Spiritual Food

Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-27T10:55:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and relatives,

How are you? I HOPE YOU HAD TIME TO PRAY in silence before Baby Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament so as to celebrate Christmas for the One WHOSE BIRTHDAY we celebrate and not for all the other motives and desires that we have allowed our secular world in recent years to instill into our heads and hearts. How many of our children have been spoiled in waiting for presents at Christmas and have not learned from their parents that Christmas is a time to bring to this divine Baby presents of prayers, sacrifices and adoration? This Baby came to serve, not to be served. How many of us have remained spiritually immature like children who never learned to serve others as their parents and many others had done for them. For these undeveloped people religion exists to serve them; for them religion does not exist to help us discover the will of Baby Jesus and then, with the help of the saving Sacraments, to do the will of this Baby. The will of this Baby for each of us is the best thing we could possibly do for ourselves, but we trust in ourselves and not in this Baby Who came to die for each of us!

How much time do we spend with our “DIVINE PRISONER” as Saint Therese would refer to her Beloved in the Eucharist?

How many people go to the beach during the summer months to get a good tan? How many people spend time before the SON to get a good spiritual tan by way of the divine rays emanating to those who are willing to “waste” time before the Creator of the sun and the entire universe? Just as it takes time to get a good sun tan, so too one must spent time before the divine Sun, without hurry, to absorb these PRECIOUS DIVINE RAYS, like milk for babies, drop by drop before the Most Blessed Sacrament! Jesus is a Person; it takes time to develop a personal relationship. Did we go before this divine Baby in the Most Blessed Sacrament, in adoration with the countless angels and saints, to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS? How many parents teach their children to pray on Christmas like this: “Dear Jesus, for your birthday present, I want to love You, I want to adore You, and I want to be like You. Sweet Mother Mary, lead me to Jesus, hold me in your arms, and give me to Jesus.”

The Servant of God, ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN used to say: “If you want to give precious divine sparks to your loved ones and others, you must spend time before the Divine Fire, the Eucharist!” This Servant of God recommended to all priests to make A HOLY HOUR BEFORE THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT EACH DAY; he recommended a half hour for the laity. For more than 12 years now I have faithfully put these words into practice.

“It is only in eternity that we shall know THE GREAT MYSTERY EFFECTED IN US BY HOLY COMMUNION. O most precious moments of my life!” (Saint Faustina, Diary 840).

Just about everybody likes to see a cute baby. Often when I go to dinner in the homes of various families, when there is a cute little child present, the child gets all the attention. So too, Christmas is a special time.

But we so easily forget that THE BABE OF CHRISTMAS IS THE INFINITE GOD before whom the angels and saints adore continually with great delight and joy in Paradise. The infinite God Who created the entire universe, Who is outside of time and space, entered time and space for love of us. It would be like one of us becoming a dog to save the dogs, but then the dogs rejected their savior and killed him. The Gospel reading for Christmas day: “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He come to his own home, and HIS OWN PEOPLE RECEIVED HIM NOT” (Jn 1:10-11).

Two thousand years ago many expected a great Messiah in grand splendor who would liberate them from their oppressors; the great majority did not recognize this poor baby born in a cold stable for animals WHO CAME RATHER TO LIBERATE US FROM THE DOMINION OF SATAN and from our sins which are not even recognized or acknowledge by the great majority of people today. As Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II indicated to us, our greatest sin today is that WE HAVE LOST THE SENSE OF SIN and thus we have no need of a Redeemer; so many have willingly embraced relativism so as to live in practice as if they were gods as Adam and Eve did, deciding good and evil for themselves (Gen 3:4-5). Thus who needs Christmas except for perhaps a childhood nostalgia or a longing for a wholesome family environment which was more common 50 or 60 years ago. When this nostalgia no longer suits our fancies, any Christmas manifestations will be OUTLAWED IN THE “LAND OF THE FREE”! It is interesting that Christians tolerate and even love sinners (but hate the sin), as Christ did, but hardened sinners do not tolerate Christians in public and soon will not even tolerate Christians in private as history has so often shown us. What have Christians (those who truly live their faith even to the point of following Christ to Calvary and the crucifixion) done to deserve this intolerance by those who hypocritically cry for tolerance? “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, THEREFORE THE WORLD HATES YOU” (Jn 15:18-21).

The infinite God became incarnate in meekness and humility (Mt 11:29) so as to respect our free will and not force us to love Him; forced or manipulated love is not love at all! This Baby invites us to imitate Him. “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Mt 23:12; Lk 14:11; 18:14). IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO MAINTAIN THESE TWO EXTREMES: adoration, awe and HUMILITY before the infinite God, in particular before Baby Jesus under the form of consecrated Bread and Wine, and at the same time, CHILDLIKE TRUST AND CONFIDENCE. If we loose one or the other of these two essential elements of our faith, we loose so many graces and perhaps even eternal life itself.

THE DIVINE WISDOM CONTINUES THE SAME STRATEGY TODAY hiding behind and truly identifying Himself with the “little ones” (Mt 25:40) in the poor, outcast, unwanted babies in the womb (Jesus spent 9 months in Mary’s womb!), in non self-sufficient senior citizens, the rejected ones, under the appearance of consecrated Bread and Wine… “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Mt 11:25)! So too as it was 2000 years ago, few recognize the various Presences of Baby Jesus in our world today.

This Baby did not come to be only in a manger but to SEEK RECEPTIVE AND PREPARED HEARTS OF LOVE AND HUMILITY. The lack of reception of the hotel keepers to receive Joseph and Mary with child is symbolic of the great lack of reception of so many human hearts. Thank God that there was one IMMACULATE HEART totally ready to receive the infinite God into her heart and into her womb; otherwise there would have been no redemption or salvation. So many baptized Catholics do not even have one hour a week to thank the One Who gave them everything in the Eucharist (which means thanksgiving) after a good sincere sacramental confession. IF SOMETHING IS IMPORTANT TO US WE FIND TIME FOR THAT; if something is not so important to us, we just do not seem to get around to it.

We tend to think that Baby Jesus is all happy and blessed in heaven so it really does not matter what we do. But THE MORE ONE LOVES, THE GREATER THE SUFFERING DUE TO THE INDIFFERENCE of the one loved, just as a loving wife suffers greatly due to the indifference of her husband, and vise versa. God loves each of us immensely. For God there is only the eternal present and thus my indifference today puts a nail into Jesus’ hand on the cross today! Jesus said to Saint Faustina: “If My death has not convinced you of My love, what will?” (Diary, 580).

“IF THE ANGELS WERE CAPABLE OF ENVY, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering” (Saint Faustina; Diary, 1804). Instead we avoid suffering at all costs and do not have time to receive Jesus in the Eucharist each Sunday!

THIS DIVINE BABY WAS THE ONLY ONE EVER BORN TO DIE, as is seen in the Franciscan Christmas images with a cross behind the crib scene. This Baby asks us to follow Him to Calvary and to the crucifixion so as to rise with Him for all eternity!

“I SISTER FAUSTINA, BY THE ORDER OF GOD, HAVE VISITED THE ABYSSES OF HELL so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence. … What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: that MOST SOULS THERE ARE THOSE WHO DISBELIEVED THAT THERE IS A HELL” (Diary, 741). Most people today have willing accepted the big lie of the father of lies, Satan, that the devil and hell do not exist, so that there are no consequences of how we live! But God, Who is Love, respects our free will and thus our choices; if we choose to reject the Truth (big T”) during our whole life, when we die, we discover that the Truth is God (Jn 14:6) and there are only two places for all eternity!

I SAY ALL THESE THINGS TO YOU BECAUSE I WANT WELL FOR YOU. I do not make the rules, or the Ten Commandments. But if I do not seek to understand these commandments, not according to myself or the world’s comfortable relativistic way, but according to God explained by the lawful authority that Jesus left us here on earth, the Catholic Church with the living Pope as the head, and then transmit these teachings to those I am obligated to do so according to my God-given vocation, I will be severely and eternally judged by the One Who called me to be a Christian and a Priest. Unfortunately there are many priests and bishops today who offer only the comfortable truth but not the uncomfortable truth. WE MUST PROCLAIM THE WHOLE TRUTH, otherwise our proclamation is not true and leads many astray leading to grave and eternal consequences. Our Lady has often asked us to pray for priests and bishops and the Pope so that they do not succumb to human respect and other seductive and subtle temptations of the enemy, Satan, who is far more intelligent than we are.

I hope that you have a Merry and Blessed Christmas not just for now or for this very short life time, but FOR ALL ETERNITY!

Father Joseph Dwight

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P.s. THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE while we are still alive and willing to humbly respond to the graces and inspirations of God to make a good confession. After death our eternal destiny will be fixed for all eternity as it was for the angels in one instant after their creation.

In Saint Faustina’s diary, she recorded that Jesus also indicated that HE HIMSELF IS RIGHT THERE IN THE CONFESSIONAL. Jesus told her, “When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity." (1602)

Jesus knew that PEOPLE WOULD REALLY NEED TO HEAR THESE WORDS OF RE-ASSURANCE today, so He went on to say “Come with faith to the feet of My representative...and make your confession before Me. The person of the priest is, for Me, only a screen. Never analyze what sort of a priest that I am making use of; open your soul in confession as you would to Me, and I will fill it with My light." (1725) "Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy.” (1602)

MANY FEEL THAT THEIR SINS ARE UNFORGIVABLE BUT, JESUS SAID, “Were a soul like a decaying corpse, so that from a human standpoint, there would be no hope of restoration and everything would already be lost, it is not so with God. The miracle of Divine Mercy restores that soul in full. In the Tribunal of Mercy (the great sacrament of Confession) ...the greatest miracles take place and are incessantly repeated." (1448) "Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy.” (1602) Every sin imaginable could be forgiven by Him!

So many people are weighed down by sin and THEIR PRIDEFUL NATURE KEEPS THEM AWAY FROM THE CONFESSION OF THEIR SINS. They are living in misery. Jesus said, “Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy! You will call out in vain, but it will be too late." (1448) "Tell aching mankind to snuggle close to My merciful Heart, and I will fill it with peace." (1074) "There is no misery that could be a match for My mercy.” (1273) Jesus came to restore sinners and one would be foolish to turn away from His merciful love.

Regarding this closure of divine mercy, we find in the DIARY OF ST. FAUSTINA: “Oh, what great graces I will grant to souls who say this chaplet; the very depths of My tender mercy are stirred for the sake of those who say the chaplet. Write down these words, My daughter. Speak to the world about My mercy; let all mankind recognize My unfathomable mercy. IT IS A SIGN FOR THE END TIMES; AFTER IT WILL COME THE DAY OF JUSTICE. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fount of My mercy; let them profit from the Blood and Water which gushed forth for them” (848). “Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy. If they will not adore My mercy, they will perish for all eternity. Secretary of My mercy, write, tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, BECAUSE THE AWFUL DAY, THE DAY OF MY JUSTICE, IS NEAR” (965). “These words are for you. Do all you possibly can for this work of My mercy. I desire that My mercy be worshiped, and I AM GIVING MANKIND THE LAST HOPE OF SALVATION; that is, recourse to My mercy. My heart rejoices in this feast” (998). “Let the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. My daughter, write about My mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. Write: BEFORE I COME AS JUST JUDGE, I FIRST OPEN WIDE THE DOOR OF MY MERCY. HE WHO REFUSES TO PASS THROUGH THE DOOR OF MY MERCY MUST PASS THROUGH THE DOOR OF MY JUSTICE…” (1146). “Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy! You will call out in vain, but IT WILL BE TOO LATE” (1448). “In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My merciful heart. I use punishment when they themselves force Me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. BEFORE THE DAY OF JUSTICE I AM SENDING THE DAY OF MERCY” (1588).

Letter To Sister

2011-09-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

The following letter was sent to “my Sister”.

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Dear “my Sister”,

Thank you very much for putting on the web the pictures of the family last November. I finally got around to downloading them. It took a while because there were over 500 pictures!

On our last phone call for your birthday, I told you that I do not heat my apartment next to the church in the winter so as to give my savings to Jesus who is dying of hunger in Brazil and Africa. Did you know that 100,000 die every day of hunger? 20,000 of them are children. Jesus does not exaggerate! Read chapter 25:31-46 of the Gospel of Matthew; this represents the FINAL EXAM for each of us, not just for Saint Francis or Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta or some other “saint”. Blessed Mother Teresa’s motto was: “You did it to Me”, “the least of these my brethren” (Mt 25:40). The Gospels are for everyone. THIS LIFE IS EXTREMELY SHORT COMPARED TO ETERNITY!

Many Catholics and Christians today say that a God who is love would not send anyone to hell, if they still believe that such a place exists. Recently there was a study done in which it was discovered that ONLY HALF OF THE PEOPLE WHO GO TO CHURCH REGULARLY BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A PERSONAL RESURRECTION AFTER DEATH. The old saying goes: If you do not live as you believe, you end up believing as you live.

POPE BENEDICT HAS INDICATED MANY TIMES THAT ONE OF THE GREATEST TRAPS OF THE DEVIL TODAY IS RELATIVISM. Everyone makes up their own rules (the truth with a small “t”) as if they were God without seeking to discover the rules according the Creator of the entire universe who sent only His Son Jesus and Who left us a Church with the Pope until the end of time so that those of good will and with humility could find the truth which leads to eternal life.

WHO DECIDES WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG, GOOD AND EVIL, TRUTH AND REALITY? One has to work hard every day to stamp out the imprint of the Creator in his heart and to reject the many inspirations and graces from God in order to convince himself that God does not exist! Thus when such a person dies, even if he says he does not believe in God, it will be revealed to him in an instant his whole life, including how hard he worked to deny and run from the truth stamped in his heart; this will be his judgment for all eternity! Whether one likes it or not, or believes it or not, man is made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27). NO ONE GOES TO HELL OR TO HEAVEN FOR ALL ETERNITY BY CHANCE! God, because He is Love, will always respect our great gift of our free will and thus will never force anyone to spend eternity with Him in heaven or eternity without Him in hell! “God created you without you, but He will not save you without you” (St. Augustine). The puppets of Satan, the proud modern philosophers, would make us to believe that each person becomes a god so we, by ourselves, decide what is reality and what is truth! The so-called “Age of Reason” actually turned reason on its head. There is very little enlightenment found in the “Period of the Enlightenment”! Secular humanism is bankrupt! For a believer in God-Love, René Descartes’ famous supposition “I think therefore I am” should read “I LOVE THEREFORE I AM”!

