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SILENT NIGHT
(Rev. T. Collins)
Chinese students are full of curiosity about Christmas. I wanted to explain to
them the difference between Christmas party songs and Christmas carols. I
mentioned that "Jingle Bells" is a party song while "Silent Night" is a carol
sung in church. The only version of the latter I could find in my tape
collection was in Gaelic. I decided to let them hear it without giving them the
meaning of the words.
Afterwards I asked them to share their reactions with each other, and was amazed
by what I heard. Most said it gave them a feeling of peace and
contentment. A few
said it made them homesick and a little sad. A girl said it reminded her of a
mother singing a sweet song to send her baby to sleep. Another said she had a
calm comfortable feeling and a sense of being purified from wrongs. A boy said
he once went to visit a church in his village and the carol gave him the feeling
that he was back there again. A girl said it gave her the same feeling as music
she had heard in a Buddhist temple.
A few said they imagined a cold bright winter's night with shining stars
gloaming over a snow-covered landscape. One girl imagined-she could hear angels
wings in the distance. The words "mysterious" and "heavenly" were frequently
mentioned. A boy said all his troubles seemed to fade away while he was
listening, and he forgot all his worries about the forthcoming exams.
At this stage I gave them the words of the carol in English. They were
astonished to discover that the words matched the feelings they had recalled as
they listened to the music. A few of them had been almost embarrassed to mention
that they felt a little sleepy as they listened, so they ere astonished at the
words "Sleep in heavenly peace".
All of them wanted to listen to the carol a second time and no meditation group
was ever as silent or reflective as this group of teenagers who seemed to find
an inner peace in this traditional, and for us so timeworn, Christmas carol.
The inner emptiness which many of the students feel was expressed forcefully
for me recently in an email I received from a former student in Nanchang. The
student had moved into a bedsit and I asked him if he felt lonely without the
company of the secen students who had shared a room with him for two years. He
replied that lack of company was not a problem, hut lack of meaning in his life
was distressing him greatly. He wondered how Chinese people had survived over so
many centuries and what had given a purpose to their lives.
A CHRISTMAS HYMN
When Mary and Joseph so wearily wended their way from their cottage in
Nazareth's street,
Then slept with the oxen in Bethlehem's stable, and laid in a manger their Baby
so sweet,
Enduring discomfort and squalor and hardship, compelled by a merciless
tyrant's decree,
Few were there on earth who in such tribulation God's greatness and goodness
and glory could see.
God's glory we see in the sun, moon and planets, in river and ocean in
mountain and plain,
In flowers and butterflies, forests and gardens, in moors with their heather,
and fields full of grain.
But angels sang "Glory" when in great privation Our Lord came in Bethlehem's
manger to lie;
For His greatest glory's the glory of loving, that led Him to suffer, that
led Him to die.
Lord, give us Your glory, the glory of loving, all love for all people, the
great and the small,
For saints and for sinners, for friends and for strangers, for black folk and
white, like Your love for us all,
A love like Your own that for others is ready to suffer great hardship if
that should ensue;
You said that whenever we love other people we also, in doing so show love to
You.
byRoland H. Rathmell
THE SPIKENARD
Mary poured out from the jar the precious ointment rare,
Upon the Master's holy feet whilst He was sitting there,
But one there was
rebuked her for the sense she lacked,
But Jesus gently praised her for the loving act.
Now some there are like Mary who reach out generously,
They act with love on impulse and give unstintingly.
But there are others watching who have flaw-seeing eyes,
Can't see beneath the surface and do not realise
That many hearts when moved by love express themselves in giving,
And pour a soothing
balm upon the wounds and stings of living.
by Kathleen Gillua
A LETTER FROM HEAVEN
I'm writing this letter from heaven
Where I dwell with God above
Where there's
no more tears and sadness
There is just eternal love.
And when you are walking down the street
And you have got me on your mind
I'm
walking in your footsteps
Only half a step behind.
And when you feel that gentle breeze
Or the wind upon your face
That's me
giving you a great big hug
Or just a soft embrace.
