As I've said before, Richard and I start each morning with a rosary to our Blessed Mother asking that she bring our prayer requests along with thanksgiving to God the Father in the name of her Son Jesus along with the power of the Holy Spirit for all the help and blessings we receive.
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| Look how much Jesus loves His Mother; how could we not? |
Each morning the list of requests have grown. Richard looks my way each time a new prayer thought comes to mind. I assume all of you are the same. Pray, Pray, Pray!!! It's coming from all directions. We are all asked to pray for our families, our friends, our country, our world. Each one under attack from the evil one. Please don't be fooled that he doesn't exist because then you'll really be the fool. In my circle of believers, we feel his time is growing short and he's getting more aggressive in stealing souls. So we continue in prayer, knowing that the small pebble we add to the victory over sin is so little but together we believe we can make a difference and so we pray. As Catholics we believe that in reciting the rosary we are meditating on the life of Jesus and His Mother Mary which brings strength and hope to all Christians. As we meditate on the Mysteries of the Rosary, (Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious) we acknowledge and give praise and glory to Our God as we pray to imitate what the words contain and obtain what they promise.
Recently I was made aware of 2 icons and a heartbreaking painting of Mary, Mother of God, which I find to be so important at this time.
Our Lady of Soufanieh
This Icon resides in Damascus. It's veneration began in a small house of a young married girl of 19 who has a small framed picture of Our Lady of Soufanieh. On November 28th 1989 it began to produce 100% olive oil. Daily the crowds grew of people wanting to see this miracle. The doors of the home never closed as the crowds grew larger. Many people were instantly healed from the oil. Our Lady expressed the importance and need for the churches to unite. I think the most interesting thing about finding this icon is the timing. Our Lady told Myrna, the young girl, to Pray, Pray, Pray and Pray some more. How important now and right in the middle of the wars going on in the Middle East. She gave this short prayer.
God saves me, Jesus enlightens me, Holy Spirit is my life, thus I fear nothing
PRAY FORGIVE LOVE
A few days after finding and praying to Our Lady of Soufanieh, a friend sent this picture. I call her Our Lady of Tears
How sad and alone she looks. People have forgotten about her son and what He did for our salvation. The price He paid and is paying is unbearable. And she weeps for us, her lost children. As we meditate on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrow, let us pray, pray, pray and pray again for the salvation of souls which causes her and Our Lord, Jesus, such pain and sorrow.
This icon of the Mother of God, is kept at St. Mary Major in Rome and was used by Pope Frances at the Prayer Vigil on Sept. 7th, praying for peace in Syria and the world. Tradition maintains that it is a copy, painted by the evangelist Luke, of an image of Mary with Child that miraculously appeared in Lydda in a church built by the apostles Peter and John. It was brought to St. Mary Major at an end to a procession to invoke the end of one of the worst plagues in the city's history. On that occasion the archangel Michael was seen above putting his sword back into its sheath. The plague ended. Another plague ended in the 18th century thanks to the intercession of the Madonna when St. Pius V carried it in procession to St. Peter's. Pius XII paid homage to it when he proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption in 1950 and again he crowned it in St. Peter's in 1954, at the centenary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
John Paul II invoked it in World Youth Day in 2000. Benedict XVI did so in 2005 and Pope Francis also in Rio de Janeiro last July. After he was elected Pope, his first outing was to the Basilica of St. Mary Major to kneel in prayer in front of this icon. What is striking about this icon is the intense gaze of Mary, which invites the viewer to travel the road indicated by the Son. She is looking into the distance, in the direction in which he is pointing. Her right hand, which is holding the Child, repeats the gesture of Jesus and amplifies it. Jesus is pointing to the journey of the cross where Mary will be and all those who follow Him will have to go there also. Pope Francis placed the icon, not a copy but the original, at the center of the Vigil to pray for grace and peace from heaven, knowing " that which is impossible for men is possible for God". Now days after the world wide prayer vigil our leaders are talking peace for the time being....praise be to God. (Cardinal Cesare Baronio and Father Gargano, a Camaldolese monk, shared the history of this icon.)
The lightening bolt just knocked the plaque off the tree and blasted it and the wood exploded like a clay pigeon. Look at the hole it blew at the bottom right side. It didn't damage the tree just this one plaque of the Sorrowful Mother. Ok I'm just saying, it's near the Feast day of Our Lady of Sorrow which is September 15. Father Bani is coming on October 2, feast of the Guardian Angels, to bless Trinity Acres. I've been putting it off for a couple of years because I wanted everything built so it could all be blessed. I'm thinking my God agrees. And you know I've shared with you about Mark Mallet. Well he sent me his blog a few days later and if you can believe this he said in prayer he received strongly the sound of an explosion. OK I hear you! As Mark always says, nothing of this is supposed to scare people but to call people to prayer.
Pray like your life depends on it!
