Warning in May 2024? Luz de Maria

Checkout St Michael’s and Our Lady’s recent message to Luz de Maria about May 2024.   They both said this May 2024 will be a test for every human being on the planet. Our Lady said she is not allowed to reveal what this test will be.  Will it be the Warning? St Michael mentions; Italy invaded (which is the Garabandal prophecy), England suffering due to the war and drought, the USA will hit by an earthquake, war will spread, supervolcanoes will awaken, the sea willflood certain countries,  Message of Saint Michael The Archangel to Luz de Maria de Bonilla on May 1, 2024: Beloved children of Our King and Lord Jesus Christ, I come to you by Trinitarian Will, in command of the heavenly legions. I protect you with my heavenly legions. Humanity is being persecuted by the legions of evil in their desire to steal souls as their spoils. Our struggle does not let up, being continual in the defence of souls. You are beginning the month of May dedicated to Our Queen and Most Holy Mother; a month of fierce trials for humanity. The forces of evil will test human beings, children of our Queen and Mother, whom the Devil from hell is persecuting without admitting defeat. (cf. Gen 3:15; Rev. 12:1-9) In this month of special prayer to Our Queen and Mother, the Devil’s plan is to bring down the greatest possible number of souls, and with his pride and arrogance, he will tempt the human race as never before, in order to take with him souls that are lukewarm and weak in faith. Faced with this constant threat, I call you to remain firm in your faith, being humble. (James 4:6-10) So many of you are wondering, how do I stay firm in the faith? And I say to you, by being humble and continuing to give pride of place to your love for God and neighbour. (cf. Mt. 22:37-39) So many of God’s creatures have filled themselves with envy and hatred and are losing everything that Our King and Lord Jesus Christ gave them in order that they would testify to Our King and Lord Jesus Christ. They are losing the opportunity that they had in being chosen, due to the pride that feeds on their arrogance. How Heaven grieves over this, how it grieves! Children of Our King and Lord Jesus Christ, how much will be fulfilled in this race towards disaster for humanity! Pain and betrayal will lead to the invasion of Italy in this time of war. From there pain and blood will flow to other countries. I call on you not to forget what has been announced to you and to keep watching the Balkans. Now is the time when the Devil will succeed in removing from the Divine plans some people called to be part of those plans, due to their works and behaviour, which are almost unconscious, and their hardness of heart. They will suffer when they see what they have done with their hardened free will. This is why Our King and Lord Jesus Christ calls you to be children with a heart of flesh and to be creatures of faith. In the midst of the war, an unthinkable catastrophe will occur that will weaken the war itself. I am warning you by Divine Order. Paris will rise up in revolution and will be without the attraction for which humanity used to come to this country. As the war between nations will lead to a religious war, Our Queen and Mother is attentive to all her children, being the Mother who will defend the children of her Son. England will suffer in the midst of the war; it will suffer what it did not even imagine and will be affected by the lack of water. Pray, children of Our King and Lord Jesus Christ, pray for your brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico; they will suffer due to an earthquake. Pray, children of Our King and Lord Jesus Christ, pray for your brothers and sisters in the United States; the earthquake is approaching. Pray, children of Our King and Lord Jesus Christ; pray for hearts of stone that are incapable of asking for forgiveness. Pray, children of Our King and Lord Jesus Christ; pray for your brothers and sisters who do not believe in or obey Our King and Lord Jesus Christ. Pray, children of Our King and Lord Jesus Christ, pray for your brothers and sisters in Haiti and Jamaica; they will be flooded. Pray, children of Our King and Lord Jesus Christ, pray for your brothers and sisters in Brazil and Argentina; people will rise up in revolts. Pray to Our Queen and Mother; pray with strength, not forgetting that prayer achieves what the human race considers impossible. The prophecies are subject to humanity’s response. You are heard if you respond as Heaven asks. Keep in mind that when men think that they have the strength and power to dominate the greater part of humanity by force, the Most Holy Trinity will “disarm the powerful and exalt the humble” (Lk. 1:51- 52) with a single glance. Our Queen and Mother is Mother of all humanity: welcome her with love. Our Queen is the intercessor of humanity, which is why from this month onwards, greater action by evil against humanity is to be anticipated. Pay attention, pay attention, pay attention! With my sword raised in defense of God’s children. Saint Michael the Archangel   Hail Mary most pure, conceived without sin Hail Mary most pure, conceived without sin Hail Mary most pure, conceived without sin (countdowntothekingdom.com) This weekend Europe (Ireland and England) and parts of America are seeing the Northern Lights in stunning displays.  Last time the Northern Lights came down over various parts of Europe and America, world war 2 happened almost immediately afterwards, which was Our Lady’s prophecy.  Is this now repeating itself? My uncle took this photo of the Northern Lights in Ireland last night. We live near the centre of Ireland and have never ever seen the…