And when it's time for you to go
From that body to he free
Remember you are
not going
You are coming here to me.
MARY
THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD
When it came time for Mary to give birth, she and Joseph found themselves in
Bethlehem (they had gone for a census). She bore the child in a manger, for
there was no room in the inns for them.
The first to honour her child were the simple people, the shepherds of
Bethlehem. Next, three powerful kings, pagans, came to honour him. At the child's
circumcision, the aged Simeon directed to Mary words of joy and sorrow
concerning Jesus.
The rich and powerful king of her own land tried to kill the child, for their
richess and power had blinded them to the ways of God. So Joseph took the family
to Egypt for safety.
When all was clear, the holy family returned to Nazareth where Jesus grew up.
KING GASPAR RIDES AGAIN
(Rev. P. Richardson)
For as long as he could remember, the most interesting day of the whole year for
the doctor was the Feast of the Epiphany or, as it is called in the Philippines
and some European countries, the Feast of the Three Kings. Like his father
before him, the doctor was a member of the Spanish Club in Manila, and every
year on that day, for the sake of the small children, he put on his costume and
became King Gaspar, one of the Three Kings. With his magnificent heard and his
best bedside manner, the doctor, a specialist in children's illnesses, realty
looked the part. The fact that his real name was Gaspar added to his authenticy.
Gaspar had to get from his house in the suburbs of Manila to the club where
the party was being held, and one particular year he was badly delayed in
traffic. Time was ticking by, and as happens so often these days in Manila,
horns were blown and tempers as well and the air conditioner in his automobile
struggled to keep its cool. Meanwhile Carlos, his driver, did his best to take
advantage of every small vacant space that opened up in front of him.
The traffic moved at a snail's pace, and Gaspar somehow wished that he had
one of the camels that had transported the original Kings. With his costume on
and an imitation crown on his head, he could ride down the centre of the
sidewalk, and the people would have given him immediately the right-of-way. After
all, the Three Kings are well known all over Manila, and the only thing strange
about the whole performance would he that he was riding a camel! Somehow, the
ordinary people would expect a king to do better than that. Like riding in a
Mercedes Benz -just as Gaspar was trying to do now.
It was while these foolish thoughts were passing through his head that he
first noticed the pregnant young woman on the sidewalk, waiting for a jeepney to
take her and her husband to the hospital to have her baby, which obviously was
just about to appear. The jeepneys were full, and, anyway, none of them was
moving.
"Carlos," said Gaspar, leaning over the front seat to retrieve his black
bag
which he always carried in the car, "as soon as the the traffic begins to move
again, pull over to the side of the street and find a parking place. Then, lock
the car and come look for me. " With that, Gaspar got out of the car and
approached the woman and her worried husband. The young couple would probably
not have believed that he was really a doctor, except for the fact that they saw
him get out of a Mercedes and that he was carrying a doctor's bag. But, even
so, it was hard to convince them to go hack to the house where they were staying
rather than have the baby in a hospital, which they could not very well afford.
There were only 2 and a half rooms in the whole apartment. The couple were
staying with the boy's widowed mother in a corner of the downstairs living room.
There was a cat there with three kittens which they moved over to a bit of space
under the kitchen sink and they tied the overfriendly dog to a window grill
outside. When Gaspar asked about the local midwife, she appeared miraculously
behind him. It seems the boy's mother had been trying to convince the girl to
have the baby at home.
Gaspar sent Carlos off to a drug store around the corner to buy whatever was
needed, and explained to the midwife that she would deliver the baby and he
would just help out as needed; at no cost to anyone, since he would not be
delivering the baby he would pay the midwife. Then while the young woman was in labour, he sent Carlos off again to buy some sweets and food. After all, it was
the Feast of the Three Kings and from the high, curious voices outside the one
front window, he knew that the children were beginning to gather. How could
King Gaspar, one of the Three Kings, let them down?
