DECEMBER 02 MESSAGE FROM OUR LADY TO MIRJANA

“Dear children, I turn to you as your mother, the mother of the just, the mother of those who love and suffer, the mother of those who are holy. My children, you too can be holy - this depends on you. Those who are holy are those who immeasurably love the Heavenly Father, those who love Him above all. Therefore, my children, always strive to be better. If you strive to be good you can be holy even though you may not think so of yourselves. If you think that you are good, you are not humble, and arrogance distances you from holiness. In this peaceless world full of threats, your hands, apostles of my love, should be extended in prayer and mercy. And to me, my children, give the gift of the rosary, the roses which I love so much. My roses are your prayers pronounced with the heart and not only recited with the lips. My roses are your acts of prayer, faith and love. When my Son was little, he said to me that my children would be numerous and that they would bring me many roses. I did not comprehend Him. Now I know that you are those children who are bringing me roses when, above all, you love my Son, when you pray with the heart, when you help the poorest. Those are my roses. That is the faith which makes everything in life be done through love, not knowing arrogance, and always ready to forgive; never judging, always striving to understand one’s brother. Therefore, apostles of my love, pray for those who do not know how to love, for those who do not love you, for those who have done evil to you, for those who have not come to know the love of my Son. My children, I ask this of you because, remember, to pray means to love and to forgive. Thank you.”

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Christ the King Novena begins 11/17

Christ the King Novena Prayers

Christ, our Savior and our King, renew in me allegiance to Your Kingship.
Day 1 – I pray for the grace to place You above the powers of this world in all things.
Day 2 – I pray for the grace to obey You before any civic authority.
Day 3 – I pray for the grace to fervently bring about Your Kingdom in my family and community.
Day 4 – I pray that You will reign in my mind.
Day 5 – I pray that You will reign in my heart.
Day 6 – I pray that You will reign in my will.
Day 7 – I pray that You will reign in my body.
Day 8 – I pray that You will reign throughout all the world.
Day 9 – I pray that You will reign in every area of my life.

O Prince of Peace, may Your reign be complete in my life and in the life of the world. Christ, my King, please answer these petitions if they be in accordance with Your Holy Will…
[Mention your intentions here]
As I reflect on Your second, glorious coming and the judgment of all mankind, I beg You to show me mercy and give me the grace to become a great saint. I pray that not only will I spend eternity with You but that You may use me – a sinner – to bring others into Your Kingdom for Your glory.
Christ the King, Your Kingdom come!
Amen.

Background on this Feast

This feast day was instituted by Pope Pius XI on December 11th in 1925 within the encyclical letter Quas Primas. The Holy Father was responding to the fact that the world was becoming increasingly nationalistic and secular. Governments were claiming more and more allegiance from their citizens and attempting to replace God.
“While nations insult the beloved name of our Redeemer by suppressing all mention of it in their conferences and parliaments, we must all the more loudly proclaim his kingly dignity and power, all the more universally affirm his rights.” – Quas Primas, 25
Pope Pius XI, therefore, created this feast to help the faithful to remember that allegiance to Christ is above any allegiance to government of a nation.
“The faithful, moreover, by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal. If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God.” – Quas Primas, 33
It is particularly important to recognize the words of the encyclical in today’s climate of government intrusion on the Church.
“When we pay honor to the princely dignity of Christ, men will doubtless be reminded that the Church, founded by Christ as a perfect society, has a natural and inalienable right to perfect freedom and immunity from the power of the state; and that in fulfilling the task committed to her by God of teaching, ruling, and guiding to eternal bliss those who belong to the kingdom of Christ, she cannot be subject to any external power.” – Quas Primas, 31

Novena of Surrender to the Will of God

Day 1
Why do you confuse yourselves by worrying? Leave the care of your affairs to Me and everything will be peaceful. I say to you in truth that every act of true, blind, complete surrender to Me produces the effect that you desire and resolves all difficult situations.
Repeat 10 times...
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

