Preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary

I'd like to encourage you to participate in the Preparation for Total Consecration according to Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. This book is an excellent guide to use daily for about a month prior to making a consecration of oneself to Jesus through Mary, concluding with the consecration on a Marian feast day.

On the day of this writing, according to the suggested schedule included in the book published by Montfort Publications, it is now day eleven into the devotional. Part I focuses the faithful, for twelve preliminary days, on the opposing ways of the spirit of the world, and that of the spirit of Jesus and our Blessed Mother.

Following this, the devotion is a terrific aid in gaining knowledge of self, of Holy Mary, and of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.These sections consist of seven days each. The book concludes with the Consecration of oneself to Jesus Christ, Wisdom incarnate, through the hands of Mary. The recommendation is to renew your consecration at least once a year, on the same day. Though, perhaps you'll find, as I did, that this booklet is valuable as a daily devotion that enriches your walk of faith with a glorious growth in virtue.

The contents include portions from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by St. Louis de Montfort, and passages from the Holy Bible, along with Catholic prayers appropriately selected for the different topics in the book.

This book can be picked up at your neighborhood Catholic book store, or from the publisher: http://publications.montfortmissionaries.org/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=43 . You might also like to use icons and other artistic creations to enhance your contemplative experience, and I have designed a facebook page for that purpose. This page is located here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Preparation-for-Total-Consecration-according-to-Saint-Louis-de-Montfort/295101727206712?sk=wall

Pray with me my daily mini consecration prayer, taken from St. Louis de Montfort: "I am all Thine, and all that I have is Thine, O my sweet Jesus, through Mary, Thy holy mother. Amen." Totus Tuus!

This is how to make praying the Rosary even more inspiring

Today I prayed the Mysteries of Light. Just in praying 5 decades of Mary's Holy Rosary, the inspirations are very numerous. In fact, before I even prayed the Mysteries, I was already in awe of the wonders of our glorious Lady and our holy and merciful God. You might say this is a part of that story, a peek into how I pray and contemplate on the Rosary.

It began with the reverent and uplifting music that I heard. It was the holy call to arms. I pulled out my weapon and joined the ranks of the soldiers of the Lord.

I knelt down to join Mother Angelica in the televised recording of the Holy Rosary, and I saw the nuns. I marveled that there are so many different gifts and personalities that all work in unison in the Body of Christ.

We made the Sign of the Cross together. We are Christian warriors, after all, and Mary's Rosary is done in the Name of the Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is such an honor to be in the holy family of God.

Immediately, then, we prayed the Apostle's Creed, and I felt grateful for history having been recorded, and for what our Lord Jesus has done for us through pure holy love for us.

The next prayer was the Our Father, the very prayer taught to the first disciples by Jesus. Who am I to be a disciple, sinful as I am, yet God is holy, and I can aspire to be holy and make it to heaven by His amazing unfathomable grace.

Three Hail Marys followed. For me, today, the Holy Spirit led me to think of them representing peace, love, and joy. Oh, thank you Blessed Mother, for saying yes to being the mother of Jesus, and in that fiat, to also become the mother of the Church. Thank you for being my Mom, because I really need your love and guidance and your intercession :)

"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, it is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."

Miracles that brought me living faith and genuine Catholic conversion

The first time you experience a miracle, it is amazing, or humbling, or enlightening, or all of these things. And for some, it may be nothing more than a memorable experience, or perhaps there are individuals who consider it to be just a coincidence that can be explained away. No matter how you look at it, though, this was not really the first miracle that you experienced, rather, it was the first one that caught your attention.

Your own birth was a miracle. The position of planet earth and all of the marvelous variations of life that abound here are miraculous things. Look around, and you will begin to see the glory of God. Then, too, every single day, there is at least one miracle that happens during Mass--the changing of the bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The miracle that caught my attention came unexpectedly, and was witnessed by my 3 children and our very close family friend, who is Jewish, not a Christian. Like the Fatima children, and Saint Bernadette, I do not want to say anything that is in err, or that would be offensive to our Lord or our Lady, and so I cannot say much about what we saw. I also investigated the matter as much as I possibly could. I observed different things that might explain the phenomena, this includes watching clouds, the way smoke from vehicles dissipates, the way insects travel together in flight, and watched many videos and read many reports about UFOs. The results of all of the investigating that I have done do not give me any reason to believe that what we saw was of this earth, and does not seem to have been a flying craft from another planet.

