Evil triumphs when good men do nothing - Edmund Burke

Friday, February 6, 2009

Worrying sings of a chastisement

Look around at the newspapers and one will notice that Nature is beginning to chastise man for sins against God and nature (eg. homosexuality).
I do not want to be a doomsday prophet but the snow in the UK is an example of the signs of the times.

Here is a link to an article in the Globe and Mail which talks about what will happen if the ice sheets in West Antartica melts

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090206.ICE06/TPStory/Environment

I don't but in to the mass hysteria about global warming. I do believe the book of Revelations as well as prophecies at Fatima and Akita which say that at the chastisement 2/3rds of the worlds population will be wiped out.

Are you ready, is your soul ready to meet God - if not please go for confession and make repentance.

St. Paul Miki and Companions - 6th February 2009




When the first missionaries, like St. Francis Xavier, came to Japan in 1549 they were welcomed. Many Japanese became Christians. When the leader Hideyoshi took command, he feared that Christians would take over the government. In 1587 he banished them and destroyed many of their churches. Some missionary priests stayed and went into hiding, dressing like Japanese in order to minister to the Christians.

More than 3,000 Christians were martyred in Japan. On December 8, 1596, Hideyoshi arrested and condemned to death the friars of Miako. Among them were three Japanese Jesuits, six Franciscans (four of them Spanish), and seventeen Japanese laymen. Charged with attempting to harm the government, they were sentenced to crucifixion. Some of these men were very young: Louis was 10; Anthony, 13; Thomas, 16; and Gabriel, 19. The best known is Paul Miki, who was a Japanese of a noble family, a Jesuit brother, and a brilliant preacher.

The twenty-six men were tortured and then forced to walk more than 300 miles from Miako to Nagasaki through snow and ice and freezing streams. Along the way they preached to the people who had come out to see them. They sang psalms of praise and joy. They prayed the rosary and told the people that such a martyrdom was an occasion of rejoicing, not of sadness. Finally, on February 5, they reached Nagasaki, where twenty-six crosses awaited them on a hill now called the Holy Mountain. It is said that the Christians ran to their crosses, singing. Soldiers bound them to the crosses with iron bands at their wrists, ankles, and throats. Then they thrust them through with lances. Many people came to watch the cruel deaths. Hideyoshi and his solders had hoped the example would frighten other Christians. Instead, it gave them the courage to profess their faith as the martyrs had.

In 1858, Japan again permitted Christianity in Japan. Missionaries found thousands of Christians still in Japan. For two hundred years they had carried on the faith in secret.

Born in a wealthy family in 1562 at Tounucumada, Japan, the son of a military leader, Paul Miki felt a call to religious life from his youth. He became Jesuit in 1580 after being educated at the Jesuit college at Anziquiama. He became a successful evangelist, and when the political climate became hostile to Christianity, he decided to continue his ministry and was soon arrested. On his way to martydom, he and other imprisoned Christians were marched 600 miles so they could be abused by, and be a lesson to, their countrymen; but all of them they sang the Te Deum on the way His last sermon was delivered from the cross: "The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason that I die. I believe that I am telling the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ's example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain".

He died by being stabbed with a lance while crucified at Nagasaki, Japan. Paul Miki and his companions were canonized in 1862 by Pope Pius IX.

First and Second part of theFatima Vision

This is the first and second part of the secret that our Lady Revealed to the 3 Sheppard children at Fatima.

Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.

We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so sadly:

“You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world”

For the entire understanding of Our Lady Of Fatima please click on the EWTN LINK

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Consecration as per Our Lady of Fatima.

Above all creatures, may you be blessed, you, the Handmaid of the Lord, who in the fullest way obeyed the divine call!

Hail to you, who are wholly united to the redeeming consecration of your Son!

Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, hope, and love! Enlighten especially the peoples whose consecration and entrustment by us you are awaiting. Help us to live in the truth of the consecration of Christ for the entire human family of the modern world.

In entrusting to you, O Mother, the world, all individuals and peoples, we also entrust to you this very consecration of the world, placing it in your motherly Heart.

Immaculate Heart! Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the paths towards the future!

From famine and war, deliver us.

From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, deliver us.

From sins against the life of man from its very beginning, deliver us.

From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us.

From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international, deliver us.

From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.

From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us.

From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.

From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us.

Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies.

Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin: individual sin and the ‘sin of the world', sin in all its manifestations.

Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the infinite saving power of the Redemption: the power of merciful Love! May it put a stop to evil! May it transform consciences! May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of Hope!

St. Agatha - 5th February 2009

(The Martyrdom of St Agatha - TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista)

Saint Agatha was born in Sicily of rich and noble parents, a child of benediction from the first, for she was promised to her parents before her birth, and consecrated from her earliest infancy to God. In the midst of dangers and temptations she served Christ in purity of body and soul, and she died for love of chastity. Quintanus, who governed Sicily under the Emperor Decius, had heard the rumor of her beauty and wealth, and he made the laws against the Christians a pretext for summoning her from Palermo to Catania, where he was at the time. “O Jesus Christ!” she cried, as she set out on this dreaded journey, “all that I am is Thine; preserve me against the tyrant.”

And Our Lord did indeed preserve one who had given herself so utterly to Him. He kept her pure and undefiled while she was imprisoned for a whole month under charge of an evil woman. He gave her strength to reply to the offer of her life and safety, if she would but consent to sacrifice to the gods, “Christ alone is my salvation!” When Quintanus turned from passion to cruelty, and cut off her breasts, Our Lord sent the Prince of the Apostles to heal her. She told the elderly gentleman who appeared to her that she was Christian and desired no treatment, for her Lord could cure her by a single word. He smiled, identified himself as Saint Peter, and said: “It is in His name that you will be healed.” And when he disappeared, she saw that her wounds were healed and her flesh made whole. But when she was rolled naked upon potsherds, she asked that her torments might be ended. Her Lord heard her prayer and took her to Himself.

Saint Agatha gave herself without reserve to Jesus Christ; she followed Him in virginal purity, and then depended upon Him for protection. And to this day Christ has shown His tender regard for the very body of Saint Agatha. Again and again, during the eruptions of Mount Etna, the people of Catania have exposed her veil for public veneration, and found safety by this means. In modern times, on opening the tomb in which her body lies waiting for the resurrection, they beheld the skin still entire, and experienced the sweet fragrance which issued from this temple of the Holy Ghost.

We live in an unchaste era. Let us pray to this Saint to teach us chastity.


Wednesday, February 4, 2009

St. Joseph of Leonissa - 4th February 2009


The third of eight children, He was born to John Desideri and Serafina Paolini at Leonessa on January 8, 1556. At baptism he was given the name Eufranio. His father, a wool merchant, and his mother, who came from a family of distinction, were esteemed throughout the area for their virtue. Both parents died when Eufranio was about 12 years old.

Eufranio's uncle, Battista Desideri, a teacher at Viterbo, provided for Eufranio's upbringing and education. His uncle arranged a marriage between Eufranio and the daughter of a noble Viterban family. Feeling inclined toward religious life, the prospect of marriage caused Eufranio a great deal of stress. He fell ill, and doctors suggested that he return to Leonessa. After a few days removed from the pressure, Eufranio's health improved. While recuperating at Leonessa, Eufranio was introduced to the Capuchins who were building a friary outside the Spoletine gate. Impressed by the example of Matthew Silvestri, who had left the medical profession to embrace the Capuchin life and whose holiness was evident, Eufranio was inspired to become a Capuchin.

When his uncle found this out, he demanded that Eufranio move to Spoleto to continue his studies. The young Eufranio obeyed, but arranged to keep in contact with the Capuchins at the hermitage of St. Ann, hidden in the woods of Monte Patrico. There, far from his family, Eufranio managed to meet the provincial minister of the Umbrian province to whom he manifested his desire to become a Capuchin. He was admitted to the novitiate. Without telling anyone his plans, Eufranio left everything and traveled to Assisi to the place known as the Carcerelle where he received the habit and the name Joseph.

Once his family discovered what had transpired, they went to the friary and used every means at their disposal to convince Joseph to abandon religious life. Their attempts proved futile. Having completed his year of probation, Joseph made profession on January 8, 1573, after which he applied himself assiduously to his studies, delving especially into the writings of Bonaventure whose insights the Capuchins had espoused from their earliest days. Joseph was ordained presbyter at Amelia on September 24, 1580. After ordination, he continued his studies at Lugnano in Teverina. Although drawn to contemplation, Joseph wrote, "Whoever loves a life of contemplation has a serious obligation to go out into the world to preach, especially since the world's way of thinking is very confused and evil abounds on the earth."

