tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36432682937907446682023-11-16T05:45:11.335-08:00Armata BiancaEcclesiastical MovementArmata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643268293790744668.post-52587658252145570862012-08-02T09:40:00.000-07:002012-08-02T09:40:01.066-07:00BLESSED JOSE SANCHEZ DEL RIO<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">In 1927, Catholic Mexico was immersed in a violent storm of religious persecution. The President of Mexico at that time was a despot named Plutarco Calles. His hatred for the Church had no limits. He killed priests and burned churches.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">In legitimate self defense, countless Catholics took up arms to defend their Faith. Whenever they charged into battle, the Cristeros, as they were called, shouted: </span><strong style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">"Viva Cristo Rey!" </strong><span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">"Long live Christ the King!" </span></div>
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<strong><span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">Young Jose Joins the Cristeros</span></strong></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Many Catholics shed their blood in this conflict. Many were martyred. And Blessed Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio was among them. From a young age he had a great love and enthusiasm for the Blessed Sacrament, and encouraged his friends to have more devotion to Our Lord and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Whenever Jose heard of the glorious battles of the Cristeros, which his two brothers were engaged in, his desire to join the holy army only intensified. Finally, Jose wrote a letter to one of the Cristero Generals, Prudencio Mendoza, pleading to be allowed to fight. The general acquiesced.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">In a certain battle, Jose was rushing to bring a fellow soldier a new supply of ammo. Just then, he caught sight of the General whose horse had been shot dead. On foot, without a horse, the General was extremely vulnerable. </span><span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Making a sacrifice that might cost him his life, Jose freely gave the general his own horse. Moments later, he was caught by the federalists and locked up in a church sacristy that had been turned into a prison. One of the guards had put a number of expensive fighting roosters inside the church for safekeeping. This sacrilege troubled young Jose. He said: "This is not a barnyard! This is a place for God!" He soon caught all the prized roosters and snapped their necks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The enemies of Christ the King soon decided to kill him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">On the way to execution, soldiers struck him savagely with sharp machetes. With every blow, the young boy cried out, </span><strong style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">"Viva Cristo Rey!" </strong><span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"> When he got to the cemetery, he was bleeding heavily. His torturers had also cut off the soles of his feet and forced him to walk on salt. The boy screamed with pain but would not give in. As the road was nothing but rocks and dirt, the stones where he had walked were soaked in his blood. The soldiers said: "If you shout, ‘Death to Christ the King’, we will spare your life." He only answered: "Long live Christ the King! Long live Our Lady of Guadalupe!"</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;">The commander ordered the soldiers to bayonet Jose. They pierced his body. But with every stab he only shouted louder and louder: "Viva Cristo Rey!" The commander was so enraged that he pulled out his pistol and on February 10, 1928 killed Blessed Jose on the spot. There was no trial.</span><span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Blessed Jose is an outstanding example of faith and courage for all Catholic young men — for you— who wish to be faithful to Christ. He was declared a martyr and was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on November 20, 2005.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Blessed Jose, pray for us!</span></span></div>
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</span>Armata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643268293790744668.post-41883759514478543752012-07-22T19:54:00.001-07:002012-07-22T19:57:10.533-07:00HISTORY OF CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Fatima consecration to Our Lady has an ancient history. It is all the more important to see something of this history in the light of some reservations and even criticism of what we know goes back to the early centuries of the Church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A key to the meaning of consecration is the expression <i>servus Mariae</i>, “slave or servant of Mary”. Historians have found this term in African sermons from the fifth and sixth centuries. One of the earliest Marian prayers expressing this title is that of St. Ildephonsus, Archbishop of Toledo in Spain (died 667), in which he prays to Mary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Therefore I am your servant <i>(servus) </i>because your Son is my Lord. Therefore you are my Lady (<i>Domina</i>) because you are the handmaid of my Lord. Therefore I am the servant of the handmaid of my Lord because you have become the mother of my Maker (<i>Theotokos</i>, p. 107).</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">However, in the East we have what may be the oldest formula of consecration proper in the writings of St. John Damascene (c.675-753), the last and one of the greatest Greek Fathers of the Church. His devotion to the Blessed Virgin was uninhibited. In his prayer, he says:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">O Lady, before you today we take our stand. Lady, I call you Virgin Mother of God and to your hope, as to the surest and strongest anchor, we bind ourselves. To you we consecrate our mind, our soul, our body, all that we are. We honor you as much as we can (Homilia I in Dormitionem, PG 76, 72OA). <i>Theotokos</i> p. 109.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">With the Catholic Reformation in the sixteenth century, entire religious communities included consecration to Mary as part of their rule of life. Among these, the best known form is that of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673-1716), founder of the Company of Mary and the Daughters of Wisdom. He emphasized a Christocentric aspect of the consecration. “This,” he explained, “consists in giving oneself entirely to the Blessed Virgin in order to belong entirely to Jesus Christ through her.” Significantly, in the opening sentence of this prayer Our Lady is told, “We consecrate ourselves to thy Immaculate Heart.” Approved by St. Pius X in 1907, this is still the best known formula of consecration to Mary. Thirty-five years later, Pope Pius XII issued a new form of consecration during the Second World War. He directed the faithful to address the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, declaring that, “In thee and in thy Immaculate Heart, at this grave hour of human history, do we put our trust; to thee we consecrate ourselves, not only with all of the Holy Church … but also with the whole world, torn by discords, agitated with hatred, the victim of its own iniquities.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pope Pius XII made this act of consecration twice in the same year. The first time, he spoke by radio in Portuguese. His audience was the thousands of pilgrims who had come to Fatima on October 13, 1942, to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the closing apparition of Our Lady.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pope Pius XII repeated the consecration in St. Peter’s Basilica on December 8, 1942. In both acts of consecration, the Pontiff was openly responding to the most formal revelation of God’s will at Fatima, to establish devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart throughout the world. Moreover, in the act of consecration in Rome, the Pope made an allusion to Russia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ten years later, on July 7, 1952, Pope Pius XII issued the Encyclical <i>Sacro Vergente Anno,</i> addressed to the Russians. He dedicated and consecrated “all the peoples of Russia to that same Immaculate Heart,” as he had done a decade earlier for the whole world. This was a direct response to the request of Our Lady, made at Fatima in 1917.