O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church ... give us holy priests. You yourself maintain them in holiness.
O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares, which are continually being set for the souls of priests.
May the power of Your Mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priest, for You can do all things. - St. Faustina (Diary, 1052)
Do you ever find yourself wondering how to reply to some comments you encounter? You know the answers, but for some reason when you are finally presented the chance to answer in a logical and charitable way, you find yourself stumbling. Fr. Timothy Henderson has short, simple and yet extremely helpful answers for those unexpectedly tough questions:
“If God is a loving God, why can’t gay people be married if they love each other? Doesn’t God want them to be happy?
Why does the church hate gay people?”
Part of the problem is that people put the onus on God instead of looking at the behaviors.
(1) Homosexuality is disordered. It has been believed/known to be so for 5,000 years. It is this world in its brokenness that suddenly wants to change this. Societies that have allowed this to be installed as an institution have not lasted, and it is a marked sign of its decline. See the Roman Empire. There are other symptoms as well… for example the use of mercenaries… which by the way, the U.S. now employs a lot of mercenaries…
(2) Look at our own bodies… you have remarked on the complementarity of the sexes physically, but also emotionally. But looking at the physicality itself, particularly among males, the body was never meant to do what some of these acts do, and the tearing of the flesh was responsible for the transmission of AIDS in the 1980s and why it became so widespread. AND it took several years before it began affecting the heterosexual population in a meaningful way.
Even without AIDS, the body is clearly NOT meant to act in this way, but is rather ordered to the coming together of male and female.
(3) As you already state, Marriage is for the procreation of children as much as it is the development of the spouses, and even a heterosexual couple, if they are perpetually incapable of performing those acts which can bring about children, are not allowed to marry. A soldier who has taken damage for example and is either without or has damage that prevents the body from acting in that capacity. A man or a woman who finds their spouse so physically repulsive that he or she cannot act physical (and it does happen). They are in effect impotent. Such people are not allowed to marry. If a person cannot perform the act with life giving effect, they are not allowed to marry whether heterosexual or homosexual. It is the performance of the act that is the key… not the fertility of the act… that is important to differentiate.
(4) God indeed does love everyone, but love does not allow someone to act in a disordered way, but rather always points to acting in a wholesome life-giving way.
The Church does not hate such people, on the contrary, it demands that people help people with same sex attraction to carry their heavy cross by real friendships and moral support… not for acting on their attraction but to act as Christians before God.
(5) There is a brand new study which shows same sex parents do have adverse effects on the rearing of children. The homosexual community has gone out of their way to attack that study, but the University of Texas and all reviews of the study show the methods used to come to this conclusion follows the norms for Behavior Science Studies…
“The Catholic Church just has too many rules..”
(1) Rules are the limit one may go without hurting another. A good question to lay on them is: name one thing that is a ‘rule’ of the Church that if you do not follow it, people will not be hurt.
(2) The Lord does not want rules, as much as He wants a converted heart. Those who just follow rules are at the lowest strata of following God. In other words, ‘what little must I do to get to heaven?’ Such people really set themselves up for disaster.
When God moves people along in morality, His first move is to lead a soul to see the ugliness of sin and its effects. The second move is show the beauty of TRUE Charity: acting for the good of the other for no other reason than the sake of the other; willing the good of the other for the sake of the other.
The third move of God is to fire one’s virtue into steel is to remove physical comforts.
The fourth move of God is to remove spiritual comforts… this proves one’s Faithfulness to both Charity and love of God for the sake of loving God and neighbor.
God moves people away from rules to True Charity… but True Charity NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER violates the moral rules…
“I don’t like the Homilies that my priest gives.”
Then tell him what you need to hear… so long as you are not doing this to AVOID hearing tough words… There is no recourse to someone who does not want to hear the TRUE Gospel.
I personally offer this option to work on subjects to my people AND very FEW take me up on it.
Bishop Paprocki Weighs In On The Fraudulent Religious Freedom And Marriage Fairness Act.
