The Three Ages of the Interior Life - Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange

I. THE ONE THING NECESSARY

As everyone can easily understand, the interior life is an elevated form of intimate conversation which everyone has with himself as soon as he is alone, even in the tumult of a great city. From the moment he ceases to converse with his fellow men, man converses interiorly with himself about what preoccupies him most. This conversation varies greatly according to the different ages of life; that of an old man is not that of a youth. It also varies greatly according as a man is good or bad.

As soon as a man (woman) seriously seeks truth and goodness, this intimate conversation with himself tends to become conversation with God. Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism love of God and of souls in Him. This constitutes the interior life. No sincere man will have any difficulty in recognizing it. The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary (1) consists in hearing the word of God and living by it.

The interior life thus conceived is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life.  Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their mo ments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be in certain respects the search for the true and the good in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.

This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called the one thing necessary, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of salvation.

St. Pope Pius X miracle 1954

Editor of Vatican paper says he received miracle from St. Pope Pius X

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The editor of the Vatican newspaper said he was cured of a childhood disease through the intercession of St. Pope Pius X. "I have an authentic veneration for him because, according to family tradition, I was miraculously cured because of him," said Giovanni Maria Vian, editor of L'Osservatore Romano. In 1954, when Vian had just turned 2 years old, he was struck by "an almost deadly form of diphtheria," he said in an interview with Il Consulente Re, an online Italian Catholic magazine. Vian said that on the eve of Pope Pius' canonization in May 1954, a Spanish priest who was a friend of Vian's father said the family should pray for the intercession of the late pope. Family members already felt a close tie to the Treviso-born pope because they were from the same part of northern Italy, Vian said. After the priest celebrated Mass "on the pope's tomb" in St. Peter's Basilica, "I was cured," Vian said.

JOELLE BEURET LETTER TO FRIENDS WHO WAS HEALED OF BLINDNESS IN MEDJUGORJE

Dear friends,

I would like to share with you what happened after my healing on October 19, 2010 in Medjugorje.  When I walked out of the church in Medjugorje on that first evening I was able to see the light, faces of the people, I could see how their lips and eyes were moving. As days passed by, my sight was improving gradually. Today, I only thank my Lord for not having healed me at once, suddenly; I wouldn’t be able to take that. On the way back to Switzerland, as we drove in the bus I was able to see some kind of “messy trees”. My friend Claudia told me to tell her if I happen to see something like that again. Few minutes passed by, the bus continued its drive and finally I was able to see “messy tree” again. It turned out those were palm trees, Claudia told me.  Imagine how you would feel if you woke up after 42 years. Nothing is as it was before. My friends from prayer group are wonderful to me. They are giving me strength for this new awakening, for looking into the Light.
When I returned to Switzerland, I got to know anew my two brothers, my sister, and my parents. When it gets dark, that becomes resting time for me. The life starts to look as it was before. I do not stop with my prayers to Jesus and Mary. It was my parents through whom I started loving Jesus and Mary, and I passed the same love towards my daughter Vinciane, who was in Medjugorje with me.
In those first days, as I looked at high buildings in Lausanne, buildings with more than ten floors, I would be sick all the time, I was sweating and felt like vomiting. I didn’t feel like going out at all, because I would have to look at those high buildings. The same was with the people: every encounter was making me nervous and uncomfortable. Whatever happens, I am not losing my faith, for if Jesus through Mary gave me back my sight, I am positive He will give me strength to bear with difficulties that are accompanying my healing.
Faith, patience, courage and trust are those kind signs that I am holding onto in my life. I am sure that Jesus always completes his work, He who does it all in kindness and in discrete way.
Today I am able to differentiate the colours. I can see huge objects like houses, trees, green gardens, cars; I can see our ca, stairs, sun and people. I came back to work and I am able to do all house works much easily. Vinciane rejoices to this change that happens to her mother and says that we have God’s peace in our home! I remain with you in prayer.

Joelle Beuret – Devanthery
Lausanne, November 19, 2010


P.S. Something that will help you in understanding what I am going through:
People always told me that I was lucky because I could not see this ugly and grey world. They told me that people are miserable. I imagined that the earth was grey, that people are like some grey sticks, that sun is shining through thick layer of fog, that even the water we drink is grey and blurry.
Imagine how I was surprised when I discovered beautiful and colourful nature, smiling people, beautiful sun on the blue sky, all full of order and kindness. Praised be Thee, my God!
I would imagine that people are crushed like fish in a can while they stand on the station stops and that used to wear me down completely. Today, I can save fifteen minutes every day because  I can find my way through the people much faster and I am able to get everywhere in faster way. Thank you, Mary!
Those unfaithful Thomas’ from my surrounding were saying how something like this is not possible. Few days later that called me and told me how they can recognise God’s work in this miracle.
And I could tell you many other things, but it would all be too long.
They performed some minor tests already. I can see the light with my left eye, with my right even better. On December 8, 2010 I am to have another test in Basel, with one professor of ophthalmology. I will write to you again. Let us remain united in prayer, thanking Mary, Queen of Peace and Her Son Jesus who said: you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven unless you become like the children... This healing gave me the soul of a child, the look of child who went from the night into the Light! Lord, everything is from You, everything is for our happiness and everything comes back to You.
SOURCE - http://www.medjugorje.hr/en/news/testimony-of-christiane-claessens,-who-followed-group-from-lausanne,-switzerland-on-their-pilgrimage-to-medjugorje,3388.html

Spreading human misery

Spreading human misery

Almost nobody is beyond redemption from drug addiction, but you wouldn't know it from the deep-throated baying for addiction enablement that dominates debate on the issue. And oh, the hypocrisy: There isn't a single AC pundit in this country militating for Insite who would passively allow his or her own child to use their services. Each and every one of them would move Heaven and Earth to ensure that their loved ones got intervention and treatment. As retired Vancouver policeman Al Arsenault, who patrolled the "chemical gulag" of Downtown Eastside Vancouver for 27 years and who calls Insite an "abject and utter failure," put it: "The rich get treatment, the poor get [Insite]."

