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Mother Mary said at Fatima: "My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the sure way which will lead you to God." St. Thomas Aquinas said: "The things we love tell us who we are!" With that in mind, I will try to post each day something about Our Blessed Lady, items about the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and public domain Catholic books too! I pray you enjoy my ministry! Below are two albums of pictures that I created: 1. Our grand daughter Adrianna. 2. Tears of Mary!
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Mary TV: January 31, 2019 Reflection - St. Joseph, protector of the Holy Family!
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Mary TV: January 30, 2019 Reflection - May a grain of hope and faith grow...
A grain of hope and faith...
(c) Anthony Zubac 2019
January 30, 2019
Dear Family of Mary!
It doesn't take much. God can work with a very small "yes", a tiny glimmer of hope, a miniscule opening to faith. It isn't necessary that we understand the whole Bible, or grasp the theology of St. Thomas, for our faith to begin and grow. All it takes is a grain of faith, a grain of hope. As Jesus told us:
And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." (Mark 4:30-32)
When God reveals
Himself to someone, He doesn't give that person the entire plan for
their life in one moment. The first encounter will more likely be a
brief but powerful flash of light, or confirmation of His presence. It
is in such moments that the seeds of faith and hope are planted in the
very heart of a person. "God is real. God is a person. He loves me. I
have met Him. He is calling me. I am not alone. Heaven is real." These
are the realities that change our hearts from cold and barren rocks into
warm and fertile gardens. This is when the seeds of hope and faith are
planted.
Our Lady understands this awakening of the heart. She wants us to experience this planting of the grains of faith and hope in our hearts. She wants us to encounter the Lord and let that encounter become a planting of faith and hope. She is with us in Medjugorje to help that process. She it is who comes to us first to warm our hearts with her love. We feel her motherly care which envelops us so gently. And our hearts begin to thaw. Our hearts begin to warm up, like the earth in the spring. Her love prepares the soil of our hearts to receive the grains of faith and hope that her Son will sew in them. Her warmth makes us warm. And then the miracle begins.
The tiny seeds of faith and hope can take root in our hearts because they are readied. When we encounter Jesus, in a flash of insight and love, the seeds will enter our hearts and take root. This is when the Kingdom begins to grow in us. And, oh the wonders that ensue. Families are healed, vocations are discovered, good works abound, all the characteristics of the Kingdom emerge, each in its kind. All it takes is a tiny glimmer of hope or a miniscule opening to faith. A small word from Jesus, a gesture, a gazing into His eyes is all it may take. And the encounter will have happened, and the seeds will have been planted.
But none of these things will grow without prayer. The planting is only the beginning. It is in our relationship to Jesus, through prayer, that the glimmer becomes Mary's Meals or Rachel's Vineyard, or countless other blessed works.
May we cherish those grains we receive from Jesus for we will thank Him for eternity. Our little tiny "yes" now will become something amazing in time, as we pray. And all will rejoice!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
© Mary TV 2019
Dear Family of Mary!
"Therefore, in the warmth of your heart, may a grain of hope and faith grow and you, little children, will from day to day feel the need to pray more..."
It doesn't take much. God can work with a very small "yes", a tiny glimmer of hope, a miniscule opening to faith. It isn't necessary that we understand the whole Bible, or grasp the theology of St. Thomas, for our faith to begin and grow. All it takes is a grain of faith, a grain of hope. As Jesus told us:
And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." (Mark 4:30-32)
Our Lady understands this awakening of the heart. She wants us to experience this planting of the grains of faith and hope in our hearts. She wants us to encounter the Lord and let that encounter become a planting of faith and hope. She is with us in Medjugorje to help that process. She it is who comes to us first to warm our hearts with her love. We feel her motherly care which envelops us so gently. And our hearts begin to thaw. Our hearts begin to warm up, like the earth in the spring. Her love prepares the soil of our hearts to receive the grains of faith and hope that her Son will sew in them. Her warmth makes us warm. And then the miracle begins.
The tiny seeds of faith and hope can take root in our hearts because they are readied. When we encounter Jesus, in a flash of insight and love, the seeds will enter our hearts and take root. This is when the Kingdom begins to grow in us. And, oh the wonders that ensue. Families are healed, vocations are discovered, good works abound, all the characteristics of the Kingdom emerge, each in its kind. All it takes is a tiny glimmer of hope or a miniscule opening to faith. A small word from Jesus, a gesture, a gazing into His eyes is all it may take. And the encounter will have happened, and the seeds will have been planted.
