Wednesday, December 20, 2017

ACN News -Jihadists attack church in Pakistan, but authorities prevent mass killing


A PAKISTANI BISHOP has praised the country’s “truly heroic” security services, saying that had they not been so quick and decisive, the death toll in the Dec. 17, 2017 jihadist attack on a packed Methodist church in Quetta, Pakistan, could have run into the hundreds. Eight people were reported killed in the incident.

Describing how the police and army were on the scene “in less than five minutes,” Bishop Victor Gnanapragasam, who heads the Vicariate of Quetta, said the security services killed one of the two suicide bombers outside Bethel Memorial Church; they injured the other as he approached the main entrance, where he detonated his suicide vest. 

Reporting that at least 45 people were injured, the bishop told us of the pain and grief of the Christian community, adding that a number of the 30 victims still in the hospital were in critical condition. 

Noting that a reported nearly 400 worshippers were in church, the prelate said many lives had been saved by the security services, adding: “The police and the army frontier corps were truly heroic. They got to the church in less than five minutes. One of them was wounded as he tried to stop the suicide bombers.”

Bishop Gnanapragasam described visiting the wounded in hospital, including an 18-month-old boy who he said was covered in bandages from head to foot. He said that one man had a punctured lung and was unable to attend the funeral of his wife killed in the attack. 

The bishop said: “The people are very frightened. We have had a lot of people crying. We have done our very best to console them.”

The bishop added: “I have been asking myself: ‘What do the attackers think they can achieve by killing innocent people?’”

He said a week ago a warning had been issued about a possible attack against Christians but that the likely targets were believed to be local Christian schools and other institutions rather than churches. 

Describing a massive security build-up in the wake of the attack, the bishop said churches were being advised to celebrate Christmas liturgies, slated for midnight, earlier in the evening. He went on to say that police were calling on local Christians to keep an eye out for suspicious persons entering churches over Christmas as part of a security drive to keep extremists out.   

Bishop Gnanapragasam called for prayers for the dead, the wounded and their loved ones. “We need your prayers, not just at Christmas time, but all year round because the risk is always there.”


With picture of Bishop Victor Gnanapragasam (© ACN)


Editor’s Notes:



Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action. 

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide. 


For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org

Thursday, October 12, 2017

ACN News -A call for children around the world to pray the rosary for peace in Syria



By Maria Lozano

SCHEDULED for October 18, 2017, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has launched the “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” campaign–in honor of October as the month of the Holy Rosary and to petition the Lord for peace in Syria, especially for the sake of the children in the war-ravaged nation.

ACN is calling for children everywhere to say the rosary on that day at 9AM on Oct. 18, in their respective time zones. That day, the rosary will also be dedicated to a prayer for unity and peace throughout the world. In many parts of the world, plans calls for an interruption in the classroom so that students can participate and pray along.

The children’s rosary campaign was initiated in 2005 in Venezuela. The initiators have placed their faith in a quotation from St. Padre Pio, “When one million children pray the rosary, the world will change.” This gave the initiative its name. The response from all over the world has been great. Last year, children in 69 countries took part in the prayer campaign.

ACN international president, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, wrote in his letter of invitation to children everywhere to join in: “In 2017 especially, the 100th anniversary of the appearances of the Queen of the Holy Rosary at Fatima, the best thing we can do for peace in this world is to take the message from heaven seriously.”

“Is it not significant that God chose children in Fatima to be the recipients of the most momentous peace plan for the new age? The children understood the language of Our Lady and, most importantly, believed her words.”

“Shouldn’t we be doing so much more to teach children and support them in playing a part in this peace plan, a plan that is more topical than ever today?”


Materials for the prayer campaign can be downloaded at www.millionkidspraying.org


With picture of campaign poster (© ACN)


Editor’s Notes:


Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church Coloring pags

You can find the printable coloring pages at Personal Creations I believe this is free.

Feel Called to the Religious Life? - Capuchin Sisters of Nazareth



Please check out the website of the Capuchin Sisters of Nazareth.

Thank you to their chaplain for sharing the following information with me.

I am the Chaplain of the Capuchin Sisters of Nazareth in the Diocese of Scranton PA, and am wondering if you might post a link to their web page on your site. Also could you share this with young girls who are discerning religious life and other home schooling families in your area. The Capuchin Sisters are Franciscans who live a deeply contemplative life and Also have an apostolate. Capuchin Franciscan Sisters

Tuesday, June 06, 2017

ACN News China’s ‘communists are afraid of Our Lady of Fatima’



The retired bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, visiting the German Marian shrine at Kevelaer, spoke with international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need on the situation of the Church in China. 

