The Priestly Blessing is an Epiphany for those with faith!

                A Meditation on the Priestly Blessing

 I have always believed in the special graces received when one is privileged to receive the Blessings of a priest. In the beginning of my spiritual journey, (early 1980),  I was given a flyer titled simply “Jesus speaks of his Blessings to Theresa Neumann, Stigmatist of Konnereuth”,  at that time she was not well known in America. Some of the photos of her I saw in a book that I came across later were very graphic, and for a beginner in the spiritual life unsettling.  I decided not to use any of the graphic photos here because it is not the purpose of this post to dwell on the sensational mystical phenomenon.  Rather, I hope for us to meditate on The Priestly Blessing as another Epiphany, a manifestation of Christ for those who see like the Magi with the eyes of faith. The Magi were inspired by signs in the heavens to follow the star that announced a newborn King. Once they arrived it was faith that revealed the God Man behind the infant lying in the manger. It is our faith that will reveal the Divinity behind “The Blessing” given by the priest today. Seeing the Priest as an alter Christus when he bestows “The Blessings”, After Mass, during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and when the faithful request a blessing from him.

Having said all that, I was happy to finally learn that the cause for beatification Teresa Neumann was introduced. A petition asking for her beatification was signed by 40,000 people, and in 2005, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Bishop of Regensburg, formally opened the Vatican proceedings for her beatification.   I shy away from apparitions that do not have the full approval of the church and  now I could share with others this Meditation on the Priestly Blessing. That really enriched my own spiritual life.

 

When I came across these words of Jesus to the Stigmatist Teresa Neumann after reading it I was in awe of the priest and the graces he confers with his blessing.   I always tried not to miss an opportunity  to ask for “The Blessing” when I was in the presence of a priest.  A Blessing as an act of charity for myself, for the priest and those in the room with me.  An act of charity to remind the priest of the dignity of his state. I think after you read the words Jesus is said to have spoken to Teresa Neumann you also will have a greater appreciation of the Priestly Blessing and request it more often from your priests. And, if you’re a priest I hope you will freely give your blessing as an act of charity and mercy for your people.

How many poor priests do not realize the power they have in their identification with Christ. If they really believed the power behind the words: “May the Blessing of almighty God descend upon you and remain with you forever! They would not stop offering “The Blessing” to help the souls God has placed in their charge. 'The Blessing' have great powers over the spirit of darkness, THEY dispel and limit the attacks of the evil spirit around them in their parish and in the world! 

We commonly call "The Blessing" his blessing. We most often ask when we desire a blessing from the priest: “Father Will you give me your blessing?” It is Christ’s Blessing, Jesus  is blessing us  through the priest. An EPIPHANY for those who see with the eyes of faith. This Epiphany also takes places during Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament and when we attend Mass and receive Holy Communion.  It is Christ who offers and Christ who we receive and at the end Christ who gives "THE BLESSING" The graces bestowed on us are given according to the devotion of the receiver So it is with the each “Blessing.” we are privileged to receive by the priest. 

How many priests today send Blessings to their parishioners after they say their Divine Office or before going to sleep at night? How many priests even say the Divine Office?  I sat next to a bishop on an airplane once and I was filled with joy as I observed him bless the city we were departing from and again he also blessed the city that we arrived in before we landed. How many priests bestow these graces upon the world? How blessed a person is who belongs to a parish whose pastor realizes his dignity as an alter Christus and lives it. God please grant us many Holy Priests give them this light to lead deeper spiritual lives. May the following meditation aide us to rediscover the Power the Priest has when he confers The Blessing!

Jesus Speaks of His Blessing

(To Teresa Neuman Stigmatist)

"My dear Child, I wish to teach you to receive My Blessing with fervor. Realize that something vast takes place when you receive the Blessing of my Priest. The Blessing is an outpouring of My Divine holiness. Open your soul and let it become holy through the Blessing. The Blessing is a heavenly dew for the soul, through which all that is done can be made fruitful….Through the power to bless, I have given the priest the power to open the treasury of My Heart and to pour out from It the 'rain' of graces on souls. When the priest blesses, I bless. Then a vast stream of graces from My Sacred Heart flows into a soul to its fullest capacity. By recollection, keep your heart open, in order not to lose the benefit of the Blessing. Through My Blessing, you receive the grace to love, strength to endure suffering, and assistance for body and soul." 
  

It is a great privilege when you

are permitted to receive the Blessing!"

"My holy Blessing contains all help for the necessities of mankind. Through the Blessing you are given the strength and desire to seek good, to shun evil, and to enjoy the protection of My children against the powers of darkness. It is a great privilege when you are permitted to receive the Blessing. You cannot comprehend how much mercy I extend through it to you. Therefore, never receive the Blessing in a  matter-of-fact or thoughtless way. As poor as you are before receiving the Blessing, you are rich after receiving it." 

"I regret that the Blessing of the Church

is so little prized and so seldom received"

"I regret that the Blessing of the Church is so little prized and so seldom received. Your good will is strengthened through the Blessing, your undertakings receive My special Providence, your weakness is overcome by my power, your thoughts and intentions are spiritualized, and all bad influences neutralized…I have given My Blessing vast power. It proceeds from the unending love of My Sacred Heart. The greater the zeal with which the Blessing is given and received, the greater its efficacy,"

"It is all the Same Whether One 
or Many Receive the Blessing"

"Whether a child is blessed or the whole world simultaneously, the Blessing is far greater than a thousand worlds. Reflect that God is immense - infinitely immense. How small are all things in comparison to Him! It is all the same whether one or many receive the Blessing. This does not matter, for I give to each according to the measure of his or her confidence (or faith). Since I am infinitely rich in all good, you are permitted to receive without measure. You cannot hope too much from my Blessing; all will exceed your fondest expectations." 

