Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena (ULRA)

Two weeks ago, St. Philomena apparently appeared in Singapore to a lady named Cecilia while she was praying the Rosary. Cecilia did not think much about it as she did not know who St. Philomena was. The following day, while at prayer, St. Philomena appeared to Cecilia. She could not understand why this vision happened again. On the third day, she finally took courage to ask who she was and she heard a voice saying, “PHILOMENA” “PHILOMENA” “PHILOMENA”

Cecilia then quickly called her friend whose name is Cecilia and described the vision as a very beautiful young girl, holding an arrow and a palm. So her friend told her about the life of St. Philomena and she found an old book on the life of the Saint and passed it on to her to read. While standing at the book shelf in her room, trying to find the book on St. Philomena, believe it or not, the book on the Life of St. Philomena by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, fell right in front of her. I believe everything happens for a reason. That is why we are all trying to spread the devotion to the Saint and what better way than to start with the order of her blessed cords and oil. Now, you know why I am trying to help the group with these orders.

Thank you and God bless you!

Judy – Singapore

Thank you and God bless you,
Sister Chinelo – Casa di Riposo, ITALY

OUR SAVIOR’S LAST APPEAL

The tragic hour the aged Simeon had foreseen in his terrible prophecy came to pass. The Cross stands out against a cloud-filled sky. A dreadful silence resounds through that city liable for the murder of its God. Jesus is expiring. At the foot of the gibbet whereon the great Victim is nailed stands Mary, motionless, silent, engulfed in untold grief, gazing upon her dying God. What created mind could fully understand her suffering? We are familiar with trials: loss of material goods is not fatal and bodily ills make our flesh tremble, yet our minds can remain at peace. Doubts, discouragement and despondency cast shadows on our lives and may make it unbearable, but the greatest suffering springs from the heart when love is wounded.

Mary suffered through the love she bore her Son. Hers was a martyrdom which surpasses that of the martyrdom of blood. To comprehend the intensity of her pain, we would have to comprehend the depth of her love. She gave herself unreservedly to her Son, for original sin had not tarnished her Immaculate Heart. Now, her beloved Son, endures before her very eyes the most cruel, the most unjust, the most ignominious of tortures. Step by step, She follows the somber procession wending its way up Calvary. She witnesses the horrible scene of crucifixion, hears the heavy hammer drive the sharp nails into the adorable hands and feet of her Child, tearing His Flesh as His Precious Blood spills onto the ground. The soldiers jeer and the high priests mock His goodness, His holiness and His very divinity. Not for a moment does She abandon Him, nor does She miss a single moment of His suffering. When Jesus dies, She is at His Feet. There is a phenomenon the medieval philosophers called ecstasy. Love takes the heart, so to speak, of the one who loves and exchanges it with the heart of the beloved. All of Jesus’ sufferings resonated in Mary’s Heart. When the soldier’s lance pierced His Heart, it simultaneously pierced the Virgin Mother’s Soul.

When a heavy cross is laid upon our shoulders, we accuse God of unfairness and uncaring cruelty, and we abandon our faith. “How could a good God do this to us!” Did the Father not love His only Son? Did God not love the purest Virgin whom He had made the Mother of His Son? Yet, God found no more precious gift for His Son and His Mother than suffering! Through suffering, the great work of Redemption is accomplished. God sends suffering to purify us and to save us. When suffering comes, we must trust God, lovingly receive the cross and know that the victory of Easter awaits us. With Mary, let us take courage. We will climb the steep hill of Calvary so that, one day, we may savor the joys of eternal Beatitude.

“The highest veneration, after God, is due to Mary because there is no other being in Heaven or on earth arrayed in so sublime a dignity and so near to God as is Mary, the Mother of the Most High, the Spouse of the Holy Ghost. When Mary was on earth, She was exalted to the pre-eminent dignity of having the Son of God subject to her and, now in her full glorification, shall She behold her dignity lowered and the love of her Divine Spouse and Son, lessened? NO! On the contrary, She shall receive, as a reward for the love She bore her Divine Son on earth, the greatest participation in His Eternal Glory. She shall sit as His beloved Mother on the right Hand side of her Son, upon the throne of glory and majesty so that the whole heavenly court may offer to their Queen the eternal homage due her as the promised Victress over Hell by reason of the Fruit of her virginal body.”

Taken from the SERVITE MANUAL
Nihil Obstat: Rt. Rev. A. Hillebrand, V.G. Prot. Apost., a.i.p.
Censor Librorum, Portland, Oregan – February 2, 1925

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Make haste to enroll your family and friends in the forty days of Holy Masses which prepare our hearts for Good Friday only to open them to the Joys of Easter Sunday!

THE HOLY MASS IS YOUR LIFE!

The rational man needs the Mass to pay Almighty God the debt of homage and adoration he owes Him. The grateful man needs the Mass to pay his debt of thanksgiving. The sinful man, and who among us is without sin, needs the Mass to propitiate God’s Justice and to pay his debt of satisfaction. The needy man needs the Mass, that praying with Jesus Christ and through Him, he may offer a prayer that is worthy of being heard and, thus, discharge his duty and debt of petition.

