START THE NEW YEAR AS A SLAVE TO MARY

 

Some years ago, I made my consecration to Mary, but it was rushed, so I feel called to do it again - a refresher, which is a common thing to do. Some people regularly repeat the cycle, delving deeper and deeper into their spiritual life.

- First, between now and December 31, my plan is to re-read "St. Louis de Montfort - The Story of Our Lady's Slave," by Mary Fabyan Windeatt.

Available at Amazon, book and kindle forms: ST LOUIS DE MONTFORT - THE STORY OF OUR LADY'S SLAVE

- Then begins one of six suggested cycles of prayer listed in the companion book, Preparation for Total Consecration according to Saint Louis Marie de Montfort - published by Montfort Publications.

Available at Amazon: PREPARATION FOR TOTAL CONSECRATION

In addition, I recommend that you be sure to make a good confession at least once before you start the actual preparation exercises on December 31. There's not much point in doing it if not in a state of grace.  We want to give to God a bright and shiny spirit, right?

In the front of the second book I mentioned, above, there is a chart of 6 suggested schedules of preparation. I noticed that December 31 is the start of the next one, which dovetails with my typical "New Year" practices. Throughout my life, it has been my habit to celebrate the holiday with prayers and visualizations about how I am going to better myself.  I have never been interested in drinking and carousing, I am not fond of crowds, and the idea of getting on the road for any activity at a time when so many inebriated people are behind the wheel is not something I want to do. Now that I am mostly blind in one eye and I am over 60, my ability to drive at night is impaired anyway.  Definitely not a party girl!

I will be happy to join with you to whatever extent you would like to do that. I've always thought it would have been inspiring to have others involved when I did my consecration.  But it did not work out.  Perhaps now, someone will show up.  You can contact me about this on Facebook or here, in a comment. (Comments are not published automatically.) I read them and only publish them if that is the intention and we both feel it would be helpful to others.

God bless you all!

Silver Rose

                                                                   

100 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF FATIMA - MINISTRY PROJECT FOR 2017

70,000 spectators witnessed "The Miracle of the Sun" which 

occurred on the very day promised by our lady in 1917

Non-Catholics often scoff at the miracles celebrated in our church, but the miracles surrounding Fatima and the three little children who saw our Blessed Mother and received many "secrets" from her, played only a very small part in the miraculous events of 1917.

It is one thing to experience a celestial anomaly that can be explained away by some natural phenomena. It is quite another to have this anomaly promised for a certain day and time and have it actually occur, with more than 70,000 witnesses, many photographs of the miracle as well as the witnesses, and wide ranging newspaper coverage. This cannot be discounted or dismissed and, once you know the details, the wonderful mystery stays within the heart of even the most skeptical individual.

MANY articles and books have been written about these events, and another article isn't needed. I recommended researching the internet and reading as many of the books as you are able so that you can fully understand what happened.

Most of the legitimate apparitions that have been confirmed and approved by the Catholic Church include a request from our Lady that we pray the rosary. I adore the rosary and am convinced of its incredible, heavenly properties. Its benefits and significance are not entirely explained, as it is with most mysterious practices and points of theology or cosmology. Our Lady has personally requested it and I, for one, will not argue with her.

I've become incredibly inspired to spread this devotion to the rosary this coming year, during the 100th year anniversary of the miracles at Fatima, and I would like to encourage everyone to enjoy its practice and benefits.

First of all, I recommend contacting the Fatima Gift Shop at the WORLD APOSTOLATE OF FATIMA, official organization for Fatima, affectionately called "the Blue Army." Their website is located HERE. I am a member of the Blue Army and receive their wonderful magazine entitled SOUL, but I am not involved in any official capacity and receive no benefit from them as a result of recommending them. I just want to support them in their efforts to spread the instruction of our Lady and the historical events that occurred in 1917.

Consider purchasing for yourself a commemorative rosary. Currently, they come in black or clear, with a special 100 year anniversary medal attached. It's a nice little crystal and/or glass bead rosary.  I have one in pink, but I think they have run out of the pink and the blue currently. They are selling for $19.00 at the moment, which is not a bad price for a pretty little rosary with such significance. Attached to the rosary is a sweet little commemorative medal. You can buy the medal separately, if you wish. You'll need to have them blessed by a priest after you receive them, however.