"My child, protect all that give Blessings"

"Esteem highly what has been blessed; then you will please Me, your God. As often as you are blessed, you are united closer to Me, sanctified anew, healed with, and protected with the love of My Sacred Heart. Often I keep hidden the workings of My Blessing so that it is known only in eternity. Often it appears that Blessings have no results. But wonderful are the workings of the Blessing - even the seemingly fruitless results are a blessing in disguise through the holy Blessing. These are often mysteries of My Providence, which I do not wish to manifest." 

"My Blessings often produce 
effects unknown to the soul"

"Therefore, have great confidence in this outpouring of My Sacred Heart, and reflect earnestly on this favor to you (that the apparent results are hidden from you)…Receive the holy Blessing sincerely, for the graces of the Blessing find entrance only into a humble heart. Receive it with a good will and with the intention to become better; then will the Blessing penetrate to the depths of your heart and will produce its effects."

  

"Be a child of the Blessing; 
then you yourself will be 
A Blessing for Others!"

 



  
Short Bio Teresa Neumann

Teresa Neuman has attained today a place in popular piety. Born on Good Friday in 1892, an act of Divine Providence showing forth the future mission the Lord would give to her. She died on September 18, 1962. The decade in which the 3^rd secret of Fatima was asked to be revealed and at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On September 11, 1962, In a speech to the UN, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko warns that an American attack on Cuba could mean war with the Soviet Union.

During the Third Reich, Therese Neumann was the target of ridicule and defamation, as the Nazis knew about her dissenting views and feared her growing popularity. She was observed by the Gestapo. She was never physically harmed, though her family home, parish church and priest's house all received direct attacks. She encouraged Fritz Gerlich to continue his opposition to Hitler and his national-socialist party. Gerlich was subsequently killed for his opposition.

At the age of 20 she was in an accident and became blind and paralyzed. She received a miraculous healing in 1923 through prayers to St. Therese of Lisieux. Since this time Theresa has not eaten any foods or liquids except for one small consecrated wafer a day. [Her total fast lasted from the age of twenty-five until her passing away, thirty-nine years later] On September 18, 1962, from Cardiac Arrest.   The stigmata, or sacred wounds of Christ, began to appear on her head, heart, hands and feet every Friday while she experienced the passion of Christ.

Paramahansa Yogananda visited her and wrote about her case in his book Autobiography of a Yogi, published in 1946. He wrote an entire chapter, Therese Neumann, The Catholic Stigmatist of Bavaria, which reverently gives a vivid first-hand description of one of her Friday Passion trances. He wrote of her: "I realized at once that her strange life is intended by God to reassure all Christians of the historical authenticity of Jesus' life and crucifixion as recorded in the New Testament, and to dramatically display the ever-living bond between the Galilean Master and his devotees."

Theresa, was once asked if America will experience war on its soil, "No, but at the end of this century America will be destroyed economically by a series of natural disasters." Friends, Could this be a consequence of America turning away from God and the Commandments?

Links for more information

  THE AMAZING LIFE - STORY OF THERESA NEUMANN pdf book

Join the a new FB Cause 1 Extra ACT OF PENANCE FOR 2012 ELECTIONS!
add one extra act of penance a week for God's Mercy on our country!  http://bit.ly/zyNsBz

Penance! Penance! Penance! Why are the Shepherds Silent?

Awake Mankind! For Your sake God has become man!

"Awake you who sleep, rise up from the dead and Christ will enlighten you! We would suffer everlasting unhappiness and would not have returned to life if God had not shared in our death, We would certainly perish if God had not taken on our flesh and became man. So let us rejoice in the birth of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate this festive day for He who is the great eternal day came from the endless day of eternity into our own short day of time. For what greater grace could God had made to dawn on us than to make his only son become man. He became man so that man in his turn could become sons and daughters of God! Let us as Christians remember our great dignity! Now that we share in God's own nature, let us pray for grace not return by sin to our former base conditions. Let us bear in mind who is our head and whose body we are members. Do not forget we have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God's kingdom. Through the sacrament of baptism we are temples of the Holy Spirit. Let us not drive away so great a guest by our evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for our liberty is brought by the blood of Christ." 
Paraphrased from the Office of Readings for Dec 24  a Sermon by St Augustine titled Truth has arisen from the Earth and on  Dec 25th a Sermon by St. Leo the Great, Christian remember your Dignity.

Bethlehem House of Bread

The Birth of Jesus foreshadowed the Blessed Sacrament!  

The old Hebrew name bêth lehem,

meaning "house of bread"

has survived till the present  day!

The scenes surrounding the Birth of Jesus 

foreshadow the Blessed Sacrament!

 After Jesus was born Our Lady wrapped him in swaddling-clothes and laid him in a manger, a place where animals were fed because there was no room for them in the inn. The manger represents the wood of the cross his future sacrifice in time for our sins. The manger also foreshadows the altars in every Catholic church.  Here Jesus becomes incarnate again, this time hidden not in the flesh of a human nature but in the form of bread.  At the words of consecration during every Holy Mass Jesus is born again and immolated.  We are present at Bethlehem and at Calvary

Imagine that brute animals ate from the manger the creator of the world slept in! This scene showed us that God would feed his own creatures with the manna of His own Body and Blood so that we would be capable of entering into eternal life with Him. What a great gift of sheer grace for mortal man to become immortal with God!

