MEDJUGORJE MIRACLE--Women Stands Up From Her Wheelchair

In God's Company 2: Women Stands Up From Her Wheelchair:

Woman stands up from wheelchair during Mass in 

MEDJUGORJE TODAY

Woman stands up from her wheelchair

By Jakob Marschner on Aug 14, 2012

For 14 years, the Belgian woman Pascale Gryson-Selmeci suffered from a rare and incurable disease that took away her speech and tied her to a wheelchair. Early this month she went to Mass in Medjugorje, felt a force come through her, spoke to her husband, and stood up from her chair.

St. James Church in Medjugorje where Pascale Gryson- Selmeci stood up from her wheelchair on August 3

Countless people watched in awe on August 3 when a Belgian woman stood up from her wheelchair, seemingly cured from her incurable illness after receiving Communion during the evening Mass in Medjugorje.

Pascale Gryson-Selmeci suffered from leukoencephalopathy, a rare disease with symptoms resembling those of multiple sclerosis. For 14 years, the condition of the Belgian wife and mother grew progressively worse. The last year until her visit to Medjugorje, she was unable to speak.

Inside St. James Church in Medjugorje. Pascale Gryson-Selmeci and her husband were in the back of the church when she realized that she was cured after 14 years of illness

“A few months ago, my husband David and I felt an urgent call to go to Medjugorje without knowing what the Virgin Mary had prepared for us as an absolutely irresistible attraction. The great call surprised me, especially the fact that both my husband and myself felt it with the same intensity” she tellsinfo.catho.be

In the late afternoon on August 3, , Pascale Gryson-Selmeci and her husband went to Mass, despite her fatigue and exhaustion. It was a few days into their Medjugorje pilgrimage.

“I left without a respirator, as the several kilograms weight of this unit on my knees had become unbearable. Upon our arrival, I began to implore the Holy Spirit in joy I can not express. I asked Him to take possession of my whole being. I expressed my renewed desire to belong to Him, body, soul and spirit” Pascale Gryson-Selmeci says.

“The celebration continued to the Communion, I was waiting with intensity. My husband took me to the queue at the back of the church. A priest crossed the aisle with the Body of Christ. He went immediately to my husband and myself, surpassing all others.”

“We moved away to make room for the other communicants and begin our thanksgiving. I felt a very strong and sweet fragrance. Then I felt a force move through me, not heat, but a strength. Unused muscles of my legs were crossed by a stream of life” the Belgian woman tells.

“So I said to God: “Father, Son, Holy Spirit, if You are doing what I believe to achieve this unthinkable miracle, then I ask You for a favor and sign: Make me communicate with my husband.”

“I turned to my husband and tried to tell him: “Do you smell the perfume?”. He said, in the most natural way: ‘No, my nose is a little stuffy!’ I say ‘natural way’, because he had not heard my voice for a year! To wake him up, I said ‘Hey! I mean, do you hear me?’

“There I knew that God had done His work, and in an act of faith, I pulled my feet from my chair and I stood up. All around us people realized what was happening” Pascale Gryson-Selmeci tells.

“In the days that followed, my condition improved by the hour. I no longer want to sleep all the time, and the pains due to my illness gave way to aches from physical exertion that was impossible for 7 years.”

Pascale Gryson-Selmeci is pretty much aware of her priorities now when her incurable disease no longer afflicts her.

“My greatest wish, which is also that of my husband, is to prove faithful to the Lord, His grace as far as we can, not to disappoint Him. So to be really practical, what seems clear now is that I will be able to assume my responsibility and my life as a mom and wife. This is a priority” she says.

“My expectation is also deep to lead a life of prayer and contemplation alongside this terrestrial life. I will also be able to answer all the people who ask me for help, whatsoever. And also to demonstrate the love of God in our lives.”

Sky View: The Al Smith Dinner and the Big Dinner

Sky View: The Al Smith Dinner and the Big Dinner

THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2012

The Al Smith Dinner and the Big Dinner

Diplomacy and civility have its place in public discourse to be sure. More than any other institution on earth, the Catholic Church prefers peaceful negotiations over conflict. Nevertheless, this same Church holds up Saints and Pastors as models of virtue and heroism, models worthy of imitation. Chief among them are the Apostles, the Church Fathers and the martyrs who, down through the ages, bore witness to the Gospel. And if their sanctity tells us anything, it is that the means of diplomacy and civility are to be exercised up to a point. But by no means are they to be made an absolute. Indeed, under certain circumstances they cease to be virtues. The pastors of old knew that the Church was not only an agent of peace and brotherhood, but, as with her Founder, was a “sign of contradiction” as well.

On August 14, 2012 Cardinal Timothy Dolan issued a response to critics across the nation who were troubled over the President Obama’s invitation to the Al Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner; due to be celebrated this year on October 18, just two weeks before the presidential election. Cardinal Dolan made the case that this invitation can be justified on four fronts. In short, they are the following:

First, the Al Smith Dinner is an occasion for a non-partisan conversation. Second, the purpose of the Al Smith Dinner is to show the best of our country and our Church in an evening of “friendship, civility and patriotism.” Third, this occasion demonstrates the Church’s willingness to engage and dialogue with those who disagree with her. And finally, contrary to what some critics have expressed, giving an invitation to President Obama is not a slackening in the U.S. Bishops vigorous promotion of values; rather, it is a gesture of solidarity in which both Church and political leaders “assemble on behalf of poor women and their babies, born and unborn, in a spirit of civility and respect.”

Before moving forward, it is worth mentioning from the outset that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, as the president of the USCCB, is in the unenviable position of having to respond to political leaders who are exercising coercive measures against the Church, as in the case of the H.H.S. mandate. Having to balance the interests of the Church and, at the same time, being attentive to the spiritual welfare of souls is a daunting task. On the other hand, members of the Catholic media have to weigh, on a daily basis, the pros and cons of being a diligent observer and an honest commentator along with the responsibility of being reverential and obedient to their spiritual fathers. This too can be difficult.

