Happy Birthday Queen of Heaven!

Today I give you a rosary, and the launch of my latest endeavor, Captaining a Rosary Rally. Stay Tuned...

Penance! Penance! Penance!

"Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!"

"Thus spoke the Mother of God herself to Bernadette Soubirous at the Grotto of Massabielle near Lourdes, France, on February 24, 1858, the eighth time that she had appeared there to Bernadette Soubirous, the first being on this very date one hundred fifty-two years ago...

"This is the Mother of God speaking. It is not to be a Jansenist to love penance and to live penitentially. Our Lady, the Mother of God herself, has told us that we must do penance, something she stressed in approved apparition after approved apparition, including her apparitions in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal, fifty-nine years after she appeared to the impoverished fourteen year-old Bernadette Soubirous as she was gathering wood near the River Gave not far from the Grotto of Massabielle. Shouldn't that be good enough for us.

"After repeated entreaties by Saint Bernadette Soubirous to reveal her identity, Our Lady said, "I am the Immaculate Conception," on March 25, 1858, the sixteenth apparition and the Feast of the Annunciation (as well as the traditional date on which her Divine Son was Crucified on Good Friday). These words were uttered by the Mother of God three years, three months and seventeen days after Pope Pius IX had solemnly defined the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception in the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus. Our Lady was ratifying that solemn proclamation of her own perpetual freedom from sin, begging us as well to try to live as sinlessly as possible in cooperation with the graces that have been won for us by the shedding of every single drop of her Divine Son's Most Precious Blood and which flow through her own hands (as she had shown Sister Catherine Laboure in the convent at Rue de Bac twenty-eight years before) as the Mediatrix of All Graces.

"Yes, Our Lady was conceived without stain of Original Sin. She committed no Actual Sin in her life. We must aspire to root out sin and selfishness from our lives by embracing our crosses with joy, yes, with joy, for each and every one that comes our way. Each cross has been fashioned for us from all eternity by the very hand of God Himself. It is the means of our purification from sin, the means of sanctifying and thus saving our own souls, the means by which we can offer to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart whatever merit we gain for bearing it without gratitude and with love..." 

(from "Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for Sinners" 
by Thomas A. Droleskey)

St. Bernadette, Pray For Us

"Am I not your Mother?"

Immaculate

Hail, Holy Queen

O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae,

vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.

Ad te clamamus exsules filii Evae,

ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes

in hac lacrimarum valle.

Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos

misericordes oculos ad nos converte;

et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,

nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.

O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.

Amen, Alleluia!

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,

our life, our sweetness and our hope.

To thee do we cry, poor banished children of eve;

to thee do we send up our sighs,

mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn then, most gracious advocate, 

thine eyes of mercy toward us;

and after this our exile show unto us 

the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Amen, Alleluia!

Lovely Lady Dressed In Blue, Teach Me How To Pray

Lovely Lady, dressed in blue, teach me how to pray;
God was just your little boy, tell me what to say.

Did you lift him up sometimes gently on your knee?
Did you sing to him the way mother does to me?
Did you hold his hand at night? Did you ever try
Telling stories of the world? Oh, and did he cry?
 
Do you really think he cares if I tell him things?
Little things that happen? And do the angels' wings
make a noise? And can he hear me if I speak low?
Does he understand me now? Tell me, for you know.
 
Lovely Lady, dressed in blue, teach me how to pray;
God was just your little boy, and you know the way.

My orders arrived today. I can barely stand the excitement!  On my lunch hour I previewed the first 10 minutes of one of the DVD's and brought the two books with me back to work.  What could possibly have me so distracted today?

Our Lady, of course.

It started a couple of weeks ago after I spent the evening with my group reunion.  Anyone who has attended a Cursillo weekend should know what this is, and should be in one (it was, after all, the point of your weekend).  If you haven't attended a Cursillo weekend, basically a group reunion is a regular gathering of at least three people to discuss specific aspects of our faith.  I group with five women every few weeks (two of whom are out of town---MISS YOU, MARY AND ANGELA!), to talk about what's working for us and what's not in our prayer, formation and evangelization efforts.

The last time we met, we discussed how distracted we all were.  We each shared instances where something has grabbed our attention and effectively yanked us off the path.  Without getting into the gritty details (which I assure you are much more boring than they are gritty), we each realized that God must be first in all things, and that we were guilty of not putting God first.

Then the next morning, Magnificat's morning prayer contained the following: "O God of justice and of love, you care for your people in every time and place, despite our tendency to stray from you in our foolishness." I instantly thought back to some really great advice that my spiritual director gave me last month: "Learn to love those things that you must do, and you will understand the heart of Christ." Over the last few months, I've found focusing on prayer to be increasingly difficult. I've been ill lately, but I know that's no excuse. I decided that I needed some guidance, so I turned to the one person I know can help me:  Mary.