  

The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas once wrote: “Material food first of all turns itself into the person who eats it, and as a consequence, restores his losses and increases his vital energies. Spiritual food, on the other hand, turns the person who eats it into Itself, and thus the proper effect of the Eucharistic sacrament is the conversion of man into Christ, so that he may no longer live for himself, but that Christ may live in Him. We become sons and daughters of God.  St. Augustine, recorded similar words which he heard in the Spirit from the Lord. We find them in the account of his conversion, the Confession: “I am the food of grown men. Grow, and you shall feed upon me. You will not change me into yourself, as you change food into your flesh, but you will be changed into me!”

 He came unto His own 

and His own received Him not! 

 

"This is the judgment: that the light has entered the world, and men have preferred darkness to light because their deeds were evil. Everybody who does wrong hates the light and keeps away from it, for fear his deeds may be exposed. But everybody who is living by the truth will come to the light to make it plain that all he has done has been done through God." John 3:19-21

 

Church of the Nativity the star  indicates where Jesus was born

This scripture is more true today than it was at the time of Our Lord's birth! Today at Christmas it is in the Blessed Sacrament that we can say that His own receive him not!  Many take no heed of the gift God offers of Himself to men in this sacrament.  Consequently, they do not approach the table of the Lord to be spiritually fed. Others receive him but are not prepared through sacramental confession so they are not free from sin. They do not recognize the body and blood of Christ the Word, the second person of the Trinity, who became flesh to unite himself to our flesh. They do not discern THE HIDDEN JESUS underneath the sacramental veil. Sin has blinded them.  Yes they receive but the effects on their souls are different. Those prepared to enter into communion with Christ receive unto eternal life.  Those: "Who eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment (damnation) to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord."         1 Corinthians 11:27

 

Jesus in his public ministry

    Calls himself the Bread of Life!

John 6:48-53

I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eats of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. 

If you read further in this passage you see that many of the disciples think this a “hard teaching” and they “walked with him no more.”  And Jesus let them leave. He did not stop to tell them he was only kidding he let them leave. Afterward, Jesus turned to the Apostles and asked if they would leave also? Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life.” Unfortunately, we see this exact scenario today. Many Christians have left  the Church  or worse remain within her ranks and desecrate the Blessed Sacrament.   Intentional  desecration is not only a mortal sin but also incurs the penalty of excommunication latae sententiae. They don’t believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and are destroying the faith of others by their bad examples. 

  

The battle of the light against the darkness!

 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. Ps 90:8

Christmas is a joyful season  of light for those with faith. But we cannot pretend like one sleeping that the world continues to sit on a precipice prefer darkness to light. So many dangers stand before us in the world. Disasters man made and God sent in nature.  Will we heed the Angels warnings at Fatima in 1916 to make reparation to Our Eucharistic Lord for the outrages, sacrileges and in differences by which He is offended? Will we hear the plea from the Heart of Mary: " To amend our lives and stop offending the Lord for He is already grievously offended? Or, will we go merrily on our way without a care, right up to the chastisements sure to come, prefigured in the miracle of the sun. 

Let us Awake Now and let Christ 

the true light of the world enlighten you!

Once more let us hear the cry to Awake. Awake now, you who sleep, rise up from the death of sin and Christ will enlighten you! We would suffer everlasting unhappiness and would not have hope to return to life if God had not shared in our death. Let us prepare the way for the new spring time of faith that Bl. John Paul II and other holy souls saw from a distance. Let us prepare first and foremost by Eucharistic reparation. It is a spiritual battle we are in and we  must use the spiritual weapons the church has given us. Including the Rosary our spiritual machine gun. If every Catholic committed to one 5 decade rosary every day that battle would be won. Families give up an hour of TV and pray for each others needs for the church and our country. We have to account to God for time ill spent!

God himself will fight for us the battle to dispel the darkness in the world. But we must prove ourselves worthy of His interventions.  God will restore the dignity of human life from conception to natural death.  The devil hates Imago Dei--The image of God in man.  God will help us but we must help Him.  Let us first restore Him to his royal throne in our parish churches and chapels.  Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus who became flesh and slept in a manger in a stable and now dwells with us till the end of time.Jesus the second person of the Holy Trinity---He is not a piece of bread to be trampled under our feet because we no longer recognize Him in the particles that fall from our hands.  or worse in the particles we leave behind in unpurified pyx's and we carry God into unspeakable places. May God forgive our spiritual blindness. Pray for priests and for bishops who do nothing and let the evils continue.  The priests for those they appoint to be Eucharistic ministers and bishops for all the Eucharistic Ministers in their dioceses. They will have to account for every lost particle on judgement day.