It is helpful, therefore, to know that the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church issues the following directive as it pertains to the laity: “By reason of the knowledge, competence or pre-eminence which they have the laity are empowered- indeed sometimes obliged –to manifest their opinion on those things which pertain to the good of the Church.” But just as important, “Nor should they fail to commend to God in their prayers those who have been placed over them…”

The Catholic Church is at a critical juncture in our nation’s history. The responsibilities weigh heavy on both the clergy and laity. With great cause for concern, the lay faithful are not only praying for their spiritual leaders but have insisted that they emulate those saintly pastors the Church holds up as models; models such as the Apostles and the Church Fathers. As she increasingly becomes the target of discrimination and coercion by the government, her leaders still assume the role of diplomats over that of watchmen. Or to put it another way, many U.S Bishops favor dialogue, almost exclusively so, over the traditional missionary approach of pastoral discipline.

It is interesting to note, however, that the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults teaches that evangelization through dialogue is just one way to preach the Gospel. It reads: “The Church has received from Christ the mandate to make him known to all people. She does this in many ways. Dialogue is one way, but another way is the missionary activity of the Church.” Still, one would think that from observing the pastoral practices of the last fifty years or so, dialogue is the only way!

With that said, there are some who are suggesting that a change is in order. For instance, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, then-bishop Bridgeport, Connecticut, addressed the General Assembly of Bishops on November 16, 2011. The topic was religious liberty. By recalling the words from Ezekiel, he called upon his brother bishops to be watchmen: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel.” (Ezekiel 33:7) A watchman, as Pope St. Gregory the Great said, is a preacher who always stands on a height so that he can see from afar to see if there are any predators looming; not to invite them into the pasture, but to chase them out! After all, did not St. Paul say, “Do not be led astray: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’" (I Corinthians 15:33)

This is why the Lord admonishes the watchman in the book of Ezekiel to go above and beyond the norms of diplomacy: “If I tell the wicked man that he shall surely die, and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked man from his way, he (the wicked man) shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death.” (33:8) If we but thumb through the pages of the bible and make our way into the New Testament, we should observe that the Apostles saw themselves as watchmen when faced with obstinate sinners. They too warned, with outspokenness, that to presume God’s mercy is to provoke His justice!

In fact, St. Paul instructed St. Timothy to “reprimand publicly those who do sin, so that the rest also will be afraid.” (I Timothy 5:20) He further published names of sinners; namely, Hymenaeus and Alexander. (I Timothy 1:20) And, if that weren’t stern enough, he wrote to the Corinthians to not associate with immoral people, telling the elders of the church to purge such people from their midst. (cf. I Corinthians 5:9-13)

Now, at first sight, St. Paul’s admonition seems to conflict with the Lord’s practice of dinning with sinners. This example, reaching out to sinners, was cited by Cardinal Dolan as his rationale for inviting President Obama to the Al Smith Dinner. Jesus did indeed eat with sinners. But He did so with the clear purpose of calling them to repentance.

For instance, when Jesus did reach out to the tax collector, Zacchaeus, he- the tax collector -demonstrated a willingness to make amends for his past practices of extortion. And when the sinful woman anointed His feet at Simon’s house, our Lord did not hesitate to candidly reprove Simon for his self-righteous attitude. Publicly calling sinners to repentance, sometimes by name, was our Lord’s way of inviting souls to the most important dinner of all- the heavenly banquet! Recall the parable of the heavenly banquet. Jesus was brutally candid about the guest who attended the heavenly banquet without the white wedding garment. When the King entered the banquet hall and noticed that one guest was improperly dressed, He summarily dismissed the guest.

This is the point. Our Lord Jesus gave clear directives to the Apostles in His pastoral mandate (Matthew, chapter 18) of calling sinners to repentance so that they will be prepared for eternity. In so many words, He instructed the future bishops of the Church to dialogue with a brother who goes astray; warning him once or twice; if necessary, in the presence of one or two witnesses. To be sure, they are to begin with diplomacy. But there comes a point when dialogue and diplomacy runs its course.

That's right. There comes a point when an ongoing and indefinite conversation with obstinate sinners becomes a liability. This is why Jesus went to say this: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” (Matt. 18:17) That is, you, as a shepherd, are no longer dealing with an ignorant or even a repentant sinner; rather, you are dealing with an obstinate sinner who refuses to recognize the divine authority of the Church. As such, you are to treat him as an outsider!

The Fathers of the Church understood this well. Bishop of Hippo, St. Augustine, said, “[I]f he [the sinner] should still deny the charge he must be confronted publicly with the other witnesses so as to be convicted not by one mouth alone, but by many… Should he refuse to perform his penance, and has not departed of his own accord, he must be cast out of your society. Nor is such treatment cruel, but merciful, for many must not be suffered to perish by the pestilent example of one.”

Let us also learn from St. Ambrose of Milan, bishop of Milan and the spiritual mentor of St. Augustine. He publicly withstood Roman emperor Theodosius II at the cathedral door. It just so happened that the emperor had not yet repented from a serious sin. But after the saintly bishop pushed him away…away from the entrance, the Roman emperor yielded and did public penance.

This, I think, answers Cardinal Dolans question. In his response to his critics, he asked, “What message would I send if I refused to meet with the President?” Answer: The message he and others need to hear! That he is no friend of the Church if he coerces it to distribute contraception through her health insurances. And if he is no friend of the Church- and if he does not repent from his aggressive pro-choice and ant-Christian policies -the chances are good that he forfeits the privilege of wearing the white wedding garment for the biggest dinner of all- the heavenly banquet.

Former atheist poet reveals details of her Catholic conversion :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Former atheist poet reveals details of her Catholic conversion :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Rome, Italy, Jul 27, 2012 / 03:51 am (CNA/EWTN News).- “Until two years ago, I was a really committed atheist and I really hated the Catholic Church,” said poet Sally Read, as she explained how all that dramatically changed during nine months in 2010.

“The whole process took from March to December, and I was received into the Catholic Church at the Vatican in December, so it was a bit of a lightning flash,” she told CNA on July 24.