By Berthold Pelster


Over the last four decades, the People’s Republic of China has undergone enormous social change. The country has grown prodigiously to become an economic and technological world power. What role does communist ideology still play in this process today?
The leadership in China never really took communist ideology very seriously. Instead, Chinese communism is a form of unbridled imperialism. Rampant corruption, also within the party, attests to this. 

Everything is about power. Absolute obedience to state leadership is the only thing that counts. And through the opening up of the economic sector and growing affluence, this is all just getting worse. Wealth fuels corruption to ever greater levels. 

Political observers say that the human rights situation has actually deteriorated under the current president, Xi Jinping. Do you agree? 

In the beginning, I had high hopes because the president took action against corruption in the government and society. But it very quickly became evident that he was also only interested in power. People who are fighting for human rights are suppressed, persecuted, humiliated and convicted in propaganda trials overseen by his government.

Can you tell us something about the current status of the negotiations between the Chinese leadership and the Holy See? 

Unfortunately, little is known about these talks. There are still a lot of other problems. I expect that the talks will still take a long time. In my opinion, the state leadership will not accept any other outcome than the subjugation of the Church to the leadership of the Communist Party. Bishops of the underground Church, for example, were forced to attend political training courses during Holy Week and could therefore not celebrate the liturgy with believers. 

Pope Benedict XVI spoke of reconciliation in his letter to the Catholics in China in 2007—for him, this largely meant spiritual reconciliation. But much still needs to be done! 

That sounds very pessimistic. What do you expect will happen to Christianity in China? 

Everything depends on whether we manage to live our faith authentically—without making a lot of compromises. There are Christians in China who bravely advocate for a better society. However, many of them are in prison! 

Should communism fall one day, then the Catholics should be among the first to build up a new China. However, that only works if Catholics have not already squandered their credibility beforehand by making lazy compromises with the communist leadership. 
This month of May marks the centenary of the appearances of Our Lady at Fatima. The messages of Our Lady there warned about the godless ideology of communism. Are Catholics in China aware of these messages? 
Of course! All of us have heard of the messages of Fatima. Even the communists! They make them very anxious. The communists are actually afraid of Our Lady of Fatima! 

The whole situation is becoming ludicrous: for example, the communists have nothing against you bringing pictures of Maria Immaculata or depictions of the miraculous image featuring “Mary, Help of Christians” into China from abroad. Pictures of “Our Lady of Fatima,” on the other hand, are not allowed. Authorities consider the events in Fatima to be “anti-communist.” That is of course nothing but the truth! 

The veneration of Mary under the title “Help of Christians” also holds special meaning for China: on its feast day, May 24, the Catholic Church holds a worldwide prayer day for the Church in China. Pope Benedict XVI introduced this day in 2007. What is the significance of this day of prayer? 

The veneration of Our Lady under the title “Help of Christians” is deeply rooted all over China and has been so for a long time. This title not only refers to help for individual believers, but also to help for the Church as a whole. 

The chief danger in China today is materialistic atheism. Unfortunately, this day of prayer—which is valid for the Catholic Church all over the world—is far too little known. It is not taken seriously enough. 


With picture of Our Lady of Fatima (© ACN)


Editor’s Notes:



Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action. 

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide. 


For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY What It Means for Us


The Visitation by Evelyn Pickering De Morgan , 1883


by Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.

            While the feast of Mary’s Visitation to Elizabeth has been celebrated on other dates, the liturgical calendar revision authorized by Pope Paul VI placed it on May 31 -- after the Annunciation (March 25) and before the Birthday of St. John the Baptist (June 24).

            Most likely the feast of the Visitation originated with the Franciscans in 1263.  However, there is lack of certainty about the origin and the various dates that have been assigned to the feast.  By the late 14th century the celebration of the feast was well established.

Theme of the feast
            The theme of the Visitation feast centers on Mary responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to set out on a mission of charity.  This is reflected in the opening prayer and the prayer over the gifts, and in the canticle antiphons for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer.  With John the Baptist we recognize joyfully the presence of Christ.  The feast clearly celebrates the first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel.

            Church documents attest to the importance of the feast.

            In its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) , #57, the Second Vatican Council states: 

“This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death; first when Mary, arising in haste to go to visit Elizabeth, is greeted by her as blessed because of her belief in the promise of salvation and the precursor leaped with joy in the womb of his mother.”  (cf. Lk 1:41-45)

            Venerable Pope Paul VI in Marialis Cultus, #7, observes that in the “celebrations that commemorate salvific events in which the Blessed Virgin Mary was closely associated with her son” . . . “the liturgy [of the Visitation] recalls the Blessed Virgin carrying her Son within her and visiting Elizabeth to offer charitable assistance and to proclaim the mercy of God.”

