St. John, the Builder of Mary’s House

By: Dan Lynch December 27 is the feast of St. John, the Beloved Disciple. From the day of the crucifixion, when Jesus entrusted His mother to the care of John, he took her into his heart and cared for her. After the persecution under King Herod Agrippa I in the year 42, John left Jerusalem and sailed over the Mediterranean Sea with Mary to safety to Ephesus, in what is now Turkey. Ephesus was the rich center of the Roman Empire in the East with a population of a quarter million. There he built her a house where she lived and from which she was assumed into heaven. In the 18th century, Pope Benedict XIV accepted the accumulated evidence and tradition and wrote in his Treatise on the Holy Mysteries on Holy Friday that “St. John leaving for Ephesus, took Mary with him and it was there that the Blessed Mother was assumed into heaven.”            In the early 1820s, Blessed Sister Catherine Emmerich saw visions of the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of her house in Ephesus. Blessed Catherine was a German mystic who was bed-ridden with the stigmata. She never left Germany. Her visions were extraordinarily extensive and detailed. They contained facts and places that she could not have naturally known. She described her visions in detail to her secretary, Clemens Brentano. He published a book about them. Dan Lynch at Mary’s House Blessed Catherine said that after Our Lord's Ascension, Mary lived on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, then in Bethany, and then was taken by St. John to Ephesus, where she lived for nine years in the house that he built for her. Several Christian families had already settled there in caves or rustic huts in a scattered village where they lived a simple, natural life. In 1890, Brentano's book was read by some priests in Izmir, Turkey, near Ephesus. They were curious to see whether they could confirm Blessed Catherine’s description of Mary's House from the evidence on the ground. So, they went up the mountain in the summer of 1891. After searching in the mountains, they came upon some natives who led them to the remains of a small house near the summit of an isolated peak. The site and the remains corresponded accurately to Blessed Catherine’s description. On December 1, 1891, Archbishop Timoni of Smyrna declared in a formal document that those remains were truly the remains of the house inhabited by the Blessed Virgin Mary. The priests learned that the natives were descended from the early Christians of Ephesus and that the house had been venerated since time immemorial. They called the house Panaya Kapulu– “The House of the Holy Virgin”.            Archaeologists discovered that the foundation of Mary’s House dated to the first century. Later archeological excavations corresponded with Blessed Catherine’s description and diagrams. They proved that her visions in fact showed reality and eventually Mary's House was rebuilt upon the original foundation. Eusebius wrote in his chronicle that St. John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan and the hundredth of the Christian era at the age of approximately 94. He was buried in a graveyard on Ayasuluk Hill in what is now the city of Selcuk. In September 2001, soon after the 9/11 attack on America, I flew to Muslim Turkey with three companions on an almost empty airplane. Many people were afraid to fly for fear of more airplanes being hijacked. Pilgrims of all faiths come to visit Mary's House, especially Muslims. They call the House, Meryem Anna Evi, Mother Mary's House. Pope Pius XII said, “The holy House should be a Marian center which is unique throughout the world, a place where Christians and Muslims of all rites and denominations and of all nationalities can meet each other to venerate the Mother of Jesus, and make true the prophecy, ‘All Generations will call me blessed.’ ” (L’Osservatore Romano, April 24, 1954). St. John XXIII, St. Paul VI, St. John Paul II and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI all made pilgrimages to Mary’s House. Over one million visitors journey there each year. I went to Ephesus to pray for reconciliation and peace with Muslims. I also went there to walk in the footsteps of St. John to Mary’s House. The early morning sun beat down on me as I prayed at his tomb located in the ruins of the Basilica devoted to him on Ayasuluk Hill outside of the city of Ephesus. John wrote his gospel and his letters in Ephesus and he often walked through the ancient city and up the mountain to Mary’s House. I walked in the footsteps of John's likely route down from his Basilica and west to the ancient city of Ephesus. I stopped there for a visit at the ruins of Mary’s Church. This was the first church in the world that was dedicated to Mary. The Council of Ephesus was held there in 431. It proclaimed the first Marian dogma that Mary is the Mother of God. After a refreshing drink of water, I continued through the magnificent ruins of Ephesus and began the climb up the highway of Nightingale Mountain, from which I could see the powder blue sky, the cobalt blue Aegean Sea and the Island of Samos glistening like a diamond in the sea. As I climbed the road up the mountain, I passed the huge statue of Mary that overlooks the valley below. I took it as a sign that she was encouraging me to keep climbing up to her House. Three and a half hours after I left St. John’s Basilica, I reached a plateau hidden on the back of the mountaintop. As the sweat poured off my face, I stood before Mary’s House which is nestled in the mountainside. The restored House is made of stone and its foundation has been there for almost 2000 years. This House was the fountain of grace from which sprang the dogma of Mary Mother of God and the great basilicas of Ephesus dedicated to Mary and to St. John. From here her body and soul were assumed into heaven. I walked up to her House and entered the chapel which was once Mary’s living room. I prayed there and then exited through what was once Mary’s bedroom. Then I walked behind her House and prayed while on the path of the Stations of the Cross that Mary herself made, according to the visions of Blessed Sister Catherine Emmerich, and then at the likely place of her assumption. I reflected on her House that had lain here in ruins for almost 1900 years, little known by the world except for local venerators, until the Church ruled in the late 19th century that the ruins were the remains of Mary’s House. You may read the full story of the life of St. John and Mary’s House in my book The Gospel of Lovefound here. Father Peter Damian Fehlner, O.F.M Conv. S.T.D. wrote about the book, “You will experience John’s life as if you were with him nearly 2000 years ago. You will experience John’s innermost thoughts and doubts as he struggles to accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of Man and the Son of God, and his teachings that constitute the Gospel of Love. You will see John’s transformation from tempestuousness to tranquility as he gradually comes to know and believe in the love that God has for all of us. Our thanks to Dan Lynch for this inspiring work!” Father James McCurry, Minister Provincial of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, gave the homily at Father Peter’s funeral.  He said that he was a “scholar, theologian and genius.” He said that Father Peter was “genuinely a true genius, one of the greatest scholars in the 800 year history of the Franciscan Order.”

The birth of the world is the birth of Christian prayer

With the Word of the Father, the words of Christian prayer are born from the Virgin’s Womb. Such was the mystery of prayer learned first by the One who Believed as she felt Him ready to enter the world. It is not seized by force or mastered by practice. The result always exceeds expectation but can never be calculated. This prayer can only be welcomed as a gift and requires that humble reverence without which no love is ever possible. There is no other prayer that the human heart can offer that is given to us as this prayer has been given.

