L'Angelus, the Next BIG Sensation!

I LOVE THIS GROUP!!! THEY ROCK!!! DELICIOUSLY CAJUN WITH A SWINGING COUNTRY TWANG!! NOT TO MENTION AN IDEAL REPRESENTATION OF EVERYTHING A GOOD BAND SHOULD BE!!!

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

St. Faustyna Kowalska 

On October 5, 1938, a young religious by the name Sister Faustina (Helen Kowalska) died in a convent of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Cracow, Poland. She came from a very poor family that had struggled hard on their little farm during the terrible years of WWI. Sister had had only three years of very simple education. Hers were the humblest of tasks in the convent, usually in the kitchen or the vegetable garden, or as a porter.

On February 22, 1931, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ appeared to this simple nun, bringing with Him a wonderful message of Mercy for all mankind. Saint Faustina tells us in her diary under this date:

"In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord
Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing,
the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening
of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one
red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord;
my soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After
a while Jesus said to me, 'paint an image according to the pattern
you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.'"

Some time later, Our Lord again spoke to her:

"The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous;
the red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These
two rays issued forth from the depths of My most tender Mercy at
that time when My agonizing Heart was opened by a lance on the
Cross....Fortunate is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for
the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him."

Courtesy of www.ewtn.com

Try to be MERCIFUL as God is infinitely Merciful!!! 

Sabbath

The Third Commandment:

"Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works; but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; thou shalt do no work on it, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all the things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it."

I'm sure that almost everyone has been to family parties that are exact replicas of the party held exactly one year earlier. Have you ever noticed that conversation topics repeat over and over again? Well, in my family, one of the topics that comes up every New Years Eve is vacation time. When exactly we are planning our days off is a big ordeal so that we can all take the same days off, spend them together to do all sorts of things meanwhile aggravating everyone with all our comedy at each other's expense.

Have you ever come home from a big "family vacation" absolutely exhausted... and in need of a vacation?  Its the feeling of getting home and going right to bed because you have work tomorrow, and just spent your entire time off partying and adventuring all over creation. Truth is we need some time off from all the LABORA that we do in our daily lives.

God knows we need the rest. That's why he gives you a day off every week! Even though circumstances may force us to work on Sundays, God tells us it is important to rest ourselves and invites us to do so  in Him! St. Augustine of Hippo once said "My heart is restless, O God, until it rests in Thee." Predicting and preceding our eternal rest in heaven, God invites us to weekly go to Mass and to kneel in prayer receiving Him in His infinite COMFORT and MERCY. 

Two thousand years ago, the eternal bridegroom made a date with you every week of your life! Keep it!, and let God who is all love enter into your heart and give you His comfort and his mercy this way you may rest in Him. 

Holy Hour for Vocations

On Friday April 13, 2012 at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York a couple hundred people gathered adore our Lord, Jesus Christ, Whose body, blood, soul and divinity is present completely in the Eucharist. 


Graces were ever flowing as people aged from infancy to elderly who gathered at the Seminary said the rosary, received the Sacrament of Penance, adored the Blessed Sacrament, sang in exultation of their Lord, and received Benediction. Afterward, they shared a meal together, and gathered for some fun, joy, and fellowship around the bonfire and in the gymnasium for some friendly dodge-ball. 


It was absolutely incredible to see the love of Christ that dwells in the great number of youth that gathered there on Friday night. 


The next Holy Hour for Vocations is in September and will be held in the Parish of St. Ignatius in Hicksville, NY. 


For more information, visit   http://www.longislandpriest.com/


God Bless! 

"He Who Has No Name"

If you've ever seen the film "The Ten Commandments" which is popular around the Paschal season for its annual appearance on the television network, ABC, an something that we notice is that whenever a child if Israel is asked who their God is, they say, "The God of Abraham" or one of his descendants. This is because they do not know the name of the God which they worship. The story of Moses continues to when Moses is before God present in the burning bush. Moses asked God what his name was so that he may say who sent him. God told Moses that his name was YAHWEH, which translates, I AM WHO AM, and that if he was to be asked who sent him, he is to reply that "I AM" sent him.


What this means is that God is infinite being. It seems rather confusing, but God is all being. (along with all truth, all love, and all beauty).


This gives significance to Jesus' words in John's Gospel. "Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM." 


The Second commandment reads "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain."


The Jewish people, even today, will not even write the name of God. It's abbreviated, YHWH or G-D. They do this out of respect for God and His holy name. 


In his epistle, or letter, to the Philippians, St. Paul demonstrate that this goes for the most Holy Name of Jesus. (the name above all other names.) He writes "ut in nomine Iesu omne genu flectat calestium et terrestrium et infernorum. et omnis lingua confiteatur quia Dominus Iesus Christus in gloria est Dei Patris." which translates, "That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bend, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And let every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." 


