Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena (ULRA)

BERNADETTE – HIDDEN, SIMPLE AND SILENT!

One of the most important apparitions of Our Blessed Mother in the 19th Century was at Lourdes. It was here that Our Lady told Bernadette who She was, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Bernadette was an ignorant, sickly child: humble, poor and prayerful. Our Lady told her that She would not make her happy in this world, but the next. The Mother of God asked Bernadette for “PENANCE! PENANCE!” Beyond this, little else seems to be recorded.

A beautiful book was sent to us from Lyon, France. Here, we found the real secret of Lourdes. Bernadette was found always praying her Rosary, the instrument of her piety, grace, mission, personal sanctity and apostleship.

Everything took its meaning from the Sign of the Cross, the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be to the Father, repeated untiringly. Bernadette did not attend often school, she could not read. Her Rosary became her missal and her Gospel. In the Rosary, she had all she needed for her task; she bore the whole of Heaven and earth within her, with her Rosary. Our Lady taught Bernadette to make the Sign of the Cross which begins every Rosary. So beautiful, so expressive of her soul was her Sign of the Cross that it would become the hallmark of her personal vocation. The Mother of God taught her the beauty of Divine Grace and the horror of sin.

Bernadette had been called to a life of penance, prayer and love which she had been charged to transmit to the world. This she would do with her Rosary in her hand. There is only one end for souls, little or great, Jesus and Jesus Crucified; yet, while He is the end, He is also the Way. Bernadette was brought into the most wonderful of all worlds, the world of Grace – our Divine Adoption by the Father in Jesus Christ, our incorporation with Christ by Baptism, the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity within us, the growth of the Divine Life in our souls through prayer and the Sacraments; a total transformation of ourselves as we become the sons of God.

The Virgin Mary is hidden, simple and silent but full of grace. Hail to Her as the Co-Redemptrix of the Human Race! Bernadette is made a confidante and a helper, an instrument of Mary’s motherly tenderness and Her Son’s merciful Power, to restore the world in Christ by a new and wonderful outpouring of Redemptive Grace. Bernadette wished to prove her love for Jesus by accepting all that it pleased Him to send her. On September 8, 1858, Bernadette was received as a Child of Mary at Lourdes. This consecration made her deeply happy. Even after entering the convent, she was given permission to remain a Child of Mary until death.

Upon entering her haven at St. Gildard, it was Mary who led her to Jesus. She wrote, “Let me begin here on earth in union with you, to glorify God by the constant homage of perfect submission … Yes Jesus, Yes, in everything and in every circumstance, Yes!” Bernadette entered the convent at Nevers to hide herself. The bishop himself inaugurated a campaign from her first day of entry as a postulant, cautioning the Mother General and Postulant Mistress to be vigorous in shielding her from pride. The two outdid themselves through the years to humiliate, rebuff and insult her, and to be severe in their treatment of her. She was tortured by interior suffering, yet she suffered all these insults with obedience, silence and love in order that she might please Jesus and return love for every humiliation. The Rosary passed tirelessly through her fingers. Bernadette took to writing down her spiritual outpourings of burning love, in tiny writing on bits and pieces of paper. When she was not sick, she would peel vegetables and carry a hot drink to the invalids. When she was not working in the infirmary, she was sacristan. She spent her life with God and with the sick in whom she also found God.

Our Lady succeeded perfectly in hiding her Bernadette. Nevers was to be for her privileged child a Nazareth with its silence! It was for her a Jerusalem, Gethsemane and Calvary. At the heart of this humility, there would be transforming union, reparation, participation in the sufferings of Jesus, intimacy with His Heart; there would be LOVE! Bernadette’s way of love was not extraordinary, but simple, common and ordinary. “For me to live is Christ!” The New Testament and the Imitation of Christ were her favorite books. She made daily the Way of the Cross and kept this up through the twelve years of her religious life. She made it in the chapel on her knees when she was well and when ill, she made it from her sick bed looking at a simple picture of the Station. “Place yourself in the Garden of Gethsemane or at the foot of the Cross, and stay there quietly. Our Lord will speak to you, and you will listen to Him.” The Holy Mass and Communion were the culminating point of Sister Marie-Bernard’s life; to be deprived of them during her illness cost her more than all her sufferings. Bernadette remained attentive to the slightest call of grace within her and feared to neglect any of the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.