Fatima Begins and Will End with the Eucharist

Particles of the Blessed Sacrament   

Let us Pray  

O most loving and Blessed Infant  Jesus, great God Lord of Heaven and Earth, who clothed and hid your divine majesty under a wonderful semblance of a child, and hide yourself today in our tabernacles day and night for our Divine food and consolation in this valley of tears. Your divine presence before whom the powers of Heaven tremble, and  might kings of the earth bow, and evil spirits under the earth must bend. You became little as a child and in the Host that we might love you more ardently and serve you more faithfully That we may follow your example in childlike purity and love. I a poor sinner love you as the highest and most loving God and entrust myself to your infinite goodness. Teach me Jesus after your example to love humility and to crush my pride; to desire to grow in virtue and in childlike trust. Direct me Jesus and rule me, make me virtuous, so that I may please You and be little in this world and great in the next. Jesus meek and humble of heart! Make our hearts like unto thine! 

The light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never (will never) put it out.  John 1:5

Christmas Blessings to one and all!

Let the Earth be opened and bud forth a Savior! O that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you!

 Let us Pray together the 

Solemn Christmas Novena

Spend five  minutes in daily prayer and contemplation to better recognize the Christ Child and more fully receive His boundless blessings. 

Based on the seven Great O Antiphons.

The "O Antiphons" seem to sum up all our Advent longing as they paint in vivid terms the wretched condition of mankind and his need of a Savior." 

May the God of peace sanctify us completely and may our spirits souls and bodies be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!

V:  The Lord is our Coming King,  

R:   Let us hasten to adore Him.

December 16

BEHOLD THE KING   the Lord of the earth who appeared to Moses in the flame 

of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai He  is drawing near! He will come and remove from us the Yoke of  our captivity of the House of Israel, and redeem us with outstretched arm.  R: O Come, Let us adore Him!

December 17

O SAPIENTIA  O WISDOM,   Holy Word of God who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly with your strong and tender care  R: Come, and teach us the way of prudence
Sirach 24:2; Wisdom 8:1. Symbols: oil lamp, open book.

 December 18  
 O ADONAI  O LORD AND RULER    O Sacred Lord of  the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: R: Come, and redeem us with outstretched arm of your mighty hand. Exodus 3:2, 20:1. Symbols: burning bush, stone tablets .

December 19                                  
O RADIX JESSE  O ROOT OF JESSE, 

O flower of Jesse's stem you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples and stand as a banner of the people, before whom kings shall keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication: R: Come to deliver us, and tarry not let nothing keep you from coming to our aid! Isaiah 11:1-3,10  Symbol: vine or plant in flower, especially a rose.

 December 20                 
O CLAVIS DAVID  O KEY OF DAVID  O Key of David, Scepter of the House of Israel, controlling at your will the gate of Heaven who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens  R :Come, and bring forth the captive from his prison, he who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death. Isaiah 22:22. Symbols: key; broken chains.

December 21                     

O ORIENS  O DAWN OF THE EAST,   O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light and brightness of eternity, sun of justice: R: Come, and enlighten those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.  Psalm 19:6-7.  

Symbol: rising sun.

December 22                             
O REX GENTIUM  O KING OF THE GENTILES    King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; their desired One, the Cornerstone that makes both one:

R: Come, and deliver man, whom You formed out of the dust of the earth.  Psalm 2:7-8, Ephesians 2:14-20. Symbols, Crown, scepter .

December 23                                  
O EMMANUEL  GOD WITH US,  Our King and Lawgiver, the expected of the nations and Savior: R: Come to save us, and set us free, O Lord our God. Isaiah 7:14; 33:22. Symbols: tablets of stone, Chalice and Host.

 December 24                               Veni,Veni Emanuel                              
                               Messianic Prophecies

 VENI VENI (O COME O COME EMANUEL)

V: Tomorrow He will wipe out the iniquities of the earth. 

R: And the Savior of the world will reign over us.
V: When the Sun will have arisen from the heavens in the morning sky
R: You shall see the King of kings coming forth from the Father like a radiant bridegroom from the bridal chamber!

Daily Novena Prayer

V:  The Lord is our Coming King,  
R:  Let us hasten to adore Him.

V: Rejoice, O Daughter of Sion, and exult, O Daughter of Jerusalem.

R: Behold the Lord will come and there will be on that day a great light, and the mountains will drip with sweetness and the hills will flow with milk and honey, for the great prophet will come and he will renew Jerusalem.

V:  Behold, He who is God and man shall come forth from the house of Davis to sit upon his throne,and you shall see Him, and your heart shall rejoice.  
R: Behold, the Lord shall come, our Protector, the Holy One of Israel, bearing on His head the crown of the Kingdom.

V: And he will rule from sea unto sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth. 
R. Behold the Lord will appear, and He will not deceive: if he delay wait for him, for he will come and He will not tarry.

V:  The Lord will descend, as rain on the field. In his days  justice shall rise and an abundance of peace and all the kings of the earth shall adore Him, all nations shall serve Him.  
R: A Child is born to us, and He shall be called the God of strength; He will sit upon the throne of David his Father, and he shall rule whose dominion rests upon his shoulder.

V:  O Bethlehem, city of the the most High God, out from you shall go forth the ruler of Israel, and his going forth  will be as from the beginning of the days of eternity.   
R: And he will be glorified in the midst of all the earth and peace will be upon our land when He will have come.

V: O Lord, do not tarry; do away with the offenses of Your people

R : Be mindful of us, O Lord, and visit us in Your salvation.

V: Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult. Praise the Lord, O mountains!

R: Let the mountains break forth into gladness, and the hills with justice!

V: Praise the Lord, you mountains, for the Lord shall come and to the poor He shall show us his mercy.

Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, for the day of the Lord is nigh; behold, He will come to save us, alleluia, alleluia.

