Tag: Faith

Thought for the Day – Monday 28th December

The thought for the day is from Donna, who opens the Bible randomly each day for a point to reflect upon.

Monday 28th December, 2015

The Bible used is the CTS New Catholic Bible 2007.

St. James says in chapter 2:

My brethren, do not hold the faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Lord of glory, with partiality. (1)…

Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into courts?
Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? (6-7)
And
“You believe that there is ONE GOD. You do well.
Even the DEMONS believe – and tremble!
But do you WANT to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” (19-20)

Comment – There is a lot of food for thought here:

  • Bishop Julian Porteous of Hobart, Tasmania (Australia) is being taken to court for handing out a booklet entitled “Don’t mess with Marriage” which was the result of the Aust. Bishops’ Conference outlining what the Catholic church believes about marriage.
  • It was deemed to be discriminatory according to a local Tasmanian law.
  • The name of “Christ” (Christian/s) by which we are called.
  • There is One God –even the demons believe this. Those who are not Christian do not believe in the same god as our God. Their god is completely different to the Christian God – the one True Trinitarian God.
  • Faith without good works is dead – A declaration of faith  is not enough according to the Bible (as some Christians believe). Good works alone are not enough either! True faith is seen through the good works.

Pilgrimage Part 8 cont.- Eucharistic Adoration and other activities

12th July

Eucharistic Adoration and other Activities

Yesterday, after Mass in the morning, we went back to hotel and ‘veged out’ because we were exhausted from the previous day.

We found out at short notice that Ivan would broadcast his recent message.
We had radios that translated it into various languages – we just had to tune in. What stands out from his message is “Before you can pray really well, you have to pray more often.” After his talk, the parish priest gave a sermon – also with translations. He is also a very humble and holy man. He enlarged on Ivan’s topic from Our Blessed Mother.

In the evening, we went down to the church and went to Confession to one of the many priests there. We went inside the church just as a wedding was ending so we said a Hail Mary for the new couple. We took a picture of the beautiful statue of Our Lady outside.

20150711_212932(0)We went outside because we heard beautiful singing. Around the statue of Our Lady was a crowd of people – maybe a few hundred – singing hymns. There was a man with a trumpet, and a man with a guitar and 2 nuns and 2 priests leading the singing.

We all swayed and waved our arms or held hands. We couldn’t understand the words but we could feel the meaning. Some were to Our Lady and some to Jesus. This was at 9 o’clock at night.

You could feel the love. When it finished, we went over to the large outside area as Adoration was to start shortly. It seemed like just a few hundred people Outside seating empty before Adorationinitially but, within 10 minutes, the place was packed with people. Every seat was full – 2 or 3 times as many as for the Adoration the night before.  There were maybe 4000 people or more.

As before, there was a respectful atmosphere.  Blessings from heaven just pour out onto this place. No-one spoke or moved.  Adoration was from 10pm to 11pm. The format was as the night before: short paragraphs of spoken text in 6 different languages; a short silence; then a chant – also in 6 different languages. This lasted for an hour.

This place is so holy and the people who come here so full of faith.

The monstrance was huge and the Host
as big as a bread and butter plate. A light behind the host illuminated it.

I would not have missed any of this for the world. What a blessing to be here! And to see so much Faith and love.