But MOST PEOPLE DO NOT WANT TO TAKE THE RISK OF HAVING TO CHANGE THEIR LIFE AND SUFFER, so they remain in their convenient relativism. Most people have swallowed the absurdity of many modern philosophers that if I decide that hell or the devil do not exist, then they do not exist! Even though there is one God, one Jesus Christ, and one Bible, Jesus knew there would be tremendous confusion about the Truth and the true path to heaven after He ascended to Heaven, so He left us his Church with the Pope as the head for those who have the humility to listen and conform their lives to the teachings of His Church on earth with His Vicar as the head. There are thousands of independent protestant groups which interpret the one Bible in their own way, often in contradictory ways. Christ promised to Peter and to all of his successors: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail” (Mt 16:18). This promise was made only to Peter and his successors, not to the bishops or priests. Most of the bishops were against the Pope in the forth century during the Arian heresy. Most bishops, priests and laymen and laywomen were against Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, Humanae Vitae; we see now the disastrous results of ignoring or rebelling against the Vicar of Christ. (Visit: “Prophecies of Humanae Vitae”; http://pop.org/201003231196/prophecies-of-humanae-vitae).

“How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking… The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves – thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf. Eph 4,14). Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, RELATIVISM, WHICH IS LETTING ONESELF BE TOSSED AND “SWEPT ALONG BY EVERY WIND OF TEACHING”, LOOKS LIKE THE ONLY ATTITUDE ACCEPTABLE TO TODAY’S STANDARDS. WE ARE MOVING TOWARDS A DICTATORSHIP OF RELATIVISM WHICH DOES NOT RECOGNIZE ANYTHING AS FOR CERTAIN AND WHICH HAS AS ITS HIGHEST GOAL ONE’S OWN EGO AND ONE’S OWN DESIRES.” (Then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), Homily for the Pro Eligendo Summo Pontifice Mass, 18 April 2005. ; http://endtimeslion.com/?p=188).

Pope John Paul II (among many other occasions) spoke firmly against this “PICK AND CHOOSE SMORGASBORG TYPE CATHOLICISM” in LA in his September 1987 visit: “It is sometimes reported that a large number of Catholics today do not adhere to the teaching of the Church on a number of questions, notably sexual and conjugal morality, divorce and remarriage. Some are reported as not accepting the Church’s clear position on abortion. It has also been noted that there is a tendency on the part of some Catholics to be selective in their adherence to the Church’s moral teachings. It is sometimes claimed that dissent from the Magisterium is totally compatible with being a "good Catholic" and poses no obstacle to the reception of the sacraments. This is a grave error that challenges the teaching office of the bishops of the United States and elsewhere. I wish to encourage you in the love of Christ to address this situation courageously in your pastoral ministry, relying on the power of God’s truth to attract assent and on the grace of the Holy Spirit which is given both to those who proclaim the message and to those to whom it is addressed.” (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1987/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19870916_vescovi-stati-uniti_en.html).

So many Christians today convince themselves that they are good and holy because they live 7 or 8 of the 10 commandments so as to feel they are saved or good, or live the commandments ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN CONVENIENT CRITERIA without seeking to discover how the One Who loves them immensely intended His commandments to be lived for their own true good. How many of us TRUST OURSELVES AND GIVE LIP-SERVICE TO THE GOD WHO WE SAY IS LOVE. Today, most Catholics want a CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT THE CROSS AND WITHOUT HUMILITY, in particular, before the Most Blessed Sacrament, and before the inconvenient teachings of the Church approved by the Pope. “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3).

SINCE SO FEW PEOPLE PRAY TODAY, the forces of evil have taken control of the motors of the culture (mass media, schools, religious institutions, the governments) to manipulate our minds anyway they decide. We are drunk in our egoism; thus having swallowed the lies over the years that we have been bombarded with, we have become totally blind to our real personal situation and the situation of the society and world around us. By now after years of patient preparation of destroying the moral fiber of the American people, these people, who feel they are so much more intelligent than us expendable and dim-witted creatures, can manipulate us and play with us anyway they want to, like a bird that plays with a wounded bird meant to fly high in the sky. This acquired power and money of the militant secularists, nihilists, and relativists in key positions of power and influence is recycled into accelerating their diabolical agenda even more; we are quickly approaching a spiritual, cultural and thus a social and economic avalanche. It is amazing that these powerful people, so close to their hidden leader, Satan (the ones higher up in the Freemasons regularly adore Satan!), and who claim there is no God, know better than the great majority of Catholics the source of our great strength. These poor puppets of Satan have succeeded in destroying the faith and reverence of the great majority of Catholics before our greatest source of strength, the Eucharist; when they take full control of the societies and nations of the world, the celebration of the Holy Mass will be totally outlawed as past dictatorships have done in the past.

How many people in groups such as the “Tea Party” put so much energy and time into problems regarding their pocketbook but do not see that the coming economic crash is a result of not resisting the undermining and onslaughts of the godless world leaders in the past few decades to destroy the moral fabric of our society. The first priority of our new world dictators is not to bring the USA totally under the New World Order but to promote the “culture of death”; the rest follows as a natural consequence. These proud and shrewd world manipulators pretend to serve the people but are manipulating and forcing their hidden agenda “by stealth”, by going forward three steps and then one or two steps back incrementally. We were promised at the time of the manipulated passage of the healthcare bill that there would be protection of conscience; now we see we were deceived. OUR FOUNDING FATHERS FLED ENGLAND TO BE ABLE TO WORSHIP FREELY without government harassment or persecution; the US government is already more pervasive into our lives and into our religious liberties than the English government was several centuries ago.

“YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). After these puppets of Satan succeed in taking full power, they will no longer have to take one or two steps back! “For the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light” (Lk 16:8). Most people today are content to swallow the well thought out rhetoric and nice words of our leaders and mass media instead of remembering the admonition of our Savior: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. YOU WILL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS” (Mt 7:15-16). Planned Parenthood (the world’s largest abortion provider), supported by the manipulation of millions of American tax dollars, is waging a battle of epic proportions, with the most advance marketing techniques, to overturn the antiabortion laws in the Philippines (RealCatholicTV.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EI0vNdV4FA).

THE GREAT MAJORITY OF CATHOLICS DO NOT EVEN HAVE ONE HOUR A WEEK TO THANK THEIR LORD IN THE EUCHARIST (after a good, sincere confession with a well-formed conscience), Who gave them everything they have! These ruthless “angels of light” (2Cor 11:14), who declare that there is no God, realize that our greatest source of strength to defend ourselves from their onslaughts is the Eucharist! They even steal Consecrated Hosts to desecrate the Body of Christ in their Black Masses! And they call themselves atheists! Satan knows all to well that God exists!

WE CATHOLICS, WHO WERE GIVEN MORE GRACES (“talents” (Mt 25:14-30)), ARE FAR MORE RESPONSIBLE for having given the militant secularists, nihilists, and relativists, these anti-God slaves of sin and pride, the power and control that they enjoy today. If we would have persevered in daily prayer and living the Gospel and the 10 Commandments according to God’s revelation and not according to our convenient and hidden egotistical standards, many of these poor anti-God slaves of sin and pride would not have fallen into Satan’s subtle but very powerful traps, or at least would not have the incredible power and influence that they have today. As an example of this sophisticated brainwashing and POWERFUL MANIPULATION OF THE PUBLIC WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE PUBLIC, you might check out the book “After the Ball” (1989). The authors, Kirk and Madsen, tell us straight out the bottom line of their master plan: "The campaign we outline in this book, though complex, depends centrally upon a program of unabashed propaganda, firmly grounded in long-established principles of psychology and advertising." (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=32898). Kirk and Madsen's "war goal," explains marketing expert Paul E. Rondeau of Regent University, was to "force acceptance of homosexual culture into the mainstream, to silence opposition, and ultimately to convert American society." Visit: “Selling Homosexuality To America”, by Paul E. Rondeau, at http://theshepherdsvoice.org/politics/selling_homosexuality_to_america.pdf. Visit also: “Political Correctness: How They Market Homosexuality”; (http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=7368).

Pope John Paul II was asked a few years before his death if he could give just one scripture quote for the people of God. He responded without hesitation: “THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE” (Jn 8:32)! It is not at all easy to persevere everyday in seeking the truth when we are surrounded by so many people who follow only the easy momentary fad and are manipulated and greatly pressured to be “politically correct”. THIS GREAT DANGER IS ESPECIALLY AUGMENTED and gone unrecognized when the ones who we should be able to trust - such as those who have been given by God a special vocation and grace to recognize the deceits of Satan (with fatigue and diligence) so as to lead and warn those people under their care of the numerous and subtle and powerful ensnarements of Satan today - do not correspond to their calling and inspirations from God: the BISHOPS AND PRIESTS.

Satan has laid more subtle and powerful traps today than ever before. Those who seek the truth and express their findings openly are more and more ridiculed and pushed and maneuvered, in the most sophisticated ways, out of the public square. Soon the true Truth seekers, and above all those who truly live the Truth, will be eliminated all together so as to create a utopia on earth with “total” freedom completely detached and separated from the Truth (big “T”)! “Wiki Answers” responds to the question: WHY IS THE DEVIL CALLED THE FATHER OF LIES? Because he functions on deception. He has to deceive people from the Truth in order to get them on his side. The devil is an angel that turned from God. Jesus came into the world to shine a light in the darkness and expose the devil for what he is - a liar. All lies come from the devil. (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_the_devil_called_the_father_of_lies). These liberals offer beautiful words like “Freedom of Choice (Act)”, “Pro Choice”, “The Common Good”, “Social Justice”, “Women’s reproductive rights!” which is one of their code words for contraception and abortion, but in reality these things greatly hurts women and all of society. But is not behind these slogans of “freedom” and “rights” A GREAT, DECEPTIVE LIE? The devil is “a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44)! Only the Creator offers true and lasting freedom (Jn 8:32) which is always accompanied by suffering with Christ crucified! “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8:36). These lies, under the guise of appealing slogans and promises of eliminating suffering, lead to the most horrible slavery not only here on earth but for all eternity!

Our grandparents of our traditional “old time religion” remembered the words of Jesus Christ: “Truly, I say to you, it shall be MORE TOLERABLE on the day of judgment for the land of SODOM AND GOMORRAH than for that town” (Mt 10:15). If this is the promise of Christ for one town, what will happen when homosexual acts and homosexual lifestyle are promoted, protected and encouraged by the law in the WHOLE WORLD?!? Christians, as their Savior Jesus Christ, love the sinner and those with homosexual tendencies, but hate the sin, the act of homosexuality. Of course Gay activists do not make this distinction and thus accuse Christians of hating homosexually oriented people. Gay activists have willing destroyed the consciousness of what sin is according to the one true God, Who imprinted His law into nature itself; thus how can they possibly make or understand this vital and fundamental distinction?

HUMAN RIGHTS COME FROM GOD! The quickly developing socialistic dictatorial state is telling us that our rights come from the State and therefore the State can take away these rights when the State decides to do so. We have allowed the State to legally kill a whole category of unwanted human beings in the womb of their mothers, a true genocide! Tomorrow the State will change the category of unwanted human beings and we will be killed for whatever reason the State decides. Read “First They Came” (the Nazis) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...). The Gospel tells us that the strong must help the weak: “You did it to Me!” (Mt 25:40). But today we are moving quickly toward a relativistic culture which leads to a “religion” of the strong taking advantage of and eliminating the weak.

THE U.S. BECAME THE RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD BECAUSE our founding fathers did their best to write a constitution to protect people from a future bad government. “POWER CORRUPTS; ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY!” Our founding fathers, from experience, knew that history shows that the greatest thief and tyrant in the end is the government which has no authority above it and which no longer responds to the desires of the people. Thus these founders tried their best to write a constitution with checks and balances so that each of the three branches of the government would help to check the human tendency to accrue power and control over the other two branches. Upon his farewell address to the nation, GEORGE WASHINGTON tried to impress upon his fellow countrymen that it was “RELIGION AND MORALITY” that served as the foundation for our young nation. Without the foundation of Religion and Morality that George Washington and the other founding fathers provided for us, there is simply no real hope for the future of the United States of America.

If the majority of the citizens THROW OUT ABSOLUTE NORMS AND TRUTH FROM GOD and take the easy and egotistical way of relativism, why should the citizens be upset when the elected government officials and the appointed judges do the same? When we begin to understand what is going on here, we can see more clearly that positivism and relativism leads precisely to what Pope Benedict called the “tyranny of relativism” or the dictatorship of relativism. Having thrown out the inconvenient absolute Truth from God, which is always united to self sacrifice for others, we are heading quickly to “MIGHT MAKES RIGHT”, since we have taken the easy egotistical and prideful way of living and legislating. WE ARE GOING MORE AND MORE TOWARD STANDING TRUTH ON ITS HEAD AND EXALTING UNTRUTH! If we do not seek and do the will of God, we will end up doing the will of Satan in the many forms of egoism.

Whether we believe it or not, this short life is only to give each of us the opportunity to choose where we will spend eternity, in heaven with the absolute Truth, or in Hell, with the father of lies and all the relativists who fooled themselves and accepted and embraced the lie of believing that they are the absolute Truth. WE TRULY ARE ALREADY UNDER A DICTATORSHIP. Who is spending tremendous amounts of money to spray, without the knowledge or consent of the people below, all the populated areas of the earth with the “chemtrails”, and for what reason? It is only a matter of time that we will experience the horrific consequences of what we all have contributed to by our sins and lack of prayer. What would Hitler have done if he had the technology and surveillance systems that are available today?

Jesus tells us: "ENTER BY THE NARROW GATE; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt 7:13). SAINT FAUSTINA wrote in her diary (no. 153): “One day, I SAW TWO ROADS. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And their number was so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness, and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings.”

The devil wants us to be “full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures” SO THAT WE MIGHT NOT WAKE UP TO THE REAL STATE OF OUR SOULS, otherwise he might lose many souls before they die. The philosophy of life for most people today has become: “IGNORANCE IS BLISS!”; bliss today, but tomorrow, and after death?!? After death, our choice is confirmed eternally by God, just as it was for the angels who made their choice in one instant immediately after their creation. “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world - he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Ap 12:7-9). The word “Michael” means: Who is like God? The dragon, who became Satan, continues to tempt us with the same sin that caused him to fall. “But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.” (Gen 3:4-5; ORIGINAL SIN).

