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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!
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Opus Bono Sacerdotii: Father Clement's Message
From SpiritDaily.com: What is the veil?
Every so often we hear the term "veil," as in the afterlife. Just last week, a reading at Mass from 2 Corinthians 3 reminded us that "whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away."
Sometimes the word is used to describe spiritual blindness, as in Moses' time. No question: when it covers our eyes, it means hardness of mind and heart. That hardness, formed by sin, clouds spiritual vision.
The term is used most frequently, however, to describe the partition between earth and eternity.
For a veil it is: the barrier between here and there, thin, sometimes transparent, on occasion "poked through" in the way of apparitions or miracles or some form of communication.
Read more here: http://www.spiritdaily.com/veil.htm
[Video] Pope: What Creation can teach us about God's relationship with human beings
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Mary TV Daily Reflection 2/6/2013
(c) Pawel Wasoski
J.M.J.
February 6, 2013
St. Paul Miki and companions
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Love is bringing me to you - the love which I desire to teach you also - real love; the love which my Son showed you when He died on the Cross out of love for you; the love which is always ready to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. How great is your love? My Motherly heart is sorrowful as it searches for love in your hearts. You are not ready to submit your will to God's will out of love. You cannot help me to have those who have not come to know God's love to come to know it, because you do not have real love. Consecrate your hearts to me and I will lead you. I will teach you to forgive, to love your enemies and to live according to my Son. Do not be afraid for yourselves. In afflictions my Son does not forget those who love. I will be beside you. I will implore the Heavenly Father for the light of eternal truth and love to illuminate you. Pray for your shepherds so that through your fasting and prayer they can lead you in love. Thank you." (February 2, 2013)
I know this message is super long, but I feel that it is a blessing each time I read it. So forgive me for including it in each reflection, but maybe it will be a blessing for you too!!
In yesterday's reflection I wrote about Roland's beautiful experience of "real love" in Medjugorje. Roland felt he was loved just the way he is...Real love!
I received a response to the reflection that is really a prayer from the heart. It comes from Marie in France. Let's pray it along with her, thanking the Lord for His Love, and entering into the grace it offers:
Dear Cathy,
Thank you for Roland's testimony and with this message of 2nd February it is a great help and light for the heart. I will remember Roland in my heart when I listen to the adoration CD of Medjugorje. When I go to Medjugorje in my heart, it will help me to open my heart to say
"thank you" - "merci and mercy"!
Yes, Our Lady is saving her children. She is there, powerful in her humility and love. She loves us.
You can give only what you receive and that's what is my task today... to open again to prayer... to open again to grace in those very places where love has been missing, where love has not reached the depth of my darkness.
"I am loved just as I am"...This is what my eyes read, what my reason understands, but to experience it is something else, and Medjugorje is the place where we can experience this love. We also experience it in prayer group and Mass and Adoration and Confession.
I give thanks to Our Lady of Medjugorje, she is such a mother, such a mother.
O Mother Mary, thank you for the gift of Medjugorje to our world.
Thank you for every child you save and who is a witness of God's love and mercy.
Thank you O Mother Mary, thank you.
Thank you, O Mother Mary, because I can open my eyes each morning and know that you and Jesus are next to me.
Thank you, O Mother Mary, because you know me better than I know myself, and you teach me love.
It's my heart that has to change.
It's my task to say yes to your love and to let you love me.
I thank you, Mother Mary, for the music and words that speak to my heart and that bring joy to me.
I thank you, Jesus, because You want Joy for me, You love me just as I am.
I thank you, Jesus, for every heart that will open to Your love and mercy.
I thank you, Jesus, for being my friend in my heart, for being my Savior, my Lord, my strength, my refuge.
I thank you, Jesus, for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Mother Mary, I love you, and I bring my heart to you. You love me, thank you for the grace of receiving this love in my heart.
Amen.
Marie.
Thank you, Marie, for sharing your prayer of the heart with us. We will pray with you in thanksgiving for Jesus and Mary, who give us "REAL LOVE".
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
© Mary TV 2013
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Love And Truth Are The Same Reality!
