| COME, LET US ADORE HIM!Dear Members, Benefactors and Apostles,
We enter now, most deeply, into the spirit of the Season of Advent. It is a time of preparation for our pilgrimage to Bethlehem with the Holy Family, and of that final pilgrimage Home, when Christ asks of us an account of the Talents He has entrusted to us. LOVE alone that matters! Let us unite with Jesus and Mary upon the martyrdom of love, for this is our sacred vocation. Fire consumes wood and reduces it to ashes. Fire purifies gold and makes it resplendent. To surrender ourselves wholly to Love suffices, and Love will do the rest. When our hearts are contrite and humble, God is so pleased. No matter our weaknesses or failings, let us never be afraid of God. We give Him the greatest pleasure by believing in His Love. The complete surrender of self is painful and very few make this offering. To those who do, God lavishes the plentitude of His graces. Suffer because you love, work because you love and, above all, abandon yourself without reserve to Love! We all need a Heart Who loves and understands us. It is the Heart of God we must have! Little sacrifices, acts of self-discipline, a kind word, a smile and alms for the poor: all of these are kindling for the fire. Light for the blind, love for hearts that are indifferent, comfort for the sick and suffering: these are all offered in abundance through our confidence in God’s Love for us. Love transforms everything, mercy pardons all! God needs victim souls in which to be reborn in the world that He may transform it into Goodness and Peace. Will you be that soul? This is Love’s Hour! “Come to Me and fear not, for I love you!” “I will wash you in My Blood. All your offenses will be forgiven and nothing shall be able You, your loved ones and all those with whom you are united in prayer, will be remembered at the Sacred Altar during the 31 days of December and, in particular, during the Glorious Octave of Christmas. We pray you will do everything possible to center your Christmas Holy Days around Christ, Our Divine Infant King. Glory be to Jesus Christ! I impart to all of you, my priestly blessing: + In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. Fr. IVAN KOLODIY Click here to download a full color .pdf version of this article |
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| Dear Apostles of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude for your generous gifts which enable us to provide beautiful and life-giving Sacramentals to souls throughout the whole world. Each leaflet, holy card and Rosary speaks to them of the Love of the Mother of God and Her promise to be with them always. May God reward and bless you and your family most abundantly! As God’s overflowing Love is so intimately bound up with all that is earthly, we shall never entirely grasp how close that union, willed by Him, can be. To accomplish it, He took Mary, the whole woman, body and soul, pure in spirit, that garden enclosed, and sought Her consent. The descent of the Word into the virgin’s womb was the perfect flowering of Divine Life in a human being. Christ came to earth for all men. All are called. The householder bade his servants to invite his wealthy friends, men of esteem who had many possessions, to the great Wedding Feast. Many refused to come. Then, he told the servants to go into the streets and invite the cripples, lame and the blind. Still there were empty seats. They went to the highways and byways to compel more to come in. He provided for each one the wedding garment. Some refused to wear his spotless wedding garment. The garment represents Grace and those attending had to put off their soiled work clothes and renounce sin, in order to be clothed with the incorruptible life of immortality, the Supper he had prepared for them. In this penitential Season of Advent, there is no better or more effective form of mortification, than to cease judging others. Judgement, as we pass it a hundred times a day, is not the result of reflection but the outcome of our bias. Correct judgment of oneself and others, is impossible to our fallen nature. Do not judge others, or you yourself will be judged. To act the judge is to set ourselves above Him Who saw good in all men and helped all! We must keep our hearts open to receive Grace which heals and sanctifies. If we could but realize the value of interior silence, the essential condition of union with God! Only a mind free of judging is free to receive God. Let us, like Christ, be about our Father’s business, concentrating all our attention and love upon it. Only then, we will overflow with good-will for all men, never jealous, never blaming others. O Mary, you are the Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ, help me to be ever ready to render loving assistance to all other members! Our prayers are¬ with you both day and night. PATTI MELVIN, Director – ULRA Let us pray for one another.Click here to download a full color .pdf version of this article |
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| THE DIVINE MOTHERHOOD OF MARY!
