The Feast of The Holy Innocents

The evil King Herod, called the great, was justifiably unpopular with his people because of his religious indifference and his consorting with the Romans.  He was thus insecure and fearful of his power.  He was a terrible tyrant and was extremely brutal.  He murdered his wife, his brother and his sister’s two husbands, among many others.

He was “greatly troubled” by the Wise Men from the East who came asking after the Messiah, Jesus Our Lord.  An angel of the Lord told them not to trust Herod and after they found the Holy Family and worshiped the Lord, they returned to their homeland another way.  Herod became furious and ordered the massacre of all the boy children in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas.  This was foretold in Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentations; Rachel weeping for her children.”  Historians tell us that Herod had a horrible end, similar to many tyrants, from Henry VIII to Stalin.  How frightening to die as an enemy of the King of Justice, to refuse the Divine Love!

The Holy Innocents gave their lives for the Baby Jesus.  Compared to the genocide and abortion horrors of our day they were small in number, but one Innocent child murdered is one too many!  “Purify us, O Lord and keep us ever mindful of the sacrifice of Thy martyrs throughout all time;  Those who have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb and cry, “How long, Lord?  How long?”  Blessed be their sacrifice.  Blessed be Thy Holy Name!  Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.

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PRAY FOR WARREN WEINSTEIN ON FEAST OF ST. STEPHEN

Please be so kind as to say a prayer for the release of Warren Weinstein, an American citizen who was captured and is being held by the terrorists Al Que’da in Pakistan.  God is still on the throne and prayer changes things!

Today we celebrate the first Catholic martyr, great St. Stephen, deacon of Holy Mother Church.  He saw the heavens open and the Lord waiting to receive him as he was being stoned to death.  Many believe that in the crowd that watched his martyrdom, there was Saul of Tarsis, later to become the great St. Paul.  Holy Mother Church gives St. Stephen this feast day so as to remind us that Christ came for a reason, to redeem a sinful world and that to do it cost His very Life, His very Blood.  Those that are called to serve Him and who hope to be received by Him at the end must be willing to make the greatest sacrifice, like St. Stephen did.  For us not called to physical martyrdom, a sacrifice just as serious is required of us- to live as a true Catholic every day of our lives and thus to die in His grace and favor.  To forgive daily, to silence our pride and ego daily, to speak up for the injured, tortured and hurt and to do this daily.  To pray and hope and LOVE daily, daily, daily!  This is the way of Christ, the way of the true Catholic.

O Great St. Stephen, thank you for your sacrifice for Jesus, Our Lord and for your holy example.  Please help us to lead good, Catholic lives and please, please protect Warren Weinstein and give him the miracle of a release from his captors.  Amen.

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LOVE CAME DOWN AT CHRISTMAS

  • Love came down at Christmas
  • Love all lovely, love Divine
  • Love was born at Christmas
  • Star and angels gave the sign
  • Worship we the Godhead
  • Love Incarnate, Love Divine
  • Worship we our Jesus
  • But wherewith for sacred sign?
  • Love shall be our token
  • Love be yours and Love be mine
  • Love to God and all men
  • Love for plea and gift and sign…
  • Love came down at Christmas
  • Love all lovely, Love Divine!

May the Lord Jesus Christ be with you that He may defend you;  Within you that He may sustain you, before you that He may lead you, behind you that He may protect you, and above you that He may bless you!

Benedicat vos, Omnipotens Deus+

 

 

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A Prayer For Christmas Eve

  • Rejoice this night with all the hosts of heaven
  • For Christ Our Saviour is born of a Most Pure Maid
  • He has come to foreigners traveling from afar,
  • He has come to shepherds outcast in the fields,
  • He has come bringing joy to the whole world.
  • He has come, heralding God’s eternal world of peace and justice.
  • May we all find ourselves that we are an integral part of His salvation plan
  • and look into the pure Light of the Holy Face of the Babe of Bethlehem!

Protection and grace and blessing be to all who visit this site!  Amen and Amen.

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Little Christmas Eve, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini

I always loved this day.  It was not only “Little Christmas Eve,” but my dear mother’s birthday, as well.  My mother  was an RN.  She received her training in the 1920’s, when one hundred women were accepted into the nursing program and only about thirty graduated.  It was a very difficult vocation and the training was grueling.  The women lived in a dormitory with only one day off a week- Sunday.  This lasted for three years!  When they received their pins and caps, it was a grand day indeed!