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| Love And Truth Are The Same Reality! Posted: 04 Feb 2013 07:15 PM PST Jesus Came To Bear Witness To The Truth.Matthew 10:34. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” That Sword Is Truth! By, Junno De Jesús Arocho EstevesVatican City, February 04, 2013 (Zenit.org) – On Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the faithful gathered at St. Peter’s Square during his weekly Sunday Angelus address, reminding them of the day’s readings that touched upon announcing the truth without fear. Recounting the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Father said that the continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel reading where Jesus’ fellow Nazarenes are bewildered by his words, thus fulfilling the proverb: “No prophet is accepted in his own land.” “At this point it is natural to ask: Why did Jesus wish to provoke this rupture?” the Pope said. “At the beginning the people admired him and perhaps they would have achieved a certain consensus… but this is exactly the point: Jesus did not come to seek consensus among men, but – as he will say in the end to Pilate – to ‘bear witness to truth’.” Pope Benedict went on to say that a true prophet obeys no one but God in order to serve the truth, even if it means personal sacrifice. In regards to Jesus, the Holy Father referred to Him as the “prophet of love.” “Indeed, love and truth are 2 names of the same reality, 2 names of God,” the Holy Father said. “Believing in God means giving up our own prejudices and welcoming the concrete form in which he reveals himself: the man Jesus of Nazareth. And this path also leads to recognizing and serving him in others.” The Supreme Pontiff cited the Blessed Virgin Mary as an enlightening model of one who carries “the mystery in her heart and knew how to welcome it continually more and more on the journey of faith to the night of the cross and the brilliance of the resurrection.” Following the recitation of the Angelus, Pope Benedict recognized the observation of the first Sunday of February as the “Day for Life” and greeted representatives of the Movement for Life as well as representatives of the departments of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Rome. The Holy Father encouraged them to continue their work and to train healthcare workers “in the culture of life.” Discover More  |
World’s largest Marian statue unveiled in Bolivia
.- The largest statue of the Virgin Mary in the world, dedicated to Our Lady of Socavon, was inaugurated at a Feb. 1 ceremony in the city of Oruro, Bolivia.
Rolando Rocha, the lead sculptor for the project, told reporters that more than simply “a work of engineering and art,” the monument “is an act of faith that strengthens our traditions.”
Towering at 149 feet, the statue is located on a 12,000-foot mountain south of La Paz, the country’s second largest city. It stands 22 feet taller than the Christ the Redeemer statue atop Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The statue’s unveiling ceremony was attended by both Bolivian president Evo Morales and Oruro mayor Rossio Pimentel.
Our Lady of Socavon is the patroness of miners. The original statue is kept at the Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Socavon in the city of Oruro.
The presentation of the $1.2 million statue also marked the beginning of Carnaval in Orugo. The city’s festival is the only Carnaval celebration that includes a dance in honor of the Virgin Mary.
As residents of Oruro prepared for the annual candlelight procession to the Shrine of Socavon, Bishop Cristobal Bialasik issued a letter inviting those along the procession route to decorate their homes with sacred images and to listen to the diocesan broadcast of the event.
The closing procession, which took place on the evening of Feb. 3, featured nearly 50 dancers making their way to the shrine, where they asked the Virgin Mary for her intercession.
Mary TV Daily Reflection 2/5/2013
Roland shares his gift with love.
(c)Josip Zubac, 2013
J.M.J.
February 5, 2013
St. Agatha
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Love is bringing me to you - the love which I desire to teach you also - real love; the love which my Son showed you when He died on the Cross out of love for you; the love which is always ready to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. How great is your love? My Motherly heart is sorrowful as it searches for love in your hearts. You are not ready to submit your will to God's will out of love. You cannot help me to have those who have not come to know God's love to come to know it, because you do not have real love. Consecrate your hearts to me and I will lead you. I will teach you to forgive, to love your enemies and to live according to my Son. Do not be afraid for yourselves. In afflictions my Son does not forget those who love. I will be beside you. I will implore the Heavenly Father for the light of eternal truth and love to illuminate you. Pray for your shepherds so that through your fasting and prayer they can lead you in love. Thank you." (February 2, 2013)
Real love...Real love is that for which our poor wounded human hearts yearn. We want to be loved, really loved. But in our lives we have experienced imperfect love, conditional love, the kind of love that measures and weighs us, to see if we are a good bargain, a risk worth taking. This faulty kind of love always ends up hurting us in the end. We feel misused, undervalued, rejected, deeply hurt. What is wrong with me, that I have been rejected? Why am I not good enough? Will I ever really be loved?