Just as she carried the Lord in her womb before His birth, every prayer offered in Christian faith also carries Him. Since her “fiat”, the Word of the Father has never stopped coming and with each advent, He prepares a new theophany whenever a heart says “yes” to Him. Each new word of prayer offered by faith in Him makes space for Him to be born and opens unseen human poverties and miseries to Divine Peace and Glory.

As she waited for that first Christmas, filled with wonder, the humble Handmaid knew the mystery first conceived in her heart by obedience would soon be heard and seen in the shadow of the Almighty. She must have been amazed that the very vulnerability of His prayer, even when only an infant’s cry, would pierce the heart of the Father and unveil the deep things of God. Her mind must have bathed in astonishment over how His prayer would echo at the center of human history and in every human heart. Did she guess by the way it drew her that His prayer had the power to draw all men back to all that is noble and true about humanity, and to all that is good and tender about God?

She must have wondered over that mysterious silent love by which He raised His Heart. If she felt this in her womb, could she see with her heart that His canticle of love would not be dimmed even when He suffered death? She nonetheless believed that the humble glory of his unvanquished petition would make powerful knees bend and haughty heads bow down. By the invincible hope of His cry, she still rejoices that the prayers of those who believe stand in the midst of hardship and shine brightly against the darkness.

It is possible to learn such prayer in these finals days before Christmas. These are words that are learned by an obedience that suffers, progresses and dies in love just as He did.  The Man of Sorrows is the Way that prayer must walk if Christian faith is to attain what it seeks. The Just One is the Truth who makes true the desires of the Christian heart. The One Crucified by Love is the life for all those who, by prayer, die to themselves and live no more this earthly life. A wondrous gift is offered in the simple surrender that would turn again from sin, persevere in love and invoke His Name; and that prayer that amazed the Mother of God becomes also the prayer coming to birth in the heart. 

By: Anthony Lilles

Oh Holy Night

Oh Holy Night

St. Thérèse Was A Prima Ballerina

Recently I was listening to an Avila Institute class lecture. Professor Hollcraft’s comments on fortitude in the everyday situations and decisions of our lives solidified something which struck me deeply a few years ago.


My friend was giving a talk about the loss of her two-year-old son in a drowning accident. An amateur ballet dancer, she has a great love for St. Thérèse of Lisieux. “The Little Flower,” she said, “is a prima ballerina. A prima ballerina spends endless hours, years and years, doing minuscule movements over and over until she can do them with precision and perfection which appear almost effortless. The movements seem repetitive, boring and pointless but build a strong foundation of the ballerina. If incorrectly practiced, a dancer cannot grow. If done correctly with purpose, she abounds in grace. We see her dance across the stage and it looks easy and graceful. But we could never do it because we have not put in the ages of work behind the scenes. St. Thérèse’s life appears to us a masterpiece of simplicity and easy trust that has appeal because it looks so fluid and natural – but those millions of acts of love were anything but easy. She became a saint because she practiced painfully for years.”.

This, I think, begs a profound reflection. We too will have our hour on stage – often that stage resembles the severity of the cross. And the world will watch – and most importantly, God will watch. And how will we perform? It will greatly depend on how we practiced in the millions of unseen instants of our lives. The exercise of virtue gives strength to the soul before the curtains are raised. The small sacrifices and tiny movements of love will crescendo into our final act – we pray it will glorify God and leave the world searching for what we have found.

My ballerina friend Angee has the gift of fortitude in spades. After God led her deeper into relationship with Himself through many and experiences and people, she practiced the faith and participated in the sacraments joyfully and faithfully. And when, in the sudden loss of her son, she was asked to make the supreme sacrifice, she did so with a grace and strength that left the Church of Phoenix amazed. She clung to the cross with white knuckles but never slipped – because her spiritual muscles were strong. I pray to have such fortitude, too. To embrace this gift, exercise it, and ask to be ever mindful of it. We have a thousand opportunities each day.

To pick up a pin for love of God can convert souls. – St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Pope Francis on the ‘Gay Mentality’ That Has ‘Influenced the Church’

by Father Roger J. Landry on Wednesday Dec 12th, 2018 at 9:31 AM

On Dec. 3, The Strength of a Vocation, a book-length interview with Pope Francis by Father Fernando Prado, a Spanish Claretian Missionary, was published in 10 languages.
Father Prado, a theology professor at the Pontifical University of Salamanca, asks 60 questions on a wide range of topics, including priestly, religious and consecrated vocations, but the only subject that made headlines was what Pope Francis said with regard to priests, religious, seminarians and candidates with same-sex attractions.

The context was a conversation Pope Francis said he had had with a bishop who didn’t think it was a problem that several priests in his diocese were “openly gay” because it was just an “expression of affection.” The Pope corrected him, saying, “This is a mistake. It is not just an expression of affection.”
Neither the bishop nor the Bishop of Rome defined what was meant by “openly gay” — whether it meant participation in unchaste homosexual practices or publicly identifying oneself by his same-sex attraction and aligning oneself with the “gay movement.” Whatever the definition, however, the Pope declared, “In the consecrated life and in the priestly life, there is no place for that kind of affection,” meaning, it seems, no place for same-sex sexual activity, same-sex public displays of affection, or affection for the “gay lifestyle.”
With regard to priests and religious engaging in same-sex sexual activity, Pope Francis called them to stop living as hypocrites and make a choice whether to live a Christian lifestyle or one at odds with Christian belief.
“I say to the priests, gay religious men and women,” the Holy Father forthrightly stated, “we must urge you to live fully celibate and, above all, to be exquisitely responsible, trying not to scandalize your communities or the holy faithful people of God by living a double life. It is better that you leave the ministry or consecrated life rather than live a double life.”
Concerning candidates for the priesthood or religious life, Pope Francis said, “Homosexuality is a very serious issue that must be adequately discerned from the beginning with the candidates,” adding, “The Church recommends that people with this ingrained tendency not be accepted into the ministry or the consecrated life. The ministry or the consecrated life is not his place.”
“It’s something that worries me,” he continued. “We have to discern with seriousness and listen to the voice of the experience that the Church has. … It may be that at the moment they are accepted they don’t exhibit that tendency, but later they come out.”
For that reason, he said, we must “very much take care of human and sentimental maturity” when training future priests and religious, and “be demanding,” because “in our societies it even seems that homosexuality is fashionable, and that mentality, in some way, also influences the life of the Church.”