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In view of the phenomenal changes in the Soviet Union that have since taken place, it is worth quoting at some length from Pope Pius XII’s historic encyclical of 1952. He began by explaining what occasioned his writing to a nation that was professedly atheistic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Dear people of Russian, health and peace in the Lord!</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While the Holy Year was happily drawing to a conclusion, after it had been given to us by a divine disposition to solemnly define the dogma of the Assumption into Heaven, body and soul, of the Holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, we received numerous expressions of the most lively exultation from people all over the world; many of them sent us letters in thanksgiving, in which they also earnestly begged us to consecrate the whole Russian people, which is experiencing such suffering at this moment, to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There is a special need, therefore, to invoke the Mother of God in favor of a people who are literally cut off from the Vicar of Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">These supplications were particularly pleasing to us, for if our paternal affection embraces all people, it is addressed in a particular manner to those who, although separated for the most part from the Apostolic See by the vicissitudes of history, nevertheless still retain the name of Christian, but find themselves in such a situation that it is very difficult for them to hear our voice and to know the teachings of Catholic doctrine, and that they are even pushed by deceitful and pernicious contrivances to reject faith in and even the very idea of God.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Pope then gave a long historical summary of the relations between Russia and the Bishops of Rome. He closed with citing the ceremony of March 19, 1930, at St. Peter’s in Rome, when Pope Pius XI ordered that the Leonine Prayers after Mass were to be offered for the conversion of Russia. They were called Leonine because they were prescribed by Leo XIII for the whole Church. They consisted of the Hail Mary, three times; the Hail Holy Queen with versicle response and oration, and a prayer to St Michael the Archangel. To these were added, in 1944, three invocations to the Sacred Heart, recommended by St. Pius X. Until 1930, these prayers were said for the preservation of the Papal States. After the Lateran Treaty with Italy in 1928, Pope Pius XI changed their purpose; they were to be said for Russia’s return to the faith.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pope Pius XII then went on to explain why the Holy See had to be so critical of the Russian situation. The Bishops of Rome had no choice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When it is a question of defending the cause of religion, the truth, and justice and Christian civilization, we certainly cannot keep quiet….Doubtless we have condemned and rejected - as the duty of our office demands - the errors which the instigators of atheistic Communism teach, or which they do their utmost to propagate, for the greatest wrong and the detriment of the citizens; but, far from rejecting the wayward, we desire their return to the straight path of the truth. Even more: we have unmasked these falsehoods, which are often adorned with a semblance of the truth, because we love you with the heart of a father and we seek your well-being.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">However, thirty-five years of tyrannical oppression of Christianity by the Communists did not destroy the faith of many of the people in the Soviet Union. It is especially their Marian faith that has sustained them heroically even through martyrdom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We know that many of you preserve the Christian faith in the secret sanctuary of your own conscience….We know furthermore, and that is for us a great hope and a great consolation, that you love and honor with ardent affection the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and that you venerate her images. We know that in the city of Moscow itself there is a temple - alas, withdrawn from divine worship - which is dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven; and this is very clear testimony to the love which your ancestors and you yourselves bear to the Most Holy Mother of God.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then the capstone of the Pope’s message to the Russian nation. It was the fulfillment, to the letter, of Our Lady of Fatima’s request for consecrating Russia to her Immaculate Heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So that our fervent prayers and yours should more easily be answered, and to give you a special sign of our particular benevolence, just as some years ago we consecrated the whole human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so today we consecrate and we dedicate in a very special manner all the peoples of Russia to this Immaculate Heart…and we implore this most clement Mother to obtain from her Divine Son heavenly light for your minds, and for your souls the supernatural strength and courage by which you will be able to avert and surmount all errors and godlessness.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Twelve years later, on November 21, 1964, Pope Paul VI spoke to all the assembled bishops at the Second Vatican Council. He took this occasion to reconsecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Addressing her as <i>Auxilium Episcoporum,</i> “Help of Bishops,” he recalled the previous consecration of his predecessor, Pius XII. Then he pronounced his own prayer to Our Lady.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">O Mary, while acknowledging Jesus Christ as the one true Savior, we entrust the whole human race to your Immaculate Heart. Deliver mankind from the scourges deserved for its sins, grant peace to all the world; a peace founded on truth, on justice, on freedom and on love.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Pope told the Council Fathers that he was sending the Golden Rose on a special mission to Fatima. In this way, he would officially associate his act of consecration with the Blessed Virgin’s requests in Portugal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Eighteen years later, Pope John Paul II came to Fatima to offer his gratitude for surviving the attempt on his life, which occurred in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981. In the first anniversary of the planned assassination, the Holy Father renewed the previous acts of consecration. It was on this occasion that he gave the most detailed and authoritative explanation we have of what consecration to Mary means. His analysis will be treated in the next chapter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pope John Paul II wanted to remove the last vestige of doubt in anyone’s mind as to whether the world - and Russia - had been collegially consecrated to the Mother of God. So in 1984, he wrote to all the bishops of the world inviting them to join him in the collegial Consecration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This, the final and decisive act of consecration, was made by the Holy Father on March 25, 1984. It was universal, solemn, public and collegial the deepest sense of the word. Implicit in this act was the inclusion of Russia, identified among the people who are “most in need.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One of the pities of our time is that there were - and still are - those who criticize the popes for not having consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart. But the unbloody revolution of the early nineties, that reversed the bloody revolution of 1917, should convince even the worst skeptic that Mary’s promise of Russia’s conversion is being fulfilled.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The Meaning of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the homily he gave on May 13, 1982, Pope John Paul II explains what consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means. His analysis is historic. It is the first time that a sovereign pontiff provided such an in-depth explanation. But more importantly, the analysis became necessary because of the confusion in so many people’s minds. What exactly does the Church understand by this consecration and what are its implications for devoted Christians in our day?