All through life, her little Rosary slipped between her fingers during her long visits to the chapel. While she was ill she said the Rosary all day long and all through the painful and sleepless nights. Her life at Nevers was a continuation of Lourdes. “Jesus, my God, I love you above all things.” Our Lady’s words to her came back again and again, “Do penance, pray, mortify yourself and suffer for sinners.” Her vocation was love in all its fullness. Bernadette had one great work given to her directly by God, and it was the only work of her religious life: the work of a victim soul for the expiation of sin and the Triumph of Holy Mother the Church!

“To obey is to love. To suffer anything from creatures, in order to please Jesus, is to love.
To suffer everything in silence to please Jesus, is to love.”

Sister Marie-Bernard was a fire! She was like a piece of wood which the flame envelopes and devours; from the first instant the wood becomes fire, it becomes more and more consumed. In the end, it is impossible to distinguish the fire from the wood – then there is nothing but fire. Such was the love of Sister Marie-Bernard for Jesus! It is not from interior lights or conversion of heart or supernatural interventions that the growth in holiness of Bernadette stems, but from love and likeness to and union with Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost was active in her and was the Gift of her strength, the fire of her love. “He who is not ready to suffer everything for the Beloved, and to do His Holy Will in all things, is not worthy of the sweet name of friend. Here below, there can be no true love without suffering.”

“All our miseries come from not loving the Cross!”

Saint Bernadette always had the habit when writing to put the two letters, “p.p.” before her name: “Pray for me! Pray for my poor soul! I have great need of your prayers!” It was a cry for prayers that she might endure her interior sufferings and martyrdom of the heart. She longed for the Cross and Calvary, but the goal of her love was Heaven and the union which finds its consummation in the face to Face vision of God. Let us place ourselves in the Heart of Mary and remain there. Here it is, we will find our Home on Earth!!!

Bernadette lived in perpetual suffering. Pope Pius IX sent Bernadette a Crucifix. She writes, “With my Crucifix, I am happier in my bed than a queen upon her throne!” This Crucifix and her Rosary were her last possessions upon earth. Her death agony was to last 20 days.

“I do not ask for consolation, but for strength and patience!”

To be a Christian means to be a lover and a peacemaker. First of all, we must be at peace ourselves by being united with God’s Divine Will and, then, we must have enough wisdom and humility to bring peace into the lives of others. Bernadette did this in a singular way through her suffering. In a world in which pleasure is the highest good and suffering the greatest evil, it might seem insane to call those blessed who suffer adversity and persecution. But, there is no earthly measure of man’s love for Christ except the cross cheerfully borne. All of us must endure inescapable trials, separations, illness and rejection, the pull of the flesh and the ridicule of the anti-Christian world in which we live. Like Bernadette, let us carry these trials with love and cheerful fortitude. We live for one purpose: to become saints! Bernadette teaches us the mystery of sanctity. What matters is our whole hearted love of God. The world is filled with suffering, but not with saints. Pain, intense pain, without love is sterile. If only we could love enough and embrace with love all the pain and suffering God sends to us, we too, could be saints. Love gives nobility to voluntary sacrifice, turns obedience into an expression of generous self-giving; it touches the smallest and most trivial gift, wrapped in cheap paper and tinsel, into a thing of eternal beauty. If we allow love to penetrate everything we do and are, then nothing that happens to us will be without eternal significance. If we love God and love one another, then everything we do will be in sweet conformity with the Divine Will. Through the sanctification of our families, we can reach out with the embrace of Christ to the whole human race.

Upon this reality, Bernadette lived her entire life. Like Bernadette, we have been sent into this world not to condemn its wrongs but to make the wrong right, not to cry unclean but to wash clean, not to damn but to save. Christ came into this world not to call the just, but sinners. It is not our business to prove we are right; it is our business to preach Christ and Him Crucified, to let Truth conquer by its own right. We need not reprove the error of the starving, but lavish upon them the Bread of Life, the very Love of the Heart of God. They will, then, be nourished unto life everlasting. No one will believe what we say, unless we are loving and forbearing with them. LOVE ALONE MATTERS! Christ fails in the measure that we fail to be Christ-like. In all that she said and did, Bernadette breathed forth this love for everyone.

Like Jesus on the Cross, she stretched out her arms and said, “I thirst.” A Sister gave her something to drink. And, for the last time, she made the beautiful Sign of the Cross that Our Lady taught her: the Sign of the Cross of the Rosary. Bowing her head, she gently gave back her soul to God whom she so dearly loved here below. Love was fulfilled! Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost!