Please read Bishop Paprocki’s letter addressing the legalization of so-called “gay marriage.” It will be read at all masses in his Springfield, Illinois diocese this coming Sunday.
Please “share” with your friends and family as this message must be heard!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Our state’s elected lawmakers will soon consider a bill called“The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.”A more fraudulent title for this dangerous measure could not be imagined. The proposed law is, in truth, a grave assault upon both religious liberty and marriage. All people of goodwill, and especially Christ’s faithful committed to my pastoral care in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, should resolutely oppose this bill and make their opinions known to their representatives.
The pending bill would, for the first time in our state’s history, redefine marriage to legally recognize same-sex “marriages.” But neither two men nor two women – nor, for that matter, three or more people – can possibly form a marriage. Our law would be lying if it said they could.
The basic structure of marriage as the exclusive and lasting relationship of a man and a woman, committed to a life which is fulfilled by having children, is given to us in human nature, and thus by nature’s God. Notwithstanding the vanity of human wishes, every society in human history – including every society untouched by Jewish or Christian revelation – has managed to grasp this profound truth about human relationships and happiness: marriage is the union of man and woman.
The bill’s sponsors maintain it would simply extend marriage to some people who have long been arbitrarily excluded from it. They are wrong. The pending bill would not expand the eligibility-roster for marriage. It would radically redefine what marriage is – for everybody.
It would enshrine in our law – and thus in public opinion and practice – three harmful ideas:
1) What essentially makes a marriage is romantic-emotional union.
2) Children don’t need both a mother and father.
3) The main purpose of marriage is adult satisfactions.
These ideas would deepen the sexual revolution’s harms on all society. After all, if marriage is an emotional union meant for adult satisfactions, why should it be sexually exclusive? Or limited to two? Or pledged to permanence?If children don’t need both their mother and father, why should fathers stick around when romance fades? As marriage is redefined, it becomes harder for people to see the point of these profoundly important marital norms, to live by them, and to encourage others to do the same. The resulting instability hurts spouses, but also – and especially – children, who do best when reared by their committed mother and father.
Indeed, children’s need – and right – to be reared by the mother and father whose union brought them into being explains why our law has recognized marriage as a conjugal partnership – the union of husband and wife – at all. Our lawmakers have understood that marriage is naturally oriented to procreation, to family. Of course, marriage also includes a committed, intimate relationship of a sort which some same-sex couples (or multiple lovers in groups of three or more) could imitate. But our law never recognized and supported marriage in order to regulate intimacy for its own sake. The reason marriage is recognized in civil law at all (as ordinary friendships, or other sacraments, are not) is specific to the committed, intimate relationships of people of opposite-sex couples: they are by nature oriented to having children. Their love-making acts are life-giving acts.
Same-sex relationships lack this unique predicate of state recognition and support. Even the most ideologically blinded legislator cannot change this natural fact: the sexual acts of a same-sex couple (regardless of how one views them morally) are simply not of the type that yield the gift of new life. So they cannot extend a union of hearts by a true bodily union. They cannot turn a friendship into the one-flesh union of marriage. They are not marital. This is not just a Christian idea, but one common to every major religious tradition and our civilization’s great philosophical traditions, beginning with ancient Greece and Rome.
The pending bill is not only a dangerous social experiment about marriage. It is also a lethal attack upon religious liberty. This so-called “religious freedom” would not stop the state from obligating the Knights of Columbus to make their halls available for same-sex “weddings.” It would not stop the state from requiring Catholic grade schools to hire teachers who are legally “married” to someone of the same sex. This bill would not protect Catholic hospitals, charities, or colleges, which exclude those so “married” from senior leadership positions. Nor would it protect me, the Bishop of Springfield, if I refused to employ someone in a same-sex “marriage” who applied to the Diocese for a position meant to serve my ministry as your bishop. This “religious freedom” law does nothing at all to protect the consciences of people in business, or who work for the government.We saw the harmful consequences of deceptive titles all too painfully last year when the so-called “Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act” forced Catholic Charities out of foster care and adoption services in Illinois.