This reminds me of the testimony of Roland Patzleiner. Roland, as a young man, was very unhappy, doing drugs, playing satanic music, and hating his life. He rejected every attempt to help him. He was ready to commit suicide, when he went to Medjugorje and experienced "real love". Here is his description of that moment:
So I came here and I experienced something very special here. In coming here I stopped using drugs and doing bad habits. I started to feel in my heart, even crying, and you know I felt at home, something I had never felt before. And I felt a kind of love that you can't say with words, but I will say it in these few words...it was like somebody saying, "I love you just the way you are. Not as you want to be. Not as others want you to be." [You see] my slavery in my teenage years was to try to be somebody who I was not. Following idols who said, "You must do this, do that, or you will not be appreciated." There was all this slavery to myself and to others. And here I felt this strong experience of "I love you just as you are." (Roland Patzleiner - "Fruit of Medjugorje" Episode 52, January 28, 2013)
This kind of love which speaks to the heart is really supernatural love. It is the love of God, the love of Jesus, the love of Mother Mary. It is a love that does not weigh and measure. It is a love that sees beyond all that to the person made in God's image, the person who Jesus died for, the person who is of infinite worth. This love penetrates all the barriers we put up in our wounded-ness and reaches into the center of our being with its healing rays. Real love is Jesus' love on the cross, saying, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do..." Real love saves us.
Mother Mary has been sent to us by that Real Love. In Medjugorje, she penetrates hearts with that Real Love, communicating it in such a way that for the first time, we can be just who we are, no defenses, no barriers, no lies. We can be ourselves in the presence of that Love, and reach out to it without fear.
Roland now helps countless others to experience that Love which accepts us as we are. His music at the Liturgies and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament creates an atmosphere of openness and trust, of simple adoration, in which the Lord can give His unconditional Love to all who pray. He now shares that Real Love through his human gift of music. He is a good example of what Our Lady is calling us to in this message. He has submitted himself to God's will out of love, and is now helping Our Lady to reach her children who do not yet know the love of God.
Thanks be to God for such a beautiful gift. Thanks to Our Lady for loving us like God love us!
"I love you just the way you are..."
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
© Mary TV 2013
Monday, February 04, 2013
Pope welcomes new Chaldean Patriarch, pray together for peace
Tribulation Times
NOTEWORTHY: YEAR OF FAITH ROME REPORTS: Pope welcomes new Chaldean Patriarch, pray together for peace REPORT: Region's Armies All on High Alert The armies of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan are all on high alert, a report in a Lebanese newspaper said Sunday. The report in Ad-Diar said that the alerts were due to Israel's attack on a Syrian missile transport and, according to Syrian claims, an attack on a sensitive Syrian military installation. The report said that the Syrian army has instructed its units to break up into smaller groups, “similar to what Hizbullah has done in south Lebanon.” The strategy is designed to protect troops in the wake of another possible Israeli attack, the report said. The report added that Syrian troops had joined Hizbullah terrorists in several areas of south Lebanon. According to the report, the Syrian and Hizbullah forces were stationed very close to the Israeli border, in the area of Har Dov (also known as “Sheba Farms”). The Lebanese and Jordanian armies are also on high alert over the possibility of a clash between Israel and Syria in the area. Unconfirmed Lebanese reports said that Israeli warplanes had been seen over Lebanon earlier Sunday. ANALYSIS: Israel airstrike may foreshadow Iran attack RELATED HEADLINES Pre-emptive threat not empty, Israeli says
Iran’s security head: Israel will ‘regret’ striking Syrian targets
Assad set on arms transfers to Lebanon. Israel responds with no-fly zone
Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Self-effacement--Detachment
1. Behold, O my soul, the means by which you cn honor your God, viz., by renouncing and humbling yourself with Jesus Christ and for the love of Jesus Christ. Thus you will find life in death, sweetness in bitterness, and God in self-effacement: for you must leave all in order to find Him.Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.