Day 2
Surrender to Me does not mean to fret, to be upset, or to lose hope, nor does it mean offering to Me a worried prayer asking Me to follow you and change your worry into prayer. It is against this surrender, deeply against it, to worry, to be nervous and to desire to think about the consequences of anything. It is like the confusion that children feel when they ask their mother to see to their needs, and then try to take care of those needs for themselves
so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way. Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, to turn away from thoughts of tribulation and to put yourself in My care.
Repeat 10 times...
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

Day 3
How many things I do when the soul, in so much spiritual and material need turns to Me, looks at Me and says to Me; “You take care of it,” then close its eyes and rests. In pain you pray for Me to act, but that I act in the way you want. You do not turn to Me, instead, you want Me to adapt to your ideas. You are not sick people who ask the Doctor to cure you,
but rather sick people who tell the Doctor how to. So do not act this way, but pray as I taught you in the Our Father: “Hallowed be Thy Name”, that is, be glorified in My need. “Thy kingdom come”, that is, let all that is in us and in the world be in accord with Your kingdom.
“Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”, that is, in our need, decide as You see fit for our temporal and eternal life. If you say to Me truly: “Thy Will be done” which is the same as saying: “You take care of it” I will intervene with all My omnipotence, and I will resolve the most difficult situations.
Repeat 10 times...
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

Day 4
You see evil growing instead of weakening? Do not worry, Close your eyes and say to Me with faith: “Thy Will be done, You take care of it.” I say to you that I will take care of it, and that I will intervene as does a doctor and I will accomplish miracles when they are needed. Do you see that the sick person is getting worse? Do not be upset, but close your eyes and say “You take care of it.” I say to you that I will take care of it, and that there is no medicine more powerful than My loving intervention. By My Love, I promise this to you.
Repeat 10 times...
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

Day 5
And when I must lead you on a path different from the one you see, I will prepare you; I will carry you in My Arms; I will let you find yourself, like children who have fallen asleep in their mother’s arms, on the other bank of the river. What troubles you and hurts you immensely are your reason, your thoughts and worry, and your desire at all costs to deal with what afflicts you.
Repeat 10 times...
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

Day 6
You are sleepless; you want to judge everything, direct everything and see to everything and you surrender to human strength, or worse - to men themselves, trusting in their intervention, - this is what hinders My Words and My Views. Oh how much I wish from you this surrender, to help you and how I suffer when I see you so agitated! Satan tries to do exactly this: to agitate you and to remove you from My protection and to throw you into the jaws of human initiative. So, trust only in Me, rest in Me, surrender to Me in everything.
Repeat 10 times...
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

Day 7
I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to Me and to your not thinking of yourselves. I sow treasure troves of graces when you are in the deepest poverty. No person of reason, no thinker, has ever performed miracles, not even among the saints. He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God. So don’t think about it any more, because your mind is acute and for you it is very hard to see evil and to trust in Me and to not think of yourself.
Do this for all your needs, do this all of you and you will see great continual silent miracles.
I will take care of things, I promise this to you.
Repeat 10 times...
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

Day 8
Close your eyes and let yourself be carried away on the flowing current of My grace; close your eyes and do not think of the present, turning your thoughts away from the future just as you would from temptation. Repose in Me, believing in My goodness, and I promise you by My Love that if you say "You take care of it,” I will take care of it all; I will console you,
liberate you and guide you.
Repeat 10 times...
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

Day 9
Pray always in readiness to surrender, and you will receive from it great peace and great rewards, even when I confer on you the grace of immolation, of repentance and of love.
Then what does suffering matter? It seems impossible to you? Close your eyes and say with all your soul, “Jesus, You take care of it.” Do not be afraid, I will take care of things and you will bless My Name by humbling yourself. A thousand prayers cannot equal one single act of surrender, remember this well. There is no novena more effective than this!
Repeat 10 times...
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!

Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you I always want to belong completely to Jesus.

