Ang Debosyon ni Santo Papa kay Saint Joseph

Nabanggit ni Pope Francis sa meeting with the families sa SM MOA Arena na malapit siya kay Saint Joseph.

Pero ano ibig sabihin ni Papa Kiko nung sinabi niya na pag meron siyang problema ay sinusulat niya ito sa maliit na papel at linalagay sa ilalim ng imahen ni San Jose? Ipinauubaya na raw niya kay Saint Joseph ang solusyon sa kanyang problema.

Para sa mga hindi pamilyar sa practice na ito ng mga religious: mga madre at kaparian … ito ang tinuro sa akin ng aking spiritual director, Msgr. Josefino S. Ramirez … “Pag may problema kayo, lalo na yung may kinalaman sa pag-provide o financial – kay Saint Joseph kayo lumapit. Isulat ninyo sa papel at ilagay sa ilalim ng statue niya. Siguradong answered prayer yan.”

Ganito raw ang gawain ng mga pari at madre pag kailangan nila ng pondo pambili ng mga lupa o pantayo ng simbahan, seminaryo o kumbento. Pati si Mother Teresa ng Calcutta nagpatunay sa gawaing ito pati para sa kanilang mga pangaraw-araw na gastusin sa Sisters of Charity. Minsan nga daw sa tagal na masagot ang kanilang hinihiling ay itinalikod daw niya ang statwa ni St. Joseph na nasa kanyang mesa kasi nagtatampo daw siya, at saka lang hinarap ulit nung ito ay matugunan na.

Si Monsi Pepe naman daw ay nasa Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal sa Canada kasama ang mga “Alagad ni Maria” nang ilagay niya ang kanilang petisyon kay San Jose para sa kailangan nilang itayo na seminary ng Alagad ni Maria sa Quezon Province. Meron daw harang na tali para di makalapit sa malaking statwa ni San Jose kaya ang ginawa nila ay tinyempuhan nung walang bantay at inangat ng ibang pari ang mabigat na statwa para malagay ni Monsi Pepe ang papel sa ilalim. Ngayon, meron na rin silang seminaryo sa Antipolo dahil sa intercession ni Saint Joseph.

Kami rin ay maraming patutuo sa debosyong ito kay San Jose pero kukulangin ang mga pahinang ito. Minsan, may kliente ang misis ko na ilang taon nang hindi nakakabayad ng mahigit P200,000. Hiningi ko ang delivery receipt, billing, at demand letter at linagay lahat ito sa ilalim ng imahen namin ni St. Joseph sa bahay. Sa loob ng dalawang buwan lamang ay bayad na ang lahat ng utang.

Kaya’t kung meron kayong problema o pangangailangan, subukan nyo lumapit kay Saint Joseph. Hindi naman siguro kayo lolokohin ng Santo Papa, di ba?

Isipin nyo na lang ... nung naghahanap ang Diyos ng karapat dapat na mag-aalaga sa kanyang anak at esposa ... ang pinili niya ay si Jose. Kulang pa ba iyan na dahilan para magtiwala sa kanya?

THE GREATEST GIFT

My dear readers, would you like me to make you a beautiful gift?

Beyond doubt, you will answer, "Certainly." Well then, pay careful attention to my words and I will point out to you a treasure of great price, of inestimable value, one which surpasses every other gift.

It is said that Charles IX of France possessed a precious pearl of rare beauty, on which he had inscribed the words: "He who possesses me will never be poor." Now, if you learn to value properly the great gift that I wish to bestow upon you, and make use of it, you may be certain and will assuredly have heaven as your portion in the life to come.

What I wish to give you is nothing less than Jesus in His Body, His Blood, His Soul, and His Divinity, in the merits of His Passion, Death and His Redemption of man. If you ask where I shall find this beautiful gift, in which are contained all these wondrous things, I answer that I shall find them where they have always been -- in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

* * * * *

Yes, in the Mass, under the appearance of bread and wine, Jesus Christ is present, whole and entire, living, real, and substantial, as He was born in the stable of Bethlehem, as He died on the Cross, as He reigns in Paradise; in Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. This was defined by the Council of Trent as taught by Sacred Scripture. In every Mass Jesus is sacrificed anew on the altar at the hands of the priest, without the actual shedding of blood. Yes, He really sacrifices Himself for us in order to render to God for us the honor due to Him, in order to procure for us by means of our contrition forgiveness of our sins, in order to pay with our co-operation the debts we have contracted with God, in order to obtain for us all graces and blessings; in a word, He sacrifices Himself that He may apply to each one of us the fruits of His Passion and Death.

* * * * *

One day, a man who doubted this truth met Blessed John of Mantova and asked him how it could be that the words of a priest should have power to change the substance of bread into the Body of Jesus Christ, and the substance of wine into His Blood.