            In Redemptoris Mater, #12, Pope St. John Paul II wrote:

“Moved with charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her kinswoman....  While every word of Elizabeth is filled with meaning, her final words would seem to have a fundamental importance: ‘And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her from the Lord’ (Lk 1:45).  These words can be linked with the title ‘full of grace’ of the angel’s greeting.  Both of these texts reveal an essential Mariological content, namely, the truth about Mary who has become really present in the mystery of Christ because she ‘has believed,’ the fullness of grace announced by the angel means the gift of God himself.  Mary’s faith proclaimed by Elizabeth indicated how the Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift.

Meaning of the feast

            The thrust of chapters one and two of Luke’s Gospel is not simply a family event between Elizabeth and Mary.  The Visitation is an event of salvation history.  Elizabeth, a model of the Old Testament, meets the New Testament in Mary’s faith in the mystery of her own destiny.  But what is most significant is the meeting of their unborn children.  John, who leaps in his mother’s womb, is already anticipating his role as precursor of the Messiah.

            In the Visitation narrative we look to Mary as model of the apostolate of the Church.  She brings Jesus and a blessing on the house of Zechariah.  The experience of the primitive Church was that the power of the Lord was the greatest gift it had to offer.  To bring Jesus will always be the supreme norm of any genuine apostolate.  The Church’s mission is to show Jesus as wisdom and power in each situation of human need.

            While the prayer after communion invites us to recognize the presence of Christ among us in the Eucharist, we must remember that the presence of Christ is discovered not only in the Eucharist.  He is met in others, and he asks us to serve him in others.  Mary’s service for Elizabeth by her visit remains a model for the Christian who wishes to meet Christ in daily life.

Liturgy and life nourish faith

            Like us, Mary had to walk by faith.  One writer likens faith to darkness and light.  It is dark because we cannot fully grasp divine truth.  It is light since faith brings us to truths we cannot know otherwise.  Mary walked in the light of faith.  God told her enough about his plan for her to make each new step.  Faith is not only intellectual, that is, belief.  Faith is also trust and action.

            Pope St. John Paul II in Redemptoris Mater, #14, offers an inspiring account of Mary’s faith. 
“To believe means to abandon oneself to the truth of the word of the living God, knowing and humbly recognizing ‘how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways’

 (Rm 11:33).  Mary, who by the eternal will of the Most High stands, one may say, at the very center of those inscrutable judgments of God, conforms herself to them in the dim light of faith, accepting fully and with a ready heart everything that is decreed in the divine plan.”

            Faith means to say “amen” (so be it) to the word, the command, and the promises of God.
            An important element of Mary’s faith is also common to ours.  God speaks to us through others.  We come to know God and his saving plan through people in the Christian community; for example, parents, teachers, preachers, and others.  Revelation is not made directly to us.  Except for the special experience of the Annunciation, Mary came to know God’s will through others.


            Mary’s faith, which is praised by Elizabeth, draws her to the dignity of being the Mother of Jesus and still greater to being a true disciple of the Lord.  Faith was not easier for her than for us.  The contrary is true.  For Mary it was more difficult to believe than for the apostles.  She understood more of God’s plan.  Pope St. John Paul II commented that the expression, “blessed is she who believed,” is a key unlocking the innermost reality of Mary.  Being aware that this faith was difficult, involving deep struggle, gives us an insight into Mary’s life and evidence of her likeness to us, sharing completely in the human condition, but without sin.

Friday, May 26, 2017

ACN - Catholic aid official calls for ‘urgent, comprehensive’ protection of Egyptian Christians after killings

In the wake of today’s killing of 26 Coptic Christians in Egypt’s Minya Province, the head of an international Catholic charity called on the Egyptian government, the US and other Western nations to commit significant resources to protect the nation’s vulnerable Christian community.

Since December 2011, in three separate attacks on worshippers in Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta, ISIS claimed responsibility for the deaths of at least 78 Christians. The group is the likely perpetrator behind today’s attack as well.

George Marlin, chairman of Aid to the Church in Need-USA—referring to the terrorist attack earlier this week in Manchester, England that killed 22 people—said that “vulnerable as European countries and the US are, there is a comprehensive security apparatus in place to prevent many attacks and conduct in-depth surveillance of potential attackers.”

Marlin called on the international community to work still more closely with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi and begin laying the foundation for such an “urgent, comprehensive anti-terror security network” to protect Christians in Egypt.

A regional approach, he added, could provide added protection for Christians in Lebanon and Jordan as well—“and even begin to come up with some answers for the grave difficulties confronting Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria.”

“Pope Francis had a chance to enlist the help of the US when he met with President Trump the other day,” said Marlin, who cited the statement issued after that meeting as saying that the Pope and the American president discussed “the situation in the Middle East and the protection of Christian communities.”

