In posting I honestly wish not to offend any one. It is rather my own thoughts. I read the 25th message from Medjugorje -"Peaceless world" and felt a sense of dread regarding the referendum. Mother Theresa said abortion destroys peace and love. I felt that our dear mother who had invited the people of Ireland to be her messengers to the world was advising me of what was to be. I cannot describe that which has pierced my heart over the last 24 hrs. I am as far from Ireland as it is possible to be yet the very soil fills my senses. The Queen of Peace invites me to renew my act of faith... Medjugorje and the memory of being on its mountains consoles me. I hear in my heart Prepare the time is now. Not tomorrow but now in this very moment Decide. I am a nurse and today was at work when a senior staff member said so your country men finally voted for women's freedom! She is French and recoiled from my expression in response. I fear the horror of her words were on my face. Today we share in the suffering for the poor unborn and our church. Reviled rejected scorned. May the lord in his mercy raise great saints to fight and lead us all to the awaited Triumph.
I read a comment recently by an orthodox, Catholic poster in which he said that it is greatly to Christianity's credit that it dies very quickly when liberalism is applied to it. We see this happening all around us. A lie cannot live. The only branches of Christianity that seem robust, on this island, are traditional (with a small 't') Catholicism and our more fundamentalist (a word I use in the most praiseworthy sense) Protestant brethren. We just have to keep on keeping on, and keep it in our heads that many will become disillusioned with liberal forms of Christianity and will be glad to return to what is real. This is not to advocate schism-we must simply stay where we are, where the Church has stood for two thousand years.
I can't imagine how you could 'offend' anyone on here with this wonderful, thoughtful post. May God bless you in your life-giving work (and look after that ticker of yours!)
Dear Seagrace and all members, I don't know where to start but I'll give it a go. I have not posted very much over the last month or so, but when I can, I get on to the site and read and read and read and of course give likes when I remember. I always pray along with everyone here, for all the personal issues and of course for the big issues. I have a special devotion to Our Lady Help of Christians, additionally, Our Lady Help of Christians is the patroness of Australia and the 24th May is Her Feast day. I live in a country area and attend two parishes, mostly I attend Sunday Mass at one of the two small country churches of one of the parishes, as I live reasonably close to these beautiful churches, St Pauls Catholic church at Glenreagh is the closest and has a beautiful 4 foot statue of Our Lady Help of Christians on the right hand side near the small confessional. On Saturday afternoon, just yesterday, after I finished work, I offered 10 decades of the rosary for Ireland imploring Heaven that the No vote to abortion would be victorious. I had no idea what was to happen. I have been grieving for Our Lord and for Ireland today. I had to work this morning and finished in the early afternoon, when I returned home I recieved a phone call telling me that my beloved Church at Glenreagh was burnt to the ground in the early hours. I have been in touch with a few of our small congegration we are all in shock and can not understand why or what! Divine Mercy of Jesus I trust in you. Parishioners of St Paul's Catholic Church in Clarence Valley in the Northern Rivers were left devastated this morning after arriving for Sunday mass to find their historic place of worship burnt to the ground. A piece of Glenreagh's history was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived at 5am. The fire is currently been treated as suspicious and the Crimes Unit is investigating the cause. Senior Deputy at Glenreagh Fire Brigade, Peter Cram, said there was very little left of the church and what is still standing will have to be pulled down. "It's quite an icon for the village and there's a lot of shock and surprise especially for the parishioners who turned up this morning. "It's not the kind of thing that normally happens around here." A photo of St Paul's Glenreagh Catholic Church before it was burnt down. Historic Clarence Valley church destroyed by fire By Rachael Jones Posted about 6 hours ago PHOTO: Early morning fire destroys historic church in the Northern Rivers
Devastating - such a beautiful church -- God sure is testing us through these times of tribulation. I will offer my mass today for your congregation.
Thank you Garabandal, There is nothing left! The statues! The beautiful crucifix! All gone. But Praise God the Blessed Eucharist was no longer kept in the tabernacle. I offer this shock and small pain for all the unborn babies of the world! Dearest Lord Jesus hold them close to your Heart.
Josephite, I'm so sorry for you and your community that this has happened! I will offer my prayers today.
O Oh Josephite how tragic. How awful! I am so sorry. Sounds diabolical to me if by human hand or so called natural causes. Our Lady Help of Christians HELP!
