THE   WONDERFUL  POWER  OF  THE  MASS

We should value the mass above all things.  At holy mass it is Jesus Christ Himself, who offers up His merits for you, prays for you and as He is God, His prayers and His merits give infinite glory to God.  We should never miss mass when we have an opportunity of hearing it.  We should try to hear it with the greatest attention, and, most important of all, we should offer our prayers in union with the prayers of Christ;  this will make them all-powerful.

PRAYERS To help us
ADORATION-  O my God, I adore You, through Jesus Who is really present in my bosom [said after Communion], or on the altar [said after Consecration] or at a visit] and Who is adoring You, and offering Himself to You for me.  I offer You His infinite Merits.

THANKS-  O my God, I thank You through Jesus Who is really present in my bosom [or on the altar], and Who is thanking You for me and offering Himself for me;  I offer You His Infinite Merits.

PARDON-  O my God, I beg pardon through Jesus Who is really present in my bosom [or on the altar], and Who is asking pardon for me and offering Himself for me;  I offer You His Infinite Merits.

PETITION-   O my God, I ask for all blessings through Jesus Who is really present in my bosom [or on the altar], and Who is praying and offering Himself for me; I offer You His Infinite Merits.

  

TEN  REASONS  FOR  HEARING  MASS
1.   The mass is the best means we have to render God the highest adoration.
2.   To thank Him for all His blessings.
3.   To obtain all the favours you desire.
4.   To shorten you own purgatory and that of others.
5.   To preserve you from all dangers to soul and body.
6.   To increase your store of sanctifying grace.
7.   At the hour of death the Masses you have heard will be your greatest consolation.
8.   Every Mass heard will go with you to judgement to plead for pardon for you.
9.   One Mass heard during life will do more than many heard for you after death.
10. Nothing is more powerful to bring God's blessing on you for the day than to hear Mass; therefore try to hear Mass every day or as often as possible, and twice on Sundays. 

THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY

Never forget the Holy Souls in Purgatory they cannot pray for themselves but they can pray for you! I pray every day for the Holy Souls, their greatest suffering is to be deprived of the beatific vision of God. They will never forget you and will always be grateful to you for shortening their time in Purgatory. The most powerful way to do this is to offer  mass for the Holy Souls [or even get a special mass said for them] This is a prayer given by Our Lord to St.Gertrude the Great which will release many souls from Purgatory each time it is said:

PRAYER OF ST GERTRUDE THE GREAT
ETERNAL FATHER I OFFER YOU THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF YOUR DIVINE SON JESUS, IN UNION WITH THE MASSES SAID THROUGHOUT THE WORLD TODAY, FOR ALL THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY, FOR SINNERS EVERYWHERE, FOR SINNERS IN THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH, THOSE IN MY OWN HOME AND WITHIN MY FAMILY
AMEN

Everybody  has someone in Purgatory just waiting for a prayer to be released, remember the Holy Souls will repay you a hundredfold!

ST JOHN BOSCO [DON BOSCO] 1815-1888

St John Bosco was born on 16th August 1815 in Piedmont, near Turin, Italy. He was the youngest son of a peasant farmer who died when John was only two years old.  He was brought up by his mother in extreme poverty.    "In his life the supernatural almost became the natural and the extraordinary ordinary".  These were the words of Pope Pius X1 in speaking of Don Bosco at his canonization.

A dream when he was nine showed him his future work.  It was the precursor of other visions which, at various critical periods of his life, indicated the next step he was to take.

In this first dream he seemed to be surrounded by a crowd of fighting children whom he strove in vain to pacify, at first by argument and then with his fists.  Suddenly there appeared a mysterious lady who said to him "softly softly, .....if you wish to win them! Take your shepherd's staff and lead them to pasture".  As she spoke the children were transformed into wild beasts and then into lambs.  From that moment John recognized that his duty was to help poor boys and he began with those of his own village, teaching them the catechism and bringing them to church.  As an encouragement he would often delight them with acrobatic and conjuring tricks, at which he became very proficient.  One Sunday morning when a juggler and gymnast was detaining the youngsters with his performances, the little lad challenged him to a competition, beat him at his own job, and triumphantly bore off his audience to mass.