Anchorage Filipinos, Hispanics celebrate Santa Niño — the Child Jesus
Two girls carry images of the child Jesus during a Jan. 27 celebration at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Anchorage. — Photo by Ron Nicholl
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and St. Benedict Church together celebrated Santo Niño Sunday on Jan. 27 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Anchorage. Father Elbert Fadallan, a chaplain at Elmendorf Air Force Base, concelebrated the Mass with Father Vincent Blanco, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The tradition of Santo Niño dates back to the 13th century when Spain was under Muslim rule.
At that time, many Christians were taken prisoners as spoils of war in the small town of Atocha. Some devout Christian prisoners were denied food. According to tradition, only children under age 12 were allowed to bring food to the prisoners. The local women of Atocha knew that many prisoners would not survive. These women prayed before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking for Christ to come and help the prisoners.
Reports soon circulated that a child was bringing food to childless prisoners. The mysterious child was dressed in pilgrim’s clothing yet could not be identified by the locals.
When the women of Atocha heard of the child, they returned to the Marian statue to thank Mary for her intercession. According to tradition, they noticed that the shoes worn by the Infant Jesus statue held by Mary were tattered and dirty. Jesus’ shoes were constantly replaced but were soiled again and again. The people of Atocha interpreted this as a sign that Jesus went out every night to help those in need.
A version of Santo Niño is celebrated among Filipinos. Commonly known as Santo Niño (Holy Child) in the Filipino culture, the child Jesus is portrayed very similarly to the Spanish Atocha.
Click here to see photos of this event.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/537448_482465931814170_1401439931...
2 priests murdered in less than 15 days
AMERICA/COLOMBIA -
Ocoña (Agenzia Fides) - Another priest killed in Colombia. Fr. Luis Alfredo Suárez Salazar belonged to the Archdiocese of Villavicencio in the Department of Meta and was spending his holidays in his hometown, Ocaña, in the North of Santander (on the border with Venezuela).
The murder took place in the district of Martinete, where two gunmen on a motorcycle fired at least a dozen shots at the priest and two other people who were with him. According to a local radio station (who interviewed the Police Commander of Santander) the killers did not intend to kill the priest, but one of the people next to him.
Fr. Salazar celebrated Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Torcoroma in Ocaña on the morning of February 2 and according to the first versions of the police, the attack happened while he was walking near the church of San Agustini.
Less than 15 days ago, on January 16, another priest had been killed in Colombia in the city of Buga (see Fides 17/01/2013). According to the police in Buga, on that occasion it had been a robbery which ended in tragedy. Fr.José Francisco Velez Echeverri, 55, was very involved in social work and had, according to the testimonies of the faithful, no enemies. The murder has caused dismay and deep sorrow in the Diocese of Buga, led by His Exc. Mgr. José Roberto Ospina Leongómez. According to the 2012 annual report of Fides, six priests had been killed in America, two in Brazil, two in Mexico, one in Colombia and one in Guatemala. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 04/02/2013)
Mary TV Daily Reflection 2/4/2013
Our Lady, Queen of Peace, of Medjugorje
J.M.J.
February 4, 2013
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Love is bringing me to you - the love which I desire to teach you also - real love; the love which my Son showed you when He died on the Cross out of love for you; the love which is always ready to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. How great is your love? My Motherly heart is sorrowful as it searches for love in your hearts. You are not ready to submit your will to God's will out of love. You cannot help me to have those who have not come to know God's love to come to know it, because you do not have real love. Consecrate your hearts to me and I will lead you. I will teach you to forgive, to love your enemies and to live according to my Son. Do not be afraid for yourselves. In afflictions my Son does not forget those who love. I will be beside you. I will implore the Heavenly Father for the light of eternal truth and love to illuminate you. Pray for your shepherds so that through your fasting and prayer they can lead you in love. Thank you." (February 2, 2013)
Such a beautiful message deserves re-reading, and silent prayer. I will only leave you with the Second Reading for Holy Mass, Sunday, Feb. 3. St. Paul teaches about love:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13: 1-13)
Thank you, dear Mother, for being sent to us by Love...
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2013
PS. Tonight "Fruit of Medjugorje" will present a very precious testimony of an original witness of the events of Medjugorje and dear friend of Vicka, Ivan Pavicic. Don't miss it! (Many thanks to Franjo and Josip for this precious testimony!)
Sunday, February 03, 2013
[Video] Benedict XVI: The joy of consecrated life.
