Advent 2013

Advent is the preparatory season for Christmas. The color purple is the same as that of Lent and reminds us of the royalty of Christ The King, whose coming we celebrate in glad anticipation. We celebrate not only His holy birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, protected by great Saint Joseph, but also we are preparing for His return on the clouds of glory, when every eye shall see Him!

This season reminds us that we must be ready at any time to come before the Lord. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not promised, we have only today. This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Prepare our humble hearts, O Lord for Your precious coming in the stable of Bethlehem. Keep us ready, also for Your Second Coming and especially for the day when You call each of us Home. You have told us, dearest Lord, that in Your House are many mansions; May we deserve, by Your merits, to inhabit that special place You have intended for us from the very foundation of the world! For You shall come and take us to Yourself, that where You are, there we will be also. How wonderful and grand is this magnificent promise! We are filled with the gratitude of Love, O Jesus, Lord and Saviour of Souls! Amen,

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Special Prayer Request

Dearly Beloved,

Please be so kind as to pray for two men being held by Communist North Korea: Merrill Newman, who is 85 years old and Kenneth Bae, 45 years old.

Also, please pray for all those that are being tortured around the world. Do not forget them! Please go to: CatholicsAgainstTorture.org for more information and to join this simple prayer association.

Blessings in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,

Fr. St. Anthony

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My Child

My Child,

If you love Me then you will do what makes you happy; you will be with those who make you smile; you will laugh as long as you breathe, and you will love as long as you live. FOR YOU ARE MY CHILD and I know everything about you. I know when you sit and when you rise. I am familiar with all your ways. I have numbered the hairs on your head, for you are made in My Image, fearfully and wonderfully have I made you! You are destined to be with Me FOREVER… I have loved you then, I love you still, I always have, and I always will.

Blessed Be God
Blessed Be His Holy Name
Blessed Be Jesus Christ, True God and True Man

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The Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

Today we celebrate the first appearance of the Blessed Mother at the beginning of the End Times, when she made herself manifest to St. Catherine Laboure in Paris, France in 1830. The actual name of the medal that Our Lady instructed the most humble Sister Catherine to tell the Church to make is The Medal of the Immaculate Conception.

The story of the apparitions to St. Catherine is marvelous and full of wonder. Her Guardian Angel appeared to her first of all, (angels most often presage the appearance of the Mother of God and Our Blessed Lord) in the middle of the night. He appeared as a child and took her by the hand into the chapel of the convent. There she said all the candles were lit as if for Christmas Midnight Mass. The entire convent remained asleep. Soon she heard the rustling of silk and looked over at the priest’s chair. The Blessed Mother was sitting there and told her to come to her. St. Catherine knelt down and placed her hands in those of the Mother of God and the first apparition started with a conversation. Please educate yourself by reading more about this magnificent apparition. Remember that many claim to see Our Lady and Our Lord, but Holy Mother Church has proclaimed only certain apparitions as true; She takes many years to pass final judgement on the few that are real.

St. Catherine kept her secret to her death. When the pope found out who it was he said: “Imagine a woman keeping this secret; and a nun, at that!” Many theologians believe that these visions mark the beginning of the End Times and that Our Blessed Mother appeared here as she is described in the Book of Revelation: “And I saw a great sign in heaven- a Woman clothed with the sun! And the moon was under her feet, and upon her head, a crown of twelve stars!” There is so much richness in the beginning of the Marian Age and so much to study.
The medal’s design is from heaven and was dictated to Saint Catherine by Our Lady herself. So many miracles occurred with the wearing of the medal that it became known as miraculous. I have had the great privilege of offering Holy Mass at the shrine and of praying at and touching the actual chair that Our Blessed Lady sat in. I love this apparition. The more you read and study of the Blessed Mother, the more you will love her and the closer you will become to Jesus Christ.

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

May the dear Blessed Mother keep you safe and may you have a beautiful Thanksgiving holiday.

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The Feast of Saint Cecilia

Today we celebrate the feast of the wonderful Saint Cecilia. She is the patroness of all musicians and singers. It is written that at her wedding as the musicians were playing, she sang in her heart to the Lord. She is one of the most famous Roman martyrs and she is one of the seven women, (excluding the Blessed Mother) who are mentioned in the Canon of the Holy Mass. She was martyred for burying the bodies of the martyrs of Rome.

I remember when I was in seminary in Rome and we went to visit the catacombs found underneath her villa. It is still there and has been turned into a basilica in her honor. She survived miraculously many attempts to kill her but finally succumbed to beheading, but still lasted three days in agony, in honor of the Holy Trinity. Her body was found in the late 1500’s and it was incorrupt! Her hands bore witness to the Holy Trinity by the way she held them, pointing with her index finger on her right hand, while extending her thumb and two fingers on her left hand; Three in One. It is written that she played the organ and she is often depicted playing one.

Great Saint Cecilia, pray for us!

