Wednesday, October 13, 2010

As miners are rescued, Chileans unite in prayer

Tribulation Times

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/september.asp?version=63&startmmdd=0101

October 14, 2010 

(Jud 1:9) When Michael the archangel, disputing with the devil, contended about the body of Moses, he durst not bring against him the judgment of railing speech, but said: The Lord command thee.

Mario Sepulveda, rescued Chilean miner: ""I think I had extraordinary luck.  I was with God and with the devil.  And I reached out for God."

CNS: As miners are rescued, Chileans unite in prayer

COMMENTARY
: It was surely praying at their 'makeshift shrine' that kept the Chilean miners sane

Consider the following CNA report from Santiago, which appeared on August 27: “The 33 miners trapped in the San Jose mine in Atacama, Chile, have requested that statues and religious pictures be sent down to them as they wait to be rescued… Chilean officials say the rescue could take months but that they hope to reach the miners by Christmas… A small passageway has already been put in place so messages and supplies can be sent to the trapped miners.

“Although a crucifix has already been sent down, the miners are continuing to request more statues of Mary and the saints… to construct a makeshift chapel.  ‘The miners want to set up a section of the chamber they are in as a shrine,’ Chilean’s Minister of Health, Jaime Manalich, told CNN.

“This week, President Sebastian Pinera spoke with the miners by phone and then placed a statue of St Lorenzo, the patron of miners, in the presidential palace together with 32 Chilean flags and one Bolivian flag to represent each of the miners trapped since August 5.” One of the first things the miners’ relatives did at the pithead, while it still looked as though they must be all dead, was to set up a statue of St Lawrence, patron saint of miners (see above), who in statues of him in this role movingly wears a miner’s hat and carries a miner’s lamp.  And the whole rescue mission was placed under his patronage: it was called simply Operation San Lorenzo.

The rescue, as I post this, is not complete; not everyone is out.  But whatever the final outcome, there has already been one vastly moving outcome among the miners themselves: the whole thing has been a massive spiritual triumph, a glorious victory against despair and loss of hope, against the quarrelling and division which naturally and inevitably break out, so the psychologists tell us, whenever men are confined together for prolonged periods of time.  And surely even the Guardian can hardly argue that this great human achievement had nothing to do with that beacon of hope, the shrine set up in a corner of that unspeakable underground hell.

THE INDEPENDENT: The strokes of "luck" that saved the 33

Caspar Quintana, Catholic bishop of Copiapo: "God has heard our prayers. I have received comments of encouragement from all over the world. Let us give thanks."

Ladder of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 26- "Brief Summary on Discernment"

25. When poor men see the royal treasury, they are still more conscious of their poverty; and so too when the soul reads about the virtues of the Fathers, it at least comes to a more humble frame of mind.       


Prayer request?  Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com

This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.

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