You Shall Believe - SUNDAY APRIL 29, 2018 – FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

GOSPEL - JN 15:1-8

Jesus said to his disciples:
 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
 and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
 You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
 Remain in me, as I remain in you.
 Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
 unless it remains on the vine,
 so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
 Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
 because without me you can do nothing.
 Anyone who does not remain in me
 will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
 people will gather them and throw them into a fire
 and they will be burned.
 If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
 ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
 By this is my Father glorified,
 that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

2074  Jesus says: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ”The fruit referred to in this saying is the holiness of a life made fruitful by union with Christ. When we believe in Jesus Christ, partake of his mysteries, and keep his commandments, the Savior himself comes to love, in us, his Father and his brethren, our Father and our brethren. His person becomes, through the Spirit, the living and interior rule of our activity. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

From “The Great Crusade of Mercy” Testimony of Catalina Rivas (CM 87:1-9)

1) Do not worry; your suffering will not increase…Are you not helping Me with your little cross? Continue to smile; continue to enjoy loving Me and pay no attention to any attack that is not Mine but which I permit in order to strengthen you.

2) Who bears fruit in Me? Which are the vine shoots that the Father will prune so that they will bear fruit in greater abundance?

3) I am not asking for positive responses from you; I am asking for sincerity from all, and in particular, from each one of you. Do not forget the graces you have received.

4) Are you bearing no fruit, My parched shoot? Then it is necessary to detach yourself from Me,

Eternal Life and delicate food.

5) You ought to greatly reflect on that point and not skip it, or even worse, neglect it. To be with Me and not to bear fruit signifies hardness of heart. All My shoots must bear fruit, that is, for the honor of the vine and the pleasure of the vine grower who is My Father.

6) I preferred the image of the vine because it was intended to have an effect on millions of creatures who through My Words have been saved, are being saved and will be saved. The grape is a fruit pleasing to all and it requires the great care of the vine grower as well as the sap from the vine.

7) Well then, whether it be the vine grower or the vine, they require many grapes that are beautiful and tasty. I give them My moisture, My vine shoots, transmitting My life into each and every one. The vital sap which will bear fruit flows in you through My branches. Then the vine grower will come with his whole family to harvest the grapes.

8) Remain with Me and you shall become sweet clusters of grapes filled with divine nectar. Stay

united and you shall be My fruit, My beauty, and you shall possess My flavor.

9) I am the life, you are the vine shoots. From the vine the vine shoots, from the shoots the fruit, from the fruit the wine, and later from the wine the joy of the Heavenly vine grower and of all those who before you have been transformed by My work of Redemption and glorification.

My new method of prayer, April 25, 2018

Dear friends in Christ,

I have not done a lot of writing about my new home in North Carolina but for the most part

we are unpacked and almost all set up. As I have been unpacking and continue to find little treasures in the attic or boxes and drawers I have developed a new prayer strategy.

I am and have been for over 30 years a rosary prayer warrior, I also pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet almost as often as I pray the rosary.
In blogs past I have spoken about my Grandmother Margaret Alice Kinnarney who I am named after. My memories of her always included the rosary in her hand along with a soft well folded and ironed handkerchief. She was a very quiet woman who considered the rosary her companion as I do. At one point early in my conversion I knew it was her prayers that brought me to the foot of the cross.

As I unpacked I found rosaries that had been given to me by many friends over the years. I decided that every time I pick up a rosary my main objective would be to pray for the person who gave it to me. This new method of prayer gives me such JOY as I am reminded of this person as I pray and also their family and friends. I give my prayers to the Mother of God as we were taught in the Consecration to Jesus through Mary, 33 Days to Morning Glory. I pray as many as 5 rosaries and Divine mercy Chaplets through out the day and night. I keep rosaries every were including my bed as I begin to pray every time I wake up.

Just thought I would share this in the event that anyone else would like to try it. Gods deepest Blessings on all of you.