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Ten Ways to Prepare for a Happy & Holy Death | FR. ED BROOM, OMV

The most important moment in our life is the very moment that we die. This will determine our destiny for all eternity. Either we will be saved or damned. Either we will be with God for all eternity or we will be lost for all eternity. The best way for all of us to have a holy death is to right now and until we die prepare for a holy and happy death. Hopefully these short but poignant ten sign posts can help you to make the right decisions so that when you die the Lord Jesus will be your Savior waiting to open up the eternal gates of Heaven to receive you! 1. Live Each Day. Live each day of your life as if it were your last; indeed it could be. Jesus warns us: “He will come like a thief in the night.” Be prepared! 2. No to Sin, Yes to God! Sin leads to sadness, slavery and death. Let us renounce sin at all costs and turn to God who gives life. Jesus said: “I am the way, the Truth, and the Life.” 3. Do What You Are Doing. This is a key concept of the saints. It means to live the Sacrament of the Present moment and always strive to do your duty and obligation with the best of intentions—meaning for the honor and glory of God! 4. Fall? Get up again! If you fall into sin, which will happen because we are all sinners, then get up right away. Never put off your conversion for tomorrow; rather move on your conversion immediately—before the sun goes down! 5. Love. Aim always for the greatest of all virtues: love! Jesus clearly tells us what is the greatest of all commandments and it is a double commandment: to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. But the second part is to love our neighbor intensely as we love ourselves. With reference to a holy death, Saint John of the Cross teaches us: “In the twilight of our existence, we will be judged on love.” Led us aim for a more intense and burning love every day! Like the Virgin Mary let us die of love! 6. Bring Others to Heaven. Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen gives us great advice on how to get to heaven. “If you want to get to heaven, then take somebody to heaven with you.” Jesus says, “By their fruits they will be known.” Our desire should be to love what God loves and God loves the salvation of immortal souls. Hopefully this will by our ardent and all-consuming desire! 7. Think of Heaven! Of enormous value in attaining a holy and happy death is the constant thought of gaining heaven but also the meditation on actually what heaven is! Saint Paul gives us a mere glimpse with these inspiring words: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the mind of man the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love Him.” Do this! Think of the happiest two hours of your life, multiply that by a million times and then add eternity to it— meaning forever and ever and ever.You have a mere taste or mere glimpse of the glory of Heaven that awaits you! 8. Tell Jesus What You Want. From the depths of your heart talk to Jesus and express to Him the greatest desire of your heart and it is this: that you want to grow to love Him more and more each day, but that you want to love Him in heaven for all eternity. Tell Jesus this, but remind Him every day. Ask your Guardian Angel to come to your aid! 9. Purgatory and Suffering. Why not ask the Lord Jesus to give you your Purgatory here while on earth? It is so true the saying: “Pay now or pay later!” Indeed much better to pay here while on earth then to pay in the fires of Purgatory after we die. How can this become a reality? Simple but hard at the same time. We all have to suffer and in many ways: physically, emotionally, economically (many of us), socially, and spiritually. Why not offer your suffering for the conversion of sinners, the purification of the souls in Purgatory but also that this suffering on earth would serve to be your Purgatory on earth to allow you to go quickly to heaven? Many of us never thought of this but God does not want us to go to Purgatory; rather, He wants us to go straight and directly to heaven, nonstop! Read More with Catholic Exchange here

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Prayer for Conversion of Relative or Friend