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The doctrinal basis for our consecration is the prior fact of Mary’s spiritual motherhood. On Calvary, Christ entrusted us, in the person of St. John, to His Mother’s care, when He told her, “Behold your Son.” That was the beginning of Mary’s mediation. On Calvary, Christ also entrusted Mary to us, again in the person of John, when He told the apostle, “Behold your Mother.” That was the beginning of our consecration to Mary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In God’s providence, Mary is the chosen mediatrix of grace, from her Divine Son to us. Correspondingly, we are to entrust ourselves to her maternal care. Another name for this entrustment is consecration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One more feature of this entrustment is brought out by the Pope before he explains the meaning of consecration. Why precisely should we entrust ourselves to Mary’s Heart? The answer is most revealing:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On the cross, Christ said, “Woman, behold your son!” With these words, He opened in a new way His Mother’s heart.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A little later, the Roman soldier’s spear pierced the side of the Crucified One. That pierced Heart became a sign of the redemption achieved through the death of the Lamb of God.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Immaculate Heart of Mary, opened with the words, “Woman behold your son,” is spiritually united with the Heart of her Son, opened by the soldier’s spear. Mary’s heart was opened by the same love for man and for the world with which Christ loved man and the world, offering Himself for them on the cross until the soldier’s spear struck that blow.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">By entrusting ourselves to Mary’s heart we are, in effect, entrusting ourselves to her love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As we finally ask, what exactly does our Marian consecration mean, Pope John Paul II tells us it means four things, each building on the preceding. The first two he calls consecration of the world, the second two he calls consecrating ourselves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means “drawing near through the Mother’s intercession, to the very Fountain of Life that sprang from Golgotha.” It is therefore an act of faith which realizes that with Christ’s death on the cross, His humanity became the channel of all the grace that the whole world needs to be saved. We profess this faith by recognizing in Mary the Mother of the Savior who gave her Son the humanity by which He now communicates His blessings on a sinful world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Moreover, consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart means “returning beneath the cross of her Son. It means consecrating this world to the pierced Heart of the Savior, bringing it back to the very source of its Redemption.” Here again is a profession of faith. But now it is faith in the power of Christ’s death on the cross to redeem a sinful world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The more overwhelmed we are by the massive evil in the world, the more we must join ourselves in spirit with Mary as she stood under the cross and watched her Son bleeding to death on Calvary. We must believe that, “the power of the Redemption is infinitely superior to the whole range of evil in man and of the world.” In other words, consecration to Mary means trusting in the power of intercession to overcome the ocean of evil in the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Consecration of Ourselves</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Again there are two levels of consecration, but now of ourselves personally to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It first of all means “accepting her help to offer ourselves and the whole of mankind to Him who is holy, infinitely holy.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This is less obvious than may seem. Absolutely speaking we directly to Christ and ask Him for what we need. But He wants us to go to Him through His Mother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We may say there are two “scandals” in Catholic Christianity. The first is the scandal of the cross; to believe that God actually became man so He might be able to suffer and die for us on Calvary. The other scandal is that He wants us, in humility, to reach Him through the intercession of His Mother. To believe these two truths and act on them is to have discovered a great treasure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Finally, consecration to Mary means “accepting her help - by having recourse to her motherly heart, which beneath the cross was opened to love for every human being.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In practice, this means praying to Mary in all the myriad forms of Marian invocation approved by the Church. Our faith in her power before the throne of her Son must be manifest in how we act on the faith we profess. Those outside the true Church may be scandalized at the numberless Hail Marys we recite and the numerous shrines built in her honor. But for us who believe, it is not strange at all. For too many centuries we have been saying the <i>Memorare</i> and telling her, “Never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided.” Centuries of experience have taught us how infallibly effective these petitions to Mary have been.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Adoration and Reception of the Holy Eucharist</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Among the Marian communications of Fatima, none is more important than the need for faith in the Holy Eucharist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So basic is this fact that, without it, there would not be the Fatima so strongly endorsed by the Catholic Church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We can recognize three stages in the Eucharistic dimensions of Fatima. Each stage adds to the meaning of the previous one. Together they give us an insight into the meaning of the Blessed Sacrament that needs so much to be understood today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Apparitions of the Angel</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In 1916, the three shepherd children had several apparitions of an angel, as described by St. Lucia in her formal deposition to ecclesiastical authorities. Among these appearances, the most significant was the last one in that year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The children had been previously instructed by the angel to kneel down, touch their foreheads to the ground, and repeat three times the following prayer:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you! I ask pardon from you for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love you.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While saying this prayer, the angel whom they had seen before appeared to them. He was holding a chalice in his left hand, while the Host was suspended above the chalice. Drops of blood fell from the Host into the chalice. The angel left the chalice suspended in the air, knelt down beside the young shepherds and had them repeat with him another prayer:<i></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of you the conversion of poor sinners.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The angel then took the chalice and Host in his hands. He gave Lucia the Sacred Host and shared the chalice between Jacinta and Francisco. While doing this, the angel said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then prostrating himself with the children and repeating with them the prayer, “Most Holy Trinity….” the angel disappeared from their sight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are some profound implications in the foregoing narrative.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>The Real Presence.</b> Fundamental to everything else is the profession of faith in Christ’s presence in the Holy Eucharist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Jesus Christ is in the Blessed Sacrament in all the fullness of His humanity and divinity. He is present everywhere, “in all the tabernacles of the world.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What deserves to be emphasized is the fact that it is literally Jesus Christ who is now on earth, present in every tabernacle where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What further needs emphasis is that this Jesus Christ is offended by the outrages, sacrileges and indifference of so many people in the modern world. Not coincidentally, this is almost the verbatim language of Our Lord in His revelation at Paray le Moniel to St. Margaret Mary.</span></div>Armata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643268293790744668.post-5189182373773993512012-06-04T07:57:00.001-07:002012-06-04T07:57:38.362-07:00Bloodmoney Trailer<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cYaTywSDmls?fs=1" width="480"></iframe><br />