Nobody has ever died of an overdose at Insite, a key argument for its supporters. That is true, but so what? No depressed people would ever die from stepping off the Golden Gate Bridge if there were a safety net below it. The net would do nothing to solve the depression of those jumping into the net, or help the many thousands of others who continued to jump from other high places in plain sight of the net. It would only give the impression that society is "doing something" to reduce the harm.

Just like Insite. Yes, 1,400 people use it, but Insite does not protect them from the health risks of direct-to-vein injection. They don't die from a sudden overdose, but they do die from their behaviour. There are better ways than Insite to spend public money. It is puzzling and rather shameful that the federal government has not found its tongue in making its own case on this file.

OUR LADY OF FATIMA :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

OUR LADY OF FATIMA :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

WORDS OF WISDOM

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to become distracted and spend our time on activities that are either non-productive or ineffective?
Our productivity, personal growth, & our present as well as our future depends on what our minds are focusing on at any given minute.

Since our future depends on our focus, my thoughts often turn toward Ephesians 5:15-17 ~ Be very careful, then, on how you live---not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

It’s our choice how we spend our time; we can choose to complain, criticize, worry & wish things were different or we can spend our time learning, creating, planning, encouraging & building people up. It’s difficult to be effective & productive in this life if we allow our minds to dwell on the negative.

By: Anna Gisselle

THE POWER OF FASTING

NEED A BREAKTHROUGH THIS LENT? TRY FASTING--SERIOUSLY  

Lent is here, and there's no better time than to begin the spiritual practice of fasting. Fasting is the utmost of prayers, causing breakthroughs within us and around us that prayer alone does not always do. Intractable problems are relieved. Jobs are found. Kids come back to church. Confusion dissolves into clarity. Hardship is handled. Doors open. Healing happens. And our hearts are cleansed to receive and give more love. A friend of mine once said to me, as his eyes filled with tears, "It's hard for me to fast, but I see so many beautiful things happening in my life, and to the people around me, that I can't stop."

Once you discover the blessings, heavenly aid, and power of fasting, you will not want to give up this important spiritual practice, even when Easter arrives. Fasting pulls down from God's throne a shower of graces.

But do we have to fast? Who says so? Jesus. Fasting, believe it or not, is a practice that Jesus assumed his disciples were doing. There are three very challenging and much ignored words that Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6. He says, "When you fast," and goes on to say, "do not look gloomy like the hypocrites." He doesn't say, "If you perhaps might one day decide to possibly give fasting a go, that is, if you feel like it." Jesus assumes that we are fasting in order to spread the kingdom of God. Fasting was a common practice in his time, and the book of Acts indicates that prayer and fasting were very important to his first disciples, aiding in their ministry and discernment (Acts 13:2, Luke 2:36-38). Moses fasted forty days and nights before receiving the Ten Commandments. Jesus fasted forty days and nights before beginning his public ministry. The Catechism of the Catholic Church also calls us to fast.   

Fasting purifies our souls, helping us to fight off temptation and conform our will to God's. When we say no to our appetites, we might see certain aspects of the flesh rise up in ourselves, like irritability, self-pity, anger, pride, lust, etc. We can blame it on the fasting, but actually, this practice simply allows us to see what is already inside ourselves, so that we might experience spiritual purification. It is no wonder that all the saints fasted. Without fasting, we can only get so far in the spiritual life, and our prayers for others and for the world will only be so effective. Prayer without fasting is like a bird trying to fly with only one wing.

An authentic Christian life is nurtured by acts of self-denial, which open the heart to love. If we were to follow our body's and our mind's every selfish inclination, we would successfully drown out God's voice and direction from our lives and mute the power of our prayers and Christian witness. Fasting tames our self-serving nature, and also unites us with the majority of the people in our world who live on simple diets like just rice and beans, since that's all they can afford.

Traditional fast days in the Church were Wednesdays and Fridays and Saturdays, and a most efficacious fast is to have bread and water on two of those days. As with all spiritual practices, danger can creep in, when one does it for the wrong reason: out of pride, or vanity, or without attention to personal health problems, or if one forgets that the entire reason behind it is to love God with all our mind, soul, heart and strength, and our neighbor as ourself. Fasting with the heart brings us closer to Jesus Christ. It is all about our intimate relationship with the One who loves us most.

God pays serious attention to our prayers when we fast because we're willing to sacrifice for what we believe in. A version of Mark, Chapter 9, verse 29 describes a situation where the disciples asked Jesus why they were not able to cast out a demon from a boy. Jesus responded: "This kind can only come out through prayer and through fasting."

The power in fasting has amazed me to no end, causing good things happen that otherwise might not. My husband and I adopted a beautiful baby boy a couple years ago, after waiting for a child in the foster care system for three and a half years. During the first week that we took the baby home, we came to a horrible crossroad. Our adoption worker called to tell us that the baby's biological mother, who had never met us, was choosing a different adoption service. The baby, with whom we were madly in love, was going to be taken away from our in two days on a Friday, and there was absolutely nothing we could do to prevent it. Shocked and grief-stricken, I began to cry, and my husband crawled into bed, pulled the covers over his head, and wouldn't move. We almost despaired. But by God's grace, we remembered there was something we could do. We could pray, and we could fast. For two and a half-days straight, we ate little-to-nothing and prayed constantly. Come that Friday, the day the baby was supposed to be taken away, the baby's birth mother and grandmother were sitting in our living room, grateful to choose us as parents.

