics. She admits that MDNA was chosen to reference both her name and the drug MDMA; the line from “I’m a Sinner” about “magic dust” was dropped to refer to the PCP drug by that name.

 The open-minded gang will not object to any of this. In their moral universe, Catholic bashing is cool; homosexual themes are beautiful; and drugs are fun. But there is one thing that Madonna does while performing “Girl Gone Wild” that will tick them off: she is shown smoking a cigarette.


Contact our director of communications about Donohue’s remarks:
Jeff Field
Phone: 212-371-3191
E-mail: cl@catholicleague.org

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Accommodations in the Garden of Good and Evil by FR. GORDON J. MACRAE

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“The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 1942 – “Letter 12″)

“There are no coincidences, only signs.” I have no idea who wrote that, but I have long remembered it, and it came spontaneously to mind as I began this post.

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The Catholic Church in Western Culture is about to be parked a block or two outside the Public Square. No president or political party should be blamed. It is a symptom of a cancer growing on religion and public life, and it is called "complacency." These Stone Walls shakes the Catholic on-line world this week, and we hope you'll help do the shaking.
Read more here: http://www.thesestonewalls.com/gordon-macrae/accommodations-in-the-garden-of-...

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Hollywood producer eyes sequel to 'Passion of the Christ'

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Eight years after watching the phenomenal success of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ", Hollywood promoter and producer David Wood remains steadfast to a vision that he credits to God – the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ told by way of a major motion picture.
Read more here: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/hollywood.producer.eyes.sequel.to.passi...

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Benedict XVI meets his 'spiritual Godmother' in Santiago de Cuba

Pope Benedict meets with Sr. Teresa Kereketa in Santiago de Cuba. Photo courtesy of L'Osservatore Romano.

Santiago de Cuba, Mar 27, 2012 / 08:59 pm (CNA).- After beginning his day on Tuesday with a private Mass in Santiago de Cuba, Pope Benedict XVI met a religious sister from India who has been his “spiritual Godmother” for 20 years.
 
The Pope celebrated the private Mass during his historic March 26-28 visit to the country before departing for the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of Cobre. The service was attended by 10 religious sisters from the contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity, which was founded by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
 
When the Mass ended, Cuban Archbishop Dionisio García, presented Sister Teresa Kereketa to the Pope. Following the practice of her order, 20 years ago she received the task of praying daily for a specific priest, thus becoming his “spiritual Godmother.” The priest whom she was assigned was Cardinal Josef Ratzinger.
 
During the emotional encounter, and following an Indian tradition, the sister presented a crown of flowers to Pope Benedict. 

“The Pope was quite moved meeting her,” said Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, during a press conference.

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: See what God is doing in restricted nations without getting on a plane

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The Voice of the Martyrs

See what God is doing in restricted nations...
without getting on a plane

Dear friends:

It would be wonderful if each of you could travel with VOM staff into a restricted nation. I know you'd be encouraged to see what God is doing and to meet face-to-face with Christians who risk everything—even their lives—to follow Jesus. Obviously, we can't all go on such a trip.

But there's a way you can hear what God is doing in hostile and restricted nations without buying an airplane ticket. We have expanded our VOM regional conference ministry to every part of the United States in order to share current stories of what God is doing in hostile and restricted nations.

Watch Conference Highlights

FIND AND REGISTER FOR A VOM REGIONAL CONFERENCE IN YOUR AREA.

Daphne recently wrote to VOM after attending a VOM conference in the Philadelphia area:

Thank you so much for organizing the VOM conference. It was incredible! My nine-year-old daughter and I attended and walked away just saying WOW! What a day packed with incredible stories of how God was working.

We have been involved with VOM for seven years, but this topped it and was such an encouragement and challenge to keep taking action for Christ and to find ways to share what is happening to our brothers and sisters around the world. I can't wait to see the fruit of all that my young daughter learned. She keeps referring to many things we learned this weekend and I am excited to see all God will do here in our home and through VOM around the world.

There is no charge to attend a regional conference, but an offering will be received. We ask that you register in advance so that we have an idea of how many people to expect.