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I RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE, ESPECIALLY FOR PARENTS WHO SENT THEIR CHILDREN TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.Armata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643268293790744668.post-14411675705463124132012-03-06T11:25:00.002-08:002012-03-06T11:25:51.209-08:00THE LIFE OF SAINT TARCISIUS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3vSWcReFHvmMi0Xm3dyWsMlljZQLT3PBl1Q4V6-BTrgLbNU85gvJWj82J8UtZZyfoC5dmKaNXmeofhDY8uX9N9MmP8tcOHZoBBJzra72z38xRXxQZG9ftuNm2nI3PjTX-jTNmqGAJxRy/s1600/San+Tarcisio2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3vSWcReFHvmMi0Xm3dyWsMlljZQLT3PBl1Q4V6-BTrgLbNU85gvJWj82J8UtZZyfoC5dmKaNXmeofhDY8uX9N9MmP8tcOHZoBBJzra72z38xRXxQZG9ftuNm2nI3PjTX-jTNmqGAJxRy/s320/San+Tarcisio2.jpg" width="232" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte during one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century, probably during that of Valerian. Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass, a deacon would be sent to the prisons to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die. At one point, there was no deacon to send and so St. Tarcisius, an acolyte, was sent carrying the "Holy Mysteries" to those in prison.</span><br />
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<div style="background-color: white;">On the way, he was stopped by boys his own age who were not Christians but knew him as a playmate and lover of games. He was asked to join their games, but this time he refused and the crowd of boys noticed that he was carrying something. Somehow, he was also recognized as a Christian, and the small gang of boys, anxious to view the Christian "Mysteries," became a mob and turned upon Tarcisius with fury. He went down under the blows, and it is believed that a fellow Christian drove off the mob and rescued the young acolyte.</div><div style="background-color: white;">The mangled body of Tarcisius was carried back to the catacombs, but the boy died on the way from his injuries. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus, and his relics are claimed by the church of San Silvestro in Capite.</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: white;">In the fourth century, Pope St. Damasus wrote a poem about this "boy-martyr of the Eucharist" and says that, like another St. Stephen, he suffered a violent death at the hands of a mob rather than give up the Sacred Body to "raging dogs." His story became well known when Cardinal Wiseman made it a part of his novel Fabiola, in which the story of the young acolyte is dramatized and a very moving account given of his martyrdom and death.</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: white;">Tarcisius, one of the patron saints of altar boys, has always been an example of youthful courage and devotion, and his story was one that was told again and again to urge others to a like heroism in suffering for their faith. In the Passion of Pope Stephen, written in the sixth century, Tarcisius is said to be an acolyte of the pope himself and, if so, this explains the great veneration in which he was held and the reason why he was chosen for so difficult a mission.</div><div style="background-color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: white;">Thought for the Day: Mere boys can become saints, and youth is no barrier to holiness. The call to holiness begins at baptism, and we do not have to wait for old age and gray hair to serve God. Youthful saints tell us something about sanctity, and their example is especially luminous as they dedicate their young lives to God.</div><div style="background-color: white;">From 'The Catholic One Year Bible': In a race, everyone runs but only one person gets first prize. So run your race to win. To win the contest you must deny yourselves many things that would keep you from doing your best. - 1 Corinthians 9:24-25</div>Armata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643268293790744668.post-80337851077836101152012-02-25T12:43:00.000-08:002012-02-25T12:43:27.721-08:00SPIRITUALITY OF JACINTA MARTO: Seer of Fatima<ul><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Jacinta a Key to Fatima message</span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: monospace; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMxKDhckNJqmovOk19Mtj5roTVkGsE6FcF0lOJWdJVABrlRnWQULbAHLOXPLcFdvnzm0gIyxstl5KcpjqD3Iaox5TXBZr_9SvgMOg-WhyphenhyphendvvLVqTDhw9rxe4emEaTPUbuWxt8Tk2LoqO1X/s1600/Jacinta+Marto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMxKDhckNJqmovOk19Mtj5roTVkGsE6FcF0lOJWdJVABrlRnWQULbAHLOXPLcFdvnzm0gIyxstl5KcpjqD3Iaox5TXBZr_9SvgMOg-WhyphenhyphendvvLVqTDhw9rxe4emEaTPUbuWxt8Tk2LoqO1X/s1600/Jacinta+Marto.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The spiritual life of Jacinta holds an important key to the Fatima message. Opening her heart to divine graces, her vision of concern scans the entire world, while centering on the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of the Church. Therefore, it focuses of necessity also on the Pope as the visible head of the universal Church and on our divine Lord in the Holy Eucharist.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div style="text-align: left;">Jacinta added three Hail Mary's to each of her Rosaries for the Pope. She asked, "Why doesn't the Pope come to Fatima? Everybody else does." After her death, the Pope would come to Fatima repeatedly, even to beatify her on May 13, 2000 AD. When I gave Pope John Paul II a large portrait of Jacinta on July 25, 1979, and we discussed the portrait, I asked him to give me one sentence to guide me in my Apostolic work for Fatima. The Pope looked up and then placing his hands on me said: "You must make your work in the spirit of the sermon on the Mount."
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"> I was expecting that this Marian Pope would say something about consecrating oneself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Then a very holy soul told me that essentially what devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means is living the eight beatitudes.
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The perfect Christian life calls for a living of the beatitudes. No one lived the perfect Christian life better than Mary whom the Second Vatican Council called, "the first disciple of Christ," and the "Mother and Model of the Church." The Council said Mary is the perfect model of the Church. Mary is all that the Church is and hopes to become. The Heart of Jesus tells us about the love of God. The Heart of Mary tells us about the love we must also have for one another.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><h3 style="text-align: left;">Jacinta Lived True Devotion to the Immaculate Heart</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh17DOZ_rX74H8Bvw9EGtSifEs2IKjyDDii_HTFnjVDby7FZb2261GalFAZT5jQFK-eRlUxsIypmVNkSi4jSJqasHH7b_iALl8vAgNbz_d4ndW0o6-fyk2rccYDLtQk8prGppXwkkKuPQqY/s1600/Pastorcitos+-+Jacinta.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh17DOZ_rX74H8Bvw9EGtSifEs2IKjyDDii_HTFnjVDby7FZb2261GalFAZT5jQFK-eRlUxsIypmVNkSi4jSJqasHH7b_iALl8vAgNbz_d4ndW0o6-fyk2rccYDLtQk8prGppXwkkKuPQqY/s320/Pastorcitos+-+Jacinta.bmp" width="149" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">To reemphasize, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary then means striving to live the Christian virtues as Mary did. Those Christian virtues are exercised perfectly when we live the beatitudes.