A 41-year-old Englishwoman, Sally Read is regarded as a rising star within the world of poetry. Her publisher describes the former psychiatric nurse as “one of a new generation of younger poets shaping the future of British poetry.”

She now lives in the Italian seaside town of Santa Marinella with her husband and their daughter. It was there that her conversion story began two years ago while she was writing an anthology based on her experiences with psychiatric patients.

“As I was writing this book, I became very aware that I didn’t know where the soul was and I didn’t know if the soul existed. And it was really driving me crazy.” Her frustration led her into discussion, and often heated debate, with a Canadian priest who was based in the coastal resort town.

“So, while I was talking to this priest about, well, is there a God and all of that kind of stuff, I kind of had this feeling as a poet that God was the ultimate poet and the ultimate Creator, and I was simply being used as an instrument,” she recalled.

It was at that point that she phoned the priest to say, “I don’t think I’m an atheist after all.” But she refused to make the intellectual leap to Christianity, insisting to her priest friend that he would never convert her.

“He was very patient and very good.” He said, ‘Christ will convert you, I’m not going to convert you ... .”

Read was raised in a strictly anti-religious household and, so, she now felt like “everything I had ever believed in (was) being turned upside down.”

“It was very, very difficult. I mean, I wasn’t sleeping at all. I was very emotionally traumatized,” she said, describing those months in 2010 as “the most disrupted period in my whole life.”

Her turmoil ended abruptly one afternoon when she stepped into a local Catholic Church.

“Just one day, I was in tears and said to this icon of Christ, ‘If you’re there, then you have to help me.’ And, this thing happened which is very hard to explain, but I felt as if I was being physically lifted up and my tears stopped, and I felt this presence.”

She described the sensation as “utterly tangible,” so much so that from then on she “knew that life was devoted to Christ. There was nothing else.”

Her journey into the Catholic Church quickly followed.

“I realized that there was only one Church and the way to be closest to Christ was to be a Catholic, because it’s the Eucharist and taking Communion.”

Since then she has faced opposition from family members and shock from a socially-liberal artistic establishment. And, yet, “I’m still happier than I’ve ever been,” she said with a broad grin on her face.

As for writing, her third anthology of poetry will be released this year. But the philosophical outlook of her work has now changed dramatically.

“So, I don’t know where it’s going to go with poetry, but I think it’s going to be interesting,” Read said.

GABRIEL GARGAM - HEALING AT LOURDES

MIRACLES OF LOURDES

INTRODUCTION TO LOURDES

In 1858 in the grotto of Massabielle, near Lourdes, France, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous, a 14 year old peasant girl. She identified herself as The Immaculate Conception. She gave Bernadette a message for all: "Pray and do penance for the conversion of the world." The Church investigated Bernadette's claims for four years before approving devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes. Lourdes has since become one of the most famous shrines, attracting more than a million pilgrims each year. There have been thousands of miraculous cures at this shrine.

A Medical Bureau was established in 1882 to test the authenticity of the cures. The doctors include unbelievers as well as believers and any doctor is welcome to take part in the examination of the alleged cures. As many as 500 medical men of all faiths or no faith have taken advantage of the invitation each year. Many books and movies tell the story of Lourdes. Even Hollywood made a movie of this remarkable event in the 1940's entitled "The Song of Bernadette" which won six academy awards.

No one leaves Lourdes without a gain in faith. Moral and spiritual cures are more marvelous than physical cures. Some go to Lourdes with lifetime prejudices, yet their minds are cleared in a sudden manner. Frequently skepticism gives way to faith; coldness and antagonism become whole hearted love of God. Again and again those who are not cured of bodily pain receive an increase of faith and resignation – true peace of soul. The story of two outstanding miracles that occurred at Lourdes are told below.

THE STORY OF GABRIEL GARGAM

The case of Gabriel Gargam is probably one of the best known of all the thousands of cures at Lourdes, partly because he was so well known at the Shrine for half a century, partly because it was a twofold healing, spiritual and physical. Born in 1870 of good Catholic parents, he gave early promise of being a clever student and a fervent Catholic. The promise was not fulfilled in the most important respect for, at 15 years of age, he had already lost his faith. He obtained a position in the postal service and was carrying out his duties as a sorter in December of 1899, when the train on which he was traveling from Bordeaux to Paris collided with another train, running at 50 miles per hour. Gargam was thrown fifty two feet from the train. He lay in the snow, badly injured and unconscious for seven hours. He was paralyzed from the waist down. He was barely alive when lifted onto a stretcher. Taken to a hospital, his existence for some time was a living death. After eight months he had wasted away to a mere skeleton, weighing but seventy-eight pounds, although normally a big man. His feet became gangrenous. He could take no solid food and was obliged to take nourishment by a tube. Only once in twenty-four hours could he be fed even that way. He brought suit for damages against the railroad. The Appellate Court confirmed the verdict of the former courts and granted him 6,000 francs annually, and besides, an indemnity of 60,000 francs.

Gargam's condition was pitiable in the extreme. He could not help himself even in the most trifling needs. Two trained nurses were needed day and night to assist him. That was Gabriel Gargam as he was after the accident, and as he would continue to be until death relieved him. About his desperate condition there could be no doubt. The railroad fought the case on every point. There was no room for deception or hearsay. Two courts attested to his condition, and the final payment of the railroad left the case a matter of record. Doctors testified that the man was a hopeless cripple for life, and their testimony was not disputed.

Previous to the accident Gargam had not been to Church for fifteen years. His aunt, who was a nun of the Order of the Sacred Heart, begged him to go to Lourdes. He refused. She continued her appeals to him to place himself in the hands of Our Lady of Lourdes. He was deaf to all her prayers. After continuous pleading of his mother he consented to go to Lourdes. It was now two years since the accident, and not for a moment had he left his bed all that time. He was carried on a stretcher to the train. The exertion caused him to faint, and for a full hour he was unconscious. They were on the point of abandoning the pilgrimage, as it looked as if he would die on the way, but the mother insisted, and the journey was made.