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The Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today we celebrate the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin in the temple in Jerusalem by her mother and father, Sts. Joachim and Anna. They were childless and told that they would have a blessed child. This presentation of her to God was in fulfillment of a vow to give the child back to God to be educated and raised in the temple as a consecrated virgin in preparation for her role as the future Mother of the Messiah.

To preserve her consecration to God, she was espoused later to the older Joseph, who would protect her. St. Joseph was a widower and already had a family, hence the “siblings” of Christ Jesus mentioned in scripture. (Also, the word in Hebrew for sibling and cousin is the same. Our Lady had only one child, Our Lord Jesus Christ.)

This day is called The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the West and The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos, (God-bearer) Into the Temple in the East. It is the day that women called Mary and Despoina in the East celebrate as their Name Day.

Blessed be the Great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy
Blessed be her Holy and Immaculate Conception
Blessed be her Glorious Assumption
Blessed be the Name of Mary, Virgin and Mother!

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Good Advice

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

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Fukushima: Will We Be Affected By It? God Help Us All!

I rarely write about world events or politics but I am posing the question, will we be affected by the nuclear fallout of Fukushima? The reason I am doing so is that I have several friends who are medical professionals; nurses, doctors, etc… They tell me we might be in for a rough road in regards to the growing effects of the Japanese disaster.

There are reports from my Canadian friends that there are animals on the West Coast of Canada, (my dear Grandfather, God rest his soul, was Canadian) that are dying of radiation poisoning right now, as it has hit Canada before it will hit the U.S. These poor animals have open sores and are suffering terribly. We in Southern California are supposed to get the radiation around March of 2014. God help us.

You know, the Blessed Mother predicted that about 3/4’s of the earths population will die because of the judgement of God being visited upon the earth. We are coasting along in our self delusional bubble and one of these days it is going to burst! We can not keep sinning and not have repercussions as a society. We have not been good stewards of the earth that was given to our dominion by Almighty God. There are certain, hard laws of the Lord that govern His universe. When we break these laws, things happen. Just as when we keep the laws we are blessed.

I find it very interesting that only PBS is reporting anything about the coming Fukushima effects. The regular media is silent. Even the environmentalists aren’t talking. Is there a news blackout? What will happen when the contaminated water reaches us? Will it have dissipated enough by then? Is the whole Pacific Ocean being poisoned as we sit and watch our televisions? Who knows. God knows and the scientists know, but few are talking. I hope it doesn’t happen, but I don’t feel good about it. Thank you for letting me share.

O God of Light and Love, forgive us our sins, personally and corporately. Do not visit Your just judgement upon us, but save us from ourselves by a Signal Grace through the merits of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of Mary, Most Holy. O Lord, we are the only nation in history to be consecrated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mother of Your Son. May this grant us many miracles of grace and escape. Help us to reform, to do penance and do Your will. Bless those who suffer and thank You for Your tender mercies. Amen.

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Pray For The Philippines

Dear Friends,

Please be so kind as to open your heart and pray for the wonderful Filipino people who are suffering terribly with the aftermath of the strongest typhoon in history! I love the Filipino people. They are so devout and love the Blessed Mother so much. Surely she has saved them from many troubles by her powerful intercession with her Divine Son. I believe they have been kept from coups and communism and the spread of Islam by their love of the Mother of God.

We who are blessed to live in America must always keep in mind those who are suffering in other parts of the world. If you can, give to the relief organization of your choice, but please remember this wonderful country in your prayers. The Philippines is the only Asian country to be Catholic, and because of this they have suffered persecution and bigotry, not only in Asia, but in the United States, where bigotry against Catholics and people of color is still real. We have made great strides and that is wonderful, God bless America!, but I know personally those who have been victims of prejudice because of their skin color and many other factors. One dear friend was not allowed to send her son to Catholic school here in Southern California because they are Filipino. Yes, these things do happen and when they happen in the Church from evil churchmen they must be exposed and fought and prayed for. I share this story to illustrate that we all have to deal with bigotry sometime in our lives. How we respond to it shows who and Whose we are.

Blessed Lord God, we pray for the Philippines, that nation devoted to the Most Blessed Mother. May Your Word be a light to that nation and to ours. Bring more souls to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through the intercession of His Most Holy Mother. Make of them and of us a shining example of Your Divine Love. We know that only by trusting in You can we alleviate poverty, instability, criminality and dissension. Bless the Philippines and use the Filipino people to show forth Your saving power to the nations. Save our nation, too O Lord and thank You for all Your blessings. We pray in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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St. Teresa of Avila

“Remember that you have only one soul; one life, which must be lived by you and you alone; one death to die, and one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.”

“There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered ones.”

“Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.”

“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”

“Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people’s, if we are always criticizing trivial actions- which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives.”

“To have courage for whatever comes in life- everything lies in that.”

“The feeling remains that God is on the journey too.”

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  • The Singing Priest