Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The First Christmas by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

The First Christmas

Excerpts from the visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

Sunday, November 11th 1821. For several days in succession I have seen the Blessed Virgin with her mother Anna, whose house is about an hour’s journey away from Nazareth in the valley of Zabulon. She was far advanced in pregnancy, and sat in a room working with several other women. They were preparing coverlets and other things for Mary’s confinement. Anna, who possessed pastures with flocks and herds, was well-to-do. As she thought that Mary would be in her house for the birth of her Child, she made all the preparations in a very lavish manner, with especially beautiful coverlets and rugs.

November 12th. Joseph will arrive back in Nazareth today. As he (Joseph) was crossing the field of Chimki, six hours from Nazareth, at midnight last night, an angel appeared to him and warned him that he was to go to Bethlehem with Mary at once, for it was there that she was to bear her Child. He also indicated everything that she was to take with her for her use, explaining that they were to be few and simple things, and in particular no embroidered coverlets. Also, besides the ass upon which Mary was to sit, he was to take with him a she-ass one-year old that had not yet had a foal. He was to let her run free and was always to follow whatever path she took.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

No comments:

Quotes from 'The Glories of Mary':

‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head.’

(Gen. 3:15)

“Since the devil is the head of original sin, this head it was that Mary crushed: for sin never had any entry into the soul of this Blessed Virgin, which was consequently free from all stain.”

Saint Augustine

Journeys of Faith

Special of the week: Visions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory Heaven is real beyond your wildest dreams. It is eternity with Our Lord Jesus in the Beatific Vision, our Mother Mary, the Heavenly family of Angels and Saints. Bob and Penny Lord have gone to Europe and researched the lives of many Saints and Blesseds, the teachings of the Catholic Catechism and the Catholic Encyclopedia. They have amassed volumes of first-hand information from the visions of Saints Regular Retail $14.95 320 pages Your price today $7.95

PSALM 71 SPEAKS TO MY HEART

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!

Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you.

I have been as a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
My mouth is filled with your praise,
and with your glory all the day.
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
forsake me not when my strength is spent.

For my enemies speak concerning me;
those who watch for my life consult together
and say, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and seize him,
for there is none to deliver him.”

O God, be not far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
who seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.

With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?

You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.
You will increase my greatness
and comfort me again.

I will also praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy,
when I sing praises to you;
my soul also, which you have redeemed.

And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
who sought to do me hurt.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012