(If the prayer is for a woman, use the feminine pronoun where necessary.) O Mary, Queen of the Angels and of men, behold me an unworthy servant and listen to my prayerin behalf of (Name) who remains separated from the Churchestablished by thy Divine Son. My Mother, dispensatrix of grace, strip from (Name)the bands of prejudice and ignorance that hold him captive,and let the true light of Faith enlighten his mind and quicken his will. Gently draw him my Mother, into the fold of Christ, that his salvations may be better secured and that theKingdom of God upon earth may grow stronger overthe infernal enemy. Amen

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The Last Prayer Written by St. John Paul II

By Philip Kosloski Many are familiar with the last words of St. John Paul II, which he mumbled in Polish, “Let me go to the house of the Father.“ However, he also penned a final prayer that would have been recited at the Regina Caeli address on Sunday, April 3, 2005. His address was directed to Divine Mercy Sunday, a feast that he dearly loved and instituted based on the private revelations of St. Faustina. St. John Paul II included a short prayer, which was likely the last prayer that he ever wrote: Lord, who reveal the Father’s love by your death and Resurrection, we believe in you and confidently repeat to you today: Jesus, I trust in you, have mercy upon us and upon the whole world.   He also ended his address with an Easter exclamation, “Alleluia!“ It is fitting that he ended his pontificate praying “Jesus, I trust in you,” reciting the prayer that was revealed to St. Faustina. St. John Paul II firmly trusted in God and strove to highlight God’s mercy and love to the whole world. We can learn from his example and pray the same words every day, saying, “Jesus, I trust in you!”  

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“I Was in Hell: My Illumination of Conscience!” Testimony of Fabienne Guerrero

Based on the testimony of “I Was in Hell: My Illumination of Conscience“ Fabienne’s testimony is powerful. It shows the boundless sadness that takes hold of a life lived apart from God. But even more, it reveals the spiritual source of this ill-being that only an experience of Divine Mercy and Love allows us to know. What surge of light and sweetness penetrates one’s soul when it lets itself be touched by mercy and enters the life of the sacraments! We should never forget the sadness of our contemporaries who live far from God. A Christian can think with a certain levity that those who give in to their disordered passions or build their life upon uncertain and obscure beliefs can be happy. The truth is quite different. They carry within themselves a profound sadness, and in the flow of their life, they are prey to the power of the evil spirits that manipulate their freedom. The joy they display comes from their survival instinct. It is artificial but does not reveal itself as such until light enters their heart. Nothing is more powerful than the testimony of somebody who entered into the light after having known such darkness. A single gaze upon the Sacred Heart (this painting where Jesus points to the wound of His Heart, from which rays burst out) and the life of Fabienne, thirsting for love and chained to her passions, takes a flip. Jesus leads her to the source of liberation and healing that are the sacraments of Confession and of the Eucharist. Oh, if we could listen to this testimony! We could understand what liberations and illuminations the Sacrament of Reconciliation brings about. As a priest, I saw hundreds of lives turn from darkness to light in one single confession. That does not exclude that you need time to progressively consent to not returning to the slavery of sin that reactivates our links to the evil spirits. Those who share in the ill-being of Fabienne’s previous life will discover here the hidden face of many practices that they deemed innocent. It is not necessarily, the practices in themselves that are bad but, being deprived of a real relationship with God, they are built into a false religion. There are many gates through which the evil spirits take possession of the soul, and thus mistrust progressively ties it up by removing its freedom. We must always have mistrust of practices which we do not clearly know what is manifested through them. We rightfully label them as occult practices, in the sense that they serve as a cover. In reality, behind these “covers”, are spirits with evil intentions, hiding and working. Impersonal forces do not exist. God is a Person – light, sweetness, and tenderness. He has a face. Every face that hides itself is suspected of putting on a suspicious grin. We can only invite people who will read these lines to mistrust any relation with the spirits, hiding behind the facade of religious practice. What is actually hidden behind the spirits or the dead that speak through the voice of mediums? What mediation do these so-called mediums practice? The testimony of Fabienne expresses that to us. Often, behind these false manifestations of the dead that speak to the living, there are hidden evil spirits. In the long or short term, these “consultations” bring out that which Fabienne expressed very well for having lived it out: an evil being which carries with it an unbearable confusion for the soul. These evil spirits weave links that progressively limit freedom. This testimony reaches each one of us by showing the hidden face not only of our sins, but also of these troubling practices that invade our society and substitute themselves for the true religion. They promise the abatement of the ill-being that gnaws at our heart, wounded and thirsting for love, but they immerse us into an indefinable ill-being. The more we seek to free ourselves, the more we feel bound and prey to sadness. When the Mercy of Jesus entered the heart of Fabienne, she, in fact, discovered the flip side of the decor. First of all, she acknowledged her own responsibility – very important and very present in this testimony – and then the role of the evil spirits that sought to take her freedom and creep into her soul so as to possess her nearly totally. She became conscious of the ignorance in which she found herself and began to taste true freedom, the light that enlightens the heart and especially the infinite tenderness of God. In the great love of Jesus,−Father Jean Eudes Doctor of Theology My Illumination of Conscience— The peace of Jesus be with you! Beloved brothers and sisters, I come to witness today that Christ brought me back to life! My parents had me baptized a few days after my birth. I followed all the catechism classes, and I made my First Communion. My mother, a holy woman, taught me to pray every night. However, after my First Communion, I no longer attended the Catholic Church until 1996, when Jesus came to save me. I was 32 years old. I will tell you a bit about the life that I led all those years, far from Jesus. Searching for Love As soon as I turned 15, my life took a reversal. I began to smoke, frequented filthy bars, participated in card readings, practiced numerology, and wrote to astrologers. When I finished my studies in school, I spent all the weekends in discotheques, smoking hashish and drinking alcohol. I wore miniskirts and designer clothes. Without guilty feelings, I frolicked with the men I met. I was searching for Love with a capital L. Satan kept me bound and prevented me from turning towards the love of Christ. He blinded me with what men could give me: pleasure of the flesh, money, wellbeing, and the world. I was under his hellish bindings. I needed somebody to take much care of me….