Shortly afterwards, the baby was born: a wonderful little girl named
Mercedes, of course. Then Gaspar sent Carlos to the car to fetch his costume,
and when he appeared in his fall regalia there was an awed silence. There was a
shuffle of feet and within minutes a star lantern with a burning candle appeared
and the children with their cherub faces began to sing Silent Night. Then
Gaspar distributed sweets to the children, and a bottle of rum for the adults, and
everybody shared the pancit noodles and barbecued pork and chicken that Carlos
had bought while he was out. When the celebration was beginning to overflow into
the neighborhood, Gaspar and Carlos left the house to find the traffic problem
had solved itself. They reached the club in just 15 minutes - and four and a
half hours late. Gaspar explained to his friends how he got bogged
down in traffic and ended up assisting a very special, delivery.
CHASTITY
VERSUS SEX EDUCATION
(Dr. Claude E. Newbury)
The Catholic newspaper THE TABLET expresses highly secularized views. In a
recent article it slammed an American abstinence programme that is also
promoted in the UK. Dr. Newbury replies with the following eloquent
defense of
teaching chastity, not "safe sex".
To the Editor, The Tablet
In The Tablet of 15th May, 2004, author Nicholas Pyke discusses an American
premarital abstinence programme that its originator Pastor Denny Pattyn hopes to
bring to the UK. Pyke disparages abstinence programmes in general and this
one in particular. To substantiate his anti-chastity prejudices he leans heavily
on the authority of government advisors, chiefly Gill Francis, the deputy
chairwoman of the Government's Independent Advisory Group on Teenage
Pregnancy.
Pyke, in regurgitating this cant, seems not to he aware that the Government has systematically indoctrinated all children, not just the middle
class, for many years in the ideology of "safe sex", which encourages
fornication. "Safe", indeed, given the tragic failures of condoms and birth
control drugs and devices, and the eternal consequences of the moral devastation
that this ideology has spawned. How are we to interpret the words of Our Lord
when He tells us: "No fornicator will enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Has it not
dawned upon Pyke that what the UK needs is moral formation and not sex
education.
Pyke's admiration for the Government and its safe fornication programmes
surfaces again when he tells us that "teenage pregnancies have fallen
significantly since Labour has come to power." Yet, as he admits: "Britain has
the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe and rising levels of
sexually transmitted infection." Clearly, the State's safe sex programmes have
not reduced fornication. Getting 'unpregnant' by killing unborn, unplanned,
contraceptive failures by abortion is very common. Promoting abortion certainly
does have an effect on the figures for "teenage pregnancies".
Pyke labels the statement that "condoms and morning-after pills are being
handed out to children as young as 11" as "a misrepresentation". How so ?
Condoms and other dangerous and abortifacient birth control drugs and devices are
given to children, a fact which his adulation for the Government leads him to
overlook. Moreover, the Government has defended and promoted surgical abortions
on very young girls without the knowledge of their parents.
What is Ms. Francis' background? Gill Francis was previously a leading
light in the Brook Advisory Service, which promotes safe fornication and the
killing of unborn children by abortion. Pyke should read their publications.
Should he, or anyone else for that matter, have faith in such "independent
authorities"?
Pyke should visit my country of South Africa where the "safe sex" ideology
has been promoted to the utmost, and condoms are dished out by the hundred
million; where the sex education programme is controlled by a surrogate of
Planned Parenthood; where primary school children are subjected to sex
education, and "safe sex" is advertised on public transport and national
television. Then he should consider why the AIDS epidemic there is the worst in
the world.
I look forward to his explanation of all this in his next article in The
Tablet.
Moreover I ask him to explain his astonishing statement that chastity
promotion programmes are "dangerous at worst". Does he know of any couple who
were chaste before marriage and remain faithful to each other after marriage,
who have contracted a venereal disease? If not, then could Pyke bring himself to
concede that chastity is really effective and perhaps encourage its promotion?
Surety, abstinence! chastity programmes deserve as much encouragement as we
can give them. The Tablet in publishing Pyke's sneer about chastity has done
great harm. Unless your publication has jettisoned chastity as a cardinal virtue,
you should hasten to set the record straight.
(Dr. Claude Newbury is the Chairman of the Board of Family Life
International, and Senior Advisor, Population Research Institute).