The black rosary is pictured HERE.

The clear bead rosary is pictured HERE.

Of course, there are many other items available at the gift shop, and I do recommend you consider joining the Blue Army!

Everyone seems to enjoy the Blue Army's rosaries, medals and other items from their gift shop, including the homeless, who are comforted by them.

If you do not have time to distribute these rosaries, or if you do not have anyone in your sphere who you feel will appreciate them, I would be very happy to give many of them locally, in my parish and elsewhere. Contact me for my address, and you can have the Blue Army send them to me, or you can donate via the button on the right hand side of this page, keeping in mind that Paypal takes a percentage of all monies donated.

I am just enthusiastic to have this devotion spread as far as possible.

If you can manage to send me some rosaries from the World Apostolate of Fatima, I would be most grateful. I have a friend who will take them to a priest to have them blessed. One of the very best ways to encourage the practice of the praying of the rosary is to give them away. Obviously, there are less expensive rosaries that are very pretty. For instance, I have included quite a few in my Amazon list GIFTS TO GIVE TO OTHERS that you may find HERE. Amazon has my address and will mail to me directly.

I ask for assistance in giving these out because my income falls far below my basic needs, so I just don't have the money to invest in the rosaries. What I lack in finances, I make up for in enthusiasm.

On the other hand, if you also feel inspired to distribute rosaries, and you can do this yourself, I would be very happy to hear that you are doing that. Our Blessed Mother will be very pleased. Post a comment, below, or send me an email and let me know what you are dong to promote this wonderful prayer and its 100 year anniversary!

In the meantime, I pray for you, as I hope you pray for me.

God bless us all!

Silver Rose Parnell

WHAT IS THE THEME OF YOUR LIFE?

Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David.  The Virgin's name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!"  But she was greatly troubled at the saying and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.  And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus."  And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be since I have no husband?" And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God for with God, nothing is impossible."  Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word."

Mary's "fiat," her saying "let it be," saying "yes" to God is the theme of my life.  I am striving to learn how to always say "yes" to God, both in word and in deed.  Each day, I ask Mary to take my hand, show me how to say "yes" to God in all things, and lead me to Jesus.

Protestants often accuse Catholics of treating Mary as if she was a little God and, while this may be true of a few individuals who go overboard with it, the official Catholic position is that Mary, an unparalleled saint, is alive in heaven with the other saints, angels, cherubim, seraphim, and God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  

We venerate Mary as a holy person, "the Queen of Heaven," and we ask her to pray for us, just as we ask the other saints to pray for us, and just as we ask our friends to pray for us, except that Mary, who was conceived without sin and who is  the mother of God, the "Theotokos", is the Saint par excellence and especially has the ear of her son, who honors her as His mother.  We honor her likewise and seek her prayers.

Mary is, for me, the perfect example of the Holy person I wish to become.  She said "yes" to God. She held the Divine Child within her and birthed Him into the world.  I too wish to carry Jesus within me and give him to the world.  I wish to be as holy, pure and spotless as I would need to be in order to accomplish that feat.  She is my example, my guide and my Heavenly Mother.

Throughout the ages, painters have rendered their vision of the visitation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary.  For me, these paintings are a source of much joy and great objects upon which to meditate on Mary's "yes."  I offer them here as a gift to my readers in the hope that they will prove to be as inspiring to them as they are to me.

Hail Mary, full of grace!

The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women

And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Pray for me, a sinner,

Now and at the hour of my death

Amen

Silver Rose Parnell

2015

THE VISIONS OF MEDJUGORJE

Two of the "visionaries" of Medjugorje

Until the Catholic Church has made its final decision as to the authenticity or lack thereof with regard to the supposed visions of Medjugorje that have been said to have occurred regularly since 1981, events promoting it have been prohibited.  In 2013, a letter was sent from Cardinal Mueller to all U.S. Bishops that stated "clerics and the faithful are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or celebrations during which the credibility of such "apparitions" would be taken for granted."