  When he entered the seminary in 1831, his clothes and shoes were provided by charity.
He was ordained priest in 1841 and soon settled into his life work, the education and apostolate of boys and young men, especially the poor.

Turin was the principal place of his activity.  Persuaded by St Joseph Cafasso, [1811-1860] rector of a seminary in Turin that his work with the boys was his mission and introduced by him to wealthy benefactors, and to the slums and prisons which would gain most from his ministry, John was appointed a chaplain of a refuge for girls.  He devoted himself also to the needs of young men.  His attractive  charismatic personality soon drew many to his oratory and his evening classes.

Soon he resigned his post as chaplain and lived in poverty with his mother and about 40 destitute boys in the Valdocco area, later he opened workshops for training shoemakers and tailors.  By 1856 their number had grown to 150 resident boys with four workshops.  There was also 500 children attached to the oratories and ten priests to help teach them.
An eloquent preacher and a popular writer of great skill and diligence, John Bosco also had a reputation as a visionary, a wonder-worker, and one with extraordinary gift for handling difficult youths without punishment but with a gentle and effective firmness.

Don Bosco often used to take boys on Sunday expeditions in the country, with mass to start with, followed by breakfast and open-air games, a picnic, catechism class, and vespers to conclude.  He believed in the value, especially for deprived urban boys, both of contact with natural beauty and the uplifting power of music.

In 1859 he began to organise a congregation which was formally approved in 1874 at the founder's death fourteen years later it numbered 768 members in sixty-four houses both in Europe and South America.

As a church builder St John Bosco, achieved the apparently impossible by heroic trust in Providence to provide necessary finance.  One such church is the Sacro  Cuore, Rome, completed shortly before his death.

St John Bosco died on 31st January 1888.  Forty Thousand people visited his body as it lay in the church, and at his funeral the whole city of Turin turned out to do him honour.
He was canonized on 1st April 1934 by Pope Pius X1

REFLECTION

I am neither a man of letters nor of science, But I humbly claim to be a man of prayer.
It is prayer that has saved my life.
Without it I would have lost my reason long ago.

If I did not lose my peace of soul, 

In the midst of my many trials
It is because of the peace that came to me through prayer.
One can live several days without food,
but not without prayer.

Prayer is the key to each morning, and the lock to each evening.

It is a sacred alliance between God and us.

Let everyone try this experience, and they will find

That daily prayer will add something new to their lives,

something which cannot be found elsewhere.

[Mahatma Gandhi]

PRAYER

Greetings to you all, Glory here, If we realised just how much God loves us, it would take our breath away!   God loves each individual one, infinitely, just as we are, with all our flaws and failings.  Remember He left the 99 sheep to search for the one who had strayed.
Jesus can change your life.  Are you weak?  He is strong. Are you full of worries?
Then drink at the Life Giving Fountain  Jesus!
Dear Friends the first step on your journey to Jesus is prayer.  A prayer from the heart is very powerful.  Here are some beautiful simple prayers.

O! Holy Spirit I humbly implore You, be with me always, so that in all things I may act only under the influence of Your holy inspirations.  Amen


O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You!

Eternal Father, I offer You the adorable Face of Your beloved Son for the honour and glory of Your Name for the conversation of sinners and the salvation of the dying.

THE  OUR  FATHER
Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed by thy name,  Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil  Amen

THE  HAIL  MARY
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death.  Amen

GLORY  BE  TO  THE  FATHER
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

God bless you
Love from Glory.

THE BROWN SCAPULAR OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL

THE  BROWN  SCAPULAR  OF OUR  LADY  OF  MOUNT  CARMEL
The  16th July is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
In the year 1251 on the 16th July, St Simon Stock was praying for his Carmelite order, where there were many disputes among the members. Kneeling in his tiny cell, he pours forth his soul with deep and longing sighs in what has been called "after the Hail Mary, the most beautiful of all Marian prayers".

" Flower of Carmel, Vine blossom-laden,
Splendor of Heaven, child-bearing maiden,
None equals thee!  O Mother benign, Who no man didst know,
On all Carmel's children Thy favors bestow,

Star of the Sea!