Earlier last week I finished reading Our Lady of Kibeho by Rwandan genocide survivor Immaculee Ilibagiza, a bittersweet account of the only approved apparitions of Our Lady in Africa. This prompted me to order two more books by Immaculee:  If Only We Had Listened and The Rosary of the 7 Sorrows.  I also purchased Guadalupe, a dramatization of Mary's appearance to Juan Diego, and The 13th Day, the newest production about Fatima.

Allow me to share with you page 1 of If Only We Had Listened:

Our Lady of Kebeho invites you to strengthen and deepen your prayer life.

"My Children, there are many who want to pray, who try to pray, but do not know how to pray.  You must ask for the strength and knowledge to understand what is expected of you.  My ove goes out to all of you, for there are many here who want to reach the road to heaven, but do not have the strength or knowledge to ask for God's help.  My children, listen to my words, for I will teach you how to pray from the bottom of your hearts."

I'm listening, mother.  Show me the way.

Our Lady Of Sorrows: True Visions of Hope

Before hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were dehumanized by their own countrymen, Our Lady predicted the genocidal atrocities on the Feast of the Assumption in 1982 to visionaries in front of hundreds of pilgrims.  Our Lady of Kibeho by genocide survivor Immaculee Ilibagiza accounts Mary's message to the world through eight visionaries.

She started appearing to a high school student named Alphonsine in November of 1981, two months later to  Anathalie, then two months after that to Marie-Claire. Over a decade before the Rwandan genocide destroyed an entire nation, including the apparition site, thousands of pilgrims from all over Rwanda came to witness the miracles for themselves.  The messages were often recorded and broadcast.  Mary wept as she told the visionaries how the deeply rooted hatred they all harbored within their hearts would end in a violent bloodbath.  During a vision Our Lady gave Marie-Claire a string of beads--the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows--and taught her and everyone present how to pray it.  The author includes these instructions given to Marie-Claire in this book--it's the primary reason I bought it.

Marie-Claire was murdered in the genocide, along with her husband.  Alphonsine is now a cloistered nun in the Republic of Benin in West Africa.  Anathalie remained in Kibeho as she promised Our Lady many years ago, and will stay there until Our Lady tells her otherwise.  Mary's appearances to these three women are the only approved Marian apparitions on the Continent of Africa, and now that war subsides, the shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows has been built in Kibeho at the apparition site.

The other five visionaries have not been authenticated, though investigation may continue at some time in the future:

• Segatashya, a pagan boy converted in a bean field by Jesus Himself, was shot to death by a firing squad.
• Vestine, a Muslim girl who died after the genocide of illness, was also visited by the Lord Jesus.
• Stephanie was 14 when she began seeing Our Lady.  She disappeared during the genocide.
• Valentine, who still receives public visions of Our Lady today, lives in Belgium.
• Agnes is married with two children, and still sees Jesus privately.

The following video clip will be the best ten minutes you spend today.

And a great sign appeared in the sky...

...After seeing the big massive circus made over stains that look like the Virgin Mary...

...why wouldn't this 'painting' of Our Lady be front page news?

... In any case, we give praise to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas,

PRAY FOR US

Advice From the Queen of Heaven

"...one of Our Lady's greatest sorrows during her many visits to Kibeho was that not enough people truly listened to the loving advice and counsel she offered through her visionaries.  Too many individuals came to the village simply to witness a miracle, and while their eyes and ears searched the heavens for a supernatural event, their hearts failed to hear the messages Mary repeated again and again:  love God, love and be kind to each other, read the Bible, follow God's commandments, accept the love of Christ, repent for sins, be humble, seek and offer forgiveness, and live the gift of your life how God wants you to--with a clean and open heart and a clear conscience."  Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa by Immaculee Ilibagiza, pg. 62.

If humanity would only do what she asks. That would be a supernatural event worth witnessing.

Especially For My Brothers

A girl approached Fr. Pablo Straub for spritual direction, and when he opened one of her school textbooks he read the following:  "The ideal personality of the future is neither a man's personality nor a woman's personality. The ideal personality of the future is androgenous." 

This half-hour homily, preached during last year's Fall Encampment for the Squires and Knights of Lepanto (click here to learn more about this group), is his response.

(Ladies, I know many of you will not like this, but he's right.)



(source:  Google Videos)

Why do I think he's right?  READ THIS BOOK.

Welcome to the most disturbing hour on television . . .

"Hello there," announces host Michael Voris, "you're tuned to The One True Faith - the show we say is the most disturbing hour on television, because we talk about where you are going to spend eternity..."