(Author: Father Don Dolindo Ruotolo 📷✝ 1882-1970)

Musings of Hope and Exhortation

from: The Next Right Step

(I asked our own Phillip Frank to write a piece to hearten us in these days in which, as he says, the world has gone mad. Phil has recently been through a season of personal storms. About the time Hurricane Irma passed through, his mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. In this month which our Church has set aside to remember our loved ones who have gone before us, we pray for the repose of his mother’s soul. We pray, too, for the repose of all the souls of TNRS family and friends who have, recently, made their Final Journey Home. Charlie prayed in the most beautiful way when commenters sought prayer for a loved one who had passed. He requested that the soul would be welcomed into the Kingdom and that s/he would become an intercessor for us as we proceed through the Storm. May all whom we know and love in the Great Cloud of Witnesses become such intercessors for us in this sobering time.  ~Beckita)

A young mother from our church was asking me about how to keep her children pure in these times. She was frustrated at the thought that her daughters would make the same mistakes she had when she was young and would end unhappy like she was as a single parent raising two children in this crazy, messed up world. I told her that no matter how hard she tried, temptations of the world would find them and they would then choose to follow the righteousness they were taught or the world. Proverbs 22:6 says to “train up a child in the ways of God and they will return to it when they are old.”

In her fear of how to keep her children safe and not really knowing how to accomplish it, I reminded her that Jesus told His disciples that for man alone salvation is impossible but with God all things are possible. (Matt 9:26) Despite her weak efforts, God would make sufficient what she lacked. Further, I said she needed to TRUST God and release her worry to hope, then train up her children to the best of her ability and live a good life as a witness to them, then, God would make sufficient her weakness (My grace is sufficient) for in weakness (our acceptance that God is really in charge) we (He) are strong. When Jesus told those He cured “your faith healed you” He was referring to the fact that they “relented” their will to Him and opened themselves to trust Him. Faith leads to hope (trust) then to love which is eternal (heaven). We reach into eternity (heaven) when we do the will of God (thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven). Love, then, casts out all fear as our faith, hope and love stabilize us in this world gone mad.

When Jesus washed the feet of the apostles, He was taking a position of the least among them, despite being their leader, to help them realize humility (for I am meek and humble of heart). It was the enemy who sowed the temptation in us to “be someone” but Jesus came and took the lowest possible position among us – a slave. “Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave.” (Phil 2:7) He did this to bring us back to the realization that we are children… His children! And that, like children, obedience, trust and not worrying are the correct behavior of a child of God.

“It will be the Great Miracle of light blinding Satan… The torrential flood of blessings about to jolt the world must begin with the small number of the most humble souls.”  – Our Lady to Elizabeth Kindelmann <http://www.theflameoflove.org/>http://www.theflameoflove.org

The tragedy of this life is that we all suffer. That is our lot from the Fall of Adam and Eve and a combined condition of humanity’s spiritual link to one another as the Body of Christ. But we also gain through this Body. Just like a physical body that profits as a whole from good nutrition, rest and peace of mind, the Body of Christ gains merit, goodness and even physical relief by the good acts of its members. We must be prepared to give “reasons for your hope.” (1 Peter 13:15) And to do so “in season and out of season.“(2 Tim 4:2).No good deed goes unrewarded just as no evil deed goes unpunished. We, who are in the “know” of God’s grace and goodness, carry much responsibility for the good which comes into the world. We are like dikes that allow water to flow into a desert. When we are open, much flows through us to green up the parched lands. But when we are closed, the earth is dry and barren. If we, who then receive so much, refuse to open ourselves to the life-giving graces which can flow through us by our “prayers, works, joys and sufferings” and, instead, become too attached to something or someone or shy away from the sufferings God sends us or if we are spiritually lazy, we should not be surprised when everything around us is turning to dust!

What is most acceptable to God are acts that involve no self-interest, whatsoever, and that we do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. Actions done solely out of love for God are sacred deeds that bring eternal blessings. “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do.” (Luke 17:10) As God is whole and complete (“I am the beginning and the end.” (Rev 22:13), we profit Him nothing by our existence and are incapable of loving Him as He truly deserves. But He gave us each other (His Mystical Body) to fulfill that which cannot be fulfilled for us by Him – “love one another, as I have loved you;”  ” and forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us.” “See how they love one another.” “For the sake of the body of Christ, they complete what is still lacking in His afflictions.” (Col 1:24)