“It’s one thing to talk about political negotiation and interreligious dialogue,” said Marlin, “but clearly something more concrete has to happen as well: a major commitment on the part of the US and other nations to fund the kind of intelligence-gathering and unflinching counter-measures that can begin to guarantee the safety of highly vulnerable Christian populations in the Middle East.”


Editor’s Notes:


Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.


For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org

Monday, May 15, 2017

ACN News - Consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima, Aid to the Church in Need turns 70



By Eva-Maria Kolmann


The May 13, 2017 canonization by Pope Francis of two Portuguese shepherds to whom Our Lady appeared 100 years ago at Fatima has particular resonance for international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, ACN was consecrated 50 years ago to Our Lady of Fatima. With the Pope coming to Fatima to canonize them, Jacinta Marto and her brother Francisco will be the youngest non-martyrs proclaimed saints in the history of the Church.

Our Lady of Fatima certainly has worked wonders for ACN. George Marlin, chairman of ACN-USA, explained: “From the very beginning, this charity has been a miracle: it has given countless people the strength to forgive and to show unconditional magnanimity.”

“The organization grew out of a belief in Jesus Christ as well as the staunch conviction that the Gospel holds the truth. Today, our charity continues to bear witness to the living God as hundreds of thousands of people all over the world support our brothers and sisters in the faith in His name.”

ACN was founded in 1947 by the Dutch Premonstratensian priest Father Werenfried van Straaten. From the very beginning, the focus was on fostering reconciliation as well as bringing about the love of one’s enemies as called for in the Gospel.

Tellingly, the charity which began as an aid campaign to help German refugees after World War II, was launched in Belgium and the Netherlands, whose populations had suffered greatly under German occupation.

The aid for the “enemies of yesterday” was thus not only intended to alleviate the immediate distress of the people, but also to overcome hatred, foster reconciliation in a ravaged and hostile Europe—and at the same time become a “school of love” for those who bestowed the aid.

Growing rapidly, ACN extended its activities to encompass the countries behind the Iron Curtain as well as those in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Over time, ACN began to focus its efforts on supporting the pastoral work of the Catholic Church in countries and regions where the faithful suffered various forms of discrimination and persecution, or where local Churches lacked the necessary means to fulfill their mission.

Next to providing material aid, one of ACN’s primary concerns was giving the persecuted “Church of Silence” a voice.

The work of ACN is closely linked with the message of Fatima and the organization is organizing various holding various campaigns to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the appearances of Our Lady at Fatima. The festivities will culminate with a large international pilgrimage to the Portuguese shrine in September 2017.

Father Martin Barta, ACN’s international ecclesiastical assistant explains that the founding of the charity should be considered within the context of the October revolution and the appearances at Fatima, during which Our Lady warned of the perils of communism.

Father Barta said that ACN, taking its cue from the messages at Fatima, has “grown into a global spiritual movement” that calls for a “rebellion of the heart”—a “revolution” not based on the “false myths of godless communism or humanistic relativism, but on the reality of the cross of Jesus Christ, His Pierced Heart.”

He added: “In the end, [Our Lady of Fatima’s] Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

ACN was consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima because Father van Straaten considered the foundation of the charity to be a response to the message of Fatima, which had warned of “total rebellion against God.”

That threat first occurred in the October Revolution in Russia, which initiated persecution of the Church of unmatched severity; and its legacy still continues today in various forms throughout the world.

The work of ACN is an immediate answer to the Mother of God’s call conversion and a turning toward God, suggests Father Barta, adding that: “As a pontifical foundation, we want to intensify our efforts in helping the Church carry the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary all over the world.”

Today, ACN supports more than 5,000 projects each year in more 140 countries, with funds raised through the work of 23 national offices.

Currently, ACN’s prime focus is on helping persecuted and threatened Christians in the Middle East and preventing the purging of Christian communities from the cradle of Christianity. Another major objective is to support the young and vigorous but materially poor Church in Africa.


With picture of Father Werenfried outside the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, Fatima, Portugal (© ACN)


Editor’s Notes:


Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.


For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org

Friday, May 12, 2017

BOOK BLOG TOUR for Fatima: The Apparition that Changed the World - Book Review



Happy Feast Day!

Today we celebrate the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima.   This day also marks the 100th year anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, Portugual.  It is fitting therefore that Catholic author and well-known blogger, Jean Heimann 's wonderful new book has been published as we commemorate this blessed occasion.  The book is Fatima:  The Apparition that Changed the World.  This book must be really special as it is not only published by Tan Books, a publishing company noted for their fine Catholic books, but the introduction was written by none other than David Carollo, the executive director of the World Apostolate of Fatima.