Margaret of Souls for Jesus

Former Planned Parenthood abortionist: ‘I killed more people than Ted Bundy’

I think this Doctor story is a great example of how God works. He untied the knots in her mind and then her heart. I believe that He does this all the time. As humans God loves us so much He continues to show us our sin in such a way as to keep us from falling into the same sin over and over. Our job is to pay attention, keep trusting, keep trying.
~Margaret of souls for Jesus

Some of the most powerful testimonies in the pro-life movement come from former abortionists. These are doctors who have committed abortions, sometimes thousands of them. They know more about abortion than anyone else. Like former abortion workers, they were insiders in the abortion industry and have seen everything that goes on in abortion facilities. One former abortionist, Kathi A. Aultman, has dedicates her life to protecting the preborn.

She has testified in support of pro-life legislation before Congress. Most recently, Aultman testified in favor of the Heartbeat Protection Act. Introduced on January 12, 2017, the bill would ban abortions after the fetal heartbeat can be detected. The fetal heartbeat starts early, perhaps as early as 16 days after conception. But it cannot be reliably detected until about six weeks. So the Heartbeat Protection Act would prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, making most abortions illegal.

Aultman was a dedicated pro-choice feminist when she entered medical school. She strongly supported legal abortion. She says:
At the time I entered medical school I believed that the availability of abortion on demand was an issue of women’s rights. I felt that a woman should have control over her body and not be forced to bear a child she didn’t want. My commitment to women’s issues was strengthened as I was exposed to the discrimination inherent in medical school and residency at that time, and to the plight of the indigent women we served in our program. I also believed it was wrong to bring unwanted children into an overpopulated world where they were likely to be neglected or abused.

She became an abortionist at a Planned Parenthood facility.

READ: Former Planned Parenthood manager speaks: ‘It takes a part of your soul’

Besides her pro-abortion philosophy, Aultman gives two other reasons why she became an abortionist:

I also could make a lot more money doing abortions than I could make working in an emergency room. I enjoyed the technical challenges of the procedure and prided myself on being really good at what I did.

She was not bothered by seeing the remains of aborted babies. In fact, she found them fascinating. Aultman says:

After each procedure I had to examine the tissue carefully to account for all the body parts to make sure nothing was left to cause infection or bleeding. I was fascinated by the tiny but perfectly formed intestines, kidneys, and other organs and I enjoyed looking at their amazing cellular detail under the microscope. I realize it is hard to imagine someone being able to do that and be so detached but because of my training and conditioning a human fetus seemed no different than the chick embryos I dissected in college. I could view them with strictly scientific interest devoid of any of the emotions with which I would normally view a baby. I wasn’t heartless, I just had been trained to compartmentalize these things.

From 13-24 weeks, the most common abortion procedures is known as a D&E. Another former abortionist, Dr. Anthony Levatino, explains this procedure in the video below:

So great was Aultman’s ability to distance herself from what she was doing that she even committed abortions while pregnant. In her mind, committing abortions while nurturing her own preborn child was not inconsistent. She thought that since her baby was wanted, he or she deserved to live. Unwanted babies, on the other hand, had no rights. Aultman made a strong distinction between wanted and unwanted babies. In fact, when women came to her with miscarriages, she mourned with them for their lost children, because those children were wanted. It was, therefore, tragic that they did not survive.

But after Aultman’s baby was born, three things happened to make the abortionist question what she was doing. These three things eventually led her out of the industry. Aultman describes these events in her own words:

[I] was confronted with three cases that broke my heart and changed my opinion about abortion. In the first case I discovered that I had personally done three abortions on a girl scheduled that morning. When I protested about doing the [fourth] abortion, I was told by the clinic staff that it was her right to choose to use abortion as her method of birth control and that I had no right to pass judgment on her or to refuse to do the procedure. I told them it was fine for them to say but that I was the one who had to do the killing. Of course she got her abortion and despite my urging she told me she had no desire to use birth control.

The next situation involved a woman who when asked by her friend if she wanted to see the tissue she replied “No! I just want to kill it!” I was taken aback by her hostility and lack of compassion towards the fetus.

