BLACK CATHOLICS, BLACK SAINTS

I spent a half-hour in prayer this morning with Jesus, Our Lord. He said, Melvin, My brother, I love you and I love all My brothers and sisters living in every country of the world. I am asking you these days to join Me in spirit in the desert where I spent 40 days at the beginning of My public life.

During these days I was tempted by the devil three times. After many days without eating, I was hungry and so the devil tempted Me to change the stones into bread. I had come into the world not for My own advancement but for the salvation of the people. I could not perform a miracle for My own needs at the command of the devil. I refused to do what the evil one asked of Me because I only do the will of My Father. Then the devil took Me to Jerusalem and placed Me on the top of the temple and commanded Me to throw Myself down and the angels would protect Me. The temptation here is to proclaim Myself Messiah by coming down from heaven being helped by the angels. There were always many people coming to the temple and they would accept Me immediately as the Saviour. However, I refused to do what the devil commanded Me because this was not the will of My Father. It was through suffering and death on the Cross that I would become the Messiah of the world. In the last temptation of the devil, he offered Me the world if I would kneel down and worship him. Yes, I had come to establish My Kingdom and now the devil was offering Me all the nations of the world but the cost was to worship the devil. This I could not do so I told him bluntly, The Lord, your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve. At that he went away.

I call upon you to always be on the alert, as the evil one will tempt you to sin. With My grace and strength, you can always defeat him. I give you the graces you need today.

Father Melvin

P.S. Is Our Blessed Mother calling you to Medjugorje? My friend Nina Morrell will be leading a pilgrimage to this holy place from April 25 to May 4. It costs $2040. If you are interested, please call Nina at 902-888-2291 or e-mail her at Kevin.morrell@....

Fr. Melvin's schedule today, February 13

Holy Mass

little shrine of Our Lady of Prince Edward Island 9:30 a.m.

Maplewood Manor in Alberton 1:30 p.m. (if the weather permits)

To send a personal message to Fr. Melvin, address your e-mail to: melvin.doucette@...

To read the day's message online, visit www.ourladyofpei.ca/message.php

To access archived messages, visit http://groups.google.ca/group/Heaven-Speaks-to-Us

Message to Fr. Melvin Doucette February 12, 2008

I wait for you to join Me today

Reading: Luke 4:1-13

Dear friends,

Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent Him. John 5:23

My half-hour of contemplative prayer this morning was spent with Jesus, Our Lord. He said, Melvin, My brother and companion, I love you. I call you all, My brothers and sisters, to join Me in the desert where I spent 40 days at the beginning of My public life. Come and join Me in a spiritual sense. The desert means that you free yourself from all attachments, from all compromises and from all worldly things that you have acquired during the past year. You need to be free completely so that you can be attached to Me alone. A heart that is divided cannot follow Me.

The experience of the desert also means that you have put Me first in your life and that you want a more loving relationship with Me. You need more time to pray in order to cooperate with all the graces I give you. You will come to know Me better by reading the Bible where My words will touch your heart. You will also go out to visit the sick, the elderly and those who mourn to show them that you love them and pray for them. Do not forget to deepen your devotion to My dear Mother by praying the rosary every day.

Prayer is essential in order to live as a Christian. Make an effort to go to church and to receive Me in Holy Communion every day. Holy Mass is the greatest prayer that you could ever participate in for it brings great satisfaction to the Father and to Me. The Eucharistic celebration is the representation of My supreme sacrifice on the cross offered to the Father for your salvation. It makes present today My suffering, death and resurrection as it happened years ago. It expresses My love for you in a very unique way. Come and take active part in this liturgical celebration. Live with Me in the desert for these 40 days of Lent and you will be renewed and strengthened for the future. Fast, pray and help the poor during these days and My blessing will be upon you. I wait for you to join Me today. I love you.

Father Melvin

To send a personal message to Fr. Melvin, address your e-mail to: melvin.doucette@...