None of what he said was really new.
With regard to priests not living chastely, Pope Francis has regularly called priests living unchastely either to repent and thoroughly convert or have the integrity to leave. Before the papacy, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio said in a book-length interview with Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti that a priest “cannot scandalize a community and abuse the souls of the faithful,” which is why “the great hypocrisy of the double life” cannot be tolerated. In another book with Rabbi Abraham Skorka, he said that if a priest violates his commitment to chaste celibacy, he tries to “help him to get on track again” through penance and chastity, but that one who proves incapable of observing celibacy must leave.
None of this is a contradiction of Pope Francis’ well-publicized 2013 statement, “Who am I to judge?” There, he was referring to a priest who had been previously caught in homosexual activity whom the Pope implied “committed a sin … [and] repented, sought forgiveness and received it.” Mercy was offered and received.
Pope Francis, however, certainly is one who judges, and judges negatively, as the Church always has, hypocrisy, infidelity to one’s priestly promises, and same-sex sexual activity by priests.

The Church has never considered kicking faithful priests out of the priesthood or faithful religious out of religious life simply for same-sex attractions. But if priests or religious want to identify with that lifestyle or live a double life, the Holy Father is underlining that it is incompatible with what they promised at their ordination.
Concerning candidates for the priesthood and religious life, there is a stricter standard because we are not dealing with those who are ordained or in final vows who have made public commitments in the Church. What Pope Francis said is consistent with the Congregation for Clergy’s 2016 instructionfor seminary formation that he approved and ordered to be published. That document, “The Gift of the Priestly Vocation,” reiterated the Church’s positions from 1962 and 2005, emphasizing:

“The Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’” The reason is because “such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women,” and “one must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.”

The instruction considers a few different situations.
The first is with regard to those who are engaging in unchaste and sinful homosexual activity or those who are living or promoting a lifestyle in opposition to Church teaching. It would be insane for the Church to ordain those who do not practice what they are called to preach.

Likewise, those who support a “gay culture” — and look at a same-sex lifestyle as something that should be celebrated, either by living it themselves or encouraging those who do — simply are not thinking with the mind of the Church they have sworn a solemn oath to represent.
The second is for those whose same-sex attractions are “ingrained,” “deep-seated” or profoundly rooted, in contrast to “transitory.” The Church recognizes that there is a huge difference between one who experiences some fleeting same-sex attractions — which, because of their ephemeral character, can and “must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate” — and another whose attractions are strong and seemingly a permanent part of one’s self-identity.

The Church has established the bar not at whether a man can practice continence (the abstention from sexual activity), but at whether he is free of what the Catechism calls “intrinsically disordered” same-sex affections.
Does this mean that the Church thinks that someone with same-sex attractions cannot be a good, holy and chaste priest or religious? No. Some are. The question is not whether it’s possible, but whether it is prudent and likely, for there have also been priests with same-sex tendencies who have not served with the same distinction.

For one with deep-seated homosexual tendencies to become a holy priest, for example, he needs much greater humility and has to overcome many more obstacles than a typical heterosexual candidate. For him to believe and teach the Catholic faith, he must be able to say with integrity, “I have a disorder in my emotions and attractions that is not my fault, but which I have to work to overcome.” Otherwise, he will be tempted to conclude that the Church is wrong about her constant teaching on homosexuality, and therefore can be wrong on other matters of faith and morals about which she definitively teaches. Likewise, he must also overcome greater challenges in seminary formation and priestly living.

While it is of course possible with God’s grace for a man with profoundly rooted same-sex tendencies to remain chaste, seminary and rectory living would provide temptations to him that a typical heterosexual seminarian or priest living in those same circumstances would not face. Failure here, too, would be grievous for both the man and the Church.

The scandals of recent months, beginning with former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and exacerbated by the report of the Pennsylvania grand jury, have revealed the problem in the Church of “lavender mafias” in various seminaries, religious houses and dioceses, which has brought this issue of the inadvisability of ordaining those with deep-seated same-sex attractions to the forefront.
The Church has not yet dealt adequately with the reality that four of five cases of the sexual abuse of minors are same-sex in nature; and four of five of those are not of children, but of post-pubescent boys. Many in the Church are in denial that there is any connection between same-sex attractions and activity with adults and the abuse of teenage boys, a connection that the notorious case of McCarrick has plainly illustrated. Whether the denial is ideological or simply a legitimate desire not to scapegoat all priests with same-sex attractions unjustly for the abuse crisis, it has prevented the Church from confronting at its roots the culture of sexual infidelity that allowed the abuse of minors to happen.

The source of the denial of such a connection is a 2010 report by the John Jay College on the causes and context of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests in the U.S. The report had two methodological flaws. The first was that the authors denied that most priests who molested boys could necessarily be classified as homosexual; the second was that if there were a connection, there should have been a linear growth between priests self-identifying as same-sex-attracted and higher rates of abuse of boys, which they said didn’t exist.
The report, however, examined no data on sexual identification, just some generic estimates. Father D. Paul Sullins, in an important study last month entitled, “Is Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse Related to Homosexual Priests?” looked at the available data and showed indeed that the “increase or decrease in the percent of victims who were male correlated almost perfectly (0.98) with the increase or decrease of homosexual men in the priesthood.”

The John Jay College report, however, did provide some data about behaviors that confirmed the wisdom of Pope Francis’ and the Church’s approach to those who have engaged in a same-sex lifestyle.
The study revealed that priests who engaged in same-sex sexual behavior before ordination were significantly more likely (than heterosexuals) to continue to engage in similar unchaste behavior both in seminary and after ordination; priests who identified as gay, bisexual or confused, as well as those with positive views toward homosexuality, were more likely to engage in seminary and post-ordination sexual behavior than those who consider themselves heterosexual or had negative views toward homosexuality; and if priests with pre-ordination same-sex sexual behavior did abuse a minor after ordination, it was much more likely to be a male victim.
Some have tried to accuse Pope Francis and the Church of an un-Christian animus toward those with same-sex attractions, speaking about chastity for one and not the other. The Church indeed calls all priests, religious, seminarians, postulants and novices to chaste celibacy — something that, frankly, everyone knows.

The issue is not that the Church treats heterosexual and homosexual unchaste behavior differently — the Church considers both sinful — but that the Church objectively treats heterosexual and homosexual attractions and “identity” differently, something that is offensive to “gender ideology,” which maintains that same-sex attractions are merely “differently ordered” than opposite-sex attractions.

The Church, however, holds that they’re rather “intrinsically disordered” at the level of their “affective and sexual complementarity,” and that when someone identifies deeply with them, it is germane to the question of fittingness for the priesthood or religious life.
As the Pope candidly affirmed, these matters are indeed highly relevant to the “strength of a vocation.”

Father Roger Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts

Mary Is The Heart Of Advent

If there are five days that summarize the significance of our extraordinary age of Mary, it is December 8-12. During these days we contemplate the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the events and messages surrounding Our Lady of Guadalupe. These events are strategically placed by Divine Providence at the heart of Advent —not to distract us from the coming of Christ, but to better prepare us for it. They direct our attention to a beautiful and central truth about Mary which Venerable Fulton Sheen frequently pointed out — that Mary is always the Advent of Christ.

