The 100th Anniversary of the Sixth Apparition of Fatima
(October 13, 2017)
National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima
Washington, New Jersey, USA
click to enlarge
Speaker: Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R.,
One of the world’s foremost experts on the apparitions at Fatima.
October 13, 1917
People descended by the tens of thousands on the cova despite the terrible storm that lashed the mountain country around Fatima. By mid-morning the weather again turned bad and heavy rain began to fall.
Around noon, the children saw a flash of light as Mary appeared before them. For the last time, Lucia asked what she wanted. Mary responded: “I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honor. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.”
Lucia made requests for cures, conversions and other things. Our Lady’s response was: “Some yes, but not others. They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins.”
Sister Lucia tells us that at this point Mary grew very sad and said: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.” Then, opening her hands, she made them reflect on the sun and, as she ascended, the reflection of her own light continued to be projected on the sun itself. After she disappeared, as the people witnessed the great miracle which had been predicted, the children saw the visions foretold during the September apparition. - World Apostolate of Fatima, USA
The Miracle of the Sun
The greatest miracle to occur since The Resurrection is also the only miracle ever precisely predicted as to date, time of day and location. Although it is popularly known as “The Miracle of the Sun” and October 13, 1917 has come to be known as “The Day the Sun Danced,” a great deal more took place. The solar phenomena included the dancing of the sun, its fluctuations in color, its swirling and its descending toward the earth. There were also the stillness in the leaves of the trees in spite of howling winds, the complete drying of the rain soaked ground, and the restoration of clothes all wet and covered with mud so that, as eye-witness Dominic Reis put it, “they looked as though they had just come back from the cleaners.” Physical cures of the blind and the lame were reported. The countless unreserved public confessions of sin and commitments to conversion of life attest to the authenticity of what they saw.
The miracle is reported to have been seen from as far as 15-25 miles away, thus ruling out the possibility of any type of collective hallucination or mass hypnotism. Doubters and skeptics had become believers. Even O Seculo’s chief editor, Avelino de Almeida, who had written satirically before, now reported affirmatively, and stood by his story later on in spite of harsh criticism.
- World Apostolate of Fatima, USA
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MIRACLE OF THE SUN IN UGANDA
Kiwamirembe,
Uganda’s Marian Shrine
click to enlarge
Sun Miracle during Apparition of Mary
Good Friday (April 14, 2017)
Source: Emmanuel Sseguya
Nestled among tea plantations outside Kampala, the hilltop shrine of Kiwamirembe had its roots as a site of prayer for peace during Uganda’s devastating civil wars. It was finally launched in 1989 as a place for spiritual refuge, healing and thanksgiving for deliverance from the wars.
Kiwamirembe means “giver of peace.” ...The shrine draws pilgrims throughout the year, for overnight vigils, daily Masses, Stations of The Cross and Good Friday Passion walks.
What we have in the United States is an "illusion of democracy." Presidents are not elected by the people; they are "selected" by the Deep State. (The faces change, but the policies remain the same.)
Presidential elections in the United States are nothing more than "political theater" -- for a "dumbed down" electorate. But the 2016 Presidential election was unlike any other.
"I [Dane Wigington] recently acquired two exceptional original copies of 'Popular Science' from June of 1958. Almost 60 years ago the dialog about weather warfare was more open. As the power structure began to consider how negatively the public would respond to the decimation caused by climate modification programs of mass destruction, the push to completely suppress media coverage of this issue commenced. Current mainstream media sources have done their best to convince populations that it is not possible to manipulate the climate. This lie is used to compel the majority of the public to ignore the blatant spraying they see over their heads on an almost daily basis. Not only is global climate manipulation possible today, it has been going on for nearly 7 decades." _ Dane Wigington (Dec. 17, 2015)
"WEATHER AS A WEAPON"
Popular Science (June 1958)
"There are of course uncontrollable variables, but in a broad sense the weather is being manipulated and disrupted on a scale that cannot be truly comprehended." _ Dane Wigington, GeoengineeringWatch.org
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The climate engineers decide when and where there will be extreme heat or cold, severe drought and wildfires, devastating hurricanes, floods or snow storms... devastating tornadoes -- and "Frankenstorms" like Hurricane Sandy.