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CMMB: Your Weekly Reflection in Prayer 2/3/2013
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Saturday, February 02, 2013
From Mark Mallett: The Healing Road
Jesus Meets Veronica, by Michael D. O’Brien
IT was a noisy hotel. I was eating some lousy take-out, watching some lousy television. So, I turned it off, set the food outside my door, and sat on my bed. I began thinking about a broken-hearted mother I prayed with after my concert the night before…
GRIEF
Her 18 year old daughter had recently passed away, and this mother stood before me in utter despair. Before she died, her daughter had underlined words in her bible from the book of Jeremiah:
For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope. (29:11)
“What did these words mean when my daughter’s future was suddenly snatched from her?” she pleaded. “Why did she feel drawn to underline those words?” Without even thinking, the following words passed through my lips: “Because those words were underlined for you.”
She fell to the floor sobbing; it was a powerful moment, a moment of hope, as I knelt and wept with her.
Read more… » http://www.markmallett.com/blog/2013/02/the-healing-road/#more-1239
She Calls You Because She Loves You
February 1, 2013 A.D.
Confession, an everyday sight in Medjugorje. A Friend of Medjugorje tells us that Our Lady of Medjugorje has singularly been responsible for the rebirth of confession throughout the world. Medjugorje, a place where millions of hearts have found healing and peace. Reconciliation with God is the reason Our Lady has come to the world for so long. Does your heart long to be the one in this picture above, finding peace with God? Maybe your husband, your wife, your child? Our Lady brings healing through Medjugorje.
Our Lady has chosen Medjugorje visionary Mirjana to deliver Her messages on behalf of non-believers. Non-believers, this means you, your family, your wayward son or another person that you are desperately pounding Heaven with prayers for conversion, for help. She has come to hear our prayers especially for these intentions for non-believers. But, to take it a step further, what if you could be physically present in Medjugorje with Her and offer your prayers for non-believers? One might be tempted to think, ‘Medjugorje is too far away,’ ‘I don’t have enough money to go,’ or ‘I don’t need to go to Medjugorje.’ A Friend of Medjugorje tells us why it is important to be involved, to be active, to be present:
1. Our Lady will give messages in Medjugorje like never before in history.
2. They are the longest and most frequent apparitions ever.
3. They are the last on earth.Our Lady’s own words tell us this place was chosen, and She loves it more than any of the other places She has been.
Our Lady said on March 21,1985:
“…I have chosen this parish, one more dear to me than the others, in which I have gladly remained when the Almighty sent me…” 1
If the Almighty has sent Our Lady to Medjugorje, it is in Her hands to get you to Medjugorje. Is Medjugorje too far away? There is no place She can’t bring you. Do you not have money to go? She will provide every means once you make the decision. Don’t think you need to go? She calls you, because She loves you.
December 25, 1989
"...I love you and this is why I call you to the way of salvation with God..."
The next pilgrimage to Medjugorje leaves on:
March 13, 2013
The March 13-22, 2013 Medjugorje pilgrimage will take place during the annual apparition of Our Lady to Medjugorje visionary Mirjana, on March 18. Will you be a part of this pilgrimage? There are only a limited number of seats available, is one of those yours?
Contact BVM/Caritas Medjugorje Pilgrimages at 205-672-2000 Ext 218 or 219 to receive more information and begin planning a pilgrimage that will change your life forever, or click to visit here to begin your pilgrimage. Our BVM Caritas Medjugorje pilgrims over the past 26 years continuously tell us that once you leave to go to Medjugorje, your heart will never come back. BVM Caritas Medjugorje Pilgrimages invites you to be present in the place where the Queen of Peace calls you, because She loves you. Visit here to request more information or to ask about more pilgrimage dates…
Footnotes:
1. Medjugorje: The Fulfillment of All Marian Apparitions, by A Friend of Medjugorje, available free here
For those that go to Medjugorje, what they think they understand in the present is elevated light years above where this mentality will keep you. Our Lady’s school in Medjugorje shows what the human ego limits. If you are one of those whose mentality is of this belief, that you don’t need Medjugorje, it is our experience, you will be the most overjoyed by going to Medjugorje.
How to Convert and Save Sinners
Our Lord gave the following prayer...approved by the Church....to Sister Mary of St. Peter. It is called the Golden Arrow because Sister Mary saw how it delightfully wounded His Sacred Heart and how He used it to covert sinners and to save the dying in despair.