St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, known for reading souls and converting an entire town in a few short years, was a great proponent of fasting. A parish priest once complained to him about the indifference of the people in his parish, and St. John Vianney answered, "You have preached, you have prayed, but have you fasted? Have you taken the discipline? Have you slept on the floor? So long as you have done none of these things, you have no right to complain."

He also once said, "My friend, the devil is not greatly afraid of instruments of penance. That which beats him is the curtailment of one's food, drink, and sleep. There is nothing the devil fears more, consequently nothing is more pleasing to God. Oh, how often I have experienced it! When I was alone, it happened at times that I refrained from food for entire days. On those occasions, I obtained, both for myself and for others, whatever I asked of Almighty God."

Mary, the Mother of God, has also spoken of the power of fasting through her messages in Medjugorje. She is urging the world to fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays-not just in Lent.

On July 21, 1982, she said: "The best fast is on bread and water. Through fasting and prayer, one can stop wars, one can suspend the laws of nature. Charity cannot replace fasting. Those who are not able to fast can sometime replace it with prayer, charity, and a confession; but everyone, except the sick, must fast."

A few months later, on December 25, 1982, she stressed again, "You have forgotten that through prayer and fasting you can avert wars and suspend the laws of nature."

If you find this hard to believe, I will conclude with a true story of prayer and fasting doing just that. I used to work as a resident minister at the University of San Francisco where I met a student named Dennis, who told me of something that happened to him in 1986, when he was home in the Philippines, a very Catholic country. During that time, people were no longer willing to tolerate the great injustice, corruption, and repression of basic human liberties by the country's dictatorship under Marco, which kept much of the population in extreme poverty. The people were demonstrating, marching and protesting in the streets. The government responded by employing tanks to begin firing at civilians. The Catholic bishops got word of this and publicized throughout the nation that everyone should begin to fast and pray the rosary. As this was happening, Dennis was marching in the street. A tank began to advance towards him, and he thought to himself, "I'm about to be killed. This is my last moment on earth." But suddenly he felt a wave of exquisite peace pass through him, and he fell to his knees, as though he were being lowered down gently. "It was so unreal," he said. "At one level, I knew that my life was in danger, and on another level, I was completely at peace, not worried about a single thing." Those who were standing around him fell to their knees, as well. All of the tanks came to a halt at the same time, and the soldiers began to climb out of them. They found themselves incapable of advancing or firing. Then protesters and small children walked towards the tanks and began handing the soldiers flowers. Later several interviews with soldiers revealed that they, too, had felt a wave of peace come over them and nothing in their entire beings would allow them to fight. They had overthrown the orders of their military superiors. This miraculous event came to be known as the Edsa revolution.

Through fasting, we take on a sliver of the cross, relieve some of Jesus' sufferings, help transform the world, and in return, gain a bit of heaven ourselves. If you wish to make a lasting difference in this world and experience spiritual breakthroughs in your life, try fasting this Lent-and beyond. 
 

BY  CHRISTINE WATKINS

Christine Watkins, MTS, LCSWAuthor of Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of 
Healing and Conversion through Mary's Intercession(AVAILABLE NOW from Ave Maria Press)
christinewatkins.com
BLOG medjugorjemiracles.com 

Hell

Hell
The hell with hell! says the modern mind. Of all Christianity's teachings, hell is certainly the least popular. Non-Christians ignore it, weak Christians excuse it, and anti-Christians attack it.
Some, like Bertrand Russell in his famous essay "Why I Am Not a Christian", argue that because Jesus clearly taught it, he was not a good moral teacher. (Russell's essay, by the way, makes fine devotional reading for a Christian. My college roommate was about to lose his faith until he read it; he said to me, "If those are the arguments against Christianity, I'd better be a Christian.")

Why do we believe there's a hell? Not because we're vindictive. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." Why, then? Simply because we've been told, by Christ himself. There's a popular fallacy that Jesus spoke only comforting words and that the fear of hell began with Saint Paul. The textual truth is the opposite: Jesus uttered many "hell fire and damnation" sermons, while nearly all the passages that offer any hope to the universalist (who believe all men will be saved in the end) are from Paul.

Fear of hell is not a base motive. As George MacDonald says, "As long as there are wild beasts about, it is better to be afraid than secure. "God's graciousness accepts even the "low" motive of fear of hell for salvation if that's the best we can muster. His arms are open to all prodigals. He is not high-minded, like some of his detractors. All's fair in love and war. And life is both.

Hell follows from two other doctrines: heaven and free will. If there is a heaven, there can be a not-heaven. And if there is free will, we can act on it and abuse it. Those who deny hell must also deny either heaven (as does Western secularism) or free will (as does Eastern pantheism).

Hell and heaven make life serious. Heaven without hell removes the bite from life's drama. C. S. Lewis once said that he never met a single person who had a lively faith in heaven without a similar belief in hell. The height of the mountain is measured by the depth of the valley, the greatness of salvation by the awfulness of the thing we're saved from.

What is hell? The popular image of demons gleefully poking pitchforks into unrepentant posteriors misses the point of the biblical image of fire. Fire destroys. Gehenna, the word Jesus used for hell, was the valley outside Jerusalem that the Jews used for the perpetual burning of garbage because it had been desecrated by heathen tribes who used it for human sacrifice. In hell you make an eternal ash of yourself. Hell is not eternal life with torture but something far worse: eternal dying. What goes to hell, said C. S. Lewis, is "not a man, but remains".