"The Perfect Storm" unexpectedly collided
with Hurricane Sandy.
The Perfect Storm And Hurricane Sandy
You know how to judge (interpret) the appearance of the sky,
but you cannot judge the signs of the times.
(Matthew 16:3)
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National Geographic, November 2017
Major hurricanes have stayed away from U.S. shores for more than a decade. This came to an end -- during President Trump's first year in office. The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was the most expensive in U.S. History. [Early tabulations indicate that the U.S. suffered more than $200 billion worth of damage.] Was this series of major storms -- hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma -- "manufactured" by the Deep State to derail President Trump's successful economic agenda? Would the Deep State sacrifice American lives to advance its "globalist" agenda?
Asked why seawater temperatures didn’t follow the usual pattern this year, CSU meteorologist Phil Klotzbach said, “I don’t have a great answer for that as of yet.”
Weather systems and steering currents that had fortuitously aligned to steer hurricanes away from U.S. shores since 2005 were not in place this year. This meant that hurricanes traveled farther west, and thus made U.S. landfalls, instead of turning harmlessly out to sea.
Vigil of Pentecost with Pope Francis at Circus Maximus on the Occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Catholic Charismatic Renewal
(June 3, 2017)
Vigil of Pentecost with Pope Francis
Circus Maximus, Rome
Part 1 of 2
Vigil of Pentecost with Pope Francis
Circus Maximus, Rome
Part 2 of 2
The following is the text of the Holy Father's address to 35,000 Catholic Charismatics at Circus Maximus:
Brothers and sisters, thank you for your witness today, here: thank you! It is good for all of us, it is good for me, for all!
In the first chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles we read that: “And while staying with them He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1: 4-5).
“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2: 1-4).
Today we are here, as in an open-air Cenacle, because we are not afraid: in the open air, and also with a heart open to the promise of the Father. We are gathered, “all believers”, all those who profess that Jesus is the Lord. Many have come from different parts of the world and the Holy Spirit has gathered us to establish bonds of fraternal friendship that encourage us on the path to unity, unity for the mission: not to be static, no! for the mission, to proclaim that Jesus is the Lord – Jesús es el Señor – to announce together the love of the Father for all His children! To announce the Good News to all peoples! To demonstrate that peace is possible. It is not so easy to demonstrate to this, today’s world, that peace is possible, but in the name of Jesus we can show with our witness that peace is possible! But it is possible only if we are at peace among ourselves. If we accentuate our differences, we are at war with each other and we cannot proclaim peace. Peace is possible starting from our confession that Jesus is the Lord and from our evangelization on this road. It is possible. While showing that we have differences – but this is obvious, we have differences – but that we wish to be a reconciled diversity. Here, we must not forget this phrase, but say it to everyone: reconciled diversity. And this phrase is not mine, it is not mine. It is from a Lutheran brother. Reconciled diversity.
And now we are here, and there are many of us! We managed to pray together, to ask the coming of the Holy Spirit upon each one of us to go out into the streets of the city and of the world, to proclaim the lordship of Jesus Christ.
The book of the Acts affirms that we are “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians – we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (Acts 2: 9-11). Speaking in the same language, listening, understanding… There are differences, but the Spirit enables us to understand the message of the resurrection of Jesus in our own language.
We are gathered here, believers from 120 countries in the world, to celebrate the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, that took the initiative fifty years ago and gave rise to … an institution? No. An organization? No. To a current of grace, to the current of grace of Catholic Charismatic Renewal. A work that was born … Catholic? No. It was born ecumenical! It was born ecumenical because it is the Holy Spirit that creates unity and the same Holy Spirit that gave the inspiration for it to be thus! It is important to read the works of Cardinal Suenens on this: it is very important!
