Saturday, October 20, 2018



Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 35-39
35 What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? 36As it is written: “For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is God’s everlasting love for us. He desires that we seek Him for He never stops seeking us. God created the heavens and the earth in seven days but at Christ resurrection He recreated the heavens and the earth in His blood. This is the new creation in Him, Christ our Lord and all who seek His love and mercy shall receive it.

The day of the Resurrection: the new creation[1]

2174 Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week." Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eighth day" following the Sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day Sunday:
We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish Sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.
Sunday - fulfillment of the Sabbath

2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the Sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ:


Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath, but the Lord's Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death.
2176 The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship "as a sign of his universal beneficence to all." Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people.
Amoris Lætitia[2] Growing in conjugal love, Joy and beauty (126-130)
In marriage, the joy of love needs to be nurtured. When the search for pleasure becomes obsessive, it holds us in thrall and keeps us from experiencing other satisfactions. Joy, on the other hand, increases our pleasure and helps us find fulfillment in any number of things, even at those times of life when physical pleasure has ebbed. Marital joy can be experienced even amid sorrow; it involves accepting that marriage is an inevitable mixture of enjoyment and struggles, tensions and repose, pain and relief, satisfactions and longings, annoyances and pleasures, but always on the path of friendship, which inspires married couples to care for one another: “they help and serve each other”

The love of friendship is called “charity” when it perceives and esteems the “great worth” of another person. Beauty – that “great worth” which is other than physical or psychological appeal – enables us to appreciate the sacredness of a person, without feeling the need to possess it. In a consumerist society, the sense of beauty is impoverished and so joy fades. Everything is there to be purchased, possessed or consumed, including people. Tenderness, on the other hand, is a sign of a love free of selfish possessiveness. It makes us approach a person with immense respect and a certain dread of causing them harm or taking away their freedom. Loving another person involves the joy of contemplating and appreciating their innate beauty and sacredness, which is greater than my needs. This enables me to seek their good even when they cannot belong to me, or when they are no longer physically appealing but intrusive and annoying. The aesthetic experience of love is expressed in that “gaze” which contemplates other persons as ends in themselves, even if they are infirm, elderly or physically unattractive. A look of appreciation has enormous importance, and to begrudge it is usually hurtful. How many things do spouses and children sometimes do in order to be noticed! Much hurt and many problems result when we stop looking at one another. This lies behind the complaints and grievances we often hear in families: “My husband does not look at me; he acts as if I were invisible”. “Please look at me when I am talking to you!” “My wife no longer looks at me, she only has eyes for our children”. “In my own home nobody cares about me; they do not even see me; it is as if I did not exist.” Love opens our eyes and enables us to see, beyond all else, the great worth of a human being. The joy of this contemplative love needs to be cultivated. Since we were made for love, we know that there is no greater joy than that of sharing good things: “Give, take, and treat yourself well” (Sir 14:16). The most intense joys in life arise when we are able to elicit joy in others, as a foretaste of heaven. We can think of the lovely scene in the film Babette’s Feast, when the generous cook receives a grateful hug and praise: “Ah, how you will delight the angels!” It is a joy and a great consolation to bring delight to others, to see them enjoying themselves. This joy, the fruit of fraternal love, is not that of the vain and self-centered, but of lovers who delight in the good of those whom they love, who give freely to them and thus bear good fruit. On the other hand, joy also grows through pain and sorrow. In the words of Saint Augustine, “the greater the danger in battle the greater is the joy of victory”. After suffering and struggling together, spouses are able to experience that it was worth it, because they achieved some good, learned something as a couple, or came to appreciate what they have. Few human joys are as deep and thrilling as those experienced by two people who love one another and have achieved something as the result of a great, shared effort.


