This faithless and sinful generation...

This video comes via catholicvote.org. It may be disturbing to some--and it should be. These are the faces of the 'culture of death' that we must confront...we cannot afford to be silent. After watching the video I encourage all to contemplate the Reflection and Prayer below...

"Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels" (Mark, 8:38).




March 16

"Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us" (Ephesians, 5:2).

Reflection: Jesus endured crucifixion out of love for us, giving Himself away that we might have life. Abortion, on the other hand, is the opposite of love because it takes life.
Love says, "I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person." Abortion says, "I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself."
Prayer: Father, fill me and all people with the same love by which Your Son gave Himself away on the Cross. Grant that we may sacrifice ourselves and never sacrifice others.
--Pro-Life Reflections for Every Day (2009); Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life
www.priestsforlife.org

Wash Yourselves at the Fountain...

San Marco (Udine, Italy) February 11, 1995

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

"Wash yourselves at the fountain. Wash yourselves at the fountain of living water, gushing from the Heart of Jesus, pierced by the lance of the Roman soldier. For this, with the hands of little Bernadette, I caused a fountain of purest water to gush forth from the rock. And so, I have asked you to go and wash yourselves at the fountain.

Wash yourselves at the fountain. Immerse yourselves in the fountain of Divine Mercy. This fountain, which has gushed from the pierced Heart of Jesus, is given to you through the sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus has instituted it as a precious fruit of His redemption and in order to meet your extreme weakness. On the day of His resurrection, He said to the Apostles: 'Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven' [John, 20:22-23]. From that moment, there was given to you the possibility of washing yourselves, each and every time your souls become degraded by sin.
Wash yourselves at the fountain. During these years, the sacrament of Reconciliation has become more and more neglected; in fact, it is being attacked in a subtle and perverse way. Thus, there is spreading the wicked habit of committing sin with levity, of justifying it, of not regretting having committed it, and of no longer confessing it.
In many parts of the Church, sacramental confession has totally disappeared. Priests who are making themselves available for this indispensable sacrament are becoming more and more scarce. In this way, the Church is becoming utterly paralyzed in her apostolic action; she is wounded and covered with deep sores, like a leper.
Wash yourselves at the fountain. Today I am setting before you the ardent and impassioned request of your heavenly Mother that, in these last times of the great tribulation, the sacrament of Reconciliation be restored in all its splendor in my Church.
Because, it is only from this fountain that Divine Mercy can be poured out upon all humanity. It is in this sacrament that Jesus can form new hearts and a renewed life. It is only with this precious sacrament that the merciful love of Jesus can be communicated to the Church and to all humanity.
For this reason, I invite you today to let yourselves be immersed in the fountain of Divine Mercy and to look to me, your heavenly Mother, who has been conceived Immaculate for the very purpose of becoming for you Mother of Mercy." Interior locution to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, MMP [1973-97]; To The Priests-Our Lady's Beloved Sons, MMP [2009]. #538, pp.846-47

The consequences of contraception...

I am re-posting this piece from Human Life International because it speaks to the cascade away from what is intrinsically 'good,' toward what is intrinsically 'evil.' A moral conscience must be able to make this determination. As Catholics, it is necessary that we apprehend this moral teaching, and where it is ignored or ridiculed, I think we have a duty to correct with charity.

Pro life - Human Life International

Angels and Demons...

I am reprinting this brief from Fr. John Corapi as I believe that many dismiss the power--not only of St. Michael, and our guardian angels--but those fallen angels who seek the death of our immortal souls. Invoke your guardian angel often--as well, St.Michael the Archangel for we are truly in a battle!



July 19th, 2008

Ten years ago I preached a spiritual conference entitled "Angels and Demons." It is rare today that you will find any teaching or preaching on this subject in the Catholic Church. This is strange because it is in fact the teaching of the Catholic Church and always has been.

