Magic Mystic - Stories of Padre Pio

My mom's Catholic book library makes mine pale in comparison. I believe the Franciscan Sisters of St. Elizabeth, friends of ours, were envious of her collection. I mention this because last night as I was looking for a book to read. I had just finished George and Laura: A Story of an American Marriage and need something different.

Well, I found Magic Mystic: Stories of Padre Pio by the Duchess of St. Albans. What makes this book stand apart by other books on Padre Pio is the fact that the author actually visited Padre Pio's hometown and spoke to many people there. The book is a compilation of personal stories about this popular saint. She intentionally repeats stories so that the reader can get perspectives of the same event from different people.

A couple of stories I found of interests are about the Holy women of Padre Pio who were very possessive of their pew seats especially during the early Mass, and of his beatings by the devils.

"During Padre Pio's lifetime, these ladies gathered for mass before 5:00 every morning on the piazza, where the rest of the faithful had already been waiting for an hour or so in the icy, nocturnal winds of the Gargano. The instant the doors opened they charged forward, scattering the waiting crowd as they surged ahead like a herd of cattle...In their haste to get to the front, they leaped over the benches, traveling full pelt along the top of the pews on their sturdy little legs. They knocked people down and trampled over the, and their poor victims acquired a great many bumps and bruises during the charge. Each member of the holy brigade had her own self-assigned seat; and if, by any chance, some innocent visitor happened to have taken it, he or she was unceremoniously hurled into the aisle by the scruff of the neck. Meanwhile, Padre Pio patiently waited in his saintly way for the cyclone to abate, in order to start celebrating mass."

My mom tells me that in another book she read, some of these women would even bite the ones who were in "their" pew.

Regarding the attacks,

"We had to call the doctor in at ten o'clock that night to put stitches int he wound, which was so deep he couldn't open his eyes. Padre Pio couldn't celebrate mass the next day. A woman who came to see him three years later said to him, 'Last time I was here, padre, the devil had beaten you up.'
'Devil!' he cried. 'They were devils. And they tried to scratch my eyes out.'"

Prayer Request - For Our Catholic Priests and Relgious in Iraq

Ma Beck posted a couple of stories of the continued persecution against our Catholic/Christian brothers in sisters in Iraq. One of the victims was a young Chaldean priest seen in the picture above.

ARTICLE

Please pray continuously for all the persecuted people around the world.

From the Mouth of a Super Model

"How is it possible to not want people to use condoms and also not have abortions? It's impossible, I'm sorry."

...Gisele Bundchen

Well Ms. Bundchen...how about abstinence. After all, we are human beings, not animals.

ARTICLE

Personal Policies Meme

This meme really caught my eye. Thanks to my friend Erika for tagging me.

1. I must bless Joey with Holy Water and the sign of the cross on his forehead before he goes to bed at night. Our friend the late Fr. Frank taught us to do that when we first adopted Joey. He recommend that all Catholic parents bless their children before bedtime. BTW, sometimes my dh bless me the same way and I bless him.

2. As soon as I get up in the mornings, I must kneel down by my bed for and recite the Prayer to the Holy Spirit and the Morning Offering. I then must wash up and dress before leaving the bathroom. After this is accomplished, I then leave the bedroom.

3. I must attend Mass and recite the Holy Rosary daily. Even on the days I want to sleep in, God and His Dear Mom will not let me :-).

4. I must call my parents daily. We speak for about a half an hour.

5. I must do all my daily duties before having the luxury of getting on the computer. Sometimes I cheat, if it is something important that must be addressed. Otherwise, work must come first.

I have more personal policies but 5 should be enough for now.

I tag:

Donna-Marie

Kimberly

Heather

Jean

Christine M

NewHouse but I encourage everyone to do this one.

Another Saint Quote From Sue - God's Will

I find myself so bound to the divine will that neither death nor life is important: I want to live as He wishes and I want to serve Him as He likes, and nothing more.

Saint Rose Venerini (1656-1728)

A Saintly Quote From Sue

You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement
who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.