There is a similar description for what we saw in the Bible, in a couple of places. What we saw, what amazing and awe-inspiring thing that came to us out of the sky on July, 2009, does seem to us to be a holy angel of God, full of eyes that was sent to us, one reason being for the glory of God to be manifested in us. All of us have been affected to different degrees depending upon our openness to the supernatural grace of God; and even those of us who are not as accepting of the things of God, spiritual growth is slower, but it is definitely there. All 5 of us have had some dreams that I believe have come from this living creature that supernaturally connected with us. My children and I see the wonders of God all around us on a daily basis. 3 of us have had humbling and sobering visions.

One of my first visions was of the consecrated host that was alive with the form of a white living dove moving within it. I did not believe in transubstantiation at the time. Yet I could not easily tear myself away from looking upon this sight in rapture. I was worshiping God. I was being moved along the path of truth, and entering more into the mysteries of our Catholic faith. Communion would never be the same for me again. Not long after being taught that to consume the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ, you have life in you, His life, I was also in Eucharistic Adoration with my children regularly.

I believe that it is probable that this living creature or angel of God that was sent to our family came at least in part because of the Marian window in Georgia. I sincerely wanted to know if it was genuine, and my prayer was from my heart. One main reason that I connect our supernatural encounter to this window is because of the many things that I have been learning about our Blessed Mother Mary since the visitation with the angel, and the angel coming to us right after my heartfelt prayer to God about this window. In fact, I saw in a dream or vision the Marian window, with this accompanying message: "If you have lost your way."

Personally, I do believe that the Marian window is miraculous. I look forward to the day, and I pray for an extensive and exhaustive, thorough Vatican investigation of its authenticity. The reason that I am sharing my story is because I want to help others come to a deeper faith in God, and to honor and share our holy mother Mary with people. It is not easy for me to share such an unusual and special story because I do not want to draw attention to myself. Yet since it did happen to me, I believe I should tell it and bring glory to God, and share it to build faith in others. (Here is another informative article that I wrote in the summer of 2009 following several interviews, about the Marian window and holy icons: http://www.examiner.com/roman-catholic-in-denver/the-virgin-mary-window-into-heaven )

An excerpt from my own Catholic conversion story

With so many things going wrong in my life and in America, basically I understood that most people live the way that they think is best, best for themselves, whether one wishes to call that moral relativism or modernism, or perhaps a type of atheism in which man does not really believe in God, but looks to himself or another man to be god. Christians of many sorts also did this, including me. And I didn't know how to be that new creation that is spoken of in the New Testament, but what I did know was that I kept trying to be good and I was good in the eyes of some and yet a hypocrite in the eyes of those who disagreed with me about God being real, and without any guide, I made up my mind at the end of June that it was time to stop trying to do things my way, no matter how good I seemed to myself to be, that hadn't been working out too well. I made a decision to do the things that God, in our Holy Scriptures, said were good, I would deny myself and take up my cross and follow Jesus.

I was in prayer, too, because Mr. Sapp in Jesup, Georgia, wanted me to write another article about the Marian window, and I was not convinced about the authenticity of this window. Here's what I wrote, by the way: http://www.examiner.com/roman-catholic-in-denver/the-virgin-mary-icon-image-window-is-for-everyone . I did not see Mary in the window, and my being able to investigate it was very limited, as I couldn't see or touch the thing. As a matter of fact, I did not believe that the Virgin Mary was anyone other than a woman who had been lucky to bring the Christ child into the world. If she was really so special, I wondered, why would she pick me out of all the people in the world, to write about her or this window, if it was a genuine miracle. I was the true skeptic. I was also a Catholic who had never had any formation in our faith, so I did not even know our doctrines. I was in much prayer over all of this, and I had to do research for my Catholic column to be sure that I did not write anything heretical. It was a heavy weight to add on this coverage of this window, to my responsibility of writing only Catholic truth, which I had to study to write, because I didn't know it.