To read the day's message online, visit www.ourladyofpei.ca/message.php

To access archived messages, visit http://groups.google.ca/group/Heaven-Speaks-to-Us

Medjugorje Day By Day Feb 14 - ST. VALENTINES DAY Message List

Reply | Forward Message #403 of 403 < Prev | Next >

"Our Lord finished His work, but we have not finished ours. He pointed the way we must follow. He laid down the Cross at the finish, but we must take it up. He finished Redemption in His physical Body, but we have not finished it in His Mystical Body. He has finished salvation, we have not yet applied it to our souls. He has finished the Temple, but we must live in it. He has finished the model Cross, we must fashion ours to its pattern. He has finished sowing the seed, we must reap the harvest. He has finished filling the chalice, but we have not finished drinking its refreshing draughts. He has planted the wheat field; we must gather it into our barns. He has finished the sacrifice of Calvary; we must finish the Mass. The Crucifixion was not meant to be an inspirational drama, but a pattern act on which to model our lives. We are not meant to sit and watch the Cross as something done and ended . . . What was done on Calvary avails for us only in the degree that we repeat it in our own lives" (Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Calvary and the Mass).

Let people know about Medjugorje through

The daily "Its Time Email" (free)

The weekly "Its Time" radio broadcast Sat 6-8am MDT 91.3FM or http://www.cjtr.ca

The bi-monthly "Its Time Medjugorje Webpaper" (free)

The bi-monthly "Its Time Medjugorje Newspaper"

http://ollo.sasktelwebsite.net/

Contact ItsTime@sasktel.net

"I have a burning thirst

to be honored by men

in the Blessed Sacrament,

and I find hardly anyone

who strives, according to my desire,

to allay this thirst by making

me some return of love."

(Words of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary)

Pope John Paul II -

August 1, 1989 address by the Pope to a group of Italian physicians dedicated to defending unborn life and to making scientific and medical studies on the apparition, as reported by Bishop Paul Hnilica, SJ, Auxiliary Bishop of Rome: "Today's world has lost its sense of the supernatural, but many are searching for it - and find it in Medjugorje, through prayer, penance and fasting." http://www.medjugorje.org/pope.htm

Mother Teresa -

Be not afraid of the life of sacrifice.

Padre Pio -

The prayers of the saints in Heaven and of just souls on earth are perfume which will never be wasted.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen -

A kind person is one of a kind!

"Because kindness is related to love, it follows that the kind person loves another not for the pleasure the other person gives, nor because the other person can do us a kindness in return, but because the other person is loveable in himself. The basic reason why everyone is lovable is because God made him."

St. Faustina's diary

In the evening, a great longing took possession of my soul. I took the pamphlet with the Image of the Merciful Jesus on it and pressed it to my heart, and the following words burst forth from my soul: "Jesus, Eternal Love, I live for You, I die for You, and I want to become united with You." Suddenly I saw the Lord in His inexpressible beauty. He looked at me graciously and said, My daughter, I too came down from heaven out of love for you; I lived for you, I died for you, and I created the heavens for you. And Jesus pressed me to His Heart and said to me, Very soon now; be at peace, My daughter. When I was alone, my soul was set afire with the desire to suffer until the moment when the Lord would say, "Enough." And even if I were to live for thousands of years, I see in the light of God that is but one moment. Souls...[unfinished thought]. (853)

During the morning meditation, I felt an aversion and a repugnance for all created things. Everything pales before my eyes; my spirit is detached from all things. I desire only God himself, and yet I must live. This is a martyrdom beyond description. God imparts himself to the soul in a loving way and draws it into the infinite depths of His divinity, but at the same time He leaves it here on earth for the sole purpose that it might suffer and die of longing for Him. And this strong love is so pure that God himself finds pleasure in it; and self-love has no access to its deeds, for here everything is totally saturated with bitterness, and thus is totally pure. Life is a continuous dying, painful and terrible, and at the same time it is the depth of true life and of inconceivable happiness and the strength of the soul; and because of this, [the soul] is capable of great deeds for the sake of God. (856)

MEDJUGORJE DAY BY DAY

These thoughts for a day are taken from a daily meditation book based on the Messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje by Father Richard J. Beyer, Ave Maria Press.

