Mother & Refuge

Exclusive! Latest Update on Fr. MICHEL RODRIGUE with Xavier Ayral

“My dear children, The time you live now is a gift to allow all those of good will to celebrate the birth of my Son Jesus. I have opened this space for you in order to give comfort to your hearts and to allow you to respond, through your faith, to the Love of Jesus who took flesh to save you. On this day of the Holy Family, may all the families of the earth be blessed who welcome my beloved Son in hope. Take the Holy Family into your home, It alone will protect you in these coming times. Remember, I already told you: “the punishment will stop for the houses where the Holy Family is exposed and prayed with respect. » Yes, the Love of my Son who suffered for you, born from the virginal purity of my daughter Mary and protected by the very pure and powerful love of the just and loyal Joseph, is your protection. Hold your heart ready and awaken! Have what you need to nourish your body and treat it with the remedies that I have already given to many of my saints to protect you. Use holy water regularly to chase away the bad angels who lurk near your homes. It is not a coincidence that the last day of this year falls on the feast of the Holy Family. She is the sign to remind you of everything I told you. It is the sign of your protection. It is not in vain that the Church celebrates the motherhood of Mary, Mother of my Son Jesus on the first of the year. Because, in this time of yours, her Immaculate Heart will triumph. This year, which begins tomorrow, is a year of pure faith. All the signs have been given. John, the apostle, lifted the veil. Blinded are those who do not believe, deaf are those who do not hear, and dumb are the lukewarm. The spirit of a spiritual amaurosis invades humanity: there is no longer any vision, no understanding, no sense. Humanity does not see what is coming. My children will not be affected by this darkness. Events will speak. Blessed are those who hear the Word of God! Yes, dedicate yourself to my Most Holy Family; to Jesus my Son, to Mary his Mother and my Daughter, to Joseph my son whom Jesus called father on earth. Consecrate yourself for the fidelity of my Church. Everything will be accomplished and not one iota of what my Son Jesus taught and which the Church has solemnly declared will be lost. Amen! Your heavenly Father who loves you!“.

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The Prophecy of St. Nilus about Our Days

Realizing that St. Nilus is scarcely known to a large part of the Church, a brief sketch of his life, taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1911 copyright edition), is related below: St. Nilus was one of the many disciples and fervent defenders of St. John Chrysostom. He was an officer at the Court of Constantinople, married, with two sons. While St. John Chrysostom was patriarch, before his exile (398-403), he directed Nilus in the study of Scripture and in works of piety. St. Nilus left his wife and one son and took the other, Theodulos, with him to Mount Sinai to be a monk. The Bishop of Eleusa ordained both St. Nilus and his son to the priesthood. The mother and other son also embraced the religious life in Egypt. From his monastery at Sinai, St. Nilus was a well-known person throughout the Eastern Church. Through his writings and correspondence, he played an important part in the history of his time. He was known as a theologian, Biblical scholar and ascetic writer, so people of all kinds, from the Emperor down wrote to consult him. His numerous works, including a multitude of letters, consist of denunciations of heresy, paganism, abuses of discipline and crimes. He also wrote about rules and principles of asceticism, especially maxims on the religious life. He warns and threatens people in high places, Abbots and Bishops, Governors and Princes, even the Emperor himself, without fear. He kept up a correspondence with Gaina, a leader of the Goths, endeavoring to convert him from Arianism. He denounced vigorously the persecution of St. John Chrysostom both to the Emperor Arcadius and to his courtiers. St. Nilus must be counted as one of the leading ascetic writers of the 5th century. His feast is kept on November 12th in the Byzantine Calendar; he is commemorated also in the Roman Martyrology on the same date. St. Nilus probably died around the year 430, as there is no evidence of his life after that. The Prophecy of St. Nilus After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. When the time for the Advent of the Antichrist approaches, people’s minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. People’s appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptations of the Antichrist. There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, Bishops and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right-hand way from the left. At that time, the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society. Apostasy At that future time, due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptism and equally of remorse. The Churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; they will completely lose their faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all. Then they will separate themselves out of the world in holy refuges in search of lightening their spiritual sufferings, but everywhere they will meet obstacles and constraints. And all this will result from the fact that the Antichrist wants to be Lord over everything and become the ruler of the whole universe, and he will produce miracles and fantastic signs. Read more…

