Arnold Janssen Kalinga Foundation

Talkative Souls...

Some brothers were coming from Scetis to see Abba Anthony. When they were getting into a boat to go there, they found an old man who also wanted to go there. The brothers did not know him. They sat in the boat, occupied by turns with the words of the Fathers, Scripture and their manual work. As for the old man, he remained silent. When they arrived on shore they found that the old man was going to the cell of Abba Anthony too. When they reached the place, Anthony said to them, 'You found this old man a good companion for the journey?' Then he said to the old man, 'You have brought many good brethren with you, father.' The old man said, 'No doubt they are good, but they do not have a door to their house and anyone who wishes can enter the stable and loose the ass.' He meant that the brethren said whatever came into their mouths.

The Miracle of Medjugorje in english

Eventually someone would come..

An English missionary to China in the 1900’s, Gladys Aylward, came to understand the real power of the word of God one afternoon, in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in northern China. She and her companion, a Chinese doctor were exhausted from walking and knelt down on the grass and prayed, she prayed for food and shelter ,  her companion prayed ‘O God, send us the one you want us to tell about Jesus’ They then broke into songs of praise. At that point a man appeared on the brow of a hill; he was a llama (Buddhist monk). He beckoned them and took them to his monastery way up on top of a mountain.


They were taken to see the abbot and he showed them a scrap of paper, that one of the monks brought back years before from a town where they sold their crops, it read ‘For God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (Jn3:16). That was all, but they learned from that short passage that there was a God who loved and they all read and re-read that passage and wanted to know who the God who loved was.


They sent monks out to towns and villages to try and find out. One heard that Jesus had commanded his disciples to ‘go out into the whole world, and proclaim the good news’ The abbot reasoned that if the first passage was true, the second was too and that eventually someone would come and tell them the rest of the story.


Gladys and her companion stayed on for many days and laid out the Gospel story for them. Every night after they finished, there would be a queue outside their rooms of Buddhists wanting to know more...

Common sense is the enemy of the supernatural life

It’s interesting how God revealed Himself in the three persons of the Trinity sequentially and how each step takes that revelation to a deeper, more intimate level. 

I owe a lot to Cecil B. DeMille and Charlton Heston for my introduction to God in the movie The Ten Commandments, a burning bush on Sinai, His mighty deeds in Eygpt – this was a God I wanted in my corner. As a boy I rather hoped to climb Mt. Sinai and see if He was in. 

The image of Jesus is certainly different, more personal though not lacking drama by any means. I find that the scene on the shore of Lake Galilee, after His work, death and Resurrection is completed, tells a lot about Him. It’s a rather ordinary scene, breakfast on the shore with His friends to strengthen their hearts and celebrate. There is no pomp and ceremony; if you’ll excuse the absurdity, St Peter’s doesn’t put on a big hat while the apostles line up in height order and start chanting (in Latin) while he wafts incense in Jesus’ general direction. I wonder if we have lost sight a bit of what He is really like. 

At Pentecost the Holy Spirit is revealed to us and this is the area where we have really lost the plot. The principle thing that happened with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the beginning of the supernatural life of the church. As the apostles witnessed, their word was confirmed by the miracles that accompanied their testimony as they were led by the indwelling Spirit. 

Are we led by the same indwelling Spirit ? It’s said that “common sense (worldly wisdom) is the enemy of the supernatural life” or the life in the Spirit as often the supernatural life is counter intuitive. For example in Acts 3:6-7 where Peter meets a lame beggar at the beautiful gate. Common sense may lead us to help in a practical way, food, small change, etc. but the supernatural life says “in the name of Jesus of Nazareth I order you to get up and walk” which of course he did. Similarly in Acts 9:36-40 where a believer called Tabitha dies. Common sense might recommend an undertaker, the supernatural life caused Peter to kneel down and pray and say to the corpse “Tabitha, get up” which she did. For that to happen in our day we must be open to the Spirit, develop the interior life and listen to the Spirit or we will miss those moments in hesitation or because of our allegiance to common sense..

Laura Vicuna Foundation New Blog 2020

LVF Blog  Link

Benefits of praying for the Holy Souls...

The cases of intercession of the souls in Purgatory are numerous :-

The following one, which is among the best known and most moving, happened in Paris in 1817.

A domestic servant, who had the pious habit of having a Mass said every month for the souls in Purgatory, became ill and having to be hospitalized, lost her job.

Upon leaving the hospital, she went to a church to pray, where she remembered that she had failed to have Mass said for the poor souls that month. However due to her unemployment, she could not afford a Mass offering since it would leave her penniless. After hesitating, she gave the offering.

Leaving the church, she met a young man who seemed to be a noble. He unexpectedly asked her if she needed employment and gave her the address of a house, which needed a maid.

When she arrived at the house, the owner, who had just dismissed her maid, wondered who could have known that she needed help. While describing the young man at the Church, the servant saw a painting of him on the wall.

Hearing this, the owner exclaimed, "That is my son, who died two months ago!"

Then both realized that God wanted to reward the maid's charity and reveal the power of a suffering soul's intercession.