The coming of the Holy Spirit transforms men wrapped up in fear into courageous witnesses of Jesus. Peter, who had denied Jesus three times, full of the strength of the Holy Spirit proclaims: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus Whom you crucified” (Acts 2: 36). And this is the profession of faith of every Christian. God constituted as Lord and Christ that Jesus Whom you have or has been crucified. Do you agree on this profession of faith? [Answer: “yes”]. It is ours, everyone’s, all of us, the same!
The Word continues, saying, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2: 44-47). The community was growing, and it was the Spirit that inspired it. I like very much to think of Philip, when the Angel said to him, “Go on the road to Gaza and find the proselyte, minister of economy of the Queen of Ethiopia, Candace. He was a proselyte and was reading Isaiah. And Philip explained the Word to him, proclaimed Jesus, and the man converted. And at a certain point, he said, “But here there is water: I want to be baptized”. It was the Spirit that drove Philip to go there, and from the beginning it was that the Spirit that drove all believers to proclaim the Lord.
Today we have chosen to gather here, in this place – as Pastor Traettino said – because here during the persecutions, Christians were martyred for the enjoyment of those who were watching. Today there are more martyrs than yesteryear! Today there are more martyrs, Christians. Those who kill Christians, before killing them, do not ask, “Are you Orthodox? Are you Catholic? Are you Evangelical? Are you Lutheran? Are you Calvinist?” No. “Are you Christian?” “Yes” – then your throat is cut, immediately. Today there are more martyrs than in the early times. And this is the ecumenism of blood: we are united by the witness of our martyrs of today. In several parts of the world Christian blood is being shed! Today the unity of Christians, united by the work of the Holy Spirit, in prayer and in action for the weakest, is more urgent than ever. Walk together, work together. Love each other. Love each other. And together seek to explain the differences, agree, but on the path! If we stay still, without walking, we will never, ever agree. This is how it is, because the Holy Spirit wants us to be on the move.
Fifty years of Catholic Charismatic Renewal. A current of grace of the Spirit! And why a current of grace? Because it has neither a founder, nor statutes, nor organs of governance. Clearly in these current multiple expressions have been born that are certainly human works inspired by the Spirit, with various charisms, and all in the service of the Church. But this current cannot be dammed, nor can the Holy Spirit be enclosed in a cage!
Fifty years have passed. When we reach this age, perhaps our strengths begin to decline. It is the halfway point in life – in my homeland we call it “el cinquentazo” – wrinkles become deeper – unless you make yourself up, but the wrinkles are there – the grey hairs increase in number, and we begin to forget certain things…
Fifty years is a good moment in life to stop and reflect. It is the moment for reflection: halfway through life. And I would say to you: it is the moment to go ahead with greater strength, leaving behind the dust of time that w have allowed to accumulate, being thankful for what we have received and facing the new with trust in the action of the Holy Spirit!
Pentecost enabled the birth of the Church. The Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father announced by Jesus Christ, it is He Who makes the Church: the Bride of the Apocalypse, a single bride! As Pastor Traettino said: the Lord has one bride!
The most precious gift that we have all received is baptism. And now the Spirit leads us on the path of conversion that all the Christian world follows, and which is another reason why Catholic Charismatic Renewal is a special place for following the way towards unity!
This current of grace is for all the Church, not just for some, and no-one among us is the “master” and all the others servants. No. We are all servants of this current of grace.
Together with this experience, you continually remind the Church of the power of prayer and praise. Praise which is the prayer of acknowledgment and thanksgiving for the gratuitous love of God. It may be that not everyone likes this form of prayer, but it is certainly fully integrated in the biblical tradition. The Psalms, for example: David who danced before the Ark of the Covenant, full of jubilation … and please, let us not fall into the trap of the attitude of Christians with the “Michal complex”, named after she who was ashamed of how David praised God [dancing before the Ark].
Jubilation, cheer, joy, fruit of the same action of the Holy Spirit! Either the Christian experiences joy in his or her heart, or there is something wrong. The joy of the announcement of the Good News of the Gospel!