On May 21, 1581, the Capuchin general vicar issued patents for preaching, the ministry in which Joseph would be engaged for the remainder of his life.

Relying solely on grace and with a mission crucifix always tucked in his cincture, Joseph negotiated the most obscure, mountainous regions of Umbria, Lazio and the Abruzzi in an intense and extensive mission of evangelization among those who were poor. On one occasion the legend of the wolf of Gubbio was apparently repeated when Joseph played the dual role of reconciler and evangelizer. In 1572, a law had been passed which granted amnesty to certain prisoners who had fought the Turks. In the vicinity of Arquata del Tronto, a group of about 50 of these former prisoners banded together and were terrorizing the local populace. All else having failed, Joseph was asked to find some solution. He boldly went in search of the band, found their hiding place, gathered them together and invited them into the church of St. Mary Camertina. Once inside, with his preaching cross in hand, Joseph began to speak to them about the need for conversion. As a result of his very moving appeal, all without exceptionresolved to change their lives. When leaving the church, each was given a rosary. The following year, Joseph was invited back to that town to preach a Lenten series. The reformed bandits were among the first to fill the pews.

Joseph enjoyed such great success in preaching because of his intimate union with God which was cultivated by incessant prayer. He would pray and meditate on the road, while holding his crucifix. In 1583, five Jesuit missionaries were murdered in Constantinople. Thereupon, the ambassadors of Paris and Venice asked the pope to send some Capuchins as their replacements. Joseph was among those who volunteered for the mission. On June 20, 1587, the Capuchin general vicar, Jerome of Polizzi Generosa, sent letters of obedience to those who had been chosen. Joseph was not among them. Though disappointed, Joseph accepted the decision. One of the chosen missionaries, Giles of Santa Maria, was prevented from leaving for reasons of health. In his stead, Joseph and Gregory of Leonessa received letters of obedience to join the Constantinople mission on August 1, 1587. After a few days, the two departed for Venice where they embarked on a boat headed for the Bosporus. After a long and harrowing journey, they arrived safely in Constantinople where they joined the other Capuchins who had taken up residence in the Galatan quarter of the city. Joseph was assigned as chaplain to some 4,000 Christian slaves who worked in the penal colony of Qaasim-pacha. He immediately went to work bringing the gospel and charitable relief to those who were languishing in inhumane conditions.

Many times he offered himself as a substitute in order to obtain the release of a slave who was near death. His offer was never accepted. One day Joseph wanted to visit the penal colonies at Top-Hane and Besik-Tas. He remained with those condemned to forced labor until late afternoon. Obliged to leave, he headed back for the friary but found the gates to the Galatan quarter already bolted. Exhausted, he fell asleep near a military guardhouse. In the morning, he was discovered by soldiers, arrested as a spy and thrown into prison. He remained there for over a month before being released in response to an appeal made by the Venetian ambassador on his behalf.

When the plague broke out in the penal colonies, the Capuchins immediately took up the ministry of assisting those who were sick and dying. Two Capuchins, Peter and Dennis, died doing so. Although Joseph became ill, he and Brother Gregory alone survived to remain at the mission. After converting a Greek bishop who had renounced the faith, Joseph devised a plan which entailed approaching the sultan, Murad 111, to seek the recognition of the right of freedom of conscience for anyone who was converted or returned to the Christian faith.

His first unsuccessful attempt at approaching the sultan took place as the sultan was passing by on the street. A second failed attempt was made while the sultan was at prayer in the mosque. Joseph was restrained by the sultan's bodyguards. Finally, a court physician and friend offered to obtain an audience for him on condition that he would put aside his religious habit and dress as a prestigious person might. Joseph preferred to witness to evangelical poverty and to present himself as a Catholic missioner seeking the recognition of a fundamental human right. He went to court early one morning and, unhindered, entered into the sultan's antechamber. When Joseph attempted to enter the sultan's chambers, he was arrested and bound in chains. He was condemned to an immediate death by being hung on hooks. He was hung from the gallows with one hook through the tendons of his right hand and another through his right foot. Tortured in such an atrocious position, parched by thirst and thrown into convulsions, death by a slow and spasmodic agony seemed to be his only release. He suffered there for three days, soldiers having built a slow fire under him so as to suffocate him with the fumes. Near death, on the evening of the third day, the guards cut him down. A young man (who some say was an angel) carefully freed him from the hooks and gave him medical attention, bread and wine. Joseph quickly recovered.