I regularly bring HOLY COMMUNION TO THE SICK AND THE ELDERLY who are not able to arrive to the Church for Sunday Mass. There was one lady, Rita, about 80 years old, that I was not sure if she wanted to receive Holy Communion since 3 or 4 years ago when her health was better, she often did not come to Mass in the Church where I celebrated which was only 10 yards from her house. Two weeks ago when I came to visit her and her husband Roberto, she asked me, in a very decided way, if she could receive Holy Communion. She made a good confession, received Holy Communion, and expressed her gratitude to me in a very heartfelt way. She then asked me if it might be possible that Roberto might make his confession. I told her that would be fine but I do not think he is willing to confess his sins at least according to the teachings of the Church, but rather according to his own personal criteria, which would render the confession invalid and even a sacrilege. Roberto never went to Sunday Mass except perhaps on Christmas. He was not willing to confess these sins even though the maid from Romania, a woman of faith, pleaded with him. I told her that the sacrament of confession is not magic. Pardon for sins is not automatic because God, due to His authentic love, totally respects our choice. If we freely choose to not make this act of humility to confess our sins to an instrument of God, a validly ordained priest, our sins with imperfect contrition (who can be sure of having perfect contrition?) are not forgiven. When she could not understand the great stubbornness of Roberto, who undergoes dialysis three times a week, I reminded her of the saying: “AS YOU LIVE SO SHALL YOU DIE.” The maid told me that Roberto had begun to complain in the last few months of seeing devils during the night, but even so, he refused to confess his sins. Even though Rita’s health was much better than that of her husband, Rita died a week later a holy death.

What the world does not tell us, as well as so many leaders in the Church due to human respect, is that true love means respecting our great dignity, being created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27) and thus RESPECTING OUR CHOICE, OUR FREE WILL. The TV communicates to us in all kinds of subliminal and even blunt ways that our dignity is at the level of our dog which freely has sex in the middle of the road. If I choose freely to not try to live the 10 commandments with God’s help (prayer) according to God’s criteria (not the world’s or my own comfortable and conveniently formed conscience) during my whole life, when I die, for love, due to my great God-given dignity, God confirms my choice and I go to the place where the One and only God is totally absent. If God showed us even a tiny instant of heaven or a tiny glimpse of hell, we would no longer be free to say NO to God. Love means respecting this primordial gift of our great dignity (Ps 8:5), and thus respecting our freedom which is also accompanied with a tremendous responsibility for ourselves and for those over whom we have been given responsibility as parents, priests, bishops, civil authorities, etc. Here on earth we are surrounded by God, even those who do not want the Truth (big “T”). But if a person rejects the Truth all his life, when he dies, he discovers that the Truth is God. The greatest pain in hell is the total absence of God which is a pain far worse than all the fires put together. The greatest joy in heaven is to see God face to face! “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1Cor 2:9)!

Pope John Paul II said two years before he was elected Pope: “We are now standing in the face of the GREATEST HISTORICAL CONFRONTATION humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the FINAL CONFRONTATION between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel.” (Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, "Notable & Quotable," "Wall Street Journal" (Nov. 9, 1978); http://www.ewtn.com/library/scriptur/flfire.txt). This message was repeated by Cardinal Ivan Dias at Lourdes on December 13, 2007. These strong words of Blessed Pope John Paul II, “final confrontation”, indicate clearly that we are the “generation” in which Jesus referred to in Matthew 24. “For then there will be GREAT TRIBULATION, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be” (Mt 24:21). The more we pray and offer our sacrifices to God, as our Lady of Fatima asked us to do, the less the forces of evil can take control of the motors of the culture to lead us away from God and toward temporal and eternal destruction. We so easily and so willingly forget that life is a battle, a “DOUR COMBAT with the powers of evil” (CCC 409)!

TO FIGHT IN A BATTLE, is it not prudent and necessary to know not only your own weapons, tactics and strategy, but also the weapons, tactics and strategy of the enemy? It was recounted to Pope John Paul II that the Vatican's chief exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth, “knows too many bishops who do not believe in the Devil”. The Pope replied bluntly: “ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL”. When Amorth was asked “What do you see as Satan’s greatest success?”, he replied: “The fact that he has managed to convince people that he does not exist. He has almost managed it, even within the Church. We have a clergy and an Episcopate who no longer believe in the Devil, in exorcism, in the exceptional evil the Devil can instill, or even in the power that Jesus bestowed to cast out demons. … And they no longer believe in the Devil. We have entire Episcopates trying to counter exorcism. We have countries completely devoid of exorcists, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. This is a shameful shortfall.”; (http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=2879). We go on the spiritual battlefield with a bow and arrow and the enemy has a machine gun or a canon, because so MANY GENERALS (THE BISHOPS) AND CAPTAINS (THE PRIESTS) TELL US TODAY THAT THE ENEMY DOES NOT EVEN EXIST!

Precisely because we priests and bishops are far more WORRIED ABOUT HUMAN RESPECT than what God wants, at Fatima the three children were shown the horrible sufferings in hell of the eternally damned and the thousands who fall into hell everyday likes sparks into a huge flaming fire.

POPE PAUL VI STATED: “We have the impression that through some cracks in the wall the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.” “Apostasy, the loss of the faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church.” As with his encyclical Humanae Vitae, his teaching was ignored as well as ridiculed (http://endtimeslion.com/?p=203).

SIXTY YEARS AGO it was even against the civil law in the USA and in most countries of Europe to buy or sell artificial birth control because the civil governments wanted to protect the common good, knowing that artificial birth control greatly harms the relationship between a husband and a wife and thus poisons the fundamental cell of society, the family. Sixty years ago it was still part of the cultural conscience to make individual SACRIFICES FOR THE COMMON GOOD. Now there is no more concern for the common good but only for self satisfaction and self indulgence; if an unwanted baby or an unwanted old person gets in the way, eliminate them! We have quickly slid down the slippery slope to abortion, euthanasia, experimentation on human embryos, homosexual marriages, resulting in what Pope John Paul II called the “culture of death”! This is the strategy of Satan, to put the frog in a pot of cold water and slowly heat it up until the frog is cooked. If you throw the frog in boiling water (sin openly revealed for what it truly is and what the true effects of sin are) it jumps out immediately. VERY FEW PEOPLE ARE JUMPING OUT OF THE BOILING WATER OF THE CULTURE OF DEATH TODAY IN ORDER TO SAVE THEIR IMMORTAL SOULS! Even for the majority of church goers today, religion exists to serve themselves, for what they want and can get out of it or to feel saved or holy or good or to impress their neighbors, instead of for the motive of helping them to discover the will of God and to help them to do the will of God, as they profess in the “Our Father”: “THY WILL BE DONE”! God’s will is to love God and neighbor at the expense of oneself, as Jesus did on the cross. The same words that Jesus uses to give life to the world are used by some to take life. Jesus says at every Holy Mass through His instrument the priest, “THIS IS MY BODY” given up for you (on the cross) that you may have life! There is a great spiritual conflict going on here. These same words are spoken from opposite ends of eternity with totally opposite results! Let us live those words as Jesus did and give ourselves “to the least of these my brethren” (Mt 25:40) so that we too might hear the words at the end of our life: “enter into the joy of your master” (Mt 25:23; Jn 3:15-16)!

Sister Lucia of Fatima said to Father Agostino Fuentes, the postulator of the cause of beatification of Giacinta and Francesco (December 26, 1957): “Our Lady is very displeased because it is not taken into account her message of 1917. Neither the good nor the bad have held them in consideration. Believe me my Father, the Lord will punish the world very soon; THE PUNISHMENT IS IMMANENT! Many nations will disappear from the face of the earth, many nations will be annihilated. The devil knows that the religious and priests, living less their beautiful vocation, drag many souls to hell. It is now the time to halt the punishment of Heaven. We have at our disposition TWO EFFICACIOUS MEANS: Prayer and Sacrifice. She said that, the other means exhausted and despised by men, HE WILL GIVE, WITH TREMBLING, THE LAST ANCHOR OF SALVATION WHICH IS THE MOST HOLY VIRGIN IN PERSON, signs of tears, messages of several seers spread in all the parts of the earth. Our Lady said that if we do not listen and if we still offend we will not be pardoned. Father, it is urgent that we realize this terrible reality. We do not want to frighten the souls, but it is an urgent appeal to reality. From the time when the Virgin gave such a great efficaciousness to the Rosary, there does not exist any material, spiritual, national or international problem that cannot be resolved BY WAY OF THE HOLY ROSARY AND BY OUR SACRIFICES. To recite the Holy Rosary with devotion will be to consol Mary and to wipe away so many tears from her Immaculate Heart.” Our Lady expressly said: “We are nearing the end times”.

Have you ever read “THE DREAM OF THE TWO COLUMNS of St. John Bosco, with a ship (the Church) in the middle of a great storm, with the Pope at the helm, being attacked by many small boats from all sides, being guided between the two pillars with the Eucharist and Mary at the top of the two pillars? Let us cling to Jesus in the Eucharist as long as It will be possible, and Mary our mother with our “weapon” (as Saint Padre Pio called the Holy Rosary) in hand (http://thereedofgod.blogspot.com/2010/04/don-boscos-prophecy-of-two-columns.html). The Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, used to say to priests and bishops to make a holy hour everyday before Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament; he said that IF YOU WISH TO OFFER TO OTHERS DIVINE SPARKS, SPEND MORE TIME IN FRONT OF THE DIVINE FIRE, THE EUCHARIST! Only in this way will we be ready and able to give our lives to Jesus and to Jesus hidden in each of our neighbors as Jesus gave His life for us! Without this consistent priority on prayer, WE FALL SO EASILY TODAY INTO ACTIVISM, especially we priests; when this happens, we become instruments of ourselves but not instruments of God, and in the end, there are no true and lasting fruits.

TWO ARMIES ARE QUICKLY BEING FORMED TODAY. In the first book of the Bible, Genesis 3:15, we find the “Protoevangelium” or "First Gospel" in which the woman “will crush the head of the serpent”. In the last book of the Bible we find the woman, along with St. Michael the Archangel, in battle against the dragon. The 13th of May 1917 Our Lady appeared at Fatima as the Woman clothed with the sun: “According to the divine design, she came from Heaven to this earth, seeking the little ones privileged by the Father, “a Woman clothed with the sun” (Ap 12, 1). She, because she is little, will form the army array with the smallest ones from all parts of the world. The woman clothed with the sun appears next to the dragon. THE DRAGON FORMS HIS ARMY ARRAY with the most powerful, the strongest, the greatest, and the wisest, with those who have the highest places. He despises the least ones because they are not worth anything. He values the first ones, the strongest, because he believes he will win with this stronger army array – strong and intelligent spirit, but proud” (Fr. Stefano Gobbi). These “proud” are not only the mighty and rich and powerful, but all those who have freely embraced the convenience and egoism of relativism so as to decide good and evil by themselves, the criteria of salvation on their own as if they were gods. The problem is that in heaven there is room for only one God, not two; in hell everyone believes that they are god, just like the one they willing followed, Lucifer, who became Satan.

ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT WRITES IN THE TREATISE ON TRUE DEVOTION (#49): “In the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary must be known and openly revealed by the Holy Spirit so that Jesus may be known, loved and served through her. … As she was the way by which Jesus first came to us, she will again be the way by which He will come to us the second time, though not in the same manner”. (TD 50) Montfort continues: "Mary is the sure means, the direct and immaculate way to Jesus and the perfect guide to Him, it is through her that souls who are to shine forth in sanctity must find Him. He who finds Mary finds life, that is, Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. … But Mary's power over the evil spirits will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lie in wait for her heel, that is, for her humble servants and her poor children whom she will rouse to fight against him. IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD THEY WILL BE LITTLE AND POOR AND, LIKE THE HEEL, lowly in the eyes of all, down-trodden and crushed as is the heel by the other parts of the body. But in compensation for this they will be rich in God's graces, which will be abundantly bestowed on them by Mary. They will be great and exalted before God in holiness. They will be superior to all creatures by their great zeal and so strongly will they be supported by divine assistance that, in union with Mary, they will crush the head of Satan with their heel, that is, their humility, and bring victory to Jesus Christ" (TD 54) (http://spir-food.blogspot.com/2011/07/funeral-stefano-gobbi.html).

Christ used the word “learn” only one time in the four Gospels: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I AM GENTLE AND LOWLY IN HEART, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt 11:29-30). His “yoke is easy” for those who are in love with Jesus!

WE ARE ALL SINNERS! Those who have the humility to confess their sins according to the criteria of God which He reveals through Jesus and His One true Church, and then, with the help of God to live accordingly, will be saved. Those who do not have this humility and refuse to confess their sins according to the criteria given to each person through the revelation of God that each has received from God (for Catholics, the teachings of the Church), will loose their souls for all eternity, even if they, as little gods, do not believe that hell exists! After death, there are only two places which will remain for all eternity: heaven and hell. Purgatory is temporal and will no longer exist after the end of the world.

DO WE BELIEVE THAT GOD LOVES EACH OF US IMMENSELY? Then do we trust Him; do we believe and trust that His holy will for each of us is the best for each of us even if it entail suffering and self-sacrifice for other? Do we believe that God has a beautiful design for each of us that can be fully realized and enjoyed if we only do not wilfully reject or ignore these beautiful graces and inspirations that God offers to us for our own good and true happiness? Or do we believe that we are more intelligent and wise than His voice on earth, the Pope? At that time Jesus declared, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Mt 11:25).

JESUS COULD HAVE FOUNDED HIS CHURCH WITH 12 PERFECT ANGELS FROM HEAVEN. But Jesus, who is God and infinitely wise, founded the Church with 12 men who were sinners. One of the fundamental tests for all of us is to not throw out the incredible treasures of the fullness of truth and sanctification within His Church despite the fact that there are numerous sinners and scandals within His Church especially today! Countering the Donatist sect of the fifth century, who felt they were the only group that would be saved, St. Augustine even exclaimed: “How many sheep there are outside the Church and how many wolves are inside!” Precisely for this reason Our Lady does not tell us to abandon the Church and her ministers but to pray for them; their responsibility before God and man is very great!

THE FINAL MESSAGE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN, October 13, 1973, to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa at AKITA, JAPAN: "As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms that will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. WITH THE ROSARY, PRAY FOR THE POPE, THE BISHOPS, AND THE PRIESTS. … The work of the devil will infiltrate even the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate Me will be scorned and opposed by their conferees…churches and altars sacked, the Church will be full of those who accept compromise and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of My sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them." (http://www.miraclerosarymission.org/akita.htm).

“MY SISTER”, I WANT TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH YOU! No cross, no crown, no pain no gain, no matter what the culture of death tells us today, with all of its powerful and refined techniques and bombardment of lies and brain washing. There is no Resurrection without the Crucifixion; there is no Easter without Good Friday! Satan tells us that we can avoid the cross at all costs and then afterwards all goes well; most people have willingly and happily swallowed this lie. Jesus instead tells us: “He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 10:38-39). Let us seek what our loving God wants for each of us and not fall into relativism; let us listen to His Vicar on earth and all those bishops and priests who are in union with the living Pope in this “final confrontation” in the history of the world and in the history of the Body of Christ, Holy Mother Church!