Feb 14 - ST. VALENTINE'S DAY

On this Valentine's Day, the Blessed Mother asks for our hearts:

Dear children, today I invite you to offer me your hearts so that I can change them to be like my own. You ask yourselves why you are not able to satisfy my requests? You are not able to because you have not entrusted your hearts to me, so that I can change them. You give me words, but you do not act. So then, do all that I tell you. Only in that way can I be with you (Weekly Message 5-15-86).

Reflection:

On this feast of St. Valentine, Our Lady asks for our hearts, "so I can change them to be like my own." Once we give them, they are filled with God's own life and love; indeed, they are made eternal:

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is (1 Jn 3:1-2).

This is the great inheritance of love, a gift beyond imagining -- to share in the very life of God.

This is also the reason Our Lady asks for our hearts today, that she can begin to transform them into the image of her Son's. We can then begin to live the life of heaven while on earth, embracing others with the divine love that has been given to us. As St. Teresa of Avila wrote:

O soul in God hidden from sin,

What more desires for thee remain,

Save but to love, and love again,

And all on flame with love within,

Love on, and turn to love again?

Application:

In prayer today, simply ask the Lord to deepen his love within your heart.

Medjugorje Day By Day Feb 13 - DEVOTE YOUR PRAYERS TO ME Message List

Reply | Forward Message #402 of 403 < Prev | Next >

"Lent this year, according to the Holy Father's invitation, emphasizes our essential rapport with the Eucharist. ... I would like to summarize in three points our Lenten commitment: 1.The liturgy of the Church ... is the first instrument of authentic evangelization; 2. On Sundays we rediscover the Eucharist; and 3. With the Eucharist we rediscover the rapport between liturgy and life" [which demands] "resolute witnessing to true values: the family, personal honesty, commitments deriving from marriage, priestly celibacy and religious life ... without which there is no true spirit of poverty" (Cardinal James Francis Stafford, Feb. 9, 2005).

Let people know about Medjugorje through

The daily "Its Time Email" (free)

The weekly "Its Time" radio broadcast Sat 6-8am MDT 91.3FM or http://www.cjtr.ca

The bi-monthly "Its Time Medjugorje Webpaper" (free)

The bi-monthly "Its Time Medjugorje Newspaper"

http://ollo.sasktelwebsite.net/

Contact ItsTime@sasktel.net

Found this item which will go into our parish bulletin:

Fr. Rawley Myers of Colorado Springs writes: The greatest thing

that has happened to me was the discovery of the daily Holy Hour. This

has been my salvation. I go to the church worried, but once there,

before the Tabernacle, I find peace. Before the Tabernacle nothing

matters except Jesus. I sometimes feel like the Apostles before

Pentecost, cowardly and confused, but Jesus in the Eucharist has taught

me not to be overly concerned but to put all my trust in God. And a great

burden is lifted from my shoulders.

Pope John Paul II -

Italian priest Fr. Gianni Sgreva - "The young people, who came together in the prayer groups that I followed, in the course of time felt the need for founding a community that would be based on the Medjugorje messages and would indeed thereby be a direct fruit of Medjugorje. I, on the contrary, avoided the very thought of some new community because I already had my way, my vocation, and my work as a professor. Meanwhile, the desire and insistence of the young people for the realization of their needs and goals, grew stronger every day. I made it all known to my spiritual director and my own provincial. They asked me to follow the development of events and I did that. The following question bothered me: how to establish and lead a community that is connected with a reality such as is Medjugorje where yet unapproved apparitions' are taking place? Before founding the community I spoke with Cardinal Ratzinger. He listened to everything attentively and instructed me what to do. For Medjugorje he told me, "Don't you worry about the tree, you worry about the fruits, the vocations, and Medjugorje is our concern."