The thunder and lightning storm continued from 10pm till 4am this morning over Ireland. One could say and be correct that God was displeased with southern Ireland. Another take on it is that it was what we call sheet lightning not fork lightning. So in our darkest hour God was shining light where there is darkness. On SKY News London had a storm but with fork lighting. SKY NEWS right away jumped on the band wagon and are going after Northern IRELAND with Sinn Fein leading the way, Judas to the 1916 leaders.
I don’t expect we will see hard physical persecution of Catholics in Ireland just yet, no red martyrdom just yet. Ireland is at a crossroads. There are still too many faithful Catholics alive in Ireland for that to happen at this point. The enemies of Christ know that to engage in physical persecution now may work against them as these faithful Catholics still have family and friends who, if it came to physical persecution of their loved ones, would not accept it and may even revert to, or embrace the faith. Remember 35% voted no in the referendum so that means that nearly 4 out of 10 still adhere to Christian/ Catholic teaching. The Church always grows stronger in the face of physical persecution, paradoxically. What I imagine will happen will be a white martyrdom will continue to play out. The clergy is aging rapidly in Ireland with few young men stepping up to replace the old priests. One by one these will die off. Time will do the rest. Those who practice their faith will find it harder and harder to have mass. Churches will close. Perhaps the only places one will be able to have mass and the Sacraments will be in mass centres in the cities which will be few and far between. God will remain with us as He has said He will not leave us orphans. However within 50 years the faith will have all been extinguished in Ireland as my generation, 45 years plus grows older and we too begin to die off. Once we are gone the country will be truly a total desert in Catholic terms. I feel sad for the young people. Especially those who have just been born or will be in the next few years. Ireland in 2068, if the world still exists, will be radically different to the Ireland of 1968. It will be utterly unrecognisable. Like those who called for Our Blessed Lord’s crucifixion who knew not what they were doing, so too now, most of those calling for the shedding of innocent blood by means of abortion, do not know what they are doing. They will live to see the consequences. An increase in suicide, mental health problems, family breakdown, community breakdown, more violent crime and more serious crime, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, social chaos and a general darkness and malaise besetting society. Just my take on things. Many factors now unknown could obviously mean things play out very differently, chastisements etc. God bless all.
So sorry to hear, prayers will be offered today for you and your congregation. That is the fate I expected to see in Ireland for our Churches if we won the abortion referendum. Please keep focused on Christ, Our Lady and his return. God Bless.
That's how I see it too. Our political masters will be overtly tolerant while tightening the screws. And with God discarded evil will fill the vacuum. What happened in Leixlip and Enniskerry recently are only the tip of the iceberg. God help our young people.
From the responses to the evil done in Ireland on Friday, right now my heart is so sad. The glee of the YES people at the outcome is so difficult to understand. Apart from the fact of promoting the murder of their own offspring before he /she is born, they also deny these children the right to use his/her vocal chords to Praise, Thank and Glorify God. Apalling!!! Sick!!!!! Evil!!!!! God Bless
David, God will not be mocked. We don't know when our countries will be completely purified from all evil, but God will allow all things to become purified before his 'will be done on earth as it is in heaven'. Our Catholic faithful would not have gotten to this point if Satan had not so viciously attacked our priests. Fortunately, Ireland has lasted much longer then most countries, but has now joined the ranks of others supporting sodomy and abortion. Those who voted for it think they are 'free'. Yet they have enslaved themselves to the devil and to God's ultimate wrath. For our part the church evermore becomes smaller, but holier as Pope Benedict foretold. We know who wins in the end and that is our hope. This is what we pray for: that his will be done on earth as in heaven.
So sorry to see this, Josephite. Prayers for you and all the people who worshipped at that Church. As the world becomes darker, only one thing can happen to the light: it automatically gets brighter. As for the Irish Referendum result, we mustn't despair. The fight goes on. When the new abortion clinics are built, the 35% must hold vigils and pray outside them. Just because a constitution has changed, it doesn't mean that truth itself has changed.
Yes Bella, The majority at our mass recieve Jesus kneeling and on the tongue and we always say the rosary before each Mass! Its a bit different to our other churches in the parishes that are in the actual town or cities, because there the vast majority recieve Jesus in the hand and do not kneel and even if the rosary is said before Mass it is done very privately and it seems that we must keep it to ourselves! The fight does go on ........and it takes different forms for all the faithful but we are fighting the same fight! We are fighting for Our Lord and Our God and His Kingdom and message! God Bless us all! Each one of us in all the corners of the world and in all the individual fights we must each encounter! Amen.
