Are We Living Our Lady's Messages?

New Plenary Indulgence to
Mark the Year of the Eucharist

Pope John Paul II has approved a special plenary indulgence to mark the Year of the Eucharist.

According to a decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary, during the Year of the Eucharist a plenary indulgence may be gained by participating in acts of worship and veneration of the Most Holy Sacrament, as well as by praying vespers and compline of the Divine Office before the tabernacle.

The objective of the papal disposition, the document indicates, is to “exhort the faithful in the course of this year, to a more profound knowledge and more intense love of the ineffable “mystery of faith,' so that they will reap ever more abundant spiritual fruits.”

The decree reminds the faithful that to obtain a plenary indulgence it is necessary to observe the “usual conditions”; “sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion, and prayer in keeping with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, with the soul completely removed from attachment of any form of sin”.

In the Year of the Eucharist- October 2004 to October 2005 – the plenary indulgence may be obtained in two ways.

In the first place , according to the decree, “each time the faithful participate attentively and piously in a sacred function or a devotional exercise undertaken in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, solemnly exposed or conserved in the tabernacle.”

In the second place, it is granted “to the clergy, to members of institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, and to other faithful who are by law obliged to recite the Liturgy of the Hours, as well as to those who customarily recite the Divine Office out of pure devotion, each and every time they recite—at the end of the day, in company or private—vespers and night prayers before the Lord present in the tabernacle.”

The decree also provides the granting of the plenary indulgence to those persons who, due to illness or other just cause, cannot participate in an act of worship of the sacrament of the Eucharist in a church or oratory.

These persons will obtain the plenary indulgence “if they make the visit spiritually and with the heart's desire, with a spirit of faith in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar, and pray the Our Father and Creed, adding a pious invocation to Jesus in the Sacrament (i.e., “May the Most Holy Sacrament be blessed and praised forever”).

Obviously, in all cases, the conditions established to receive a plenary indulgence must be respected.

“If they are unable to do even this, they will receive a plenary indulgence if they unite themselves with the interior desire to those who practice the normal conditions laid down for indulgences, and offer the merciful God the illnesses and discomforts of their lives, with the intention of observing the three usual conditions as soon as possible.”

The decree calls on priest, especially pastors, to inform the faithful on these dispositions, to prepare “with generous and ready spirit” to hear confessions and, in days that are determined according to the convenience of the faithful, to lead them “in solemn public recitation of prayers to Jesus in the Sacrament.”

Finally, the decree exhorts the faithful “to give open witness of faith and veneration for the Blessed Sacrament.” The dispositions were approved by the Holy Father during the audience granted on Dec. 17 to Cardinal Stafford and Fr. Girotti .

The decree will be in force during the Eucharistic Year, starting this Saturday, Jan. 15, the day of its publications in the Italian edition of L'Osservatore Romano.

In number 1471, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that “[a]n indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.”

Number 1479 adds:”Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishment due for their sins may be remitted.” ZE05011403

2005 Pilgrimage Dates

May 24- June 4

Sept. 27 – Oct. 8

Are We Living Our Lady’s Messages?
        
Today I rejoice with your patron saint and call you to be open to God’s will, so that in you and through you, faith may grow in the people you meet in your everyday life. Ask your holy protectors to help you grow in love towards God. July 25, 2002
  

    PEACE
O God, you will not permit the faithful who believe in You to be shaken by the threat of danger. Accept the prayers and offerings of the people dedicated to You, and mercifully grant Christian communities peace and security against all their enemies. Amen.

 So Many Ways To Reach God
By Fr. Petar Ljubicic, O.F.M.

      There are many ways to reach God. Each man, as a free and open being with his hopes and expectations, is searching for the only one in which he can find fulfilment. This is the yearning for God. With our yearning for love and happiness there is also in each of us a yearning to be good. Each man knows very well that he is not allowed to do everything he wants. He is not allowed to grasp all the happiness away from others. The strength and guidance for putting that in order, within each man, is called conscience. My conscience speaks to me even when nobody sees the evil that I am doing, and even when it does not bother anybody directly. My conscience is warning, accusing and bothering me and also forcing and guiding me to do what is good and right.
     Who lies behind the voice of our conscience? Along, with our yearning to be good we have an innate sense to foresee what is infinitely good. If we listen to the voice of our conscience then we will realise there is someone greater at the heart of everything in human life. God allows us to find Him in the centre of our life. We are finding him everywhere and we can even meet him at the extreme situations in our life – in the hurt and loneliness, in the moments of fate and of death.
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   “Pray, pray, pray. When I tell you this you do not understand it. Every grace is yours and you can receive them through prayer.”    August 12, 1982