I spoke also with the Holy Father. I talked to him about the community and the vocations connected with the experience of Medjugorje. The Holy Father listened to me, drew close to me and right in my ear said to me, reminding me not to forget: "Don't you be concerned about Medjugorje, because I'm thinking about Medjugorje and I pray for it's success every day" http://www.medjugorje.org/pope.htm

Mother Teresa -

The humbler the work, the greater should be your love and efficiency.

Meditations by Padre Pio -

Prayer must be insistent since insistence denotes faith.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen -

Embracing the etimology of kindness

"The word `kindness' is derived from kindred or kin, and therefore implies an affection which we bear naturally to those who are our flesh and blood. The original and archetypal kindness is that of a parent for a child and a child for a parent, an idea which is preserved in the German language where Kind means `child.' Gradually the word gained in extension until it embraced anyone whom we are to treat as a

St. Faustina's diary

Jesus, my Love, today gave me to understand how much He loves me, although there is such an enormous gap between us, the Creator and the creature; and yet, in a way, there is something like equality: love fills up the gap. He Himself descends to me and makes me capable of communing with Him. I immerse myself in Him, losing myself as it were; and yet, under His loving gaze, my soul gains strength and power and an awareness that it loves and is especially loved. It knows that the Mighty One protects it. Such prayer, though short, benefits the soul greatly, and whole hours of ordinary prayer do not give the soul that light which is given by a brief moment of this higher form of prayer. (815)

I have come to understand today that even if I did not accomplish any of the things the Lord is demanding of me, I know that I shall be rewarded as if I had fulfilled everything, because He sees the intention with which I begin, and even if He called me to himself today, the work would not suffer at all by that, because He himself is the Lord of both the work and the worker. My part is to love Him to folly; all works are nothing more than a tiny drop before Him. It is love that has meaning and power and merit. He has opened up great horizons in my soul-love compensates for the chasms. (822)

MEDJUGORJE DAY BY DAY

These thoughts for a day are taken from a daily meditation book based on the Messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje by Father Richard J. Beyer, Ave Maria Press.

Feb 13 - DEVOTE YOUR PRAYERS TO ME

From a monthly message in 1988:

Dear children, again I call you to prayer and complete surrender to God. You know that I love you, and have come here out of love so that I could show you the way to peace -- and to salvation for your souls. Do not let Satan corrupt you -- obey me in this. Satan is very strong and therefore I ask you to devote your prayers to me, so that those who are under his influence may be saved. Witness by your lives. Sacrifice your lives for the salvation of the world. Know that I am with you and am grateful to you' in heaven you will receive the Father's reward, as he has promised. And so, dear children, do not be afraid. If you pray, Satan cannot harm you in the least, for you are God's children and he watches over you. Pray, and let the rosary always be in your hands as a sign to Satan that you belong to me (Monthly Message 3-25-88).

In Matthew's gospel, Jesus also calls us to prayer. Note that the Our Father contains a prayer against Satan as well: "and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." In Matthew, this petition is expressed in these words: "And do not bring us to the time of trial, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13).

Reflection:

At times we may notice that our prayer has become too self-centered. This is an opportunity to again focus on others, on "we" rather than "I", which is the spirit of the Lord's Prayer. In this vein, Charles Thompson writes:

You can not pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "I."

You can not pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "My." Nor can you pray the Lord's Prayer, and not pray for another; for when you ask for daily bread, you must include your brother.

For others are included in each and every plea: from the beginning to the end of it, it does not once say "Me."

Application:

Review the focus of your prayer today. Is it weighted more to yourself or to others? How can you correct the imbalance?

Posted by realm/blackcatholics at 2:24 PM PST
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