Arrived at Lourdes, he went to confession and received Holy Communion. There was no change in his condition. Later he was carried to the miraculous pool and tenderly placed in its waters – no effect. Rather a bad effect resulted, for the exertion threw him into a swoon and he lay apparently dead. After a time, as he did not revive, they thought him dead. Sorrowfully they wheeled the carriage back to the hotel. On the way back they saw the procession of the Blessed Sacrament approaching. They stood aside to let it pass, having placed a cloth over the face of the man whom they supposed to be dead.

As the priest passed carrying the Sacred Host, he pronounced Benediction over the sorrowful group around the covered body. Soon there was a movement from under the covering. To the amazement of the bystanders, the body raised itself to a sitting posture. While the family were looking on dumbfounded and the spectators gazed in amazement, Gargam said in a full, strong voice that he wanted to get up. They thought that it was a delirium before death, and tried to soothe him, but he was not to be restrained. He got up and stood erect, walked a few paces and said that he was cured. The multitude looked in wonder, and then fell on their knees and thanked God for this new sign of His power at the Shrine of His Blessed Mother. As Gargam had on him only invalid's clothes, he returned to the carriage and was wheeled back to the hotel. There he was soon dressed, and proceeded to walk about as if nothing had ever ailed him. For two years hardly any food had passed his lips but now he sat down to the table and ate a hearty meal.

On August 20th, 1901, sixty prominent doctors examined Gargam. Without stating the nature of the cure, they pronounced him entirely cured. Gargam, out of gratitude to God in the Holy Eucharist and His Blessed Mother, consecrated himself to the service of the invalids at Lourdes.

He set up a small business and married a pious lady who aided him in his apostolate for the greater knowledge of Mary Immaculate. For over fifty years he returned annually to Lourdes and worked as a brancardier. The Golden Jubilee of his cure was the occasion of a remarkable celebration during the French National Pilgrimage in 1951. Mr. Gargam sat in a chair in the Rosary Square, surrounded by 1,500 sick and 50,000 other pilgrims while a description of his twofold healing was given by the celebrated apologist, Canon Belleney. His last visit to the Shrine was in August 1952: he died the following March, at the age of eighty-three years.

The Moon over St. Jude's church and the Sunrise May 12, 2012

La Salette Journey: Saint Mary's High School in Kitchener: Jesus was a...

La Salette Journey: Saint Mary's High School in Kitchener: Jesus was a...: Students at Saint Mary's High School in Kitchener, Ontario just celebrated "anti-homophobia day."  According to an article in the Metro Ne...

Parents who send their children to Saint Mary's High School in Kitchener in the hope that they will obtain a solid Catholic education are being betrayed.  Instead, they are being propagandized with a counterfeit gospel and a counterfeit "Christ."  They are being educated not for Heaven but for Hell.

Frustrated with Church Scandals?

St. Francis de Sales "How to handle scandals"

Are You Still Harboring Anger Toward the
Clerics for Their Scandalous Behavior?

If so, then you will want to read the story of St. Francis de Sales.  Well worth reading and sharing.

by Father Roger J. Landry – THE ANCHOR: Today we turn our focus to Church scandals caused by priest: especially whose faith has been profoundly shaken by it. The saint who perhaps best illustrates the pathway forward for those in this circumstance is St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), the great apostle of the Chablais in eastern France after the Protestant Reformation.

When St. Francis was ordained a priest in 1593, the Diocese of Geneva was in shambles. Decades of scandals among the clergy had made it very easy for Calvinism to spread throughout the region. The people were so poorly catechized that they were not able to respond to Calvinist arguments. They were, moreover, so angry at the hypocrisy of their local churchmen that they were easily incited to turn on the Catholic faith, run their priests out of town and take up a form of Christianity that at least seemed to be moral. The Bishop of Geneva even had to flee the see city and take up residence in Annecy, France. Some reports stated that there were only about 20 Catholics left in the vast region.

Nine months after Francis’ ordination, the bishop asked his priests for volunteers to try to re-evangelize the region, knowing that it was minimally a tough assignment, but likely could prove to be a fatal one. Francis was the only one to step forward. The 27-year-old, traveling by foot, set out to try to win back the vast geographic area. The work was rough and dangerous. For his protection, he was ordered to sleep at night in a military garrison. On two occasions, assassins ambushed him along the way; both times, however, he survived, seemingly miraculously. On another occasion, he was attacked by wolves and had to spend a glacial night in a tree. But he labored on.

Because preaching was proving so dangerous, he began to write leaflets patiently setting forth Catholic teaching, charitably explaining the errors of Calvinism, and tackling head on controversial issues.

To those who still harbored anger toward the clerics for their scandalous behavior, he didn’t hesitate to say that what the clerics did was the equivalent of spiritual murder. But just as plainly, he called the residents of the region not to do something even worse, to commit spiritual suicide through focusing on the scandals so much that they cut themselves off from Christ in the sacraments and in the Church he founded. He wrote in a pamphlet to the people on Thonon that “those who forge scandals for themselves,” who “persuade themselves that they will die if they do not alienate the part that they have in the Church” are “much crueler than the man who gives scandal, because to commit suicide is a more unnatural crime than to kill another.”

He reminded the people of the Chablais that Jesus had said, “Scandals are sure to come, but woe to him by whom they come” (Lk 17:1). There will always be scandals, Jesus implied, because there will always be people of influence who commit grave sins. It is appropriate, Jesus continued, for scandalizers “to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and thrown into the depth of the sea” (Mt 18:6). St. Francis added, however, that, if we allow scandals to destroy our faith, we essentially tie a millstone around our own neck — and toss ourselves out of the barque of Peter, where Christ is at the helm, and into the depth of a sea of misery. The worst sin against charity we could ever commit against ourselves, he said, would be to commit spiritual suicide in this way.

St. Francis’ powerful candor and patient explanations of the teachings of the Church in these pamphlets began to have an impact. A steady stream of lapsed Catholics began to seek reconciliation, and he welcomed them with great mercy, meekness and joy. Within the span of five years, the holy “Apostle of the Chablais” had re-evangelized and reconciled almost the entire region.