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"> I remember when, shortly after the Second Vatican Council, liberal educators were saying that the Christian religion is an adult religion. Therefore they concluded we should not try to teach much of it to children until they are at least adolescents. The life of Jacinta defies that false theory. Her spirituality reached higher than many adults do who live to an advanced age.
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">It was after the vision of hell that the three little shepherds began to make great spiritual progress. Years ago, Sister Lucia wrote of this saying that some people hold that we ought not to teach children about hell, yet our Blessed other did not hesitate to show the terrible vision of hell to three little children, Jacinta scarcely more than six years old at the time. The vision of hell impressed Jacinta most for it was the consequence of sin that led souls there.
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Jacinta often separated from the others and alone by herself would fall to her knees to pray for sinners. Then calling 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! If I could only show them hell!" Even after she was taken sick, which eventually led to her death, 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, Jesus in the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which God is offended and to beg for the conversion of poor sinners. A priest finally had to tell her, as she would fall over at times doing this, that she should say the prayer in bed.
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Jacinta would mortify herself of food and drink, and while ill, take food and medicine which cost her greatly, offering all for the conversion of sinners. She offered the sacrifice of being separated from her family and companions in her final illness, and going to the hospital far away and the thought of dying alone, as our Blessed Mother said she would. She was concerned that the message of our Lady would get to people even after she died. She instructed Lucia that when the right time came to tell people about the Immaculate Heart of Mary.</div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Jacinta's Love of the Holy Eucharist</h3><div style="text-align: left;">Jacinta's high regard for the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament; her going to daily Mass in reparation after she became sick; her instructing the nurses to kneel before the Hidden Jesus in the tabernacle in reparation; in the hospital, asking to be moved at times to the balcony overlooking the tabernacle in the chapel; her great desire to receive Jesus in Holy Communion in reparation for poor sinners and to love Him more intensely although the Eucharist was denied her because of age; her begging to receive Holy Communion the evening before she died; all this brings out the deep knowledge she had of Eucharistic reparation as central to the Fatima message and for the conversion of sinners. Jacinta without doubt received the greatest g races from spiritual Holy Communions of desire as she once received sacramentally from the angel. Her great love for Mary's Immaculate Heart directed her always to our Lord, and she cold never separate their two Hearts.
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">No one can lead until one first learns how to follow. The three little shepherds of Fatima teach us how to follow the ways of Jesus and Mary. In doing so, they teach, lead us and show us, the way to lead others more by example than word, to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">The account of our Blessed Mother appearing to Jacinta in the Fatima Church to teach her how to pray the Rosary properly, by showing her 15 tableaus representing the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, reminds us that children at a very young age are indeed capable of practicing the faith with some depth. They can understand it more profoundly than the modern world is usually willing to challenge youth and lead them.
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Jacinta, as she developed after the apparitions, with Mary herself as spiritual director, became a mystic and is sometimes called the youngest prophet. Her role as a prophet-that is, a messenger from heaven, and as a mystic-that is, someone who understands the mysteries of faith through deep union with God or by direct revelation, can be recognized in the life and sayings of Jacinta, especially as recorded by Mother Godinho in the Lisbon hospital.</div><h3 style="text-align: left;">"Jacinta is a letter of the Holy Virgin"</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFhPqvvJ0SU4yW1ye6VcwzPN0PHTxkcx3JdNuRLNULXpVQVistelS9wjkqq-BYftMtlsjtC8zo6TWhYyewuUds7buDlVHsh-r6FPBrtJTLDDKU5pZc9IUxxGHHPPnkeSGzUlkTcNKTVX0/s1600/Jacinta+Marto2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFhPqvvJ0SU4yW1ye6VcwzPN0PHTxkcx3JdNuRLNULXpVQVistelS9wjkqq-BYftMtlsjtC8zo6TWhYyewuUds7buDlVHsh-r6FPBrtJTLDDKU5pZc9IUxxGHHPPnkeSGzUlkTcNKTVX0/s1600/Jacinta+Marto2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Fatima, the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon spoke as follows: "Saint Paul says the Christians are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God (II Cor. 3:1-3). Imitating him, we can say that JACINTA is a letter of the Holy Virgin, to be read by souls. Better than words do it (the life of Jacinta) says what our Lady came to do in Fatima and what she wants us."
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">When Francisco died, Jacinta was deeply grieved. She would sit on her bed in long hours of sadness. When asked by Lucia why she was so said, she would answer: "I am thinking of Francisco and of how I would like to see him." But then she would add that it was more than the thought of Francisco's death that saddened her. "I am thinking of the war which will come. So many people will die…So many houses will be destroyed and priests killed. Listen, I am going to heaven soon, but when you see that light that our Lady told us of, you must go there too." However, she accepted it when Lucia reminded her that she must remain many years to spread devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">It was revealed to Jacinta by our Lady that she would go to two hospitals before she died and exactly when she would die. She thus foretold the time of her death. The prophetic sayings of Jacinta, which she learned from Our Lady, and which were recorded by Mother Godinho in the Lisbon hospital, read as statements of a person advanced in spirituality and as one looking into the future.</div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Jacinta gives messages even in death</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoV7yNLVM3SiGTm1uy_QGElmqdlUmqGsnsfStvMpfw7Cb2POeNrgMHzQFaHAVdWzNqKF0173VIb63WPKAYHLXA6WU3KME8Epesk2gACaGKu-NS5hiCRHhuZldhn-j0aSVx0OB3rxd6uNd-/s1600/Pastorcitos+-+Jacinta+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoV7yNLVM3SiGTm1uy_QGElmqdlUmqGsnsfStvMpfw7Cb2POeNrgMHzQFaHAVdWzNqKF0173VIb63WPKAYHLXA6WU3KME8Epesk2gACaGKu-NS5hiCRHhuZldhn-j0aSVx0OB3rxd6uNd-/s1600/Pastorcitos+-+Jacinta+2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">In her extreme suffering before she died, Jacinta's face had looked worn and emaciated. But in death, her cheeks had filled out and had taken on a healthy color. Nurse Nadeja Silvestre said: "She did not look the same child; she had become radiant and beautiful." When Mother Godinho held vigil beside the coffin, she glanced at the little lamp nearby.