I spoke to and I corresponded with several people, mostly those who had actually seen the Marian window. But I also spoke to and wrote to Justin Stroh, who had composed a beautiful song that spotlit the window. I was honest with him, and I told him that I did not know what to make of the window, authentic or hoax, and that what was worse, I didn't know what it was about Mary that some Catholics seemed to know, some mystery or secret, why she was so important to them; and he seemed to me to be one of these types, one who had some special love for the Blessed Virgin Mary. I asked him to share with me what it was that he knew that I didn't about Mary.

Justin Stroh told me that he did not have the ability to examine the window either, being in another state, but that he was writing the song in faith. I was amazed that he could do such a thing, just offering himself as an instrument of God to write a song and trust our Lord without knowing the actual origin of this window image. With regard to my query about what he found so special about Mary, what secret about her that he and some other Catholics knew that I didn't, he told me that she is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. I had never heard of such a thing. I am ever grateful for that conversation and for the faith and faithfulness of this Catholic servant of our Lord.

Much prayer and contemplation followed and accompanied my interviewing. I was not in awe of the window image, but I was in awe of God, and of genuine faith that made people live holy lives, and with living saints that I previously thought were dead, like Mary. For I had been invited and gone to a Byzantine Catholic Church, and while there, I poured out my heart in prayer to God for the state of my life and my country and the world. Then I returned to the Church again, to talk to the priest there about icons for another informative article that I would write about the Marian window.

I remember going to bed in awe of the icons and the living saints, and I asked a heartfelt prayerful thing of God. I asked Him to show me if these things were the truth, if the saints were still living after death, and to make Mary real to me if she was really there and really active, and to show me if that Marian window was real or not. And then the miracle happened. The first of many, many miracles...

Convert Stories Catholic ,How did the Lord Call you?

Convert Stories Catholic ,How did the Lord Call you?:

'via Blog this'

My Catholic conversion story begins:
God has poured out His grace upon me. God is the God of love and mercy and justice. God is alive and well and He has created every one of us as unique and special. God is patient and long-suffering on our behalves. Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The Holy Spirit is always with our Blessed Mother Mary, and Mary truly is our Holy mother, the Theotokos and ever-virgin, and the Eucharist is truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Catholic faith is the true faith, and you must care for the poor and needy from your heart of love, no less than you would do for Jesus our Lord. I am convinced of all of this. The short version of my conversion story is this: I was lost but now I'm found, I was blind but now I see :) I will share a little more in time, but this Marian window is a big part of what miracle happened to me, and I am very serious... http://www.virginmarywindow.com/

This is a test post. There is a place for Catholic conversion stories on facebook at the link. I am sharing my own story there, too. Let's see if this connects to the right place. Let me encourage you to share your conversion stories. How did our Lord call you to our Catholic faith? 

I'll do a little editing so that things are clearer, from what I am sharing on facebook, as I publish my story here in my blog. And perhaps in a day or so, I will be sharing from my blog to the facebook group page, which will make it easier and better reading in both places, having paragraphs, and so forth :)

Let's build up one another in our faith and share what God has done for us and in us. To God be the glory :)!

Amazhellomoming!

My son was working on his own at computer programming, which is pretty impressive at his young age; and he called me over to show me how it was going. He typed "hello mom" without realizing that the cursor was in the middle of the title. "Amazing!" had quickly become "Amazhellomoming!" When you have a great mother, you don't have to search too much to see her right there in the middle of the most amazing things that are going on in your life. When you realize that Mary is your mother, you'll find her easily in all the bad times comforting you, and in all of the good times helping to make them happen. Blessed Mother, together we are Amazhellomoming!