St. Francis’ thoughts, words, courage, and holy example need to be reiterated and emulated by those in the Church today. There are multitudes who have downgraded their practice of the faith or given it up altogether as a result of the clergy scandals.

The challenges we face in evangelizing those who have distanced themselves from the Church in recent years likely will not involve sleeping in garrisons or being ambushed by assassins. But the Lord needs us today just as much as he needed Francis de Sales 416 years ago.

May St. Francis from heaven move us to respond as modern Good Samaritans, going out like he did after those who are tempted toward spiritual suicide, showing them by words and witness what the Church truly is, and patiently and heroically helping them to remove the millstones from their neck.

http://www.courageouspriest.com/frustrated

Sky View: The Monastery: A Lighthouse for Civilization and the Church

Sky View: The Monastery: A Lighthouse for Civilization and the Church
Time and time again the Catholic Church herself had benefited from monastics such as St. John the Baptist, St. Anthony the Great, St. Benedict, St. Patrick, Pope St. Gregory the Great, Pope St. Gregory VII, St. Boniface, St. Francis, St. Clare, Pope St. Pius V, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Theresa of Avila and St. Therese the Little Flower. From the mountain of spiritual solitude came forth rivers of life, renewal and innovation. The monastery, convent and friary were lighthouses of society and spiritual vigor for the Church. When Christians were spiritually lethargic, when the pastoral practices of bishops and priests needed reform, and when the Mystical Body of Christ was not showing forth the fullness of her splendor, saintly men and women from monastic backgrounds- those who knew the discipline of prayer –stepped up and pointed everyone in the right direction; that is, towards Christ and towards heaven.

MEDJUGORJE TESTIMONY OF JUDY & JOHN

John and Judy - Our Medjugorje Testimony - Done with love for Jesus and Mary

Our miraculous images on photo and we also have images on video, May 25, 1990...

Our Lady of Medjugorje

John and I were married in a civil ceremony in 1984. John was not Catholic, and I was a fallen away Catholic...how and why we ended up in Medjugorje was truly an invitation from the Blessed Mother....April 1989 was a very difficult time in my life, my mother died and the circumstances surrounding that were awfully painful...I couldn't seem to shake off the 'blues' and so John suggested going to church and I hadn't thought of that at all. The only church I knew was the Catholic church and John didn't really care, as long as I didn't ask him to become a Catholic. We started going to Sunday Mass occasionally in September 1989. I did not receive Holy Communion. I was obedient to the Catholic faith that I was taught. I was never a 'cafeteria Catholic.'

Around late November 1989, I heard about Medjugorje from my friend, Linda who had read an article in her local home town newspaper. It was just a matter of fact statement from my friend, but I was 'transported' back in time to 3rd grade where I had been placed in the middle of the school year in Catholic school from public school. The change in schools happened because my younger sister; Laurie, had been diagnosed with Leukemia.

Laurie

My mother made a marriage vow to raise her children Catholic and she wasn't doing it. I think she thought if she corrected that vow now that perhaps God would let my sister live, but she died. I was only a few weeks in 3rd grade Catholic school when the nun told us a story about Bernadette and Lourdes in 1858 and I was completely enthralled. This really seemed marvelous to me. I remember after the story was over that I wanted to go there desperately. I was so excited. I started thinking about how I could get there and I looked out the window and thought, well, I know my mother wouldn't take me there, much less believe the story (she was not Catholic) and I felt that the Blessed Mother wouldn't appear to me because she only chose one girl and I didn't think that I was as good as Bernadette, and then I said to myself, well, "if that ever happens in my day, I'm going"! That was the last time that I thought about that 'vow' and that schoolday until the moment when I heard that Our Lady was appearing in Medjugorje. I was so excited and felt 'alive' in an entirely new way. I was going! Somehow, someway, I just knew I was going to Medjugorje. My husband and I watched some videos that a priest, Fr. Joseph Milford (Oblates); gave me who was on my mail route and wow, it just confirmed my belief . I just knew right from the start that this was really happening. Then my husband and I read every book we could get our hands on but my husband was not open to going at all. He said he was not going to a communist country. So, I prayed the rosary on my fingers because I didn't even have a rosary. One Sunday after Mass, in January of 1990, John found a flier on a trip to Medjugorje with this church, St. Paul of the Cross.  Then he said we could go! Ah, the power of the rosary! We had four months to prepare and we just knew we had to prepare with prayer and all that Our Lady was asking for. 

My prayer was for God to give John 'more than me' while we were there so we could stay happily married because I was going to go back to the Eucharist and my Catholic faith no matter what (and since I never discussed my religion with John since I hadn't thought about it in many years, he knew nothing of what the Eucharist is). My initial immediate calling when I heard about Medjugorje was to go back to the Eucharist because, you see, that belief never left me. I had just forgotten about all of it....and I had to have Jesus now. I was ready to give up everything to do that. I went to confession after 20 plus years to a new priest of one year in 1989, a Fr. Thomas Euteneur. I started going to daily Mass with John and I received Holy Communion. John and I lived as 'brother and sister' from that time until our wedding day in the Catholic church out of obedience to the Catholic faith and for love of God.

finally found the holy water fountain in a photo,

 today, Sept. 2011! (far right of photo.)

We arrived in Medjugorje on the bus after midnight on May 25, 1990 and ended up parked on the street in front of St. James Church. Our group had spent a few days in Austria and I was so very sick with the flu and fever. While we were waiting to figure out where we were staying, our new friend, Jim suggested that the 3 of us walk over to the church. We did and as we were walking, I said to them with a little humor and a sense of hope, "well, if I drink this holy water and get well, then Our Lady is really appearing here". I already believed She was appearing here, I just didn't know that 'miracles' were up for the asking! It was dark, the church was closed and yet there was a fountain somewhere around the statue of Our Lady outside and I drank from the holy water. And I got well immediately. I also was not tired at all the next morning with only a few hours of sleep and that has never happened in my life. To this day, I have never seen that fountain of holy water in any pictures. 