She was astonished to see that the lamp contained no oil but still burned brightly. Her body which at times before death did not exude a pleasant odor, because of infection and open sores, and the extreme sufferings which afflicted her, after death exuded the scent of sweet perfume. When her body was carried into the Lisbon Church, the church bells rang while no one was at the ropes, and the tower door was locked. It was thought they were rung by angels. Jacinta once said she had heard the angels sing but "angels do not sing as men sing."
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Jacinta's body was first exhumed on September 12, 1935. Seeing her incorrupt body, her father, Senhor Marto was asked what he thought now. He said that the children now belonged to the world and stated that viewing Jacinta's body "was somewhat like looking at a person grown old, whom one had known young." An eyewitness account of the second exhumation of Jacinta's body, which took place in 1951, was carried in the papers of the time as follows:</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>"The expression on Jacinta's face was that of great peace, and all who saw her could not help feeling that they were greatly privileged to have been granted such a favor."</i></b></div>
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">The fact that Jacinta's face appeared much older than she was at the time of her death cause different reactions. Perhaps one explanation is that her body reflected her spiritual maturity at the time of her death, which came when Jacinta was not quite ten years old. Artists seem to have a difficult time capturing her features while retaining an appearance of a little girl. They always seem to depict her older, whether in statues or paintings. Is there a divine message in this? A third transfer of her body from the Cemetery of Orem to the cemetery of Fatima and finally to the Basilica in the Cova took place on May 5, 1951.
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">Jacinta, whose life after beatification, will doubtlessly become known to millions more of today's children, presents an heroic holy child who by the age of nine had practiced heroic virtues to inspire the children of the world during the third millennium. </div></span></ul>Armata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643268293790744668.post-38848661027041950182011-10-15T17:34:00.000-07:002011-10-15T17:34:26.519-07:00HISTORY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjShNjTSplJC40XfnzL4iaTMmdNaz4_zQ3a2VqX1W9HLx_UvG_D6kDyIXSxB9Rlrd4rczyBPC7EJDUQGoB3hu-caHmsAeEKwluX3yX7phwQedgiCqU2cRsNbrNKBtFbuJb5tbTPtoXhWgWN/s1600/Vision+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjShNjTSplJC40XfnzL4iaTMmdNaz4_zQ3a2VqX1W9HLx_UvG_D6kDyIXSxB9Rlrd4rczyBPC7EJDUQGoB3hu-caHmsAeEKwluX3yX7phwQedgiCqU2cRsNbrNKBtFbuJb5tbTPtoXhWgWN/s320/Vision+7.jpg" width="205" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span>Eight years after the Fatima events, when Sister Lucy was living in a convent in Pontevedra, Spain, she experienced another apparition of Our Lady (see picture above). On this occasion, the Virgin returned as She had promised at Fatima to relate the specific requirements for the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>Lucy, writing in the third person, gives the account of the December 10, 1925, visit of Our Lady and the Child Jesus:</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>"The Most Holy Virgin appeared to her (Sister Lucy), and by Her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was the Child Jesus. The Most Holy Virgin rested Her hand on her (Sister Lucy's) shoulder and as She did so, She showed her (Sister Lucy) a heart encircled by thorns, which She was holding in Her other hand. At the same time, the Child said:</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span><strong><em>"'Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.'"</em></strong></span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>Then the Most Holy Virgin said to Sister Lucy:</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span><strong><em>"Look, My daughter at My Heart surrounded by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console Me and announce in My Name that I promise to assist at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to Me."</em></strong></span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>What a charming dialogue in which the Child Jesus and His Mother take turns speaking -- He, to plead Her cause, while She makes Her requests ... to lead us back to Him.</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>The devotion of the Communion of Reparation on the Five First Saturdays, mentioned by the Virgin at Fatima on July 13, 1917, and then confirmed at Pontevedra as described above, forms an essential part of the Message of Fatima.</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>The most astonishing thing at Pontevedra is the incomparable promise made by Our Lady.</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>The Most Holy Virgin grants there, with unmeasurable generosity, the grace of final perseverance, which not even a holy life of prayer and sacrifice will necessarily merit, for it is always a gratuitous gift of the Divine Mercy. The promise is without any restrictions.</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>The disproportion between the little devotion requested, and the grace which is attached to it, reveals to us the almost infinite power of intercession conceded to the Blessed Virgin Mary for the salvation of souls.</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>Let us keep to the letter the promise of Our Lady that whoever will have fulfilled all the wanted conditions, can be sure of obtaining, at least at the moment of death, and even after miserable relapses into a state of grave sin, the graces necessary for salvation in order to obtain God's pardon and be preserved from eternal punishment.</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>In calling for the Five First Saturdays, Our Lady was, in a way, reiterating the First Saturday devotions previously approved by the Church.</span><br />
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<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>On July 1, 1905, St. Pius X approved and granted indulgences for the practice of the first Saturdays of twelve consecutive months in honor of the Immaculate Conception. On June 13, 1912, finally, he granted new indulgences to the practice of the first Saturday of each month. This practice greatly resembled the request of Pontevedra.</span><br />
<br />
<img height="1" hspace="15" src="http://www.fatimacrusader.com/geof/images/spacer.gif" width="1" /><span>In order to promote the piety of the faithful towards Mary Immaculate, Mother of God, and in order to repair the outrages made against Her holy name and against Her privileges by wicked men, Pius X has granted, for the first Saturday of each month, a plenary indulgence, applicable to the souls in Purgatory.</span> </span>Armata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643268293790744668.post-37324877334551962942011-04-13T11:57:00.001-07:002011-04-13T11:57:37.907-07:00BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HOLY ROSARY<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD";">The rosary is a form of combined prayer and meditation that has been around for over 1200 years. The origin of the rosary dates back to the ninth century where Irish monks would recite and chant the 150 Psalms of the Bible as a major part of their worship. People living near the monasteries were drawn towards this beautiful and harmonious devotion, and they became very eager to join in with the monks' prayers. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD";">Unfortunately, the people were not able to adapt to this form of prayer because the psalms were very hard to memorize and printed copies of the psalms were not readily available. As a result, it was suggested to the people outside the monastery that they recite a series of 150 "Our Father" prayers in place of the psalms. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD";">As this form of devotion became increasingly popular, people started to devise methods in order to keep track of their prayers. At first, 150 little pebbles were placed inside small leather pouches to keep count. Since this method was rather troublesome, a thin rope having 50 knots on it was used instead (it was used three times for a total of 150 prayers). Eventually, the instrument of choice became the use of string with small pieces of wood. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD";">In later years, the Irish monks traveled throughout Europe and brought this form of devotion with them. In some areas, both clergy and lay people began to recite the "Angelic Salutation" (the first part of what we now know as the "Hail Mary") as part of this devotion. The popularity of this prayer led to the adoption of 50 Angelic Salutations being said for each piece of wood or knot on the prayer string. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD";">During the 13th century, Medieval theologians began to interpret the 150 psalms as veiled mysteries about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They began to write a series of Psalters, or praises, in honor of Jesus for each interpretation of the psalms. In addition, 150 Psalters honoring Mary were also composed. In order to fit the existing prayer string, these Psalters were divided into groups of 50 and were referred to as "Rosariums". Although "rosarium" refers to roses and rose gardens, it was used to signify a collection of prayers which could be compared to a bouquet of roses. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" style="mso-cellspacing: 1.5pt;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: #ece9d8; border-left: #ece9d8; border-right: #ece9d8; border-top: #ece9d8; padding-bottom: 0.75pt; padding-left: 0.75pt; padding-right: 0.75pt; padding-top: 0.75pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD";">As we see today, the rose is a very popular symbol associated with our Blessed Mother Mary and it is a sign that she often uses as she did in the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe.</span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" style="mso-cellspacing: 1.5pt;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: #ece9d8; border-left: #ece9d8; border-right: #ece9d8; border-top: #ece9d8; padding-bottom: 0.75pt; padding-left: 0.75pt; padding-right: 0.75pt; padding-top: 0.75pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD";">The interpretation of the psalms into written Psalters lead to the implementation of special thoughts or meditations being attached to each bead. This innovated version of the rosary was widely spread by Blessed Alan de la Roche of the Dominican Order, as it revived the divinely inspired works that St. Dominic and his Rosary Confraternity had initiated some hundred years earlier. The prayers of the Rosarium were later broken out into sets of 10 and these groupings became known as decades. Each decade of ten "Hail Mary" prayers would be preceded by one "Our Father". </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD";">Around the year 1700, the thoughts used in the rosary started to become narratives. St. Louis de Montfort composed the most common set of narratives that eventually became used as meditations for each decade of the rosary. These narratives were divided into five Joyful, five Sorrowful, and five Glorious meditations that are referred to as "mysteries". Just recently, in 2002, Pope John Paul II introduced another set of five meditations referred to as the "Luminous Mysteries".</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD";">As you can see, the rosary we know today is the result of many evolutions dating back several hundred years. Although the manner in which the rosary is recited has changed, the results of praying the rosary are still the same. Countless interventions still occur today, and the power and divine graces the rosary offers are available to everyone who is willing to give it a chance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Armata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643268293790744668.post-68821905749898671592011-01-29T10:42:00.000-08:002011-01-29T16:56:41.703-08:00REPARATION COMMUNION OF THE FIRST SATURDAYS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhev_3O6FTdhknisXFm_XpXAFTlZadVZoN06SqwWU7XNUO4M35RSBqKCgrADN9LFMsk8wzlHVVAJjRt4GAG1or7sN_dKd4QPXsQ2FOzSQNuvFpGPzU1MO7njnqQEWAKCtPiT-jTnh_WF1Gj/s1600/Jesus1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhev_3O6FTdhknisXFm_XpXAFTlZadVZoN06SqwWU7XNUO4M35RSBqKCgrADN9LFMsk8wzlHVVAJjRt4GAG1or7sN_dKd4QPXsQ2FOzSQNuvFpGPzU1MO7njnqQEWAKCtPiT-jTnh_WF1Gj/s200/Jesus1.jpg" width="136" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the apparition of July 13 in Fatima, Our Lady announced: ‘In order to avoid war, I’ll return to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Reparation Communion of the First Saturdays’.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">She returned to ask for the latter devotion, when She appeared to Sr. Lucy on December 10, 1925, in Pontevedra, Spain. She said then: <i>‘Look, My daughter, at My Heart surrounded by the thorns with which ungrateful men at every moment pierce Me through blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console Me and tell that I promise to assist, at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for their salvation, all those who, in the First Saturday of five consecutive months, went to Confession, received Holy Communion, recited five decades of the Rosary and made Me company for fifteen minutes, while meditating in the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, all with the intent of making reparation to My Immaculate Heart’.</i></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Our Lady showed then Her Heart surrounded with thorns, which represent our sins. She called for acts of reparation, in order to remove them, namely the reparation devotion of the five First Saturdays of the Month. In exchange, She promises us <i>‘all the graces necessary for salvation’.</i></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jesus Himself, appearing to Sr. Lucy in the following two years, on February 15 of 1926 and December 17 of 1927, insists on the spreading of this devotion. Sr. Lucy wrote: </span><b><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘War or peace in the world depend on the practice of this devotion of the First Saturdays, together with the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary’.</span></b></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><strong><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: black; font-family: "Footlight MT Light"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">Why five?</span></strong><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Footlight MT Light"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The First Saturdays are five, according to this revelation of Jesus, because ‘five are the kinds of offenses and blasphemies directed at the Immaculate Heart of Mary.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
<span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">1. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blasphemies against Her Immaculate Conception. </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">2. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>...against Her Virginity. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="ES-MX"><span style="font-family: Maiandra GD;">3. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>...against Her Divine Maternity, including the refusal to receive Her as Mother of all men. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="ES-MX"><span style="font-family: Maiandra GD;">4. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Offenses of those who try to instill in the hearts of children indifference, contempt and even hate against this Immaculate Mother. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
<span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">5. ...of those who offend Her directly in Her sacred images’.</span><br />
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<strong><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: black; font-family: "Footlight MT Light"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">Conditions</span></strong><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
The conditions to gain the privilege of the First Saturdays are four:</span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