The young man said to him, "Return quickly to Italy and continue to preach the gospel there; your mission here is finished.'! Joseph quickly left Turkey and arrived at Rome where he and the converted Greek bishop presented themselves to Pope Sixtus V. Following Joseph's return to Italy, in the autumn of 1589, he took up residence at the Carcerelle in Assisi. The local bishop had requested that a Capuchin preach the Advent series in the cathedral that year. Joseph was chosen and met with great success, partly because he was already venerated as something of a martyr for the faith. Despite the local minister's hope that the Capuchins would gain prestige by having Joseph remain at Assisi, Joseph asked to resume his itinerant preaching ministry in the small villages and mountain towns of central Italy. Joseph ignored danger and inconvenience. When he couldn't reach a place by foot, he would crawl on hands and knees to get there. He would go anywhere to preach, especially to poor, rundown places where no one else was inclined to go. He would think nothing of plunging into a river or fording a stream in order to reach his destination, or of traveling barefoot through forest and thorn thickets.

Among the Capuchins who travelled with him, he was known as the "preacher of the thickets," and the "companion-killer." No one could keep up with his stamina and resolve. Joseph would forego food and sleep for the sake of reaching yet another small village where he could preach. No sooner would he finish in one town than already be on his way to the next. When farmers heard that Joseph was in town, they would leave the sowing of their crops half finished in order to hear him, even if it meant that the seed already sown would be lost to the birds and other animals.

In the aftermath of the Council of Trent, Joseph spent much time and energy catechizing. He began a ministry of evangelization among shepherds who lacked even rudimentary knowledge of the faith, prayer and the commandments. He would walk through the streets ringing a bell, reminding parents to send their children to catechism class. He used his preaching as a form of advocacy on behalf of those who were in need. He preached to the poor and addressed the social injustices which adversely affected them. For the benefit of all those who were poor and hungry, and especially women, Joseph was instrumental in establishing food cooperatives where anyone who was hungry could find food. Joseph would preach and beg for grain or other items which could be bartered for grain. Women who had themselves experienced poverty and hunger were placed in charge. Convinced that it was Christ reaching out to him in those who experienced want, Joseph sought them out. He recognized not only his personal call to help others, but also the need to create stable social programs for helping those who lacked the necessities of life. He also was instrumental in establishing hospitals and shelters to accommodate pilgrims, the sick and the homeless. His charity knew no limits. He ministered in prisons, visiting and helping the detainees in a variety of ways, and assisting those condemned to death. During epidemics, he did not hesitate to carry cadavers on his own shoulders to bring them to the cemetery. He never hesitated to offer himself, even at the cost of his own life.

One day while traveling from Leonessa to Montereale, he found himself in the middle of a brawl between two rival gangs. With incredible boldness he walked into their midst, raised his crucifix, prayed and spoke about the need to find alternatives to violence.

Two towns along the ancient Roman via Salaria, Bornona and Posta, had for some time been involved in a territorial dispute. Joseph preached in both towns and succeeded in doing what no one else could.

When he became deathly ill, Joseph asked to be taken to Leonessa in order to pay his last respects to his relativesand friends. The doctors then suggested that he go to Amatrice. His local minister and nephew, Francis of Leonessa, was at his deathbed. On Saturday evening, February 4, 1612, after beginning the divine office,which proved too difficult to continue, Joseph repeated his favorite prayer: "Sancta Maria, succurre miseris." Quietly and peacefully he slipped into death's embrace. Joseph was beatified by Clement XII in 1737 and canonized by Benedict XIV in 1746.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Signs of the time - Prophecy

Look around, every one has an idea that something is wrong but they don't know what it is. Everyone is hoping that the economy will improve. As Catholics, our Hope is in God. We dont need to run around here and there looking for solutions, we know that in good and bad times God will lead us and care for us as he did for our ancestors as they wandered for 40 years in the dessert.

Dear reader, the link below is a prophecy of Ralph Martin, I suggest you read it and understand it and digest it well. Following this I urge you to say many rosaries asking Our Lady to grant you the grace of perseverance in the time of chastisement and persecution..

http://al007italia.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-will-lead-you-into-desert.html

In this coming week, i will post summaries of prophecy by St John Bosco, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady at Akita and then lastly and most importantly those of Dr Plinio

Support Pope Benedict






In France, but probably also in other countries, the media, including alas so called catholic media, have been very hostile to the Pope's decision concerning the excommunication of four bishops of the SSPX. A petition against the decree is even circulating. We then decided to take the opportunity to say thank you to the Holy Father and to give him our full support. This initiative was launched by a group of friends, some of them from the SSPX, most of them not, but all of them very grateful to the Holy Father.