“The Eucharist bathes the tormented soul in light and love. Then, the soul appreciates these words:
Come all you who are sick, I will restore your health.”

Sin is the only real evil in the world and it must be avoided and repaired. When we pray the Rosary, we walk in the light! Hail Mary, full of grace … pray for us sinners! God is simple and, in order to enter into intimacy with God, the soul must regain this simplicity. The Immaculate Conception: What silence! What humility! What a great Mystery hidden in God!

At Lourdes, Our Lady revealed to us through Saint Bernadette, that God has worked in Her, all the Mysteries of our Faith and the whole hope of the world: “I am the Immaculate Conception!”

Let us reply to the end of time: “Hail Mary, Full of Grace …”

Oh Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, teach us to love those little beads. In every trial, tribulation and sorrow, they have been a source of comfort to all who trust in thee. We are happy in the possession of our Rosaries. May thy Rosary, O Immaculate Heart of Mary, ever strengthen us in our weaknesses, be our peace in time of affliction, comfort in all matters of doubt, courage in time of temptation, and a source of consolation throughout all our days on this earth! May it be a strong influence on us in success or in failure! In all things, may we live in peaceful union with thee through the prayer of the Rosary! Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Queen of the Rosary, Inflame our hearts with the love of Reparation.

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“Please Father, Pray for the Conversion of my Loved One!
Pray that my Children will return to the Sacraments!
Pray that our Grandbabies will be Baptized!”

Progress is the watchword of our modern Day. Progress should be likewise the watchword of our spiritual advancement: progress in making use of the means of Salvation God has given us for these perilous times. Our families are plagued with opportunities for sin, which are innumerable and divisive. Dangers, which are so incredibly menacing, attractive and enticing, surround us on every side. We cannot overcome them by our own power. Without God’s help, we will drown in the mire. Witchcraft and Satanism abound, drugs and alcohol, pornography and nudity have found their way into our schools and homes.

We have been deceived by the devil. Setting our hopes on material comforts, possessions and future security, we have forfeited family, faith and eternal beatitude. How can we best appeal to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary? How can we attain the salvation of our families? How can we help those who have lost the faith and abandoned themselves to this vacuum of greed, pride and hate?

Our Lady of Fatima came to bring peace to the world. The foundation of Peace is the possession of Grace. Man must cease offending God. Sanctifying Grace is the Life of God Himself imparted to the soul, whereby man is raised to a supernatural level and becomes a friend and child of God, and an heir to Heaven. The presence or absence of Sanctifying Grace in our souls, at the moment of death, will decide our eternal salvation or damnation. Through the Sacrament of Confession, all is gained and saved, and the repentant sinner is restored to the friendship of God. Washed in the Precious Blood of the Lamb of God, he receives the source of life, the medicine of salvation, the fount of healing and the beginning of all that is good. There is no more effectual means of preservation from the dangers and temptations which beset our families, than frequent union with Our Lord in Holy Communion.

Misled by false teachers, many have given up the Faith, Love and Hope of Christ. We must turn back to God by whom we are loved so very much. When man restores God to the temple of his soul, Mary will reward the world with a lasting peace.

Sixty one days of Sacred Liturgies will be offered by Father Ivan Kolodiy in the Ukraine during the months of August and September for your loved ones who have fallen away from the Sacraments, for grandchildren who need to receive Baptism, and for the conversion of those you entrust to God. The names of those enrolled will be placed on the Altar during the months of August and September.

SUGGESTED STIPEND DONATION: $ 5.00 each for Enrollment in the Sixty one Days of Sacred Liturgies for your Loved Ones: PRINT VERY CLEARLY EACH NAME!

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Make your payment online through PAYPAL / CREDIT CARD at: WWW.PHILOMENA.ORG

THE LIVING ROSARY, P.O. BOX 1303, DICKINSON, TX 77539, USA

FR. MATEO ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS (continued)

THE DIVINE REALITY OF THE MASS

Suppose movies, the radio and television, had already been invented during the times of the Roman Emperors, Augustus and Tiberius, and were even more greatly developed than they are now. Suppose also that when Caesar had been told of the effect of the preaching of Jesus on the people of Palestine, and how the Sanhedrin had brought about His execution, the Emperor sent orders to Pilate to forward to Rome the proceedings of the trial together with a film record of the drama of the execution of the “so-called” King of the Jews.