THE FIRST POOR CLARE
(Rev. P. Hurley, SVD)
Clara di Favarone was so heautitful, so much so that when she walked down the
streets of Assist, men turned to look at her.
One day, when she was 17, she met a young man in the town named
Francesco di Bernardone, who was then 29. That meeting changed her life and
the lives of countless other people afterwards. The girl and the man soon
became the most famous couple from Assist. They are better l known today as
St. Clare and St. Francis.
The little we know about Clare's early life came from witnesses who knew her
and testified at her canonization process. The eldest daughter of a wealthy
noble family in the town, she was horn in 1194. Her father was among the most
powerful men there and her mother was a pious woman who went on pilgrimages
as far as the Holy Land. They lived in a mansion near the Cathedral of San Rufino and they hoped, said a neighbour, "to marry Clare off to some
nobleman who was prestigious and wealthy". She received many proposals of
marriage from such men, but she fell in love instead with "the poor, humbled,
crucified Christ", as she had come to know Him from the preaching of Francis.
A year or so before Clare met him, Francis, who had been a dashing young man
about town, was also converted and founded the Franciscan order. One of his
early companions was Brother Rufino, a first cousin of Clare. She used to send
alms to these first Franciscans, who lived in a chapel in woods below the town.
Many times, so as not to he seen by her parents, she and a girl friend made
secret visits to Francis there, and she often hid some of the rich food
served in her own home and gave it to the poor.
Francis and his brothers now
encouraged Clare to follow them and to found an order of Sisters with aims like
theirs. On Palm Sunday, 18th March, 1212, she left home secretly at night with
another girl and went down to the friars in their Portiuncula chapel. Here,
Francis cutoff her beautiful hear and clothed her in a sackcloth habit as a sign
of her consecration as a Sister. She spent that night and the next week in a
Benedictine convent nearby. Her parents came and tried to persuade her to return
home, but Clare was determined to stay, and her sister Beatrice testified that
Clare had already given her dowry or inheritance to the poor.
Two weeks later, Clare was joined by her younger sister Catherine. This time
their family used force to try to bring the two girls home and sent a group of
horsemen out for them. Again they failed.
Clare was now joined by a few of her former girl friends, "whom the Lord had
given me", as she later wrote. Early in May, 1212, the little group of Sisters
finally made their home in a derilict house in San Damiano, beside Assist. Their
example soon inspired "many other young women from the upper classes eligible to
marry dukes and kings", as brother Thomas put it, to follow them. Later,
Clare's mother, another of her sisters, and two of her nieces also Joined them.
Clare was the first woman in the Church to write a rule for women; all previous
rules for women's orders were written by men. The only other writings she left
us are few: her Testament, a blessing and four letters to St. Agnes. Daughter
of the King of Bohemia, Agnes broke off her engagement to the Emperor Frederick II, and founded the first Poor Clare convent in Prague.
Clare called herself
and her companions Poor Sisters. Her Rule said they were "called upon to live
poverty in sisterly communion". She chose a radical poverty. The Poor Clares,
as
they were soon known, were to own nothing and to live on the proceeds of their
manual work, spinning in Clare's case, and on whatever alms they received or
begged. Their way of life was first approved by Pope Innocent III in 1216, but
Clare had to constantly defend their poverty against the efforts of later Popes
to lessen its rigours, thought to be too hard for women.
Sometimes, at San Damiano, they had no bread, and it was bitterly cold in
winter. Yet Clare wrote: "We were afraid of neither poverty nor work, nor
trials, nor a humble life, nor the scorn of the world, but rather these were the
source of our greatest joy. " Much of what is known about Clare's own life there
comes from the testimony of 15 Sisters, who gave evidence at her canonization
process three months after her death.
She slept on a bed made from vine branches with a stone for her pillow.
Later, when she was constantly ill, she lay on a sack filled with straw, while a
piece of wood served as a pillow. She ate nothing on three days a week, until
St. Francis commanded her to eat something each day, a little bread and water.
