Message July 25, 2016

Message of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Latest Medjugorje Message, July 25, 2016

"Dear children! I am looking at you and I see you lost; and you do not have prayer or joy in your heart. Return to prayer, little children, and put God in the first place and not man. Do not lose the hope which I am carrying to you. May this time, little children, every day, be a greater seeking of God in the silence of your heart; and pray, pray, pray until prayer becomes joy for you. Thank you for having responded to my call. 

The Silence of the Birds: the Powerful Experiences of an Atheist Doctor and Notre Dame's Basketball Team in Medjugorje. 

 Br. Daniel Maria Klimek, T.O.R.

One of the most fascinating phenomena that people have experienced in Medjugorje is the silence of the birds, an occurrence that has been reported as transpiring at times when the visionaries have their apparitions.  

This occurrence has been reported by people as diverse as members of Notre Dame's basketball team, including players who were not Catholic, and an atheist Italian neurophysiologist who scientifically examined the apparitions of the visionaries.

Dr. Marco Margnelli was an ardent  atheist who used to travel to various locations trying to disprove claims of mystical phenomena-he traveled, for example, to San Giovanni Rotondo in 1987, trying to disprove the stigmata of Padre Pio. He came to Medjugorje in 1988, hoping to prove the experiences of the visionaries to be false, he admitted.

Author and journalist Randall Sullivan recorded the event in his book The Miracle Detective: An Investigation of Holy Visions. Dr. Margnelli experienced various occurrences in Medjugorje which rocked his beliefs. He met a woman who was miraculously healed of leukemia. He studied the apparitions of the visionaries and came to the conclusion that they do enter into a genuine state of ecstasy, even admitting: "we were certainly in the presence of an extraordinary phenomenon."

What moved him most powerfully, however, was the behavior of the birds. Before the apparitions of the visionaries would begin in the rectory, there were thousands of birds outside chirping and cooing, being incredibly-at times, deafeningly-loud.

Until the moment when the apparitions would begin: the secon d that the visionaries would drop to their knees and go into ecstasy, every bird outside would go completely silent. That absolute silence of the birds haunted him, Dr. Margnelli admitted. A few weeks after returning to Italy from Medjugorje, Dr. Margnelli became a practicing Catholic. This fascinating phenomena has been witnessed by a number of pilgrims, including Notre Dame's basketball team.

Deacon Brian' Miller explained, at the 2016 Marian Conference at the University of Notre Dame last month [May], that one year in the '80s, the Notre Dame basketball team was in Yugoslavia for a summer tour playing basketball. They made a side trip to Medjugorje. They made the trip under Coach Digger Phelps, who spent 20 years as head coach (1971-1991) of Notre Dame's men's basketball team and then many years as an ESPN broadcaster and analyst.

David Rivers, who was the star point guard on the team, and the 25th overall pick of the 1988 NBA draft, playing professionally for the Lakers and the Clippers, shared a testimony about the Medjugorje trip at Notre Dame's library. Rivers, it is noteworthy, was not even Catholic.

"He said it was stunning," Deacon Miller recalled. "There were all these birds outside [in Medjugorje, as the apparitions were to begin]." At that time, the visionaries had their apparitions in the rectory of St. James Church, and during the day the basketball team was there, there were thousands of birds outside, making noise, "and then as soon as Our Lady came, boom, it was quiet, until she left," Deacon Miller said, recollecting Rivers' testimony.  www.danielklimek.com           

Unbelievable??? Impossible??? 

Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings this is impossible", but for God all things are possible. "... for nothing will be impossible for God."

... God is awesome! Look at the intricacies of creation; we see, feel, and taste things, yet we say the structure of plants or animals are unbelievable. Who created them? God! Why not instead  use words such the sun appears to us', that is a miracle; were we not told not to look at the sun without protective lenses? An amazing, awesome experience through God. Many times God does for us what we thought was impossible!