How moved we would be at witnessing this sound-picture of the deicide of Good Friday, should it be shown in our Churches as a preparation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! This moving picture would be somewhat of a natural and scientific perception of the divine drama on our Altars. We would be able to hear the Seven Last Words of Jesus, the blasphemies of His enemies hurled at the divine Victim. Like Mary, John and the Magdalene, we would be eye-witnesses, and like them watch Calvary’s scene through three hours: from noon until three o’clock of that First Good Friday.

But, the Faith that cannot deceive presents for us a far greater reality than that picture could ever be. An intelligent and pious assistance at Mass leads us through the veil of mystery to perceive the reality. The film would be like the Holy Shroud of Turin, an historical monument. The Mass is a present reality.

For nearly twenty centuries, Mass has been offered uninterruptedly in the Catholic Church. It is the same sacrifice as that of Good Friday when Jesus crucified was both Priest and Victim. This Mass which has been renewed, reproduced and prolonged through all these ages, is our daily Mass. It is not a beautiful religious pageant, nor a marvellous picture taken, let us say, by the angels; no, it is the amazing divine reality of Calvary in exact reproduction on the altar, with only the Suffering and shedding of blood left out. The Eucharistic Victim is now glorious and can suffer no more.

On the basis of these principles, the Council of Trent declares that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is above all a work of strict justice, which pays the price of our sins with the “Blood of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.” It is a truth of the supernatural order that the Holy Sacrifice saves us by appeasing the divine justice when the same price that was paid on Calvary is offered again in the Chalice. Without this ransom, which alone is sufficient, there would be no remission of sins. Happily, Jesus died crying out, “Father, forgive them.”

Once the work of strict justice has been accomplished, mercy shines forth like a burning sun. Heaven and rebellious earth are reconciled. But God demands that we continue to apply the Precious Blood of our Redeemer to the wounds of our sinful souls. That Blood, shed on Calvary, now fills the Chalice of the Mass.

There is a difference, however, between the Golgotha of Jerusalem and the Calvary of our altars. Even though bathed in the Precious Blood, the latter is a glorious Tabor. I say glorious, for the Victim there immolated is the risen God-Man Who conquered death on Easter Sunday. While the altar is a Tabor, it is also a Calvary radiant in the splendours of the Resurrection.

So wonderfully brilliant is the High Priest’s glory hovering over the altar, but visible only to the bewildered eyes of the angels, that even the saintly Curé of Ars would not have dared to celebrate Mass, nor the Little Flower to approach the Holy Table, were it not for the veil of mystery that conceals that tremendous glory from the eyes of the celebrant and the faithful. But, thanks to the shadow of mystery, the Altar is not only accessible, but even attractive, in spite of the fact that it brings us nearer Heaven than Moses was on Mt. Sinai.

Seen in this light, the official prayer of Christ the Mediator during Mass is the only one which can pierce the clouds, touch and ravish the Heart of the Father. His appeal is omnipotent, springing as it does from the Heart of the all-powerful Mediator. He tells us Himself that the Father always hears Him (Jn. 11: 42). When He prays, it is a command: His word affects what He asks, for He is God!

Therefore, when we visit the Blessed Sacrament, make our Eucharistic Adoration or our Night Adoration at home and, above all, when we assist at Mass, our prayer should always be the Canon of the Mass. This liturgical formula is sanctified and venerable from its dogmatic content as well as its antiquity. At any time of the day or night, we can unite ourselves to thousands of priests who at that moment are elevating the Host and the Chalice, like a bow in the heavens. By this simple elevation of our hearts, we may renew the Christmas song of the angels, Glory to God in the highest.

I received a box with a note to take care of the requests of people from India. Yes, I shall.

I have been to Hubli just to convey my condolence to a young Goan lady, Celia, a committed promoter. Her husband was murdered by a gang of five men, only three months ago in Goa. I attach her photo. I travelled up and down 1778 Kilometers in all. Left Chennai on the 2nd and returned home on the 4th night. I invited a young Malaysian promoter who is doing his Doctorate in Medicine at Belgaum, near Goa (2 hours journey from Belgaum to Hubli) to join me in order to strengthen him as to how our Promoters in spite of setbacks in their lives, are loyal to the ULRA mission in their total consecration.