"She wore a tunic of hog's hair next to her skin, " one Sister said. "She also
wore a hair shirt made of horse's hair, interlaced with hard knots. She had one
habit, all patched. She never wore stockings or shoes to keep off the cold. "
Another Sister stated: "Clare made herself the least among us. She served us and
even washed the feet of the Sisters, who returned from begging. "
Clare always called herself a servant of her Sisters. Every Sister had a
right to vote and contribute to community decisions. They heard Mass daily,
celebrated by a Franciscan, but they received Holy Communion "only seven times a
year" according to their Rule and the custom of the time. Clare lived for 59
years, 41 of them as a Sister, and she was often sick and confined to bed
during her last 29 years. And at the end of her life, she had herself raised up
in bed so that she could do some spinning. Sister Amata, one of Clare's nieces,
said: "She was assidious in prayer and contemplation, and when she returned from
prayer her face was as clear and as beautiful as the sun."
Cardinal Rainaldo
and Cardinal Hugolino, who became Pope Gregory IX, were among her intimate
friends. Many bishops also regarded her a saint and visited her daily during
her last illness. Pope Innocent IV came twice, the last time two days before
she died on 11th August, 1253, and he also attended her funeral. To prevent the
huge crowds of other mourners to steal her body, it had to he brought under
armed escort from San Damiano to the church of San Giorgio in Assisi.
Two years after her death. Pope Alexander IV proclaimed her a saint, in record
time. She was the first woman, not of royal blood, to he canonized for many
centuries. At the time of Clare's death, there were over 150 Poor Clare
communities, mostly in Italy and Spain, but also in France and Germany. The
order reached its greatest growth in the 17th century, when there were about
70,000 Sisters in nearly 2,000 communities as far away as South America and the
Philippines. Today, there are about 18,000 Sisters in some 900 communities in 6
countries on all the Continents.
On Christmas night 1552, Clare, while she was sick in bed, was able to hear
from afar, too far to hear by human power, the music and singing of the
Christmas Mass celebrated in the Basilica of St. Francis. St. Clare, you
exchanged wealth and beauty for poverty and hardship, make us humble; pray for
us!
A CHRISTIAN BEFORE OUR
TIME
(Rev. Fr. P. Clarke)
Suppose, you a lay person, could give one homily during your lifetime, what
would you choose to preach about? I am almost fifty years a priest. I asked
myself the same question. What subject did I pick? By way of a answer let me
tell you a story.
I spent most of my priestly life working as a missionary in Japan. At one
stage I worked in a parish in southern Japan, and each Sunday I said Mass there
at three o'clock. There was a small out church in this parish. This story
concerns two parishioners whom I simply call the grandparents. They were in
their mid-eighties when I got to know them. They were a lovely couple. The word
that came to my mind when I first met them, was serene. They lived in a house on
a piece of land jutting out into the sea. Because the house was painted white
and stood out, the locals dubbed it the White House. The grandfather came to
Mass in his small engine-powered boat in the summer. Usually I would drive the
grandmother home after Mass. She would invite me in, and we would drink coffee
and talk.
One Sunday, as the grandmother sat across from me, I happened to say. "You
know, you two are realty blessed." The grandparents looked at me and said:
"Well, he can he prickly even still. "I prompted her: "Even still... " The
grandmother continued: "We have had our ups and downs over the years. Now
things
are peaceful. His great worry is that I might die before him. He thinks he
couldn't survive without me, but it was not always that way."
She paused and looked beyond me. "A number of years into our marriage, in fact
four children into our marriage, we were living in a town outside Osaka. He was
doing well in business. Then, suddenly one day, he left the house and did not
return for a week. When he did return he had a bag, his laundry. He told me:
"Wash and press" and when it was ready he walked out again. This became a
pattern. It was a small town, and it did not take long to discover what was
happening. He had moved in with another woman and was living on the other side
of the town."
The grandmother paused and continued: "I wanted to divorce him, but I had
four children. For their sake I decided to stay in the marriage."
"His coming and going continued until one day he returned and remained.
