#he had the gift of bilocation

[krist-420]

Saint Padre Pio True Story Modern Day Miracle.There were some in the church that tried to discredit and stop him.

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Padre Pio

1887 - 1968

Feast Day: September 23

Patronage: Civil defense volunteers, Catholic adolescents

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, was a Capuchin Catholic priest from Italy. He was born Francesco Forgione, and given the name Pius when he joined the Capuchins, thus he is popularly known as Padre Pio. He became famous for bearing the stigmata. He also had the gift of reading souls and the ability to bilocate, among other supernatural phenomena. On 16 June 2002, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT PIO OF PIETRELCINA (Padre Pio) Feast Day: September 23

"Pray, hope, and don't worry."

Pio of Pietrelcina was born Francesco Forgione to Grazio Mario Forgione and Maria Giuseppa Di Nunzio, both were peasant farmers in Pietrelcina, a town in the province of Benevento, in the southern region of Campania, Italy on May 25, 1887. He had an older brother, Michele, and three younger sisters, Felicita, Pellegrina, and Grazia (who was later to become a Bridgettine nun).

At a young age, he made the decision to dedicate his life to God, and began a life of penance. One day after listening to a Capuchin friar, who was seeking donations in the countryside, he determined to become a religious priest.

In 1903, he entered the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, and took the name of Pio. After his ordination seven years later in 1910, he was assigned to the mountain convent of San Giovanni Rotondo, near Foggia, where he remained his whole life. Pio was endowed with exceptional spiritual gifts, such as reading the soul of his penitents, bilocation, experiencing heavenly visions and ecstasies. On the other hand, he was constantly afflicted with physical illness. He believed that the love of God is inseparable from suffering, and that suffering for the sake of God is the sure way to reach him. Pio was often obsessed by the devil, who terrified him with horrible screams and loud noises, or by burning and destroying the furniture of his room, or by brutally beating his body.

In 1910, Padre Pio received the stigmata of Our Lord: red marks appeared in his chest, hands and feet, accompanied by acute pain. At times, he also experienced the pain of the crowning with thorns and of the scourging.

Padre Pio died on September 23, 1968 in San Giovanni Rotondo at the age of 81, after making his last confession and renewing his Franciscan vows, while holding a rosary in his hands. Millions of pilgrims visited San Giovanni Rotondo during his lifetime, and many more afterwards. Pio was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on May 2, 1999, and canonized as a saint by the same pope on June 16, 2002 at the Vatican.

As Padre Pio had said: "After my death I will do more. My real mission will begin after my death."

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (October 16)

On October 16, we celebrate the feast of St. Gerard Majella.

St. Gerard was born on 6 April 1726 as the son of a tailor. He grew up about fifty miles south of Naples in Muro Lucano, Italy, in a large, poor family.

When Gerard was only 12, his father Dominic Majella entered eternal rest. Upon the death of his father, his mother, beholden to poverty, sent Gerard away to live with his uncle.

Gerard thereafter became an apprentice to a tailor. This tailor treated him well; however, the foreman treated him poorly.

After serving as a sewing apprentice for a couple years, he instead became a servant in the household of the bishop of Lacedonia, who was a cantankerous master.

Upon the death of the bishop in 1745, he returned home. At the age of 21, he became a journeyman.

He split his earnings for his mother and the poor, and made offerings for the holy souls in purgatory. Afterwards, he opened his own tailor shop.

At a young age, Gerard tried to join the local Capuchins, but he was turned down twice due to his youth and poor health.

He also tried to become a hermit but that too was not God's will for him.

He then entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in 1749 and professed of perpetual vows under the Redemptorist's founder, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, in 1751.

He served as tailor and infirmarian. He became known for his extraordinary supernatural gifts of bilocation, prophecy, ecstasies, visions, and infused knowledge.

Though not ordained to the holy order of priest, his spiritual direction and advice were sought by many among the clergy and communities of nuns, to which he also gave conferences.

He was most successful in converting sinners. He was also widely known for his sanctity and charity.

In 1754, he was calumniated and accused of lechery by a woman named Neria Caggiano.

Caggiano later admitted her charge was a lie. Even before she admitted to her falsehood, Gerard did not deny her charges.

As these charges were still up in the air, his superiors became suspicious, so they put him under surveillance and excluded him from communion for months until the girl admitted that she had lied.