These threats do not raise a question about drafting a better law, one with more extensive conscience protections. There is no possible way – none whatsoever – for those who believe that marriage is exclusively the union of husband and wife to avoid legal penalties and harsh discriminatory treatment if the bill becomes law. Why should we expect it be otherwise? After all, we would be people who, according to the thinking behind the bill, hold onto an “unfair” view of marriage. The state would have equated our view with bigotry – which it uses the law to marginalize in every way short of criminal punishment.
The only way to protect religious liberty, and to preserve marriage, is to defeat this perilous proposal. Please make sure our elected representatives understand that and know that they will be held to account.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki
Bishop of Springfield in Illinois
Pope Leo XIII’s Long Version Of The Saint Michael Prayer.
“O Glorious Prince of the heavenly host, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle and in the terrible warfare that we are waging against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits. Come to the aid of man, whom Almighty God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of Satan.
“Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven. That cruel, ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.
“These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where the See of Holy Peter and the Chair of Truth has been set up as the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be.
“Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious power of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly find mercy in the sight of the Lord; and vanquishing the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.
V. Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.
R. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered the root of David.
V. Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.
R. As we have hoped in Thee.
V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto Thee.
Let us pray.
O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as supplicants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin Immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious St. Michael the Archangel, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all the other unclean spirits who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of souls. Amen.
Well, the response has been overwhelming. I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for the work you did in sharing this book. Don’t you think it’s kind of strange, to launch a book which took so much work to put together, just to give it away. We even received complaints about how we were giving it away. (Honestly, I am guilty of going over the top sometimes. My wife, Jeff and Dan have to reel me in. Mea Culpa!) Also, please forgive our irregularity of posting this past week or so.
The book did reach best seller status, with over 3,000 people claiming their own free copy. We also had over 3,200 people join our new Facebook community in less than one month of the launch. Please join Dan’s and my new community by liking The Immaculate Conception of Mary. When you join please include which priest you want prayers for.
Important! You don’t need a Kindle to read the book.
You can still read it on your own computer after you download one of Amazon’s free online readers. Don’t worry, the free Amazon reader is safe, secure and won’t take up much space. It’s quick, about two clicks and you’re done.
Once you download your reader, then click HERE for the free book The Ultimate Saints Guide to the Immaculate Conception. The cool part is now you can download thousands of Kindle books that Amazon promotes for free.
“Canton Mom” gave the best ranked review to date. Thank you everyone for the great reviews so far.
Fabulous behind the scenes look at the life of Mary’s parents and Mary’s life that we don’t read in the Bible. It adds to our understanding of the way Salvation History came about and it goes right along with what you would expect from God based on Old Testament stories like Abraham, Isaac, and many others. It is fabulous that we have been given the gift of getting a look into these lives through the eyes of saints. It is an awesome resource and a great read for anyone who loves Mary or is curious about Mary and why we believe what we do about her.
I just checked and we have reached our highest ranking so far. Our Mother Mary has been good to us.
Our ranking as of 12/31/2012. This puts us in top 96% of Amazon’s Promotional Book
In a previous post, I believe a mistake was made. I don’t think we had a 90,000 jump in rankings. One was for the paid Kindle store and the other was for the free Kindle store. That was an oversight on my part. Still it is over a 7,000 jump in rankings for a brand new book, with unknown authors and competing in other highly competitive markets.
In this book you will discover:
The ultimate proof of the Immaculate Conception.
Our Lady’s own description of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, as revealed by Saint Bridget of Sweden.
The virtually unknown story of Sts. Joachim and Ann, and their unique role in salvation history.
Arguably the best apologetic work on the Immaculate Conception by St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church. This hidden gem has been read by only a handful of Catholics worldwide.
Definitive proof that the Immaculate Conception of Mary was proclaimed since the beginning of the Church. Discover, first hand, the oral traditions of the Early Church and Her teachings.