The images for hell in Scripture are horrible, but they're only symbols. The thing symbolized is not less horrible than the symbols, but more. Spiritual fire is worse than material fire; spiritual death is worse than physical death. The pain of loss – the loss of God, who is the source of all joy – is infinitely more horrible than any torture could ever be. All who know God and his joy understand that. Saints do not need to be threatened with fire, only with loss. "All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it – or else that it was within your grasp and you have lost it forever" (C. S. Lewis).

Jesus does not tell us much detail about hell. He tells us that it exists, that it's horrible, that any man can go there. Judas seems to be one, for Jesus says of him, "It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." If no one goes to hell, it would seem to be inexcusable for Jesus to give us so many fearful warnings about it. But he does not give us population statistics. To his disciples' question "Are many saved?" he does not answer with estimates but with a forceful appeal to the will: "Strive to enter in."

Jesus says the way to hell is broad and many find it and that the way to heaven is narrow and few find it. And he means it: you don't get to heaven simply by being born, by being nice, or by oozing into an eternal growth experience. But "few" here does not mean that less than half of mankind will be saved. For God speaks as our Father, not our statistician. Even one child lost is too many, and the rest saved are too few. The good shepherd who left his ninety-nine sheep safe at home to rescue his one lost sheep found even 99 percent salvation too "few".

The most important question about hell, as about heaven, is the practical one: What roads lead there?

The most important question about hell, as about heaven, is the practical one: What roads lead there? They are interior, of course. In fact, heaven and hell may be the very same objective place – namely God's love, experienced oppositely by opposite souls, just as the same opera or rock concert can be heavenly for you and hellish for the reluctant guest at your side. The fires of hell maybe made of the very love of God, experienced as torture by those who hate him: the very light of God's truth, hated and fled from in vain by those who love darkness.

Imagine a man in hell – no, a ghost – endlessly chasing his own shadow, as the light of God shines endlessly behind him. If he would only turn and face the light, he would be saved. But he refuses to – forever. Just as we can attain heaven by implicit as well as explicit faith ("Saint Socrates, pray for us," says Erasmus), so hell too can be reached without explicit rebellion. This is the terrible – and terribly needed – truth taught by C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce and Charles Williams in Descent into Hell. We can drift, slide, even snooze comfortably into hell. All God's messengers, the prophets, say so.

We desperately need to hear this truth about hell again, simply out of honesty, because it is there. And also out of compassion. For when an abyss looms ahead, the least compassionate thing to tell the traveler is "peace, peace, when there is no peace". Out of love for god and man, let us tell the truth about hell!

Sure, we'll be mocked as vindictive, manipulative, or fundamentalist. Let it be so. Sometimes it seems that we're more afraid of sharing our Lord's holy unrespectability than of hell itself. It's a small price to pay for the salvation of a single infinitely precious soul. And that is the business we're supposed to be in.

“Reading souls, expelling demons, gift of prophesy”

“Reading souls, expelling demons, gift of prophesy”Petition for sainthood filed with Los Angeles archbishop on behalf of Claretian priest credited with miraculous cures
The first step in the process toward canonization has been taken for a Claretian priest who ministered in California before his death in 1981 and is buried at the San Gabriel Mission.

A petition for sainthood was submitted to Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez in March for Fr. Aloysius Ellacuria, described on the Fr. Aloysius Project website as a “well known Basque Claretian mystic, with a reputation as a miracle worker in California, especially in the Los Angles area, in the 1950's through the 1970's.”

[Image]“During these years, even the very famous would visit him, or seek him out for advice, or in some cases, receive through his intercession miraculous cures,” according to the website. “Father Aloysius always attributed the many graces which people received to the goodness of the Almighty God. Among his many ‘gifts,’ Father had the charism of reading souls, expelling demons, and the gift of prophesy. He became well known for his unique presence, as he reflected peace and goodness. He was always grateful to God for many graces which God granted in request to his prayers on behalf of others. Gratitude to God was, for Father Aloysius, most important.”

“Three decades after his death, a steady stream of visitors from around the country still pay homage to the San Gabriel Mission grave site of Father Aloysius Ellacuria,” reports the Pasadena Star-News. “Now, the Basque Claretian Missionary priest, who had a reputation as a miracle worker and ministered for many years within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, is on a path many of his devotees hope will lead to sainthood.”

“In addition to having great love and devotion to the Virgin Mary, the father had a tremendous interest in invoking the intercession of St. Anthony Mary Claret -- who founded the Claretian Missionaries in 1849 -- on behalf of the sick, said Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia,” theStar-News reported.

"Father Aloysius had great compassion for the sick, a great empathy for those who were suffering, especially from cancer," Cardinal Rigali told the newspaper. The cardinal, said the Star-News, knew Fr. Aloysius personally “when Rigali lived in Los Angeles more than five decades ago as a seminary student.” The Claretian priest prayed for Cardinal Rigali’s mother, who was suffering from cancer and later recovered after treatment, said the newspaper.

“Among those who support the priest's beatification, is Frederic Anthony Riaza of Murrieta, who was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 5 and given only three months to live,” said the Star-News story. “After Father Aloysius and his guilds prayed ‘non-stop’ for Riaza and the priest offered Masses to him, the boy and his family were told by a baffled doctor following two weeks of tests that he could leave the hospital.”

“Riaza said he is confident he was healed as a result of Father Aloysius' prayers for him,” reported theStar-News.

“Kenneth M. Fisher of Anaheim recalls seeing his late nephew's ‘crooked arm’ straighten before his very eyes while the teen was being blessed by Father Aloysius in Fountain Valley,” the newspaper reported.