Jesus in the Synagogue of Nazareth reads the passage of Isaiah. He reads. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (cf. Lk 4:18-19; Is 61: 1-2). The good news: do not forget this. The good, the joyful news: the Christian proclamation is always joyful.
The third document of Malines, “Charismatic Renewal and Service to Man”, written by Cardinal Suenens and Dom Helder Camara, is clear: charismatic renewal and also service to man.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit, praise, service to man. The three things are indissolubly joined. I can praise profoundly, but if I do not help those most in need, it is not enough. “There was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4: 34), said the Book of the Acts.
We will not be judged for our praise but for how much we have done for Jesus. But Lord, when did we do this for You? “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers” (cf. Mt. 25: 39-40).
Dear sisters and dear brothers, I wish you a time of reflection, of remembrance of your origins; a time to leave behind all the things added by the self and transform them into listening and joyful welcome of the action of the Holy Spirit, which breathes where and how He wishes!
I thank the Catholic Fraternity and the ICCRS for organizing this Golden Jubilee, for this Vigil. And I thank each one of the volunteers who have made this possible, many of whom are here. I wanted to greet the members of staff of the office when I arrived, because I know they have worked hard! And without payment! They have worked a lot. The majority are young people from various continents. May the Lord bless you.
I am thankful in particular for the fact that the request I made to you two years ago to give the Charismatic Renewal worldwide a single international service based here has started to take shape in the Constitutive Acts of this new single service. It is the first step; others will follow, but soon unity, the work of the Holy Spirit, will be a reality. “Behold, I am making all things new”, says the Lord (Rev. 21: 5).
Thank you, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, for what you have given the Church in these fifty years! The Church counts on you, on your fidelity to the Spirit, on your willingness to serve and your witness of lives transformed by the Holy Spirit!
Share with all in the Church the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, praise the Lord ceaselessly, walk together with Christians of different Churches and Christian communities in prayer and in action for those most in need. Serve the poorest and the sick, this is what the Church and the Pope expect of you, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, but from all of you: all, all of you who have entered in this current of grace! Thank you.
The following is the text of Father Cantalamessa's address:
Father Cantalamessa began his meditation with a reading of the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The following translation includes both the reading and some excerpts of his meditation.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:5-13)
This scene is repeating itself among us today. We too have come “from every nation under heaven,” and we are here to proclaim together “the mighty works of God.” There is, however, something else to discover in this part of the story of Pentecost. Since ancient times it has been understood that the author of Acts—and this means first of all the Holy Spirit!— through this insistence on the phenomenon of tongues, wanted to make us understand, that at Pentecost something takes place that reverses what happened at Babel. The Spirit transforms the linguistic chaos of Babel into a new harmony of voices. This explains why the account of Babel in Genesis 11 is traditionally inserted among the biblical readings for the Pentecost Vigil.
The builders of Babel were not, as it was once thought, wicked people who intended to defy God, a kind of equivalent of the Titans of Greek mythology. No, they were pious and religious people. The tower they wanted to construct was a temple to the divinity, one of those temples with layered terraces called ziggurat, whose ruins can still be found in Mesopotamia. What then was their sin? Let us listen to what they said among themselves when they started to work on it: “They said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth’” (Gen 11:4).
Martin Luther makes an illuminating observation about these words: “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower”: let us build it for ourselves, not for God. . . . “Let us make a name for ourselves”: let us do it for ourselves. The people take no concern for the name of God to be glorified; they are concerned with making their own name great.
In other words, God is being exploited; he must serve their desire for power. They perhaps thought, according to the mindset at that time, that by offering sacrifices from a great height they could win victories from the divinity over the neighboring peoples. This is the reason God was forced to confound their languages and derail their project.
This suddenly brings the matter of Babel and its builders very close to us. How many of the divisions among Christians have been due to a secret desire to make a name for ourselves, to elevate ourselves above others, to relate to God from a superior position in comparison to others! How many have been due to the desire to make a name for ourselves or for our own church more than for God! This is where our Babel comes from!