There, were no explanations, nothing. However, as time poised, bits of
information came my way, and finally I could piece the story together. The woman
he had been living with, had become terminally ill. She was an outsider and was
now living in one small room."
The grandmother then explained how she went to see this other woman. The room
was dirty; the woman herself was poorly. She had little food; nobody to care for
her. The grandmother cleaned the room, made a meal for the woman, and from that
day on she visited her daily and took care of her. The sick woman's great
concern was that she had no burial plot, no money to take care of the funeral
expenses. The grandmother got enough money together to take care of her while
she lived and when she died. The grandmother's story ended there. She told it
as if describing the actions of a third party, and not her own.
The story has always remained with me. An interesting thing is that at the
time this happened, the grandmother was not yet a Catholic. Maybe I should
rather say she was a Christian (Catholic) before her time. You ask what homily I
would give if I were only allowed one in my life? I would preach on forgiveness,
because I have found it easier to be a loving person that a forgiving person.
A SIGN FROM HEAVEN
Let us begin with Isaac and Rebecca. Abraham was very old, and Sarah had
already died by the time Isaac had grown up. Abraham knew that he must find a
wife for Isaac, so that his family could increase and become the people of God.
He sent his most faithful servant with a string of Camels, laden with gifts,
to Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac from among his people there.
It was evening when the servant arrived: the time of day when the women came
outside the gates of the city, in order to fetch water from the well.
Abraham's servant prayed, asking God to give him a sign to help him choose
the right wife for Isaac. He would ask for a drink at the well. The young woman
who offered to water his camels would he the one chosen by God.
Even before he had finished praying, a beautiful young woman came up to the
well to fill her water jug. The servant asked her if she could spare him a
drink.
"Drink, my lord," she said and held out her jug for him. "And when you have
finished, I shall draw some water for your camels as well. "The servant knew
then he had found the wife for Isaac.
The young woman's name was Rebecca. Her father gave his permission and
blessing to the marriage, and Rebecca was willing to return at once with
Abraham's servant.
Early next morning they set out for Canaan. Isaac was praying out in the
fields when he saw the camel train coming. He ran to meet them and took Rebecca
by the hand. He loved her immediately. They married and lived together in great
happiness.
The following is a different sign God gave to readers of AVE MARIA Jim and
Jennifer O'Brien. Jim relates their experience:
"On a Thursday night in
February, some two or three years ago, we were returning from the Rosary Group
at about 10.30 pm. We live in rural Scotland. The driveway to our old farm house
is about 600 meters long, and the narrow lane that leads down to the main road
is another 600 meters further.
A thought came into my mind that, even though the weather was mild, and we
had a very clear night, we would have a heavy snowfall this night. My wife was
due to go for her cancer check-up the following morning in Aberdeen, about 38
miles south of our home. I suggested to my wife to park the car back at the top
of the driveway after taking her to the house. So I drove right hack to the top
of the drive, and walked the 600 meters back home. On arrival, Jennifer had
watched the weather forecast; it said: there will he a mild night and a mild day
to follow.
We went to bed and woke up at 6am on the Friday morning. I looked out of the
window: it was white. Everywhere I looked, it was white. Snow as at teat one
foot deep. Well, I rang the police and asked if the main roads had been snow
ploughed? No, the weather had been too bad to go out yet, was the reply.
In this desperate situation we turned to God and prayed the Communion of
Saints prayer; we ate our breakfast, and then walked to the top of our driveway.
Some of the snow-drift in our drive was two to three feet deep; the lane to the
main road was covered in one foot of snow. We cleared the car of the snow while
the engine was warming up and drove off at 5 mph, putting our trust in God, info
the snow-covered lane and onto the main road. Upon arrival at the main road
there was nothing but a white sheet of snow, no footprints or tire marks in the
snow. The sensible people had stayed at home. Trusting in God, we drove onto
the main road and into the one-foot deep snow, at 5 mph. I began to feel more
confident, and increased my speed to 10 mph, then 20, 25, up to 35 mph in virgin
snow, still one foot deep. I was now passing Deer Abbey, the ruins of an old
Catholic Monastery. About three miles up the road now, I noticed that the snow
was retreating at the same speed that I was driving. Were my eyes deceiving me?