"May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable and most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar...Amen"
You can receive complimentary materials to make your Consecration to God through Mary’s Immaculate Heart ( important spiritual protection at this time in salvation history) at myconsecration.org... where you can also learn about Our Lady of Las Lajas.
You can learn more about our Lady of Fatima at www.wafusa.org.
God Bless you and your work,
Deacon Bob Tony
Deacon Bob Ellis Anthony Mullen
Executive Director MyConsecration.org
World Apostolate of Fatima, USA 647 Edmonds Avenue
A Pontifical Association of the Faithful Drexel Hill, PA 19026
visit us at: www.wafusa.org visit us at: www.myconsecration.org
February 2, 2013 Medjugorje Message
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Friday, February 01, 2013
[Video] Spiritual Growth.
Mary TV Daily Reflection 2/1/2013
(c)Josip Zubac, 2013
Roland playing for Adoration in St. James!
J.M.J.
February 1, 2013
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May your prayer be as strong as a living stone, until with your lives you become witnesses. Witness the beauty of your faith. I am with you and intercede before my Son for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call." (January 25, 2013)
Part 2 of the testimony of Roland Patsleiner. (as transcribed from "Fruit of Medjugorje, Episode 52):
I continued to ruin myself. And when I became 19, in my heart, because of what I was doing, I had accumulated an incapacity to feel love or to know what is the real sense (meaning) of existence. And so in my heart, in the desperation of what I was feeling, I began to say, "If this is life, it is not worth living. If nothing changes in a short time, I will take my life. I will stop everything." And in that moment when I said this in my heart, no one knew it. But the same people who had brought me to Medjugorje the first time invited me again, and I came the second time to Medjugorje. And I know it was not the case that I would have ever gone to Medjugorje without that first time because now I can also say that in that strange pilgrimage, that strange event, Our Lady had already done something, so that in that moment of desperation in my life, I heard a call of this place in which God is near to those who especially need a lot of conversion.
So I came here and I experienced something very special here. In coming here I stopped using drugs and doing bad habits. I started to "feel" in my heart, to even cry, and you know I felt at home, something I had never felt before. And I felt a kind of love that you can't say with words, but I want to say in a few words that it was like somebody saying "I love you just the way you are. Not as you want to be. Not as others want you to be." -- Because my slavery in my teenage years was to try to be somebody who I was not. Following idols who said you must do this, do that, or you will not be appreciated. I had all this slavery to myself and to others. And here I felt this strong experience of "I love you just as you are."
And so I met, through Confession, one of the Franciscan priests, who helped me more and more to understand what is sin, what is bad. And I started little by little to do what people do here, because I didn't understand what was Mass, what was prayer. I just followed what others were doing, and so little by little I understood, and I felt peace. Peace in my heart. That was the first thing. I was suffering a lot because of the consequences of what I had done and what I was. But the main thing is that I felt a very profound peace. And I changed. And I was aware that the suffering which I had before was destroying me, was growing in me hate, a hate against life, against everything. And yet here I felt that my suffering was good for me because it changed me, and helped me to resist what I wasn't able to resist before.
So saying it in a few words, it took a long time to get into my converted life. I remember one of the important moments, there was a message from Our Lady which I heard, and it said, "Dear children, decide for God." I was there and it was always on my mind, "decide for God." What did this mean? I didn't understand it. But through speaking with a person (she didn't give me a direct answer...) I understood after one of the pilgrimages, I understood that deciding for God meant for me to pray every day. Decide to pray every day. And there Our Lady gave me a big gift which was the desire to go to Mass every day and to pray the rosary every day. So through Rosary, Mass, Confession, as she said, little by little, by getting stable in this, I came out of a lot of big problems and out of not understanding what my life was about.