Back then the uniforms were important.  The caps were all different, depending on the schools where the nurses were taught.  A doctor could look at the cap and know just what type of training the nurse had, what philosophy she was schooled in.  My mother graduated from Columbus Hospital and was taught by the Mother Cabrini nuns.  She was rightly proud of this feat and she worked as a nurse for over fifty years.  On her deathbed she had a nurse who prayed for her and she received the Last Rites from a true Jesuit.  Having been consecrated to the Blessed Mother and wearing blue and white for the first three years of her life, the Blessed Virgin made sure she had the sacraments.

With all the beauty of this season it is important to remember all the heartache and tears that also come with this time of year for many people.  Christmas sees more suicides than any other time of year.  How sad.  How much more are we called to be cognizant of the suffering around us and to remember all these souls in our prayers.  If you come from a fractured family, know that God offers you the perfect family- the Holy Family.  Your true family is in Heaven and God knows the pain you are experiencing now.  Offer it to Him in union with the Cross of Christ.  May He heal you and give you consolation so that your heart may sing with the love of the Babe of Bethlehem.

Lovely Lady, dressed in blue, teach me how to pray!  God was just your little boy, tell me what to say!

 

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URGENT MESSAGE ABOUT CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA

Dearly Beloved,

Please pray today for the Church in Syria. Terrible things are happening to the Catholics in the Middle East, but there is an urgent plea from the Franciscans of the Holy Land to pray for the churches in Syria as they have been threatened by the Mohammedans. I will reprint the actual press release this week. Also, the churches in Iraq have come under horrible persecution since the American invasion. We are not told what is happening by our news media. Priests are being martyred, nuns and lay folk, as well. It is immeasurably worse for the Catholics since we have not established rule but are allowing terrible atrocities to occur, and in some cases our military is committing murder and rape, (this I know to be true) and it is not being publicized. These acts of violence lead to reprisals for Christians. God have mercy on us.

I realize that this is not a cheery, holiday message, but you must know of these things in order to storm heaven on behalf of the innocent. Please visit a new and wonderful site and organization: CatholicsAgainstTorture.org Join this simple, prayer apostolate for the victims of torture around the world. More on this later.

O Baby Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, help all believers and all people of goodwill in Syria, the Middle East and around the world who are suffering for Your Names’ Sake! Help them in whatever way they need. Give us hearts of love for those who suffer and lead us to Your Father in the Holy Ghost, by Your Name and with Our Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph. Amen.

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Where Are You Going?

The actual words of The Blessed Mother to Juan Diego:

“Juanito, dearest Juan Diego.”

“Listen Juan, my dearest and youngest son, where are you going?”

“Know, know for sure, my dearest, littlest and youngest son, that I am the perfect and ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the God of truth through Whom everything lives, the Lord of all things near us, the Lord of heaven and earth. I want very much to have a little house built here for me, in which I will show Him. I will exalt Him and make Him manifest. I will give Him to the people in all my personal love, in my compassion, in my help, in my protection: because I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings. And to bring about what my compassionate and merciful concern is trying to achieve, you must go to the residence of the bishop of Mexico and tell him that I sent you here to show him how strongly I wish him to build me a temple here on the plain; you will report to him exactly all you have seen, admired and what you have heard. Know for sure I will appreciate it very much, be grateful and will reward you. And you? You will deserve very much the reward I will give you for your fatigue, the work and trouble my mission will cause you. Now my dearest son, you have my breath, my word; go now and put forth your best effort.”

“Listen to me, my youngest and dearest son, know for sure that I do not lack servants and messengers to whom I can give the task of carrying out my words, who will carry out my will. But it is very necessary that you plead my cause and with your help and through your mediation, that my will be fulfilled. My youngest and dearest son, I urge and firmly order you to go to the bishop again tomorrow. Tell him in my name and make him fully understand my intention that he start work on the chapel I’m requesting. Tell him again that I am the ever Virgin, Holy Mary, the Mother of God, who is sending you.”

“That is fine, my youngest and dearest son; you will return here tomorrow so that you may take the sign he asked for. Then, he will believe and no longer doubt or be suspicious of you; and know, my dear son, I shall reward your care, work and fatigue on my behalf. Go now; tomorrow I shall be here waiting for you.”

“What is happening, dearest and youngest of my sons? Where are you going? Where are you headed?”