St. Blaise - 3rd Febraury 2009


It is not known precisely when or where St. Blaise lived, but according to tradition he was a bishop of Sebaste, Armenia, in the early part of the fourth century, and suffered martyrdom under the Roman emperor Licinius, who had commanded the governor of the province, one Agricolaus, to prevent the spread of Christianity in his territory. After this edict had been promulgated, Blaise fled to the mountains and lived in a cave frequented by wild beasts. He used his skill to heal the animals that he found wounded or sick, and when the emperor's hunters, bent on collecting wild animals for the royal games, discovered him in this cave, they carried him off to Agricolaus as a special prize.

On the way, the story goes, they met a poor woman whose pig had been seized by a wolf. At the command of Blaise, the wolf restored the pig to its owner, alive and unhurt. During the course of this journey he also miraculously cured a child who was choking to death on a fishbone. For this reason St. Blaise is often invoked by persons suffering from throat trouble. When he had reached the capital and was in prison awaiting execution, the old woman whose pig he had saved came to see him, bringing two fine wax candles to dispel the gloom of his dark cell. When he was finally killed, he is supposed to have been tortured with an iron comb or rake, and afterwards beheaded. In the West there was no cult honoring St. Blaise prior to the eighth century.

One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, his emblems are an iron comb and a wax taper.

One reason for St. Blaise's popularity arose from the fact he was a physician who cured, even performing miraculous cures. Thereby, those who were sick, especially with throat ailments, invoked his intercession. Eventually the custom of the blessing of throats arose, whereby the priest held two crossed candles over the heads of the faithful or touched their throats with them while he invoked the prayer of the saint and imparted God's blessing. In our present Roman Ritual, the priest prays, "Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." This practice continues in many parishes on St. Blaise's feast day.

While we invoke St. Blaise for his protection against any physical ailment of the throat, we should also ask his protection against any spiritual ailment - profanity, cursing, unkind remarks, detraction or gossip. St. James reminds us, "If a man who does not control his tongue imagines that he is devout, he is self-deceived; his worship is pointless" (1:26) and later, "We use [the tongue] to say, 'Praised be the Lord and Father'; then we use it to curse men, though they are made in the likeness of God. Blessing and curse come out of the same mouth. This ought not to be, my brothers!" (3:9-10). Therefore, may St. Blaise protect us from all evil, physical and spiritual, which may attack the throat.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Sermon by Saint Sophronius - Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord


(Presentation of Our Lord - Giotto)
In honour of the divine mystery that we celebrate today, let us all hasten to meet Christ. Everyone should be eager to join the procession and to carry a light.

Our lighted candles are a sign of the divine splendour of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ.

The Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, carried the true light in her arms and brought him to those who lay in darkness. We too should carry a light for all to see and reflect the radiance of the true light as we hasten to meet him.

The light has come and has shone upon a world enveloped in shadows; the Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who lived in darkness. This, then, is our feast, and we join in procession with lighted candles to reveal the light that has shone upon us and the glory that is yet to come to us through him. So let us hasten all together to meet our God.
The true light has come, the light that enlightens every man who is born into this world. Let all of us, my brethren, be enlightened and made radiant by this light. Let all of us share in its splendour, and be so filled with it that no one remains in the darkness. Let us be shining ourselves as we go together to meet and to receive with the aged Simeon the light whose brilliance is eternal. Rejoicing with Simeon, let us sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the Father of the light, who sent the true light to dispel the darkness and to give us all a share in his splendour.

Through Simeon’s eyes we too have seen the salvation of God which he prepared for all the nations and revealed as the glory of the new Israel, which is ourselves. As Simeon was released from the bonds of this life when he had seen Christ, so we too were at once freed from our old state of sinfulness.

By faith we too embraced Christ, the salvation of God the Father, as he came to us from Bethlehem. Gentiles before, we have now become the people of God. Our eyes have seen God incarnate, and because we have seen him present among us and have mentally received him into our arms, we are called the new Israel. Never shall we forget this presence; every year we keep a feast in his honour.