When asked by Saint Alphonsus why he had kept silent in such circumstances, Gerard replied that he thought such patience was required in the face of unjust accusations.

As he bore this calumny with such humility and patience, Saint Alphonsus said, "Brother Gerard is a saint."

Gerard was sent to Naples soon after, but when the house was inundated by visitors wanting to see him, he was sent to Caposele a few months later.

He served as the porter there and ministered to the poor of the town. He spent the last few months of his life raising funds for new buildings at Caposele.

Just prior to his death, he visited his friends, the Pirofalo family. One of the daughters ran and called after him as he left the home, as he dropped his handkerchief.

Speaking through the gift of prophecy, he replied, "Keep it. It will be useful to you someday."

Years down the road, when this young woman was in danger of childbirth, she recalled these words of St. Gerard and requested the handkerchief.

The handkerchief was applied to her, thus a miracle: her pain immediately ceased and she gave birth to a healthy child.

St. Gerard died of tuberculosis on 16 October 1755 at the age of 29 in Caposele.

He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 29 January 1893. He was canonized by Pope Saint Pius X on 11 December 1904.

He is the patron saint of mothers, motherhood, expectant mothers, childbirth, children, pregnant women, unborn children, the pro-life movement, the falsely accused, good confessions, and lay brothers.

[lowcountry-gothic]

It was also said countless times that Julien had the gift of ‘bilocation,’ that is, he could be in two places at the same time. This story was widely circulated among the servants. Julien would appear to be in the library, for instance, but then would be sighted almost immediately in the back garden. Or a maidservant would see Julien go out the front door, and then turn around to see him coming down the stairway. More than one servant quit working at the First Street house rather than cope with the ‘strange Monsieur Julien.’ It has been speculated that appearances of Lasher might have been responsible for this confusion. Whatever the case, later descriptions of Lasher’s clothes bear a remarkable resemblance to those worn by Julien in two different portraits. Lasher as sighted throughout the twentieth century is inevitably dressed as Julien might have dressed in the 1870s and 1880s.

Anne Rice, The Witching Hour

[ricisidro]

#PadrePio #Pietrelcina

He is known for patient suffering, fervent prayer, and compassionate spiritual guidance. His advice on the practical application of theology is “Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry." He had spiritual gifts including the gifts of healing, bilocation, levitation, prophecy, miracles, extraordinary abstinence from both sleep and nourishment, the ability to read hearts, the ability to see and speak to angels, the gift of tongues, the gift of conversions, and the fragrance from his wounds — the *Stigmata of Jesus, (*5 Wounds of Jesus, on his Hands Feet & Side).

#God #Jesus #HolySpirit #Bible #Prayer #inspire #miracle #Healing #SundayMotivation #SundayMorning

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[thewahookid]

If True, the Consecration of Russia May at Last Be Drawing Near.

A Modern Mystic and Stigmatist

Some of The Fatima Center’s followers are undoubtedly familiar with the prediction made by the Roman mystic and stigmatist, Antonio Ruffini, about when the Consecration of Russia will at last take place.

By way of background, Antonio Ruffini was born in Rome on December 8, 1907, the eldest of three sons in a devout Catholic family known for its attentiveness to the poor. His mother died when he was very young. Having only a primary-school education, he learned from an early age to pray with his heart rather than from prayer books. By his report, Our Lord and Our Lady appeared to him for the first time when he was 17 years old. He received the stigmata (open puncture-wounds on his hands and feet) on August 12, 1951, after a vision which took place at a remote fountain along the Via Appia between Rome and Terracina. (Pope Pius XII later authorized the construction of a chapel on the site.)

From that time on, Ruffini gave himself entirely to the physical and spiritual assistance of mankind, especially the poor and sick. Having entered the Third Order of St. Francis, he lived a life of eminent sanctity under a vow of obedience, displaying perfect humility in spite of his manifest spiritual gifts (including not only the stigmata, but also bilocation). A further endorsement of the authenticity of Ruffini’s charisms exists in that the noted miracle-worker Father Giuseppe Tomaselli published a biography of him.

Antonio Ruffini died at age 92, on a date no less remarkable than that of his birth. Born on the Feast of Our Ladyʼs miraculous Conception, he died on that of Our Lordʼs – March 25, 1999.