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3PM HOUR OF MERCY PRAYER

3PM HOUR OF MERCY PRAYER   V: You expired Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.  All: O Fountain of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.  V: O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, All: I trust in You. V: Mary, Mother of Mercy and our Mother, All: Pray for us. V: Saint Faustina and Saint John Paul II All: Pray for us. (3x)   — ACT OF ENTRUSTMENT OF THE DESTINY OF THE WORLD — All: O God, merciful Father, Who has revealed Your love in Your Son, Jesus Christ, and has poured it out upon us in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. We entrust to You today the destiny of the world and of every man and woman. Bend down to us sinners, heal our weaknesses, conquer all evil, and grant that all the inhabitants of the earth may experience Your mercy. May they always find the source of hope in You, the Triune God. Eternal Father, for the sake of the sorrowful Passion, and the Resurrection of Your Son, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Amen. (Saint John Paul II entrusted the destiny of the world to the Divine Mercy on August 17, 2002 in Kraków Łagiewniki) — PRAYER FOR THE GRACE TO BE MERCIFUL TO OTHERS — (Diary 163) V: O Most Holy Trinity! As many times as I breathe, as many times as my heart beats, as many times as my blood pulsates through my body, so many thousand times do I want to glorify Your mercy. All: I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor. V: Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors’ souls and come to their rescue. All: Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors’ needs and not be indifferent to their pains and moanings. V: Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all. All: Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.  V: Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor. All: Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me. V: You Yourself command me to exercise the three degrees of mercy. The first: the act of mercy, of whatever kind. The second: the word of mercy — if I cannot carry out a work of mercy, I will assist by my words. The third: prayer — if I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer. My prayer reaches out even there where I cannot reach out physically. All: O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself, for You can do all things. Amen. — PRAYER FOR PRIESTS — All: O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests; for your unfaithful and tepid priests; for your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for your tempted priests; for your lonely and desolate priests; for your young priests; for your dying priests; for the souls of your priests in Purgatory. But above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me: the priest who baptized me; the priests who’ve absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I’ve assisted and who’ve given me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who’ve taught and instructed me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way. O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart, and bless them abundantly in time and eternity. Amen   — LITANY — Lord, have mercy on us; Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us; Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us: Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us; Christ, graciously hear us. God, the Father of heaven, have mercy on us. God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord, Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord, Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us. I fly to Your mercy, Compassionate God, Who alone are good. Although my misery is great and my offenses are many, I trust in Your mercy because You are the God of Mercy, and it has never been heard of in all ages, nor do heaven or earth remember, that a soul trusting in Your mercy has been disappointed. (Diary 247) With complete trust, let us bring our prayers before the Lord. Let’s take a moment of silence and offer…