Hail, Mary!  Full of grace,
The Lord is with thee;
Blessed are thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now, and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

In your hour of need look to your mother

The newborn baby endures many hardships. Breathing air, sensing temperature changes, experiencing hunger, just to name the obvious few. The baby cries out, this is the only mode of communication given to the newborn. The little one cannot defend himself, she cannot feed herself. In anguish he grasps at his face, painfully scratching it with the little hands that he is unable to put to good use. She startles easily, and she is completely helpless. The little one is experiencing a whole new world, and finds it harsh in many ways.

A baby quickly learns that crying brings a loving response from his mother. She cannot explain how it is that her wet bottom feels better. The tiny human being does not understand why snuggling is comforting to him. How it is that she knew how to suck and swallow milk, and how her mother knew where to get the nourishment never even occurs to the infant. The little one's needs are being met, and the baby understands that this mother person is the best thing in the whole new and seemingly hostile world.

This physical reality is also true in the spiritual realm. Here, too, we have only to cry out to our Blessed Mother, and she will be there to care for us. Hardships, struggles, and suffering are all best brought to Mary. She knows what to do in our time of need. And she is happy to help. At the same time, she will lead us to her Son. She is the one who brought forth our Redeemer in the first place, and she continues to do exactly that. She knows our Lord better than any of us, for she is His mother. If Jesus trusted her to be His mother at the most tender time of His human life, we can trust her to be our mother, too.


"If there is anyone who is not enlightened by this sublime magnificence of created things, he is blind. If there is anyone who, seeing all these works of God, does not praise Him, he is dumb; if there is anyone who, from so many signs, cannot perceive God, that man is foolish." -St. Bonaventure

Make your faith an active faith

The Acts of the Apostles is about some of the recorded activity, through their faith in Christ, of those who first followed Jesus. Today, we who know our Lord are also called to an active faith. Some of these things we do as His disciples, we are called to do daily, like praying. Other things come upon us suddenly, like helping others in times of need. And then there is a special call for each of us...

Part of what I have been called to do in this life on earth is to teach children. At the present time, God is leading me in writing for children in order to share the Catholic faith with them. Honestly, I have learned some things from books written for children, myself. So I believe that what I am given to write from my Lord and my Lady, by the grace of God, will reach many more than children; parents, too, I'm sure.

I'm pretty much decided upon this artistic representation of "The Annunciation" for my first book. It is from the 1600s by Caravaggio. It is available in the public domain, which is a real blessing, as it is free for the taking. It pleases me to be able to use it in such a noble endeavor, that being the reaching others for God with His truth.

The daily scriptural reading from the Holy Gospel for today is about how after Jesus had risen from the dead, His disciples were walking and talking with Him, but they did not recognize Him.

They listened to Jesus explain the Holy Scriptures to them and they asked Him to stay with them. He stayed with them, and in the breaking of the bread is when they recognized Him as their Lord. It is my prayer that more Catholics will begin to see that Jesus is truly present in the Holy Eucharist. He is present in the consecrated bread at Mass. (Thank you Lord, for our priests.)

It is also my desire to share the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for this prayer is the contemplation of the Gospel, and we know that the Word of God is Jesus. I'd like to think that whenever people open my book, they are in a spiritual way breaking open the truth of the Bread of Life, supping with Jesus, through Mary, as they learn of our Redeemer through the one who knew Him better than anybody--His Holy Mother.

The book I am speaking of is the first in a series of books that I am answering God's call to write. Simultaneously I am writing other books, a little here and there. But this is the gem that will be coming out first. I am very pleased with the progress. I'll write of "The Annunciation: The First Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary" from time to time as things move along through the grace of God and the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.

It is a true honor to be given this Holy task. It is a pleasure to work at crafting a masterpiece of God. I find it both humbling and fulfilling. The "Joyful" mysteries indeed :)

If you have an idea of some sort that you think might have been given to you by God, just step out in faith and do it. Go for it. This is active faith. Trust Jesus and take that first step of faith. Like a toddler, step by step, the Holy Spirit will lead you along. As you make progress, you can also sense our Heavenly Father saying that you are His child, and with you He is well pleased.

