The Seven Sorrows of Mary (Fr Ripperger video)

 

Power of St Benedict's Medal

 

'Taken out' by the enemy

A friend of mine has a great-grandson now, a splendid little chap, and I noticed how bright his eyes are. Not only because they are brand new; but it’s as if the light shines from within out into the world; this is seen in the newly Baptised.

Similarly it is seen in the passion and idealism of youth. Often though the promise of youth gives way to the mediocrity of middle-age, compromises made, troubles mount up, and overwhelmed by the cares of this world we can easily be ‘taken out’ by the enemy of our souls with his menu of false gods and quick fixes. So many men fall into alcoholism, pornography, adultery, gambling, etc. and it’s a growing trend.

There are many reasons for this but what is central I think is forgetfulness. In our age particularly we have forgotten that we have an enemy and that the devil is devoted 24/7 to our eternal destruction by whatever means he can use. By ourselves alone we are quite powerless against such a being. We also forget that we were never designed to live independently from God.

We cannot live independently anymore than a baby in the womb can without its mother providing all the nutrients it needs to grow and arrive safely into the world. Our Prayer life is rather like an umbilical cord connecting us with God. Our time on earth might be likened to gestation in the womb, growing as we are fed. At death we are delivered into heaven.

We really need to get back to prayer, so we can be open to God’s grace which is sufficient for the days’ troubles. Our reliance on God and growing relationship with Him, only achievable through daily prayer, is the only thing that can keep the enemy of our souls at bay and enable us to triumph.

Family Prayer

My wife and I were invited to a Family conference a few years ago as part of a panel discussion on conflict resolution in families. As the building block of society and the church, what happens within families is vitally important and perhaps that is why it’s always under attack. “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions!” 

One of my grandmother’s catch phrases was ‘he played (H)amlet’ which she used to describe the annoyance and often over-reaction people have when they argue. Perhaps we can all relate and recall occasions when the top was left off the toothpaste (or the seat left up) and we recited a demented monologue from a Shakespearean tragedy in response.

Our contribution to the family conference discussion was more on prevention rather than cure though. For many years now, we have the practice of praying together each morning, before any fuse can be lit. As a discipline it has been transformative in our lives and it really does work; we offer the day to God, pray for mercy and forgiveness, for protection during the day, our work and activities, seek the intercession of the angels and saints, bless the house with Holy water regularly too.  This morning prayer together, has become more important than breakfast. If we don’t lay the day’s foundation in prayer, someone else will, in discord.

Family prayer is often neglected nowadays and family members can often have their day ruined even before they leave the house in the morning if they go into the day unprepared or unprotected. That has been our observation. The challenge we gave to the participants was ‘try it and see’.

Hide me in the shadow of your wings...a story from Japan

During the Second World War, an atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima. A mile around the place of the impact, there was not a soul alive. A desert of death! Yet one house made of a straw thatched roof was left standing near the parish church, 8 blocks from the epicenter of the explosion. As incredible as it may seem, that house remained absolutely intact!

It was the Rectory of the Jesuits. Eight priests lived there. None of them were physically or psychologically affected by the bomb. Not only did they come out of the tragedy alive, but they were in perfect health. They died at an old age many years later. Father Hubert Schiffer, one of the Jesuits, was 30 years old when the bomb exploded. He lived 33 more years in good health before he died in Frankfurt in 1982. In July 1976, at the Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia (USA), he publicly witnessed the whole story. I happened to be there. At the time, the 8 members of the Jesuit community were still alive.

Experts looked into this enigma for years and years, using with the best of instruments and searching with passion the best clues for a hidden force in the construction of the house. How could the house, having nothing special and looking like a simple Japanese house, have possibly resisted such a cataclysm? Also the Jesuits were examined by over 200 scientists. The conclusion was always the same, they did not understand how these men could have survived in the middle of the hecatomb when all the other living beings had perished by the thousands. As for them, the Jesuits knew! But though they kept on saying the truth and proclaiming it from the rooftops, no one would believe them. Their answer was not a "scientific"one! Father Hubert explained that he owed this protection to the Blessed Mother since he and his brothers had put into practice what she had asked for in Fatima (1917).He declared to the experts, "I was in the center of the atomic explosion and I am still alive, safe and sound. I was not touched by the bomb." "In our house,", he said, "There was only one thing different from the other houses: each day, we would gather and recite the Rosary together!".