Visit www.vommeetings.com to find and register for a Regional Conference in your area. I know that your life, like Daphne's and her daughter's, will be touched by stories of the persecuted.

For those in bonds,

Tom White
Tom White
Executive Director


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Mary TV Daily Reflection 3/28/2012

praying at the statue on apparition hill
(c)Mary TV 2011



March 28, 2012

 

Dear Family of Mary!

 

"Dear children! Also today, with joy, I desire to give you my motherly blessing and to call you to prayer. May prayer become a need for you to grow more in holiness every day. Work more on your conversion because you are far away, little children. Thank you for having responded to my call." (March 25, 2012)

 

In this message Our Lady urges us to prayer, to the need for holiness, to the constant necessity to work on our conversion "because you are far away, little children."Shocking! We are far away! I must admit I am a bit uncomfortable with this revelation. But knowing how loving and honest and kind Our Lady is, I can't dismiss her comment. She sees things much more objectively than we do. After all, she looks down from heaven!

 

Only two days after Mother Mary gave us this message, I read a very good explanation as to how we could find ourselves "far away". It is a short meditation written by Blessed John Henry Newman from the March 2012 edition of the Magnificat (on page 389). Blessed Newman gives a very clear description of how we, who think we are close to God, can find ourselves far way:

 

We must consider the force of habit. Conscience at first warns us against sin; but if we disregard it, it soon ceases to upbraid us; and thus sins, once known, in time become secret sins. It seems then (and it is a starling reflection), that the more guilty we are, the less we know it; for the oftener we sin, the less we are distressed at it. I think many of us may, on reflection, recollect instances, in our experience of ourselves, of our gradually forgetting things to be wrong which once shocked us. Such is the force of habit. By it (for instance) men contrive to allow themselves in various kinds of dishonesty. They bring themselves to affirm what is untrue, or what they are not sure is true, in the course of business. They overreach and cheat; and still more are they likely to fall into low and selfish ways without their observing it, and all the while to continue careful in their attendance on the Christian ordinances, and bear about them a form of religion. Or, again, they will live in self-indulgent habits; eat and drink more than is right; display a needless pomp and splendor in their domestic arrangements, without any misgiving; much less do they think of simplicity of manners and abstinence as Christian duties. Now we cannot suppose they always thought their present mode of living to be justifiable, for others are still struck with its impropriety; and what others now feel, doubtless they once felt themselves. But such is the force of habit. So again, to take as a third instance, the duty of stated private prayer; at first it is omitted with compunction, but soon with indifference. But it is not the less a sin because we do not feel it to be such. Habit has made it a secret sin.

 

To think of these things, and to be alarmed, is the first step towards acceptable obedience; to be at ease, is to be unsafe. We must know what the evil of sin is hereafter, if we do not learn it here. God give us all grace to choose the pain of present repentance before the wrath to come! (Blessed John Henry Newman. From Parochial and Plain Sermons. © 1997, Ignatius Press. www.ignatius.com)

 

Let's ask Blessed John Henry Newman to pray for us, that we can turn our alarm at Our Lady's words into deeds of repentance. We have one week of Lent left in which to exert ourselves. Prayer is the answer. We need prayer. We need to grow in holiness.

 

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

© Mary TV 2012

 

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Wow! Pope Benedict XVI asks Raul Castro to declare Good Friday a national holiday in Cuba [video]

The Pope has reportedly asked Cuban president Raul Castro, to declare Good Friday, a national holiday in Cuba. During the second day of his apostolic visit, Benedict XVI met with president Raul Castro at Havana's Revolution Palace. According to the Vatican's spokesman, Federico Lombardi, it was on that very day, that the Pope issued the request to the president. More


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[video] The Church in Cuba

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

[MaryVitamin] Fourteenth station

Station14

 

Mary Vitamin for March 28th

Topic: The Fourteenth station The Entombment

Quote:
St. Margaret Mary
"The cross is a precious treasure to be kept secret, lest we be robbed of it."
 The Thoughts and Saying of Saint Margaret Mary, (Tan Books: 1986), 79.

Meditation:
St. Francis of Assisi
Blessed is that servant who stores up in heaven the good things which the Lord has revealed to him and dos not desire to reveal them to others in the hope of profiting thereby, Blessed is the servant who keeps the secrets of the Lord in his heart.