Was I suffering from an illusion? But retreating if did! I increased me speed to
45 mph, and the snow retreated, too. Thank you Lord'. We had traveled eight
miles, not seen a single vehicle, and. the snow retreating before our eyes!
We arrived at the hospital two hours early. Only the staff were there. We
were in and out of the hospital within half an hour. God even blessed the
check-up!
We arrived home again just about the time when our appointment was due at the
hospital, having covered a 78 miles round trip in snow, yet again "free" of snow
by the grace of God. Praise and thanks to Our Dear Lord and Saviour!
PS:
We have used the prayer on many occasions, and it has always worked and never
let us down. My thoughts on arriving home about the Communion of Saints prayer
was not surprising. We were able to do this journey, for if this crew cannot
solve the problem, then it cannot he solved. God bless all of you. Jim and
Jennifer O'Brien.
This is the Prayer
COMMUNION OF SAINTS
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen.
All the Choirs of Angels,
All the Saints in Heaven,
All the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
All Catholics praying throughout
the world at this moment in time,
Mary, the Immaculate Conception, and St. Joseph,
Pray with me/us.
Guide my/our prayers and unite them to all the Holy Masses that are, being
solemnly offered to Our Eternal Father on this day.
Eternal Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth, and of us poor creatures, out of
nothing, we humbly implore you to bless the sky, bless the earth, bless the
wind, bless the water, bless the snow, bless the ice, bless all of the road
surface, bless all drivers and pilots, bless all of the vehicles of any kind,
and only permit us to have the weather and conditions Your Divine Will wants us
to have.
We ask this in the name of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. Amen.
HOMOUR
(We read in the AVE MARIA Supplement about the good guys and the had guys, and
that one third of our clergy has lost their way. The following is a humorous
story sent in by a reader, for you to smile).
On their way to church to get married, a couple had a fatal car accident.
The couple found themselves sitting outside Heaven's gate waiting for St.
Peter to do an intake. While waiting they wondered if they could possibly get
married in Heaven.
St. Peter finally showed up, and they asked him. St. Peter said: "I do not
know. This is the first time anyone has asked. Let me go and find out. " And so
he left.
The couple sat and waited for an
answer... for two months and they
began to wonder if they realty should
get married in Heaven, what with
the eternal aspect of it all. "What if
it doesn't work?" they wondered.
"Are we going to he stuck together
for ever?"
St. Peter returned after yet
another month, looking somewhat
hedraggled. "Yes, " he informed the
couple. "You can get married in
Heaven. "
"Great," said the couple. "But
what if things don't work out? Can
we get a divorce in Heaven ? "
St. Peter, red-faced, slammed his
clipboard onto the ground.
"What is wrong?" asked the
frightened couple.
"Come on! " St. Peter shouted. "It
took me three months to find a priest
up here! Do you have any idea how
long it will take me to find a
lawyer?"
MESSAGE
From Our Lady of Reconciliation
given to Mrs. Silvano Orlandi on
25th April, 2004, in Ostina, Italy:
"My children, you know how
important you are to Me, especially
the elderly: respect them, love them
especially in families. You young
people, be a good example to others.
You are the new Spring on earth.
Give me your hearts, so that I can
convert them and make them like
Mine and that of My Son, Who is
your brother.
"Prayer is fragrance. "
This was the 65th message given to
Silvano. Ostina is near Florence,
and the daily newspaper of Florence, La Nazionale, reported 1000
pilgrims on that day. Those who
received special graces bore witness
in public, among them a well-known
sportsman.
CONTINUATION Supplement AVE MARIA, PAGE 4:
GOOD GUYS AND BAD GUYS
... Christ Our Lord performed many
evident miracles and made clear-cut
prophecies. Moreover, we read of
the apostles: "But they went forth and
preached everywhere, while the Lord
worked with them and confirmed the
preaching by the signs that followed. " (Mk 16:20) [Denziger 1790].
