Major Apparitions of St. Joseph

via ncregister.com

Help with Today’s Problems

St. Joseph focused on life’s difficulties and offered consolation. “My Son Jesus, through my Heart, wishes to impart to all men his divine blessings. I know many of you suffer many great difficulties because, in these last times, men no longer love or help one another but live with their hearts full of pride, falsehood, lies, intrigue, ambition, backbiting, pettiness, and many wrong things that are the consequences of living far from God.”

St. Joseph said to all who honor his Heart and trust in him and his intercession, “I promise they will not be abandoned in their difficulties and in the trials of life. I will ask Our Lord to help them with his Divine Providence in their material and spiritual problems.”

To mothers and fathers consecrating themselves and their families to his Heart, St. Joseph assured help in afflictions and problems, and assistance with raising up their children.
Sin: Consequences & His Protection
The spouse of Mary did not ignore the current world situation which in 1998 was still 18 years from the multitude of today’s multiplying spiritual chaos.
He emphasized, “[M]y Son Jesus is very indignant with the sins of humanity.

“He desires to pour his divine justice upon all men that do not want to repent and continue obstinately in their sins. Look, my son, I hold his right hand, preventing Him from pouring out his justice upon all humanity. I ask Him, through the graces of my Heart and for being worthy to live by his side, taking care of him with the love of a father in this world, and for Him having loved me with the love of a son, to not chastise the world for its crimes, but for all my little ones who honor and will honor this Chaste Heart of mine, should pour out his mercy upon the world.”
The world’s many sins call humanity to repent and do penance, he said, “because God receives continued offenses from ungrateful men. Today there are so many outrages, the sacrilege and indifference by all men. It is because of this that so many calamities like war, hunger and disease occur and so many other sad things man has suffered because of man’s rebellion against God.”
St. Joseph made clear rebellion’s consequences. “God lets men follow their own paths to show them all, without him, they will never be happy. He lets men go through so much suffering, to also show them the consequences sin brings to their lives and so then the divine justice punishes humanity because of their obstinance in not being obedient to God’s Will.

He pointed out humanity is “increasingly obstinate in their crimes” because of concern for worldly pleasures “rather than the love of God and his Commandments. But God’s justice is close at hand in a way never seen before and will come about suddenly upon the whole world.”
That should shake us, yet this most powerful saint extends a hope-filled solution. All those who honor his Chaste Heart “will receive the grace of my protection from all evils and dangers. For those who surrender to me will not be slaughtered by misfortunes, by wars, hunger, by diseases and other calamities, they will have my Heart as a refuge for their protection. Here, in my Heart, all will be protected against the divine justice in the days that will come. All who consecrate themselves to my Heart, honoring it, they will be looked upon by my Son Jesus with eyes of mercy, Jesus will pour out his love and will take to the glory of his Kingdom all those I put in my Heart.”

Help with Today’s Problems

St. Joseph focused on life’s difficulties and offered consolation. “My Son Jesus, through my Heart, wishes to impart to all men his divine blessings. I know many of you suffer many great difficulties because, in these last times, men no longer love or help one another but live with their hearts full of pride, falsehood, lies, intrigue, ambition, backbiting, pettiness, and many wrong things that are the consequences of living far from God.”

St. Joseph said to all who honor his Heart and trust in him and his intercession, “I promise they will not be abandoned in their difficulties and in the trials of life. I will ask Our Lord to help them with his Divine Providence in their material and spiritual problems.”

To mothers and fathers consecrating themselves and their families to his Heart, St. Joseph assured help in afflictions and problems, and assistance with raising up their children.
Sin: Consequences & His Protection
The spouse of Mary did not ignore the current world situation which in 1998 was still 18 years from the multitude of today’s multiplying spiritual chaos.
He emphasized, “[M]y Son Jesus is very indignant with the sins of humanity.

“He desires to pour his divine justice upon all men that do not want to repent and continue obstinately in their sins. Look, my son, I hold his right hand, preventing Him from pouring out his justice upon all humanity. I ask Him, through the graces of my Heart and for being worthy to live by his side, taking care of him with the love of a father in this world, and for Him having loved me with the love of a son, to not chastise the world for its crimes, but for all my little ones who honor and will honor this Chaste Heart of mine, should pour out his mercy upon the world.”
The world’s many sins call humanity to repent and do penance, he said, “because God receives continued offenses from ungrateful men. Today there are so many outrages, the sacrilege and indifference by all men. It is because of this that so many calamities like war, hunger and disease occur and so many other sad things man has suffered because of man’s rebellion against God.”
St. Joseph made clear rebellion’s consequences. “God lets men follow their own paths to show them all, without him, they will never be happy. He lets men go through so much suffering, to also show them the consequences sin brings to their lives and so then the divine justice punishes humanity because of their obstinance in not being obedient to God’s Will.