A Little Known Prophecy

Now as to his prophecy about the Consecration of Russia, Ruffini was asked in the early 1990s if Pope John Paul II would ever relent from his refusals and heed Our Lady’s request for that act. He answered: “No, it will not be John Paul II. Neither will it be his immediate successor, but the one after that. He is the one who will consecrate Russia.”[1]

In recent years, the meaning of Ruffini’s statement has become more uncertain with the questions surrounding Benedict’s apparent abdication of the papacy and Francis’ claim to it. Nevertheless, either the second legitimate successor to John Paul II is on the papal throne or he will be in the near future.[2]

Meanwhile, however, in the absence of Heaven’s decisive intervention (which can only be had through the proper Consecration of Russia), the Mystery of Iniquity is making great strides toward the complete destruction of Christian society. We must maintain hope and continue to apply ourselves to the reparatory devotions which Our Lady of Fatima called for, but we must not entertain illusions about how dire our situation now is. Great suffering, including martyrdom, may well be in our near future.

St. Jacinta’s Vision

In her Third Memoir, Sister Lucia recorded a vision which Jacinta had witnessed, which Fatima scholars have long understood to be a glimpse of the end-scenario described by Our Lady, in a world and Church tragically devastated by war, hunger, and persecution. In the end, as Our Lady promised, this dark time will yield to Her glorious Triumph. A light will break forth in the long-desired fulfillment of Our Lady’s request for the Consecration of Russia:

“At another time, we went to the cave called Lapa do Cabeço. As soon as we got there, we prostrated on the ground, saying the prayers the Angel had taught us. After some time, Jacinta stood up and called to me: ‘Can’t you see all those highways and roads and fields full of people, who are crying with hunger and have nothing to eat? And the Holy Father in a church praying before the Immaculate Heart of Mary? And so many people praying with him?’ [Some days later, Jacinta asked Lucia:] ‘Can I say that I saw the Holy Father and all those people?’ ‘No. Don’t you see that that’s part of the Secret? If you do, they’ll find out right away!’”[3]

Given Lucia’s response to her cousin, this vision clearly pertains to the Great Secret of Fatima. It certainly seems reasonable to presume that the event depicted here – presided over by the Holy Father, in a church, before a statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with many people in attendance – is the long-awaited proper Consecration of Russia. If so, it is likewise reasonable to presume the Consecration will take place in the midst of great famine, a frequent consequence of revolution and war.[4]

Let us continue to pray and sacrifice ourselves for this intention, that the Consecration of Russia be accomplished in time to mitigate the full force of imminent wars, famines, mass devastation, and loss of souls.

ENDNOTES:

[1] This prophecy is pious and worthy of belief but not obligatory. It does not have formal approval from the Magisterium. See on The Fatima Center’s YouTube channel, from the Mystery of Iniquity Conference in Idaho, September 28-30, 2012, Q&A Session #1 (minute 42:32 to 49:20).

[2] Editor’s Note: We ask the reader to keep in mind that prior to its fulfillment prophecy is difficult to interpret, even if it appears self-evident. On the natural order, issues of language and translation can make them more abstruse. We have Ruffini’s prophecy in English, but that was not his mother tongue.

[3] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. II: The Secret and the Church (Buffalo, Immaculate Heart Publications, 1989), p. 117.

[4] Fr. Gruner was told by a source close to Sister Lucia that Our Lady assured her the Third Secret would one day be revealed during the course of a major war. To read more about this, please see the article “Why the Third Secret of Fatima Must Be Released Before Russia Can Be Consecrated” in The Fatima Crusader, Issue 130 (Spring 2023)

[ettawritesnstudies]

Hey! Happy Halloween/All Saints/All Souls day! Hope you're doing well!

17 for your All Hallows ask game!

Thank you and Happy Halloween to you too!

St. Faustina Kowalska had a truly amazing life is most famous for the Divine Mercy image:

She was the third of 10 kids in a poor family and wanted to enter the convent at 7 years old. In 1924 at age 19, she started seeing visions of Jesus, and left her home to travel to Warsaw, where she was turned away from several convents before joining the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. In 1933, she saw the vision of Jesus as seen in the above image, where he presented himself as the Divine King of Mercy, and asked her to become the apostle and secretary of God's mercy, to spread it to the world.