“LISTEN AND PUT IT INTO YOUR HEART, MY YOUNGEST AND DEAREST SON, THAT THE THING THAT DISTURBS YOU, THE THING THAT AFFLICTS YOU, IS NOTHING! DO NOT LET YOUR COUNTENANCE, YOUR HEART BE DISTURBED. DO NOT FEAR THIS SICKNESS OF YOUR UNCLE OR ANY OTHER SICKNESS, NOR ANYTHING THAT IS SHARP OR HURTFUL. AM I NOT HERE, I WHO AM YOUR MOTHER? ARE YOU NOT UNDER MY SHADOW AND MY PROTECTION? AM I NOT THE SOURCE OF YOUR JOY? ARE YOU NOT IN THE HOLLOW OF MY MANTLE? IN THE CROSSING OF MY ARMS? DO YOU NEED ANYTHING MORE? LET NOTHING ELSE WORRY YOU, DISTURB YOU. DO NOT LET YOUR UNCLE’S ILLNESS WORRY YOU, BECAUSE HE WILL NOT DIE NOW. YOU MAY BE CERTAIN THAT HE IS ALREADY WELL.”

“Go now, my dearest son, to the top of the hill, to where you saw me and received my directions and you will find different kinds of flowers. Cut them, gather them together, then come down here and bring them before me.”

“My youngest and dearest son, these different kinds of flowers are the proof, the sign that you will take to the bishop. You will tell him from me that he is to see in them my desire, and therefore he is to carry out my wish, my will. And you, who are my messenger, in you I place my absolute trust. I strictly order you not to unfold your tilma or reveal its contents until you are in his presence. You will relate to him everything very carefully: how I sent you to the top of the hill to cut and gather flowers, all you saw and marveled at in order to convince the Governing Priest so that he will then do what lies within his responsibility so that my house of God which I requested will be made, will be built.”

O Lady of Guadalupe, dearest and most wonderful Mother of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Bring us to a saving knowledge of Thy Son and bless all who turn to Him through thee. Protect us always and those we love and those we do not love; for those who love us and those who do not love us. Help us to be better followers of Thy Son and bring us to that heavenly kingdom where He reigns with those who love Him. Amen.

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Christmas Gift For Visitors

Dearly Beloved,

I recorded an album entitled Ave Maria with full orchestra, the Ediburgh Strings, Liberace, and many other wonderful artists. It won awards and sold all over the world. I am offering it as a Christmas gift free of charge to anyone who asks. This has been made possible by the generosity of a parishioner. I ask only for the cost of postage. For a sampling, please visit Myspace music and enter my name, or listen to some on this site. Bless you all and keep me in your good prayers. I remember you all at the altar of the Lord.

In the Christ Child and the Holy Family,

Fr. Jamie

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Proclamation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which asserts that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race was preserved free from every stain of original sin is a doctrine revealed by God, and for this reason, must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.”
-Pope Pius IX

The popes through the centuries, from time to time, would proclaim a dogma infallibly, by the specific grace granted them by Jesus Christ, through the Holy Ghost, for the good of Holy Mother Church and all her children. Often these doctrines were not in dispute at the time, but God, seeing the end from the beginning, knew that in later ages faith would grown cold, and He wanted these truths enshrined without doubt, so that the faith of the elect would be safeguarded from the enemy. It is my belief that the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the BVM are in this category, God knowing the faithless age and the faithless “theologians” that are now holding sway. Let us thank God for the great gift of the Petrine Office, so wisely held in the past by holy popes.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

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A Thought For Advent

Aristotle said, “The law is reason free from passion.” This is true and should be true in the affairs of men. However, the Law of God, that Law from which all human rule descends, is not free of passion. The passion of the Lawgiver permeates all of the Universal Truths that govern us and everything visible and invisible. The Law of God, immutable and shining in unchangeable strength, is by grace in Love satisfied by the One Who alone lived the life we can not live; Who died the death we can not die, and Who accomplished the fulfillment of the Divine Law so that we would be able to apprehend that which we can not comprehend, life In Life and love in Love, forever in unending Bliss. It is nothing less than the Law obeyed and completed by the King of Mercy. Let us prepare our hearts for the coming of the King of Mercy. Open wide the door to your heart and be the manger in which the Son of God is laid by the hands of His Holy Mother. Look within and contemplate the glory waiting to grow in your life. For God so loved the world!

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