In the third case, Aultman encountered a man who pressured his wife into having an abortion. The woman eventually agreed to the abortion and it was committed, but the woman was distraught:

Her husband didn’t feel they could afford another, and she cried the entire time. I think the callousness and hostility of the first two compared to the sorrow and the devastation of the third woman – I think that comparison made me understand that just because the child wasn’t wanted, that was no longer justification enough for me to do the procedure.

With the line between wanted and unwanted blurred, Aultman began to question her career as an abortionist. She began to have major doubts about what she was doing, and stopped committing abortions.

READ: Former managers speak out: Planned Parenthood is not real health care

Looking back on her time in the abortion industry, Aultman reflects on how few doctors do abortions for very long:

I found out later that few doctors are able to do abortions for very long. Physicians are taught to heal, not harm. OB/GYNs especially, often experience a conflict of conscience because they are normally are [sic] concerned about the welfare of both their patients but in an abortion they are killing one of them.

Around this time, Aultman had a religious conversion. She became a born-again Christian. She remained deeply troubled by the number of children she had killed, but her Christian faith brought her some healing. Still, she has deep sadness for the babies that she killed. Aultman compared herself to a serial killer. “I probably murdered more people than Ted Bundy or any of the mass murderers if you consider all the abortions that I did,” she says.

She also mentions another thing that troubles her:

One of the most wonderful things for an OB-GYN, is to meet a child they delivered or that child’s child. That is such a joy. But it’s bittersweet because I think about all the people I will never meet because I aborted them.

Aultman is now retired and has dedicated for the rest of her life to fighting abortion. She now sees abortion for what it is – the killing of a human child in a very early stage of development. By her testimony, she hopes to change the hearts and minds of people, including legislators. Her story shows that even an abortionist can have a turnaround and realize the wrong of what they are doing. Hopefully, her story will compel other abortionists as well as abortion supporters to examine their consciences and reconsider what they support.

By Sarah Terzo

You Shall Believe FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2018 – FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

GOSPEL - JN 10:11-18

Jesus said:
 “I am the good Shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
 I am the good Shepherd, and I know mine and mine know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down on My Own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from My Father.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

609 By embracing in His human Heart the Father’s love for men, Jesus “loved them to the end,” for “greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men. Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: “No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of My Own accord.” Hence the sovereign freedom of God’s Son as he went out to His death.

754 “The Church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is Christ. It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are unfailingly nourished and led by Christ Himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of Shepherds, who gave His life for his sheep.

From “Door to Heaven” Testimony of Catalina Rivas (DH 75:5)

5) Little children, I am the Good Shepherd, I know how many sheep I have and I will find them all. I have chosen My sheep, they have not chosen Me.

From “The Great Crusade of Love” Testimony of Catalina Rivas (CL 181:6)

6) Do not oppress God’s Word nor keep it from being known, because His Word is eternal, like eternal is His Being. Nothing has changed in Me. I am Mercy, Forgiveness, and Love. The Good Shepherd watches over His flock and His sheep will hear His Voice, and it will become one sheepfold under one Shepherd. Time does not count; what counts is eternity. When everything seems lost, that is when everything is won. Do not be afraid, My little flock; My Name is Redeemer and Savior.

 

From “The Great Crusade of Mercy” Testimony of Catalina Rivas (CM 132:1-2)

1) I am the Good Shepherd and I know all My sheep, every one of them, and they know Me. They listen readily to My voice with gladness and I hear them bleating. I come from afar and like a flash of lightening, I approach My sheep who are in anguish. The sheep of the world are all Mine, but many of them do not know that I am all for them. They approach Me like blind

creatures and then they turn back; they drink from the fountain that I present to them but soon they retrace their steps. I know My sheep and I want to give My life to all of them. For the sake of them all, I have given the human life that I took from Mary.

2) I call you My sheep. Oh! If you were as docile as they are, how much better it would make you! And how happy you would be! I tell you that I am your good Shepherd, and if you knew how much Love I have for you, you would believe that for Me, being a Shepherd means only one thing: to give My life, the human life that I lived in Palestine and My Divine life that I live with the Father and with Love. That is what being the good Shepherd means to Me.

by Thomas Cremona