She kept a diary recording her visions throughout this time of her thoughts and prayers, and started searching for someone to paint the image, which was completed by Euguene Kazimierowski three years later. She also wrote down the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the Novena of Divine Mercy. Along with the visions, she also had the gifts of bilocation, reading souls, prophecy, and the receiving hidden Stigmata, which are the wounds of Christ that appeared on her body. Her diary was published under the name "Divine Mercy in my Soul" and it's so profound that there are several petitions to make her an official Doctor of the church.

She offered up her suffering through several chronic illnesses, including tuberculosis which eventually killed her, for the sake of other's redemption. Miracles of healing have occurred at her tomb, with people reporting hearing a voice saying "ask for my help, and I will help you."

St. Faustina, pray for us! Jesus, I trust in you.

All saints day asks

[charonte-simi]

I just discovered my new favorite person. A patron saint. Saint Drogo.

Patron saint of unattractive people, insanity, and mental illness (among others listed below)

Also known as Druon, Dreux, and Drogon.

His feast day is April 16, the same day on which he died in 1186 (also 3 days after my birthday!)

Born an orphan (his father died before he was born and his mother died during childbirth) and raised by his relatives. When he was 26 years old, he gave away his money and goods to the poor and renounced his possessions to live a life of poverty and penance.

He opted to live life as a shepherd to a wealthy woman named Elizabeth de la Haire and did so for 6 years. He turned out to be a very skilled shepherd, one who could read the weather and knew how to cure animals of their illnesses.

It was also rumored that he had the gift of bilocation, the ability to appear in two places simultaneously, and was reported being seen in both the fields and in the church at the same time.

Despite his relative obscurity, his charity and devotion earned him the esteem and affection of everyone. Many offered him gifts: which he in turn gave to the less fortunate.

To avoid all this unwanted attention however, he left town and went on pilgrimages. He is said to have traveled to Rome nine times, as well as visiting the main shrines of France and Italy on his journeys.

Unfortunately, a hernia put an end to his exploration, and he was reportedly stricken with an illness that made him physically repulsive. As a result he built a small cell against the wall of the church to reside in. He lived there in seclusion and prayer for forty-five years. He died A.D. 1186, at the age of eighty-one.

His patronage includes: coffee house keepers, bodily ills, broken bones, deaf people, muteness, dumbness, gall stones, hernias, ruptures, sickness/illness, insanity, mental illness, midwives, orphans, sheep, cattle, shepherds, unattractive people, those whom others find repulsive

[essence-of-femininity]

5 October - Saint Faustina Kowalska.

Is ”a gift from God for our times”, great mystic, mistress of spiritual life, prophet, who reminded the biblical truth about merciful love of God for every human being and calls to proclaim it to the world through the testimony of life, deed, word and prayer.

Apostle of Divine Mercy, Prophet of Our Times, Great Mystic, Mistress of Spiritual Life – these are the epithets usually appended to the name of Sister Faustyna Kowalska, St. Faustyna (Faustina), of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. Sister Faustina is one of the Church’s most popular and widely known saints and the greatest mystics in the history of the Church.

Sister Faustina was born on 25 August 1905 in Głogowiec, Poland to Marianna and Stanisław Kowalski as the third of ten children. Two days later she was baptized with the name Helena in the parish church of Świnice Warckie. At the age of nine, she made her first Holy Communion. She attended elementary school for merely three years and then she went to work as a housekeeper in various well–to–do families in Aleksandrów and Łódź. From the age of seven, she had felt the calling for religious vocation, but her parents would not give her permission to enter the convent. However, impelled by the vision of the Suffering Christ, in July 1924 she left for Warsaw to find a place. For another year she worked as a housekeeper to save some money for a modest monastic trousseau. On 1 August 1925 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw on Żytnia St.

She lived in the Congregation for thirteen years, staying in many houses, the longest time (she spent) in Kraków, Płock and Vilnius; working as a cook, shop assistant in baker’s shop, gardener, and portress. She suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and alimentary system and that is why for over 8 months stayed at the hospital in Kraków – Prądnik. Greater sufferings from those which were caused by tuberculosis, she offered as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners and as the Apostle of Divine Mercy. She experienced also many extraordinary graces such as: apparitions, ecstasies, the gift of bilocation, hidden stigmata, reading into human souls, the mystical betrothal and nuptials.