In the article above regarding "the silence of the birds", many pilgrims have experienced the silence of the birds around St. James Church during the alleged apparitions. It is an awesome event - not unbelievable, but a supernatural occurrence. Even the birds are under the care of God so why would we not believe God wouldn't do the impossible for us? Many miraculous occurrences happen. Believe in God! Beware of God's presence! Father Bill Kiel. The spirit of Medjugorje

Join Father Kiel in pilgrimage to Rome/Medjugorje October 23-November 5, 2016. For information call Bernadette @ 412-563-3857

"The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God." President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Medjugorje Message, July 2, 2016

Apparitions to Mirjana

"Dear children, My real, living presence among you should make you happy because this is the great love of my Son. He is sending me among you so that, with a motherly love, I may grant you safety; that you may comprehend that pain and joy, suffering and love, make your soul live intensely; that I may call you anew to glorify the Heart of Jesus, the heart of faith, the Eucharist. From day to day through the centuries, my Son, alive, returns among you - He returns to you, though He has never left you. When one of you, my children, returns to Him, my motherly heart leaps with joy. Therefore, my children, return to the Eucharist, to my Son. The way to my Son is difficult, full of renunciations, but at the end, there is always the light. I understand your pains - and sufferings, and with motherly love I wipe your tears. Trust in my Son, because He will do for you what you would not even know how to ask for. You, my children, you should be concerned only for your soul, because it is the only thing on earth that belongs to you. You will bring it, dirty or clean, before the Heavenly Father. Remember, faith in the love of my Son will always be rewarded. I implore you, in a special way, to pray for those whom my Son called to live according to Him and to love their flock. Thank you." 

PRAISE THE LORD

by Pope Francis

Psalm 125, 26: "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream - we couldn't believe it! - "Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy."

It is very important to remember how much the Lord has done for each of us, "how He accompanied me with tenderness, how He lowered Himself, He bent down" in the same way as a father "who bends down to help his child walk". And, the pope underscored. He has done so "with each one of us."

"All is celebration, all is joy" if each one - as St. Paul himself attest to the Ephesians - can say: "the Lord chose me before the foundation of the world". This is "the starting point". Even if, Francis emphasized, "one can't understand" and "one can't imagine: that the Lord knew me before the creation of the world, that my name was in the Lord's heart". But "this is truth, this is revelation". And, the Pontiff added, "if we don't believe this,then we aren't Christians". Perhaps, he explained "we could be permeated by a theistic religion", but we wouldn't be Christians". Because precisely this being "chosen" is characteristic Christians.

The thought of having always lived in the heart  of God, "fills us with joy" and "gives us security". This security is confirmed by the Lord's word to the Prophet Isaiah, who asked himself whether this affection could ever fail: "can a mother forget her children? And even should a mother forget them I will not forget you". God holds each of us in  his "bosom", the way "a baby is inside his mother".

This truth, Francis pointed out, is so great and beautiful that it can be tempting not to think about it, to avoid it as it looms over us. In fact, "it cannot be understood with the mind", and "not even with the heart". To make it our own and to experience it, he explained, "we must enter into the mystery of Jesus Christ". Of He who "so freely shed his blood for us". And who "has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will".

Hence the third fundamental approach of the Christian, after those of the prayer of praise and of knowing how to remember. The Christian is called "to enter into the mystery" above all when "we celebrate the Eucharist", as we are unable to fully comprehend "that the Lord is alive, He is with us, here, in his glory, his fullness, and He gives his life for us once again".

It is an approach, the Pontiff concluded, that we must make an effort to "learn every day" because "the mystery can't be controlled: it's a mystery! We must enter it".

L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO

Waiting with hope

Christians are called to be men and women of hope, united by the certainty of hope, united by the certainty of a God who does not give up.

Medjugorje Message,

August 2, 2016

"Dear children, I have come to you - among you - for you to give me your concerns so that I may offer them to my Son; that I may intercede for you before Him for your good. I know that each of you has his concerns, his trials. Therefore I am inviting you in a motherly way: come to the table of my Son. He is breaking bread for you; He is giving Himself to you; He is giving you hope; He is asking for more faith, hope and serenity from you. He is seeking of you to battle within against egotism, judgement and human weaknesses. Therefore, as a mother, I am saying: pray; because prayer gives you strength for the interior battle. My Son, when He was little, often said to me that there will be many who will love me and call me 'mother'. Among you, l feel love. Thank you. For the sake of that love I am imploring my Son that none of you, my children, will return home the same as he came; that you may take with you all the more hope, mercy and love; that you may be my apostles of love who will witness with their lives that the Heavenly Father is the source of life and not of death. Dear children, anew, in a motherly way I am imploring you, pray for the chosen ones of my Son, for their blessed hands - for your shepherds-that they may preach my Son with all the more love and in this way bring about conversions. Thank you.

'Jesus the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist' by Dr. Brant Pitre

An excellent book on the real presence of Jesus in Holy Eucharist; body, blood, soul and divinity. Established, not so much from Catholic teachings we are familiar with, but from Jewish beliefs and traditions from Jewish Roots.