Just one decade, this, even you can do

Our Catholic children may be able to recite an Our Father and a Hail Mary prayer. But do we really expect them to be able to pray the Rosary? Most Catholic adults don't even know how to pray the Holy Rosary any more. It looks very complicated. Prayer should be simple and from the heart, you may protest. Well, here's good news. Mary's prayer, the Holy Rosary, is simple and is to be prayed from the heart. Well, it looks very time consuming and repetitious. That's a real turn off, you say. Well, considering your day has 24 whole hours in it, is about a half an hour really too much time for you to give to God? Don't you want to bless somebody that you love with a dozen roses rather than 2 or 3? Repeating the prayers in the Holy Rosary are not vain repetitions but they are like the most beautiful of roses that you present to our Blessed Mother.

The Rosary is the most powerful prayer that there is next to the Mass, when you pray in contemplation on the mysteries of the lives of Jesus and Mary. Sometimes, though, looking at the whole of it looks like several tasks and inconveniences that today's busy Americans just aren't going to take the time to learn to do it. The sad truth is that their busy-ness is more about rest and relaxation and entertainment and fun than anything else. But here's an idea that may help fellow Catholics brave dipping their toes into the refreshing and grace-filled water of the Holy Rosary. Just one decade... http://www.examiner.com/x-4317-Denver-Roman-Catholic-Examiner~y2010m3d26-The-mystery-of-The-Annunciation 
The mystery of the Visitation is here...

Hanging with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

Tonight, after what seemed a trying and difficult day, I went to the Byzantine Catholic Liturgy. My children noticed right away that the Blessed Virgin Mary window high up at the top of the church looked blue. I looked at it and thought that perhaps she was sad like me. Somebody had put a blue light bulb up there. Well, it worked for me. I felt like it was a sign that the saints know how difficult my life is right now, and that they care about me. The Blessed Virgin Mary was interceding for me.

Perhaps because I had written an article to honor Father Joseph, the demons were fierce in battle against me. People hear about bad things that priests have done, and my article shows a very good and holy man of God who is a priest. The Holy Spirit really said a lot through me in that piece: http://www.examiner.com/x-4317-Denver-Roman-Catholic-Examiner~y2009m12d14-Look-out-Santa-Father-Joseph-laughs-jovially-too

If I had been in better spirits, I'm sure that I would have remembered more of what was said by Father Michael. I know that it was fascinating, that I'd never heard of such a thing before. And that I wanted to know more about it. I also knew that there was no way that I was in any state of mind to properly remember what he was saying to us, as Father Michael gave us the days of the week being designated for certain saints and angels to intercede for us. Yet I did pick up the calendar to have the saint days so that I know who I am supposed to pray to as I will now join in with the rest of the world-wide church community. Wow! I never knew this before. And I will pray with the Latin saint as well.

This is the first and only time that I went to the Holy Byzantine Liturgy and just felt the need to be comforted by being there. I go there to worship God the best way I know how. Today, I did that, but it was different. I needed to be there for me, too. And you know, it's a funny thing--it's the first time that I was ever in Holy Protection of the Mother of God that I thought it could have used a few more icons. Imagine that, there were so many bare spots on the walls that I'd never noticed before!

Today I am blue like that light bulb. The light is still there within me, of course, but it is darkened and without joy. And with this blue attitude, I saw more of the white walls than the many holy icons of the saints. Perspective change. Interesting. A different view of reality. A different experience brought on because of what is inside of me. The saints did not seem so powerful tonight. In fact, they seemed fewer. And smaller.

But they were still there. If I hadn't gone to the holy Liturgy, they would have seemed altogether invisible. I'm glad the Virgin Mary window was blue tonight. It helps me remember that to all of the holy saints, I exist and I am not invisible. We need to go to church and be with others who believe. And we need to see our holy saints. I thank them all for being there for me today. Sometimes you just need to hang out with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Like salve on a wound, it really helps :).