In response to the claim that the visionaries

receive daily messages, Pope Francis said,

"But look, our Lady is the mother of everyone!

And she loves all of us!  She is not a postmaster,

sending messages every day."

Pope Francis has also denounced the spirit of curiosity that seeks after miracles, saying:

" The Kingdom of God is among us:  do not seek 

strange things, do not seek novelties with this worldly 

curiosity.  Let us allow the Spirit to lead us forward in 

that wisdom, which is like a soft breeze.  This is the 

Spirit of the Kingdom of God, of which Jesus speaks."

Recently, a visions-on-demand event had been arranged by Medjugorje supporters in St. Louis, MO, with 1,000 people having paid for tickets to witness this circus.  The CDF had to intervene and require that, in obedience to the current ban on such events, the planned event had to be cancelled.

Visionary Ivan Dragicevic flouted the clear intention of the ban and held the events at a private home.

Further details can be found on the Te Deum Laudamus Blog and several other websites you can Google.

The idea that our Blessed Mother would adhere to someone's schedule and appear on demand, at the place and time required by this "visionary" Ivan Deagicevic, is ludicrous on the face of it.  When, in all the history of the church, has God, his saints or his angels appeared to man on demand?  Never. The idea that any human being would claim to have that degree of control and authority over the Divine seems, obviously, to be the height of either lunacy, fraud, or both.

Opportunities to express devotion to our Blessed Mother and to make requests for her to pray for us to her son, Jesus, are plentiful.  Why insist on promoting this dubious cause when so many authentic avenues of piety have always been open to us?

Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes

One glaring fact stands out in my mind.  Instead of demanding that the Mother of God appear to us at a time and place of our choosing in order to satisfy our desire for a mystical connection, we have consistently been exhorted to approach the Lord, his saints and his angels with our prayers and especially our praise and gratitude.  We are to lay ourselves before the Lord and submit ourselves to His will, to cooperate with His timing and to be receptive to His Word when He chooses to say it and through whom he chooses to say it.  Obedience to his commands and his wishes are what is required. It is through His church which He started and to which He gave authority that we can reliably receive his message to us.

Jesus gives the keys to the Kingdom to Peter

Jesus promised that his church would stand for all time and that even the gates of hell could not prevail against it.  We can take comfort and have trust in the church, as a result.  It is the voice of Jesus in matters of faith and morals.  Certainly, some individuals in the church have behaved badly in the past.  That's no secret.  We are all sinners.  But those are individuals who disobeyed Church teachings.  The teachings themselves are pure.  The Church remains infallible in matters of faith and morals.  Obeying its dictates will never hurt us.  It may inconvenience us or cause us to avoid doing things we really really want to do, but what of it?

If the Medjurogje visions are authentic, which I doubt, but if they are, will it damage you if you have not supported them or made pilgrimage or participated in one of the banned events?  No.  There is nothing in scripture, tradition or common sense that demands that you must do any of these things to be saved.  We already have all the instructions we need to become saints and go to heaven when we die.  No one can add to it because there is nothing to add.  Jesus gave us everything we need.

If the Medjugorje visions are fraudulent, which I believe them to be, then flouting the Church's ban on participation in events or promoting same, CAN hurt you.  So, if even for the sake of enlightened self-interest alone, it only makes sense to avoid this entire matter until the Church has announced if Medjugorje is a legitimate expression of supernatural events.

In the meantime, unless you have studied all the material that is available about all the saints and visions that have already been approved by the church, you can start reading everything you have missed.  That should keep you busy for more than a few years.

Fatima visionaries

While you are at it, why not go to daily mass where the real miracle occurs, and then follow Jesus' instruction to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the sick?  Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, give it to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.  Volunteer at a homeless shelter, a nursing home or a prison so you can visit the sick or the imprisoned and bring a little spot of Jesus' light into the sad lives of those who are incarcerated in institutions of one sort or another?

Homeless Woman

Our lives are full of opportunities to experience Jesus.  You can see him in every hungry, lonely face.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose Parnell