The footnote from the above text explains:
As he does in other texts, Saint Francis proposes Mary, the Mother of God, as the model Christian. In this instance, she is the ideal servant of God who keeps the secrets of the Lord in her heart.
 Francis and Clare; The Complete Works
Translated and Introdction by Regis J. Armstrong O.F.M. CAP.and Ignatius C. Brady, O.F.M., (Paulist Press: 1982), 36.

Resolution
I will try to keep something I do a secret so that I may bury it with the Lord in His tomb.
 
Marian Vow:
John Paul II
Even though Paul, in the Letter to the Romans, wrote that "the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now", even though man knows and is close to the sufferings of the animal world, nevertheless what we express by the word 'suffering' seems to be particularly essential to the nature of man. It is as deep as man himself, precisely because it manifests in its own way that depth which is proper to man, and in its own way surpasses it. Suffering seems to belong to man's transcendence: it is one of those points in which man is in a certain sense "destined" to go beyond himself, and he is called to this in a mysterious way.
Salvifici Doloris, paragraph #2
February 11, 1984
 
I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Thanks be to God for graces received.

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[video] Benedict XVI visits the Shrine of the Virgin of Cobre

Mary TV Daily Reflection 3/27/2012

Pio_praying_choir_loft

St. Padre Pio in loft, praying.

March 27 2012

 

Dear Family of Mary!

 

"Dear children! Also today, with joy, I desire to give you my motherly blessing and to call you to prayer. May prayer become a need for you to grow more in holiness every day. Work more on your conversion because you are far away, little children. Thank you for having responded to my call." (March 25, 2012)
 

Our Lady loves to bless us! "Also today, with joy, I desire to give you my motherly blessing..." It must fill her with delight to be allowed to come from heaven each day, and to pray over her children and give us her blessing. God the Father has given her permission to bless us. She told us this in 1985:

 

"Dear children! Today I am blessing you and I wish to tell you that I love you and that I urge you to live my messages. Today I am blessing you with the solemn blessing that the Almighty grants me. Thank you for having responded to my call." (August 15, 1985)
 

The Father gave Our Lady the power to bless us with a solemn blessing that day. Since then Our Lady has mentioned her "Motherly Blessing" many times (at least 21 times, since 1985, by my count in the monthly messages and some of the messages on the 2nd of the month). It seems that her Motherly Blessing is also a gift from the Father, maybe the same gift as the solemn blessing. It comes from Our Lady's Motherly Heart, but I believe its power comes from the Holy Spirit, who dwells so profoundly in her Heart!

Queen_of_peace

 

Our Lady loves us, as a mother. She wants the very best for her children. She constantly looks upon us with love and with a motherly concern that covers our entire lives with blessing. We earthly mothers know what it is like to desire good things for our children. Imagine how much more Our Lady desires good things for all of us.

 

She knows what we need the most, what is most important for our wellbeing. So her blessing must be aimed at procuring that very thing that is most needed for each of us. If I could guess, I would say she desires for us the great gift of holiness, because through holiness we will make our way to heaven, to live with our great God forever. I would guess that her blessing is connected with holiness in some way!

 

I also believe that her Motherly Blessing protects us from our great enemy, satan. The greatest danger to our holiness is the devil, who plots and plans and schemes to steal our holiness from us. So her blessing must carry with it a special protection from him. After all, she will crush his head. He flees merely at her presence.

 

The only thing that could render Our Lady's Motherly Blessing useless is our own indifference. A blessing must be received to have its full effect. If Our Lady tells us she desires to bless us, we should respond with open hearts, silent and ready to receive her blessing. We don't need to be in Medjugorje or at an apparition to receive this blessing, I don't think.  This blessing is available to all of us who are responding to Our Lady's call.  We can just open our hearts and ask for it each day! 

 

Today and every day, it is wonderful to be open to Our Lady's Motherly Blessing, to ask for it anew, preferably in the morning before we even rise from bed. Denis always says, "Mother come, Mary come..." when he wakes up. In this way, he draws down Our Lady's blessing upon his day, and receives her in his heart.