Sister Faustina’s principal task was to pass on to the Church and world the Message of Mercy, a recapitulation of the Biblical truth of God’s Merciful Love for every human being, and a calling to each of us to entrust our lives to Him and to actively love our neighbour. Jesus not only revealed the depth of His Mercy to St. Faustina, but also gave her new forms of worship: the picture inscribed Jesus, I trust in You, the Feast of Divine Mercy, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and the Prayer in the Hour of His Death on the Cross, the Hour of Mercy. To each of these forms of worship, as well as to the preaching of the message of Mercy, He attached great promises, on condition that we care about the attitude of trust in God that is to fulfill His will and show mercy to our neighbours.

Sister Faustina died in Krakow on October 5, 1938, at the age of just thirty–three. Out of her charism and mystical experience grew the Apostolic Movement of the Divine Mercy which continues her mission, proclaiming the message of Mercy to the world through the testimony of life, deed, words and prayer. On April 18, 1993, the Holy Father John Paul II raised her to the glory of the altars and on April 30, 2000, numbered her among the saints of the Church. Her relics are in the Shrine of the Divine Mercy at Łagiewniki, Kraków.

The Holy Father John Paul II wrote that in the age of totalitarianisms Sister Faustina became the ambassador of the message that the only power strong enough to counteract their evil is the truth of God’s Mercy. He called her Diary a Gospel of Mercy written from a 20th-century perspective, which has helped people to survive the extremely painful experiences of these times. This message, Pope Benedict XVI has said, the message of Mercy as the Divine Power, as God putting a check on all the world’s evil, is indeed the chief message of our times.

[alwaysabeautifullife]

Who's your favorite saint? Mine is probably Agatha of Sicily

My fav is St. Martin De Porres!! You’ll have to read on him because there are SO MANY reasons he’s awesome here’s a small quote “Martin was praised for his unconditional care of all people, regardless of race or wealth. He took care of everyone from the Spanish nobles to the African slaves. Martin didn't care if the person was diseased or dirty, he would welcome them into his own home. Martin's life reflected his great love for God and all of God's gifts. It is said he had many extraordinary abilities, including aerial flights, bilocation, instant cures, miraculous knowledge, spiritual knowledge and an excellent relationship with animals. Martin also founded an orphanage for abandoned children and slaves and is known for raising dowry for young girls in short amounts of time.”

He reminds me of St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Francis combined but some how cooler....(don’t tell them I said that)

[anastpaul]

Another Saint of the Day – 16 October – St Gerard Majella C.Ss.R. (1726-1755) Religious Lay Brother of the Congregation of the Redeemer, better known as the Redemptorists, Apostle of the Holy Eucharist, Apostle of Charity, known as a Thaumaturge, a Saint who works miracles not just occasionally but as a matter of course.    Born on 23 April 1725 at Muro, Italy as Gerardo Maiella and died on 16 October 1755 at Caposele, Provincia di Avellino, Campania, Italy of tuberculosis, aged just 29.   Patronages – children (and unborn children in particular); childbirth; mothers (and expectant mothers in particular); motherhood; falsely accused people; good confessions; lay brothers; tennis ball football, head boys and Muro Lucano, Italy. 

St Gerard was born in Muro Lucano, Basilicata, the youngest of five children.   He wanted very much to receive Holy Communion at the age of seven and went to the Communion railing one day with the others but the priest, seeing his age, passed him up; and he went back to his place in tears.   The following night, Saint Michael the Archangel brought him the Communion he so much desired.   His tailor father died when Gerard was twelve, leaving the family in poverty.   His mother then sent him to her brother so that he could teach Gerard to sew and follow in his father’s footsteps.   However, the foreman was abusive.   The boy kept silent but his uncle soon found out and the man who taught him resigned from the job.   After four years of apprenticeship, he took a job as a servant to work for the local Bishop of Lacedonia.   Upon the bishop’s death, Gerard returned to his trade, working first as a journeyman and then on his own account.   He divided his earnings between his mother and the poor and in offerings for the souls in Purgatory.

He tried to join the Capuchin Order but his health prevented it.   He had acquired a reputation of sanctity and finally, when he was 23 years old, he obtained the aid of some missionaries to second his request and was admitted as a Coadjutor of the newly founded Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as Redemptorists, in 1749.  The order was founded in 1732 by Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787 Doctor of the Church) at Scala, near Naples.   The essentially missionary order is dedicated to “preaching the word of God to the poor.”   Its apostolate is principally in giving of missions and retreats.