Your brother,
Fr. Joe

P.s. You might find rather interesting the book “Lord of the World” by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) who was the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury and whose conversion to Catholicism caused a stir. Even though the book was published over 100 years ago, it gives an imaginative foretelling of the end of the world. Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger before his election to the papacy, made positive references to the novel in some of his talks. You can download the book at: http://www.authorama.com/book/lord-of-the-world.html.

Funeral Stefano Gobbi

2011-07-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Recently I had a beautiful experience that I would like to share with you.

Last year I participated in the spiritual exercises at Collevalenza will many of the bishops and priests and a cardinal of the Marian Movement of Priests with Father Stefano Gobbi, the founder of the movement. We were about 300 priests and about 30 bishops from around the world.

The following year on the 24th of March 2011 I participated in the regional Cenacle of Prayer at Collevalenza during which I concelebrated the Holy Mass with Father Gobbi and afterwards we exchanged a few words in the sacristy as well as a nice photo (above).

I attended also this year the annual spiritual exercises for all the members world wide with many priests and bishops present and one cardinal. The spiritual exercises began on June 26 and ended July 2. But on June 29 Father Gobbi died of a heart attack in Milano. His body was immediately brought to Collevalenza so that all of us participants in the annual spiritual exercises could celebrate together the Funeral Mass. Also Madre Speranza (Mother Hope), who founded Collevalenza with many spiritual children died during their annual spiritual exercises as she had expressly desired.

During the homily of Ivan Cardinal Dias, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, he said that every time Pope Benedict sees him, he always asks how is Father Gobbi. The cardinal also said during the homily that shortly before Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope that Cardinal Ratzinger said among the cardinals that we are living in the most difficult period in the history of the world and very few realize the gravity of the situation in the world and in the Church.

It is also interesting that Pope Benedict XVI wrote in the book "The Ratzinger Report" (1985): "One of the signs of our times is that the announcements of 'MARIAN APPARITIONS' ARE MULTIPLYING ALL OVER THE WORLD."

The day after the funeral Cardinal Dias communicated to us at Collevalenza by telephone that he saw Pope Benedict and told him of the death of Father Gobbi, the Pope said: “He went straight to heaven!”

Father Stefano Gobbi, during his annual spiritual exercise for the priests and bishops of the movement, he often quoted the writings of St. Louis de Montfort. Here are some of the writings of Father Gobbi and his citations of St. Louis de Montfort.

Montfort writes in the Treatise on True Devotion (#49): "In the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary must be known and openly revealed by the Holy Spirit so that Jesus may be known, loved and served through her."

“Montfort continues: "God wishes therefore to reveal Mary, his masterpiece, and make her more known in these latter times because she is the dawn which precedes and discloses the Sun of Justice Jesus Christ and therefore she must be known and acknowledged so that Jesus may be known and acknowledged. As she was the way by which Jesus first came to us, she will again be the way by which he will come to us the second time, though not in the same manner". (TD 50)

Montfort said: "Mary is the sure means, the direct and immaculate way to Jesus and the perfect guide to him, it is through her that souls who are to shine forth in sanctity must find him. He who finds Mary finds life, that is, Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. But no one can find Mary who does not look for her. No one can look for her who does not know her, for no one seeks or desires something unknown. Mary then must be better known than ever for the deeper understanding and the greater glory of the Blessed Trinity". (TD 50 #5)

Montfort "It is chiefly in reference to these last wicked persecutions of the devil, daily increasing until the advent of the reign of anti-Christ, that we should understand that first and well-known prophecy and curse of God uttered against the serpent in the garden of paradise. It is opportune to explain it here for the glory of the Blessed Virgin, the salvation of her children and the confusion of the devil: 'I will place enmities between you and the woman, between your race and her race; she will crush your head and you will lie in wait for her heel' (Gen. 3:15). God has established only one enmity - but it is an irreconcilable one - which will last and even go on increasing to the end of time. That enmity is between Mary, his worthy Mother, and the devil, between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and followers of Lucifer. Thus the most fearful enemy that God has set up against the devil is Mary, his holy Mother". (TD 51)

Montfort comments (TD 54): "...The slaves of Satan, the friends of the world - for they are all one and the same - have always persecuted and will persecute more than ever in the future those who belong to the Blessed Virgin, just as Cain of old persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob. These are the types of the wicked and of the just".

"As apostles of the last times, you must follow Jesus along the road of disdain for the world and for yourselves, of humility, of prayer, o f poverty, o f silence, o f mortification, o f charity and o f a more profound union with God. You are unknown and despised by the world and by those who surround you; you are often obstructed, marginalized and persecuted, because this suffering is necessary for the fecundity o 'f your very mission". (451f; June 8, 1991)

Montfort: "...But Mary's power over the evil spirits will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lie in wait for her heel, that is, for her humble servants and her poor children whom she will rouse to fight against him. In the eyes of the world they will be little and poor and, like the heel, lowly in the eyes of all, down-trodden and crushed as is the heel by the other parts of the body. But in compensation for this they will be rich in God's graces, which will be abundantly bestowed on them by Mary. They will be great and exalted before God in holiness. They will be superior to all creatures by their great zeal and so strongly will they be supported by divine assistance that, in union with Mary, they will crush the head of Satan with their heel, that is, their humility, and bring victory to Jesus Christ" (TD 54).

“Here I would like to make clear a very important truth of our spiritual life: When the messages of Our Lady and therefore the prophecies of Montfort speak about little Apostles, the most worthless before the world and themselves, it does not mean that we are free from all sin: the difference is that we don't let pride overcome us, but we humbly run to Jesus, to Confession, we feel humiliated for having betrayed our consecration and we live a life of penance because we know we have been pardoned by Jesus and Mary, that we have nothing of our own and consequently, we find the strength of our apostolate solely in the strength of Jesus and Mary.”

Montfort concludes: "...They will perceive the splendors of this Queen and will consecrate themselves entirely to her service as subjects and slaves of love. They will experience her motherly kindness and affection for her children... They will love her tenderly and will appreciate how full of compassion she is and how much they stand in need of her help. They will have recourse to her as their advocate and mediatrix with Jesus Christ. They will see clearly that she is the safest, easiest, shortest and most perfect way of approaching Jesus and will surrender themselves to her, body and soul, without reserve in order to belong entirely to Jesus". (TD 55)

"The twelve stars also signify a new reality. indeed the Apocalypse sees me as a great sign in heaven: the Woman Clothed with the Sun who does battle with the Dragon and his powerful army of evil.”

“And so the stars about my head indicate those who consecrate themselves to my Immaculate Heart, who form part o f my victorious army, and who allow themselves to be guided by me in order to fight this battle and to attain in the end our greatest victory. Thus all my beloved ones and children consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, called to be today the (Apostles o f the last times, are the most luminous stars o f my royal crown”. ((#414j) Dic. 8, 1989)

“The gift of littleness is a special grace that the Father gives to those who He calls to fulfil His designs. These little ones are therefore privileged by You: they have the privilege to understand your design, to enter into this design, so that You might reveal it to them you reveal it to them only because they are little: “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Mt 11:25).

“One can do many things, but without humility, there is nothing that remains for eternity.”

“The woman clothed with sun appears next to the dragon. The dragon forms his army array with the most powerful, the strongest, the greatest, the most wise, with those who have the highest places. He despises the last ones because they are not worth anything. He values the first ones, the strongest, because he believes he will win with this stronger army array – strong and intelligent spirit, but proud.”

The 13th of May 1917 Our Lady appeared at Fatima as the Woman clothed with the sun: “According to the divine design, She came from Heaven to this earth, seeking the little ones privileged by the Father, “a Woman clothed with the sun” (Ap 12,1). She, because she is little, will form the army array with the smallest ones from all parts of the world.

“Behold why Our Lady goes in search of these little ones privileged by the Father. If you do not have the grace from the Father to become small: “Yes Father, for such was thy gracious will to open your kingdom to the little ones”. If you are not these little ones to which the Heavenly Father reveals Himself showing His kindness, you are not sought out by Our Lady, because She, little, in order to win the battle, forms her battle array with the smallest ones. If one is not small, he does not understand the Movement at all.”

“Behold, the condition to be part of the battle array of Mary: to be small. If you do not want to ever enter into crisis: be small. Do you want to go forward in the midst of many difficulties? Be small.”

“And so the stars around my head indicate those who consecrate themselves to my Immaculate Heart; they are part of my victorious battle array; they allow themselves to be guided by Me in order to fight in this battle and in order to obtain in the end our greatest victory.”

One can find further information at the Marian Movement of Priests website: http://www.mmp-usa.net/main.html.

Epiphany

2011-01-06T13:51:00.000-08:00

Epiphany

We celebrate in this period the solemnity of the Epiphany! For many people today science has become the authoritative voice, the infallible authority, instead of the words of Jesus explained by the authority that Jesus left us here on earth, His Church with the Pope as its head. A person, who I know well, continued to frequent the sacraments regularly and to pray the Rosary, as he had learned from his family of birth, up until his second year of college. At a certain point he began to have sexual relations with girls out of wedlock without repenting or going to confession. He also began to focus on the defects of his father which helped him to justify throwing out all together the Catholic faith that he received from his parents. After more that 30 years outside of the Church and away from the sacraments, he even make the statement that all religions are the same. One of his poor sons, who was deprived of the inestimable gift of the Catholic faith, declared that he was a “deist”. A few months ago when I telephoned my friend, he expressed to me his preoccupation about the year 2012. At that point I described to him what science had discovered with the help of the computer regarding what the wise men saw 2000 years ago which motivated them to make a trip of about 1000 kilometers in order to find the King of the Jews. For those who did not receive this information from me 2 years ago or from other sources, I offer a brief description of this discovery. Unfortunately, after I finished this explanation, my friend was not interested in continuing our conversation on the phone.

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God created the universe, which moves like a huge precise clock. The universe was above all created for the King of the Universe, Jesus Christ, and secondarily for human beings. The last time the planets were in the galactic alignment predicted by the ancient Mayans, for the date December 21, 2012, was 26,000 years ago.

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM has fascinated many for centuries. For millennia, believers, scoffers and the curious have wondered at the Biblical account of the Star. The Bible recounts unusual, or even impossible astronomical events at Christ's birth. For many doubters, the account of the Star is easily dismissed as myth. For many believers, it is a mystery accepted on faith. But what happens if we combine current historical scholarship, astronomical fact and an open mind?

Using Johannes Kepler's discovery of how the solar system works, improvements in our knowledge of first century history and the spread of computers, one discovers that in September, about 16 month before the birth of Christ, the wise men from the East saw something in the sky that they had NEVER SEEN BEFORE. The “King Planet”, Jupiter, made a triple pass around the “King Star”, Regulus, like a coronation. Then after Jupiter finished its rendezvous with Regulus in June of the following year, it moved beside Venus giving the impression of the most brilliant star the wise men had ever seen with the naked eye. That particular evening, our Babylonian wise men, who were good astronomers as well as well informed of Jewish prophecy, would have seen the spectacle of their career while facing toward Judea. Surely this prompted them to start off on their long journey toward Judea following the star all the way to Jerusalem which we read about in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2. Read more at the web site(http://bethlehemstar.net/).

How many very intelligent astronomers and scientists there are today who do not believe in God? You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink! Let us give praise to God for His marvels in His creation! FOR MANY PEOPLE TODAY, SCIENCE IS INFALLIBLE, BUT NOT CHRIST OR THE POPE.

WE MUST DISTINGUISH HERE BETWEEN OBSERVING THE SIGNS OF GOD IN HIS CREATION AND ASTROLOGY.

ASTROLOGY holds that stars exert forces on men. Astrology assumes that stars are causes of earthly events. Astrology is a: "...form of divination based on the theory that the movement of the celestial bodies - the stars, the planets, the sun and the moon - influence human affairs and determine the course of events."(The New Columbia Encyclopedia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone" (CCC 2116). See also: Job 31:26-28; Deut 17:2-5; 2Kings 23:4.

Still, the Bible does make a surprising number of references to signs in the heavens. See: Job 9:9; 38:31; Is 40:26; Ps 19:1-4; Rm 10:17-18; Lk 21:25; Deut 4:19.

BOTH OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS ASSUME THAT WHAT HAPPENS UP THERE MATTERS. If we are interested in following the counsel of the Bible, we must hold a distinction in mind. The Bible assumes that there can be messages about earthly events. It may be useful to think of this as a thermometer distinction. A thermometer can TELL you if it is hot or cold, but it cannot MAKE you hot or cold. There is a big difference between a sign and an active agent. This is the difference between "astrology" and what the Bible holds forth.

Let us thank God for the great gift of our faith! May you experience a faith filled celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany!

Father Joseph Dwight

Christmas Letter 2010

2010-12-24T01:04:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

How are you? I hope my Christmas greeting finds you well!

For many people Christmas is a joyful season because THEY HAVE BEEN FORTUNATE enough to have received from their parents or from other faith communities a knowledge and a first hand experience of what Christmas means in the lives of people around them. Many others, who HAVE NOT BEEN SO FORTUNATE to have experienced a true communion of love with God personally and with others, have taken refuge in the less demanding belief of deism. They believe that God is a supreme being; at the beginning of things, He created the universe, maybe gave it its laws, wound it up like a clock and then let it go. In this belief God is both spatially and chronologically distant from the world with no personal relationship with His creatures. This belief allows them to escape from the humility of submitting to a being greater than themselves as well as what this superfluous so-called God might demand of them. For many people today, science has become the infallible guide rather than Christ or the authority that Christ left us here on earth in the midst of so many conflicting opinions and confusion (Mt 16:18). These people who do not recognize or seek the true meaning and purpose of life imprinted in their hearts and eternal souls have not been aided by a great number of so-called Christians today who use religion to satisfy themselves rather that using religion to discover God’s will as well as using religion to obtain God’s help to put into practice His holy and loving will for each of them.

When we look at the vast universe of which we are a part and just a mere speck, we see billions of galaxies, we see billions of stars and planets in each one of those galaxies. When the physicists look at this vast universe they see that it is expanding. And so the atheistic scientists are having to come to the conclusion that if it is expanding then there had to be a beginning. And if there was indeed a beginning of the universe as there was, then there had to be One Who brought all of that into existence and gave it its beginning, God. THEY ARE HAVING TO COME TO THAT INESCAPABLE CONCLUSION, as Saint Thomas Aquinas called: “The Unmoved Mover”, that put everything into existence. In coming to the conclusion of God some would ask: “Is it really true what Christians believe that this vast incomprehensible God became a man and dwelt among us?” And some would say no, that is too great a thing, too humbling a thing for this great God to do such a thing. They know something of God’s majesty but so many do not yet know His love because one normally comes to know and TOUCH THIS LOVE IN PEOPLE WHO LIVE COHERENTLY THEIR FAITH.