Have a blessed New Year,
John Quinn
P.S. Just so you know, this book is the first in a new series. “The Ultimate Saints Guide to . . .” I can’t wait to get this one out in hardback and to launch our next one, The Ultimate Saints Guide to Faith. Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated as we discern our next step.
The Ultimate Saints Guide to the Immaculate Conception is still Free, but ends soon.
If you haven’t already, please get your free book at Amazon (Click Here). It ends this Monday, December 31st. BTW. You don’t need a Kindle (read below), you can quickly, securely and easily download it on your computer.
Well, I asked you share and promote The Ultimate Saints Guide to the Immaculate Conception. What can I exclaim, but “wow!” Thank you, thank you and THANK YOU! To say that we are blown away is an understatement. Our Mother has greatly exceeded any expectations we had. We are honored and humbled.
Here are the stats.
Kindle store rank: 91,817 when we started. We are now ranked 505 + or – some. That’s a 91,312 jump. (If you are reading this in an email please make sure you allow for images.)
Ranking as of December 22. We were much higher.
We are currently the number best seller in the Kindle Store for Mariology and Devotionals. We were ranked in the 30′s for Mariology and in the 60′s for Devotionals. So, I am not sure how big of a jump it really is.
5 days late to reach # 1. Compare the Kindle Store Rank
The devotional ranking really came as a surprise.
Our current Kindle rank is 505.
Here is the biggest question we have had.
“But I Don’t own a Kindle?”
No problem. You can still read it on your own computer after you download one of Amazon’s free online readers. Don’t worry, the free Amazon reader is safe, secure and won’t take up much space. It’s quick, about two clicks and you’re done.
Once you download your reader, then click HERE for the free book The Ultimate Saints Guide to the Immaculate Conception. The cool part is now you can download thousands of Kindle books that Amazon promotes for free.
P.P.S. We have six glowing reviews so far. Could you add another?. It makes a HUGE difference and is an excellent way to increase devotion to the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
Abortion is the ultimate crime. Other crimes can be perpetuated for some profit or gain. But there is no gain in abortion, except a lifetime of pathetic quiet. Other crimes can be provided by some deadly passion, like lust, or anger or revenge. But there is no real passion in abortion, except an idolatrous self-love or inhuman self-will.
The killing of innocent unborn children goes back to the dawn of recorded history. In the Roman Empire, at the dawn of Christianity, there were no laws prohibiting abortion. The one effective control was to allow the husband to impose the death penalty on his wife if she aborted a child without his permission. Every husband had the right to order his wife to abort if he did not want the child. The father had a legal right to demand that his wife abort if he told her to, and Roman law backed him in insisting that his wife should abort an unborn child.
There the matter stood until Christ came into the world. With His coming, His invitation to “let the children come to me” took on a cosmic significance that world historians are only now beginning to recognize.
Abortion, An Abominable Crime
A person’s index of morality can be gauged on where he or she stands on the practice of abortion.
For those who really believe in Christ and are Catholic in reality, and not only in name, abortion is a detestable crime. It is a criminal attack not only on the innocent human beings who are murdered in their mother’s wombs. It is a savage attack against the rights of God.
God alone can create a human soul, which He does every time a child is conceived. The father and mother provide the human body but God creates the human soul Himself. He must produce out of nothing, the human soul, which He infuses into the fertilized ovum at the moment of conception.
What makes abortion so criminal is its cruelty against the unborn child and its flagrant violation of the most fundamental rights and practice towards God. He alone may decide who is to be conceived and born. He alone determines how long an unborn child is to remain in the womb. He alone may terminate human life, whether unborn or born. Why? Because He is Master and Lord of His rational creatures whom He wants to glorify their Creator here on earth as a condition for their eternal beatitude in the world to come.
Reparation for Abortion
The very word, “reparation”, has meaning only for a believing Christian.
As followers of the Christ, we believe that God became man precisely to redeem us from sin by suffering and dying on the cross for our salvation.
But we are Catholic’s and not Protestants. We believe that these graces necessary for salvation have to be obtained from God, through Christ, in the way that Christ has determined to confer blessings on sinful children of Adam and Eve.