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The Road to Easter | Guide From Benedictine Daughters of Divine Will

  We’ve heard it said that the forty days of fasting during Lent are meant to prepare us for the fifty days of feasting during the Easter season.  At the surface, this seems to simply imply that we deprive ourselves so that we can eventually indulge.  But the exact opposite is actually true.  We deprive ourselves, we enter into a greater acknowledgement of our littleness, and we open ourselves to a deeper conversion of heart not to fall back into our old ways, but to enjoy the glorious freedom of the children of God.  We are called to live the redemption Christ won for us to the fullest!  As St. Paul says, it is “for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1).  This is not a freedom to indulge ourselves, but a freedom to choose the good and to love.  It is a freedom to become a gift to God and our neighbor.  It is the freedom we need to give the Divine Will free reign in our lives.  Powered By EmbedPress

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ST.RAFQA | THE LEBANESE MARONITE NUN

1- RAFQA in Himlaya (1832 – 1859) She is like the lily of HimlayaGrown as a bud in the land of JrabtaAnd will grow thanks to the sky 1. The idea of Saint Rafqa’s basilica Saint Rafqa was born in Himlaya, one of the villages of Northern Metn near Bikfaya, on June 29, 1832. She was the only child of Saber El-Choboq Al Rayess and Rafqa Gemayel.On July 7, 1832, she was baptized and named Boutroussieh. Her parents taught her to love God and pray daily. At the age of seven, she suffered her first great loss with the death of her mother. In 1843, her father experienced financial difficulties and sent her to work as a domestic servant for four years in Damascus in the house of Assaad Al-Badawi, of the Lebanese Nationality. Rafqa became a beautiful, pleasant, humorous young woman, pure and tender with a serene voice. In 1847, she came back home to find that her father had remarried. His new wife wanted Rafqa to marry her brother. A conflict developed when her aunt tried also to arrange a marriage between her son and Rafqa. Rafqa asked God to help her and clear her thoughts. Thus, her decision, to devote her life to Jesus Christ and to become a nun was her greatest joy. 2- RAFQA in the Congregation of the Mariamettes (1859 – 1871) At that time, Rafqa felt drawn to the religious life and asked God to help her achieve her desire. She decided to go to the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Bikfaya. There, she joined the Mariamette Order, founded by Father Joseph Gemayel. When she entered the convent church, she felt deep joy and happiness. One look at the icon of Our Lady of Deliverance was enough to confirm God’s voice who told her to enter the religious life: “You will become a nun”. The Mother Superior accepted Rafqa with no questions asked. Rafqa entered the convent, and refused to go back home with her father and his wife, when they came to discourage her from becoming a nun. Following her postulate, Rafqa wore the congregation’s robe of novice on the feast of St. Joseph on March 19, 1861. A year later and at the same date, she pronounced her temporary vows. She was sent to the seminary in Ghazir to take charge of the kitchen services. Among the seminarians were Elias Howayek, who became a Patriarch, and Boutros El- Zoghbi, who became an Archbishop. Rafqa studied in her free time Arabic, calligraphy and arithmetic and also helped aspiring girls to join her congregation. In 1860, Rafqa was sent to Deir El Qamar to teach catechism. There, she witnessed the bloody clashes that occurred in Lebanon during that period. On one occasion, she risked her own life by hiding a child under her robe and saving him from death. After a year in Deir El Qamar, Rafqa returned to Ghazir. In 1863, she was sent to teach in a school of her congregation in Byblos. One year later, she was transferred to the village of Maad. There, with another nun, she spent seven years establishing a new school for girls, this was made possible through the generosity of Mr. Antoun Issa. 3- RAFQA in the Lebanese Maronite Order: In the Monastery of St. Simon El Qarn in Aito (1871 – 1897). While living in Maad and following a crisis in her congregation, Rafqa asked God to guide her to the right decision. Entering at St. George Church, to pray for help, she heard the Lord’s voice telling her: “You will remain a nun.” In that same night, she saw in her dreams St. George, St. Simon the Stylite and St. Anthony the Great, the Father of monasticism. St. Anthony the Great told her: “Join the Lebanese Maronite Order.” Her trip from Maad to the Maronite Monastery of St. Simon El Qarn in Aito was facilitated by the generosity of Mr. Antoun Issa. She was immediately admitted in the Order. She wore the novice robe on July 12, 1871, and pronounced her solemn vows on August 25, 1872 and chose the name “Sister Rafqa,” after her mother. She spent 26 years in the monastery of St. Simon and was a role model to the other nuns in her observation of the rules and her devotion to prayer and silence. Her life was full of sacrifice and austerity. On the first Sunday of October 1885, she entered the monastery’s church and began to pray asking Jesus to permit her to experience some of the sufferings He endured during His Passion. Her prayer was immediately granted: Unbearable pain began in her head and moved to her eyes. Her Superior insisted that she undergoes a medical treatment. After all local attempts to cure her had failed, she was sent to Beirut for treatment. Passing by St. John-Marcus Church in Byblos, her companions learned that an American doctor was in the area. So, they took her to him. He ordered an immediate surgery for her right eye. St. Rafqa refused anesthesia. In the course of the surgery, the doctor uprooted by mistake her eye which fell on the floor. Rafqa did not complain and told him: “For Christ’s Passion, God bless your hands and may God pay you back.” Within a short time, the disease struck the left eye. For the next 12 years she continued to experience intense pain in her head. As always, she remained patient and uncomplaining, praying in joy for the gift of sharing in Jesus’ suffering. In Saint Joseph Monastery Al Dahr in Jrabta, Batroun (1897 – 1914).. At Saint Simon’s monastery, lived sister Ursula Doumit who suffered from arthritis. Her doctors advised her to live near the coast. Sister Ursula’s brother, Fr. Ignatius Doumit decided to found a monastery for nuns in Jrabta in the district of Batroun. Fr. John Basbous, donated the land for the project. On November 3, 1897, six nuns, led by Mother Ursula Doumit, were…