Those of us who have a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima will notice that there are plenty of new books available during this  Fatima centennial.  Personally speaking, I was having a hard time wondering which book I should read.  I was looking for a book that would explain in easy to understand terms, chronologically, the events that occurred, and written without any personal bias.  I really believe it was Divine Providence that led me to Jean Heimann's book.  It was as if it were custom written with my specifications in mind.  I think this book, which is not at all long yet chock-filled with pertinent information on all things relating to the Fatima apparitions, will appeal to just about everyone.  All ages, male and female, religious and the laity and even non-Catholics will find this little treasure of a book an invaluable resource.

The book is written in Jean's clear style of writing.  The book begins with a comprehensive timeline of events.  There are many good books that have been written to explain Our Lady of Fatima's messages to the three young shepherd children, but I cannot recall one that specifically explains not only the messages but also when things occurred.  The fact that Jean took the time to give us the timeline alone makes this book a valuable Fatima resource.

Along with the timeline of all the events, there are beautiful photographs throughout the book.  There are also explanations of certain terms which makes the Fatima experience more meaningful.  For example, the writer explains quite clearly what our lady meant by reparation.  It stresses the importance of our Lady's messages such as penance, prayers and sacrifices for poor sinners.  She gives background on the history of the holy rosary.  Her writing also gives us a better impression on the characters of the shepherd children.  This is important because we understand them to be holy children but also your normal, playful children as well.

Jean does not shy away from the scarier messages of hell either.  The reader will no doubt try to avoid hell as much as possible.  She also writes about the Fatima popes and their handling of the Our Lady's messages.

I highly recommend this beautiful little book.  It will give the reader a better appreciation for this Fatima jubilee.


Saturday, May 06, 2017

Sister Lucia on Keeping the Lord's Day Holy



"Do you keep the third commandment of the Law of God which requires us to observe Sundays and the Holydays of Obligation?  Do you do so by abstaining from servile work and going to Mass? Remember that God says in Holy Scripture:  Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. (Ex: 31, 15)  Note the expression God uses here:  a day consecrated to the Lord.  Hence, the Lord's Day is not to be passed in idleness, still less in unlawful pleasures, in vice or any kind of sin.  Sundays and Holydays are to be used to bring us close to God by taking part in the Eucharistic Liturgy and other devotions, reading good books which give us a better knowledge of God and of His laws so that we can fulfill them better, and engaging in wholesome entertainment which will enable us to recuperate our physical and moral energies.  Only thus can we have an easy conscience and be certain of fulfilling the Law of the Lord."

Friday, May 05, 2017

FATIMA IN FOCUS



by Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.



          May 13, 2017, marked the one hundredth anniversary of Our Lady's first apparition at Fatima.  She appeared  there each month from May to October in 1917 on the thirteenth of each month.

Like the apparitions of Our Lady at Guadalupe and at Lourdes, her apparitions at Fatima are known far and wide across the world in both religious and secular circles.  To appreciate more clearly the impact of Mary’s appearances at Fatima, it is important for us to know something about the conditions in Portugal at the time of the appearances in 1917.  The events need to be placed in historical context. 


The historical, political, social circumstances

For centuries Portugal had distinguished itself by its zeal for the spread of the Christian faith. But in the eighteenth century the government was influenced by anti-religious ideas and, from that time, Freemasonry set about de-Christianizing the country. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the moral and religious situation in Portugal was abysmal. In 1911, the separation of Church and State became official. The years from 1910 to 1913 were years of terror: priests and bishops were imprisoned or exiled; religious orders were suppressed; almost all the seminaries were closed and confiscated; missions languished or were abandoned. Freemasonry was in control. From 1910 to 1926 Portugal experienced 16 revolutions with 40 changes of government officials. 


The apparitions and their message

Then, on May 13, 1917, a shining Lady appeared to three little shepherds near Fatima, a Portuguese village. They were Jacinta, seven years old; Francisco, her brother, nine years old; their cousin, Lucia, ten years old.

The brilliant Lady encouraged them to pray the rosary, a summary of the Gospel, and to offer acts of penance. Then she asked them to return on the 13th of the next five months. The children were faithful in coming, except for August 13, for the mayor, a Mason, had them imprisoned at that time. He had threatened to cast them into a caldron of boiling oil if they did not reveal the secret confided to them by the Lady.

At each meeting, the Lady revealed to them a little more of God’s designs. She foretold future misfortunes which they were to keep secret for the time being, and which were recently revealed by the sole survivor, Lucia. These had to do with an even more terrible war than the current one of 1914-1918. The Lady asked for the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for only through her could the aid of God come to the world. On the last apparition, that of October 13, she promised a great miracle which everyone would be able to see.