During his life, he was very close to the peasants and other outsiders who lived in the Neapolitan countryside.   In his work with the Redemptorist community, he was variously gardener, sacristan, tailor, porter, cook, carpenter and clerk of works on the new buildings at Caposele.

At 27, the good-looking Majella became the subject of a malicious rumour.   An acquaintance, Neria, accused him of having had relations with a young woman.   When confronted by St Alphonsus Liguori, the founder, on the accusations, the young lay brother remained silent.   The girl later recanted and cleared his name.

Some of Majella’s reported miracles include restoring life to a boy who had fallen from a high cliff, blessing the scanty supply of wheat belonging to a poor family and making it last until the next harvest and several times multiplying the bread that he was distributing to the poor.   One day, he walked across the water to lead a boatload of fishermen through stormy waves to the safety of the shore.   He was reputed to have had the gift of bilocation and the ability to read souls.

Once he conducted a group of students on a nine-day pilgrimage to Mount Gargano, where the Archangel Michael had appeared.   They had very little money for the tri, and when they arrived at the site, there was none left.   Gerard went before the Tabernacle and told Our Lord that it was His responsibility to take care of the little group.   He had been observed in the church by a religious, who invited the Saint and his companions to lodge in his residence.   When the party was ready to start home again, Gerard prayed once more, and immediately someone appeared and gave him a roll of bills.

His last will was a small note on the door of his cell:   “Here the will of God is done, as God wills and as long as God wills.”   He died at 29 of tuberculosis.

One miracle in particular explains how Majella became known as the special patron of mothers.   A few months before his death, he visited the Pirofalo family and accidentally dropped his handkerchief.    One of the Pirofalo girls spotted the handkerchief moments after he had left the house and she ran after Gerard to return it.  “Keep it,” he said to her. “You may need it some day.”   Years later when the girl, now a married woman, was on the verge of losing her life in childbirth, she remembered the words of the saintly lay brother.   She asked for the handkerchief to be brought to her.   Almost immediately, the pain disappeared and she gave birth to a healthy child.   That was no small feat in an era when only one out of three pregnancies resulted in a live birth and word of the miracle spread quickly.

Because of the miracles that God worked through Gerard’s prayers with mothers, the mothers of Italy took Gerard to their hearts and made him their patron.   At the process of his beatification, one witness testified that he was known as “il santo dei felice parti,” “the saint of happy childbirths.”   It is a well-known patronage and many miracles still occur.    The St Gerard Majella Annual Novena takes place every year in St Josephs Church, Dundalk, Ireland.   This annual nine-day novena is the biggest festival of faith in Ireland.   St Joseph’s sponsors the St Gerard’s Family League, an International Association of Christians united in prayer for their own and other families, to preserve Christian values in their home and family life.   Since his death in 1775, countless favours and miracles have been granted and worked through his intercession. As well as the patron of a good confession, he has been invoked as a constant source of help and inspiration to parents.

St Gerard was Beatified in Rome on 29 January 1893, by Pope Leo XIII. He was Canonised less than twelve years later on 11 December 1904, by St Pope Pius X.

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Padre Pio (C)

1887 - 1968

Feast Day: September 23

Patronage: Civil defense volunteers, Catholic adolescents

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, was a Capuchin Catholic priest from Italy. He was born Francesco Forgione, and given the name Pius when he joined the Capuchins, thus he is popularly known as Padre Pio. He became famous for bearing the stigmata. He also had the gift of reading souls and the ability to bilocate, among other supernatural phenomena. On 16 June 2002, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II. 

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT FAUSTINA KOWALSKA The Apostle of the Divine Mercy Feast Day: October 5

"Love endures everything. Love is stronger than death. Love fears nothing."

Saint Faustina is 'a gift from God for our times', great mystic, mistress of spiritual life, prophet, who reminded the biblical truth about merciful love of God for every human being and calls to proclaim it to the world through the testimony of life, deed, word and prayer.

Apostle of Divine Mercy, Prophet of Our Times, Great Mystic, Mistress of Spiritual Life – these are the epithets usually appended to the name of Sister Faustyna Kowalska, St. Faustyna (Faustina), of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. Sister Faustina is one of the Church’s most popular and widely known saints and the greatest mystics in the history of the Church.