Saint Athanasius (295-373)

New Age Rosaries

My friend Sue shared the following email with me:

One of the things I must mention is that there are now going around in the world, plastic new age rosaries in white, blue and pink. I had no idea about them until this was mentioned on the trip. Upon arriving home I went through my own collection of plastic rosaries and found 2 that had a snake wrapped above Jesus' head with the mouth just besides his face. Also, no INRI sign and I think it's pentagons that surround each point. On the back, are also puncture marks of some kind on the cross? If you've never seen any, refer to the picture attached. Please remind everyone to look carefully for these. Maybe you are already aware but it would be a good idea to tell Catholics what is now happening. One priest said it would be OK once it's blessed but another priest, whom I trust explicitly and who is a Marian priest said even though it may be blessed, it has not been exorcised and evil may still persist........ Yvonne

NEW AGE ROSARY WARNING

These rosaries have appeared on sale at pilgrimage centres across Europe and are in most cases are given away for FREE. They are made from cheap plastic and come in white, blue or pink, stamped as having been made in Italy, yet no one knows who has produced them. Since they are available at places of pilgrimage this makes people automatically think they are fine to use. Information regarding the danger of these rosaries was given at the Marian Cenacle in Limoges, France on 14th March 2005.

Why are they considered New Age?

They are considered New Age due to their symbolism which is not too easy to see except by close inspection of the crucifix, which shows a very sinister story. Behind the figure of Christ there can be seen a caduceus, which is an upright pole, representing mediation between Heaven and earth. It is an ancient herald's wand which was carried by messenger gods like Hermes or Mercury. The rod is also a divining rod to measure the earth and it's energies of power. The serpent Satan is shown behind the figure of Christ and is depicted by a coiled serpent which means latent power, concealed but not yet fully manifest, a dormant power. It may also represent to Satanists that the devil is co messianic, co redeemer and co Christ etc. The circles on the crucifix are from Egyptian Graeco-Roman, Phoencian, Baal symbols called the Pentagram, which is a major occult sign. The circles or pentagrams have five points, which represent, spirit, fire, earth, water and air. The pentagram at the bottom is upside down represents the devils goat. The four circles with dots in the centre signifies gold or the sun in alchemy. In general the meaning is "The resolution of all possibilities." Christ does not share any platform with any other god, philosophy or belief system or minor deity least of all Satan. The depiction of Christ on the cross is the most prominent place of worship, adoration, veneration, glorification, for Catholics and many other Christians and now Satanists or 'new agers,' have placed Satan along side Christ. Some have even said that if these rosaries are blessed, they loose any negative power, - and what do you think? There is some debate going on about this at the moment.

Does anyone really want to pray on a rosary that depicts Satan? What we need to be asking ourselves who has made these rosaries with these symbols that should not be there.!!

I do not know the original source for the above information. I am just sharing it just in case.

Mark Your Calendars Catholic Moms

because Catholic Mom Donna-Marie's radio segment will air next Tuesday June 12th.

The following is from Donna-Marie's blog:

Hello Moms!

Mark your calenders. Next Tuesday, June 12th will be the launch of my radio segment for MOMS with Teresa Tomeo on the "Catholic Connection" show on Ave Maria Radio! I will be on at 9:10 Am until 9:30 AM EASTERN time. Our topic will be "Passing on the faith to our children." We will discuss tips for prayer and how to deal with stresses of bringing our young ones to Church and more. You are invited to call into the show. Listen in LIVE here and feel welcome to give us your advice about how you pass the faith on to your kids.

Please leave me a comment about a suggested topic for a future show. I will look forward to hearing from you! :)

God's Work of Art

The photos of the fuschia and gerbena daisy were taken by one of my nieces.

Daily Pilgrimage to Purgatory

Picture source The Holy Souls Will Repay You

My friend Mary Ann of Friends of the Holy Souls Blog shared a wonderful little booklet with my mom. She actually shared a treasure trove of items to help the Holy Souls but that is another story.

The booklet is entitled Daily Pilgrimage to Purgatory Copyright 1957, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Viatech Publishing.

"In union with the divine Heart of Jesus make a short pilgrimage to Purgatory at night. Offer Him your activities of the day and ask Him to apply His merits to the suffering souls. At the same time implore them to obtain for you the grace to live and die in the love and friendship of this divine Heart. Fortunate you will be, if you succeed in obtaining deliverance for some of these imprisoned souls, for you will gain as many friends in heaven."

From the writings of St. Margaret Mary.

The following are the advantages of this practice:

1. It is short...

2. It is easy...

3. It is comforting...

4. It is holy...

5. It is generous...

6. It is inexhaustible...

7. It is meritorious...

8. It goes on unceasingly...

9. It is approved by the Church...

10. It is favored by God Himself...

11. It is salutary...

If you would like to start making your daily pilgrimage to Purgatory, be sure to visit Daily Pilgrimage to Purgatory

Catholic YouTube? Summer Project

Travis of Boudreaux' Blurbs has nicely organized many Catholic videos that can be found on YouTube

If you come across others, perhaps you'd like to share them with him.