Curiosity drew ever larger numbers that accompanied the little visionaries to each meeting: there were some 25,000 to 30,000 on September 13; about 70,000 on October 13.

That day, on which the great miracle promised by the Virgin Mary was to take place, rain poured all morning. The crowd was soaked.  But at noon the skies cleared. Mary appeared to the three shepherds and revealed her name: Lady of the Rosary. She asked that people be converted and pray. Then, in the sight of the 70,000 spectators, the sun, which had just appeared through the clouds, began to rotate or spin three times.  Each rotation lasted three or four minutes, illuminating the trees, the crowd, the earth, with all the colors of a rainbow. Then it zigzagged in the sky and descended as though to fall into the crowd. People fell to the ground crying for mercy. Then the sun returned to its proper place. The spectators noticed that their clothes were completely dry.

News of this miracle, witnessed by 70,000 people, including a number hostile to religion, spread like wildfire throughout Portugal and made a tremendous impression. The material miracle was but a sign of another miracle, the enlightenment of souls and the conversion of the country. 


The aftermath

Less than two weeks after the last apparition, a first sign of a new attitude manifested itself in the protest by an influential antichristian newspaper against a sacrilegious attack by a group of sectarians at Fatima. In 1918, the bishops were recalled from exile and were able to hold a meeting at Lisbon. The military chaplaincy was reinstated and relations with the Holy See reestablished. At that point, the Masonic lodges had the president of the Republic of Portugal assassinated. They sought to reinstate the control of the anticlericals, but their efforts failed.

Come 1936, a new great danger menaced the land. The Russian Bolshevists decided to establish atheistic communism in Spain and Portugal in order to spread it more successfully in the east and in the west, throughout all Christian Europe. We know what success they had in Spain. Portugal seemed unable to resist their activity, organized with satanic cleverness. To dispel the danger, the bishops saw salvation only in the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1936, they promised, by what was termed an anticommunist oath, to make a pilgrimage of the entire nation to Fatima if Portugal were preserved from the peril which was threatening it.

 While, on the other side of the frontier in Spain, the “Reds” were massacring, profaning, pillaging, burning priests and men and women religious and churches and convents, trying to extirpate the last vestiges of Christianity, Portugal enjoyed peace. And so, in 1938, an enormous pilgrimage of a half-million faithful was on route to Fatima to thank the Virgin for her miraculous protection.

In 1940, Portugal signed with the Holy See the most perfect concordat, from the Christian point of view, ever signed in recent times. The faith is proclaimed throughout the entire country with pride, the sacraments are frequented, Catholic Action flourished, ecclesiastical vocations multiplied.  In eight years the number of religious had quadrupled. In keeping with the prediction of the Virgin at Fatima, the Second World War was much more horrible than the first. Yet, though most of the nations of the world were involved in the indescribable calamities and anguish, Portugal continued with its tranquil life under the protection of Mary. 

The Church’s action

The ecclesiastical inquiry into the facts of Fatima was opened in November of 1917.  However, because of circumstances, a verdict was rendered only thirteen years later, on October 13, 1930. Meanwhile, pilgrimages continued to arrive, always more numerous, and usually on the 13th of each month. Cures were taking place. In 1926, a board of review was established similar to the one at Lourdes. More than a thousand cures, scientifically unexplainable had been registered by 1955.

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, the ecclesiastical authority judged the moment suitable for revealing in part what Our Lady of the Rosary had asked Lucia to keep secret for the time being.

In his radio message of October 31, 1942, to the pilgrims gathered at Fatima, Pope Pius XII consecrated the Church and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He renewed this consecration the following December 8 in Rome. The bishops of the whole world also made this consecration for their individual dioceses on March 28, 1943. We know that the Pope Pius XII confided to Cardinal Tedeschini that he himself had seen the solar phenomenon on October 30 and 31, and on November 1 and 8, 1954, on the occasion of the definition of the dogma of the Assumption.

          The impact of Fatima

The message of Fatima has been heard in Portugal, and Mary’s goodness has marvelously repaid it. Has it been heard in the rest of the world?  Certainly not enough.  Otherwise wars among nations by armies, and “cold wars,” and fratricides within countries would have ended long ago.

However, not all have turned a deaf ear. The message of Fatima has been received in part, at least, by a great number of Christians.  Devotion to the rosary continues to gain favor and reaches into many countries. As has been said, all the dioceses of the world have been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the bishops.   The visits of the Pilgrim Virgin statues have been received with tremendous enthusiasm not only by Catholic populations, but by some Protestants and Muslims as well.

 The message of Fatima has moved many and has contributed to making our era an Age of Mary. It has not spoken its final word. What that word will be depends on the cooperation which Our Lady of Fatima receives from us.  She extends this call and invitation to each of us.