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<span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">l. <u>Confession</u>. For each First Saturday a confession with intention of reparation is needed. It may be made in any day, before or after the First Saturday, provided one is in the state of grace when receiving Communion.</span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The seer asked: - ‘My Jesus, people may forget to formulate that intention (of reparation)!? Jesus replied: - They can do it in the following confession, taking advantage of the first opportunity they have to go to Confession’.<br />
The other three conditions must be fulfilled on the First Saturday itself, except if a priest, for just cause, grants that they may be fulfilled on the following Sunday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">2. Communion of Reparation. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">3. Five decades of the Rosary.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">4. Meditation, during 15 minutes, on one, several or all mysteries. It is equally good to meditate, instead, for three minutes, before each of the five decades of the Rosary being recited.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In all these practices one must have the intention of doing reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The Devotion of the Five First Saturdays of the Month was approved by the Bishop of Leiria on September 13,1939, in Fatima.</span><br />
<div align="center"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">_______________________________________</span></div><div align="center"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Maiandra GD"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.fatima.pt/portal/index.php?id=2415">Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima</a></span></div>Armata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3643268293790744668.post-19864032021934117862011-01-29T10:21:00.000-08:002011-01-29T11:03:15.521-08:00<center><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: #990000;"><strong><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span closure_uid_qi3olt="597" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; color: black; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #990000;">ACT OF CONSECRATION TO</span> </span></span></span></span></span></strong></span></span></center><center><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: #990000;"><strong><span style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span closure_uid_qi3olt="598" style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; font-size: large; margin: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY </span></span></strong></span></span></center><center><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span closure_uid_qi3olt="599" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; color: #990000; display: inline; font-size: large; margin: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>(Pope Pius XII)</strong></span></span></span></center><center> </center><br />
<div align="left"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizRPS4_smY2XqAAfgqeADS8L5X7OfnyEMWHRyENyJzANRnwcnN5kzUC_kJqHT6rW1OWqcJ-hnybe3YLx4DX1fQ4oxN6rlv8Aye4YSOXNuui502uwjfypt7dof6LosiXQRPIR46Z2efKFGy/s1600/Maria061.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizRPS4_smY2XqAAfgqeADS8L5X7OfnyEMWHRyENyJzANRnwcnN5kzUC_kJqHT6rW1OWqcJ-hnybe3YLx4DX1fQ4oxN6rlv8Aye4YSOXNuui502uwjfypt7dof6LosiXQRPIR46Z2efKFGy/s200/Maria061.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><div align="left"><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span lang="ES-MX"><span style="color: black; font-family: Comic Sans MS;">Queen of the Holy Rosary, Help of the Christians, Refuge of the human race, Conqueress in God’s battlefields, to You and to Your Immaculate Heart.</span></span></span></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span lang="ES-MX"></span><br />
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<span lang="ES-MX"><span style="color: black; font-family: Comic Sans MS;">In this tragic hour of human history, we entrust and consecrate ourselves, and the Holy Church. She is the Mystical Body of Your Jesus, suffering and bleeding in so many parts and tormented in so many ways, we consecrate to You the whole world torn by bitter strive and consumed by the fire of hatred the victim of its own wickedness.</span></span></span></div><div align="left"></div><br />
<div align="left"><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span lang="ES-MX"></span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style="color: black;">Look with compassion to all material and moral destruction to the suffering and fears of fathers and mothers of husbands and wives, of brother and sisters and innocent children. Look at the many lives cut down in the flower of youth so many bodies torn to pieces in brutal slaughter so many souls tortured and troubled </span></span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style="color: black;">and in danger of being lost eternally.</span></span></span></div><div align="left"></div><br />
<div align="left"><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style="color: black;">Oh, Mother of Mercy, obtain peace for us from God! Obtain especially those graces, which can convert human hearts quickly. Those graces, which can<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>prepare, establish and insure peace. </span></span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style="color: black;">Queen of Peace, pray for us; Give the world at war the peace for which all are longing, Peace in Truth, Justice and the Charity of Christ. Give them peace of the arms and peace of mind, that in tranquillity and order the Kingdom of God may expand.</span></span></span></div><div align="left"></div><br />
<div align="left"><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style="color: black;">Grant Your protection to infidels and to those still walking in the shadow of death; give them peace and permit that the sun of truth may raise upon them; and that together with us they may repeat before the Only Saviour of the World: Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among men of good will (Lk2.14).</span></span></span></div><div align="left"></div><br />
<div align="left"><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style="color: black;">Give peace to the people separated by error and schism, particularly those, who have special devotion to You and among whom there was no home, where Your venerable Icon was not honoured, though at present it may be hidden in the hope for better days. Bring them back to the One Fold of Christ, under the One True Shepherd. </span></span></span></div><div align="left"></div><br />
<div align="left"><span lang="ES-MX" style="color: #990000; font-family: Parade; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style="color: black;">Obtain peace and complete liberty for the Holy Church of God, check the spreading flood of neo-paganism, arouse within the faithful love of purity the practice of Christian life and apostolic zeal, so that the people who serve God, may increase in merit and number. </span></span><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><span style="color: black;">All of humanity were once consecrated to the Heart of Your Son. All our hopes rest in Him, Who is in all times sign and pledge of victory and salvation.</span></span></span></div><div align="left"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><br />
</div><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-MX; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: black;">Forever we consecrate ourselves to You and to Your Immaculate Heart, Oh, Mother and Queen of the World! May Your love and patronage hasten the victory of the Kingdom of God, may all nations, at peace with each other and with God, proclaim You Blessed and sing with You from one end of the earth to the other, the eternal Magnificat of glory, love and gratitude to the Heart of Jesus, in which alone, they can find Truth, Life and Peace.</span></span></div>Armata Biancahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04913291042704699839noreply@blogger.com0