No human tongue can worthily sing the praises of Mary. While God is sovereignly independent from His creatures, He chose to have recourse to the Immaculate Virgin Mary in order to accomplish the greatest designs of His Infinite Mercy. God sent the Archangel Gabriel to solicit her permission. The Holy Ghost miraculously fructified her virginity becoming her Spouse and the Eternal Word drew from her flesh His most Holy Body and infinitely Precious Blood and was nourished for many months while in the cradle of her arms. St. Augustine said, “The Flesh of Christ is the flesh of Mary.” By her divine Motherhood, the Blessed Virgin Mary possesses indisputable rights over Our Savior. On earth as in Heaven, Jesus pays His Mother the entire respect and tenderness of a Son. Mary’s divine Motherhood should inspire us with unlimited confidence in her all-powerful prayers for us. At the foot of the Cross, God entrusted Mary to us as our Mother. She holds the key which opens the Heart of Jesus that the flood of His richest Graces may pour out upon the world. It is Our Lady’s role to distribute the Graces merited by the Precious Blood of her Divine Son. She refuses them to no one! Christ died for all men. Mary saw Jesus born in a wretched stable. She was forced to flee into Egypt to guard her Precious Treasure from the murderous rage of Herod. She lost her Child in Jerusalem, finding Him only after three longs days of tears and agony. It was by suffering that Mary united herself to her dying Son for our deliverance at the Foot of the Cross. Her faith was unfailing, her confidence unshakable, and her love knew no bounds! Mary longs to open the door of our hearts so that Jesus might enter into them. In the Holy Eucharist, He communicates His infinite Life to increase the action of Sanctifying Grace within us. He causes His breath of Life to animate our hearts. He brings us His Precious Blood to quench the fires of concupiscence. Here in the Eucharist is the Miracle of His Love: the very Bread of Angels! May the Humility of the Shepherds, the Faith of the Wise Men, the Joy of the Angels and the Peace of the Christ Child be God’s Gift to us and to all Men, this Christmas and Always! ***** UNIQUE AND BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS GIFTS! The Holy Mass Crucifix: A sturdy pewter Crucifix dedicated to St. Philomena with St. Benedict Medal on the reverse. Cost of each = $ 60 includes shipping St. Philomena Tote: Beautiful Tote bag with tapestry of Saint Philomena woven on both sides, full color, sturdy, height 17” and width 17” Cost of each Tote: $ 25 plus $ 5 shipping and handling = $ 30 Visit our devotional items page to order these and many other items online ****** Receive the Infant King into your heart and give Him to the hearts of your family and friends! Enroll them in the Christmas Mass Bouquet: Thirty one days of Sacred Liturgies will be offered for all those who enroll in the Christmas Bouquet of Masses offered by Fr. Ivan Kolodiy and the good priests in Ukraine. Your spiritual and temporal needs, your family living and dead will be remembered at the Holy Altar every day during December. The Christmas Mass Bouquet will be crowned with a solemn High Mass on the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and during the Christmas Octave. There could be no more precious gift you can give at Christmas time. We will mail the beautiful Mass cards directly to you. These may be sent along with your Christmas greeting cards or placed inside your gift packages. This is a wonderful way to keep Christ in Christmas!!! SUGGESTED STIPEND DONATION: $5.00 each for Enrollment in the Christmas Bouquet of thirty one days of Masses: PRINT VERY CLEARLY EACH NAME! 1. 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 a full color .pdf version of this article |
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| Christmas Novena
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| Dear Patti,ULRA at the TOWARDS ADVENT Festival – St. Philomena comes to Westminster Cathedral!
On Saturday, 28th November 2015, the ULRA took a stall at the Annual ‘Towards Advent’ Festival of Catholic Culture. The event has been running at Westminster Cathedral Hall for some years now, and last year was the first time that the ULRA attended. There was such an interest in the Living Rosary last year that it was decided to take a stall again this year. Once again, there was a lot of interest in the Living Rosary stall, where Anne, the UK representative for ULRA, gave out many sacramentals, lots of prayer cards and literature about the Apostolate of Our Lady and St. Philomena. The event was inaugurated by Cardinal Vincent Nichols of the Westminster Archdiocese, and it began with hymns from the choir of St James’ School, Twickenham. The hall was full of thirty different Catholic organizations promoting their various Apostolates and it was a good atmosphere. During the day, there were also talks and workshops on Gregorian Chant, the life of the Franciscan Friars, and the urgent needs of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere. I think, it is the only Festival of its kind in England and happens once a year, just before Advent. Catholic Apostolates display their work there, many of them, like us, travelling a distance to be there. It took us two hours to get there from Colchester and 3 hours to get home at the end of it, but it was worth it to be able to publicly display the Living Rosary. We were pleased to have our stall next to the Sons of Divine Providence and to have help from Kevin Rowles to get set up. The numbers were down a bit this year; perhaps due to demonstrations against bombing Syria and also fear of terrorist attacks in the city. But, the people who did come were enthusiastic and our stall was pretty busy all the time. Our prayer cards and leaflets – always so popular – went like hot cakes! The visitors were keen to get as much as they could free and we didn’t mind that because we were willing to give freely. No one seemed to want to splash out on anything expensive – unlike last year when people came looking for presents to buy for their loved ones! Still, we gave away a lot of our literature and prayers cards, and told many people about the Living Rosary. I felt a small personal pleasure in being able to persuade a few people, including a teacher and a priest, to take on the Youth for Purity Crusade and I hope they will be able to get that going in London. We met several Living Rosary members who expressed their appreciation for our work. Our stall was very colorful and our poster of St. Philomena attracted many people to our table. We also had, courtesy of Kevin Rowles, the First Class Relic of Blessed Alexandrina de Costa on our table and she, too, attracted people to us. We enjoyed it, the time went really quickly but we were a bit tired after such a long day, having left home at 6.30 a.m. and getting back at 7.30 p.m. All in a day’s work for Our Lady! Anne Curran – THE LIVING ROSARY, ENGLAND Click here to download a full color .pdf version of this article |
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Share Your Gift of FaithFor 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. |
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Tags: Association, Catholic, Filomena, Living, Philomena, Philomene, Rosary, Saint, Santa, Universal