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This is what pleases Jesus best, according to St. Faustina

hose who do not pray to Jesus in his Passion,” wrote the poet priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, “pray to God, but scarcely to Christ.” We pray with passion when we meditate on the Lord’s Passion.  How crucial to keep the cross at the center of our prayer. St. Leo the Great assures us that “through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonor, life from death.” In her Diary, St. Faustina relates:  Jesus told me that I please him best by meditating on his sorrowful Passion, and by such meditation much light falls upon my soul. He who wants to learn true humility should reflect upon the Passion of Jesus. When I meditate upon the Passion of Jesus, I get a clear understanding of many things I could not comprehend before. We can approach Christ’s Passion in prayer with hope and great peace. In the words of Joseph Ratzinger, “What looks down at us from the cross is a goodness that enables a new beginning in the midst of life’s horror.” And St. John Paul II adds, “The cross is like a touch of eternal love upon the most painful wounds of man’s earthly existence.” One practical way to meditate on the Lord’s Passion is to pray before a crucifix, for “the human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced” (CCC 1432). The Imitation of Christ tells us, “If you do not know how to meditate on heavenly things, direct your thoughts to Christ’s Passion and willingly behold his sacred wounds.” Also, of course, is prayerfully meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.   Read more…

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How long is Jesus present in the Eucharist after we’ve received communion?

he great treasure of the Catholic Church is the Eucharist — Jesus himself hidden under the appearances of bread and wine. We believe, as the Catechism states, that “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained’” (CCC 1374). Additionally, this Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist does not end immediately when we receive him at Communion time. The Catechism goes on to explain how, “The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist” (CCC 1377). What does that mean when we receive him into our mouths? How long does Jesus’ Real Presence remain in our bodies? There is a famous story from the life ofSt. Philip Neri that helps answer that question. One day while he was celebrating Mass, a man received Holy Communion and left the church early. The man appeared to have no regard for the Presence within him and so Philip Neri decided to use this opportunity as a teaching moment. He sent two altar boys with lighted candles to follow the man outside of the church. After a while walking through the streets of Rome, the man turned around to see the altar boys still following him. Confused, the man returned to the church and asked Philip Neri why he sent the altar boys. Saint Philip Neri responded by saying, “We have to pay proper respect to Our Lord, Whom you are carrying away with you. Since you neglect to adore Him, I sent two acolytes to take your place.” The man was stunned by the response and resolved to be more aware of God’s presence in the future. It is generally assumed that the Eucharistic species of bread remains for about 15 minutes after reception. This is based on simple biology and reflects the Catechism’s statement that the presence of Christ “endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.”    This is why many saints have recommended offering 15 minutes of prayer after receiving the Eucharist as a thanksgiving to God. This allows the soul to savor the presence of God and have a true “heart-to-heart” with Jesus. Read more…

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The Blessed Ulma family Bible had 3 verses underlined

By Aleteia While the universal Church is just now getting to know the Ulma family — and finding ourselves in awe at their testimony and what this family means for the Church everywhere — in their hometown of Markowa, they’ve been well known for decades. They were known and loved by their neighbors even before their tragic deaths, and have since become known further. Locals call them the Good Samaritans of Markowa. In an extensive interview at Our Sunday Visitor with the postulator of their beatification cause, we learn that the family Bible of the Ulmas had just a few verses underlined. Father Witold Burda explained to OSV: There are two [two sections; technically three verses, editor’s note] underlined verses in the Bible found in their home, and they’re under the title of the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is necessary to speak out about it and even more so about the fact that there is the word “yes” added in pencil next to it. We want to live this way. “Yes”   What are those verses, underlined by either the father, Jozef, or the mother, Wiktoria, of the family?   [Update: Aleteia has been made aware of some slight variance in the reports about what is underlined in the family Bible. In the preface to the book Martyred and Blessed Together: The Extraordinary Story of the Ulma Family, the postulator reports: First, “For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?” from chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel, the famous Sermon on the Mount, which states the duties of a Christian. Second, the title of chapter 10 of the Gospel of Luke is underlined in red:“The Good Samaritan.” And next to it is a note with a single word: “Yes.”  A previous report was that the following verses are underlined:] “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Lk 10:27, quoting Deuteronomy 6) and “A Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion when he saw him: He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him onto his own mount and took him to an inn and looked after him” (Lk 10:33-34). Read more…

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A smiling Argentine nun on her way to canonization

By Aleteia In 2016 social media was ablaze with the pictures of a smiling nun, with the caption that the nun was near the moment of death. While the picture was not taken at the moment of her death, it was a picture of a joyous and smiling nun who embraced her suffering. Sister Cecilia, a Carmelite of Santa Fe in Argentina, was suffering from lung cancer in 2016 and died on June 23 at the age of 43. At the time Aleteia was able to obtain an interview with the Carmelites and related more information about Sister Cecilia. Despite her illness, she did not lose her joy, which was sustained by the support of her numerous family members, who remained close by. Joyful nieces and nephews congregated in the gardens outside the hospital where she was admitted for some weeks, sending her messages and helium balloons to distract and entertain her from the window. Those who saw her spoke of her face as showing peace and joy — as someone awaiting the encounter with the One to whom she had given her life, Our Lord Jesus Christ. On the road to canonization According to the Catholic News Agency, “The archbishop of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz in Argentina, Sergio Fenoy, signed the edict that begins the process prior to the opening of the cause of canonization of Sister Cecilia María of the Holy Face.” Read more…

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