The historical-spiritual connections of the feast of the Immaculate Conception and its direct connection to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady Lourdes and even Our Lady of Fatima —in connecting the Old World and the Americas, the Eastern Church and the Western Church — are fascinating. I have written and spoken on them many times, but you can find a good summary here.

In this post, I want to focus on how the mysteries and events surrounding December 8-12 are meant to show us the path to greatest intimacy with God — a message so desperately needed for a world that has abandoned God. During this time, we contemplate how God wishes to establish intimacy with each of us through the tenderness of His Mother. It is how He did so the first time He came and every Advent is the Church’s opportunity to contemplate how this truth is re-lived in our own lives.

Our Lady of Guadalupe and her mystery as the Immaculate Conception give us two significant truths about the intimacy of God that have great importance to the life of every Christian. The first, as we saw in a very powerful way in Mexico City in 1531, is that Mary is always working, especially in these days, to prepare souls to receive the gift of Christ. And she showed the power of her efforts to do so by converting 9 million Aztecs (without saying a word to them!), whose civilization was built upon a culture of death based on human sacrifice. In other words, where the world sees no hope or possibility in finding God, Mary is God’s secret weapon. Secret because she comes not in forceful, conquering power, but in an unexpected tender way that disarms the world around her. We must never forget that Mexico is Christian because of Mary and Mary was able to obtain their conversion because the Holy Spirit only works through Mary because she is His inseparable Spouse, a teaching always held by the Church. As St. Louis de Montfort put it: “Jesus is always and everywhere the fruit and Son of Mary and Mary is everywhere the genuine tree that bears that Fruit of life, the true Mother who bears that Son” (True Devotion, no. 44).

The second truth which Our Lady of Guadalupe reveals is that the secret to Mary being full of grace is found in her being immaculate — a word that means “without stain”. What stains our souls and our marriages and our relationship with God? Is it not self-centeredness, impurity, jealousy, putting people and material wants before God?

How is contemplating the Immaculate Conception the remedy to remove these stains? Simple. It reveals that humility and purity allow for our hearts to see God and receive the fullness of grace for which we were made. In Mary’s nothingness, she lost her identity in God. Mary is so self-less that her very self becomes identified with the Holy Spirit — “I am the Immaculate Conception,” she revealed at Lourdes. That is saying more than she is without sin. She is full of grace — she is so one with Her Spouse in grace — that when we see her, we see only God in and through her.

This is what she meant when she said, “My soul magnifies the Lord” (Lk 1: ). A magnifying glass is transparent and magnifies only what is seen through it. Imagine having a personality completely possessed by God. Yes, it is hard to imagine it. Only those who trust God completely will receive the fullness of His grace to accomplish the unimaginable in your soul and through your works.

This is what the Church is asking us to contemplate about Mary this and every Advent because she is the model of every Christian. Yes, we are called to live the mystery of the Immaculate Conception in our souls where we will discovery an intimacy with God that will transform the world around us. God loves us when we make ourselves as small as we can because it gives Him the greatest room to make His masterpieces. Don’t sigh when you read this. This is real and it is God’s desire for you this Advent.

We all have our “fullness” capacity that God wants to fill with His grace. And what unlocks this capacity is by doing what the Wise Men did — they stooped (humbled themselves) in order to be able to enter the cave and find the fulfillment of their heart’s desire — Jesus Christ, the Savior who laid in the arms of Mary. Let us imitate the wisdom of the three magi and never forget that the more we are hidden from the eyes of the world, the more God can’t take His eyes off of us. Remember that when you’re praying the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary this Advent!

Our Lady of Guadalupe and of the New Advent, Pray for Us.

Merry Christmas!

December 8th "Hour of Grace"

by Dr. Peter Howard and Patricia A. Fason

The following devotion was forwarded to me by a friend who has had two
miraculous cures from cancer attributed to faithfully observing this
devotion called "The Hour of Grace". I hope you will participate and please
let us know if any favors you request are answered!
~~~~~
The Blessed Mother promised that whatever a person asked her for during
this Hour of Grace (even in impossible cases) would be granted to them, if
it was in accordance with the Will of the Eternal Father.
~~~~~

* The request of Our Heavenly Mother   for the Hour of Grace *
*1. It is to be observed from 12 noon until 1 pm. **One full hour of prayer*
..

*2. During this hour the person making the Hour of Grace either at home or
in a church must put away all distractions.* Put the dog outside, shut off
your cell phone, do not answer the door, do not be cooking or doing
laundry, completely cut yourself off from the noise and distractions of the
world for one hour*. *If you are at work, take your lunch hour at that time
and find a quiet place to observe the hour.

*3. Begin the Hour of Grace by praying three times the 51st Psalm with
outstretched arms.* It is Psalm 50 in the Douay Rheims Bible. It is Psalm
51 in the Revised Standard Catholic edition. Both of these Biblical
translations are attached below for your convenience.

*4. The rest of the Hour of Grace may be spent in silent communication with
God, adoring the Sacred Host, meditating upon the Passion of Jesus, saying
the Holy Rosary, praising God in you own way or by using favorite prayers,
singing hymns, etc.* The Precious Blood devotional prayers work very well
for this hour! But whatever you do, do it from the depths of your heart!

It is imperative that you follow these directions of Our Lady exactly as
she gave them. Modifying them to suit one's personal desires or public
Church functions may void the reception of the grace entirely. Obedience is
a great virtue that is lacking in today's society. The most powerful place
to observe this hour is in front of the Blessed Sacrament exposed in
Adoration, but you can pray this hour just as well in the silence of your
room. The focus is to be alone with God.

Let us know of any graces you received from observing this hour.

*If you wish to forward this email, use the link at the very bottom of this
email to do so. You can send it out to a whole list of people and we do not
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Our Lady Rosa Mystica

*Choose either one of these translations or use your own Bible: New Revised
Standard Version Catholic Edition:*
Psalm 51Prayer for Cleansing and PardonTo the leader. A Psalm of David,
when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
    and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty,
    a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being;
    therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence,
    and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice;
    if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
    rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices,
    in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

*(Repeat 3 times with arms outstretched)*

*Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition:*
Psalm 50 *Unto the end, a psalm of David,*

*2 When Nathan the prophet came to him after he had sinned with Bethsabee. *
3 Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy. And according to
the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.
4 Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
5 For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.
6 To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: that thou
mayst be justified in thy words and mayst overcome when thou art judged.
7 For behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother
conceive me.
8 For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy
wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.
9 Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt
wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
10 To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness: and the bones that have
been humbled shall rejoice.
11 Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
12 Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my
bowels.
13 Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

The Church Crisis and Mary

Advent brings the face of Mary to the forefront of our glance: manger scenes, postage stamps, Christmas cards.  