And thus, without a healthy environment and culture of authentic altruism which can only be lived with the help of God, these scientists and so many others take the easy, self-satisfying way of deism or atheism, trusting in themselves rather than their Creator who loves them so much. Without this childlike trust in God, they do not realize that His commandments are for our good and best interests, like good parents who sometimes ask their children to do difficult and painful things for their own good. They grab on to anything that serves their desires and agendas to eradicate God, irregardless of the proven facts. As an example, these secularists, nihilists, and relativists, have USED FOR THEIR OWN PURPOSES DARWIN'S FALSE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. Karl Marx wrote (January 16, 1861): “Darwin's work is most important and SUITS MY PURPOSE in that it provides a basis in natural science for the historical class struggle. One does, of course, have to put up with the clumsy English style of argument. Despite all its shortcomings, it is here that, for the first time, 'teleology' in natural science is not only dealt a mortal blow but its rational meaning is empirically explained.” (http://theworldsocialist.blogspot.com/2009/03/marx-and-engels-on-origin-of-species.html). Karl Marx read the Origin of Species in 1860 and wrote that Darwin's book was very important and served him as a basis in natural science for the struggle in history. (http://www.quodlibet.net/articles/johnson-evolution.shtml).

In the mid-1970s the seminal discovery of Elso Barghoorn clearly and empirically REVEALED THE TOTAL FALSENESS OF THE RANDOM ORIGIN OF LIFE, but the mass media and almost all of our so-called objective (infallible?) scientists were not interested in this well documented and verifiable discovery. (“Origin of life: RANDOM ORIGIN OF LIFE WAS EXPLODED BY 1970s DISCOVERY - who didn't get the memo?”; “Gerald Schroeder's The Hidden Face of God”; http://collidinguniverses.blogspot.com/2008/08/origin-of-life-random-origin-of-life.html).

In the beautiful book: “The Life of Christ”, Archbishop Fulton Sheen offers us a powerful thought for this advent season as we prepare for the coming of Christ. He tells us that there have been men born into the world who claimed to be God, or to have been sent by God, or to have a message from God. Some of these men were Confucius, Buddha, Mohammad. Yet it would seem that if God were to come Himself or to send someone from Himself or with a very special message from Himself, that He would give us some indication that this person was coming. In others words, HE WOULD PRE-ANNOUNCE THAT HE WAS SENDING THIS PERSON, OR THAT HE HIMSELF WAS COMING. Yet none of these men mentioned were pre-announced before their births. But the birth of Jesus Christ was pre-announced!. In fact it was pre-announced all the way back to the time of the fall of our first parents, when God spoke to the serpent, who deceived our first parents, and said: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. You shall strike at his heal and he shall crush your head” (Gen 3:15). This so-called “proto-evangelium” (first gospel) was a pre-announcement of Christ. But then even with the call of Abraham, later on David, God renewed that promise to send someone to His people. It was not just an awaiting of nine months for a child to be born into a family, it was an awaiting for almost two thousand years. So Jesus Christ was the only one whose birth was ever pre-announced. And that is why we know that He was sent by God the Father because the Father loved us so much He sent His own Son into the world.

When we think of experiences of love that we have had or MANIFESTATIONS OF LOVE, like Mother Teresa, where does that love come from? We know that its source is in God Who is love as Saint John tells us (1Jn 4). St. John also tells us that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). And so we understand God’s love when we look at the Child in the manger. And the Word was made flesh for you and for me! But St. John also wrote in his Gospel referring to the eternal Word made flesh which we find in the Christmas liturgy: “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world know him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not” (Jn 1:10-11).

For those of us who have received the great gift of faith from our relatives or from others, let us be truly thankful. But let us do all we can to SHARE THIS GIFT OF LOVE WITH THOSE LESS FORTUNATE than we by our concrete example of love for others. Love by definition must be given away. You cannot eat love; you cannot buy it; you cannot barter it; you cannot sell it; you cannot store it; you can only give it away. A song is not a song until it is sung. A bell is not a bell until it is rung. And love is not love until it is given away. And God gives us His Own love so that we might give it back to His children around us, these human beings with whom we live.

Let us pray at this time for all those who have fallen into one of the greatest traps of Satan as Pope Benedict puts it, the “TYRANNY OF RELATIVISM”, so that they might come to know, love and serve such a wonderful, loving God who came into the world to die for each one of us personally and individually. Precisely because our God is a God of love, He totally respects our primordial gift of our free will, and thus He respects our choice to say yes to Him and trust Him or to say no to Him for all eternity by trusting only in ourselves! “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3-4). We forget so quickly the words we hear when we receive the ashes on Ash Wednesday: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return”. What can dust do by itself (Mt 19:26; Mk 10:27; Lk 18:27)? The greatest joy in heaven is to be totally in the presence of God; the greatest pain in hell is to be totally separated from God their Creator. Satan and the world on the other hand tell us that the devil and hell do not exist so we can live without any restraints or responsibility like the animals and afterwards everyone goes to heaven if you still believe in this outdated idea! Unfortunately many priests and bishops have bought into this way of thinking in the name of God Who in His love would never send anyone to hell for eternity, if hell or the devil even exist. But TRUE LOVE MEANS THAT OUR PRIMORDIAL GIFT OF OUR GREAT DIGNITY, CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD, WITH A FREE WILL, BE RESPECTED, even if we chose freely to not seek to live the 10 Commandments and do God’s holy will. Otherwise our dignity is reduced to the level of irrational animals with no immortal soul. Our great God-given human dignity necessitates that each of us will live for eternity in heaven or hell, whether we like it or not, or whether we believe it or not! “Woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Mt 26:24).

WHO DECIDES WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG, GOOD AND EVIL, TRUTH AND REALITY? One has to work very hard every day to stamp out the imprint of the Creator in his heart and soul and to reject the many daily inspirations and graces from God (“The Hound of Heaven”!) in order to convince himself that God does not exist and he can live as he pleases without regard for God or for the neighbors who do not satisfy themselves! Thus when such a person dies, even if he says he does not believe in God or the existence of hell, it will be revealed to him in an instant his whole life, including how hard he worked to deny and run from the truth stamped in his heart; this will be his judgment for all eternity! Whether one likes it or not, or believes it or not, man is made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27). NO ONE GOES TO HELL OR TO HEAVEN FOR ALL ETERNITY BY CHANCE! God will always respect our great primordial gift of our free will and thus will never force anyone, kicking and screaming, to spend eternity with Him in heaven or eternity without Him in hell; at the moment of our death, He will confirm for all eternity our decision we made here on earth during our very short life! God created you without you, but He will not save you without you. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Is 5:20)!

In our human way of talking here on earth, many people, who have willingly accepted and embraced so many times in their life the convenient and subtle lies of relativism, will say to Jesus when they die: “I did not know this or that or …” And Jesus will say: “Yes, you did not know, but you willingly chose not to want to know, YOU DID NOT WANT TO DISCOVER THE TRUTH OR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOVE ACCORDING TO THE WORLD, with so many hidden egotistical motives, and TRUE LOVE that I explained while I was on earth leaving my Church, the Catholic Church with the Pope as the head, to explain true love more clearly through the ages to the end of time.” Ignorance is bliss!

The puppets of Satan, the proud modern philosophers, would make us to believe that each person is a god so we, by ourselves, decide what is reality and what is truth (Gen 3:4-5)! The so-called “Age of Reason” actually turned reason on its head. There is very little enlightenment found in the “Period of the Enlightenment”! Secular humanism is bankrupt! For a believer in God-Love, René Descartes’ famous supposition “I think therefore I am” should read “I LOVE THEREFORE I AM”! When all of these little gods die, where do they go? To a heaven that they created? To nothingness as they have decided and declared to themselves and to others, since they have decided that God or hell or the devil do not exist! In the heaven of the Creator of the universe and of all of reality and its laws, there is room for only one God! Whether we believe it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we decide or not, reality and truth are established by the one true God. We so easily and so willingly forget and ignore that LIFE IS A BATTLE, A “DOUR COMBAT WITH THE POWERS OF EVIL” (CCC 409)! Our proud mortal enemy, Satan and his followers, almost always disguises himself as an “angel of light” here on earth (2Cor 11:14). “At that time Jesus declared; “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Mt 11:25; Lk 10:21). How many wise men 2000 years ago, as well as today, did not recognize the Creator of the universe born in utter poverty as a helpless baby, or did not recognize the infinite God substantially present in bread and wine, or covered with blood on the cross? “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1Cor 1:27, 20; 3:18; 4;10).

Let us be strong , with the help of God through daily prayer, to overcome the great pressures on us today such as “POLITICAL CORRECTNESS” so as not to fall prey to the “spiral of silence” about our precious Christian values through these highly sophisticate and well organized and financed “jamming” and “cognitive dissidence” techniques used today by those who want to extinguish true self-giving, self-sacrificing love that they see in those men and women of good will for whom the Christ Child was born (Lk 2:14). The research on “political correctness” is that it allows people to feel involved in something bigger than themselves without having to make any sacrifices. Today it is OK to expose in public pornography, signs of disrespect for parents, signs of Sodom and Gomorrah or diabolical signs, but it is against the law, forced on us by our activist dictatorial unelected judges, to pray in public schools or to put signs of Christmas (which comes from the two words: “Christ Mass”) or to inscribe the 10 Commandments in public, precisely in our so-called “land of the free”, the land of “democracy”! These haughty elite do not even want us to use the words “Happy Holidays” because the word holidays comes from the two words “Holy Days”. The great majority of Americans do not realize that we are already totally under the dictatorship of the “New World Order”. “Freedom” has been separated from Truth, Truth with a big “T”, which ironically leads to the exact opposite of freedom which is horrible slavery, the “tyranny of relativism”, based on everyone’s self-made truth with a little “t”!. Thus as the majority of Americans discard the Christian foundation of values that our founding fathers of America gave us, the law of the land will quickly disintegrate into “MIGHT MAKES RIGHT” which is exactly what the world manipulators, the elite of the NWO, want! “For the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light” (Lk 16:8). Jesus warned us: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:15-16). Do not the fruits show that one of the highest, if not the highest, priority for Obama and Clinton is to force Americans to pay for abortions not only in America but in the whole world even while we are in the greatest economic crisis since 1929? Why is so much money given to EMBRYONIC STEM CELL (HUMAN BEINGS) RESEARCH ,which has NOT RENDERED ANY positive results, instead of adult stem cell (not human beings) research which has RENDERED MANY POSITIVE RESULTS?

AS THE OLD SAYING GOES, IF YOU DO NOT LIVE WHAT YOU BELIEVE, YOU WILL END UP BELIEVING AS YOU LIVE. We have arrived to the point today that only 50% of church going Christians believe in the resurrection after death. Jesus tells us to love the sinner but hate the sin; but many people today non longer make this distinction, and those who do make this distinction are accused of hating the sinner: “HATE CRIMES”! Very soon this accusation will become outright persecution and ultimately martyrdom for those who are ready for this great gift from God to share in the mystery of Christ’s redemption (Col 1:24)! The world autocrats must eliminate true Christianity and substitute it with a false christianity without the cross of Christ because Christianity, and specifically the Catholic Church, is the last obstacle still standing on the chess board so as to make a sweep of the board by the forces of what Joseph Ratzinger once called the “dictatorship of relativism”. WE ARE TO BLAME for having given the power and control to these egotistical puppets of Satan who have in turn accelerated the sinking of the ship with the money and power that we have given to them so as to hasten the culture of death by the promotion of the greatest sins and the elimination and destruction of the last remaining religious voices in the public square! As our Lady of Fatima said, wars are primarily caused by the sins of all of us. The “sons of this world” know much better that the “sons of light” (Lk 16:8) that THE PROMOTION OF SIN AND THE DESTRUCTION OF TRUE CHRISTIANITY is the most powerful and quickest and most efficient way to render the masses incapable of resisting their destructive agenda. So many do not realize that the economic crisis and all other crisis are fundamentally rooted to this demonic plan to destroy the spiritual fiber of each individual, of each family and thus of the real backbone of our society and of our culture. This Satanic strategy is much more potent for the forces of evil than nuclear bombs or any other material power. Just as those closer to God are more docile to God’s holy will, so too those closer to Satan are more docile to the demonic strategy and plan of total destruction on earth and in hell for all eternity!

READ ABOUT the use, without our permission or consent or knowledge, of these very powerful, sophisticated and highly developed techniques and their effects on us as an unsuspecting public: “SELLING HOMOSEXUALITY TO AMERICA” by Paul E. Rondeau (http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/rond/shta/shta_01sellinghomosexuality1.html; http://www.couplescompany.com/FEATURES/politics/2004/Selling%20Homosexuality.pdf; http://www.untwistedtruth.com/).

Let us pray for those following the father of lies (Jn 8:44), whose consciences are not already totally dead, before it is too late! LET US PRAY MORE THAN EVER AND OFFER MANY SACRIFICES for our deceived brothers and sisters as our Lady of Fatima has asked us to do. In this way some will convert from the deception of arrogance and the illusion of egoism, and we ourselves will be ready to suffer and even offer up our lives for others as baby Jesus did for us on the cross on Mount Calvary 33 years after His birth! The Truth Shall Set You Free (Jn 8:32)!

Many people today have misguided compassion and do not want to hurt the feelings of others; for these seemingly nice people, this short life on earth is more important than eternity. Is this true love? But the prophet Ezekiel tells us: “If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life” (Ezek 33:8-9). Referring to the OBJECTIVE TRUTH St. James wrote: "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one converts him, let him know, that he who converts the sinner from the error of his ways shall save his soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." (Jms 5:19-20; see also: Mt 18:15-17). Referring to the SUBJECTIVE TRUTH or personal guilt St. James wrote: “Who are you that you judge your neighbor?” (Jms 4:12; Mt 7:1-2). One must always distinguish and not lump everything together and then judge!

While alive we can change everything with a good confession and a true change of life; AFTER DEATH NOTHING CAN BE CHANGED FOR ALL ETERNITY whether we believe or agree or not! The Creator make the rules, not we who will return to dust from whence we came (Gen 2:7)! We need more religious leaders and laymen and laywomen to warn us of this eternal trap. Forewarned is forearmed! The Beast will be able to perform "signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect" (Mt 24:24; Mk 13:22; Rev 13:8; 19:20)! Every time our Lady appeared in the last 180 years she has always asked for prayers for the Pope, bishops and priests, the main targets of Satan, the generals and captains in this great “cosmic struggle”. If more RELIGIOUS LEADERS had less FEAR OF HUMAN RESPECT and the courage to speak about the reality of sin (mortal, grave) and its eternal consequences, we foot soldiers would be much better prepared for this period of the “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21)!