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If You Are in Fear Of Death! Make friends with Sister Death -St Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi closes his beautiful praise of God’s creation with a prayer addressed through Sister Death. When we meet her and recognize her as our sister, we can prepare ourselves to be ready when she welcomes us home. From Canticle of the Creatures (St. Francis of Assisi) All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,From whose embrace no mortal can escape.Woe to those who die in mortal sin!Happy those she finds doing your will!The second death can do them no harm.Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks.And serve him with great humility. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnIvygf0BQA

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Where did St. Joseph die?

By Aleteia St. Joseph is widely known as the patron saint of a “happy death,” but do we even know where he died? The Bible does not give us much information about St. Joseph, aside from a few verses that explain what he did in Jesus’ early childhood. After Jesus’ childhood, it is not certain what happened to St. Joseph, or the precise date when he died. Location of St. Joseph’s death Most scholars believe that St. Joseph died before Jesus’ public ministry, as he is absent from all of the events that occur during the last three years of Jesus’ life on earth. With this in mind, most scholars point to Nazareth as the location of St. Joseph’s death.    While the precise location is not known, there does exist a church in Nazareth dedicated to St. Joseph. The Franciscans in the Holy Land describe the local traditions of Nazareth on their website: In the 17th century, Father Francesco Quaresmi describes a place “that the locals call Joseph’s House and Workshop where, for a time, there was a beautiful church dedicated to Saint Joseph.”  Furthermore, “The apocryphal ‘Story of Joseph the Carpenter’ narrates the death and interment of Jesus’ foster father, describing how Jesus himself helped and comforted him at the moment that he passed out of this life.“ All of this places St. Joseph’s death in the family home in Nazareth, and possibly in the arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary and their son, Jesus. His body is not located in any particular tomb, though there are some traditions that say he was “assumed” into Heaven, similar to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Whether or not that actually happened is difficult to pinpoint, but many saints claim it is true. Read more…

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