"From my perspective, the church at this time needs examples of heroic sanctity and holiness, which would certainly counteract... the scandals of the recent past," Fr. Kevin Manion, a priest of the Archdioceses of Guadalajara, Mexico, who submitted the petition for sainthood and who worked with Fr. Aloysius as his secretary for eight years before his death, told the Star-News. "Aloysius was in charge of formation; he formed priests to be holy. If there is anything needed today, it is priests who are holy."

To visit the Fr. Aloysius Project website, Click Here.

Iowa Jesus

In the 1990's, Marian Conferences started up in the USA.  We went to one of the first in Des Moines, Iowa in 1992.  We knew we were called to this conference because the last thing I do gladly, is travel; and Iowa certainly wasn't on my list of states to visit.  After our pilgrimage to Medjugoje in May of 1990, I became a 'true' Catholic (a revert) again and my husband was a brand new Catholic (a convert). Our spiritual adventures in Medjugorje were incredible and quite a gift from God.  The photo of Jesus on this blog of mine, 'AND AMAZING GRACE'; was a miraculous one indeed.  It was Friday afternoon and we just got into Des Moines, Iowa.  We got our hotel room and walked over to the conference center and into the room where the Friday evening activities were to start.  It was early in the afternoon and there was pretty much nobody there except for a few people setting up their books and things to sell in a back room.  John, my husband and I were just walking around checking it all out and we saw another one or two people doing the same but they didn't stay long.  We wandered about and John went one way and I went towards the stage where there was an altar set up and a very large crucifix of Jesus hanging up high.  Since getting a camera, I was always drawn to taking pictures of crucifixes while in Italy and elsewhere.  And so I looked through my camera which was blessed in Medjugorje in 1990 and I zoomed in on Jesus's face, and His wounds and started taking pictures.  I noticed that the blood started to move from His wounds and it was as though Jesus had become alive for me through the camera.  I dropped the camera to my side and looked up with my eyes and saw the crucifix as normal but when I looked through my camera, Jesus started to bleed from His wounds and He opened His eyes slightly towards me.  I then looked around for John but he was way in the back of the conference room but there was a lady that was on the stage with me and so I said, would you please look through this camera at Jesus.  I said "stand right here and look up at Him".  I was pretty weirded out in a good way and she never said a word to me but just did as I asked. I  stood there while she looked up at Jesus through my camera in the same spot and with the same zoom lens and after she looked, she handed me back the camera, never said a word but her face was a bit in awe and she hit the floor on her knees adoring Jesus on the crucifix.  We never spoke.  I got my answer, I believe she saw the same thing I did...Jesus came alive for her too.

MOIRA' S CONVERSION STORY THROUGH OUR LADY

My Conversion Story
by Moira Noonan
My earliest memories of Catholicism was my mother saying that she sent us (my brothers and sisters) to Catholic School so the nuns could raise us because they did a better job than she did. The first school I went to was in Detroit for kindergarten, a Sacred Heart Convent School in the order of St. Madeline Sophie. By the time I was in third grade we had moved from Detroit to New Jersey where I had attended public school due to lack of a Catholic School in that area. By eight grade I was sent away to boarding school in Philadelphia called Eden Hall, the Sacred Heart Convent, when I was in tenth grade the school suffered a fire and burnt down.
I was transferred to a secular college-prep boarding school called MacDuffie School for Girls. This transition placed a real damper on my faith journey. This non-Catholic environment started me out on the dangerous path into the New Age World. One of my teachers, in her twenties, had befriended me and many of the girls at the school both during and after school hours. She had studied in India and had a strong belief in the Hindu Religion, she was also engaged to a Hindu who was a professor at Princeton University. He wore the traditional dress of a turban and came to visit her at our boarding school on a regularly basis. We attended many different Indian concerts including Ravi Shankar and became more fascinated with the mystery of the Indian Culture and religion.
By the time I had graduated high school in (1970) I was convinced I needed to be enlightened, go to India and find my Guru, "my living teacher to show me the way to God". After graduation I decided to attend college in Colorado, and attend both the University of Denver and Colorado University. I had always had the idea that one day I would go to India, the seed of this new belief system had been planted into me.
It is a common belief among New-Agers that follow Gurus that a Gurus needs to be alive in order to help you. So on the college campus I attended, I was highly influenced by the Rashneesh movement. This movement really took off and their Guru eventually moved from India to the West Coast in the U.S. to be with all of the young followers. The college campus had meditation classes and groups which were always promoting a Guru.

By my junior year of college I had transferred to the University of Washington in Seattle and decided to do a semester abroad and attended college in Avignon France. While I was in France I travelled to Greece and Turkey and thought I'd just take a train to India because I didn't feel the need to finish college. The concept of being enlightened had overpowered my need to finish my education. The Lord had different plans for my life, he used my grandmother to track me down. She convinced me to come home and finish school so I graduated College in 1974 from the University of Washington. During this time the media and top celebrities such as the Beatles, were off visiting their Gurus, so my influence within the Hindu and Eastern Religion continued. The seed of this new belief system I had received during high school actually developed enough to brainwash me into believing I needed to find a living Gurus to find enlightenment.