To fight in a battle, is it not prudent and necessary to know not only your own weapons, tactics and strategy, but also the weapons, tactics and strategy of the enemy? It was recounted to Pope John Paul II that the Vatican's chief exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth, “knows too many bishops who do not believe in the Devil”. The Pope replied bluntly: “ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL”. When asked “What do you see as Satan’s greatest success?”, Amorth replied: “The fact that he has managed to convince people that he does not exist. He has almost managed it, even within the Church. We have a clergy and an Episcopate who no longer believe in the Devil , in exorcism, in the exceptional evil the Devil can instill, or even in the power that Jesus bestowed to cast out demons. … And they no longer believe in the Devil. We have entire Episcopates trying to counter exorcism. We have countries completely devoid of exorcists, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. This is a shameful shortfall.” (http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=2879).

How incredible it is that today so many of our generals (bishops) and our captains (priests) in this great spiritual battle for our eternal souls tell us that the enemy does not even exist! We go onto the field of combat as buck privates led by these numerous commanding officers and we are massacred, unless we seek, in humility and trust, the directives of the divinely guided Vicar on earth of the Supreme Commander, THE LIVING POPE, with whom all bishops and priest have taken an oath to remain in unity and communion. Our enemy does not sleep and he is much more intelligent than any human being!

Let us remember and help our children to remember that Christmas is NOT OUR BIRTHDAY BUT THE BIRTHDAY OF JESUS Who came to show us the way to heaven and to die for each one of us! I remember as a child how my parents encouraged us (six children) to place a piece of straw into an empty crib during advent for each little sacrifice of love and self-denial we did so that at Christmas the crib was full of the straws of our sacrifices for baby Jesus. Today so many children expect only presents for themselves and they have not learned from their parents or friends the real reason for the season! My parents also knelt down with us six children everyday for 15 minutes to pray the daily family Rosary with the pictures of the 15 mysteries before us to help us to meditate on the life of Christ, to pray the Gospel through the loving eyes of Mary.

Forgive me for such a heavy and long Christmas letter, but my mother Mary, the mother not only of Jesus but of all of us, sheds many tears as seen in many of her recent apparitions because so many thousands of her children fall in hell for all eternity everyday as shown to the three children at Fatima (July 1917).

My best friend Jesus, who died for me, suffers more than we can possible imagine, and the great majority of people, including Christians, are TOTALLY INDIFFERENT AND INSENSITIVE to this astounding suffering and they become angered if you try to tell them of our great coldness toward the One Who loves us more than everyone put together and Who gave us everything we have, including His only Son to die on the cross for our cold indifference!

Very often there is a tendency to not consider very much the possibility of offending God, much less to cause great pain to God due to our insensitivity and indifference. We say: “After all He is God; He does not need us and besides He is far above all these things!” We forget that the greater the love is, the greater is the pain due to insensitivity and indifference. JESUS, who loves each one of us immensely, SUFFERS MORE THAN WE CAN IMAGINE due to our indifference. One might say how can this be if Jesus already died 2000 years ago? We must remember that for God there is no past or future but only THE ETERNAL PRESENT. Jesus suffered (“suffers”) not only for the sins of those who lived before and during his crucifixion, but also for all of the sins after his crucifixion. We slough off so easily this fundamental indifference of not responding to love. This is the fundamental definition of sin. How many wives (or husbands) suffer greatly because their husbands (or wives) are so insensitive and indifferent!? Every time we fall into sin, it is a nail, it is a thorn embedded in the Heart of the Sorrowful Mother’s Son, and She cries out to us: “have pity, have mercy!”

Let us thank God there was a heart well prepared to receive the infinite Son of God, baby Jesus, 2000 years ago, the Immaculate Heart of Mary! The hearts of men were so cold 2000 years ago that only a few recognized the Creator of the universe born in utter poverty, covered with blood on the Cross and hidden in the appearance of a piece of bread in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Today the situation of human hearts is much worse. LET US MAKE REPARATION for the incredible suffering of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the foot of the cross with our prayers and sacrifices by loving baby Jesus hidden in the most rejected and defenseless people today as well as in every tabernacle of the world as our Divine Prisoner.

St. John the Baptist, as a six-month old fetus in the womb of his mother Elizabeth, leaped for joy in the womb of Elizabeth when he recognized Jesus as a very small embryo in the womb of Mary (Lk 1:44)! Little boys and little girls leap for joy in their mothers wombs, not abstract fetal tissue! The SECOND PERSON of the BLESSED TRINITY in His infinite wisdom, Who could have come into the world in anyway whatsoever, chose to become incarnate in the womb of a human woman and spend NINE FULL MONTHS IN HER WOMB!?! Christ sanctified everything He did; He identifies Himself with “the least of His brethren” (Mt 25:40): unwanted babies in the wombs of their mothers! You might say that Jesus, Who the entire universe cannot contain, showed us the preciousness of life in the womb by patiently spending nine months in the womb of His mother Mary! How can a Christian not stand up and defend Jesus in the wombs of millions of mothers planning to abort their precious gift of life from God within their wombs, and at the same time celebrate Christmas? Are we Christians if we do not do all we can to help concretely so many women abandoned by their boy friends, husbands, relatives and society in their difficult moment? If we help and comfort concretely those who are left out in the cold by so many around them, we will truly be warming baby Jesus for this Christmas! If we repent, confess our sins and begin to love every unwanted neighbor concretely as Jesus did, then we will offer a true gift to baby Jesus on His birthday and wipe away many of the tears of His and our heavenly Mother, the Mother of all of us whether we want to discover, recognize and believe this great gift from God or not! A true mother suffers greatly due to the indifference of her children especially of those who do not even communicate for Christmas and do not even recognize this woman as their mother! How hardened of heart we have slowly become over the years of our life and we do not even realize it or want to discover how far we have drifted from basic respect and concern for all human beings made in the image of God as well as the real situation of our hearts and souls and our relationship with our personal Creator!

One receives and experiences the real joy of Christmas as well as Easter when one recognizes that he or she is a sinner, when one recognizes his or her sins. This Baby came for sinners not for the self-justified (Mt 9:13). Popes Pius XII and John Paul II wrote that THE GREATEST SIN IS THE LOSE OF THE SENSE OF SIN! The very numerous people who call themselves Christians today but do not acknowledge and confess their sins have a very shallow, materialistic happiness for Christmas; they are sucking off from the spiritual reservoir of those who paid the price before them to create a culture of life by their personal and collective sacrifices. To give or create life, one must sacrifice oneself, one must continually die to self to give life to others, one must “to limit ones freedom on behalf of another” (John Paul II). It is easy to destroy life by sucking off of others to satisfy our own masked egoism and spiritual sloth. It is easy to destroy a tall building; it is difficult and time consuming to build a tall building!

May you have a most blessed celebration of the birthday of the Child who was born in extreme poverty and completed His mission of love on the Cross for us!

Fr. Joseph Dwight

P.s. If you might be interested in more information about the above along with hundreds of web references, visit: “Catholic Prophecy Today” at http://markbeast.blogspot.com.

The Glue That Holds All Of Us Together...

2010-02-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

Shared by an anonymous doctor:

A couple of days ago I was running (I use that term very loosely) on my treadmill, watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio... And I was BLOWN AWAY!

I want to share what I learned.... But I fear not being able to convey it as well as I want. I will share anyway.

He (Louie) was talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is... How He spoke the universe into being... How He breathes stars out of His mouth that are huge raging balls of fire, Etc. Etc.

Then He went on to speak of how this star-breathing, universe creating God ALSO knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder. At this point I am LOVING it (fascinating from a medical standpoint, you know)...

And I was remembering how I was constantly amazed during medical school as I learned more and more about God's handiwork. I remember so many times thinking... 'How can ANYONE deny that a Creator did all of this???'

Louie went on to talk about how we can trust that the God who created all this, also has the power to hold it all together when things seem to be falling apart… how our loving Creator is also our sustainer.

And then I lost my breath. And it wasn't because I was running my treadmill, either!!!

It was because he started talking about laminin. I knew about laminin.

Here is how Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/ describes them:

'Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue.'

You see... Laminins are what hold us together… LITERALLY.

They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart.

And I knew all this already. But what I didn't know is what they LOOKED LIKE. But now I do.

And I have thought about it a thousand times since (already)... Here is what the structure of laminin looks like... AND THIS IS NOT a 'Christian portrayal' of it...

If you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see...

Now tell me that our God is not the coolest!!!
Amazing. The glue that holds us together... ALL of us... Is in the shape of the cross.

Immediately Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible And invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in Him all things HOLD TOGETHER.” (Colossians 1:15-17)

Call me crazy. I just think that is very, very, very cool!

Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words.

And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint, we are held together... One cell to another... By the cross.

You would never in a quadrillion years convince me that is anything Other than the mark of a Creator who knew EXACTLY what laminin 'glue' would look like long before Adam breathed his first breath!!!

Praise the Lord! Alleluia!

If I Could See!

2009-11-03T05:31:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we get things that really open our eyes. May God Bless all of you in reading this beautiful “Story To Live By”!

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There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She Hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.'

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her, 'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.'

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This is how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life Is a Gift!

Today before you say an unkind word - Think of someone who can't speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone who's crying out to GOD for a companion.

Today before you complain about life - Think of someone who died too early.

Before you complain about your children - Think of someone who desires children but they're barren.

Before you argue about your dirty house someone didn't clean or sweep - Think of the people who are living in the streets.

Before whining about the distance you drive - Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job - Think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another - Remember that not one of us is without sin.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on your face and think: you're alive and still around.

I pray this moves around the entire universe!

The Marvelous Value of the Holy Mass!

2009-08-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

The Mass in a certain manner has as much worth for our Souls, as the death of Jesus Christ had on the Cross (St. John Chrysostom).
It is more acceptable to God the Holy Mass than the merits of all the Angels (St. Lawrence Justinian).
All the steps that one takes to go to participate in the Holy Mass are written and numbered, and for each step there will be granted a supreme award on earth and in Heaven (St. Augustine).
The Mass is medicine to heal the infirm and holocaust to pay for the faults (St. Cyprian).
I assure you, Jesus said to St. Gertrude, that he who participates devotedly in the Holy Mass, I will send in the last instants of his life as many of my Saints to comfort him and to protect him, as the number of Masses at which he assisted well (Lib. 3. c. 16).

Every Mass before the justice of God will perorate your pardon.
At each Mass you can diminish the temporal pain due to your sins, more or less according to your fervor.
Assisting devotedly at the Mass, renders to the holy Humanity of Jesus Christ the maximum honor.
He makes allowances for many of your negligences and omissions.
He forgives you the venial sins that you never confessed of which you had repented.
There is diminished over you the rule of Satan.
You can procure for the Souls in Purgatory the greatest suffrage possible.
A Mass at which you assisted in life will be more salutary for you than many others offered for you after death.
You are preserved from many dangers and misfortunes which would have befallen you.
You diminish your Purgatory with each Mass.

Christ, by means of men, renews his Sacrifice (D. C. Marmion).
The Mass is not just a simple representation of the Sacrifice of the Cross; it does not have only the value of a simple remembrance; but it is a true Sacrifice as that of Calvary, which it reproduces, continues and of which applies the fruits (D. C. Marmion).
The fruits of the Mass are inexhaustible since they are the same fruits of the Sacrifice of the Cross (D. C. Marmion).
Oh! If we might know the gift of God! If we might know what treasures we can draw for ourselves, for the entire Church!... (D. C. Marmion).
In the hour of death, the Masses which you will have devotedly participated in will form your greatest consolation.

Every Mass will procure for you a greater degree of glory in Heaven.
You will be blessed in your work and personal interests.
Might you know, Oh Christian, that you merit more participating devoutly in a Holy Mass than distributing to the poor all of your goods and making pilgrimages all over the earth (St. Bernard).
The Lord grants to us all that we ask for in the Holy Mass, and moreover, he gives us that which we do not even think of asking for and yet is also necessary (St. Jerome).
If we might know the value of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, what ever greater zeal would we offer in participating in it (St. John Mary Vianney).
It is worth more participating devoutly in a Holy Mass than fasting a year on bread and water (St. Leonard).
The Mass is the only Sacrifice which causes the Souls to quickly come out of the pains of Purgatory (St. Gregory).

A Death Experience

2009-08-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

A priest who saw heaven, hell, and purgatory

The death experience of Father Jose Maniyangat

Fr. Jose Maniyangat is currently the pastor of St. Mary´s Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Macclenny, Florida. Here is his personal testimony:

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I was born on July 16, 1949 in Kerala, India to my parents, Joseph and Theresa Maniyangat. I am the eldest of seven children: Jose, Mary, Theresa, Lissama, Zachariah, Valsa and Tom.

At the age of fourteen, I entered St. Mary´s Minor Seminary in Thiruvalla to begin my studies for the priesthood. Four years later, I went to St. Joseph´s Pontifical Major Seminary in Alwaye, Kerala to continue my priestly formation. After completing the seven years of philosophy and theology, I was ordained a priest on January 1, 1975 to serve as a missionary in the Diocese of Thiruvalla.

On Sunday April 14, 1985, the Feast of the Divine Mercy, I was going to celebrate Mass at a mission church in the north part of Kerala, and I had a fatal accident. I was riding a motorcycle when I was hit head-on by a jeep driven by a man who was intoxicated after a Hindu festival. I was rushed to a hospital about 35 miles away. On the way, my soul came out from my body and I experienced death. Immediately, I met my Guardian Angel. I saw my body and the people who were carrying me to the hospital. I heard them crying and praying for me. At this time my angel told me: "I am going to take you to Heaven, the Lord wants to meet you and talk with you." He also said that, on the way, he wanted to show me hell and purgatory.

Hell

First, the angel escorted me to hell. It was an awful sight! I saw Satan and the devils, an unquenchable fire of about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, worms crawling, people screaming and fighting, others being tortured by demons. The angel told me that all these sufferings were due to unrepented mortal sins. Then, I understood that there are seven degrees of suffering or levels according to the number and kinds of mortal sins committed in their earthly lives. The souls looked very ugly, cruel and horrific. It was a fearful experience. I saw people whom I knew, but I am not allowed to reveal their identities. The sins that convicted them were mainly abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, hatefulness, unforgiveness and sacrilege. The angel told me that if they had repented, they would have avoided hell and gone instead to purgatory. I also understood that some people who repent from these sins might be purified on earth through their sufferings. This way they can avoid purgatory and go straight to heaven.

I was surprised when I saw in hell even priests and Bishops, some of whom I never expected to see. Many of them were there because they had misled the people with false teaching and bad example.

Purgatory

After the visit to hell, my Guardian Angel escorted me to purgatory. Here too, there are seven degrees of suffering and unquenchable fire. But it is far less intense than hell and there was neither quarrelling nor fighting. The main suffering of these souls is their separation from God. Some of those who are in purgatory committed numerous mortal sins, but they were reconciled with God before their death. Even though these souls are suffering, they enjoy peace and the knowledge that one day they will see God face to face.

