The need to understand...

The Need to Understand the Situation

"Since God's plan for marriage and the family touches men and women in the concreteness of their daily existence in specific social and cultural situations, the Church ought to apply herself to understanding the situation within which marriage and the family are lived today, in order to fulfill her task of serving.
This understanding is, therefore, an inescapable requirement of the work of evangelization. It is, in fact, to the families of our times that the Church must bring the unchangeable and ever new Gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it is the families involved in the present conditions of the world that are called to accept and to live the plan of God that pertains to them. Moreover, the call and demands of the Spirit resound in the very events of history, and so the Church can also be guided to a more profound understanding of the inexhaustible mystery of marriage and the family by the circumstances, the questions and the anxieties and hopes of the young people, married couples and parents of today.
To this ought to be added a further reflection of particular importance at the present time. Not infrequently ideas and solutions which are very appealing, but which obscure in varying degrees the truth and the dignity of the human person, are offered to the men and women of today, in their sincere and deep search for a response to the important daily problems that affect their married and family life. These views are often supported by the powerful and pervasive organization of the means of social communication, which subtly endanger freedom and the capacity for objective judgement.
Many are already aware of this danger to the human person and are working for the truth. The Church, with her evangelical discernment, joins with them, offering her own service to the truth, to freedom and to the dignity of every man and every woman."--Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio [The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World](1981);p.14
**Emphasis added by blog author.

From my Immaculate Heart...

October 22, 1981

"From my Immaculate Heart, peace will come to you!"

"At the moment when everything will seem lost, it is then that you will see the extraordinary prodigy of the Woman clothed in the sun, who will manifest herself in all her power.
The darkness will be conquered by a light which will cover the whole world; the cold of hatred, by the fire of love; the great rebellion against God, by a universal return to His merciful fatherly love.
Yes, my beloved sons, you too will have to suffer and some of you, in my Immaculate Heart, will be immolated, but through your generous response the time of great trial will be shortened.
More quickly than you yourselves could think, there will come to you the reign of love and of peace of my Son Jesus, to whom alone is due honor and power and glory for ever and ever."
--Our Lady Speaks to Her Beloved Priests, (1987), #234, p.332
[Interior Locutions to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, MMP]

Pro-Life Song & Video (Anti-Abortion)

How can anyone deny the sanctity of life? Evil abounds in this world. Satan is alive among us...pray to end the abomination as our leaders, most importantly--the current President--promote and fund this culture of death across the globe using our tax dollars.
We are all culpable and will have to answer for this abomination.
May Jesus have mercy on us...Amen.

There is one Church....

"Remain in me, as I am in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me."--John,15

The Signs of Your Time....

December 31, 1984

"How many of my children spend these moments in amusements and clamor and are inebriated with emptiness amidst so many frivolities and diversions which are often licentious and against the law of the Lord!
I invite you on the contrary to spend these hours in prayer, in recollection, and in interior silence, so that you may enter into a conversation with me, your heavenly Mother. Then, with the same familiarity that a mother has for her children, I will reveal to you the cares, the anxieties and the deep wounds of my Immaculate Heart and, at the same time, I will help you to understand and interpret the signs of your times."
--Our Lady Speaks to Her Beloved Priests, #301, p.449 (1987).

Only in my Immaculate Heart...

"Only in my Immaculate Heart is the source of your security."

"Here you are prepared by me for the great struggle which awaits you. Here you are trained by me in prayer, because this is the weapon with which you must fight. Pray always. Every action of yours must truly be a prayer. Live your Mass, which immolates you each day with Jesus. Pray well the Liturgy of the Hours, which consecrates to God the rhythm of your day."
"Recite the Holy Rosary with love and joy. Meditate on my words, which I have communicated to you these past years. They will bring you to understand the Gospel, which must today be lived by you and announced to all."
"This is the hour of the final battle; it is therefore also the hour of my victory."--Our Lady Speaks to Her Beloved Priests;interior locutions to Fr.Stefano Gobbi, #227; July 1, 1981, pp. 322-24, (1987).

Reflection: Although Our Lady specifically addresses priests and the priesthood in these messages, she also calls the lay faithful to increase prayer--particularly the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary, devotion to Jesus in the most Holy Eucharist, and active penance and fasting for the sins of the world.
We are living in a time that daily challenges the Faith in ways never so blatant and manifest. We are at the crucible. The Holy Rosary is our most powerful weapon against moral relativism, atheism, and secular humanism. We are strengthened for this battle by receiving Christ in the most Holy Eucharist as often as we can in the state of sanctifying grace. The 'Culture of Death' is permeating the world. Let our response be fervent prayer, witness, and a call for radical holiness.

Prayer: Holy Mother of God, strengthen our faith, and protect us beneath the mantle of your Immaculate Heart. Amen.

From the Pastor...

"Among the many causes of contemporary unbelief, which has become a cultural phenomenon, is the absolutization of man as the center of the universe. The attempt to create a society without God is a manifestation of this unfortunate trend. Although we do not live under an officially atheistic regime, we are all adversely affected by the cultural assumptions that God has been displaced as the absolute center of reality. Instead, according to this thinking, it is man or the individual that takes His place. Without God, society becomes a collection of individuals who are adrift and disoriented. Without God, there is no objective basis for truth. Opinion, personal preferences, and feelings become the criteria. This opens the door to relativism in moral matters: "what's true for you is not true for me" and its many concomitant aberrations (e.g., abortion on demand). A culture without God is a culture that is debased. As Catholics we are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of our society and resist the implicit atheism of these cultural trends. We should see why it is so important to observe Sunday as the day of rest and worship owed to God, lest we forget who God is and who we are in relation to him."
--Fr. Sean Donnelly, MA, D. Min, Pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, Madison, OH., August 15, 2010.

"Behold, he is coming amid the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him.
All the peoples of the earth will lament him.
Yes. Amen." Revelation, 1:8 (John).