He pointed out humanity is “increasingly obstinate in their crimes” because of concern for worldly pleasures “rather than the love of God and his Commandments. But God’s justice is close at hand in a way never seen before and will come about suddenly upon the whole world.”
That should shake us, yet this most powerful saint extends a hope-filled solution. All those who honor his Chaste Heart “will receive the grace of my protection from all evils and dangers. For those who surrender to me will not be slaughtered by misfortunes, by wars, hunger, by diseases and other calamities, they will have my Heart as a refuge for their protection. Here, in my Heart, all will be protected against the divine justice in the days that will come. All who consecrate themselves to my Heart, honoring it, they will be looked upon by my Son Jesus with eyes of mercy, Jesus will pour out his love and will take to the glory of his Kingdom all those I put in my Heart.”

"Democracy Without God?" by George Weigel

The Church Militant

"Behold the Lamb of God,
Who takes away
The sins of the world."

A priest holds aloft,
The consecrated Host.
"Behold"

One by one.
Standing in adoration,
Each receives.

They passed before me,
An army,
Each, a living monstrance.

©2016 Joann Nelander

Patrick Madrid – IHRadio

Patrick Madrid – IHRadio

A Prayer in Adoration

Here I am Lord,
Sitting, kneeling,
Prostrate in spirit
Before You, adoring.
Who You are in Your glory
Lies hidden under the appearance
Of this Holy Bread before me.

You have revealed to Your Church
The wonder, and magnificence
Of Your living Presence.
With Mother Church,
I extol Your beauty.
Truths come to mind
And I give assent.

I am married to You,
O Holy Bridegroom.
In the fullness of time,
I will embrace You
With a glorified vision and body,
But, for now, I reach with heart
And mind’s eye to catch a glimpse
Of this splendid Truth
Hidden as it is
‘Neath Bread and Wine
And broken Body on a Cross.

Favor me with an increase
Of love and desire,

Until my longing tears free
From all that holds me captive still.
I know my blindness,
And have seen my foolishness.
In my poverty and need,
I seek refuge here
Before Your eyes.

Your Truth,
Your splendid Truth, be mine!
These are such glorious Truths,
I can not comprehend them
In their reality and breath.
I can only glimpse them,
And cry out in hope and faith.

My adorable Lord,
Looking upon me now as always,
Gather to Yourself,
The groans and sighs of Spirit born,
Unto Your memories,
As so many Communions
And resurrections of spirit,
As chains of Love in Time,
But always,
Only One Adorable Lord.

©2010 Joann Nelander

Keep Praying

Here I am,
Your poor one,
Your lowly one,
Your empty one,
Kneeling in adoration..

You spread out Space and Time,
Knowing You would call me forth.
And then You did.

You called to me,
Forming me from the Earth,
You Who played among the Pleides,
Stooped to play with me.

You kissed me,
With the Breath of Your Mouth,
You filled me,
Shaping me,
Empowering me,
Placing in me a formless hope.

Hope grew with the babe,
And sought with fingers of my senses.
Peeling back the covering of Mystery,
Revealing treasures hidden in the earth,
And dancing in the heavens,

Witnessed with wonder in the Night,
The Universe invited me to You,
To join You in the dance,
For which all Time and Space,
All days and all nights,
All mystery had poured forth,
With Your Cry for Light.

Your Heartbeat created the rhythms of the constellations,
The ebb and flow of cosmic seas.
Your Heart beat for Your dream of Man,
Your dream of me.

You, given as gift,
Hidden from blind eyes,
Hidden among the stars,
Spreading across Your Time,
Filling all Your Majestic Space,
Slowly whispering Your secrets,
And revealing truths,
Revealed Ultimate Truth.
You in Your Way spoke to me.

There was more than matter wrapped in my being.
Secreted without shape,
Without form,
Without stuff,
With only the power to will,
And, thereby, to Love,
To know,
And, thereby, to seek and search,
That, in living, I might come to discover You,
With me, beside me and all around me,
Waiting for me to love You.

You, Who always knew me,
And loved me,
In my ignorance,
In my blindness
And in my very being,
Even while Sin entered in to obscure Your work,
And the wonder of me,
Graced me with a soul.

I didn’t know You.
I couldn’t see You.
I didn’t know to seek after You.
Until I saw You hanging there,
Crossing the abyss,
Above the world,
Suspended and told throughout Time,

Now, at long last, I pray,
And gasp for You, my Breath.
You are the shape of me,
Saved for an eternity
Beyond gaseous matter,
And starry night,
A Day created by the One Uncreated,
And lived in the Wedding
Of Love, of soul and Spirit-being.
For this I will,
With my indomitable will,
Keep praying.

Copyright 2015 Joann Nelander

Seeing Jesus

The emperor has no clothes, and he’s definitely not a tall Chinese woman…

BY Msgr. Charles Pope
I was talking recently with a friend and we were both lamenting the “strange and stranger” quality of our culture today; we had both seen the video at the bottom of this post. In it, the interviewer (who is a 5’9” white man), through a series of questions, gets a number of college students to accept that he is actually a 6’5” Chinese woman, or, alternately, a seven-year-old boy. They consider the way he “identifies” himself to be more significant than the obvious reality before them.