Does the Mother of Jesus have any relevance to the present Church crisis? In light of the ubiquitous commentaries questioning obedience to Pope Francis, clerical sex abuse, and the proper role of bishops and laity, it is, perhaps, time to return to basics. It is time to return to Mary. 

Mary brings the Divine Redeemer into the world by an obedient fiat. She does so with an obedient faith which, as St. Augustine reminds us, first conceives the Word in her heart, and consequently in her womb. St. John Paul II confirmed that before and beyond the Petrine model of the Church is the Marian model. If no one says, “yes” to the invitation of the Gospel, then there is no one to guide with a hierarchical structure.  

What would Mary’s response to Peter’s office have been? Mary was superior to Peter in knowledge of the Gospel, wisdom in its application, and purity in its lived expression. How then would Mary respond to Peter’s authority? In spite of her superiority to Peter in most every conceivable measure, Mary responded to Peter’s office of authority with the same obedient fiat. For Mary saw Jesus in Peter, and thus continually gave the obedience to her Son’s Vicar that which she gave to her Son. 

It is somewhat alarming to hear otherwise orthodox Catholic theologians seeming to suggest the possibility of separating the magisterium from the office of the pope. What if the apostles came to a consensus contrary to Jesus? Would that position, then, constitute an authoritative teaching of the early Church? 

In regards to clerical sex abuse, turning to the Immaculate Mother, once again, invaluable.  

The Church must be purified, all agree. The question is one of means. 

If we seek to cleanse the Church with the political spirit similar to the mobs of the French Revolution, with anger begetting anger and blood begetting blood, we will only find ourselves farther away from the interior metanoia demanded to solve the present crisis. Mary, on the other hand, offers us the model of purifying the Body of Christ with an uncompromising zeal for true purity and renewal of life, but in a reverent manner that does no violence to the Body itself. Mary has been cleaning the Body of Jesus since he was an infant. She does so with a maternal thoroughness, but in a manner that does no harm to what is, in its very nature, of divine institution and life. She will do the same, if invited, for her Son’s Mystical Body today. 

The relationship between bishops and laity in application to the present crisis can be complicated, but should not be adversarial. The relationship must continue to be guided by their crucial metaphysical and canonical foundations. Pope Francis, in speaking recently to Italian seminarians, reiterated that the bishop must in the first place be a “spiritual father” to his clergy and faithful, not a “padrone” who simply directs his commands. To focus predominantly on external norms of conduct without the appropriate internal disposition of heart could unintentionally lead to a type of episcopal formalism that will fail to get to the root of the problem. For bishops to most effectively oversee seminaries, for example, they must return, as individuals and as a body, to the spiritual and formation practices by which solid seminarians are themselves formed. 

For an authentic interior renewal of episcopal and clerical purity and life, our present bishops and clergy must return to and restore the consistent prayer, sacramental, and psychological practices of what should be at the heart of every authentic seminary experience. It may appear ‘unscientific” and “non-pragmatic,” that the foundational solution to the present crisis is spiritual and interior. Nevertheless, it remains true that the renewal of our bishops and priests can only be achieved through a newfound commitment to classic Catholic spiritual practices such as daily Eucharistic holy hours, the faithful praying of the Divine Office, the daily praying of the Rosary, monthly confession, consistent spiritual direction, and ongoing human formation. These are the pillars of authentic clerical formation, and without the hard work on the soul, it is all too possible that legal measures and punitive norms will have little positive impact in truly battling what, in the final analysis, constitutes the violation of the fundamental moral teachings of Jesus, as exemplified in ongoing homosexual activity and deceitful cover-up. 

Christian Holiness and its restoration must now become the number one agenda item at our Church convocations—for clergy and faithful alike. 

Here, too, Mary guides the way. 

As Spiritual Mother of all peoples, Mary sees everyone -- bishop, priest, religious, lay person—as her little child in true need of the ongoing interior conversion which alone can make the external living of the Gospel, obediently, chastely, and joyfully, possible in our times. Our Lady, with a unique and personal maternal solicitude, encourages each of us, in the quiet of our hearts, towards a greater generosity of time in Adoration of her Eucharistic Son, in the praying of her Rosary, in the reception of the Sacraments, in obedience to her son’s Vicar—and in whatever way we personally can better “do whatever he tells you” (cf. Jn. 2:5). 

Let us entrust the critical need for thorough purification of the Church to the Church’s Mother, that she may guide the Vicar of Christ and the People of God, unified in obedience and solidarity, through the necessary cleansing that will courageously recover the purity, obedience, and love reflective of the true Body of Christ. 

* Dr. Mark Miravalle 

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A teacher exposes the LGBT agenda coming into in elementary schools

DECEMBER 02 MESSAGE TO MIRJANA

Dear children, when you come to me, as to a mother, with a pure and open heart, know that I am listening to you, encouraging you, consoling you and, above all, interceding for you with my Son. I know that you desire to have a strong faith and to express it in the right way. What my Son asks of you is to have a sincere, strong and deep faith – then every way in which you express it is proper. Faith is a most wonderful mystery which is kept in the heart. It is between the Heavenly Father and all of His children; it is recognized by the fruits and by the love which one has towards all of God's creatures.
Apostles of my love, my children, have trust in my Son. Help all of my children to come to know His love. You are my hope – you who strive to sincerely love my Son. In the name of love, for your salvation, according to the will of the Heavenly Father and through my Son, I am here among you. Apostles of my love, along with prayer and sacrifice, may your hearts be illuminated with the love and the light of my Son. May that light and love illuminate all those whom you meet and bring them back to my Son. I am with you.

Will this be the first American-born woman martyr?

Jamie Schmidt

To the great honor of this nation which stands under the heavenly patronage of the Immaculata, there are now a good number of Saints and Blesseds who have been born in and/or worked in the U.S.A. However, only one native-born U.S. citizen has so far been raised to the altars of the Church wearing the glorious Martyr’s crown: Blessed Stanley Rother, a La Salette missionary priest from Oklahoma who was murdered in 1981 by a death squad while ministering to the poor in Guatemala. (The heroic North American Martyrs, of course, were missionaries born in France and shed their blood for the faith well over a century before the United States came into existence.) However, no American woman or lay person – and no U.S. citizen at all who died on this nation’s soil – has so far been honored by the Church as a martyr.