Let us turn now to Pentecost. Here too we see a group of men, the apostles, who are preparing to build a tower that goes from earth to heaven, the Church. At Babel they still spoke one single language, but at a certain point people no longer understood one another; at Pentecost all the people are speaking different languages, but everyone understands the apostles. Why? It is because the Holy Spirit had brought about a Copernican revolution in them.
Before this moment the apostles were also preoccupied with making a name for themselves, and they often discussed “who among them was the greatest.” Now the Holy Spirit has shifted their focus away from themselves and refocused them on Christ. The heart of stone has been shattered, and in its place beats “a heart of flesh” (Ezek 36:26). As Jesus had promised before leaving them, they were “baptized in the Holy Spirit” (see Act 1:5-8), that is, they were completely submerged in the ocean of God’s love that was poured out upon them (see Rom 5:5).
They are dazzled by the glory of God. Their speaking in diverse languages can also be explained by the fact that they were speaking with their eyes, with their faces, with their hands, with the amazement of people who have seen things too lofty to put in words. “We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” The reason they all understood the apostles is that they were no longer speaking about themselves but about God!
God is calling us to bring about that same conversion in our lives: a conversion from ourselves to God, from the smaller unity of our parish, our movement, our own church, to the greater unity that is the unity of the whole body of Christ, indeed of all of humanity. It is the bold step that Pope Francis is urging us Catholics to take and that representatives of other churches assembled here demonstrate they want to share!
- Translated by Aleteia
The East seeks God in the self and seeks escape from the distractions of the outer world.
Yoga, Tai Chi and Reiki cannot be viewed as only being of benefit at the physical and emotional levels. Of their very nature, they draw a person into the spiritual realm.
"(These practices and techniques) rely not only on physical movement but engage a person in entering into an altered state of consciousness. Their powers derive from engagement with the spiritual world." _ Bishop Julian Porteous
When we "alter our state of consciousness" by practicing meditation and techniques linked to false eastern religions, we open our minds to demonic influences which can change our beliefs... and give us psychic powers common to Yoga, Tai Chi and Reiki.
And where do these psychic powers come from?
They come from the Devil.
“And no wonder,
for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.”
(2 Corinthians 11:14)
Bethlehem, PA (2016) _ One night after a healing Mass, I noticed a young woman lying on the floor with a small group of people around her. When I saw her body shaking, I knew it was an evil spirit manifesting. I joined the group and attempted to drive out the evil spirit -- but what had worked in the past was not working here.
Finally... I turned to Jesus and asked for wisdom. He immediately answered, "Baptismal Promises." I spoke these words aloud, and the monsignor who was with us did the "Renewal of Baptismal Promises" with holy water. And this set the woman free.
After the deliverance, the woman told us that she had been a "Reiki Master." [Reiki is a healing technique based on the principle that the therapist (i.e., Reiki Master) can "channel energy" (i.e., demonic power) into the patient "by means of touch," to activate the natural healing processes of the body and restore physical and emotional well-being.] The practice of Reiki had to be renounced before the young woman could be delivered!
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A Personal Renewal of Baptismal Promises
Through the Paschal Mystery I have been buried with Christ in Baptism, that I may walk with Him in newness of life. And so, I now renew the promises of holy Baptism, which I once renounced Satan and his works, and promised to serve God in the holy Catholic Church.
And so I declare:
- I renounce sin, so as to live in the freedom of the children of God.
- I renounce the lure of evil, so that sin may have no mastery over me.
- I renounce Satan, the author and prince of sin.
- I renounce Satan, and all his works. - I renounce Satan, and all evil spirits.
- I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
- I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered death and was buried, rose again from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
- I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
May almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given me new birth by water and the Holy Spirit and bestowed on me forgiveness of my sins, keep me by his grace, in Christ Jesus our Lord, for eternal life.
AMEN.
(Sprinkle yourself with holy water.)
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For More: "Yoga, Tai Chi and Reiki: A Guide for Christians," by Br. Max Sculley DLS