That first morning in Medjugorje; May 25, 1990, we went to the 10 am English Mass and afterwards, the priest, Fr. Pavich, blessed all the articles and John decided to hold up his camcorder and looked at me to see what I thought...I thought right away, why not, it was like a little kid asking... I never thought about blessing a camcorder but what did I know...so it was blessed....so I raised up my new camera and had it blessed also.

Our first full day there was May 25, 1990. We climbed Apparition Hill after Mass and as I got to the top and looked to my right, (where Our Lady appeared) I felt this 'breeze' engulf me and I just knew it was something special. I felt incredibly loved in a way I had never felt before. Later on, I realized it had to be the Holy Spirit 'wind'.  Our Lady said: "The wind is my sign. I will come in the wind. When the wind blows, know that I am with you. You have learned that the cross represents Christ; it is a sign of Him. It is the same for the crucifix you have in your home. For me, it is not the same. When it is cold, you come to church; you want to offer everything to God. I am, then, with you. I am with you in the wind. Do not be afraid." February 15, 1984

At 3 pm that afternoon, Fr. Jozo was giving a talk in the church and we went. The church was packed. And then this happened...John saw Jesus just like we see one another, full face complete, on the altar that afternoon as Fr. Jozo was giving his afternoon talk at 3 pm. Fr. Jozo said "And Jesus stands before you" and then John saw Jesus through his video camcorder ONLY. When John looked with his eyes, there was nothing, John only saw Jesus through the blessed camcorder.....I was not next to him in the church but he passed the camcorder down to me with this message but I knew then, that this was God answering my prayer, to 'give him more than me' which actually was much more for me! The video camcorder went right back to him as I said 'this is just for him', but we were left with an image in the video and on a photo. Our friend, Jim, from the group was taking pictures right behind John so it was perfect when we all shared our pics later....anyway, Fr. Jozo then says and "Mary stands before you" and that is when the Blessed Mother must have 'popped' in the picture but we didn't see Her till we got home when we shared our photos and video with the rest of our pilgrimage group. All of us saw Jesus and Mary's IMAGE while John saw Jesus as a real live person that day and still - TO THIS DAY - sees Jesus and Mary completely full faced clearly the same as he did that day in Medjugorje when he looks at this picture or our video.....we were blessed with the images and people see them today ....it makes a dynamic picture blown up with the rosary in Fr. Jozo's hand and Jesus and Mary's images...ALSO, LOOK AT THE 'FIRE LIGHT' (Holy Spirit) COMING FROM THE LEFT OF THE PHOTO WHICH STREAMS RIGHT TO FR. JOZO AND THE ROSARY AND TO THE TABERNACLE!...

OK....look at the bouquet of flowers on the altar....look at the tall Lily and the stick of thorn to the left of the lily, and you will see in between those two , image of Jesus crucified face...now look to the right of the lily and you will see the Blessed Mother's face slightly leaning towards Her Son and on the video you can see HER gold crown and you can see it in the photo too...now that evening, our priest said we should meet and share our day with one another....well, I was so overwhelmed and just in awe about this since we could see the image of Jesus in the camcorder that I stayed in my room while John, very excited; the only non-Catholic went down and testified to what he saw and the image that was left and stated to the group that HE NOW KNOWS THAT JESUS IS TRULY PRESENT IN THE EUCHARIST, ....now, he did not know that at all before....so John's testimony was a real blessing for the group and especially for our priest, Fr. Venezia.

Many other things happened to us in Medjugorje that were enlightening and miraculous....I took care of my father in 1980, when he was sick with cancer. He told me that he was so grateful to have me taking care of him that if he could get well, he would take me on a 'trip around the world' and I thought how sweet that was but also unusual, we were poor and a trip around the world is not something I ever thought possible...well, one day in Medjugorje, I realized that my father was with me because I WAS on a 'trip around the world', people from all over the world were here! And they were also here from the supernatural world!....

One day during the apparition that was taking place in the church we saw the sun spin, pulsate at us like a beating heart, throw colors out and at one point there were 3 small clouds with three crosses going through them one at a time - and then at the end, Our Lady, from head to 'toe cloud', appeared in the sky, plain as could be!- so incredible! We were outside praying the rosary because the Mass at that time of day is in Croatian and for the people of the village.

During the Thursday night rosary prayer meeting that Ivan group has on Apparition Hill, Our Lady came that evening and it was so quiet.  A whole group of us were going up the back side of the mountain which leads to the blue cross (where Our Lady first appeared to the children).  This is where Ivan has his apparition on his rosary prayer nights on the hill. It was so dark we could barley see anything but we knew there were huge rocks everywhere.  I stumbled along and found a spot to sit and was leaning up against a rock wall.  John and others were kneeling in front of me and to the side.  I thought about kneeling but the rocks had jagged edges and there didn't seem to be any room.  The next thing I heard was that Out Lady was here and it was quiet before but now it was complete silence.  Then 'someone' punched me directly in the middle of my back and I hit the ground kneeling.  I knew immediately that this was impossible since my back was up against the rock wall.  I thought I had probably cut my legs because the force of the punch was dramatic but I didn't dare move an inch because I  knew it was the 'hand of God'. When the apparition was over we all got up and we walked back down the hill.  My legs were not injured or bleeding at all and I had no pain.  Later on, back home, I found this message from Our Lady - On June 25, 1988, Ivanka, one of the six Medjugorje visionaries, during her apparition, said to those present at the apparition, many of whom were standing up or sitting:  “Our Lady wishes for all present to kneel down.”

We also could look over at Cross Mountain and see the Cross as plain as day. It was all lit up with supernatural light because there were no lights on either hills in 1990...and there is no way you should be able to see this Cross, too far away and black as night outside. I didn't realize this at first but as I was walking down the mountain, I looked over and of course, saw nothing but night time blackness and this is when it finally registered what happened. There was no electricity on the mountains. Things like this happened to us the entire time we were there and to millions of others! It was as though you were not on the earth but experiencing something supernatural. Even climbing the hill was like being 'lifted' up there. We helped very old people and injured people up the hill and it was almost effortless for them and us.