That may well change in the near future, as the unplanned result of a horrific, coldly planned and unprovoked crime that took place last week, less than half an hour’s drive from my church in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The local community — Catholic and non-Catholic — has reacted with abhorrence, and indeed, St. Louis County police chief Jon Belmar said it was “among the most heinous crimes” he had seen in his 32 years in law enforcement — an atrocity that “shocked the senses.” Yet the ways of Divine Providence are strange: as we have seen so many times throughout history, God can bring great good out of evil, even in one overwhelming instant. However, as I write, most St. Louis area Catholics are perhaps still too numb with shock to have noticed the rays of spiritual light that are emerging from this seeming black hole.

So what happened? During mid-afternoon last Monday, November 19, 2018, all seemed quiet in the Manchester Road branch of St. Louis’ main religious goods vendor, Catholic Supply. A stocky, middle-aged man walked in and noted that only three people were in the store — all women. Two were store workers, one fiftyish, the other in her twenties, and the third was a customer who had just come in. After exchanging a few words, the man said he was going back to his car to get a credit card and would be right back to make a purchase. But when he re-entered, it was not a card, but a revolver that he had in his hand. He immediately herded the three terrified women at gunpoint back into a secluded corner of the store, and forced them all to strip off their clothing. Then, still at gunpoint, he forced two of the women — the two store workers — to satiate his perverse lust with unnatural sex acts.

Then this brute came to his third victim, the would-be customer, who according to friends had probably come to purchase some materials for her Rosary-making apostolate. This was Jamie Schmidt, 53, a quiet mother of three who worked as a secretarial assistant at the St. Louis Community College in the western suburb of Wildwood, and was active in her parish church, St. Anthony of Padua at High Ridge in neighboring Franklin County. There was nothing obviously extraordinary about this lady. But now she did something very extraordinary indeed. Having just been forced to witness in terror the sexual assault of the two women beside her, Mrs. Schmidt was ordered to bend down for the same purpose.

But Mrs. Schmidt — naked, defenseless, and with the barrel of a loaded gun pointed at her head — Just Said No.

With death staring her in the face, Jamie quietly refused to allow her purity, her personal dignity, and her marriage covenant to be outraged. And her point-blank refusal to bow to her assailant’s demands was met instantly with a point-blank shot that felled her on the spot. Even then, this monster was not satisfied. With his victim bleeding in agony right there on the floor, he kept on for a while longer insisting that the other two traumatized women continue gratifying his passion before he finally fled the store. Jamie was quickly taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead later that evening.

Fortunately, following their immediate diffusion of the perpetrator’s appearance and dress described by the two survivors, the St. Louis County police did a first-rate job in tracking him down, and by Wednesday 21, the day before Thanksgiving, Thomas Bruce, 53, of Jefferson County, was arrested at his trailer park residence and is currently being held without bail on 17 charges, including first-degree murder, multiple counts of sodomy, armed criminal action, kidnapping, burglary and tampering with evidence.

This tale of indomitable resistance to demonic evil calls for deep reflection. Jamie Schmidt’s act of supreme courage and nobility, called forth immediately in a moment of sudden crisis, clearly did not come from nowhere. The action of grace had been evidently working quietly but deeply in the soul of this lady who had outward lived devoutly but unobtrusively, like any number of other good Catholics. Her husband Gregg Schmidt, who married Jamie, his high school sweetheart, in 1990, has understandably been too distraught, together with their three children, to make any public statement as of this writing. But her good friend and fellow parishioner at St. Anthony’s, Laura Sheldon, commented to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in last Wednesday's report, “She was very simple, very modest, very quiet. If you ever needed help, she would be there. That’s just the way Jamie was.” She was also active in a parish group that organized women’s retreats. Furthermore, Mrs. Schmidt was notably talented artistically and musically, and used her gifts in God's service: she adorned St. Anthony’s with some fine paintings, and was active in the parish choir, sometimes performing solo parts. “Her voice was just beautiful,” said her friend Laura.

Was Jamie Schmidt’s sacrifice of her life, then, a case of true martyrdom? Only the Church will be able to decide that authoritatively, of course, after mature reflection. But the evidence available so far strongly suggests an affirmative response, and would certainly seem to warrant the prompt opening of her cause for beatification at the diocesan level. While there can be little doubt about her heroism in that supreme moment of her existence, another prerequisite for martyrdom is that the perpetrator must have acted not simply out of personal hatred, greed or ideological/political enmity, but in odium Christi - out of hatred for Christ. And the parallels and precedents here are well established. Even though this murder was not carried out with any explicit reference to the victim’s profession of the Catholic faith, it is part of that faith that the natural moral law, inscribed in all hearts by God, has as its Author the divine Wisdom, the Logos, who has now become incarnate as Jesus our Redeemer. Speaking of “God's beloved Son” (Col. 1: 13), St. Paul goes on to affirm, “For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible . . . all things were created through him and for him” (v. 16).

It is known that Thomas Bruce had absolutely no personal grudge against any of his three victims, none of whom he had ever encountered before. His barbaric act of slaughter, as far as we can tell from the evidence so far available, was therefore an implicit act of hatred and rebellion against Christ the incarnate Wisdom, whose divine and natural law rebuked and condemned the perverse and adulterous lust that found such resolute resistance from this brave woman who carried Christ in her heart. Jamie’s eventual canonization as a martyr would therefore appear to follow closely the Church's precedents in raising to the altar the young St. Maria Goretti (stabbed to death for refusing to fornicate with an assailant), St. Charles Lwanga and his companions (who chose death by fire rather than engage in sodomy with a homosexual tyrant), and indeed, that archetypal martyr St. John the Baptist, who lost his head for denouncing another king’s violation of the moral law regarding marriage.

Now, at a time when the relaxation, corruption and violation of God’s laws regarding sexual purity and marriage is far worse in modern society — and even within very high levels of the Church herself! — than when Saints Maria Goretti and Charles Lwanga were canonized in the middle of last century, how wonderful it will be if, out of last week’s unspeakable tragedy in St. Louis, there should arise a new spiritual beacon to illuminate our beloved United States, the wider world, and indeed, our Church — overshadowed as it is by the ongoing sexual revolution with its abuse scandals and the weak vacillation of an Amoris Laetitia-stained magisterium! How beautiful, if the shining example can be raised to the altars of a new native-born American martyr saint — a woman who proclaimed at the cost of her own lifeblood that Christ’s laws against adultery and sexual perversion are clear, absolute, and unequivocal!

May it please God that, before long, we may be able to invoke the intercession of Saint Jamie Schmidt — to help Make America Pure Again!