Sister Faustina was born on August 25, 1905 in Głogowiec, Poland to Marianna and Stanisław Kowalski as the third of ten children. Two days later she was baptized with the name Helena in the parish church of Świnice Warckie. At the age of nine, she made her first Holy Communion. She attended elementary school for merely three years and then she went to work as a housekeeper in various well–to–do families in Aleksandrów and Łódź. From the age of seven, she had felt the calling for religious vocation, but her parents would not give her permission to enter the convent. However, impelled by the vision of the Suffering Christ, in July 1924 she left for Warsaw to find a place. For another year she worked as a housekeeper to save some money for a modest monastic trousseau. On August 1, 1925, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw on Żytnia St.

She lived in the Congregation for thirteen years, staying in many houses, the longest time (she spent) in Kraków, Płock and Vilnius; working as a cook, shop assistant in baker's shop, gardener, and portress. She suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and alimentary system and that is why for over 8 months stayed at the hospital in Kraków – Prądnik. Greater sufferings from those which were caused by tuberculosis, she offered as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners and as the Apostle of Divine Mercy. She experienced also many extraordinary graces such as: apparitions, ecstasies, the gift of bilocation, hidden stigmata, reading into human souls, the mystical betrothal and nuptials.

Sister Faustina's principal task was to pass on to the Church and world the Message of Mercy, a recapitulation of the Biblical truth of God's Merciful Love for every human being, and a calling to each of us to entrust our lives to Him and to actively love our neighbour. Jesus not only revealed the depth of His Mercy to St. Faustina, but also gave her new forms of worship: the picture inscribed, 'Jesus, I trust in You, the Feast of Divine Mercy, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and the Prayer in the Hour of His Death on the Cross, the Hour of Mercy.' To each of these forms of worship, as well as to the preaching of the message of Mercy, He attached great promises, on condition that we care about the attitude of trust in God that is to fulfill His will and show mercy to our neighbours.

Sister Faustina died in Krakow on October 5, 1938, at the age of just thirty–three. Out of her charism and mystical experience grew the Apostolic Movement of the Divine Mercy which continues her mission, proclaiming the message of Mercy to the world through the testimony of life, deed, words and prayer. On April 18, 1993, the Holy Father John Paul II raised her to the glory of the altars and on April 30, 2000, numbered her among the saints of the Church. Her relics are in the Shrine of the Divine Mercy at Łagiewniki, Kraków.

The Holy Father John Paul II wrote that in the age of totalitarianisms Sister Faustina became the ambassador of the message that the only power strong enough to counteract their evil is the truth of God's Mercy. He called her Diary a Gospel of Mercy written from a 20th-century perspective, which has helped people to survive the extremely painful experiences of these times.

This message, Pope Benedict XVI has said: 'The message of Mercy as the Divine Power, as God putting a check on all the world’s evil, is indeed the chief message of our times.'

Source: The Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy (Lakeville, MA)

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (October 16)

On October 16, we celebrate the feast of St. Gerard Majella.

Gerard was born the son of a tailor on 6 April 1726.

He grew up in a large, poor family about fifty miles south of Naples in Muro Lucano, Italy.

When Gerard was only 12, his father Dominic Majella entered eternal rest. 

Upon the death of his father, his mother, beholden to poverty, sent Gerard away to live with his uncle.

Gerard then became an apprentice to a tailor. This tailor treated him well, however, the foreman treated him poorly.

After serving as a sewing apprentice for a couple years, he instead became a servant in the household of the bishop of Lacedonia, who was a cantankerous master.

Upon the death of the bishop in 1745, he returned home. At the age of 21, he became a journeyman.

He split his earnings for his mother and the poor, then made offerings for the holy souls in purgatory. Afterwards, he opened his own tailor shop.

At a young age, Gerard tried to join the local Capuchins, but he was turned down twice due to his youth and poor health.

He also tried to become a hermit but that too was not God's will for him.

He then entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in 1749 and professed of perpetual vows under the Redemptorist's founder, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, in 1751.

He served as tailor and infirmarian. He became known for his extraordinary supernatural gifts of bilocation, prophecy, ecstasies, visions, and infused knowledge.

Though not ordained to the holy order of priest, his spiritual direction and advice were sought by many among the clergy and communities of nuns, to which he also gave conferences.

He was most successful in converting sinners, and was widely known for his sanctity and charity.

In 1754, he was calumniated and accused of lechery by a woman named Neria Caggiano.