So for the sake of the Body of Christ, we must remain OPEN in these times to allow God His chance to save as many souls as He can. We must not “ refuse to pay attention, and turn a stubborn shoulder and stop our ears from hearing.“(Zech 7:11) when it is hard to forgive and forget. I see a great division among those of us professing faith and those opposed to it. We must be mindful, always, that we, too, are worthy of death because of our sinfulness and are saved from this fate by God Himself.  “Therefore, you are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things.” (Rom 2:1) We are to pity and love our enemies and pray for their salvation, realizing that but for the grace of God, we would be just like them and we actually are just like them in many ways. The mystery of why God allowed the enemy to dwell among us has always troubled me but the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matt 13:24) has given me insight into how Our Lord expects those of us who are “in the world but not of the world” to bring light to His people. God allows sinners to dwell alongside His faithful ones, not to punish them, but to bring light into the darkness. It is we, His faithful, who are to be a sign of contradiction to the weeds. As our “roots” grow entangled among the weeds, we may pull some of them up and out of perdition along with us when the harvester brings us home.

My mother was sent to the hospital the day before hurricane Irma rolled into Florida. The next day, the doctors diagnosed her with late stage pancreatic cancer and because of her age and physical limitations, treatment was not an option. The nurses on staff cried for her when they heard this. Why? Because my mother was sweet and loving, wheat among the weeds in this life and “entangled” herself up with everyone she met, even those she only knew for ONE DAY!

“Though He constrains Himself against compelling our will, God manages the divine economy so that every event, every chance encounter, calls us to Him.” (Charlie Johnston) Being a sign of hope is to be that chance encounter with someone who needs a chance. Growing alongside the weeds, we learn to love and care for them despite their offenses and if they don’t pray, we can pray in their stead. They, in turn, learn to love and care for us… and will recognize God dwelling in us. St. Faustina, in her diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul, captures this relationship importance. “Although a sinful person is at the point of death, the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment, so that if the soul is willing, it has the possibility of returning to God thus making use of all the prayers that other souls offer to God for them.”

Jesus set His eyes on the goal, was not put to shame and felt joy in what He was accomplishing by the cross. Despite the great suffering He was going through, He experienced joy in its accomplishment, a parallel which we can ourselves feel as we suffer the Storm and await the Rescue with its light already piercing the darkness. Our own Francesca here at TNRS feels this distinction: “Fortunately we walk by faith and not by sight, and so the prayers of God’s people, our Guardian Angels, the tender embrace of our Immaculate Mother, and the hope to see Jesus brings needed mercy, and I do not despair, although despair is all I can feel.” She does not despair because she has replaced it with trust and hope which she does not “feel” but “believes” through her faith. Here people, is a sign of contradiction and a true disciple of TNRS. She becomes a “sign of hope” herself when she practices what she preaches. And with the Storm, God has given us ample chance to practice!

I see the parable of the workers (Matt 20:1-16) like this: The land owner hires the workers to work his vineyard. The first to be hired, work all day (their entire lives) to fulfill the job given them by the land owner (God). But God, loving all humanity, sees those standing around in the market place (the world) doing nothing (not tending to what they were created to be) and asks them to join those who are already working (the faithful) and offers to pay them what is right (eternal life). This story has two lessons for me. First, God is “generous” with His love and salvation. He makes the point that those who worked the longest in His vineyard “deserve” the pay agreed upon but, because of His generosity, He can also give those who do not “deserve” it the same. He makes the point that it is none of our business what He does with His money (grace) despite our “jealousy” of His mercy and love for those we think do not “deserve” it! He makes the point that the work does not actually give us salvation but His generosity does. So the second lesson is this: despite our ideas on who deserves to go to heaven or not, God will, in the end, save us all if we, even at the last moment, “agree” to work in His vineyard. “God’s mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wondrous and mysterious way. Outwardly, it seems as if everything were lost, but it is not so. The soul, illumined by a ray of God’s powerful final grace, turns to God in the last moment with such a power of love that, in an instant, it receives from God forgiveness of sin and punishment.” (St. Faustina) For this soul the “work” is its final “turning to God” and then God’s grace “is sufficient” for it to receive the “day’s pay” of eternal life. Thus, we all enter heaven on equal ground, not because of our labors’ equality, but because of our God’s mercy and love for His children. This is why “the first will be last and the last will be first.” We do not go into heaven in a straight line, first to last, but all together at once as a single unit, as the Body of Christ!