Another aspect of my New Age journey was falling prey to the feminist movement and the attitude that woman were nothing without a career. So I had again put India on the back shelf to enter the career path, to become a successful publisher. I became solely focused on my work, and had no time for spiritually matters. By the age of twenty eight I had accomplished my goal of being a publisher and was working in Hawaii with Visitor Publication Inc.. By thirty I'd had been in a major auto accident in the company car. The accident left me serious disabled and I could not work or even drive, and was left in constant pain. Searching for a way to relieve the pain I turned back to the Hindu Religion and without realizing it until later, I like to say; my insurance company paid for me to become future brainwashed in the New Age. My insurance company within the state of Hawaii sent me Dr. Norman Shelly's Pain and Rehabilitation Clinic in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which was one of the first model pain clinics in the country. The pain clinic has since moved to Menninger's Clinic in the Midwest. The main training in this clinic was autogenic, which is a combination of hypnosis and New Thought philosophy of beliefs. The New Thought belief comes from the Science of the Mind, created by Dr. Ernest Holmes, Theosophy Society and Mary Baker Eddy, who was the founder of the Christian Science Religion. During my stay at the pain clinic, the patients were placed under subliminal mode to alter the brain waves of thinking, while feeding the brain messages of a new value and belief system. A mind over matter way to become pain free, "If you believe you have no pain, then you have no pain." The staff at the clinic actually verbally put down any form of suffering, and virtue in suffering. No redemptive suffering or that the suffering you are experiencing could be from God, but only a result of your own guilt. The concept of salvation was self endured, "If you wanted to be saved, healed or pain free you better do it yourself." There was no room for Christian Values or concepts. This describes the New Age trinity of Me, Myself and I. These auto-suggestions went on daily, hourly for the duration of my stay. I stayed at the pain clinic for about a month. When I finally left the clinic they gave me books and tapes to take home so I could stay on the autogenic system in order to stay pain free, and to keep this "New Thought" in my mind to support my new way of thinking.
After my experiences within the clinic, I decided to join New Age Churches. The main goal at the time was to give light to the Church of Religious Science, and Unity Churches, these churches are now international in most cities within the United States. I ended up joining the ministry training program at the North County Church of Religious Science in Encinitas, CA and spent four years learning under a former Catholic minister where the brainwashing continued in depth until I truly had a new belief system.

I also was a prayer practitioner at the Seaside Church of Religious Science in Del Mar, CA. Having been in pain, I was drawn to the New Age healing arts and became certified as a Reiki healer and master trainer and was certified in Hands of Light training by Barbara Brennar, School of Healing. This led to desire to learn more about the psychic world — the healing arts aren't about using the Holy Spirit. So I went for psychic training classes at the Teaching of the Inner Christ in Lemon grove CA, to learn counterfeit gifts such as clairvoyant, clairsentient, and clairaudient and to be more connected with fallen spirits and spirit guides. During the prayer practitioner work at the churches, we assisted people to "manifest" their desires, using God more like a Genie who grants you wishes, than a loving creator who we should submit our will to. The essence of the New Age teachings is to manifest into human experience what they consider to be the divine will because they think that we are all "gods". A basic denial of original sin and the same lie that Satan gave to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Only now the idea is promoted with more sophisticated brainwashing programs.

Prayer practitioner work led to healing work and training in counselling for me. In 1989 I became a certified Ericksonian Hypotherapist. The emphasis was on part of life regression therapy and future life. One of the hardest beliefs to be rid of from the New Age is the belief in reincarnation. There is such bondage in that belief system. Dr. Milton Erickson designed this type of therapy using N.L.P or (Neurolinguistic programming.) I received my N.L.P. training at Robbins Research Int. In San Diego by Anthony (Tony) Robbins, Tony Robbins is a master hypnotist. I became further immersed in the world of hypnosis and it became for me a complete reprogramming of my mind and a serious loss of personal will power.
The beginning of my conversion started in 1990. I was in Hawaii at the Ericksonian therapy seminar and at one point I was in the lounge between classes reading an article about the New Age leader and teacher Sandra Ray's trip to Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sandra's aim in going was to visit "Mother Mary." She says she was even invited by the priest at St. James Church to be in the room with the visionaries darning the apparition. Her experience there gave her the insight to start the goddess movement which is very big within the New Age. She believed she witnessed the heaven goddess, "Mother Mary", coming down to meet the earth goddess, Gaia. While I was sitting there reading this article what really struck me was that I knew our Lady was definitely not a goddess. So I thank the Sacred Heart nuns of my early childhood that some truth had stuck with me. When I returned home to San Diego I happened to be in Long's Drug Store and found a Life Magazine with a picture of a statue of our Lady on the cover and the title "Do you believe in Miracles"? So I bought that as a follow-up to the New Age magazine that I had been reading while I was in Hawaii. Time magazine had a truer version of Mary and encouraged me to look deeper into her. The key person who the Lord brought into my life to help me fully commit my life to Christ and our Blessed Mother was Beverly Nelson, a Lay Missionary of Charity in the order of Mother Theresa. As a result of Beverly's encouragement I also joined the Lay Missionary's of Charity and became active within the order. I also joined R.C.I.A, at St. Francis Parish in Vista, CA. and became a sponsor for many of my New Age friends to become Catholic within the church. Including a former New Age doctor, my former New Age professor, a top New Age musician, personal friends who have been in New Age for over thirty year and my ex-husband, all of these people were adults between the ages of thirty five and fifty. They are glad for their new-found faith in Christ. My daughter, has also had all of her sacraments within the Catholic Faith, and is a practicing Young Adult.