We came back home and John went to RCIA to learn about Catholicism. He became a Catholic :) and we got married in the Catholic Church one year later on miraculous day, May 25, in 1991. We love daily Mass and Rosary and try to live Our Lady's 5 stones which is daily Mass, daily rosary, monthly confession, fasting, and bible reading.  John became a lecture and we started making the Mother Theresa rosary because I had read the story in the Catholic Digest in 1991. It has become John's exclusive ministry now, making these Mother Theresa rosaries, (over 13,600 as of Oct. 9, 2019) and to give them away to whomever Blessed Mother puts in our path. Many miraculous stories have come back to us through the years because of this rosary. That's another story....so many miraculous healings physically and spiritually and emotionally but 'believing is the key to the miraculous.'  It is a 'thin veil' from the natural to the supernatural when you pray to God from the heart.

*****Monthly Message, May 25, 1990 "Dear children! I invite you to decide with seriousness to live this novena. (Holy Spirit Novena) Consecrate the time to prayer and to sacrifice. I am with you and I desire to help you to grow in renunciation and mortification, that you may be able to understand the beauty of the life of people who go on giving themselves to me in special way. Dear children, God blesses you day after day and desires a change of your life. Therefore, pray that you may have the strength to change your life. Thank you for having responded to my call. " *****

Our Catholic wedding, May 25, 1991

our testimony is at several sites on line, google the title

and also on blog called    And Amazing Grace

Faith is a gift from God.  “For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11: 29).   Faith is a priceless gift which can be lost through our own personal negligence.  Faith must be nourished with a well developed spiritual life and with the continual study of our Catholic Faith.  Spiritual laziness, culpable ignorance and indifference can weaken our faith and even cause the loss of faith.

     Parents have a solemn duty to pass on the gift of faith to their children. 

May 25, 2014
“Dear children! Pray and be aware that without God you are dust. Therefore, turn your thoughts and heart to God and to prayer. Trust in His love. In God’s spirit, little children, you are all called to be witnesses. You are precious and I call you, little children, to holiness, to eternal life. Therefore, be aware that this life is passing. I love you and call you to a new life of conversion. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

La Salette Journey: America: Will we be inspired by Sparta or Calvary?...

La Salette Journey: America: Will we be inspired by Sparta or Calvary?...: It can no longer be denied that America has become a " seething cesspool of filth and corruption ."  America has become a haunt of demons a...

As I lay dying a voice said: ‘Let’s go’ | CatholicHerald.co.uk

As I lay dying a voice said: ‘Let’s go’ | CatholicHerald.co.uk

As I lay dying a voice said: ‘Let’s go’

Howard Storm and his wife, Marcia

Howard Storm was an atheist until he had an extraordinary near-death experience. After that, everything changed. Indeed, he is now a Christian minister. His book,My Descent into Death, shot to prominence globally after the novelist Anne Rice called it “a book you devour from cover to cover, and pass on to others”.

She added that “Storm was meant to write it and we were meant to read it.”

Storm recently spoke to me from his home in Kentucky. He recounted going out to San Francisco in 1967, aged 19, in pursuit of the hippy dream.

“We earnestly were going to create a culture of peace and love,” he says, but “because it was so hedonistic and anarchistic it was doomed to failure. We soon began to see our contemporaries being destroyed by the excesses of drugs and sexuality.”

Disillusioned by hippiedom, religion and mainstream American society, he became increasingly nihilistic. He says he turned to “total narcissism: I’m no longer interested in changing the world … I’m going to live for myself.”

Storm rose through academia and took a job as a professor of art in Kentucky where he says that the overwhelming majority of the faculty were atheists and hedonists.

“Being cynical gives you a false and inflated sense of superiority,” he says. “You can look down on all the ignorant fools who go to church and believe in religion.

“The sad part of it is we conveyed those attitudes to our students. Many students came from homes where faith was valued. After a few short years in university they had nothing but contempt for faith. I think it was a horrible thing that we did.”

Storm’s life changed during a field trip to Europe in 1985. One morning, aged 38, he collapsed in his hotel room with a perforated duodenum. No surgeon could be found, and after hours in agony he “knew that it was over” as he fell unconscious.

“I fully expected that to be it: lights out, end of story,” he says. “Then, I found myself standing next to my bed, feeling wonderful. My senses were very heightened. The pain was gone. I tried to communicate with my wife. I thought she was ignoring me. I also noticed an occupant in my bed who bore a remarkable resemblance to me. I knew that person was dead.

“Then I heard people calling me from outside the room, saying: ‘It’s time for you to go. Hurry up. Let’s go.’ They said: ‘We know all about you. We’ve been waiting for you.’ I thought they were from the hospital.”

But when he stepped out into this “hallway” it was “very dim, grey and fuzzy, like a really bad black-and-white television picture”.

He says: “I went in to this hallway and had a very clear sense that the ‘portal’ back into the room was somehow closed. I could never go back. The people led me away, and the hallway subtly became darker and darker and darker over a long period of time. Eventually, I realised that I was in complete darkness, encircled by a crowd of people and overcome with fear. I said to them: ‘I want to go back.’ And they started pushing and pulling at me. The more I fought, the better they liked it. They were biting and scratching and tearing at me, all the while yelling and screaming.

“Later on, I realised that they were people like me, who had rejected God and had lived for their own selfish gratification. Their wish had come true: this is what they had. In the place they inhabit there’s no light, no birds, no joy, no hope, no love… a bunch of rats in a cage.”

They screamed and tortured him for an age, he says. “Eventually, I was too ripped up and defeated to do anything. I was solid pain. The real pain is the emotional pain. They did things that I don’t talk about… degrading things.

“I was lying there, when I heard a voice say: ‘Pray to God.’ I said: ‘I don’t pray. I don’t believe in God.’ Then, it came a second time; and a third: ‘Pray to God.’