I had a chance to communicate with the souls in purgatory. They asked me to pray for them and to tell the people to pray for them as well, so they can go to heaven quickly. When we pray for these souls, we will receive their gratitude through their prayers, and once they enter heaven, their prayers become even more meritorious.

It is difficult for me to describe how beautiful my Guardian Angel is. He is radiant and bright. He is my constant companion and helps me in all my ministries, especially my healing ministry. I experience his presence everywhere I go and I am grateful for his protection in my daily life.

Heaven

Next, my angel escorted me to heaven passing through a big dazzling white tunnel. I never experienced this much peace and joy in my life. Then immediately heaven opened up and I heard the most delightful music, which I never heard before. The angels were singing and praising God. I saw all the saints, especially the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, and many dedicated holy Bishops and priests who were shining like stars. And when I appeared before the Lord, Jesus told me: "I want you to go back to the world. In your second life, you will be an instrument of peace and healing to My people. You will walk in a foreign land and you will speak in a foreign tongue. Everything is possible for you with My grace." After these words, the Blessed Mother told me: "Do whatever He tells you. I will help you in your ministries."

Words can not express the beauty of heaven. There we find so much peace and happiness, which exceed a million times our imagination. Our Lord is far more beautiful than any image can convey. His face is radiant and luminous and more beautiful than a thousand rising suns. The pictures we see in the world are only a shadow of His magnificence. The Blessed Mother was next to Jesus; She was so beautiful and radiant. None of the images we see in this world can compare with Her real beauty. Heaven is our real home; we are all created to reach heaven and enjoy God forever. Then, I came back to the world with my angel.

While my body was at the hospital, the doctor completed all examinations and I was pronounced dead. The cause of death was bleeding. My family was notified, and since they were far away, the hospital staff decided to move my dead body to the morgue. Because the hospital did not have air conditioners, they were concerned that the body would decompose quickly. As they were moving my dead body to the morgue, my soul came back to the body. I felt an excruciating pain because of so many wounds and broken bones. I began to scream, and then the people became frightened and ran away screaming. One of them approached the doctor and said: "The dead body is screaming." The doctor came to examine the body and found that I was alive. So he said: "Father is alive, it is a miracle! Take him back to the hospital."

Now, back at the hospital, they gave me blood transfusions and I was taken to surgery to repair the broken bones. They worked on my lower jaw, ribs, pelvic bone, wrists, and right leg. After two months, I was released from the hospital, but my orthopaedic doctor said that I would never walk again. I then said to him: "The Lord who gave me my life back and sent me back to the world will heal me." Once at home, we were all praying for a miracle. Still after a month, and with the casts removed, I was not able to move. But one day while praying I felt an extraordinary pain in my pelvic area. After a short while the pain disappeared completely and I heard a voice saying: "You are healed. Get up and walk." I felt the peace and healing power on my body. I immediately got up and walked. I praised and thanked God for the miracle.

I reached my doctor with the news of my healing, and he was amazed. He said: "Your God is the true God. I must follow your God." The doctor was Hindu, and he asked me to teach him about our Church. After studying the Faith, I baptized him and he became Catholic.

Following the message from my Guardian Angel, I came to the United States on November 10, 1986 as a missionary priest... Since June 1999, I have been pastor of St. Mary´s Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Macclenny, Florida.

Fr. Jose Maniyangat

This is what Christmas is all about...

2008-12-19T04:06:00.000-08:00

If you would like something nice and spiritual each month,
send me an Email;
Fr. Joseph Dwight: josephdwight57@gmail.com.

If you would like to see the other web sites and articles of Rev. Joseph Dwight,
click on the photo.

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Painting found in the choir at the Angelicum, Rome.

- - - - - - -

This is what Christmas is all about...

Better bundle up - the goose bumps will freeze you!!!
I think I need to read this every year at Christmas.

- - - - - - -

Pa never had much compassion for the lazy or those who squandered their means and then never had enough for the necessities. But for those who were genuinely in need, his heart was as big as all outdoors. It was from him that I learned the greatest joy in life comes from giving, not from receiving.

It was Christmas Eve 1881. I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had caved in on me because there just hadn't been enough money to buy me the rifle that I'd wanted for Christmas. We did the chores early that night for some reason. I just figured Pa wanted a little extra time so we could read in the Bible.

After supper was over I took my boots off and stretched out in front of the fireplace and waited for Pa to get down the old Bible. I was still feeling sorry for myself and, to be honest, I wasn't in much of a mood to read Scriptures. But Pa didn't get the Bible, instead he bundled up again and went outside. I couldn't figure it out because we had already done all the chores. I didn't worry about it long though, I was too busy wallowing in self-pity. Soon Pa came back in. It was a cold clear night out and there was ice in his beard. "Come on, Matt," he said. "Bundle up good, it's cold out tonight." I was really upset then. Not only wasn't I getting the rifle for Christmas, now Pa was dragging me out in the cold, and for no earthly reason that I could see. We'd already done all the chores, and I couldn't think of anything else that needed doing, especially not on a night like this. But I knew Pa was not very patient at one dragging one's feet when he'd told them to do something, so I got up and put my boots back on and got my cap, coat, and mittens. Ma gave me a mysterious smile as I opened the door to leave the house. Something was up, but I didn't know what.

Outside, I became even more dismayed. There in front of the house was the work team, already hitched to the big sled. Whatever it was we were going to do wasn't going to be a short, quick, little job. I could tell. We never hitched up this sled unless we were going to haul a big load. Pa was already up on the seat, reins in hand. I reluctantly climbed up beside him. The cold was already biting at me. I wasn't happy. When I was on, Pa pulled the sled around the house and stopped in front of the woodshed. He got off and I followed. "I think we'll put on the high sideboards," he said. "Here, help me." The high sideboards! It had been a bigger job than I wanted to do with just the low sideboards on, but whatever it was we were going to do would be a lot bigger with the high side boards on.

After we had exchanged the sideboards, Pa went into the woodshed and came out with an armload of wood - the wood I'd spent all summer hauling down from the mountain, and then all Fall sawing into blocks and splitting. What was he doing? Finally I said something. "Pa," I asked, "what are you doing?" You been by the Widow Jensen's lately?" he asked. The Widow Jensen lived about two miles down the road. Her husband had died a year or so before and left her with three children, the oldest being eight. Sure, I'd been by, but so what?

Yeah," I said, "Why?"

"I rode by just today," Pa said. "Little Jakey was out digging around in the woodpile trying to find a few chips. They're out of wood, Matt." That was all he said and then he turned and went back into the woodshed for another armload of wood. I followed him. We loaded the sled so high that I began to wonder if the horses would be able to pull it. Finally, Pa called a halt to our loading, then we went to the smoke house and Pa took down a big ham and a side of bacon. He handed them to me and told me to put them in the sled and wait. When he returned he was carrying a sack of flour over his r ight shoulder and a smaller sack of something in his left hand. "What's in the little sack?" I asked. Shoes, they're out of shoes. Little Jakey just had gunny sacks wrapped around his feet when he was out in the woodpile this morning. I got the children a little candy too. It just wouldn't be Christmas without a little candy."

We rode the two miles to Widow Jensen's pretty much in silence. I tried to think through what Pa was doing. We didn't have much by worldly standards. Of course, we did have a big woodpile, though most of what was left now was still in the form of logs that I would have to saw into blocks and split before we could use it. We also had meat and flour, so we could spare that, but I knew we didn't have any money, so why was Pa buying them shoes and candy? Really, why was he doing any of this? Widow Jensen had closer neighbors than us; it shouldn't have been our concern.

We came in from the blind side of the Jensen house and unloaded the wood as quietly as possible, then we took the meat and flour and shoes to the door. We knocked. The door opened a crack and a timid voice said, "Who is it?" "Lucas Miles, Ma'am, and my son, Matt, could we come in for a bit?"

Widow Jensen opened the door and let us in. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. The children were wrapped in another and were sitting in front of the fireplace by a very small fire that hardly gave off any heat at all. Widow Jensen fumbled with a match and finally lit the lamp.

"We brought you a few things, Ma'am," Pa said and set down the sack of flour. I put the meat on the table. Then Pa handed her the sack that had the shoes in it. She opened it hesitantly and took the shoes out one pair at a time. There was a pair for her and one for each of the children - sturdy shoes, the best, shoes that would last. I watched her carefully. She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling and then tears filled her eyes and started running down her cheeks. She looked up at Pa like she wanted to say something, but it wouldn't come out.

"We brought a load of wood too, Ma'am," Pa said. He turned to me and said, "Matt, go bring in enough to last awhile. Let's get that fire up to size and heat this place up." I wasn't the same person when I went back out to bring in the wood. I had a big lump in my throat and as much as I hate to admit it, there were tears in my eyes too. In my mind I kept seeing those three kids huddled around the fireplace and their mother standing there with tears running down her cheeks with so much gratitude in her heart that she couldn't speak.

My heart swelled within me and a joy that I'd never known before, filled my soul. I had given at Christmas many times before, but never when it had made so much difference. I could see we were literally saving the lives of these people.

I soon had the fire blazing and everyone's spirits soared. The kids started giggling when Pa handed them each a piece of candy and Widow Jensen looked on with a smile that probably hadn't crossed her face for a long time. She finally turned to us. "God bless you," she said. "I know the Lord has sent you. The children and I have been praying that he would send one of his angels to spare us."

In spite of myself, the lump returned to my throat and the tears welled up in my eyes again. I'd never thought of Pa in those exact terms before, but after Widow Jensen mentioned it I could see that it was probably true. I was sure that a better man than Pa had never walked the earth. I started remembering all the times he had gone out of his way for Ma and me, and many others. The list seemed endless as I thought on it.

Pa insisted that everyone try on the shoes before we left. I was amazed when they all fit and I wondered how he had known what sizes to get. Then I guessed that if he was on an errand for the Lord that the Lord would make sure he got the right sizes.

Tears were running down Widow Jensen's face again when we stood up to leave. Pa took each of the kids in his big arms and gave them a hug. They clung to him and didn't want us to go. I could see that they missed their Pa, and I was glad that I still had mine.

At the door Pa turned to Widow Jensen and said, "The Mrs. wanted me to invite you and the children over for Christmas dinner tomorrow. The turkey will be more than the three of us can eat, and a man can get cantankerous if he has to eat turkey for too many meals. We'll be by to get you about eleven. It'll be nice to have some little ones around again. Matt, here, hasn't been little for quite a spell." I was the youngest. My two brothers and two sisters had all married and had moved away.
Widow Jensen nodded and said, "Thank you, Brother Miles. I don't have to say, May the Lord bless you, I know for certain that He will."

Out on the sled I felt a warmth that came from deep within and I didn't even notice the cold. When we had gone a ways, Pa turned to me and said, "Matt, I want you to know something. Your ma and me have been tucking a little money away here and there all year so we could buy that rifle for you, but we didn't have quite enough. Then yesterday a man who owed me a little money from years back came by to make things square. Your ma and me were real excited, thinking that now we could get you that rifle, and I started into town this morning to do just that, but on the way I saw little Jakey out scratching in the woodpile with his feet wrapped in those gunny sacks and I knew what I had to do. Son, I spent the money for shoes and a little candy for those children. I hope you understand."

I understood, and my eyes became wet with tears again. I understood very well, and I was so glad Pa had done it. Now the rifle seemed very low on my list of priorities. Pa had given me a lot more. He had given me the look on Widow Jensen's face and the radiant smiles of her three children.

For the rest of my life, whenever I saw any of the Jensens, or split a block of wood, I remembered, and remembering brought back that same joy I felt riding home beside Pa that night. Pa had given me much more than a rifle that night, he had given me the best Christmas of my life.

God bless you!

The Importance of a Meditation!

2008-06-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

If you would like something nice and spiritual each month, send me an Email;
Fr. Joseph Dwight: josephdwight57@gmail.com.
If you would like to see the other web sites and articles of Rev. Joseph Dwight, click on the photo.

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The Great Importance
of a
Good Morning Meditation!

A 15 minute meditation in the morning is very important; it is a strong prayer, rather demanding but very efficacious. A well done meditation in the morning gives a tremendous impetus to be able to offer the whole day to God so that everything that we do during the day will be united to God and thus will last for all eternity! One must do the meditation slowly to let the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts as we read a passage from the Gospels or from the writings of a Saint. In this way we can penetrate the heart of Jesus as well as let Jesus penetrate our hearts. By doing a good meditation every morning, slowly we will become ever more united with Jesus as the branches are unity to the vine. We will begin to think like Jesus, to act like Jesus, to have the same sentiments as Jesus. Only in this way can we become instruments of Jesus with the ones we works with so that the fruits will be true and lasting! Only in this way can we give Jesus to others instead of only giving ourselves to others. Only in this way will we be able to taste the beauty of being united with Jesus who loves each of us immensely and to feel the sweetness of his presence in our hearts and to be able to persevere even in all our difficulties.

15 minutes of a good meditation in the morning also helps us to discover and to believe that God loves each of us immensely thus motivating us to respond to this incredible love during the day. The meditation helps us to keep the presences of Jesus more constantly during the day. Sister Mary of the Cross writes (http://purgatory-manu.blogspot.com/): “If only you knew what God is, there is no sacrifice that you would not be willing to make, no suffering that you would not endure for Him. If you could see Him for but one minute you would be perfectly satisfied and consoled… What then must it be to see Him for all eternity?” “Tell him (a priest) to be sure in his retreats and missions to recommend strongly the offering up to God of the actions of the day. This advice is not only to people in the world but also for religious communities. People do not always think enough of this and consequently many actions good in themselves will receive no reward at the last day, because they were not first offered up to God.” “Do not let the duties, cares or worries of life, take so much of your time, so as to prevent you from uniting yourself each moment to Jesus, and from knowing and fulfilling His holy will.” “You must strive never to lose sight of Him even for a moment. Do not think that for this reason you will be so absorbed as not to be able to attend to your duties. You will experience the very opposite, that the soul most closely united to Jesus will be the one most exact in all her duties, since Jesus, whom she loves, acts for her. He is, so to say, only one with her. Thus you see that she is ably helped and directed in all she has to do. It is only recollected souls who will have any influence for good around them. Things done differently have no value. The soul that is united to Jesus is the only one that has power over His Heart. She is mistress there and He refuses her nothing.” “Remain closely united to Jesus. Before every action, however trivial, or whatever you may have to do or say, ask His advice. Speak to Him heart to heart as to a friend whom one has always close at hand.” “The more a soul loves Jesus the more meritorious all its actions are in His sight. It is only love that will be rewarded in Heaven. All that is done for any other motive will count as nothing. Love Jesus truly, once and for all, as He wants you to.” “Every action performed in the presence of Jesus merits an extra degree of glory in Heaven and a greater love for Him. Your actions thus performed forge a chain of love that unites the soul closer and closer to its Beloved. When the last link has been completed, Jesus breaks the feeble bonds that keep the soul, now full of merit, in the body, and it becomes united with Him for all eternity.”