"Come," said Blessed John, and led him to a fountain. Here he took a cup of water and told the unbeliever to drink. The man was surprised to find that the water had changed to wine. When he had drunk it, he admitted that never in his life had he tasted such excellent wine. Then the Saint said: "If through me, a miserable man, the water is changed into wine by divine power, why will you not believe that by means of the words of the priest which are the divine words first spoken by Our Lord, the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ? This miracle was enough to convert the man. He believed, and did penance for his sins.

Therefore, I say to you: If God can work the many miracles of which we know, why cannot He also work the miracle of being really present in the Mass? Do not doubt the truth. God can do all things, and every day, in every Mass, He works this greatest of miracles by means of the priest.

(Source: THE GREATEST TREASURE. Rev. Joseph L. Chiavarino)

Mag-ingat para di makuryente

POPE FRANCIS (source: charismanews.com)

Piyesta ang mga media organization na lantarang anti-Catholic kada may pronouncement si Pope Francis.

Kanya-kanya sila sa pag anggulo ng balita na pabor sa kanilang motibo.

Lalo na dito sa pinakahuling pananaw daw tungkol sa abortion at homosexuality ng Santo Papa. 

Nakikita ng media ang gusto nilang makita. At, sinusulat nila ito na sadyang may kulay para mas maraming malinlang at maligaw.

Pansinin ninyo, di lang mga international news organizations ang nag misinterpret – pati mga local media nakisawsaw.

Nagulantang tuloy sila nang malathala naman ang pag excommunicate ng Papa sa Australiyanong pari na pabor sa gay marriage. Tila bang nagbubunyi sila na sa wakas ay naging liberal na ang Roma dahil kay Pope Francis pero – bigla silang nalito nang pinarusahan ang isang pari sa isang isyu na related sa homosexuality.

Ito ay patunay lang o indikasyon na mali ang pag-aakala nila sa tunay na mensahe ng Santo Papa.

Kaya tayong mga practicing Catholics, huwag po tayo basta basta maniniwala sa mga makulay na binabalita tungkol sa ating pananampalataya. Alamin muna natin ang source, at saka natin basahin o panuorin ng maigi ang kabuuan ng sinabi ng ating mahal na Pope Francis.

Tunay na marami tayong matututunan sa ating bagong Pastol pero mas mabuti na mag-ingat tayo na hindi tayo maisahan ng mga may masamang balak.

Himayin ninyo ng maigi ang mga lumalabas na balita at pagnilayan ninyo. Magdasal at humingi ng gabay ng Banal na Espiritu para sa discernment.

Ang hanapin ninyo ay ang consistency ng mensahe. Ang katutohanan ay magkakaayon. Kahit paano mo pa baliktarin yan … pareho pa rin. Consistent.

Eh kung di nagtutugma ang mga pronouncements, pananaw, o kilos … tiyak yan, mali ang pagkakaintindi sa tunay na espiritu ng mensahe.

“Be not afraid,” ang sabi ng dating Papa Juan Pablo II. Huwag po kayong mababahala dahil hindi po pababayaan ng Diyos na magtatagumpay ang mga nagkakalat ng mga kamalian tungkol sa ating pagiging Katoliko.

Kailangan lang po na manatili tayong dilat, alerto, at mapanuri.

What is Grupo Da Imaculada?

GRUPO DA IMACULADA (The Group of the Immaculate) is a group of laics whose purpose is to divulge the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary according to Our Lady's request in Fatima.

Its action is put into practice by the edification of small monuments, all alike.

These monuments are not so big that one cannot approach them nor so small that people don't take notice of them.

In the inauguration day of the monument the lands, its people and families, are consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, being so encouraged to amend life, to say the Rosary and to attend The Five First Saturdays devotion, as it was also requested by Our Lady of Fatima.

In Portugal there are already 196 Monuments and many of the consecrations were presided by the Bishop of the respective Diocese.

Our group dedicates also a special attention to the Domestic Church.  With Our Lady's help, we have already succeeded in taking union and peace back into several families.

Our work is mainly directed to the needs of the present times.  Many Parish Priests have often reported that their parishioners' Sacramental life become more intense as well as Mass attending assiduity.

With so Many Graces obtained our work is already established in four continents.

America, Africa, East and West Europe, Asia, India and Philippines.

The Holy Virgin is our Mother.  So, if we want peace, She will help us over reaching it.

    The International President

+Dra.  Maria das Candeias Martins Morgado 

Message from GDI President in this Year of Faith (last Advent)

Dear Paul Sison,

I am sending a message to all Commissions in Portugal and abroad, which I request you to transmit to the members of the Commission.

I am very sorry not to have made visits so as join with you in moments of joy and meditate on the Message which Our Lady came to bring us in Fatima.