Among all the conditions determined by our Lord, none is more effective for obtaining divine mercy than the Sacrifice of the Mass.
This is only to be expected. In the Mass, it is the same identical Jesus who died on Calvary, who is now offering Himself for us in an un-bloody manner. Every Mass is a re-enactment of Calvary. Jesus is really and truly on the altar, made really present by the words of consecration of the priest.
In the double consecration, Jesus tells us He is ready to die for us, if He could. On the Cross His blood separated from His body causing His death. In the Mass, the separate consecration symbolizes His willingness to shed His blood for our salvation. But He is now immortal and can no longer die. Yet, what an important “YET”, He would die if He could. So much did He love us on Calvary, so much does He love us now in our day.
As defined by the Council of Trent, the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered, “For sins, for punishment for sins, and for reparation.”
The Sacrifice of the Mass does not remove the guilt of sins immediately by conferring the grace of repentance, as happens in the Sacrament of Baptism and Penance.
Rather, the Mass obtains for sinners the grace of repentance. They are enlightened to recognize their sinful state, and inspired to return to the God from whom they had strayed
Graces of Repentance for Abortionists
By abortionists we here mean everyone who in any way is responsible for the murder of an unborn human being.
By the graces of reparation, we mean the light and strength that abortionists need to be reconciled with a deeply offended God.
Light for the Mind
All sin, as all virtue, finally depends on the will. The crime of abortion is no exception. A woman makes a “choice” with her will, to murder the infant in her womb. These who encourage her to abort, and the medical executioners who perform the abortion, also commit the sin of willful homicide, because they choose to.
However, the human will is a blind faculty. It cannot choose on its own, but must first be informed by the mind that the abortion is a good thing to do.
What abortionists first need therefore is light for the mind, They must by God’s grace, see that abortion is not a good but a terrible evil. The must realize that abortion is a crime crying to heaven for revenge. They must be made to understand that the consequences of abortion are destructive in the extreme. Millions of human beings whom God wants to know, love and serve Him by being born and reaching eternity are killed to satisfy some whim or emotional fancy.
Strength for the Will
So too the will of the abortionist must be strengthened by the divine inspirations that come from the Sacrifice of the Mass.
On both counts, abortionists can be corrected only by a deluge of divine graces, available from the Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Basic Graces of Reparation
We are now in a position to ask ourselves: What is the most fundamental grace that abortionists need to be converted from their evil ways?
The most fundamental grace they need is the grace to believe in life after bodily death. Modern society, especially Western, and once Christian, society is so hypnotized by the baubles and tinsel and toys of this world that it actually thinks this is the only world that exists; or at least the only world we are sure exists.
No wonder crimes follow this mentality, including the crime of abortion. Once you question or deny eternal life then human life here on earth becomes an end in itself.
You want to stay on earth as long as possible.
You want to suffer as little as possible
You want to enjoy yourself as much as possible.
You try to squeeze every drop of pleasure that you can.
You will invent previously unheard of ways of self-indulgence.
You will terminate human life not valuing the life of the unborn child.
Why? Because it interferes with your pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain.
Why not? On these terms, selfishness becomes the norm of morality and self-worship becomes the guiding principle of the New Paganism.
The Sacrifice of the Mass in Expiation for Abortion
We are now in a position to ask how the Sacrifice of the Mass is such an effective means of making retribution for the global crimes of abortion.
There are three ways, and I recommend all these for your consideration.
By assisting at Mass
By living the Mass
By having the Mass offered in reparation for abortion.
Assisting at Mass
There is no substitute for personally assisting at Mass as often as possible.
I cannot exaggerate the importance of this practice. Inevitably as a society weakens in its hold on the Catholic faith even the daily offering of the Mass drops off and priests may go for days without offering the Holy Sacrifice. This places an intolerable burden on the faithful.
Whatever you can do to encourage priests to offer daily Mass will be blessed by Our Lord. One way to insure this is for you to attend Mass during the week, at no matter what inconvenience to your daily schedule.