V: For the Lord shall come and to the poor He will show mercy.

R: Drop down dew, you heavens, from above and let the clouds rain down the Just One.  Let the earth be opened and bud forth the Savior. 

V:  Send forth the lamb, O Lord the ruler of all the earth, from the rock of the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Zion!  V: Come, to free us O Lord God of Hosts, show your face to us and we shall be saved!

 V: Come, O Lord,  and visit us in peace that we may rejoice in you with a perfect heart!

 R: So that we may know O Lord your way upon the earth, among all the peoples your salvation.

V: Stir up your power O Lord and come to save us. 

R:Come O Lord do not delay do away with the offenses of your people! 

V: O that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you!

R: Come and show to us Your face O Lord who are enthroned upon the Cherubim

 V: Stir up your power O Lord   R: Come to save us

  

LET US PRAY

Hasten we beseech you O Lord do not tarry, and grant us the help of your celestial power, so that we ho hope for your consolations may be lifted up by your mercy: who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever amen!

Fatima Miracle the greatest supernatural event of the 20th century does not belong to domain of faith or science it is an historical event!

The Miracle of the Sun has been characterized as the greatest supernatural occurrence of the 20th century and does not belong to the domain of faith or science it is an historical event!
The miracle of the sun as viewed by so many in other alleged apparitions did not happen in the same extraordinary manner as at Fatima witnessed by everyone present and in a 70 mile radius by believers and unbelievers alike. This was a supernatural event something only God can do. Other similar manifestations of the Miracle of the Sun at other alleged Marian apparitions may be extraordinary to those who witness them but not supernatural in character. These fall in the realm of preternatural or angelic causes. Then we must discern is this from the good angel or a bad angel. The devil has also appeared to mystics as Jesus and Mary. Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich and Bl. Anna Maria Taggi both stated that if they had not seen Jesus and Mary previously when the devil appeared as such they would have been deceived. According to present church law the bishop of the diocese has the charisma from God to confirm the authenticity and origin of alleged apparitions occurring within their own diocese. God has the power to convince and bring an unbelieving bishop to his knees as he did for Juan Diego when he opened his tilma and presenting a double miracle, Roses out of season cascading to the floor and a miraculous image of Our Lady imprinted on Juan Diego’s Tilma.

Witnesses of the Miracle of the sun, a supernatural historical event, testified to the terrifying nature of the solar miracle.
Maria Carreira stated that: “The sun turned everything in view different colors, yellow, blue, white, and it shook and trembled; it seemed like a wheel of fire which was going to fall on the people. They cried out: 'We shall all be killed, we shall all be killed!’... At last the sun stopped moving and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We were still alive and the miracle which the children had foretold had taken place. Other people witnessed the solar miracle from a distance thus ruling out the possibility of any type of collective hallucination. A final intriguing, and important, point was that the heat of the sun, as it descended on the people, also had the effect of drying their clothes and the ground, so that they went from being completely soaked to being dry in about ten minutes. The people who witnessed this stupendous event were frightened believing that they were all going to die.

                      

The Servant of God Fr. John Hardon S.J. asks: "How Does the Solar Phenomenon Confirm the Message of Fatima?"  

Servant of God Fr. John Hardon, S. J.

"It was no coincidence that the solar phenomenon at Fatima came only several months after the basic message of Fatima had been communicated to the children. The phenomenon had to have a purpose for its occurrence, and the message had to have a divine confirmation of its authenticity. When the phenomenon occurred in October, it was witnessed by thousands of people, friendly and unfriendly, simple believers and professed skeptics, those disposed to believe Our Lady’s message and others who were openly hostile to what the Blessed Virgin was reported to have said. In God’s providence the hostility of the skeptics was necessary to give rational grounds for believing what the children said the beautiful Lady was telling them. All the reports of those who witnessed the spectacle of the sun testify to their stupefaction at what they saw. No one, not even the most hardened agnostic, doubted that what he saw was a prodigy. This was necessary to provide the rational foundation for accepting, on faith, the Marian message of Fatima because of the solar event which everybody had to accept, as a fact, perceived by the senses.

Why, then, was the solar prodigy of Fatima necessary?   It was necessary in order to satisfy our spontaneous need for giving rational credence to what Mary was telling Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta. The children did not need the solar phenomenon to believe what Our Lady was telling them. But we do. It is not coincidental that Mary asked her Divine Son to work the miracle at Cana as the first of the signs performed by her Son. Immediately, we are told, his disciples believed in Him. She has been doing the same ever since. As God, He is master of the sun, moon and stars which He created. Her message at Fatima was to tell a sinful world to stop offending the Divine Majesty and to repent of their sins. As at Cana, she asked Jesus to work a miracle. At Cana, as the poet said, the water looked at its Maker and blushed. At Fatima the sun looked at its Maker and whirled in dazzling splendor to acknowledge its Creator." Excerpt From Soul Magazine Vol. 43 - #5, September-October 1992, pp. 10-11  Copyright © 1999 by Inter Mirifica

The Third part of the Secret of Fatima took place during the miracle of the sun and was revealed by Bl. John Paul II during the beatification of Jacinta and Francesco Marto.

We learned that during the Miracle of the Sun while everyone was taken up with the solar events the children also witnessed the Angel of God's descending towards the earth crying out three times in a loud voice that thundered  "PENANCE! PENANCE! PENANCE!” Lucia describes what they saw as those around them were taken up with the solar event that authenticated the Fatima Apparitions: Lucia writes: 

"We saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: Pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 

                           

                  
  
‘Penance! Penance! Penance!'  