Ransomed From Darkness
By June Klins

   “Ignorance is bliss,” the saying goes. One person who will tell you that is not true is Moira Noonan, a former Religious Science minister, psychic counselor and therapist, who was ransomed from darkness to the true Light of Jesus Christ through His Mother.
   Moira Noonan spoke at the Medjugorje Conference at Notre Dame on May27, 2007. She began her talk with the St. Michael prayer, a prayer she says frequently. She witnessed her conversion story and warned of the dangers of the New Age movement. According to http://www.beliefnet.com/, New Age is “an umbrella term for a wide range of personal and individual beliefs and practices influenced primarily by Eastern religions, paganism, and spiritism.”  Moira Noonan describes New Age as “a display of power rather than a call to love. People are motivated by the prospect of having their wishes fulfilled, rather than by a sense of surrender to God’s Will.” Several times in her talk, she referred to the “holy trinity” of New Age as “me, myself and I.”  God is seen as an impersonal life force rather than a personal God with whom we have a relationship.
   Moira was brought up as a Catholic in California, but abandoned her faith at age 15. When she went away to boarding school, a teacher there introduced her to Eastern religions, reincarnation and transcendental meditation. Years later she would be lured into the world of spiritism after a car accident left her in chronic pain. Her insurance company sent her to a pain clinic where they took away all pain killers and gave her a series of messages that were anti-Christian. The messages condemned any acceptance of suffering as redemptive. She called it “professional brainwashing.”  She says, “My insurance company paid for me to get into the occult.”  The pain clinic encouraged  the patients to join “New Thought” churches such as such as Unity and Religious Science, Christian Science and Unitarian. Moira fell prey to all their ideas and, after 4 years of “seminary,” became a minister in the church of Religious Science. She became certified in hypnotherapy, and developed expertise in past-life regression, astrology, the Course in Miracles, Reiki, channeling, crystals, clairvoyance and other occult practices. Moira did not realize at the time that “through this kind of thinking, demon spirits inflate the ego, sometimes to the point that we believe we are creator gods.” This kind of thinking breaks the First Commandment, and soon all the others. She also did not realize that spirit guides, demon spirits can give you signs, wonders and miracles, but these signs are an encouragement for PRIDE. Although she did not elaborate in her talk about the darkness she wrestled with during these years, she did write about it in her book, Ransomed From Darkness. .
   One day Moira was reading a magazine called “New Age Journal” and there was an article in there by a leader in the New Age movement who went to Medjugorje. She said that Our Lady was a “goddess” and that She was coming to Earth to see the “Earth goddess.”  As soon as Moira read that, she knew this was wrong. (She credited the nuns from second grade with the shred of Catholicism she had left.) She prayed a simple prayer, “Mother Mary, I know You’re not a goddess. I know this article is not true, but if You are coming to Earth in any way, shape or form, I’d really like to meet You.” 
   Little by little, Our Lady answered that prayer. One evening at a table tipping session (where they would call on spirits to move objects around) Moira felt a presence of something beautiful and angelic. She wondered about it, and an interior voice answered, “I am the Queen of Peace.”
   In July, 1991, “Life” Magazine wrote about the miracles of Medjugorje. Soon after Moira read the magazine, she turned on the TV and it just happened that Joan Rivers was interviewing two priests and author Michael Brown about Medjugorje. Joan Rivers was holding a rosary that had turned gold.
   By this point Moira was really intrigued and wanted to know more. Her babysitter’s mother, who was Catholic, led her to a Catholic bookstore, where she and another spiritism minister walked in on a talk about Medjugorje. After the talk, a Bible class began, but Moira and her friend thought they knew everything about the Bible, so they left and went to the beach. Her friend pulled out her crystal pendulum, which is something New Agers carry to channel spirit guides for spiritual direction. Although Moira did not know at the time, she now proclaims, “Of course, it’s demonic – false locutions, counterfeit gifts, not from the Holy Spirit.”  Her friend could not get the pendulum  to work, so she asked Moira to do it. As Moira went to reach for it, there was an invisible wall between her hand and the pendulum, and she could not touch it. And at the same moment she could see a beautiful white rosary over her hand, and she heard a very sweet interior voice say, “Pray the Rosary for your prayers to be answered.”  She told her friend, “I’m not allowed to touch that pendulum or any pendulum ever again.”  They wondered about where to get a rosary, so they went back to the Catholic bookstore. A lady at the bookstore gave Moira a copy of the “Pieta” prayer book, where there is an explanation of how to pray the Rosary. This same lady told Moira about a priest in Scottsdale, Arizona who took groups of pilgrims to Medjugorje.
   Before long, Moira enticed a vanload of people to go to Arizona  to the site of  the “UFO’s”  (Moira called this place the “New age Capital of the World”) and planned to stop at the church in Scottsdale in the same trip. Moira arrived as Mass was going on. It was her first Mass in almost 30 years and everything seemed so foreign to her. She stood up, while everyone else was sitting, and prayed, “Lord Jesus, if this priest is from You, give me a sign right now or I’m leaving and I’m never coming back.” Immediately, right above the priest’s head, she saw the face of Jesus, with His crown of thorns, blood dripping down, similar to how He looked in “The Passion of the Christ.” She heard an interior voice speak with authority, “This is my son. He is my disciple. Sit down. You are home.”  At Communion time, as she sat in the pew, all the sins of her past life flashed through her head like a movie. At the same time God’s grace came through and she remembered one of the great gifts Jesus gave to the Church - the sacrament of Confession! After Mass she went to look for the priest and found him in the parking lot. She began her first confession in 30 years right there in the parking lot!  After 25 minutes, Father asked her to return the next day to finish. The next day he told her to go back to California and get a spiritual director at the Benedictan monastery. The priest she got was from India and knew all about how she had been transformed by the Eastern religions. He took her through 3 years of healing of memories. Since that time many people have come to the faith or come back to the faith through her, including an Oriental Medicine doctor who practiced Tibetan Buddhism!
   Several years later Moira finally made the trip to Medjugorje. She waited 6 hours in line to go to confession there, and then spent 2 more hours in the confessional. The priest told her that he wanted to see her in his office the next day. He told her he was approved by Pope John Paul II as an exorcist and asked her if she would be willing to have an exorcism. She agreed. It took 16 hours for the exorcism. She was finally ransomed completely from darkness !
   Moira ended her talk with the Hail Mary “in honor of Our Lady who cries for Her lost children.”  The spirit of New Age seeks the ruin of souls. Let us pray for people who are involved in these practices. As Moira says, they are actually looking for the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, but are looking in the wrong places. She adds that Christians need to be vigilant. Ignorance is NOT bliss.
Editor’s note: Moira is the author of Ransomed From Darkness: The New Age, Christian Faith, and the Battle for Souls. She is available to speak for your group or parish. You can contact her through her website, www.spiritbattleforsouls.org.
http://www.spiritbattleforsouls.org/id41.html
http://www.courageouspriest.com/warning-eastern-meditation-should-never-be-used