God warns us that he will punish those who use the Lord's name irreverently. So, it is very important that we are reverent in all uses of the Lord's name and that we say it only with the love and affection of our whole prayerful hearts. 


We must realize that we can NEVER talk about God "behind His back" He is always listening, and what we say can and may offend Him, and why would we ever want to offend such a good a God as the one who created all of us!? 


Take some time today to think about how often we use the Lord's name. Is it exclusively in prayer? When we talk about God is it reverently or are we irreverent at times? 


Go to your desert place with the Lord and spend some quiet time in humble adoration of his infinite goodness, and meditate on God as infinite being using his name, I AM. 


God Bless you all! 

A Ten Post Journey

For the next two months, I will post a blog about each of the 10 Commandments given by Yahweh to Moses on Mt. Sinai. 

Currently, the Jewish people are in the middle of celebrating their Passover season. Beginning on the evening of Friday, April 6, 2012 and ending on Saturday evening, they celebrate the night that the angel of death passed over the houses of their ancestors and slew the first born male Egyptians according to the word of the pharaoh. 

After the children of Israel fled Egypt and escaped Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen through the Red Sea, they came upon the holy mountain, Mt. Sinai, where it is said that God dwells. "And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, in the very top of the mount, and he called Moses to the top thereof." (Exodus 19:20) 

There of the top of the mount, God issued the 10 Commandments. 

"Locutus quoque est Dominus cunctos sermones hos: Ego sum Dominus Deus tuus qui edui te de terra Aegypti de domo servitutis. Non habebis deos alienos coram me. Non facies tibi scupltile neque omnem similitudinem quae est in caelo desuper et quae in terra deosum nec eorum quay sunt in aquis sub terra. Non adorabis ea neque coles ego sum Dominus Deus tuus fortis zelotes visitans iniquitatem patrum in filiis in tertiam et quartam generationem eorum qui oderunt me. Et faciens misericordiam in milia his qui diligunt me et custodiunt praecepta mea."

TRANSLATION

" And the Lord spoke all these words: I am the Lord thy God, Who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting, the iniquity of the fathers upon their children unto the third and fourth generation of those that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of those that love me and keep my commandments." 

Have I doubted in matters of faith?

Have I murmured against God at your adversity or at the prosperity of others? 

Have I believed fortune-tellers or consulted them?

Have I gone to places of worship of other denominations?

Do I put my worldly things before God?

Does what God wants for me not a priority in the decisions I make every day? 

Have I failed to keep one or many of the Commandments because of what is going on around me? 

Do I consider what I have more important than who I am? 

Have I let things other than God take precedence in my life? 

Do I fail to give God his due time in my life? 

These days, there are many things that people generally put as a higher priority than God. Whether it be work or school or sports we have many excuses that we don't have the time to devote to God that we should set aside! Though doing all the things we do is not a bad thing, as long as we do it ad majorem Dei gloriam, we must realize that we need to set GOD's will as a precedence. 

On her deathbed, St. Therese of the Child Jesus said these words. "Père, tout ce que vous voulez, mais ayez pitié de moi." Which translates,  "Father, everything you will, but have pity on me."  

In the the Lord's Prayer, we say "Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra." Which translates, "Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven." 

St. Faustyna asked God that if by her suffering more people would learn of and be aware of His infinite compassion, that He inflict more pain on her. 

The whole point is that if we love God enough, we will keep him at the top of our priority list and then and only then may we be able to deal with all the countless other cards He has created to deal to us. His will, should take precedence to all other things including our feelings. According to St. Faustyna, in that God is our Lord, we must trust Him to rule over our lives. Once we trust and love Him enough, we can put our lives in his hands and trust in his will, that he has a plan for each of us, and though we may suffer we should trust in His compassion and wisdom because we can be sure that He knows the way through this life. If that's not being at the top of the list, I'm not sure what else can be. 

Veni, Sancte Spiritus Consecrate This Blog

Prayer before Work

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum cord fidelium et tui amoris in eis ignem accende.

V. Emitte Spiritum tuum, et creabuntur.
R. Et renovabis faciem terrae

Oremus- Deus, qui corda fidelium Sancti spiritus illustratione docuisti, da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere et de ejus semper consolatione gaudere. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen


TRANSLATION:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and kindle them in the fire of Thy love.

V. Send forth Thy spirit, and they shall be created
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray- O God, Who hast taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Ghost, grant that by the gift of the same Spirit we may be always truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of Consecration

Heavenly Father, we hearby consecrate this blog site to Thee and to Thy Mother, Mary most holy. That through Her intercession the writer and readers of this blog may receive the grace of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost by growing in knowledge of our faith due to the media created on this site. Amen.