Caggiano later admitted her charge was a lie. Even before she admitted to her falsehood, Gerard did not deny her charges.

As these charges were still up in the air, his superiors became suspicious, so they put him under surveillance and excluded him from communion for months until the girl admitted that she had lied.

When asked by Saint Alphonsus why he had kept silent in such circumstances, Gerard replied that he thought such patience was required in the face of unjust accusations.

As Gerard bore this calumny with such humility and patience, Saint Alphonsus said, "Brother Gerard is a saint."

He was sent to Naples soon after, but when the house was inundated by visitors wanting to see him, he was sent to Caposele a few months later.

He served as the porter there and ministered to the poor of the town.

He spent the last few months of his life raising funds for new buildings at Caposele.

Just prior to his death, he visited his friends, the Pirofalo family.

One of the daughters ran and called after him as he left the home, as he dropped his handkerchief.

Speaking through the gift of prophecy, he replied, "Keep it. It will be useful to you someday."

Years down the road, when this young woman was in danger of childbirth, she recalled these words of Gerard and requested the handkerchief.

The handkerchief was applied to her, thus a miracle: her pain immediately ceased and she gave birth to a healthy child.

Gerard died of tuberculosis on 16 October 1755 at the age of 29 in Caposele.

He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 29 January 1893. He was canonized by Pope Saint Pius X on 11 December 1904.

He is the patron saint of mothers, motherhood, expectant mothers, childbirth, children, pregnant women, unborn children, the pro-life movement, the falsely accused, good confessions, and lay brothers.

[blue-opossum]

A Rose Encased in Glass

        2 minutes 12 seconds to read.

        Sunday morning, 6 February 1972.

        A Rose Encased in Glass

        Dream # 1,875-04.

        I am standing at the front of my fifth-grade classroom in the late morning, to the left of the teacher's desk and facing the seated students. My classmates are gazing toward the front of the room. However, no one acknowledges my presence or seems to see me. There is a sense that it is the last day of school. Danny Hollingsworth is standing on my right, closer to the other students. He seems very happy.

        An unfamiliar male teacher gives him an award for an unknown accomplishment. It is a red rose in a rectangular prism made of glass. Despite his gratitude upon receiving the award, I recognize that it is an act of mockery. I sense a couple of classmates (including John Cavas) snickering at Danny's "award."

        "Thank you," Danny cheerfully says.

        "It's dusty," he says without changing his happy mood.

        He blows on the top of the rectangular prism. An overpowering wind carries dust that covers the other students. Time seems to flow rapidly, 50 years swirling by in a second, to present a scene of old business people (seemingly close to death) seated around a large rectangular table (still in the classroom but with a sense of bilocation). (They eventually seem mummified.) The event had not affected me. I am only a spectator. I sense Susan Cavas had been a real estate agent.

        Dream Content Errors:

        Danny was not in my fifth-grade class, only in previous grades.

        The rose and prism were of an unrealistic size, at least a foot high, perhaps caused by a zoomed-in superimposition that my dreams often provide.

        Causality and Meaning:

        Wind often implies the passage of time and a "glimpse into the future" (as here), depending on other content.

        The rose encased in glass; and the immobile business people are indicators of intuitive, metacognitive, or lucid associations with REM atonia (the natural paralysis while sleeping that occurs throughout all dreaming). This fundamental causality of dream narratives occurs whether or not there is any other related factor.

        Influences:

        One influence was the joke where a teacher asks a student what their favorite flower is. They respond with, "chrysanthemum." When the teacher asks them to spell it, they say they like "roses" more. Another dream integrated this gag and included the ending line without the joke's inference.

        Danny had a feminine personality and manner, and other classmates sometimes teased him for it.

        Enigmatic Content:

        In the next grade (in middle school in a different building), a female classmate, Lorilee, mocked me by giving me baby blocks and other baby toys tied together with string for the classroom's Christmas gift exchange (where students had randomly drawn names). (It was because she was obsessed with my "oversized baby teeth," and ironically, she was in dentistry years later.) When she was about fifty, she claimed to have no memory of her life until recently (though because of trauma and drugs, apparently). To read a strange news story regarding that classmate, use the Google search for "A dilemma carved in wood" in quotes.

        Years after this dream (after I had lived in Wisconsin for years), I learned that Susan (who remained in Florida) had become a real estate agent.