 A drawing from J. Gill illustrating the third part of the secret pf Fatima,

        taken from the book of Sister Lucia of Fatima, “Calls from the Message of

       Fatima”,Secção de Livraria, Cova da Iria 2496-908 Fatima, Portugalcaption

..And we also saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, Religious men and women were going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, Religious men and women, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."

Sister Lucia already gave us an indication for interpreting the third part of the “secret” in a letter to the Holy Father on May 12, 1982. Here Sr. Lucia writes:
 

Fatima in Lucia's Own Words

"The third part of the secret is a symbolic revelation, and is conditioned by whether we accept or not what the Message itself asks of us: ‘If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, etc. Since we did not heed this appeal of the Message, we see that it has been fulfilled; Russia has invaded the world with her errors. And if we have not yet seen the complete fulfillment of the final part of this prophecy, we are going towards it little by little with great strides. If we do not reject the path of sin, hatred, revenge, injustice, violations of the rights of the human person, immorality and violence, etc. And let us not say that it is God who is punishing us in this way; on the contrary it is people themselves who are preparing their own punishment. In his kindness God warns us and calls us to the right path, while respecting the freedom he has given us; hence the people are responsible”.

For God's faithful in this age of apostasy and perversion, it is more necessary now than ever that we carefully heed the admonitions of the Angel and Our Lady with a sincere amendment of life, and increased prayer.
 
Our Lady asked especially for the five first Saturdays, the daily Rosary with meditation upon the Mysteries, sacrifice of our daily duty, and consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.If we hope to persevere in this age of apostasy, we must take to heart and apply in our daily lives the admonition of the Gospels! UNLESS YE DO PENANCE, YOU SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH! These times do not permit anymore "easy living" for those of us who desire salvation. If we do not reject the spirit of the world, we have chosen it for our master -- if we continue to live by the material standards of our modern society we shall lose our souls "no man can serve two masters"! Such a difficult truth is not easy to accept for us, who live in a society rotting with the cancer of materialism and glorification of the flesh! 

Who is our master? Christ or the world?

 

What daily penance and mortification do we practice so that we will not "likewise PERISH"? In the second apparition of the Angel in 1916 he told the children: “Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High. Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners.” If we chose to scorn these warnings of Divine Mercy that Our Lord is giving through his Mother at Fatima we may soon reap the wrath of Divine Justice, for we have freely chosen it! We must purify ourselves or be purified! 

The action of God, the Lord of history, and the co-responsibility of man in the drama of his creative freedom, are the two pillars upon which human history is built.
 
Fatima reminds us that man's future is in God, and that we are active and responsible partners in creating that future. What will that future be? It is up to us what we choose to do today

.

“Remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.”

Fatima and the Four Last Things

DEATH, JUDGEMENT - HEAVEN OR HELL 

The Reality of Purgatory  

God’s Mercy vs. God’s Perfect Justice



Michelangelo's- The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel



The Message of Fatima
A Catechesis of the Faith & Reaffirmation of the Gospel

The message of Fatima was described by the late Pope John Paul II as a reaffirmation of the Gospels. Our Lady came as a Catechist at Fatima and is teaching us through these little children how to apply the teachings of Christ to our lives in the 21st Century.  Our Meditations in this post on the 4 Last things; Death, Judgment, Heaven or Hell are the common lot for all men; Christian, Jew, Muslim Buddhist,Hindu or atheist …. We all will someday die and face our creator to be judged for the actions we did while we lived in the body. We need to be reminded of these realities and sadly in many places these realities the common lot of all men are no longer preached!

Season of Advent Time For

Repentance & Spiritual Conversion

Advent is given to us by the church to remind us of our need for repentance and for spiritual conversion a perfect time to read and meditate on the 4 last things.  Advent is not just to prepare us for the anniversary of the birth of Jesus (Christmas) when God entered the world as man. More importantly Advent is a time for reflection on the coming of the Lord at the end of our lives and his final coming at the end of time! During this period Divine Providence brought a little booklet titled READ ME or RUE IT  by Fr. Paul O'Sullivn,O.P.  The cover promised that the phamphlet would be a Revelation for many who would read it and it was for me.  I paraphrased portions from this booklet within this post. I also want to mention the Classic Meditations on the Four Last things: DEATH, JUDGMENT, HELL and HEAVEN by Fr. Martin Von Cochem O.S.F.C.  whose quote is one of the titles of this post and will be an valuable source for further meditiations. Links for both booklets can be found at the end of this post.

Why not the 5 last things

and Purgatory?

Purgatory is only temporary end before the final end in Heaven so it is not considered to be one of the last things. However Purgatory is such an important dogma of the church. Incredibly so many Catholics are ignorant of Purgatory so do nothing to avoid it themselves and little or nothing to help the Poor Souls who are there, suffering intensely, as they wait for Masses and prayers to be offered for them. That is why Our Lady brought up the reality of Heaven and Purgatory in her first appearance to the children. Only after strengthening them with the graces given in both the May and June apparitions did the children experience another reality of a place called hell.

Mary is the Model Catechist 

She did not ask the permission of the parents of these children before showing them the vision of hell. Remember that Jacinta was barely six years old!  This reminds us that children do not belong to their parents they are only entrusted to them by God. God expects parents to instruct and form them in His ways; to know love and serve Him so that they will have the opportunity to be happy with Him forever in Heaven!  Thus the outrage of abortion. Destroying God's property your child that was given to your to reflect his image in the world.