By: Fr. Brian W. Harrison, O.S

Medjugorje November 25, 2018 Monthly Message

“Dear children! This is a time of grace and prayer, a time of waiting and giving. God is giving Himself to you that we may love Him above everything. Therefore, little children, open your hearts and families, so that this waiting may become prayer and love and, especially, giving. I am with you, little children, and encourage you not to give up from what is good  because the fruits are seen and heard of afar. That is why the enemy is angry and uses everything to lead you away from prayer. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2018** – **THE SOLEMNITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE

*GOSPEL **- JN 18:33B-37*

Pilate said to Jesus,
*"Are you the King of the Jews?"*
Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own or have others told you about Me?"
Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?"
Jesus answered, *"My kingdom does not belong to this world.*
If My kingdom did belong to this world,
My attendants would be fighting to keep Me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, My kingdom is not here."
So Pilate said to Him, "Then You are a king?"
Jesus answered, *"You say I am a king.*
* For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to ther truth Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My Voice."*

*The Catechism of the Catholic Church*

*574 **From the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, certain Pharisees and partisans of Herod together with priests and scribes agreed together to destroy Him.* Because of certain of His acts—expelling demons, forgiving sins, healing on the sabbath day, His novel interpretation of the precepts of the Law regarding purity, and His familiarity with tax collectors and public sinners —*some ill–intentioned persons suspected Jesus of demonic possession*. He is accused of blasphemy and false prophecy, religious crimes which the Law punished with death by stoning.

*600* To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore He establishes His eternal plan of “predestination,” He includes in it each person’s free response to His grace: *“In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus*, Whom You anointed, to do whatever Your Hand and Your plan had predestined to take place.” *For the sake of accomplishing His plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.*

*597* The historical complexity of Jesus’ trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. *The personal sin of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone.* Hence *we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole*, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the apostles’ calls to conversion after Pentecost.Jesus himself, *in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept “the ignorance” of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders*. Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places, based merely on the crowd’s cry: “His blood be on us and on our children!” a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. As the Church declared at the

Second Vatican Council:

*From “The Passion” Testimony of Catalina Rivas (Part 1.12.3, 1.14.3)*

*3)* *Represented in Pilate, I saw the souls who lack the courage and generosity to vigorously break away from the demands of the world and from their own nature.* Instead of uprooting what their conscience tells them about not being of the world and of nature and what their conscience tellst hem about not being in the right spirit, *they yield to a whim*; they get pleasure out of superficial satisfaction; *they partially surrender to the demands of their passion*, and to ease remorse, *they tell themselves “I have already deprived myself of this or that, and that is enough.*”

*3)* I did not answer any of Pilate’s questions. But when he asked: *“Are
You the King of the Jews?”*, then with seriousness and integrity, I answered: *“You have said so; I am the King, but My kingdom is not of this world…”* With these words I wanted to teach many souls how, when they are presented with the opportunity to endure suffering or a humiliation that could easily be avoided, they should answer with generosity: “*My kingdom is not of this world…”. That is to say, I do not seek the praises of human beings*. My Homeland is not this one, yet soon I will rest where it truly is. Now, take courage to fulfill My duty without taking into account the opinion of the world. What matters to Me is not their esteem but to follow the voice of grace that suffocates the inducements of nature. If I am not able to conquer alone, I will ask for strength and counsel since, *on many occasions, passions and excessive self-love blind the soul and impel it to act wrongly*.

Light of the World

November 15, 2018 Terror of demons, Fount of renewal

Feast of St. Albert the Great

Rocked to the core again!

Just minutes after clicking send on my last email, I got the news that the Vatican had shut down the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from taking any official action on the sexual abuse scandal.   

Again, I was rocked to the core.   Some problems will resolve by themselves with the passage of time.  This one will not.  It will only get worse because this is an active attack on the Church by the evil one.

While our Bishops look for ways to increase accountability and transparency there is no number of administrative acts that can resolve this.  Renewal through grace is the answer.  This renewal and grace are the promise of Our Lady of America.

On this date in 1956, the Blessed Virgin made this request of the Bishops:

(from the messages)

On the morning of November 15, 1956, Our Lady taught me this little prayer: "By thy Holy and Immaculate Conception, O Mary, deliver us from evil.” Our Lady then asked me to draw a picture of her first appearance. She also requested a statue made according to this likeness and placed, after being solemnly carried in procession, in the Shrine of The Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. She wishes to be honored there in a special way as Our Lady of America, the Immaculate Virgin.’

Sr Mary Ephrem goes on to write about Our Lady describing the situation:

From January 1957 to 1958, Our Lady's warnings came to me again and again. These are her words spoken in January 1957: "The hour grows late. My Son's patience will not last forever. Help me hold back His anger, which is about to descend on sinful and ungrateful men. Suffering and anguish, such as never before experienced, is about to overtake mankind. It is the darkest hour. But if men will come to me, my Immaculate Heart will make it bright again with the mercy which my Son will rain down through my hands. Help me save those who will not save themselves. Help me bring once again the sunshine of God's peace upon the world." To my spiritual director I was asked to send this message: “Hurry, my son, for the time is short but the punishment will be long, and for many, forever. "Tell the Bishops of the United States, my loyal sons, of my desires and how I wish them to be carried out. Through him who is head over you, make known the longings of my Immaculate Heart to establish the reign of my Divine Son in the hearts of men and thus save them from the scourge of heaven, both now and hereafter." Our Lady, again addressing herself to me, spoke sadly yet hopefully: "My daughter, will my children in America listen to my pleadings and console my Immaculate Heart? Will my loyal sons carry out my desires and thus help me bring the peace of Christ once again to mankind? 'Pray and do penance, my sweet child, that this may come to pass. Trust me and love me; I so desire it. Do not forget your poor Mother, who weeps over the loss of so many of her children."

And Our Lady promises renewal as well:

"I am pleased, my child, with the love and honor my children in America give to me, especially through my glorious and unique privilege of the Immaculate Conception. I promise to reward their love by working through the power of my Son's Heart and my Immaculate Heart miracles of grace among them. I do not promise miracles of the body, but of the soul."

While Our Lady has a multitude of titles, there is one that comes to mind for this moment; Terror of demons

The evil of the acts at the root of the sexual abuse scandal and constant attacks on the Church are both from the same source – Satan.   

Please pray the Rosary for Our Lady, Terror of demons to free our Church from demonic oppression.  And pray the Rosary to Our Lady of America, the Immaculate Virgin that the acts she requests of our Bishops be accomplished with haste and the spiritual renewal to begin.  Do this in unity with Our Lady for the salvation of souls!

By thy Holy and Immaculate Conception O Mary, deliver us from evil.

The Development of Love

Presence of God – My God, from all eternity You have gone before me with
Your infinite love; increase my love for You.