 

"Also today, with joy, I desire to give you my motherly blessing..."

 

Also today, we desire to receive your motherly blessing, dear Mother Mary! Mother, come. Mary come!

 

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2012

 

 

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Atheist Dawkins calls for mockery of Catholics at 'Reason Rally' but I say "God Will Not Be Mocked!"

Richard Dawkins speaks during the National Atheist Organization's 'Reason Rally' March 24, 2012 on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Credit: Allison Shelley/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2012 / 02:14 am (CNA).- At the March 24 “Reason Rally” in Washington, D.C., an estimated 20,000 atheists and agnostics heard author and activist Richard Dawkins encourage mockery of Catholic beliefs and those of other religions.

“Don't fall for the convention that we're all 'too polite' to talk about religion,” Dawkins said, before urging rally attendees to ridicule Catholics' faith in the Eucharist.

“Religion makes specific claims about the universe which need to be substantiated, and need to be challenged – and if necessary, need to be ridiculed with contempt,” he told the cheering crowd on the National Mall.

“For example, if they say they're Catholic: Do you really believe, that when a priest blesses a wafer, it turns into the body of Christ? Are you seriously telling me you believe that? Are you seriously saying that wine turns into blood?”

If the answer is yes, Dawkins suggested atheists should show contempt for believers instead of ignoring the issue or feigning respect.

“Mock them,” he told the crowd. “Ridicule them! In public!”

The former Oxford professor and author of “The God Delusion” was among the headliners of Saturday's rally, which also featured comedian Eddie Izzard, punk rock group Bad Religion, and magician James Randi.

Dawkins called for atheists to identify themselves in public, for the sake of a more openly secular society.

He also claimed that many self-identified Christians are only nominal adherents of their religion, and should be given a chance to disavow beliefs that they may not hold.

“When you meet somebody who claims to be religious, ask them what they really believe,” Dawkins suggested.

“If you meet somebody who says he's Catholic, for example, say: 'What do you mean? Do you just mean you were baptized Catholic, because I'm not impressed by that.'”

But those who hold to the doctrines of their faith should be openly ridiculed, Dawkins said.

“I don't despise religious people; I despise what they stand for,” he explained.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the former professor praised the “truth” and “beauty” of Darwinian evolution, and the ability of the “incredible process” to produce life with the “illusion of design.”

“How is it conceivable,” he wondered, “that the laws of physics should conspire together – without guidance, without direction, without any intelligence – to bring us into the world?”

It was “almost too good to be true,” he rhapsodized, that this “mechanical, automatic, unplanned, unconscious process” should produce human intelligence.

“That's not just true, it's beautiful,” he declared to cheers from the crowd of agnostics and atheists.

“It's beautiful because it's true,” said Dawkins. “And it's almost too good to be true.”

This man is a fool but remember Our Lady wants us to pray for unbelievers like him and "there are no atheists in foxholes!" May the Divine Mercy be in his soul+

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"I am the Virgin of Charity" [video]

Monday, March 26, 2012

Pope Benedict Arrives in Cuba [video]

He is a king with a crown of thorns


The Pope in Mexico: "Long Live Christ the King"

He is a king with a crown of thorns, but only he can save us: "Do whatever he tells you." The homily at the Mass in Léon, in front of half a million faithful, on Sunday, March 25

by Benedict XVI


Media_httpdatakataweb_adenx

The homily at the Mass in Léon, in front of half a million faithful, on Sunday, March 25

by Benedict XVI

Dear Brothers and Sisters, [...] we said, "A pure heart, create for me, O God" (Ps 50:12) during the responsorial psalm. This exclamation shows us how profoundly we must prepare to celebrate next week the great mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. It also helps us to look deeply into the human heart, especially in times of sorrow as well as hope, as are the present times for the people of Mexico and of Latin America.