At the hour of death, the Masses you have heard will be your greatest consolation. Every Mass will go with you to judgment and plead for pardon. At every Mass, you can diminish the temporal punishment due to your sins. Assisting devoutly at Mass, you render the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, the greatest homage. He supplies for many of your negligences and omissions. He forgives you all the venial sins you are determined to avoid. He forgives you all the unknown sins you have never confessed. The power of Satan over you is diminished.

By hearing Mass, you afford the Souls in Purgatory the greatest possible relief. One Mass heard by you, during life, will be of more benefit to you than many offered for you after death. Holy Mass preserves you from many dangers and misfortunes that would otherwise befall you. You shorten your Purgatory by every Mass and win for yourself a higher degree of glory in Heaven. At Mass, you kneel amidst the multitude of Angels who are present at the adorable Sacrifice with reverential awe. You receive the priest’s blessing which Our Lord Himself ratifies in Heaven. You are blessed in your temporal goods and affairs.

Nihil Obstat: P. L. Biermann, Censor Librorum.
Imprimatur: + George Cardinal Mundelein, Archbishop of Chicago

The names you send for individual enrollment for the Sacred Masses during the Lenten Season and Easter Octave will be placed upon the Altar. Fr. Ivan Kolodiy and all the priests you have helped in Ukraine will offer these Masses. Suggested donation for each enrollment is $5. Mass cards will be provided for the persons enrolled. Please PRINT the names CLEARLY:

1.                                                       7.

2.                                                        8.

3.                                                        9.

4.                                                        10.

5.                                                        11.

6.                                                        12.

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

If payment by Check / Money Order / Cash, please mail it directly to the address below:

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

Click here to download and print this information.

St. Philomena, Wonder-Worker (continued)

Many people have witnessed Philomena opening and closing her eyes as they knelt at her shrine and prayed to her. Sometimes, the eyes will open partially, as though she were peeping at them like a child who cannot bear to keep a secret much longer. The eyes that look out are so bright they seemed to be made of light.

Marianna Masucci refused to believe that anyone had seen such a thing. “How is it possible that the Saint can open her eyes when she has none beneath those closed eyelids? How could such a thing happen to a face made of paper?” I fancy an Anglo-Saxon could not have put it more cogently. “If she shows this wonder to others,” went on Marianna, “why not to me?” To this challenge, Philomena opened her eyes, looked severely at Marianna, and shut her eyes again!

Philomena was very wide awake to the prayers of her adopted Mugnano. From this day forward, graces, favors and wonders immediately overflowed, like the waters of a stream long dammed up. It was something unheard of. It was marvelous: Cures of body, soul, mind, spiritual and temporal graces, instantaneous healing of incurable maladies and striking conversions. All that was asked was obtained. The inhabitants soon began to fly to St. Philomena for assistance in all their necessities. They found their prayers were not only heard, but granted with a rapidity that has ever since been one of the special characteristics of the intercession of this great Virgin and Martyr.

Casamericiano was shot several times and had been mortally wounded by bandits. He could not move. The surgeons could do nothing for him. His relations set out on a pilgrimage to Mugnano and had a High Mass sung for his cure. They then returned home. Some days later, walking barefoot, the man whose body was so full of bullets brought an effigy displaying his many wounds. This he left at the shrine as his ex-voto to thank Philomena for his cure.

Soon, wax models of almost every part of the human body hung among the offerings at the shrine. Yes, they must have looked very queer. I suppose Philomena, with her sense of humor, must have found them even funnier than we do. But, do you think it mattered that her shrine began to look like a large doll hospital? Each and every ex-voto gives witness to the power she has with her Divine Spouse.

Do you think it would have been better if I had drawn a graceful literary veil over all these strange goings-on and had just talked vaguely of graces and favors or if I had not tried to make you see those thank-offerings? What is the good of this book if it does not give you, as far as possible, the atmosphere of the shrine? It seems to me that Philomena might object very strongly to having a genteel veil thrown over her shrine. If you want a miracle, you must pocket your reasonable agnosticism and go honestly as a pilgrim to her shrine, if only in thought we can say if we please: “Philomena, I wish you had a shrine more to my taste.” But it doesn’t sound very polite, does it? When one calls on a stranger of whom one hopes to ask a favor, one does not generally begin by saying, “I do wish your drawing-room was less tawdry.”

Philomena wouldn’t part with an inch of tinsel or an ounce of wax any more than we would part with the gifts that the fumbling fingers of those we love have made for us. Philomena’s renown soon spread. In Naples, there were numberless altars to her. Devotion to her spread like wildfire. The rich built and endowed chapels in her honor. They placed therein beautiful pictures and statues which became centers of miraculous power, her love and the gratitude of the faithful. In the city of Genoa, more than twelve hundred ex-votos in silver were offered at her shrine in less than eight months.
There is much more to be told about her shrines in France and England. But, in spirit, we must become pilgrims to Mugnano first. Here, she preaches to the world her message of absolute simple and matter-of-fact confidence in God. St. Philomena is always insistent of her dignity as a virgin and martyr because that dignity is relative to the dignity of Christ Himself. Bombs, guns, a poor papier-mâché figure, red and blue deckings and tinsel flowers she accepts with pleasure, but not any lack of reverence.

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