But none of these things will grow without prayer. The planting is only the beginning. It is in our relationship to Jesus, through prayer, that the glimmer becomes Mary's Meals or Rachel's Vineyard, or countless other blessed works.
May we cherish those grains we receive from Jesus for we will thank Him for eternity. Our little tiny "yes" now will become something amazing in time, as we pray. And all will rejoice!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
© Mary TV 2019
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world."
Saint John Paul II
Be connected!
www.marytv.tv
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Mary TV: January 29, 2019 Reflection - A time of silence and prayer...
A time of silence and prayer...
(c) Anthony Zubac 2019
January 29, 2019
Dear Family of Mary!
Our Lady has spoken about silence before. At least 18 times. We know that Our Lady is a silent soul. We hear her speak only a few times in the Scriptures. And we imagine that she was as silent interiorly as she was outwardly. And so, when she tells us that this is a time of silence and prayer, we want very much to listen to her and say yes to it.
Our Lady gave a similar message to St. Faustina in Advent of 1936. Here is the beautiful advice Our Lady gave to St. Faustina about silence:
November
29, [1936]. The Mother of God has taught me how to prepare for the
Feast of Christmas. I saw Her today, without the Infant Jesus. She said
to me: My daughter, strive after silence and humility, so that
Jesus, who dwells in your heart continuously, may be able to rest. Adore
Him in your heart; do not go out from your inmost being. My daughter, I
shall obtain for you the grace of an interior life which will be such
that, without ever leaving that interior life, you will be able to carry
out all your external duties with even greater care. Dwell with Him
continuously in your heart. He will be your strength. Communicate with
creatures only in so far as is necessary and is required by your duties.
You are a dwelling place pleasing to the living God; in you He dwells
continuously with love and delight. And the living presence of God,
which you experience in a more vivid and distinct way, will confirm you,
my daughter, in the things I have told you. Try to act in this way
until Christmas Day, and then He Himself will make known to you in what
way you will be communing and uniting yourself with Him.Dear Family of Mary!
Our Lady has spoken about silence before. At least 18 times. We know that Our Lady is a silent soul. We hear her speak only a few times in the Scriptures. And we imagine that she was as silent interiorly as she was outwardly. And so, when she tells us that this is a time of silence and prayer, we want very much to listen to her and say yes to it.
"Dear children! Today, as a mother, I am calling you to conversion. This time is for you, little children, a time of silence and prayer..." (January 25, 2019)
Our Lady gave a similar message to St. Faustina in Advent of 1936. Here is the beautiful advice Our Lady gave to St. Faustina about silence:
That
Advent was a time for St. Faustina to experience the presence of Jesus
in her heart. It is almost as if Our Lady was allowing Faustina to see
what it was like to carry Jesus inside, much like Our Lady carried Him
as her preborn baby. That Advent was a time for St. Faustina to give
Jesus a place to rest. A place to be loved. A place to be adored. A
place to feel affection and kindness. A place to be accepted and
worshiped.
St. Faustina was given the grace to be aware of Jesus in a special and intimate way. Again, this is the kind of awareness that a pregnant mother has of her little child. Only a mother knows the constant companionship that takes place between them, when for nine months that child rests in the mother's womb. It is this kind of indwelling that bonds the child and mother. As Our Lady said to Faustina: "You are a dwelling place pleasing to the living God, in you He dwells continuously with love and delight." Wow! This is amazing!!
Maybe Our Lady wants us to grow more silent and prayerful so that we can give Jesus a place to rest in us. Maybe she wants Jesus to have just such an intimate relationship with us, a time of silence and prayer that will bond us to Jesus forever!
St. Faustina was given the grace to be aware of Jesus in a special and intimate way. Again, this is the kind of awareness that a pregnant mother has of her little child. Only a mother knows the constant companionship that takes place between them, when for nine months that child rests in the mother's womb. It is this kind of indwelling that bonds the child and mother. As Our Lady said to Faustina: "You are a dwelling place pleasing to the living God, in you He dwells continuously with love and delight." Wow! This is amazing!!
