Holy Relic Visitation: Our Lady of Fatima Prayer Group, 3/26/2016

A family that prays together,

stays together!

That familiar adage was on my mind at tonight's prayer meeting in the Gruber Home in Mililani.  Our Prayer Group had the joy of welcoming and praying with three of my cousins this month!!!  Me and my cousins get together on occasion to catch up and have quality family time, but it's never in a spiritual setting... so tonight was, indeed, a very special night for me - for our entire family tree, in fact; an answer, I believe, to my continued personal prayer that the Lord convert and touch the hearts of each and every one of my relatives, even if it's just a few members at a time.

So, as it turned out, this Holy Saturday evening I got to witness Jesus' healing and unconditional love touching members of my family in a very powerful way.  We offered the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary so it was quite a heavy mood, at first, with many of us shedding tears of heartfelt sorrow in remembrance of the Lord's terrible sufferings that the entire Church just commemorated yesterday... but there was also recognition that the Holy Spirit was effecting the healing of inner wounds in the hearts of some of us present, including my cousins.  It was one of the more intense prayer meetings we've had in a long while.

The after-effects of spending quality

spiritual time with two of my three cousins

who joined tonight's prayer.

After all the prayers were finished, the potluck dinner and fellowship followed, ushering in the Lord's spirit of Joy. Our meal consisted of a wide range of delectable dishes: chili, fried chicken, shrimp with vegetables, Thai noodles, salad greens, and corn bread.  Light-hearted conversation and laughter flowed while we feasted together and then more joy followed when dessert was finally served - passion fruit cheesecake, Filipino sticky mochi-rice, and homemade pecan pie with vanilla ice cream!

I left the Gruber Home, again feeling content and extremely grateful over having been able to spend this most holy evening in quality spiritual and social time with people who mean so much to me - my blood-family and my prayer group family.  God is good!

Wishing all a very blessed and Happy Easter!

Monthly Messages from the Queen of Peace of Medjugorje: March 2016

O Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us!

Our Lady's Monthly Message to the World on March 25th:

  "Dear children! Today I am carrying my love to you. God permitted me to love you and, out of love, to call you to conversion. You, little children, are poor in love and you still have not comprehended that my Son Jesus, out of love, gave His life to save you and to give you eternal life. Therefore pray, little children, pray so that in prayer you may comprehend God's love.  Thank you for having responded to my call."

Our Lady's Annual Message to Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo on March 18th:

  "Dear children, with a motherly heart filled with love for you, my children, I desire to teach you complete trust in God the Father. I desire for you to learn by an internal gaze and internal listening to follow God's will. I desire for you to learn to boundlessly trust in His mercy and His love, as I always trusted. Therefore, my children, cleanse your hearts. Free yourselves from everything that binds you to only what is earthly and permit what is of God to form your life by your prayer and sacrifice so that God's Kingdom may be in your heart; that you may begin to live proceeding from God the Father; that you may always strive to walk with my Son. But for all of this, my children, you must be poor in spirit and filled with love and mercy. You must have pure and simple hearts and always be ready to serve. My children, listen to me, I speak for your salvation.  Thank you."

Our Lady's Special Message to Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo on March 2nd:

  "Dear children, My coming to you is a gift from the Heavenly Father for you. Through His love I am coming to help you to find the way to the truth, to find the way to my Son. I am coming to confirm the truth to you. I desire to remind you of the words of my Son. He pronounced words of salvation for the entire world, the words of love for everyone - that love which He proved by His sacrifice. But even today, many of my children do not know Him, they do not want to come to know Him, they are indifferent. Because of their indifference my heart suffers painfully. My Son has always been in the Father. By being born on earth He brought the divine and from me received the human. With Him the word came among us. With Him came the light of the world which penetrates hearts, illuminates them and fills them with love and consolation. My children, all those who love my Son can see Him, because His face can be seen through the souls which are filled with love for Him. Therefore, my children, my apostles, listen to me. Leave vanity and selfishness. Do not live only for what is earthly and material. Love my Son and make it so that others may see His face through your love for Him. I will help you to come to know Him all the more. I will speak to you about Him.  Thank you."

First Saturday Parish Rosary at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 3/5/2016

The Day Chapel at St. Anthony of Padua
Church decorated for Lent 2016.

Perhaps it was because the Church is currently celebrating Lent, but the line for confession overflowed from the small Blessed Sacrament Chapel (where the confessional for St. Anthony of Padua Church is located) into the larger Day Chapel where we pray the First Saturday Rosary.  In the past five+ years that we've been holding these monthly rosary meetings, I've never seen the confessional as busy as this - it was awesome!  And what made things even better was the fact that many of the penitents came into the Day Chapel after their confession and joined us for the Rosary, making for a well-attended prayer meeting this month!

The mood is generally serious whenever we pray the Sorrowful Mysteries, which is normal given the nature of the reflections... but Lent tends to amplify the somber mood.  This time around, though, I also recognized another "vibe" in the chapel while we prayed - it was a powerful sense of what I can only describe as relief.  I knew that it was directly related to the exceptional number of penitents sitting among us, who had just come from the confessional. Many were receiving healing in their souls, which includes the lifting of heavy spiritual burdens that had been carried for whatever period of time.  Release!  

I don't know why these people decided to stay and pray - I didn't recognize most of them - but I sure am glad they did.  I believe most of them were glad, too, because many did leave looking relieved - "lighter" - than when they first came into the chapel... but, at the same time, it seemed as though most of them were unexpectedly discovering, for the very first time, the healing power of the Rosary Prayer (in addition to Confession) despite the fact that it's something that Our Lady has been trying to telling us all along, via her many appearances throughout the world. I hope these people will continue to come and pray with us...

The next First Saturday Rosary for Peace will be prayed on April 2nd in the Day Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Kailua Town. All are welcome to make a confession prior to praying the Rosary at 4:30pm.