The desire for a heart that would be pure, sincere, humble, acceptable to God was very much felt by Israel as it became aware of the persistence in its midst of evil and sin as a power, practically implacable and impossible to overcome. There was nothing left but to trust in God’s mercy and in the hope that he would change from within, from the heart, an unbearable, dark and hopeless situation. In this way recourse gained ground to the infinite mercy of the Lord who does not wish the sinner to die but to convert and live (cf. Ez 33:11). A pure heart, a new heart, is one which recognizes that, of itself, it is impotent and places itself in God’s hands so as to continue hoping in his promises. Then the psalmist can say to the Lord with conviction: "Sinners will return to you" (Ps 50:15). And towards the end of the psalm he will give an explanation which is at the same time a firm conviction of faith: "A humble, contrite heart you will not spurn" (v. 19).

The history of Israel relates some great events and battles, but when faced with its more authentic existence, its decisive destiny, its salvation, it places its hope not in its own efforts, but in God who can create a new heart, not insensitive or proud. This should remind each one of us and our peoples that, when addressing the deeper dimension of personal and community life, human strategies will not suffice to save us. We must have recourse to the One who alone can give life in its fullness, because he is the essence of life and its author; he has made us sharers in the same through his Son Jesus Christ.

Today’s Gospel takes up the topic and shows us how this ancient desire for the fullness of life has actually been achieved in Christ. Saint John explains it in a passage in which the wish of some Greeks to see Jesus coincides with the moment in which the Lord is about to be glorified. Jesus responds to the question of the Greeks, who represent the pagan world, saying: "Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (Jn 12:23). This is a strange response which seems inconsistent with the question asked by the Greeks. What has the glorification of Jesus to do with the request to meet him? But there is a relation. Someone might think – says Saint Augustine – that Jesus felt glorified because the Gentiles were coming to him. This would be similar to the applause of the multitudes who give "glory" to those who are grand in the world, as we would say today. But this is not so. "It was convenient that, before the wonder of his glorification, should come the humility of his passion" (In Joannis Ev. 51:9: PL 35, 1766).

Jesus’ answer, announcing his imminent passion, means that a casual encounter in those moments would have been superficial and perhaps deceptive. The Greeks will see the one they wished to meet raised up on the cross from which he will attract all to himself (cf. Jn 12:32). There his "glory" will begin, because of his sacrifice of expiation for all, as the grain of wheat fallen to the ground that by dying germinates and produces abundant fruit. They will find the one whom, unknown to them, they were seeking in their hearts, the true God who is made visible to all peoples. This was how Our Lady of Guadalupe showed her divine Son to Saint Juan Diego, not as a powerful legendary hero but as the very God of the living, by whom all live, the Creator of persons, of closeness and immediacy, of heaven and earth (cf. Nican Mopohua, v.33). At that moment she did what she had done previously at the wedding feast of Cana. Faced with the embarrassment caused by the lack of wine, she told the servants clearly that the path to follow was her Son: "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5).

Dear brothers and sisters, by coming here I have been able to visit the monument to Christ the King situated on top of the Cubilete. My venerable predecessor, Blessed Pope John Paul II, although he ardently desired to do so, was unable on his several journeys to this beloved land to visit this site of such significance for the faith of the Mexican people. I am sure that in heaven he is happy that the Lord has granted me the grace to be here with you and that he has blessed the millions of Mexicans who have venerated his relics in every corner of the country. This monument represents Christ the King. But his crowns, one of a sovereign, the other of thorns, indicate that his royal status does not correspond to how it has been or is understood by many. His kingdom does not stand on the power of his armies subduing others through force or violence. It rests on a higher power than wins over hearts: the love of God that he brought into the world with his sacrifice and the truth to which he bore witness. This is his sovereignty which no one can take from him and which no one should forget. Hence it is right that this shrine should be above all a place of pilgrimage, of fervent prayer, of conversion, of reconciliation, of the search for truth and the acceptance of grace. We ask Christ, to reign in our hearts, making them pure, docile, filled with hope and courageous in humility.

From this park, foreseen as a memorial of the bicentenary of the birth of the Mexican nation, bringing together many differences towards one destiny and one common quest, we ask Christ for a pure heart, where he as Prince of Peace may dwell "thanks to the power of God who is the power of goodness, the power of love". But for God to dwell in us, we need to listen to him; we must allow his Word to challenge us every day, meditating upon it in our hearts after the example of Mary (cf. Lk 2:51). In this way we grow in friendship with him, we learn to understand what he expects from us and we are encouraged to make him known to others.