One cannot understand reality if one brackets out a large portion of reality -- the preternatural order (angels and demons). If you try to arrive at valid conclusions concerning reality, but have left out a good part of that reality you are engaged in an exercise in futility. So many things today can only be understood in the light of this spiritual reality. Have you ever wondered why so many apparently educated and intelligent people just don't get it, especially with respect to such life and death matters as abortion?

There is a battle that goes on in the spiritual order between the forces of God and the forces of Satan, "the adversary." This battle between cosmic good and evil, between angels and demons, has man caught in the crosshairs. Man is an active player in his own salvation. We need the help of our allies the angels. To fail to enlist their help is reckless. To fail to realize the reality of the enemy forces, the demonic legions, can be ultimately and eternally fatal.

We are at war and our battle is not against flesh and blood, as St. Paul warns us in Ephesians 6. The battle between good and evil, truth and lies, life and death involves these angelic legions - good and evil. We are soldiers in God's army, like it or not, believe it or not. We must be aware of these fundamental teachings, learn them, and live in accordance with them.

God bless you,

Fr. John Corapi
*www.fathercorapi.org

Pro-Life Wisdom...

"Abortionists appear unimpressed by the argument that, since human life must surely begin somewhere between conception and birth, he who would snuff it out must bear the burden of proof. Are their rationalizations and evasions no more than evidence of the compounded philosophical confusion of an affluent society enslaved by hedonism? Or does the truth go deeper and blacker than that? Perhaps what they are afraid to face is not the humanity of the unborn child but their own willingness to become utilitarian killers of their own kind."--Fr. Paul Marx,Apostle of Life, The Death Peddlers, pp. 155-56

Prayer: Lord, give wisdom to your people, that they may properly exercise their responsibility to defend life in every circumstance.
--Pro-Life Reflections for Every Day, [2009], p.34; Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life www.priestsforlife.org

Lenten spiritual bouquets for life...

Today, Ash Wednesday begins the Church's Lenten Season. For 40 days we enter the desert--many of us give up things we like to do, to eat, etc.--as a form of penance and mortification.
Today, we also begin the 40 Days for Life Campaign, a time when we try to bring the light of Christ into a world darkened by the genocide of the most innocent among us.
We accomplish this by quiet prayer and witness in front of abortion mills and family planning centers across this nation.
Many individuals who support the sanctity of life are unable to attend these public prayers. Thus, I am suggesting that we can individually, as part of our Lenten 'desert,' commit to saying at least one rosary [5 decades] per week in reparation for the abomination of abortion in this country and across the globe. We can also pray for the conversion of abortionists and all who work in promotion of the 'culture of death.' We have seen miracles happen and there will be more!
Lent is not always about what we deny ourselves--but how we can reform our old selves. It is pro-active. It is a commitment to give more of ourselves for the kingdom of God.
To suffer perhaps by doing something we have never done before--like committing to one rosary per week for the salvation of souls, and reparation for abortion a heinous act that kills one child every 96 seconds in this country alone.
Thus, we offer a spiritual bouquet to heaven--to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary--so wounded and sorrowful.
If we believe what we want to believe and not everything that the Church teaches, perhaps we offer a spiritual bouquet of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and begin a new life in obedience.
There is much we can do for the salvation of our own poor souls, and those of the world--beginning with prayer and ending with prayer in our daily lives.
Much is required of us--but the Way of Life is easy.
Pray...pray...pray...for charity in families, for infants in the womb threatened by abortion...the elderly...the poor...the lonely...the marginalized...and the forgotten--Christ is there.
And pray for your priests and the bishops in union with our holy Pope Benedict XVI.
Pray for the coming reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary!
Pray always without ceasing!

O! Mary, bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living, to you do we
entrust the cause of life.
Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of Life with honesty and love.
Amen.

My Signs...

