Holy Mary - Mother of God - Queen of the Universe... pray for us!

 

Happy New Year! - January 1 - 2013 is the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

Below is a message from the Mother of God appearing in Medjugorje on Christmas Day, 2012:

"Dear children, give the gift of your life to me and completely surrender to me so that I may help you to comprehend my motherly love and the love of my Son for you. My children, I love you immeasurably and today, in a special way, on the day of the birth of my Son, I desire to receive each of you into my heart and to give a gift of your lives to my Son. My children, Jesus loves you and gives you the grace to live in His mercy, but sin has overtaken many of your hearts and you live in darkness. Therefore, my children, do not wait, say `no' to sin and surrender your hearts to my Son, because only in this way will you be able to live God's mercy and, with Jesus in your hearts, set out on the way of salvation." (Message through Jakov Colo on December 25, 2012)

Also on Christmas Day, Marijia explains her apparition of Our Lady with Baby Jesus this way:

"Our Lady came with little Jesus in her arms and she did not give a message, but little Jesus began to speak and said : “I am your peace, live my commandments.” With a sign of the cross, Our Lady and little Jesus blessed us together."

Before these messages were given at Medjugorje, Pope Benedict XVI invoked the Christ Child in his homily at the Midnight Mass:  

“Again and again it astonishes us that God makes Himself a child so that we may love Him, so that we may dare to love Him, and as a child trustingly lets Himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me.” 

“So Christ is our peace, and he proclaimed peace to those far away and to those near at hand (cf. Eph 2:14, 17). How could we now do other than pray to him: Yes, Lord, proclaim peace today to us too, whether we are far away or near at hand.”

 

On December 28, 2012, Our Lady said to Ivan: "Dear children, also today I desire to call you to joy. Anew I call you to joy! I call you at the same time to responsibility. Dear children, accept my messages responsibly and live my messages, because in the living of my messages I desire to lead you to my Son. All of these years that I have been together with you my finger has been directed toward the Son, towards Jesus.  I have a desire to lead all of you to Him.  Therefore these days that are upcoming, may your question also be - and I pose this question to you - 'What can I do that my heart may be closer to Jesus?'  May this question lead you.  Say to yourselves, 'What must I leave behind?  What must I reject that my heart may be closer to Jesus?  Pray dear children, and I will pray for all of you that your answer in your hearts may be 'Yes, I desire to be closer to Jesus!'  Thank you, dear children, for also today having responded to my call."  

And on

December 2, 2012 Mirjiana received this message from the Mother of God:

"Dear children, with motherly love and motherly patience anew I call you to live according to my Son - to spread His peace and His love – so that, as my apostles, you may accept God’s truth with all your heart and pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you. Then you will be able to faithfully serve my Son, and show His love to others with your life. According to the love of my Son and my love, as a mother, I strive to bring all of my strayed children into my motherly embrace and to show them the way of faith. My children, help me in my motherly battle and pray with me that sinners may become aware of their sins and repent sincerely. Pray also for those whom my Son has chosen and consecrated in His name. Thank you."

God is Love

God’s Love and Ours

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1 John 4:7-21 NIV)

Colours of Love
God's Word
Given Birth
      Hope    
          Green of our Earth          
Purple Passion                
                        Royal Aura 
Emanation Force
      Warm Glow Warm
               Flush
                    Pink-blush
             L O V E
      Joy-HotPure Spirit
      Palpating Wonder
           Glory-inspiring Grandeur
                        Emanating forth
               Purple Passion      Royal AuraGod's Word
Given BirthGreen          the Hope of the Earth.


(from The Beholden finalist manuscript in the Rielo World Poetry Prize 2001 by Mary Angela Nangini)

God is Truth

215   "The sum of your word is truth; and every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever." "And now, O LORD God, you are God, and your words are true"; this is why God's promises always come true. God is Truth itself, whose words cannot deceive. This is why one can abandon oneself in full trust to the truth and faithfulness of his word in all things. The beginning of sin and of man's fall was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God's word, kindness and faithfulness.

216     God's truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created order and governs the world. God, who alone made heaven and earth, can alone impart true knowledge of every created thing in relation to himself.

217     God is also truthful when he reveals himself — the teaching that comes from God is "true instruction". When he sends his Son into the world it will be "to bear witness to the truth": "We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true." (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

truth has no variables
but multipliers of itself

there is but One Truth
all else exemplifies this
or betrays itself

true revelation
does not contradict authors:
divine or human

http://family.webshots.com/photo/1322580563047197756olIMjk

All Souls Day: Saints on the Way

The Monk who could see demons: (from website link below)

Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis says: "What causes spiritual despair? First, relentless attacks from the devil. The devil attacks the one struggling to grow in Christ. The devil doesn't bother with the casual Christian or the habitually immoral person -- they do not need the devil to attack and destroy them, they are self-destructive. The devil attacks the committed Christian.

A priest once shared this story with me:

It seems that a certain monk in a monastery had an ability to see demons attacking people. And so one day, the abbot of his monastery sent him to the nearby city to see how many demons were there. So, the monk ventured down the road from the monastery towards the city. It was a large city, filled with all kinds of people doing all kinds of things. And as he journeyed through the city, he looked and he looked and he saw no demons. He was very puzzled by this. All these people, and yet no demons attacking them. Finally, he saw one demon laying under the shade of a tree, and the demon was sleeping. The monk headed back towards the monastery. And as he approached the monastery, he saw legions and legions of demons, climbing up the monastery walls, tearing at the gates, sitting in the bell tower of the church, and going in and out of the windows of the cells where the monks lived. The monk reported to the Abbot, "I went to the city where there are many people and I saw only one demon and he was sleeping. Why at this monastery, where we are but a few monks, why are there so many demons all around us?" The Abbot answered, "My son, you see in the city, people are so busy, there lives are filled with things, they succumb to temptations constantly, they have squeezed God out of their lives, there is no work for the demons to do. So they leave the people alone. But here in the monastery, where we try to pray constantly, where we try to rejoice in the things of God constantly, this is where they are at work constantly!"

Found at: http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles7/AkrotirianakisTeresa.php

Reflection poem:

Wiseacre

If only we knew
....what we know
........when we would

We wouldn't.

But....
......we don't

So we do.

Then ....
.......we know

And wish we didn't.

Solemnity of All Saints

Thank you God
for your Saints
who show us
your strength
through them:
    the tortured
    the persecuted
    the vulnerable
    the innocent
all the literate
in Love
giving their all
to Love
because
you! -
Love
are with them:
         sustain them
         guide them
         nourish them
         and in them
         your self-disclosure:
                       your power
                       your glory
                       your omnipotence
                       your mercy
endless love
for those who love you
search for you
long to be one with you
even when you are but the Unknown God.

Lent 2012 - Jesus: Perfect Victim & Mercy Voucher

http://outspokenart.withtheworks.net/english_poems/mercy_voucher.html

This poem is from the manuscript "Voices of Victims" dedicated to give voice to the voiceless. After reading the poem consider and meditate on how Jesus is our Mercy Voucher: the exemplary victim, the Perfect Sacrifice of the unblemished Lamb of God. How is Jesus our God-Teacher on the pain and suffering of the Cross.

Transfiguration

from what I’m not
   to what I really am

from the ordinary known
   to unknown possible

from the earthen clay and ashes
   blossoming into light

from the kiss
   only love can issue

from the life
   only hope may lead to

with no sound
   but silence

empty
   awaiting the fullness of joy

nothing
   becoming something

a treasure
   in the heart of God


(MA Nangini March 6-2012)