As a meditation, I like using a verse from the Gospels with a simple but deep explanation with a concrete application. I am no expert in any way, shape or form, so I take advantage of the writings and the explanations of Sacred Scripture of people much holier than me. Besides “A Manuscript On Purgatory” (http://purgatory-manu.blogspot.com/), one can find the “Word of Life” each month in the format of MS Power Point Slide Show at: http://www.santuariosancalogero.org/news.asp?id=47; choose “Inglese – PPS – Word of Life” under the heading “Power Point”. I like very much to do the meditation with nice music and images in the background. If you would like the monthly “Word of Life” simply written without the music or the images, you can also go to: http://www.rc.net/focolare/word.htm or http://www.domusviridis.org.uk/wol/chronord.htm.

May God bless you! Please pray for me as I will pray for you!

Father Joseph Dwight

Let Us Pray... With Our Doggy!

2008-06-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

If we love God as much as our doggy loves us, we will soon become great saints!

Let Us Pray... With Our Doggy!

“O Lord of all creatures, help the man, my master, that he might be faithful toward his own kind as I am with him.

Get him to be affectionate with his family and with his friends as I am with him.

Help him to look after, in an honest way, the goods that you confide to him, as I courageously look after his goods.

Give him, o Lord, an easy and spontaneous smile like I wag my tail. Help him to be always grateful and ready to forgive as I am ready to lick the hand that punished me.

Give him patience like mine when I wait for his return without complaining, and give him my courage and my readiness to sacrifice everything for him, even every comfort of life itself. Keep for him my youthfulness of heart and my gaiety of thought.

O Lord, make it so that as I am truly a dog, he might be truly a man”.

(E.S. Jambor)

Jesus, you take care of it!

2008-05-19T09:44:00.000-07:00

I do not want to agitate myself, my God,
I trust in You!...
Jesus, you take care of it!

(by the Servant of God, Father Dolindo Ruotolo)

Jesus speaking to the soul:
“Why do you confuse yourself and become agitated? Let me take care of your things and everything will become calm. In truth I tell you that every true, copious and complete act of abandonment in me, produces the effect that you desire and resolves the most thorny situations.
To abandon yourself to me does not mean to rack your brains, to upset yourself and to despair, and then offering to me an agitated prayer so that I might follow you: it is to change the agitation into prayer. To abandon yourself means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, divert the thought of tribulation and put yourself in me, so that only I operate, saying: you take care of it! Preoccupation, agitation and the desire to think about the consequences of a fact is contrary to abandonment.

It is like the confusion children cause who pretend that the mother take care of their needs, but want to take care of it themselves, encumbering with their ideas and their infantile foible her work. Close your eyes and let yourself be carried by the current of my grace, close the eyes and let me work, close the eyes and think about the present moment turning aside the thought about the future as if it were a temptation. Rest in me believing in my goodness and I swear by my love that, saying to me, with these dispositions: you take care of it! I will fully take care of it, I will console you, I will free you, I will lead you.

And when I must lead you in a way different from what you think, I will train you, I will carry you in my arms, I will help you find yourself, as sleeping babies in the maternal arms, on the other shore.

That which upsets you and which does to you great harm is your reasoning, your thoughts, your nagging worry and the desire at any price to take care of that which afflicts you by yourself.
How many things I do when the soul, as much for its spiritual needs as well as its material needs, turns to me saying: you take care of it! close the eyes and rest. You have few graces when you torment yourself to produce these things; you will have many graces when the prayer is fully confided in me. You in your sorrow pray so that I might operate, but only that I might operate as you believe. You do not turn to me, but you want that I adapt myself to your ideas; it is not you the sick that ask the doctor for the cure, but the sick suggests it to the doctor.

Do not act like this, but pray as I taught you in the Our Father: hollowed be thy name, that is be glorified in my need; thy kingdom come, that is that all concurs to my kingdom in us and in the world; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that is that you arrange in this need as you think best for our eternal and temporal life.

If you truly say to me thy will be done, which is the same as saying you take care of it, I will intervene with all my omnipotence and resolve the most unyielding situations. Do you realize that the misfortune comes right on the heels rather than diminishing? Do not become agitated, close the eyes and say to me with trust: Thy will be done, you take care of it! I tell you that I will take care of it, and that I will intervene as a doctor and accomplish even a miracle when necessary. You see that the situation is becoming worse? Do not get upset, close the eyes and say: You take care of it! I tell you that I will take care of it and there is no medicine more powerful than my intervention of love. I take care of it only when you close the eyes. You have sleepless nights, you want to evaluate everything, to scrutinize everything, to think about everything and so you abandon yourself to human forces and even worse to men confiding in their intervention. It is this that impedes my words and my views. Oh, how I desire from you this abandonment in order to benefit yourself, and how it grieves me to see you agitated!
Satan tends precisely to this: to agitate you in order to steal from you my action and throw you to the prey of human initiatives. Thus you must confide only in me, rest in me, abandon yourself to me in everything. I will perform miracles in proportion to the full abandonment in me and not in any of your thoughts. I give out treasures of grace when you are in full poverty. If you have your resources, even a little, or if you seek them, you are in the natural domain and thus you follow the natural way of things which is often encumbered by Satan.

No thinker ever preformed miracles, not even among the saints.

The one who operates divinely is the one who abandons himself in God.

When you see that the things are getting complicated, say with the eyes of the soul closed: Jesus, you take care of it! Do like this for all of your needs.

Do like this for everything and you will see great, continual and silent miracles. I swear this to you by my love!”

Let Us Love Our Spouse!

2008-05-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

Let Us Love Our Spouse!

No one likes to suffer. Just about all my life I have run from or tried to avoid suffering. But when I look back at these times it seems that the suffering or problem that I tried to avoid kept coming back. During my life I have often asked myself what is the meaning of suffering.

Obviously there are many types of suffering and sorrows. We all react differently to different types of suffering. Having been raised in a family with a strong, domineering father, I tend to react perhaps more strongly than others when I find myself is a similar situation. When I found myself living or working with domineering persons, I have tried my best to at least shield myself from this irritating and often humiliating situation. A few years ago I even fell into depression while living with an authoritarian person who criticized and judged me continually and from whom I was not able to run from or to avoid. When I had to work more closely with this person, he never was interested in my opinion or ideas and he never put the cards on the table to allow me to have enough information so as to enter into the decision making. I tended to harshly judge this person and I was not able to see any good in him. To get things done, this person always resorted to force or manipulation, taking advantage of the structure of the organization, instead of drawing others freely to his idea or plan. If it were not for the obligatory structure of the organization, I wonder who would ever freely follow the ideas or programs of such a person? Sometimes when he harshly criticized me I would defend myself by revealing to him his rather great lack of human maturity; of course this infuriated him all the more. In the end, when I made a minor mistake, he quickly denounced me before our boss and I ended up loosing my position and the fruits of my work that I had become very attached to.

After having the chance to separate myself from this person as well as being able to take some time off to try to cure the resulting depression, I began to read the Gospels as well as good spiritual books. During this time, though, I often could not help myself from going back over and over again in my mind the painful experiences with this person and my great lose which caused me to be very angry all over again; when I saw him coming along my path my stomach would go up into my throat and I would quickly take another route.

Slowly but surely, while praying regularly, especially the Rosary, as well as going to Mass as often as I could, I began to understand better the words of Jesus in the Gospels. I began to realize that the strong words of Jesus were not just for the “Saints” as I had relegated these words in the past. I began to realize that I had to live all the words of Jesus without waiting for the one treating me badly to change: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). My eyes began to be opened to see that I was a hypocrite every time I said the words of the Our Father, “and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” For the first time I began to understand more deeply the meaning of some of the pertinent parables and words of Jesus especially regarding the absolute need to forgive others totally from the heart. I began to also see that when I was not able to forgive and love this person as he was, I was not hurting or getting even with him but rather I was only hurting myself creating all kinds of interior tensions and sleepless nights. Revenge is like a poison that you want to give to the offender but you end up swallowing it yourself.

The parable of the unjust servant finally came alive to me (Mt 18:23-35). The unjust servant owed an incredible sum of ten thousand talents to the king (a talent was more than fifteen years’ wages of a laborer). The king forgave him the debt. But the unjust servant did not forgive his fellow servant who owed him only a hundred denarii (the denarius was a day’s wage for a laborer). When I finally began to realize that my sins were so great that Jesus would have come down to earth and suffered and died on the cross to atone for my sins alone, I was more able to forgive the one who often humiliated me and criticized me and drove me into depression. I realized that this person has by nature a strong character like a bulldozer just as his father. I began to find real excuses for his behavior; he is a hard and generous worker; he gets a lot done. A person with this type of character very often does not realize how much he causes others to suffer. I could finally understand, what a good friend once told me, that I tended to analyze to much the difficult situations instead of seeing with the eyes of faith to believe that every situation that I found myself in came from a God who loves me immensely. I began to see that I had run from and tried to avoid the sufferings and crosses that Jesus had precisely given to me for my sanctification. With the help of the writings of the saints and especially holy people alive today, I began to recognize Jesus crucified specifically in this particular suffering and humiliation. Thus in a real sense I acted just like Saint Peter when he denied Jesus three times. I too went to Mary, as Peter did, which helped me to finally come back and pick up the crosses that I had abandoned so often in the past. I felt like St. Francis of Assisi who was able to overcome his aversion for the lepers. From the writings of the saints I am convinced that if we do not totally forgive those who have offended us, even very acutely, we run a very grave risk of loosing eternal life. I have now begun sending nice greetings to this person by email as well as being the first to say, with a smile on my face, hello to him when I see him. To take this step I also needed a lot more humility because by treating this person in a nice way, it seemed to me that I was admitting to him that he was right and I was wrong; I had held a type of grudge or vengeance in my heart (Mt 18:22; Rm 12:19). But after taking this step, Jesus gave me a new found peace which was accompanied by a greater interior freedom since I did not feel anymore the great need to avoid this person or others with a similar dictatorial or uncharitable character. If I do not love the disagreeable persons, what am I really offering up to God? (Mt 5:44-48) Perhaps God has given me more grace and thus expects more holiness of life from me (Lk 12:48)! When I die, I do not think that I would like to be judged as I had judged many people in the past who had caused me to suffer a great deal (Mt 7:1-2).

But beyond this particular example, I began to discover that all the crosses that I had avoided or abandoned in the past were actually the greatest gifts that Jesus had given me. I began to not only recognize Jesus crucified and abandoned on the cross in each and every suffering and sorrow but, with the grace of God, I began to be able to embrace and to even love these precious gifts that Jesus sends to me. “For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb 12:6). With the help of the charism of unity of Chiara Lubich it was revealed to me that Jesus crucified and abandoned on the cross, in person, hides himself behind every suffering and sorrow. Thus I gradually began to recognize, embrace and love Jesus crucified precisely in these difficult moments and situations and persons. I see better now that Christ crucified is the center of the universe, and how each of us react and deal with Christ crucified in our lives in the form of every kind of suffering and sorrow will determine where we will spend eternity, either in heaven or in hell. We are not computers in which one can change the program quickly and easily. It took me years of perseverance, with a lot of good will, to arrive at this conviction and understanding in the most fundamental truths of our faith; it took me even more time to live and put into practice what I had learned. The longest journey in the world is not the 25,000 miles around the earth but rather the 15 or so inches from the brain to the heart!

A good example of this discovery can be found in all of the saints, but I would like to very briefly give a striking example of how St. Teresa of the Child Jesus dealt with her sufferings. One morning St. Teresa woke up to discover that blood had come out of her mouth due to the tuberculosis that eventually lead to her death. St. Teresa did not say I had a mouth full of blood. Instead she said: “My Spouse has arrived.” She recognized Jesus precisely in her effusion of blood.

I have found a new freedom that I never had before. I understand much better now the writings and especially the example of so many saints regarding suffering in general. Not only St. Francis of Assisi or St. Padre Pio but all the saints. St. Rose of Lime wrote: “Would that mortal men might know how wonderful is divine grace, how beautiful, how precious; what riches are hidden therein, what treasures, what joys, what delights. If they but knew, surely they would direct their energy with all care and diligence to procuring sufferings and afflictions for themselves. Instead of good fortune all men everywhere would seek out troubles, illness and suffering that they might obtain the inestimable treasure of grace. This is the final profit to be gained from patient endurance. No one would complain about the cross or about hardships coming seemingly by chance upon him, if he realized in what balance they are weighed before being distributed to men.” These words are not just for “saints” as I once thought. They are words for everyone who loves Love Himself. It is not by chance that our all-knowing God chose the cross as the primary means of our salvation. If more people of good will would discover this profound truth, I believe there would be sold and consumed much less Prozac and Zyprexa as well as much less dependence on psychiatrists who are not able to even fathom these spiritual truths!

As my prayer life deepens and my walk with the Lord progresses, I can now thank God from the bottom of my heart for my difficult experiences because I have come to realize and believe that my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, “and him crucified” (1Cor 2:2), is the real eternal value, not a prestigious position or title or career or great projects, even Godly projects, as I once thought. These painful experiences helped me to detach myself from those things that end with this life, and to discover, appreciate and seek those things that last for eternity. I realize now that before these excruciating loses, God was not first in my life. More and more I am learning from Jesus and the saints to not wait for Jesus crucified to find me as I relax in my comfortable habitat, but to seek Him in the unpleasant persons, the sick and elderly, the AIDS victims, the drug addicts, the ones that the world has rejected or eliminated just as they rejected and tried to eliminate Jesus on the cross 2000 years ago. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta sought out and recognized her Spouse precisely in these outcasts and dying people on the streets of Calcutta and around the world.

With a renewed energy, I feel like I have only just begun. We have only one life which is so very short and eternity is so infinitely long! We have so little time here on earth to arrive at a greater intensity of love of Jesus who is Love and loves each of us immensely even to the point of dying on the cross for each one of us personally! As St. Francis once cried out even in the midst of tremendous suffering due to the stigmata: “Love is not loved!”

As St. Francis of Assisi also wrote, “When we give, we receive” (Lk 6:38) So encourage and give to others by sharing your spiritual gifts and experiences of living the Gospel with others, especially the concrete experiences of coming to recognize, to embrace and to love your Spouse. Alleluia!!!

Joseph Dwight

(Click on the photo of Joseph Dwight to go to the other blog sites.)