At Aparecida, the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean saw with clarity the need to confirm, renew and revitalize the newness of the Gospel rooted deeply in the history of these lands "on the basis of a personal and community encounter with Jesus Christ which raises up disciples and missionaries" (Final Document, 11). The Continental Mission now taking place in the various dioceses of this continent has the specific task of transmitting this conviction to all Christians and ecclesial communities so that they may resist the temptation of a faith that is superficial and routine, at times fragmentary and incoherent. Here we need to overcome fatigue related to faith and rediscover "the joy of being Christians, of being sustained by the inner happiness of knowing Christ and belonging to his Church. From this joy spring the energies that are needed to serve Christ in distressing situations of human suffering, placing oneself at his disposition and not falling back on one’s own comfort" (Address to the Roman Curia, 22 December 2011). This can be seen clearly in the saints who dedicated themselves fully to the cause of the Gospel with enthusiasm and joy without counting the cost, even of life itself. Their heart was centred entirely on Christ from whom they had learned what it means to love until the end.

In this sense the Year of Faith, to which I have convoked the whole Church, "is an invitation to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the only Saviour of the world […]. Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy" (Porta Fidei 6, 7).
Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to assist us in purifying our hearts, especially in view of the coming Easter celebrations, that we may enter more deeply the salvific mystery of her Son, as she made it known in this land. And let us also ask her to continue accompanying and protecting her Mexican and Latin American children, that Christ may reign in their lives and help them boldly to promote peace, harmony, justice and solidarity. Amen.

*

[At the end of the Mass, at the Angelus]

Dear Brothers and Sisters, in today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of the grain of wheat that falls to the ground, dies and bears much fruit. This is his response to some Greeks who approached Philip asking: "we would like to see Jesus" (Jn 12:21). Today we invoke Mary Most Holy and we ask her: "show Jesus to us".

As we now pray the Angelus and remember the Annunciation of the Lord, our eyes too turn spiritually towards the hill of Tepeyac, to the place where the Mother of God, under the title of "the Ever-Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe" has been fervently honoured for centuries as a sign of reconciliation and of God’s infinite goodness towards the world.

My predecessors on the Chair of Saint Peter honoured her with affectionate titles such as Our Lady of Mexico, Heavenly Patroness of Latin America, Mother and Empress of this continent. Her faithful children, in their turn, who experience her help, invoke her confidently with such affectionate and familiar names as the Rose of Mexico, Our Lady of Heaven, Virgin Morena, Mother of Tepeyac, Noble Indita.
Dear brothers and sisters, do not forget that true devotion to the Virgin Mary always takes us to Jesus, and "consists neither in sterile nor transitory feelings, nor in an empty credulity, but proceeds from true faith, by which we are led to recognize the excellence of the Mother of God, and we are moved to filial love towards our Mother and to the imitation of her virtues" (Lumen Gentium, 67). To love her means being committed to listening to her Son, to venerate the Guadalupana means living in accordance with the words of the blessed fruit of her womb.

At this time, when so many families are separated or forced to emigrate, when so many are suffering due to poverty, corruption, domestic violence, drug trafficking, the crisis of values and increased crime, we come to Mary in search of consolation, strength and hope. She is the Mother of the true God, who invites us to stay with faith and charity beneath her mantle, so as to overcome in this way all evil and to establish a more just and fraternal society.

With these sentiments, I place once again this country, all Latin America and the Caribbean before the gentle gaze of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I entrust all their sons and daughters to the Star of both the original and the new evangelization; she has inspired with her maternal love their Christian history, has given particular expression to their national achievements, to their communal and social initiatives, to family life, to personal devotion and to the Continental Mission which is now taking place across these noble lands. In times of trial and sorrow she was invoked by many martyrs who, in crying out "Long live Christ the King and Mary of Guadalupe" bore unyielding witness of fidelity to the Gospel and devotion to the Church. I now ask that her presence in this nation may continue to serve as a summons to defence and respect for human life. May it promote fraternity, setting aside futile acts of revenge and banishing all divisive hatred. May Holy Mary of Guadalupe bless us and obtain for us the abundant graces that, through her intercession, we request from heaven.

__________

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