These words of St. Thomas Aquinas, later used by Franz Werfel about Lourdes, apply also to Fatima: “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary.  For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.”




ROSARY GUIDELINES



by Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.

          Any expression of Christian spirituality gives prominent place to Mary, Mother of our Redeemer.   Praying is at the heart of living the Gospel, and that normally includes praying her rosary.  The rosary is a means of summarizing the Gospel.  This enables us to live the rosary by entwining its prayers and mysteries into the very fabric of our lives.
In praying the rosary we offer our Spiritual Mother a garland of roses, our heartfelt conversation. 

          In the rosary we find a unique synthesis of the entire Gospel,  both Scripture and Tradition, in a beautifully Marian format that is easily remembered as we implore God's grace.

          Pope St. John Paul II taught that praying the rosary is "a most effective way of fostering among the faithful that commitment to contemplation of the Christian mystery and a genuine training in holiness."  He regarded the rosary as "an exquisitely contemplative prayer" and "a treasure to be rediscovered." 

          More than one hundred official documents of the papal magisterium attest to the efficacy of the rosary as a school of virtue and contemplation and a means of obtaining divine graces.  The rosary succeeds in protecting our gift of faith from all kinds of sin because it is a gift from God, the  weapon chosen for us by Our Lady.  The Servant of God, Frank Duff, reminded us that the rosary is our "prime devotion" because it contains Mary.  Barbara  Kloss, a twentieth century mystic of Poland, was told by Our Lady, "I am wholly in the rosary.  Seek me there...find me there."

          Archbishop Fulton Sheen once compared the rosary to the Eucharist:  "What the Eucharist is in the order of the sacraments, the rosary is in the order of sacramentals."   This means, he continues, "the rosary contains Mary."

          For Maisie Ward, the noted British writer and publisher, the rosary is a guide to reality.  If the rosary contains Mary, then it also contains the Holy Spirit, spouse of Mary and the Spirit of truth (Jn 16:13), the only true guide to reality.

          Taking his cue from the Joyful Mysteries, Pope St. John Paul II tells how the rosary transports us to reality.  "The rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Jesus in the home of Nazareth.  This enables her to train us and mold us with the same care until Christ is 'fully formed' in us (Gal 4:19).  By immersing us in the Redeemer's life, the rosary insures that what Jesus has done and what the liturgy makes present is profoundly assimilated and shapes our existence."

          Since our objective is to live the Gospel, we are called to live the rosary, an epitome of the Gospel, all the time.  This requires skillfully entwining its mysteries in our lives.  By doing so we become divinized by incorporating the virtues of Jesus and Mary by praying always with Mary.  Living the rosary continually requires a deep respect and real love for the rosary by recognizing at its core Jesus, love incarnate -- "the way, the truth, and the life."

          "Abide in me and I in you," says Jesus, because "without me you can do nothing."


         




Thursday, May 04, 2017

Sister Lucia on Modesty of Clothing - Fatima



"Notice, however, that it is not only for these two reasons -- punishment and penance for our sins - that God clothes us {regarding Adam and Eve's awareness of their nakedness caused by their grievous sin]; it served other purposes too.  Besides being a protection against sin, the modest clothing with which we must c\cover ourselves is a distinguishing mark setting us apart in the stream of immorality and enabling us to be, for the world, true witnesses of Christ."

Wednesday, May 03, 2017

ACN News - Priest was ISIS captive – ‘I am journeying towards freedom’

Syrian monk Father Jacques Mourad spent five months in 2015 as a captive of ISIS. He recently spoke about his experience at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, during the “Night of the Witnesses,” an annual initiative of the French office of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the international Catholic charity.

How did I—taken hostage by a group of jihadists, imprisoned for almost five months, frequently threatened with beheading, and after witnessing the abduction and imprisonment of 250 of my parishioners—how did I respond to the experience of my liberation? Was there any room for love in this experience?

In Karyatayn (Al-Qaryatayn), I had been ministering to all the people since the year 2000, and I was in charge of the Syriac Catholic parish there, belonging to the Diocese of Homs. And yes, it was from Karyatayn that I was abducted.

On May 21, 2015, a group of masked and armed men invaded the monastery of Mar Elian, which I was in charge of, taking me hostage together with Boutros, who was then a postulant at the monastery. We were kept prisoner there in the car in the middle of the desert, for four days, then they took us to Raqqa, where we were imprisoned in a bathroom.

On the road to Raqqa, [traveling] into the unknown, a phrase came to me and stayed with me which helped me to accept what was happening and to abandon myself to the Lord: “I am journeying towards freedom...” The presence of the Blessed Virgin, our Mother, and the prayer of the Rosary were my other spiritual weapons.