One of the big things also, was the music I was into -- it was this heavy metal stuff, and this evil music which was giving me the wrong input for my conscience and for my heart. I had always said that they are talking about strange things but I didn't understand well and I liked it. You know the thing about it was the pleasure of listening to and playing this music, the emotions it gave. But then, little by little, in prayer Our Lady said very delicately, "You know you have one leg here and one leg there. You have to leave it." And so here in Medjugorje, I came one day and I said, "Ok, I understand that this music, the idolatry of the music scene, is not good for me." So I said, "OK, I will not play worldly music any more, I will just play for the Lord." So I started to play just for the prayer groups and Adoration, and it started one of the charisms...You know I live in a community...and we started using music for prayer. As you know music was important for me in a bad way, but music is so strong in giving messages, evil or good ones. And so I felt that in music I had a lot of healing in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and this music, Our Lady formed it here in Medjugorje, through the priests, through the experiences which I had, [she formed it] with that special sweetness of sound, also very calm, so that it can transmit joy and peace.
Also here in Medjugorje I met a very important woman for me, Mother Rosario who is an Italian woman who had her conversion also here in Medjugorje. She was a fashion designer. She left also her work and started to follow the messages of Our Lady in forming specially prayer groups. And I met her here in Medjugorje and she became a person who I needed to concretely help me. She helped me to, little by little, understand what is life, to start studies and get rid of incapacities. Then we started here in Medjugorje as a community since 1995, developing also this charism of music, animation of Liturgy and prayers.
So after finishing my theology studies, since 2002, I am here serving with this charism, for all the pilgrims who come. At the same time we developed our community, which I am in, and we are discovering what are God's projects for us, little by little. It has been very important in my life to hear, through the messages of Our Lady, when she said, "Dear children, God has a plan for the life of every one of us, and you have to discover it through prayer."
And I really thank God for this place which has saved me, because you know I remember that many of my friends with whom I was growing up at the time when we were on drugs and we were doing bad things, you know a lot of them died through overdoses, or they went to prison because of the things that we did. Or they went out of their minds. And a long time ago I said, "Why am I here, and the others ended up like that?" And Our Lady made me understand how important it is that we respond to Our Lady's messages here in Medjugorje, because she said to me that "somebody has sacrificed and has prayed for you." She also said through the visionaries, "I am very worried about young people, about youth, because they are living in a very bad, a very difficult situation. You can help them through sacrifice and prayer." And this is what we do also, and what we do, day by day, little by little, converting also.
Another thing which I really experienced was the grace of God, living with the faith which is grace. You know it is beyond the human capacities, the human reason, what you can organize, what you are able to do. To live in whatever vocation we are in, that only God's grace can help us fulfill to the end God's plan. Without God's grace which comes through prayer, confession, Mass, Adoration...the things Our Lady says in her messages, we are not able to be successful. So I thank God for what he has done through Our Lady and I wish that a lot people can understand how important is the grace of prayer, the prayer that we all can do, and which depends on us, as we decide for God and go to Mass and pray, also with the other things we have to do. So, God bless you and all the best! (To watch this testimony, go to www.marytv.tv in the "Fruit of Medjugorje Archives" Episode 52. Roland)
"Witness the beauty of your faith!"
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2013
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Sad Times: Disobedience against "For Many" in the Eucharistic Consecration
"For Many" Defeats "For All." But Some Are Not Giving Up
The new translation of the words of the consecration backed by the pope is about to arrive in Italy as well. But protests and disobedience have already been announced
by Sandro Magister
ROME, January 29, 2013 – As the Vatican “recognitio” of the new Italian version of the Roman missal is nearing its conclusion, the dispute over the translation of “pro multis" in the formula of the Eucharistic consecration has seen new developments.
The latest comes from the theologian and bishop Bruno Forte.
In an article in “Avvenire" on January 19, 2013, Forte once again sided decisively with translating “pro multis" as "per molti" (for many), instead of as “per tutti" (for all),, as has been done for more than forty years in Italy and is similarly done in many other countries.
“For many" is the translation that Benedict XVI himself is demanding be adopted in the various languages, as he explained in a letter to the German bishops in April of 2012.
For some time, in effect, the translation “for many” has been returning to use in various languages and countries, at the prodding of the Vatican authorities and the pope himself.
But resistance is also being seen.
It has been noted, for example, that in London, in Canterbury, and in other places in England various priests are intentionally modifying the “for many” of the new English version of the missal approved by the Vatican, and saying: “for many and many.”
In Italy, the new version has not yet entered into effect. But when here as well the “per molti" becomes law – as it surely will – protests and disobedience have already been announced.
Continue reading here: http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350420?eng=y