The reality of Hell should be taught to children using the same methods our Lady used at Fatima the Model Catechist.  Appealing to their generous hearts by teaching them to help save others from going there. Having this knowledge they will be able tomake the right choices to save themselves from going there as well. Our Lady in showing young children a vision of Hell lead us to understand that children can also go there! Children can and do commit grave sins, even murder. They  have the natural law impressed on their souls so they know right from wrong.  However, we should never under estimate a childs capacity to do good and for self sacrifice. Our Lady at Fatima also showed us how great the heart of a child can become when properly formed! Even to heights of heroic sanctity.

                                                   A Vision of Hell

The Ultimate Justice of God

For Unrepentant Sinners. 



The children saw countless numbers of people who were endlessly falling into the fiery flames.  Our Lady sadly looked upon them as she said "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.” And then she told them the secrets of Fatima that are connected with this vision. Material for another post someday.

The Vision of Hell

In the third apparition of July the children were given a vision of hell the ultimate Justice of God for unrepentant sinners. Our Lady pointed to the earth and the light from her hands the light from her hands penetrated the earth and opened the ground so that the children could peer into the depths and could see hell. Lucia describes  it for us: "As our Lady spoke she opened Her hands once more, as She had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were an ocean of fire. 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. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me.) The demons could be distinguished (from the souls of the damned) by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent.This vision lasted only a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother who,  at the first apparition, had promised to take us to Heaven. Without this promise, I think we would have died of fright.

The reality eternity was already impressed on this young mind and the possibility of some souls spending an eternity in hell! This thought impressed Jacinta the most. She often called Lucia and Francisco she would ask: "Are you praying with me? It is necessary to pray much to save souls from hell! How sorry I am for sinners who go there and burn forever like wood in a fire! If I could only show them hell so they would not go there!"  Even after she was taken sick, she would get out of bed to bow her head to the floor, and pray as the Angel had taught for the glory of God, and in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended in the tabernacles throughout the world and for the conversion of poor sinners.

Photo taken after the Vision of Hell note the anxious expressions

Many years later Lucia said she believed that most people go to Hell because of sins of the flesh. If souls can be condemned to hell because of one unrepentant mortal sin for all eternity is it not to be understood that other souls could be detained for long years in purgatory who have committed countless deliberate venial sins for which they have had little sorrow and had done little or no penance. The guilt that has been remitted by absolution, but the temporal punishment will have to be paid in purgatory.

Modern Man is Running From

The Ultimate Reality of His Own Death.

He is busy, so frantically busy trying to control his own personal destiny and good fortune and in the process he unwittingly makes todays technological advances his God.  In extreme cases the computer screen has become his tabernacle and window into solving his thirst for knowledge. Knowledge for finite things because that is all the computer can give us.  He is deceived into believing from all the information available to him on the computer. All the images (visions) that can be brought before him, from the outer reaches of the universe to the depths of the ocean that he can finally solve and ultimately control the mysteries of the universe. The mysteries  of life and death without the reality of God!  A deception of the devil for this time the ultimate deception the ultimate lie!  Poor simple man is tempted to believe he is something that he is not before his peers and even before God!



Hieronymus Bosch  “Death of a sinner”, angel and devil weigh a mans soul

 Someday God Will Send A Strong Delusion

I wonder if the scriptures of 2Thessalonians2:9-12 is in the beginnings of being actualized! 9The coming of the lawless one with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

We are spending  more and more time involved in this technology to do what we think are great things! What was supposed to save time for human relationships has become a time consumer. Often we no longer have time for true prayer.  A prayer that enables an openness of soul to God a readiness and receptivity in order to be always praying, (Luke 18:1) and always listening to hear his voice when he whispers to our souls in the silence.  We have lost this form of prayer because there is no longer silence for modern man our ears are plugged into something all day! Another victory of the devil that technology has brought us! We can no longer hear the voice of conscience with all the noise and distractions around us. Without conscience we longer hear the truth about ourselves and the truth about God. I fear if we persist down this slippery slope God will allow us to have faith in whatever it is we put faith in.  If we don't turn back to  God in prayer, he may (if he has not already) send the strong delusion described in, Thessalonians 2:11. And in other words a time may come that God will not permit the deluded to repent. Hence this little catechesis on the 4 last things: Death, Judgment, Heaven or Hell and reality of purgatory as mentioned by the events of Fatima.  

Our Lady at  Fatima
Confirmed the Reality of Purgatory

The painting below of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, the 'Throne of Mercy' and 'Queen of the Angels', who takes great delight in sending her Angels to release those Souls mercifully pardoned by her Son Jesus through the prayers and supplications of the church!

This painting is similar of Our Lady in Lucia's Parish Church!
This was how Lucia recognized that it was Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
who also appeared during the Miracle of the Sun in October

During Our Lady's First Visit to Fatima in May Lucia–the oldest of the three, after being reassured by Our Lady that they would all one day go to Heaven. Jacinta and Francisco would go soon and she would also but not right away because it was the will of God that she help promote the devotion to her Immaculate Heart to save poor sinners. Lucia found the courage and asked Our Lady about two of her friends who recently died: "Is Maria das Neves is in Heaven?" "Yes" answered Our Lady, "she is in Heaven."  She also asked about another friend, Amelia. Our Lady answered: "She will be in Purgatory until the end of the world."