In the early Church during the major persecutions, the faithful went to Mass and Holy Communion daily. So convinced were they that the Holy Sacrifice would enable them to expiate the pagans hatred of Christianity. They were right. The pagans were converted in such multitudes that by the year 100 A. D. there were over 100 Catholic diocese established around the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
Living the Mass
Assisting at Mass is not enough. We must also live the Mass if we wish to make effective reparation for the deadly crime of abortion in the modern world.
What does it mean to live the Mass? To live the mass means to join our sacrifices with those of Jesus Christ, our sufferings with His; our rejection by the world with His rejection, our sorrows with His.
Christ being now glorified can no longer suffer in His own physical person. But suffer He can, in the mystical person of His Church.
When then, we speak of the Mass in reparation for abortion, we mean the Mass which Jesus offers in union with us. There is more hidden here than the words may imply. The Mass is both Christ’s sacrifice and ours. He has already made His sacrifice ours by our patience endurance of the Cross.
The more patient our endurance, the more resigned to the will of God; the more ready we are to die in obedience to God’s will in our lives, the more will the Masses we attend be effective means of repairing the awful consequences of abortion.
It was the great apostle of the Eucharist, Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, who wrote that the world would long ago have been destroyed for its sins except for the thousands of Masses offered each day throughout the Catholic Church.
I make bold to say that as Masses are offered in reparation for the murder of our unborn human race, God’s mercy will melt the hearts of stone that are responsible for this mass genocide.
But remember our duty. We are indeed to assist at the Mass, if possible every day. We are to have priests offer Masses in expiation for abortion. But we must live the Mass ourselves.
We must live the Mass, Which means we must live lives of self-sacrifice.
We must live the Mass there is no option. It is a divine obligation if we hope to expiate the Satanic crimes of almost a hundred million infant homicides throughout the world each year.
We must live the Mass, which means die to our selfishness and pride and greed.
God must have a profound reason for allowing us to live in the most homicidal country in human history. It can only be because He wants to make the twenty-first century the most glorious in the annals of humanity.
Where sin has so abounded grace will ever more abound. But we must do our part by living the Cross that our Loving Savior asks us to carry.
With Him
Like Him
For Him…here on earth, as a prelude to that Eternal Life for which we were made. AMEN.
How appropriate to start on the feast of St. John. Jesus gave St. John and all disciples a Mother. So, now to honor St. John (my namesake), we are giving you a book honoring Our Mother. Please consider this our Christmas present to you.
Here is a fair warning. The promotion ends Monday, December 31st. Please act quickly.
In this book you will discover:
The ultimate proof of the Immaculate Conception.
Our Lady’s own description of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, as revealed by Saint Bridget of Sweden.
The virtually unknown story of Sts. Joachim and Ann, and their unique role in salvation history.
Arguably the best apologetic work on the Immaculate Conception by St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church. This hidden gem has been read by only a handful of Catholics worldwide.
Definitive proof that the Immaculate Conception of Mary was proclaimed since the beginning of the Church. Discover, first hand, the oral traditions of the Early Church and their teachings.
Why is Amazon giving it away?
Simply, it is a joint venture. The main purpose of the book is to increase devotion to Our Mother, Mary. This book will be the seed money to promote our new apostolate on the Immaculate Conception. All proceeds will be used to build the Apostolate’s foundation. You can like our community here on Facebook. What better way to kick it off than by giving it away free?
Please give it a five star rating and leave a glowing review.
Your positive feedback is absolutely critical for authors. If you ethically can’t leave a 5 star rating can you leave a comment below and tell me what is needed to change it?
We are Shocked!
Despite the fact of not being widely promoted, that the book was published on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, is considered by Amazon as a “hot new release”. We also topped the top 10 list in a couple of categories. This is really exciting and hard for us to believe.
Again thank you so much for being a faithful reader and subscriber. You are the life-blood of this apostolate.