Saint Irene[3]

Irene, a beautiful and chaste Portuguese girl, was murdered before she reached the age of 20. "An assiduous pupil and a devout believer, the only times she ever left her house was to attend mass or to pray in the sanctuary dedicated to Saint Peter on his feast-day. A young nobleman named Britald happened to see her on one of these rare outings and fell desperately in love with her. Every time that she went out he waited to catch a glimpse of her, followed her to church, and eventually made his suit known to her; however, Irene gave him to understand that she would never marry him. "Thus rejected, Britald fell into a deep depression and became so ill that the doctors who were called in to tend him gave him up for lost. Hearing of this, Irene visited him and told him that she had refused him because she was no longer free, having already taken a vow of virginity. "Britald at once accepted her decision and gradually recovered his health. Before Irene left him, he had sworn that he would respect, and make others respect, her vocation as a holy virgin, and the two had parted like brother and sister, promising each other that they would meet again in Paradise. “Irene returned home and resumed the life of seclusion and study, intending to make her entrance into a convent before long. But the monk who was giving her private lessons proved to be a lecherous scoundrel and behaved towards her in a manner as dishonorable as Britald's was honorable. “Irene repulsed him and had him dismissed at once; but his lust turning to a desire for revenge, the monk then began to spread slanderous rumors about her. To those who asked him why he was no longer giving the girl her private lessons, he replied that he had left on learning that she was about to become a mother. “This rumor quickly circulated throughout the town and at length reached Britald who, being frank and trusting and unused to lies, believed what he was told. In a passion of rage and jealousy, he hired a mercenary soldier to kill her. Soon afterwards, as she was returning home from visiting an old man who was crippled, the assassin approached her from behind and killed her with a single stroke of his sword. “Her body, which was thrown into the river, was later retrieved by some Benedictines on the banks of the Tagus, near the town of Scalabris. They gave her a proper burial, made known her story, and not long afterwards, so great was the veneration in which she was held, the name of the town of Scalabis was changed to Santarem (Saint Irene)" (verbatim from Encyclopedia).

·         Santarem in Portuguese means “Saint Irene”, patron of the city. In the Church of St. Irene, we can find the Miraculous Crucifix of Monteiraz. Church documents relates that the Body of our Lord became alive (like the Miracle of Limpias), Jesus arm came down from the crucifix and embraced a small shepherd girl of the time of the Eucharistic Miracle. The crucifix belonged to a community of the 12 benedictine monks (Abby of 12 apostles) is from the XII century, it is still venerated today. Visit this link
o    (http://www.piercedhearts.org/treasures/eucharistic_miracles/santarem.htm) to learn more about the Eucharistic Miracle.

We Are at War!![4]

Spiritually arm yourself (for both now and Armageddon) and seek forgiveness and forgive each other so that we may be forgiven on Judgment Day.

The forces of evil know they are losing and are in full blown panic mode, and so we see this war raging all around us. Now, we see high level politicians advocating "mob violence" in order to gain power. Then we discovered that evil even planted the Arch of Baal on the grounds of our Nation's Capitol, during the Kavanugh/Ford hearings. Now we come to find out that on the very day we are scheduled to begin this MAHA Spiritual Warfare Campaign (October 20), witches are gathering to place a hex on Justice Kavanough. We all know that if this pure evil regains power, we are in terrible trouble. We simply must do everything we can to "stand in the breach," beginning with our belief in the power of prayer.

Here's the plan:

We are asking everyone to do, at least, numbers 1 thru 4 below. If at all possible, we would like as many as possible to go "Full On Spiritual Navy Seal" by doing all eight of these, every day from October 20 to November 6 (Election Day).

1.      Pray in a State of Grace (Go to Confession)
2.      Believe God will answer our prayers
3.      October 20 - October 28 - Novena #1 - Pray the St. Jude Prayer
4.      October 29 - November 6 - Novena #2 - Pray the Immaculate Conception Prayer
5.      Pray the Rosary Daily
6.      Add Penance (recommend follow-through on some "get-healthier" challenge)
7.      Pray the St. Michael Chaplet (Call upon St. Michael & Nine Choirs of Angels)
8.      Enlist 18 Saints & 18 Holy Souls into your Holy Alliance, and pray for 18 people in need of conversion (Learn how HERE)

I will send daily emails with the prayers and a reflection. Please sign-up HERE. (If you have signed up for Novena for Our Nation or Nineveh 90, you should be signed up already) Please Note: You can read about this spiritual warfare campaign in greater detail HERE

The Way[5] Prayer

"Read these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in the end you will be a more worthy soul."

111.                      The prayer of a Christian is never a monologue.

Daily Devotions
·         Drops of Christ’s Blood




[2] Pope Francis, Encyclical on Love.
[4]https://www.romancatholicman.com/spiritual-warfare-campaign-in-lead-up-to-november-6-elections/
[5]http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way-point-1.htm

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