However my health does not permit me to travel.

I take this opportunity to mediate with you.

In this Year of Faith we must begin a new era, take up a new road, open new lands and new hearts to the Devotion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

We should also bear witness, become living signs of the presence of God in the world.

We must be Christian symbols through receiving the Sacraments, Confession, at Holy Mass, in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, in the Rosary and Charity to our brothers.

Meditating on the Word of God recharges our Faith. We imitate Our Lady as she meditated on it.

Faith is believing that Jesus is on the altar at the moment of Consecration, it is not a symbol.

He himself is present, just as His heart is beating in the Tabernacle for us, awaiting our visit and company.

We imitate Blessed Francisco, the Little Fatima Shepherd, who spent his time in the company of Jesus in the Tabernacle.

Faith is being certain that God is with us in adversity and difficult moments.

We must give firm witness of Faith, be simple and discreet in our dress and resist the course of fashions, many of which are hardly ever dignified. How many souls are led to hell by these fashions.

Our body is a temple to the Holy Spirit, we cannot profane it.

This Year of Faith is a time for perfection.

Our Lady expects our collaboration and more and more dedication, for the world is running away and turning its’ back on God.

The world is going through difficult times, from natural catastrophes to the recent world crisis, caused by egoism, affluence and the craving of some, which all seems to be watchful preparation for man to come round, become aware of the limits of human nature and look for He who just awaits a simple act of repentance to pour down showers of graces and blessings, on each one of us.

In the prayer that the Angel taught the Little Shepherds we pray by steps: ” ...in reparation for insults, sacrileges and indifferences which offend Him”.

These indifferences offend Jesus.

In this uncontrolled rush into which our daily life has been transformed, how often do we pass a Church without even sparing a thought for the Tabernacle where, hidden in His humility, is He who suffered to death, and death on the cross, to save us, to bring us back to intimate union with the Father, to re-establish harmony among all creatures (poor as we are) with our Creator.

And how many times do we pass in front of a Tabernacle in total indifference, as if nothing or No one were there, when in fact the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ is really present there. 

It is the “hidden Jesus”, of Whom Blessed Francisco spoke so much and whom he so adored. Let us imitate him.

However this “hidden Jesus” came to Fatima to tell us, through the intermediary of His Most Holy Mother, how to combat this indifference, fruit of vanity, pride and man’s affluence.

It is devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady even said to the Little Shepherds: “God wishes to establish Devotion to My Immaculate Heart in the World” or, as little Jacinta said, “The Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated at His side”.

Furthermore, Mary’s humility, simplicity and obedience burst from His Heart. That is why Our Lady said to Sister Lucia: “My Heart shall be your refuge and the way that leads you to God.”

The Monuments constructed by the Grupo da Imaculada, promoted all over the world, and also in our blessed land, are marks of an act of enormous spiritual dimension: the Consecration of lands, homes, families and every one of them to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

At the act of Consecration we begin by placing the lands, homes, families and our very selves under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: “My Heart shall be your refuge...”

Aware of our limits, of our misery, we place ourselves under the protection of She who is the Mediator of all graces, the omnipotent supplicant. Our Lady is thus Queen of this land: in humility, simplicity and obedience we walk in truth to sanctity, fulfilling the will of our Lord. Then, in the act of Consecration, we manifest our sincere and firm desire, that our heart be moulded by the Heart of Mary. Aware of our weaknesses, we offer ourselves to be, among men, a reflection of the humble, simple obedient Heart of Mary.

Finally in the act of Consecration, we choose the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the sure, safe way to lead us to God, as Our Lady promised Sister Lucia.

The image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, present in Her Monument, both night and day, reminds us each moment of the act of Consecration. In the middle of the land, in the middle of men, it is a permanent antenna reaching up to the Sky. How many souls in the light of day or the silence of night, have not already had recourse to this image and found in the Immaculate Heart of Mary consolation from their sufferings, a power to face anguish, a response to doubts! How many souls have been converted!

The Monument in our land is a treasure which should be revered and cared for with love and kindness.

I pray that God, in His infinite bounty, may shower upon us a rain of graces and send His Holy Spirit to illuminate, strengthen and encourage all those who work in the Grupo da Imaculada, which does not belong to us but to the Mother of Jesus, the Most Pure Holy Virgin Mary.

This time of Advent is an occasion to reflect seriously and profoundly on the mystery of the Redemption operated by the love of God. Each year we are invited to live Advent as a time of conversion, hope, more careful prayer of liberating expectation. We must liberate ourselves from the darkness to receive the Light which is the coming of the Messiah as Light of the world, Light of nations. Advent is a preparation for what is to come.