Amelia's Fate 
Is a Warning for All of Us!

Amelia was eighteen years old when she died. She is in Purgatory and will, on the testimony of Our Blessed Mother, stay there until the end of time.  Let us take to heart and make certain that her fate will not be our own. What could she have done to merit such purgation in those days and what about us and the sins committed in our era?

Why such a lengthy expiation?

The malice of sin is great. What we think are small faults are in reality serious offenses against the infinite goodness of God. Look how the saints wept over their smallest faults. We are weak we say and it is true but God is always there for us offering us graces to strengthen us and giving us lights to see the gravity of our sins. We do not use the lights and graces he so generously offers us, and we do not receive the sacraments as we should.


The saints committed few and slight sins they sorrowed much over them and did severe penances. We commit many and grave sins and we sorrow little and do little or no penance. For the majority of us who do make the positive decision to serve God and are not yet properly prepared (humble enough) to enter Heaven, the only choice is to make the transition to goodness in Purgatory. Our Lord tells us that we shall have to render an account for each and every idle word we say (Matthew12:36 ) and that we may not leave our prison until we shall have paid the last farthing. (Matthew 5:26).

All Venial Sins

Must also be Atoned for!

All sins mortal and venial accumulated for 20, 40, or 60 years of life. Each one has to be atoned for after death. Is it a wonder that souls have to remain so long in purgatory? It cannot be calculated the immense number of venial sins we commit on a daily basis. Faults of self love, selfishness; in thoughts words and deeds.  Acts of sensuality, faults of charity; laziness, vanity, jealousy, tepidity.  Then the sins of omission that we give no credence too. Do we ever thank God as we should for all his blessings given to us?  He waits for our visits day and night in the tabernacle; do we go? He dies for us every morning at Mass and gives innumerable graces to those who participate longing to come into our hearts in Holy Communion. We are too lazy to attend this Calvary. We have luxurious homes, food, clothing while many in the world live in hunger and misery.  Life is given to serve God and save our souls but we are satisfied if we give God five minutes of prayer in the morning and evening and the rest of the 24 hour day is given to work, rest and pleasures.  

And Mortal Sins?

Unfortunately, Most of us have committed mortal sins in our lives and if we confess them we do not make satisfaction for them. Do we return what we have stolen or make charitable contributions to the poor if we cannot. Did we restore the good name of the other who we maligned with our slander or calumny? The tongue can murder another as well as a gun or knife and change the direction of the life of someone for good or ill! St. Gertrude in her revelations indicated that those who have committed many grave sins and have not done due penance, may not share in the ordinary suffrage's of the church for a very considerable time! The venerable Bede also indicated that the justice of God may demand that those who pass a great part of their lives in repeated and unrepentant mortal sins and confess them on their death bed, may be detained in purgatory until even the last day.

We would do well to remember that the best means of lessening our term in Purgatory -- or of avoiding it altogether -- is to have clear ideas of it, to think well and often on it and to adopt the means God offers for avoiding it.   Not to think of it is FATAL. It is nothing else than preparing for ourselves a long and rigorous Purgatory!

The servant of God Fr. John Anthony Hardon, S.J. said many times: “Only the very chaste and very humble shall enter Heaven; No one else! No one else! No one else!”

    Jesus Meek and Humble of Heart
    Make Our Hearts Like Unto Thine!

Fr. Hardon and the Catholic Dogma of Purgatory                     

                 

   Miracle of Holy Mass and Purgatory in 1657    

Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat

Montserrat - the site of a Marian shrine - is a Benedictine monastery with nearly 1000 years of history. The shrine is set on the ledge of the mountains where a Basilica and Benedictine monastery are also built. The Basilica was constructed in the neo-Gothic and Renaissance style and was consecrated in 1592, 100 years after the discovery of America.  According to legend, the statue of Our Lady of Montserrat was discovered by young shepherds who had been attracted by lights that came from a cave where the statute was hidden. Our Lady of Montserrat is the Patroness of Catalonia, and because of the color of her skin, she is known as "La Moreneta" ("The Little Black Madonna").

The Most Reverend Father Bernardo de Ontevieros, General of the Benedictine Order in Spain, along with the Abbot Father Millán de Mirando, were present at the monstery of Our Lady of Montserrat to take part in several conferences when a woman with her young daughter came to the monastery, and the little girl began to implore Abbot Millán to celebrate three Masses in memory of her deceased father, deeply convinced that by the merits of these Masses, the soul of her father would be freed from the pains of Purgatory. The good Abbot, moved by the tears of the young girl, began to celebrate the first of these Masses for the dead on the following day, and the little girl, who was present at the Mass with her mother, during the consecration began to declare that she saw her father kneeling at the foot of the main altar, surrounded by dreadful flames. The Father General, who was skeptical, wishing to determine whether the little girl’s account was true, told her to bring a handkerchief close to the flames that surrounded her father. The little girl, following his directive, placed the handkerchief in that mysterious fire which only she was able to see, and at once all the monks saw the handkerchief catch fire with a living flame. .....Read More

Further Meditions on the Four Last things

READ ME or RUE IT  by Fr. Paul O'Sullivn,O.P.

Classic Meditations on the Four Last things:
DEATH, JUDGMENT, HELL and HEAVEN by Fr. Martin Von Cochem O.S.F.C.