PRAYER GROUPS

Ivan Dragicevic,

Visionary

     Prayer groups are not just for a few well-meaning religious believers, but become the urgent responsibility of every priest and every believer. Members of prayer groups must take seriously their commitment to spread the Word of God, and to spiritual growth and development.
     We are realizing more and more that prayer groups are a sign from God for our time. The importance of prayer groups in today’s Church and today’s world is enormous. The value of prayer groups is clear.
     The prayer groups are teaching us what the Church has always taught; the way to prayer, to spiritual formation and community life. This is the sole purpose of each prayer group and gathering.
     Prayer can save the world from catastrophe. It is therefore necessary in the church to create a network of prayer groups and people who pray; to plant prayer in every heart, and in every church. Prayer groups are the answer to the call of the Holy Spirit. Mankind can only be saved from crime and sin by prayer. Therefore, the priority of the prayer groups must be to reach out for holiness, so that their prayer will make possible a free passage for the Holy Sprit on earth.
     Prayer groups must pray for the Church and for the world and, with prayer, fight the evil embedded in the structure of today’s society. Prayer will save modern man. Jesus says there is no other way for this generation. It cannot be saved with anything but fasting and prayer (Mk 9:29). Jesus is not just referring  to the evil force in individuals, but also to that in society itself. Prayer groups are the sign of hope for today’s Church and the world.  
   Prayer groups are a sign of hope for the contemporary Church and the world. In the prayer group, we should not only see the voluntary gathering of faithful people, but rather we should look upon each believer and each priest as a basic ingredient of the group. Therefore prayer groups should seriously concern themselves with their own upbringing, learning, openness and a deeper experience of God’s grace and spiritual growth. Each prayer group should be as a soul for the renewal of the parish, families and communities. At the same time, with their strong prayers and calls to God, they should offer a divine healing power to today’s suffering world, a healing of reconciliation among men for the freedom from the catastrophic threats, for the renewal of the moral strength of humanity, reconciled with God within itself.

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What is Grace ?

 “This is a Time of Grace” is a frequent message from Our Blessed Mother. What is grace and how do we get it?  The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
   Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. [1996]
   Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, and so accepts forgiveness and righteousness from on high [2018]
  Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons. [2021]
   No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods. [2027]
   Our attitude about our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. On the last day Jesus will say: “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me.” [678]
   From the Catholic Encyclopedia—the term “grace” refers generally to any divine assistance given to persons, in order to advance them toward their supernatural destiny of fellowship with God. Grace transforms a person's nature so that it can function at an entirely new interpersonal level, where the object of knowledge and love is none other that God Himself and where other persons are known and loved in God.

Penance in Sacred Scripture and
In Our Lady's Messages

    The concept and meaning of penance and conversion implies the changing of the way, going back and turning around. In the religious context this means turning the heart away from evil and turning one's self to God and to His will.
   Jesus expects from man an attitude of grateful acceptance, which is contained in the plea: “Convert and believe in the Gospel.” Man has reasons to turn to God, for God has completely turned to him.
   Penance in the New Testament was best manifest in the conception of the Sermon on the Mount. Although it is a specific collection of very concrete instructions for life, first and foremost there are the Beatitudes. Their aim is to tell us that these ethics can be understood only in the context of the Good News of redemption and only with a sign of faith and conversion to God, who makes redemption attainable to man.
   Penance in a specifically Christian sense is a God given proper attitude toward sin, which is manifested both in the internal disposition and in external activities.  
   Penance does not only consist of acts, which we practise from time to time as a counter-balance for our evil deeds. Instead, it is a long-lasting and painful process. This is equally so with respect to the healing of our past and the increasing growth into God's love and mercy. The goal of penance is complete renunciation of sin in all areas of life and an inclination to God without any reservations. In essence, sin is a negation of good and in a certain sense it ignores, if not negates, God Himself.
   Sin is an attempt to live without God, but penance brings God back into the center of our lives. Penance helps man to see himself in a true light, as a creation that came from God and in on the way back to Him.
   Sin is when man shuts himself in his own plans and intentions. It is man's attempt to narrow the reality of life to his won small horizon, thus proving his power and greatness and forgetting that he is in fact only God's co-worker.
   This is exactly why we often forget our responsibility to others. By means of penance, man breaks up his narrow-mindedness and comes out of his cocoon. He opens himself to the Word of God and submits himself to His will. Little by little he cleans his heart of all potential idols and puts God in the first place in everything. Naturally, man will thus have even more sense for his neighbour's needs. Someone once said: Penance is a proclamation of faith. Penance is a confirmation of faith, hope and love.(Excerpts from talk on 2/23/04 by Dr. Fr. Jozo Vasilj)

    Suffering Shared With Christ's Passion
Blessed Mother Teresa

       Suffering is increasing in the world today. People are hungry for something more beautiful, for something greater than people round about can give. There is a great hunger for God in the world today. Everywhere
there is much suffering, but there is also great hunger for God and love for each other.  Suffering in itself is nothing; but suffering shared with Christ's Passion is a wonderful gift. Man's most beautiful gift is that
he can share in the Passion of Christ. Yes, a gift and a sign of His love; because this is how His Father proved that He loved the world –by giving His Son to die for us.