Maybe Our Lady wants us to grow more silent and prayerful so that we can give Jesus a place to rest in us. Maybe she wants Jesus to have just such an intimate relationship with us, a time of silence and prayer that will bond us to Jesus forever!
"Dear children! Today, as a mother, I am calling you to conversion. This time is for you, little children, a time of silence and prayer..."
May it be so!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world."
Saint John Paul II
Be connected!
www.marytv.tv
Monday, January 28, 2019
Mary TV: January 28, 2019 Reflection - In the warmth of your heart...
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Friday, January 25, 2019
Message From Our Lady in Medjugorje to Marija January 25, 2019
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Thursday, January 24, 2019
Mary TV: January 24, 2019 Reflection - Live my messages with the heart!
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Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Mary TV: January 23, 2019 Reflection - Stretch out your hand!
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Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Mary TV: January 22, 2019 Reflection - Full of trust and not looking back...
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Monday, January 21, 2019
Mary TV: January 21, 2019 Reflection - in your hearts love for my Son may sing!
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Friday, January 18, 2019
Parenting in the Image of God
Tribulation Times
Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
"Have ANY Catholic Question? Just ask Ron Smith at: hfministry@roadrunner.com
January 18, 2019
(Eph 5:31-33) For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother: and shall cleave to his wife. And they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular love for his wife as himself: And let the wife fear her husband.
HUMAN LIFE INTERNATIONAL: Putting the Family First
FIRST THINGS: Reclaiming the Houshold
CRISIS MAGAZINE: Parenting in the Image of God
REGINA PROPHETARUM AUDIO HOMILY: Humble Hearts of Families Change the Order of Things
Summary
St. Ephrem speaking about Our Lady, said: “The Belly [i.e., the womb] of Thy Mother changed the order of things, O Thou that orderest all! The rich went in, He came out poor: the High One went in, He came out lowly. Brightness went into her and clothed Himself, and came forth a despised form” (Hymns on the Nativity, VIII). The same doctor and father gives many other examples of how the womb of Our Lady, the Heart of the Holy Family, changed the order of things.
We could extend this to all wives and mothers who truly fulfill their state in life… they, being the heart, when taking their place and acting in imitation of the Blessed Virgin change the order of things for the good! What an awesome reality! The Scriptures and Tradition tell us the proper order in a family. “Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ. Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:21-22); “Wives be subject to your husbands, as it behoveth the Lord” (Col. 8:18). Ah. These are among the unspoken and forbidden passages of the Scriptures in these days. This fact is very telling. Although the husband is the head of the household… head of the family, it is the wife who is the heart. And things are changed only when they pass through the heart that is in its place. Let us look into the life of one of these saintly mothers... Bd. Anna Maria Taigi.
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION: Complete my Joy by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted
EXCERPT: Enemy of God, Enemy of the Family
If this is “natural” for a Christian family, then why is it so hard? Here we run into a real difficulty, and another mystery: the mystery of sin and evil. Before they fell, love was easy for our first parents, Adam and Eve, but after falling to the temptation to try to be gods themselves, love became hard—and love remains hard in this life. The soil no longer obeys Adam easily, childbirth is a matter of pain for Eve. We face disease, and earthquakes, and bedbugs. Family life exists now on a spiritual battlefield. You have as spouses and parents the choice either to engage the challenge as an adventure or to abandon the field in some way. There is no escape from this choice—not to choose is, in fact, to choose retreat.
Satan, the enemy of God and of all of His creation, is profoundly aware of the centrality of the family in God’s plan and its irreplaceable role as an icon of the Trinity. We shouldn’t be surprised, therefore, that this leader of the evil angels would aggressively target the family with all of his cunning and resources. St. Paul assures us that it is Satan who is behind the great battles that we face, “Our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with…the evil spirits in the heavens.” (Ephesians 6:12)
Before her death in 2005, Sr. Lucia, one of the three visionaries visited by Our Lady at Fatima, wrote in a letter to Cardinal Carlo Caffarra that “the final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family. Don’t be afraid because whoever works for the sanctity of Marriage and the Family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. Nevertheless, Our Lady has already crushed his head.”