The great solution, the only solution for all problems, is love. The only way to unite families is love. The only way to grow in holiness is love. The only way to be happy is to love. “He who loves goes from death to Life” (Jo. 3, 14). He who loves is immersing himself in God, lives in continuous Easter, finds inner freedom, and is no longer a slave to sin. Only love frees, only love gives peace, only love generates happiness.

For love of us and to teach us to love, the Father sent His Son to earth and he was born in a Manger.

If God became Man, if the Word took on human form, if the eternal Son of the Father was born in a Manger, it was to teach us to love, to make us brothers, to live fraternal love.

To prepare ourselves for Christmas should mean to live the dimensions of love, open the hearts of others, to allow others to have a greater place in our lives, to seek those who need us and that which God gave us.

Christmas is the feast of love, Love will be born. The Word of the Father became man to bring the love of God to men. Christmas is precisely the birth of love made Child.

We need to rediscover the most profound meaning of Christmas as a feast of love.

During Advent, we should convert ourselves to love. Only thus will there be in every heart and in each family, true peace, joy and happiness. Only thus God is born in us and around us, and the love of God will fill us all with true and lasting happiness.

Christmas is the sharing of love, the way of the word and the friendly presence.

We ask the Mother of Jesus our Mother to help us to prepare our heart, and to purify it with every humility, charity and love, so that the Child may have a worthy place to be born and feel well in the royal palace which we prepare for Him.

With a friendly embrace in the united hearts of Jesus and Mary, I wish you all a Holy Christmas with the greatest of Blessings from the Child Jesus.

President of the Grupo da Imaculada

Angelina Pinto Leite

GRUPO DA IMACULADA: Why this Marian monument?

VISIT BY GRUPO DA IMACULADA. Pedro and Leonor Sottomayor of Fatima, Portugal when they visited the Marian Consecration Grounds in Marikina Heights, Marikina City, Philippines last December 3, 2009. With Paul Edward P. Sison of Grupo Da Imaculada Pilipinas and children from the surrounding community.

In the Universal Message given in Fatima, Our Lady ask for penitence, prayer and conversion.

In order to make it easier to feel the peace and joy that follow from ascesis, Our Lady reveals an unfailing way, which is a part of the Message of Fatima.

THE DEVOTION TO HER IMMACULATE HEART

The Lemma for the action of this group of prayer is the Holy Writ and the Message of Fatima.  In order to make The Immaculate Heart of Mary known, loved and venerated by everybody, and to set the example of its action, the group spreads the Monuments from the north to the south of Portugal and also abroad.  These small Monuments have a simple architecture, as simple and humble as the House of the Holy Family in Nazareth.

Everybody can be near the image of Our Lady and pray to Her at any time of the day or night, because at night the Monument is illuminated.  And so Our Lady also hears and takes care of Her children at any time of the day or night.

The Monuments, that are also spread abroad, are made only to venerate Our Lady and beg her Help.  That's why their structure is so simple, to avoid any distractions.

The Rosary round the Monument protects it and calls the attention to the Rosary saying, which is so necessary and that Our Lady recommended in all Her Apparitions in Fatima.

In the places where there is the Monument it increased both people's devoutness and the attending to the First Five Saturdays devotion.

Many people began to say the Rosary prayer and to attend The Sacraments.

There are some places where people pray near the Monument twice a day and some others where people go on pilgrimage to the Monument of the 13th every month.

There have been several pilgrimages in Portugal and abroad to the places where there are Monuments.  Our Lady has already granted many Graces and conversions.

We want to make the Message of Fatima known everywhere and also help everybody live it better and better.

Our Commitment is Needed Now!

In a special letter to the Bishop of Fatima, issued on October 1, 1997, Pope John Paul II said: "On the threshold of the third millennium, as we observe the signs of the times of this 20th century, Fatima is certainly one of the greatest."

The Holy Father then points out that in this great sign we are presented with an alternative: WAR or PEACE.

He says one of the main reasons Fatima is one of the greatest signs of these times is "because its message announces many of the latter events and conditions them on the response to its appeals."

We will not have the promise without the response. And Our Lady seems to be traveling the world to evoke our response.

Indeed, the visit of the Pilgrim Virgin Statue to you brings a special RESPONSIBILITY. As the Holy Father has said, the triumph depends on OUR response. And if we have had Our Lady's visit do we not have a special obligation to respond?

After some 25 million persons around the world responded by making the basic pledge -- Daily Rosary & Five First Saturdays ... we had the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Also, in that October 1997 letter, the Pope said that she is anxious "to save mankind from self-destruction." 

And, he also said that, "in Our Lady of Fatima, God is now giving a refuge to the world: the refuge of her Immaculate Heart."

(SOURCE: Our Lady of Fatima: Our Mother Comes to Us)