P.P.S Can you do Our Mother, Dan and myself a huge favor? Can you please share and actively promote this? Does your parish have an email list (prayer request list)? Can it be announced at Mass? Can you call a Catholic Radio program during a live portion? Will a Catholic Radio Station announce it on air? Do you know a Catholic blogger? Can you personal request a Catholic group you liked on Facebook to share with their list. If you use Kindle, you can use the Kindle Lending Library to share with your friends. Can you post on a Catholic Forum? Thanks and enjoy.
Far into the night, at the coldest time of the year, in a chilly grotto, more suitable for a flock of beasts than for humans, the promised Messiah – Jesus – the savior of mankind, comes into the world in the fullness of time.
There are none who clamor around him: only an ox and an ass lending their warmth to the newborn infant; with a humble woman, and a poor and tired man, in adoration beside him.
Nothing can be heard except the sobs and whimpers of the infant God. And by means of his crying and weeping he offers to the Divine justice the first ransom for our redemption.
He had been expected for forty centuries; with longing sighs the ancient Fathers had implored his arrival. The sacred scriptures clearly prophesy the time and the place of his birth, and yet the world is silent and no one seems aware of the great event. Only some shepherds, who had been busy watching over their sheep in the meadows, come to visit him. Heavenly visitors had alerted them to the wondrous event, inviting them to approach his cave.
So plentiful, O Christians, are the lessons that shine forth from the grotto of Bethlehem! Oh how our hearts should be on fire with love for the one who with such tenderness was made flesh for our sakes! Oh how we should burn with desire to lead the whole world to this lowly cave, refuge of the King of kings, greater than any worldly palace, because it is the throne and dwelling place of God! Let us ask this Divine child to clothe us with humility, because only by means of this virtue can we taste the fullness of this mystery of Divine tenderness.
Glittering were the palaces of the proud Hebrews. Yet, the light of the world did not appear in one of them. Ostentatious with worldly grandeur, swimming in gold and in delights, were the great ones of the Hebrew nation; filled with vain knowledge and pride were the priests of the sanctuary. In opposition to the true meaning of Divine revelation, they awaited an officious savoir, who would come into the world with human renown and power.
But God, always ready to confound the wisdom of the world, shatters their plans. Contrary to the expectations of those lacking in Divine wisdom, he appears among us in the greatest abjection, renouncing even birth in St. Joseph’s humble home, denying himself a modest abode among relatives and friends in a city of Palestine. Refused lodging among men, he seeks refuge and comfort among mere animals, choosing their habitation as the place of his birth, allowing their breath to give warmth to his tender body. He permits simple and rustic shepherds to be the first to pay their respects to him, after he himself informed them, by means of his angels, of the wonderful mystery.
Oh wisdom and power of God, we are constrained to exclaim – enraptured along with your Apostle – how incomprehensible are your judgments and unsearchable your ways! Poverty, humility, abjection, contempt, all surround the Word made flesh. But we, out of the darkness that envelops the incarnate Word, understand one thing, hear one voice, perceive one sublime truth: you have done everything out of love, you invite us to nothing else but love, speak of nothing except love, give us naught except proofs of love.
The heavenly babe suffers and cries in the crib so that for us suffering would be sweet, meritorious and accepted. He deprives himself of everything, in order that we may learn from him the renunciation of worldly goods and comforts. He is satisfied with humble and poor adorers, to encourage us to love poverty, and to prefer the company of the little and simple rather than the great ones of the world.
This celestial child, all meekness and sweetness, wishes to impress in our hearts by his example these sublime virtues, so that from a world that is torn and devastated an era of peace and love may spring forth. Even from the moment of his birth he reveals to us our mission, which is to scorn that which the world loves and seeks.
Oh let us prostrate ourselves before the manger, and along with the great St. Jerome, who was enflamed with the love of the infant Jesus, let us offer him all our hearts without reserve. Let us promise to follow the precepts which come to us from the grotto of Bethlehem, which teach us that everything here below is vanity of vanities, nothing but vanity.
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