As the Saint lifts his tear-dimmed eyes the cell is suddenly flooded with a great light.  Surrounded by a great concourse of angels, the Queen of Heaven is descending towards him, holding forth the Brown Scapular and saying:

"RECEIVE  MY  BELOVED  SON,  THIS  HABIT  OF  THY  ORDER;  THIS  SHALL  BE  TO  THEE  AND  TO  ALL  CARMELITES  A  PRIVILAGE,  THAT  WHOSOEVER  DIES  CLOTHED  IN  THIS  SHALL  NEVER  SUFFER  ETERNAL  FIRE"

"This most extrordinary gift of the Scapular from the Mother of God to St Simon Stock - brings its great usefulness not only to the Carmelite Family of Mary but also to all the rest of the faithful who wish, affiliated to that family, to follow Mary with a very special devotion"  - Pope Pius 1X

God made His Mother the great missionary at the foot of the cross on Calvary.  To understand the wherefore of Her Scapular's being an instrument of Divine Providence in the salvation of souls, we have to go back to Calvary.  It is there that we learn the meaning of Mary's universal Motherhood. 
When Jesus says "Woman behold thy son; son, behold thy Mother" and then His cry  " I thirst"! We understand.  One is standing there who is achieving  the mission of co-Redemptrix and receiving that of Universal Mediatrix.  "Mother all the souls so dearly purchased at the price of this suffering are the object of My desire.  You love me so dearly that I commission you to bring them to Me that thus My pierced Heart may receive them.  Satan has no dominion over you; I make them your children; save them by your prayers! Mother!  I thirst for souls.  It is with awe that we picture to ourselves Her descent to St Simon Stock, surrounded by the pomp of Her Heavenly Court, to cloth us in Her garment, to proclaim Her Motherhood even as at Lourdes She has proclaimed Her Immaculate Conception Moreover, we see the explaination of the Scapular.

In considering Mary from any angle, we are struck with particular force by two prerogatives: Her power and Her love - the one omnipotent, the other fathomless.  It is because of Her love that she made the Scapular Promise and it is by her prayer-power that she keeps it.

St Brigid of Kildare Abbess of Kildare [c. A.D.525]

With St Patrick, St Brigid is our very cherished patron saint.  There can be no doubt that Brigid must be numbered among the greatest and most highly venerated of the saints whose virtues lent glory to Ireland and helped, at least indirectly, to christianize Europe.  Her memory, as it lived in the hearts of the people, was identified with an extraordinary spirit of charity.

St Brigid was born about 451 at or near the present Umeras between Rathangan and Monasterevan.  Her father Dubthach was a pagan chieftain of Leinster and her mother Brocca was a christian Pict who had been baptised by St Patrick. 
Brigid showed signs of great holiness from an early age.  Brigid became a nun, and beneath a beautiful oak tree she built her first church, and ever since it has been named Cill Dara [Kildare]  the church of the oak.  [The oak tree under which St Brigid built her oratory was preserved with great veneration down to the tenth century, when it succumbed to age and the violence of a winter storm].

St Brigid's monastery flourished and soon became famous as a place of pilgrimage, and helped spread christianity through Ireland and beyond her shores.

St Brigid was famous for her great compassion and her hospitality, she never turned anyone in want away.  She prayed and the food would multiply, and would be enough for everybody who came to her door.

St Brigid was blessed by God with the gift of healing. Many are the stories of her healing people and animals.  She cured people of leprosy, blindness, so many healings but I think this one stands out:
" One evening as the sun went down, Brigid sat with sister Dara, a holy nun who was blind, and they talked of the love of Jesus Christ and the joys of Paradise.  Now their hearts were so full that the night fled away whilst they spoke together, and neither knew that so many hours had passed.  Then the sun came up from behind the Wicklow mountains and the pure white light made the face of earth bright and happy.  Then Brigid sighed, when she saw how lovely were earth and sky, and knew that Dara's eyes were closed to all this beauty.  So she bowed her head and prayed, and extended her hand and signed the dark orbs of the gentle sister.  Then the darkness passed away from them, and Dara saw the golden ball in the east and all the trees and flowers glittering with dew in the morning light.  She looked a little while, and then, turning to the abbess, said, " close my eyes again, dear Mother, for when the world is so visable to the eyes, God is seen less clearly to the soul".  So Brigid prayed once more, and Dara's eyes grew dark again".

St Brigid is patron of Milkmen, poets, cows, and yard animals, blacksmiths and healers.

Her feastday is 1st February.