Jesus would brook no compromise when many left him at His teachings (John 6:53) ... eat the flesh of  the son of man and drink my blood [My flesh is real food - My blood is real drink.] When questioned by the Apostles - He invited them to also leave Him, no compromise, no lie.

The Jews survived for 40 years in the desert on Manna from heaven. Some secular scientists today would have us believe Manna was the secretion from a tree. Hogwash - the Jews survived forty years in the desert - the tree only secrets two weeks of the year.

The Jewish people called Manna 'the bread of angels', 'the face of God', 'the real presence'. They considered it so holy they placed it in the Holy of Holies, The Ark of the Covenant.

This book now in paperback. It reads like a great mystery with an awesome believable ending to a great book.

Our Lady's Message by phone 814-787-5683 The Holy Family, PO Box 442 St. Marys 15857

Africa as a small blogging platform where I could tell the world some of these things: The African-values on openness to life, how we feel about family and motherhood. 

With time, I also started getting invited to attend some of the meetings at the United Nations, getting invited to speak at different places and then I started trying to learn:more about some of the policies and resolutions that were being passed around Africa and some of the Western organizations that were coming to Africa to promote so-called reproductive rights. Organizations like International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) had already established unbeknownst to me and so many Africans, more than 11,000 centers all across the, Sub-Saharan: African region. They are promoting abortion and contraception;'they are sterilizing people...and they are doing a lot of damage, I believe, to the African society.

From what you've said, it sounds as if you are describing pro-life issues as more of a cultural matter; more of a matter of tradition. Is that how you see it in Africa?

It is a combination, really.

Whenever you hear, or whenever one sees in the news, problems in Africa-things like know, all these kinds of catastrophes--the one thing that remains resilient, whether this-is from the religious point of view or not, is the family, Before even religion (which was something that came to Africa later, during the time of colonialization), first and foremost, the Africans value family and.what makes family: a marriage; and what is within marriage, man, woman and children. So all of these things in practice, form the core of African society. That is why we have less divorce, and that is why we have more openness to life-these things come first culturally. But a lot of Africans are also religious. Let's just say that when religion came to us, it would have felt consistent with our cultural values. So [in] a lot of places, you have very strong Christian populations, and in some other places, you have very strong Muslim populations. But what we hold in common is this value for family life. And if the family life is valued, then yes, things like abortion are seen as abominations, as taboo, as horrific....It always is an ugly thing-in the minds of people that a mother could ever kill her own, be it before birth, be it after birth - it's all the  same thing: that is, horrific. 

One of the common perceptions in Europe and America is that contraception has liberated women, has given women the freedom to do what they want with their lives. As a woman, what do you think of this perception? What, really, is freedom for a woman?

Because I'm a scientist, I do go through a lot of the research, especially the papers that Guttmacher puts out--Guttmacher being, in my opinion, a very biased research institute that has undeniable links to Planned Parenthood. Going through even a lot of their own data, one can see that a significant proportion of the women who come in for abortions are still contracepting. So how much freedom is the contraception bringing to women?

What I believe is true freedom for women is, again, some of what I have seen in Africa. Yes, we do have contraception in Africa, and, yes, people are capable--no matter what anybody thinks--of getting contraceptives if they think it's going to help them. I personally don't think it's helpful: pumping oneself with all these very harmful chemicals, just in order to be available for a man, 365 days a year, sexually. I don't think that is actual freedom. And I know women who have the right view and who have the bigger picture in mind: that freedom is when one brings to the core of one's life what is most important, which I believe is faith and family.

The one Scripture that I love so much is Micah 6:8, "What does God want from you, O man?" -- and I'll say "O woman"!  "To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humble with God." That is true freedom. It's that we can understand that what is most important is what we should try for.

Of course, this is looking mainly from a metaphysical point of view; but also from the general social point of view. I have also seen things like education bring in real freedom for women...None of the people in my own circles can say, "Contraceptives brought me freedom." But, I know women to whom education brought freedom. Contraception does not bring anybody out of poverty. It hasn't, from people I know, made all that much of a difference. But what makes a difference in people's lives would be that one has the stability of family life and the security that they need, and employment and education and good health care...These are the things that actually afford one that balance in life, to walk freely and to continue to seek in different ways to serve humanity. So, for me, this is freedom. Freedom is to hold onto that which is most important. Sophia Feingold; writes from Washington; Read more on NCRegister.com