Correction: I must have been reading Travis' post a little too early this morning. I didn't realize it was a summer project that PhatCatholic is promoting. So, please share your favorite Catholic video in the comment section of that blog. Thanks Travis for the clarification.

The following is from his blog:

Yup. Let's do it. Let's scour YouTube and Google Videos and find EVERY SINGLE video that is faithfully Catholic. Are you ready? I hope so because I need your help.

This post will be home base for the YouTube Summer Project. As you find good, solid, orthodox, Catholic videos on YouTube or Google Videos, leave a comment providing the title of the video and a link to it. As new videos are provided, I will add them to the list. Before you submit your video, check the list and make sure it has not already been submitted. I'll provide a link to this post (either at the top of my blog or in the sidebar) so that this will always be easy to come back to. Right now, I don't know how else to organize this effort, but if anyone has a better idea just let me know.

I reserve the right to reject a submission or to delete a video from the list without giving you a reason. You reserve the right to help me fill a much-needed niche for the online Catholic community. Once we have a more or less comrehensive list, I'll make a website where all of these videos will be embedded and categorized by topic (as far as I know, this is legal, although I could be wrong).

Spread the word about this project. Anyone can help, you just have to be loyal to the Catholic Church. This can be an awesome thing, as long as we don't lose steam.

Pax Christi, and Good Luck!
phatcatholic

A Priest and An Atheist

In this week's Beacon, the Paterson of Diocese Catholic newspaper, there was an article about Fr. John Catoir and Carl Sagan. Fr. Catoir, the syndicated writer and former head of the Christophers, was a priest at our church when we were kids. Carl Sagan, was the famous astronomer.

It seems that someone had sent Mr. Sagan one of Fr. Catoir's columns where he discussed Mr. Sagan's atheistic views. Mr. Sagan wrote Fr. Catoir regarding it. Fr. Catoir responded and thus started a correspondence between the two.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find the article online. I did however, find an article by Fr. Catoir which includes an interview when he was the Executive Director of Eva's Village, in Paterson. In the article and interview, Fr. Catoir discusses his interesting correspondence.

"I had a correspondence going with Carl Sagan. It lasted for a number of years. Poor Carl died at the end of 1996. He had that wonderful series on PBS called Cosmos. At some point he said, "There’s not a shred of evidence in the entire universe for the existence of the supernatural." Well, he was right. There is no empirical evidence; there’s no test tube that you can put invisible spirit of God into and say, "There He is!" You can’t prove the existence of God in that way. I wrote a column and said that there are more ways of knowing truth than just empirical evidence or science. I explained the old, traditional proof of God that something doesn’t come from nothing..."

The Power of Faith

It is interesting that the former reporter and photographer from the Hawaii Catholic Herald, our diocese Catholic newspaper, was also from New Jersey. She invited Fr. Catoir to speak at our church a few years ago. When I had a chance to speak to him, I told Father that I was a member of his parish when I was a little girl. He was so surprised! He even mentioned it during his talk.

St. Josemaria Escriva' - Mortification

From the Way by Josemaria Escriva'

"The appropriate word you left unsaid; the joke you didn't tell; the cheerful smile for those who bother you; that silence when you're unjustly accused; your kind conversation with people you find boring and tactless; the daily effort to overlook one irritating detail or another in those who live with you...this, with perseverance, is indeed solid interior mortification."

"Don't say, 'That person bothers me.' Think: 'That person sanctifies me'".

"Interior mortifications. I don't believe in your interior mortification if I see that you despise mortification of the senses-that you don't practice it."

"In our poor present life, let us drink to the last drop from the chalice of pain. What does it matter to suffer for ten, twenty, fifty years, if afterwards there is heaven forever, forever..forever!..."

"Paradox: To live one must die."

"Conquer yourself each day from the very first moment, getting up on the dot, at a set time,without granting a single minute to laziness.

If, with the help of /God, you conquer yourself in that moment, you'll have accomplished a great deal for the rest of the day.

It's so discouraging to find yourself beaten int he first skirmish!"

"...Resolve, each time, to work for the salvation of a particular soul, or his sanctification, or his vocation to the apostolate.

Feast of the Holy Trinity

Picture source: The Stained Glass Windows of St. Ignatius of Loyola