The First Vatican Council solemnly condemned those who reject God-given miracles and prophecies in the
Catholic Church:
"If anyone says that it is impossible for external signs to render
divine revelation credible and that, therefore, men ought to he impelled
towards faith only by each one's internal experience or private inspiration: let him he anathema. "
[Denziger 1812]
"If anyone says that all miracles
are impossible and, hence, that all
accounts of them, even though contained in Sacred Scripture, should he
classed with fables and myths ;or that
miracles can never he recognized
with certainty and that the divine
origin of the Christian religion
cannot be successfully proved by
them: let him he anathema. " [Denziger 1813].
Can cardinals, bishops, priests or
even the Pope he confused? The answer is yes. We do not have guarantees that the cardinals, the bishops,
the priests, or even a Pope will never
make an error against the Faith. As
Thomas Aquinas (Doctor of the
Church) teaches us: "Against a fact
there is no argument. " The fact is,
Church history tells us that St. Peter
made an error against the Faith.
Pope John XXII in the year 1333
taught a heresy in public; he was
wrong. Pope Pascal II in the year
1111 gave an order which was contrary to the common good of the
Church. Pope Liberius in 357
excommunicated -in reality, only
giving the appearance of excommunicating- St. Anathasius. Pope
Liberius is the first Pope not to be proclaimed a saint; whereas Saint
Athanasius was, and is, a great saint
precisely because he was upholding
the Catholic Faith. Pope Honorius,
for not properly defending the
Catholic Faith, was condemned by a
later Pope, and Pope Honorius'
body was exhumed and given a dishonorable burial by a Church
Council some years after Honorius
died.
Thus, we do know that the Popes
can make errors. Not many of them
have made errors against the Faith,
but some of them have done so. So,
it is not just because he is a Pope,
that whatever he says is true; but we
have to go to the rock-solid bottom
of certitude, and that is infallible
definitions. That is the crucial point
we must remember. It is the teaching
of the Doctors of the Church -Saint
Robert Bellarmine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Jerome, St. Alphonsus Liguori
and other Doctors- that the Popes
can make errors against the Faith.
And therefore, in case of doubt, or
of contradiction of defined Catholic
dogma, we have to go with the solid
definitions and even avoid the
preaching of priests, bishops, cardinals, and even a Pope in these
circumstances.
We now have the evidence of how
the Catholic Faith is being undermined and by whom; it's about infiltration of the enemy within the
Church. In the 1920s, Lenin, the
founder of Russian Communism said
that he would infiltrate the Catholic
Church; he said he would destroy the
Catholic Church by infiltration. In
the 1930s and 1940s we have the
testimony of Bella Dodd, who was
the Attorney General Designate of
the Communist Party USA. She
ultimately converted back to the
Catholic Faith and then gave public
speeches. A person testified that he
heard her say that she personally
sent into the Catholic seminaries in
the 1930s and the 1940s over 1,000
young men, in order to subvert the
Catholic Church in the USA from
within. And before she died, she
reported that some of them had
already become bishops. And, of
course, bishops beget bishops. Then,
of course, there is the book AA-1025
which tells the story of one such
Communist agent who entered the
seminary with the intent to destroy
the Church by subversion in accordance with the Communist plan. The
testimony of this book has the ring of
truth about it.
We not only have Bella Dodd, we
not only have Lenin, we also have
the secret document of the Chinese
Communists, which was published in
Cuba pointing out to destroy the
Church from within by infiltrating
the clergy. A priest I know, met a
Catholic priest who was working for
the Communists. They exist.
The various Catholic religious
orders have been targeted for infiltration, and the whole Catholic Priest
Worker movement in the 1950s was
overcome or badly infiltrated by the
Communists, when Pope Pius XII
called an end to it in the 1950s. So
this is nothing new.
Our Lady said in Her Secret that
the Faith would be undermined.
Well, more precisely, the Pope tells
us that Our Lady of Fatima cannot
remain silent when She sees the
Faith undermined. But where does
our Lady say this? Nowhere, except
in the Third Secret. And this is what
the Pope was alluding to in his May
13, 1982, speech. |