“So, tried to think of a prayer. I started to mumble some things. A mention of God came into a few of these phrases. With each mention the people around me became very, very angry, and started screaming at me: ‘There is no God’ and ‘Nobody can hear you.’ It angered them so much that they were retreating from me. The mention of God was unbearable to them.” Encouraged, he mumbled other jumbled half-remembered phrases: “Glory, glory hallelujah, God Bless America, Our Father who art in heaven…”

Eventually, he found himself alone in this dark place. Thinking over his life he found it gravely wanting. He felt he deserved to be where he was.

“I felt that there was some kind of justice in the universe and that if you lead a miserable life you go down the sewer pipe of the universe into the septic tank. And that’s where I was. Yet I knew I hadn’t been flushed down into the deeper part, just yet.

“In that state of hopelessness I had a memory of myself as a child in Sunday school, singing ‘Jesus Loves Me’. I also had a vivid feeling of being a child and feeling that there was a wonderful God-man named Jesus who was my friend and who loved me. With real sincerity, I called out: ‘Jesus, please save me.’ With that, a tiny light appeared in the darkness and it came down over me. Out of this light came two hands. They reached down and touched me, and all the gore and filth that was me just fell away.

“In two or three seconds I was healed and filled with an indescribable love. In this world there is no equivalent to that kind of love. These arms picked me up and brought me into this brilliant light. I was held against the body of this man. I knew that he was Jesus. I cried.

“We were moving straight up, faster and faster towards the world of light. It dawned on me then that everything I had believed in was wrong, and I was going to where God lived. I thought: ‘They’ve made a terrible mistake. I don’t deserve this. I’m garbage.’”

At that thought, “we stopped, and he spoke to me for the first time, and said: ‘We don’t make mistakes. You do belong here.’ He had responded to my thought. He laughed and said: ‘I know what you’re thinking. I know everything you’ve ever thought.’ Then he called out in musical tones and a group of beings of light – angels – who had recorded my life came. They began to show me my life, starting with my birth.”

Storm says they showed him scenes he had no memory of, like being a baby and his sisters playing with him. But as his life unfolded into adolescence and adulthood “things started going downhill”.

“It became painful, because I saw that when I did bad things, I knew that it caused Jesus and the angels actual pain. It hurt them. “So, here I am hanging in space, between the worlds of light and dark, watching my life. I am being held by Jesus, but I can see that I caused him actual unhappiness. It was just so shameful.”

He says that “the only thing they showed me was how I interacted with people”. They showed no interest in his awards, promotions or other worldly achievements.

“It became evident that the primary thing was how I had loved other people. I had done very poorly. I had failed God’s expectations of what I was supposed to be doing, which was caring for other people.”

As to how long this process took, Storm says that “there was no perception of time”, but “when I try to frame it in our time, I say, it took longer than graduate school, which for me was three and a half years”.

Eventually, he was told he wasn’t ready for heaven and would have to go back to earth. “I was very upset,” he says.

Reluctantly, after some resistance, he accepted his fate. Then, instantaneously, he was back in his body in that Paris hospital, being prepared for surgery.

Afterwards his life changed utterly. He could no longer go back to his old ways. His friends met his story with “rejection, ridicule and scorn”. But he found new friends at Bible study groups. Gradually he became more and more involved in his church, eventually becoming a minister in the United Church of Christ. In this capacity he works closely with Catholic Church in Latin America. He argues that “God sees the Church as one Church” and that “all the divisions are manmade”.

This one Church, he says, “should be out there risking their pretty vestments”, pursuing those lost souls, gripped by the nihilism and atheism, now running rampant across the western world.

For more information about Howard Storm, visit Howardstorm.com.

Fr. Rutler homily, Jesus light shines!

FROM THE PASTOR-March 11, 2012
by Fr. George W. Rutler

As the Plymouth Bay Colony was starting up, a scholar back in England published the philosophical reflection, Anatomy of Melancholy, analyzing his own tendency to depression, which he attributed to “black bile.” It is not clear whether he hanged himself, but he certainly made it fashionable for philosophers to be gloomy. Yet even he had his moments: He liked listening to the barge-men in Oxford swearing, “. . . at which he would set his hands to his sides and laugh most profusely.” In the next century, an old friend of Dr. Johnson said that he had tried to be a philosopher “but cheerfulness kept breaking through.”

   Something more than cheerfulness keeps breaking through the dark patches of life: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). The Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary evidence the divine clarity lighting up the shadows: Christ's Baptism, The Wedding at Cana, The Proclamation of the Gospel, The Transfiguration, and The Institution of the Eucharist. The Transfiguration is a singular instance of the joy of heaven bursting blatantly into this world. So, some of the Church Fathers have said that the Transfiguration was not a miracle at all, because it revealed the glory of God that miracles only hint at.

   Christ showed this radiance to Peter, James and John to sustain them as they were about to enter the dark whirlpool of the Passion. Whenever times seem dark, Christ keeps breaking through. The darkness makes the light ever more vivid. It is a principle in painting, called chiaroscuro, that colors are brightest when they are contrasted with darker shades.

   One of countless examples of how this is lived out was that of a young priest, Alois Andritzki, born in 1914 to a family of the minority Sorb people in eastern Germany. He was ordained in the diocese of Dresden-Meissen and ended up in the Dachau concentration camp on trumped-up charges. His real offense was to have preached against the eugenics policies of the Nazis. In a nearby “sanatorium,” doctors and nurses killed 16,000 handicapped and mentally ill people, including children, who were declared “unworthy of life.” On February 3, 1943, Father Andritzki was ill, and his handsome and athletic body had become emaciated. He asked for Holy Communion and instead was given a lethal injection. Last year, he was beatified as a martyr.

   Father Andritzki’s dark cell was transfigured by the same light that keeps breaking through in the dark days of our own culture as morbid voices sound increasingly like the eugenicists of the past. Only the willfully blind can deny how dark it is getting. And only the melancholy can ignore the brightness that is enlightening many people who in less challenging days may have taken the Faith for granted. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).   Church of Our Saviour, NYC