That such an appeal can convince a college student (or anyone for that matter) demonstrates that we have collectively taken leave of our senses. My friend said that the image that came to his mind was of the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice in Wonderland. When something as obvious as a person’s sex is unclear, when large numbers of people are willing to go along with calling a well-known man and former Olympic decathlete a woman, we have definitely fallen down a rabbit hole into a strange and nightmarishly bizarre world marked by absurdity after absurdity.

Alice in Wonderland may capture it, but to me it is more reminiscent of the children’s story The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen. The tale contains many eerie parallels with our current culture. While most are familiar with the tale, I will provide a brief synopsis:

The story begins with an Emperor who is described as being excessively fond of new clothes. Knowing his weakness and seeking to profit by it, two swindlers offer to weave him a set of glorious set of clothes with the wonderful property of being invisible to anyone who is unfit for the office he holds or who is extraordinarily simple. The Emperor is intrigued by the idea of being able to find out who within his realm is unfit for his office as well to be able distinguish between the wise and the foolish. So he pays the swindlers a large sum of money and supplies them with copious quantities of expensive fabrics (which they stash in their bags) so that they can begin work immediately.

The Emperor periodically sends members of his staff to observe their progress. The rogues point to the empty looms and pretend to point out the magnificence of the non-existent material. But none of them will admit to seeing nothing and each returns to the Emperor with a glowing report of the splendid cloth. Finally, the Emperor himself pays a visit to the weavers (and also, obviously, sees nothing at all). Embarrassed by his inability to see the cloth, he (like the others) pretends to be amazed by its beauty.

Finally, the day arrives for the Emperor to wear these glorious clothes in a procession through the kingdom. The “clothes” are brought out by the swindlers, who explain that they are “as light as a spider’s web. One would almost think he had nothing on, but that’s what makes them so fine.” The Emperor undresses and the rogues pretend to dress him, one garment after another. This is all done to the applause and fawning commentary of both the Emperor and his entourage, all of whom see nothing at all!

Then the procession begins. The nearly naked Emperor parades through the streets under his high canopy, accompanied by noblemen carrying the ends of his magnificent, invisible train. The townsfolk, not wanting to be considered simpletons, applaud the magnificent clothes and comment aloud on the Emperor’s “finery.”

But then a young child, not yet fearful of the opinions of others, states the obvious: “But the emperor has nothing at all on!”

As the news of the child’s cry passes through the crowd, they become emboldened and begin to repeat, “He has nothing at all on!”

On hearing this, the Emperor realizes that the people are right. However, he decides that the procession must go on. And so he continues walking along in his underwear, with his staff taking greater care than ever in maintaining the façade, holding up the train that doesn’t exist.

And thus we have a parable for our times. Like the Emperor in the tale, many are willing to imagine things in order to preserve their vanity. And out of fear of being considered unenlightened, intolerant, etc., they play along with what is obviously absurd: that a man can really be a woman, or that human beings come in dozens of genders rather than two, or that a man having sexual relations with another man is not disordered, or that a child in the womb is something other than a human person, or that the head of the largest abortion provider in the U.S. should be honored at a Catholic university with a standing ovation, etc. Yes, many play along with the absurd.

And those who raise objections or state that such views are not in conformity with basic reality, those who say (in effect) that “the emperor has no clothes” are told to be quiet, to not talk about the obvious absurdity before everyone’s eyes. Such people are labeled unenlightened and intolerant because they cannot see the “beauty” that the enlightened and tolerant can.

In the story above, a mere child could easily see the absurdity before him and simply spoke to what was obvious; children are often that way. They have less to lose. They have not yet become jaded by flattery and the thousand little (and big) lies we adults like to tell ourselves and others. Little children have not yet gotten the memo that appearing right is more important than being right. They are still shocked by lies and inconsistency; they often speak the truth in impolite, unrefined, and even blunt ways.

But as innocence dies out and circumspection dawns, too many of us begin to indulge deception. We go along to get along, “drinking the Kool-Aid” of a world gone increasingly mad. Even as the absurdity multiplies and we are asked to deny the plainly obvious, the fear among many of being considered unenlightened seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.

Here’s to the little child in us that is still shocked by lies, inconsistencies, and absurdity. Here’s to that innocent child who can still cry out, “But the emperor has nothing at all on!”

For having known God, they glorified Him not and neither were they thankful; but they became vain in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened (Rom 1:21).

Here is the video that sparked this post. Absurdity seems to know no limits.

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/the-emperor-has-no-clothes-and-hes-not-a-65-chinese-woman/

Islam and Isis – Faith and Reason-EWTN Video

The weakness of people in the Church in leadership positions encourages Isis and Islam.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLAKncejiHg&w=560&h=31

Robert Spencer – Hillary Clinton’s Record

http://youtu.be/SCQWaV2hSwY