Sister Lucia’s words are alarming, but also encouraging. The final war has already been won! Nevertheless, the battle raging around us is real. On every side, and painfully even within our own families, we experience destructive attacks that only a short time ago would have seemed unimaginable
Despite these real challenges, this is not the moment for us to become discouraged or lose heart, for that would be to forget that “where sin increases, grace abounds all the more,” (Romans 5:20)and that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:38) The breaches in the civilization of love and culture of life are many, but they call us not to despair. Rather, they challenge us to unflagging trust in the Lord and Giver of life, to radical reliance on God’s grace and mercy, and to personal engagement in the domestic church on behalf of love and life.
(Eph 5:31-33) For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother: and shall cleave to his wife. And they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular love for his wife as himself: And let the wife fear her husband.
HUMAN LIFE INTERNATIONAL: Putting the Family First
FIRST THINGS: Reclaiming the Houshold
CRISIS MAGAZINE: Parenting in the Image of God
REGINA PROPHETARUM AUDIO HOMILY: Humble Hearts of Families Change the Order of Things
Summary
St. Ephrem speaking about Our Lady, said: “The Belly [i.e., the womb] of Thy Mother changed the order of things, O Thou that orderest all! The rich went in, He came out poor: the High One went in, He came out lowly. Brightness went into her and clothed Himself, and came forth a despised form” (Hymns on the Nativity, VIII). The same doctor and father gives many other examples of how the womb of Our Lady, the Heart of the Holy Family, changed the order of things.
We could extend this to all wives and mothers who truly fulfill their state in life… they, being the heart, when taking their place and acting in imitation of the Blessed Virgin change the order of things for the good! What an awesome reality! The Scriptures and Tradition tell us the proper order in a family. “Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ. Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:21-22); “Wives be subject to your husbands, as it behoveth the Lord” (Col. 8:18). Ah. These are among the unspoken and forbidden passages of the Scriptures in these days. This fact is very telling. Although the husband is the head of the household… head of the family, it is the wife who is the heart. And things are changed only when they pass through the heart that is in its place. Let us look into the life of one of these saintly mothers... Bd. Anna Maria Taigi.
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION: Complete my Joy by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted
EXCERPT: Enemy of God, Enemy of the Family
If this is “natural” for a Christian family, then why is it so hard? Here we run into a real difficulty, and another mystery: the mystery of sin and evil. Before they fell, love was easy for our first parents, Adam and Eve, but after falling to the temptation to try to be gods themselves, love became hard—and love remains hard in this life. The soil no longer obeys Adam easily, childbirth is a matter of pain for Eve. We face disease, and earthquakes, and bedbugs. Family life exists now on a spiritual battlefield. You have as spouses and parents the choice either to engage the challenge as an adventure or to abandon the field in some way. There is no escape from this choice—not to choose is, in fact, to choose retreat.
Satan, the enemy of God and of all of His creation, is profoundly aware of the centrality of the family in God’s plan and its irreplaceable role as an icon of the Trinity. We shouldn’t be surprised, therefore, that this leader of the evil angels would aggressively target the family with all of his cunning and resources. St. Paul assures us that it is Satan who is behind the great battles that we face, “Our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with…the evil spirits in the heavens.” (Ephesians 6:12)
Before her death in 2005, Sr. Lucia, one of the three visionaries visited by Our Lady at Fatima, wrote in a letter to Cardinal Carlo Caffarra that “the final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family. Don’t be afraid because whoever works for the sanctity of Marriage and the Family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. Nevertheless, Our Lady has already crushed his head.”
Sister Lucia’s words are alarming, but also encouraging. The final war has already been won! Nevertheless, the battle raging around us is real. On every side, and painfully even within our own families, we experience destructive attacks that only a short time ago would have seemed unimaginable
Despite these real challenges, this is not the moment for us to become discouraged or lose heart, for that would be to forget that “where sin increases, grace abounds all the more,” (Romans 5:20)and that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:38) The breaches in the civilization of love and culture of life are many, but they call us not to despair. Rather, they challenge us to unflagging trust in the Lord and Giver of life, to radical reliance on God’s grace and mercy, and to personal engagement in the domestic church on behalf of love and life.
Ladder of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 26- "On discernment of thoughts, passions, and virtues"
44. Despondency is born sometimes of luxury, and sometimes of lack of fear of God.
Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
"Have ANY Catholic Question? Just ask Ron Smith at: hfministry@roadrunner.com
This month's archive can be found at: http://www. catholicprophecy.info/news2. html.
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