Zompita (Udine, Italy) January 24, 1984

"Beloved children, I welcome this rosary you are reciting together with such great love and fervor.
As Mother I want to tell you that I am here with you, represented by the statue you have here. Each of my statues is a sign of a presence of mine and reminds you of your heavenly Mother. Therefore it must be honored and put in places of greater veneration.
Just as you look with love at a photograph of a cherished person because it transmits to you a reminder and a likeness, so too you should look with love at every image of your heavenly Mother, because it transmits to you a reminder of her, and still more, it becomes a particular sign of her presence among you.
How deeply saddened I am by the fact that I am, so frequently today, ousted from the churches. Sometimes I am place outside, in a corridor, like some trinket; sometimes I am put in the back of the church, so that none of my children can venerate me.
As a sign of how much I am pleased with the fitting veneration given to my images, is also what I am doing through this little statue. It is a triple sign I give you: that of my eyes, which suddenly come alive; that of the color of my countenance, which changes its hue; and that of my Heart, which exudes a fragrance , now a delicate one, now one of greater strength.
By the sign I give you in the eyes, I want to show you that your heavenly Mother, never so much as in these times, is watching you with her merciful eyes. She is not far from you; she takes cognizance of you in all the difficulties in which you find yourselves, in the difficult moments you are living through, with all the sufferings which are awaiting you, with the great cross you must carry.
And with these eyes I look at all, at those far away, at the atheists, at the drug addicts, at my poor sinful children, to know them just as they are, to help them, to guide them along the path of goodness, of a return to God, of conversion, prayer, fasting and penance.
In a particular way I look at you, my beloved, objects of my maternal complacency. Especially you, beloved of my sacerdotal Movement, who form for me an object of great gratification.
I look at you, and I illumine you with my own beauty. In you I reflect the candor of heaven that is mine. You should be lilies in your purity, roses in your fragrance, cyclamens in your littleness. In this way you compose this beautiful crown of love that makes the thorny crown of my sorrow break into blossom.
By the sign I give you in the color of my visage, I want to show you that I am Mother for all, and today I share in all your needs, and I rejoice in your joys. But I also suffer in all your numerous sufferings.
When a mother is happy and jumps for joy, you see the color of her face become rosy; when she is worried about the fate of her children, you see her face turn completely pale. If this happens to an earthly mother, it also happens to me, and the sign I give you, so human and maternal, is to tell you that as Mother I truly share in all the moments of your life.
When you suffer, I suffer. When you rejoice, I rejoice. When you are good, I jump for joy. When you love me, my face is all aflame because of the joy you give me.
By the sign I give you with the fragrance I exude, sometimes of lesser, sometimes of greater strength, I wish to show you that I am always among you, but especially when you are more in need of me.
If you do not recognize the perfume, or you notice it in a very faint way, it is not because I do not love you, or because you are wicked. The Mother loves with merciful predilection even those who have the greatest need for her!
Understand then why my maternal compassion goes out to sinners, all, but especially those who are furthest away, those most in need of divine mercy. Appearing at Fatima, I taught you to pray to Jesus in this way:'Bring all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.'
I love all, beginning with the furthest away, those of my children who are sinners, for whom I am a secure and maternal refuge.
Look at my merciful eyes which shed tears of sorrow and compassion. In so many parts of the world I give this sign, causing copious tears to stream from my eyes, even tears of blood.
To give a sign of my presence and to accord to your lives a secure support, and amid the tribulations you are living, to call you to joy and to trust, in so many parts of the world, I am still giving my maternal messages. They announce to you the certitude that I am following you and I am with you; I lead you by the hand along the difficult road of this time of purification.
A fragrant sign of my maternal presence is to be found in the apparitions I am still making in many regions of the world. Yes, in these times I am appearing in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in America, and in distant Oceania. The whole world is wrapped in my mantle.
In the struggle, now conclusive, between me and my Adversary, my extraordinary presence tells you that my victory has already begun. My beloved children, how much I love you!
From you, to whom I have given so much, this I ask: that you increase your love for me!..."--To The Priests-Our Lady's Beloved Sons, MMP (2009). Interior locutions to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, MMP [1973-97]; #283, pp. 383-85
*Italics and bold print are emphasis of the blog author.