Hand Blown Glass Rosary by Jeremy Garton

 Hello!
We at The Rosary Station want to welcome you to our website below and share with you our story. The three of us met in RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) at our local church:  Jeremy, "The Cradle Catholic;"  Chris, "The Wondering Catholic;"  and Jason, "The Convert."  Week in and week out we'd talk about the various aspects of Catholicism and, eventually, the time we spent together in class and church led us to become close friends.
One night after class, the three of us were talking and were reflecting on the fact that God had given Catholics unique tools to use with prayer through visual art in stained glass, statues, crucifixes, rosaries, and various other items. However, it appears that fewer and fewer people use these items during prayer.
Therefore, since the Rosary is near and dear to our hearts, we decided to start our own mission to encourage everyone to pickup Our Lady's Rosary every day and pray. As part of the mission, we also wanted people to pull out their rosaries and display them proudly. Display your Rosary on one of our Rosary Stations and you will revere it and be reminded to pray it. This is what we at The Rosary Station are all about. We want to help you develop a better devotion to Our Lady's Rosary.
.    Where is your Rosary?
.    Is it tucked away in a drawer?
.    Is it knotted up in your jewelry box?
.    Is it hidden in a small leather or cloth pouch?
What are you waiting for? The Fifteen Promises of Our Lady's Rosary is at your finger tips!
Get a Rosary Station for yourself, your Priest, a relative or friend, your parish hall, your church office, for wherever and whomever needs one, and spread the word that The Rosary is very much alive!
We also encourage everyone to have your Rosary Stations blessed by your Priest as you do your crucifixes or other religious items.
Finally, we strongly feel that we have been called to do this work for Our Lady and Her Son Jesus Christ. It is a responsibility we are not taking lightly!© 2010 - Website is property of The Rosary Station LLC.  All rights are reserved. The Rosary Station... A Timeless Family Heirloom...Proudly made in the USA!
source - http://www.how-to-pray-the-rosary-everyday.com/jeremy-garton.html

Blown Glass Rosary

What a beautiful site you have here & how wonderful your work is to promote the Rosary! I do have a Rosary story & my story continues to grow day by day as well as my Rosary devotion.
To be honest I feel that it is part of my life's work now to promote the Rosary for Our Lady, and here is why!

I am the youngest of seven children & have always been a good Catholic but never really "said the beads" as my father used to call them. Both my parents were good Catholics but neither of them said the Rosary, at least on a regular basis.
My father passed away in 1987 & my mother passed away in 2007. Mom was ill with COPD, a serious lung disease, which typically ends in a long grueling death, but God had a different plan for my mother.

My sister was Moms care giver and I will never forget the call on the morning Mom died. Julie, my sister called me crying & simply said, "She's gone, Mom died last night". I said without thinking, "I'll be right there". On the way home I called each of my siblings to give them the news.
When I got to Moms house & went upstairs I saw my mother lying there sound asleep and I knew in an instant that Our Lady had been with my mother at the hour of her death. God's plan was unexpected because the evening before I had had a wonderful visit with Mom.
I should not have been surprised at Moms easy death, its what we had all been praying for?

But, death is always a sudden unexpected shock. At the time of Mom's illness I was walking three to five miles a day & while I would walk I continually said The Hail Mary, perhaps hundreds if not thousands of times. Often I would ask myself, why am I doing this, what is the point in saying the same prayer over & over. Occasionally I would throw in an Our Father but mostly I would do Hail Mary's.
When Mom died, it all became very clear to me why I had been saying all those Hail Mary's, it was for my mother. After seeing how beautiful and peaceful my mother was lying there in her own bed there was no question in my mind, Mary had been there with her and from that point on my devotion to Mary started.

I prayed and prayed to come up with something to honor and give thanks to Our Lady and then I began to beg her, "show me, tell me, what can I do for you Mary?"
Never did I hear her voice but suddenly I began to say the Rosary over and over and I could feel things in my life coming together in an awesome way. I have always been a happy go lucky person with a beautiful wife of 20 years and wonderful daughter, but my Blessings abound through the Rosary.
Then an idea came to me to make a huge Rosary out of hand blown glass. We have a local glass artisan here so I asked for his help and so it happened. I have made several large Rosaries and I am honored to say that one of them hangs in my own hometown Catholic church at Saint Patrick's in Weston WV.
Funny thing is, the large glass Rosary is only a small piece of the puzzle, soon I hope to launch a web site to not only sell a few of the large Rosaries but I would like to sell small Rosary hangers to highlight your own Rosary.
My hope is to promote the Rosary by asking everyone to display their own Rosaries as a reminder to say the Rosary. Everyone who is Catholic has at least one Rosary and many of us have several and usually they are tucked away in drawers, hidden away in tiny leather pouches.
All proceeds will be going to charity or to my Church. As the Blessings continue so will my work to repay Mary for all she has done for me. She is our mother and so I ask everyone reading this, When was the last time you talked to your mother?
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