On the eighth day a man in black, his face masked, came into our “cell.” At the sight of him I was terrified and I thought my last hour had come. But instead, to my great surprise, he asked my name and addressed me with the customary [Arab Muslim] greeting: Assalam aleïkum, which means “Peace be with you.” It is an expression reserved for Muslims and forbidden to non-Muslims (because there can be no possible peace with those who oppose them). And above all because Christians are considered by them to be unbelievers and heretics (kouffar).

He then engaged us in a long conversation, as though he was trying to get to know us better. And when I found the courage to ask him why we were being kept prisoner, I was surprised by his reply: “Look on it as a spiritual retreat.”

We remained imprisoned in that bathroom for 84 days. Almost every day they came into my cell and interrogated me about my faith. I lived each day as though it was my last. But I did not waver. God granted me two things: silence and amiability.

I was harangued, threatened several times with beheading, and was subjected to a mock execution for refusing to renounce my faith. In those moments, our Lord’s words resonated within me: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness…”

In the midst of this situation I was also happy to be able to concretely live these words of Christ from Saint Matthew’s Gospel: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who ill-treat and persecute you.”

On Aug. 4 2015, ISIS took control of Karyatayn and then the next morning, at dawn, took a group of Christians hostage, some 250 people, brought from a region close to Palmyra. Obviously, we didn’t know anything about what was going on, since we had been cut off from the world.

On Aug. 11 a Saudi sheik came into our cell. He spoke to me, saying, “You are Baba Jacques? Come with me! They’ve been battering our ears talking about you!” We drove through the desert for about four hours. When we arrived in a compound enclosed by a huge iron gate, the Christians of Karyatayn were around me, astonished to see me.

It was a moment of unspeakable suffering for me, and for them an extraordinary moment of joy and pain. Of joy because they never expected to see me survive, and of pain because of the conditions in which we had met again.

Twenty days later, on Sept. 1, they brought us back to Karyatayn, free again, but forbidden to leave the town. To put it another way, it was a return to life, but not yet to liberty. But already a return to life—what a miracle! I could not help but marvel at it!

We were even allowed to celebrate our religious rites, on condition we did not advertise the fact. A few days later, when one of my parishioners died of cancer, we went to the cemetery, close to the monastery of Mar Elian. It was only then that I discovered it had been destroyed. Strangely, I felt no reaction. On Sept. 9, the feast of Mar Elian (Saint Julian of Edessa), I realized that Mar Elian had sacrificed his monastery and his tomb in order to save us.

On the evening of Oct. 9 I sensed that the time had come to leave. And the next morning, with the help of a young Muslim man, I was able to flee from Karyatayn, despite the dangers it involved. And here again the merciful hand of God and the Virgin Mary protected and accompanied me. Helped by this local Muslim man, I was able to pass through a checkpoint controlled by the jihadists, without them recognizing me or seizing me.

It was on that day, Oct. 10, 2015, on that desert road, that the word “freedom” really came home to me once more.

This thirst for freedom is not mine alone. It is that of all the Syrian people. Many European and American countries have opened their borders to Syrian refugees and welcomed them. Thousands of Syrians who have fled death have taken refuge in these countries because they long for life and yearn for liberty.

Nonetheless, I cannot close my eyes to the contradictions we see in these countries at war. On the way towards freedom we must absolutely ask ourselves this crucial question that Pontius Pilate addressed to Christ: “What is truth?” Having said that, he went out again to speak to the Jews and declared to them, “I find no cause for condemnation in him.”

Pilate represented the Roman Empire, a symbol of the whole world which has decided to kill Christ. Nothing has changed. How long will we continue to refuse to understand the message of our God? How much longer must our world go on being governed by little groups who seek only their own self-interest?

It is time to react against the fears of a third world war. The time has come for a revolution of peace—against violence, against the manufacture of armaments, against governments who constantly find reasons for war throughout the world, but above all in the Middle East

As for Europe, it is time that the Muslim community took a clear and unambiguous position in regard to the violence which is growing and being propagated. For them, too, fear is a paralyzing factor that is shackling them. Their silence is becoming the sign of a manifest and apparent agreement in the face of the violence that is unfolding.

Despite everything the humanitarian organizations are doing for the Syrian people, there are still families living in terrible conditions, outside the refugee camps, for lack of space. They are not accepted there. They are homeless, they have nothing.

God is not only asking us to be sensitive to the material needs of the poor. We are presented with a people who are suffering, a wounded people who are bearing a very, very heavy burden, who cry out with Jesus on the Cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” People who cry out with David in Psalm 51: misericordias domini.

This war must stop. We want to return to our ruined homes. We have the right to live, like everyone else in the world. We want to live!


With picture of Father Mourad (© ACN)


Editor’s Notes:


Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in NeNeed supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org