Celia has two young children. She was able to gather 42 members on the 3rd evening for my meeting and we gave encouragement to them to persevere in their vocation in the ULRA pious exercises. Please pray that God may stay with her always and she may continue her ULRA mission with courage in addition to caring for her young children.

May I humbly request you to ask Fr. Ivan to offer a Mass for her family! Thank you for all your help and support!

K. Joseph Roche, National Animator

The Living Rosary INDIA

Today is the Feast of Pentecost and I offered the Mass in our mission in Soweto. This is the same township where Nelson Mandela lived from 1946 to 1962. We do not yet have a permanent chapel there and so we offer Mass in a public school along with many Pentecostal type religions in the other classrooms. The singing and preaching from other groups can be
heard throughout the Mass. I told our faithful about your organization of the Living Rosary and your gifts, some of which I would give them after the Mass. They knew about St. Philomena and were asking for more holy cards of her. I said that we would give more to them next week. I left some items here in Roodepoort for the faithful to get from our “free table” which is put out on Sunday. One lady had been asking the lady who runs our bookstore for a St. Philomena cord, but she is currently out of them. So when I told the lady in the bookstore about your items, she told me about the request for a St. Philomena cord which, thanks to your assistance, I was able to fulfill. I told the lady that there was no charge but she wanted to give a small donation regardless which helped to pay for the 38 Rand tariff charge on the package at the Post Office. This same lady had visited the relics of St. Philomena and had obtained oil from there. So she was happy to get more of St. Philomena’s oil from your parcel, since she had used up all that she had. She is an elderly lady.

After the Mass in Soweto, some of the smaller boys distributed the miraculous medals to each person and they knelt for the blessing of them. I also enrolled several faithful in the Brown Scapular. I was surprised that these people had not yet been enrolled because I had enrolled a number of them twice after Mass during the past year. They wanted more medals to give to others who were not there.

I also distributed holy cards, etc. today also after Mass in Bredell, north of Johannesburg which is our district headquarters and I enrolled members in the Living Rosary. Most of the faithful from Zimbabwe and Malawi are poor. I baptized the maid’s son in the hospital the day before he died in Harare in October. He was only 35 years old and died from meningitis, which really was the result of his having HIV. Zimbabwe has the lowest life expectancy in the world. For women the average age of death is 34 years and for men 37.

(See http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/41339.php) Half the population is of school age.

Next Sunday, I will be offering Mass in Cape Town and will distribute more items there. Most faithful are Europeans but we also have some young men from the Republic of Congo who had been in a seminary there and discovered the traditional Mass after they left. They would now like to become priests or brothers. There are five in total, but only three are now in Cape Town. There is also a poor African family from Zimbabwe, who cleans our rectory and does gardening or painting, since the father who is a non-Catholic is out of work. I am teaching two of their sons the catechism in preparation for Baptism. They will profit from the literature. The white people are more able to read the booklets since the natives often speak English as a second language. The Africans here speak Zulu with clicking sound from time to time in Cape Town Xhosa and in Zimbabwe Shona.

So your gifts are being spread at this far corner of the world. May Our Lord reward your charity a hundredfold for spreading the faith, devotion to our Blessed Lady and St. Philomena!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

< Fr. Paul Kimball, Our Lady of Sorrows Priory – ROODEPORT, SOUTH AFRICA >

Share Your Gift of Faith

For centuries, our cherished Catholic faith has been passed from person to person, parent to child, etc. Each of us carries in our heart a special memory of how God first graced us with the knowledge of the faith and how Our Blessed Mother, Saint Philomena, Venerable Pauline Jaricot and other saints changed our lives and brought us closer to Christ.

In our work in the Universal Living Rosary Association, we see first hand how millions of souls are currently living without that knowledge of God and are living outside of His grace. We have been given a beautiful opportunity to carry out Christ’s work and pass on our faith and blessings to others who would otherwise never be introduced to Our Lord, the Savior of all mankind. Just as we pray for the souls in Purgatory who have no one to pray for them, we should also make it a part of our life’s mission to pass on our faith to as many souls as possible who have no one else to pass it on to them, who don’t know Our Lord and His promise of salvation.

This is the box we send out to the foreign Missions $77.95. It contains Rosaries, Scapulars, Miraculous Medals, Cord & Oil, Newsletters, Calendars, Catechism books, 2 TAN books, large color prints, lists and encouragement for our Promoters.

Please Click here to Share Your Gift of Faith