“What shall prevent God from doing that which He will in the soul that is resigned, annihilated, and detached?” (John of the Cross Ascent of Mt. Carmel II, 4,2). This statement of St. John of the Cross makes you understand that God has an immense desire to work in your soul, to lead you to sanctity and to union with Himself, provided you commit yourself into His hands, despoiled of every attachment, annihilated in your self-love, entirely docile, malleable, and adaptable to His action. The Lord comes to your assistance with purifying trials in order to empty you of self, to detach you from creatures, to immerse you in true humility, but at the same time He helps you to grow in love, the strong bond which must unite you to Him. All the work which God accomplishes in your soul is done in view of making you advance in this virtue; exterior and interior trials, humiliations, powerlessness, aridity, struggles, and tempests are meant in the divine plan to extinguish the illusory fires of self-love, pride, earthly affections, and all other irregular passions, so that only one fire may burn within you, ever more intensely and strongly, the fire of charity.

The more the Lord purifies you, the more your heart will be freed from all dross and become capable of concentrating all its affection upon Him. Walk, then, in this way by accepting purification in view of a deeper love, and by orientating your whole spiritual life toward the exercise of love. What you suffer, suffer for love, that is, suffer it willingly, without rebellion or complaint, and then, in the measure that your soul is humbled, despoiled, and mortified, it will also be clothed with charity. The trials which God sends you have the purpose not only of purifying your heart, but also of dilating it in charity. They aim at deepening your capacity for love; not, certainly, a sensible love, but a powerful love of the will, which tends toward God through pure benevolence, independent of all personal consolation, its sole pursuit being His glory and good pleasure.

COLLOQUY

“O Lord of my soul and my only Good! When a soul has resolved to love You, and forsaking everything, does all in its power toward that end, so that it may the better employ itself in Your love, why do You not grant it at once the joy of ascending to the possession of this perfect love? But I am wrong: I should have made my complaint by asking why we ourselves have no desire so to ascend, for it is we alone who are at fault in not at once enjoying so great a dignity.

“If we attain to the perfect possession of this true love of God, it brings all blessings with it. But so [ungenerously] and so slow are we in giving ourselves wholly to God that we do not prepare ourselves as we should to receive that precious love which it is His Majesty’s will that we should enjoy only at a great price.

“There is nothing on earth with which so great a blessing can be purchased; but if we did what we could to obtain it, if we cherished no attachment to earthly things, and if all our cares and all our intercourse were centered in heaven, I believe there is no doubt that this blessing would be given us very speedily…. But we think we are giving God everything, whereas what we are really offering Him is the revenue or the fruits of our land while keeping the stock and the right of ownership of it in our own hands…. A nice way of seeking His love! And then we want it quickly and in great handfuls, as one might say.

“O Lord, if You do not give us this treasure all at once, it is because we do not make a full surrender of ourselves. May it please You to give it to us at least little by little, even though the receiving of it may cost us all the trials in the world.

“No, my God, love does not consist in shedding tears, in enjoying those consolations and that tenderness which for the most part we desire and in which we find comfort, but in serving You with righteousness, fortitude of soul, and humility. The other seems to me to be receiving rather than giving anything ….

“May it never please Your Majesty that a gift so precious as Your love be given to people who serve You solely to obtain consolations” (Teresa of Jesus The Book of Her Life 11).

Deliver us from evil! Feast of St Josephat, Bishop and Martyr

Today, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are meeting in Baltimore Maryland. Dominating the meeting will be the sexual abuse crisis which continues to rock the Church (see "Rocked to the Core").

The root of this crisis is evil. In this case evil is a noun and not an adjective. It is an attack on the Mystical Body of Christ. The bad news is that left to our own devices it is beyond human capacity to fix. The good news it hat while we cannot fix it, it is fixable!

The Church is made up of people and we are all sinners (notable exception is the Holy Family). Therefore, it should be no surprise that some priests and bishops have gravely fallen. Even among the first 12 apostles, Judas turned out to be a very bad actor and others were notable sinners as well. So Jesus, from the very beginning showed us what to expect; there will be corruption and sin in the Church. Let us not be dismayed by this reality. There is hope

Wherever evil exists, it is for us to root it out. While bishops have the powers of exorcism, all of us have the power of prayer and begging for Our Lady's intercession. Because of the graces and authority given by Her Son Jesus, she can accomplish more than any other intercessor.

Our Lady of America, The Immaculate Virgin has come with a very powerful intercessory prayer that is perfectly suited to our time and the crisis in the Church: "By thy Holy and Immaculate Conception O Mary, deliver us from evil." In this devotion she has promised the graces necessary to deal with this crisis. Dare I say, any other way will prove to be folly!

In this devotion Our Lady has put special emphasis on spiritual healings and the graces necessary to seek purity. In this case, purity to overcome corruption and sin along with healing for those who have been spiritually injured by its effects. Our Lady knows what we need and she desperately wants to grant our needs, but we must accept her gift.

Please pray! First that our Bishops will come to understand the reality of what is facing the Church and second that they recognize, seek and accept the graces of Our Lady of America, the Immaculate Virgin by responding to her requests and accepting the graces

Our part is to spread this devotion, to pray for her intercession and to live a life of purity as called for by Our Lady. Most importantly, pray for our bishops and priests!

A note of caution! It is so easy to be angry at the bishops for allowing this to happen. Please don't be angry. Please pray for them. Encourage them. For those bishops that are complicit in this evil, pray they seek forgiveness, reconciliation, conversion and purity. For the other bishops that are left cleaning up this mess, pray that they have faith, courage and graces to see the reality of this situation and that the intercession and graces already promised by Our Lady of America are the (only?) answer.

Message to Mirjana Soldo of November 2nd, 2018

"Dear children, My motherly heart suffers as I am looking at my children who do not love the truth, those who are hiding it—as I look at my children who do not pray with their feelings and actions. I am sad as I am saying to my Son that many of my children no longer have faith, that they do not know Him—my Son. That is why I call you, apostles of my love: you strive to look to the very depth in human hearts and there you are certain to find the little hidden treasure. To look in this way is mercy from the Heavenly Father. To seek the good even where there is the greatest evil—to strive to comprehend each other and not to judge—that is what my Son is asking of you. And I, as a mother, am calling you to listen to Him.
My children, the spirit is mightier than the flesh, and, carried by love and actions, it overcomes all obstacles. Do not forget: my Son has loved you and loves you. His love is with you and in you when you are one with Him. He is the light of the world and no one and nothing will be able to stop Him in the final glory.
Therefore, apostles of my love, do not be afraid to witness the truth. Witness it with enthusiasm, with works, with love, with your sacrifice, and, above all, in humility. Witness the truth to all those who have not come to know my Son. I will be alongside you. I will encourage you. Witness the love which never ends because it comes from the Heavenly Father who is eternal and who offers eternity to all of my children. The spirit of my Son will be alongside you.
Anew I am calling you, my children: pray for your shepherds, pray that the love of my Son may lead them. Thank you."