If you've not tuned in to http://www.realcatholictv.com/ yet, go there today.  It's the home of The Vortex, Shepherd's Voice, St. Michael's Basic Training, The Catholic Critic, and the hour-long program billed as "the most disturbing hour on television":  The One True Faith.  Since October is Mary's month, I decided to link an episode from Season 1 titled, "Mary, Mother of the Church."  (Seriously, wouldn't you rather learn about Our Lady than watch yet another lame episode of Rock of Love 263?)



This year The One True Faith is taping it's 7th season.  Their theme: the Occult.

Ave Maria

On this feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, why destract ourselves?  The issues will still be there tomorrow.

My First Real Encounter With Our Lady

Lovely Lady dressed in blue,
Teach me how to pray;
God was just your little boy,
Tell me what to say.

Did you lift Him up,
sometimes,
Gently on your knee?

Did you sing to Him
the way Mother does
to me?

Did you hold
His hand at night?

Did you ever try
Telling stories
of the world?

O! And did He cry?

Do you really think He cares
If I tell Him things-
Little things that happen?
And Do the Angels' wings
Make a noise?

And can He hear Me
if I speak low?

Does He understand me now?

Tell me, for you know.

Lovely Lady dressed in blue,
teach me how to pray;

God was just your little boy,
And you know the way.

In The Details

I bought my tiny icon of Our Lady Of Vladimir about 12 years ago when I worked at Alba House Communications, and she’s been with me through everything. Some days I just walk by her with a glance, other days I stare intently at every detail of her face, soaking in everything that the image has to teach me.

Icons are much more than devotional paintings. An ancient form of writing, as an iconographer would most likely say (icons are referred to as having been “written” in the Orthodox church), the icon is the oldest form of worship aid, carrying within its brushstrokes the Tradition of faith, dating back to St. Luke, credited with the image of “Our Lady of Tenderness”, the foundation image of my Lady of Vladimir.

Every detail of the icon means something.

The gold trim adorning her dark, earthy mantle is a sign of her status, yet it is mere trim, whereas Christ is completely adorned in a robe of gold. She shares in eternal life, but not in divinity. On her head and shoulders are stars. These indicate the Trinity. Christ himself is the star of her right shoulder.

Look at how He is depicted here: not an infant, but a full-grown man with the face of a child. His gaze is fixed on her, his arms wrapped around her in a tight, loving embrace. Is he breathing life into her? She leans her head toward Him to receive, while her gaze is fixed on me, her eyes sad yet peaceful. She doesn’t smile, but there is joy in her face. She supports Christ with one hand, and with her other she welcomes me into the embrace, into the mystery.

Our Lady of Tenderness is truly a symbol of the Church. Doesn't Christ want to embrace each of us as well, and breathe into us the breath of life? I want to be like her, standing with arms open, ready to welcome anyone who seeks Him.

To read more about the history of icons and their use in worship, read Praying With Icons by Jim Forest.

Queen Of The May

“There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.” Sister Lucy, Fatima Visionary

It was 28 years ago YESTERDAY that John Paul II was shot. Mehmet Ali Agca’s bullet miraculously avoided his major organs. He attributed his survival to Our Lady of Fatima.

The month of May is a celebration of spring, of rebirth and new life. How fitting that the Chruch devotes May to Mary, the mother of our Lord. John Paul II had a very deep devotion to Our Lady, and at the request of Our Lady of Fatima, consecrated the nation of Russia to her in 1984. At every opportunity he spoke of her, and encouraged the faithful all over the world to increase their devotion to Mary.

"Through Mary," he declared in Como, Italy, in 1996, "we come to her Son more easily. Mary is held up as a model for the believer and for the whole Church called to respond to the Lord with her own 'yes'. She is the Mother who intercedes for all: for souls thirsting for God and for those who are groping in the darkness of doubt and disbelief for those who are suffering in body or tried in spirit, for those who yield to the attraction of sin and for those who are struggling to escape its clutches. Her motherly concern overlooks no one." (from Pope John Paul II's Angelus Message in Como, Italy 5 May 1996)

It certainly never overlooks me. Prayer comes most easily to me with my Marian devotions, especially the Rosary. Holding the beads is a consolation; reciting the prayers frees my mind to meditate; and each mystery builds one upon the other through the life of Jesus through Mary, as if she’s sitting right there with me, teaching me details, signs and insights. A rosary truly prayed teaches the person of Jesus, bringing us into a deeply intimate relationship with Him. Who better to teach us? In the heart of Mary, Jesus is an ancient promise; a living miracle; a helpless child; a victim of hatred and ignorance; a savior and king. No other person could know the heart and mind of the Lord like the woman who shared her body with Him.

Sister Lucy of Fatima says, “with the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.” I believe her, because nothing I’ve ever experienced has helped me to know the Lord better.

(Click here to learn how to pray the Rosary)