Showing results by author "Bob and Penny Lord" in All Categories

When Our Lord wants a message to get out to his church, he raises up a powerful saint to do the task. Such a saint was Gertrude the Great! She was the one to plant the seed which would bloom through the hands of another powerful saint and visionary St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, four centuries later, and subsequently through Saint Faustina Kowalska in the 20th century, through the Mission of Divine Mercy.

The Lord has given the church many heroes down through the centuries, and each person he gives us is for a specific reason for a specific time, but not only for that time. The 19th century is a perfect example of that. The church suffered greatly during that century, but the Lord knew we needed him to be at our sides to assure us that he would keep his promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church.

As we research the lives of saints and other powerful men and women in the church, we sometimes wonder if they were ever given a job description of what was expected of them in their positions and if they had been given the opportunity to say “aye” or “nay”. Did they and do we really have a choice to say “aye” or “nay” to the Lord when he calls us into ministry?

When did we stop singing this love song to our country? It was so subtle; did it just sort of disappear with many of the other patriotic traditions that our country stood for? How many of us still remember this song, reminding us of the price paid by our fathers - the hopes and dreams of our ancestors, as they struggled in filthy disease-ridden holds of ships bringing them to a new land of promise and freedom for all? Writing about Mother Cabrini and the reason she came to our country, we became aware of the struggle, the crosses our families bore to give us a land of promise.

Saint Vincent de Paul could have stayed and basked in the glory that was Rome, but knew he had to go on to Paris. News of his involvement in the conversion of the apostate came to the attention of Pope Paul V, and in 1608, Vincent was commissioned to go to Henry IV on a confidential mission. Vincent departed for Paris, posthaste.

The story of Oscar Romero is one of transformation, from one born of poverty, to one living comfortably within the system, to one determined to change the system. The story of Oscar Romero is one of conversion, of Paul on the road to Damascus, of a man who was blinded, and whose eyes were opened by the Lord, to see his brothers and sisters in agony and misery. The story of Oscar Romero is one of a man who committed his life to right wrongs to his flock, or die trying. The story of Oscar Romero is one of a Martyr for Christ.

There was a large crucifix on the back wall of the church. Many in the parish had a great devotion to Our Crucified Lord and paid homage to him on this crucifix. But on this particular evening, they were coming to the close of the mission, and so the attention was not on the crucifix, but on the priests, who were giving their last teachings.

Bob and Penny Lord travel to Lithuania, to a hill where crosses have miraculously appeared over a period of centuries of enslavement and harsh treatment at the hands of foreign dictators. Witness the apparition of Our Lady at the hill. This is a tribute as well, to a brave people who were undaunted in the face of the enemy. Learn of the miracle of the cross on a hill high above the capital city of Vilnius, which would not go away.

To study the history of the world, especially Europe, is to discover the history of the Church. For, the Church has always played an integral part in the annals of history, as she continues to follow her master Jesus Christ, who told the apostles, “I will be with you till the end of the world.” For, since the children of God are living in the world, then so must the happenings of the world be intertwined with Mother Church as her children are affected by the world they live in.

Reformer of the Franciscan Movement. Reformer of the Franciscans Come with us to Assisi and Siena,where St. Bernardine converted the people to adore Jesus in the Eucharist. See the symbol of the Eucharist in Siena and Florence as a result of evangelization by the Saint. Follow the Saint on his last journey which ended in the mountain town of L'Aquila, where he died and is buried.

Saint Alphonsus Ligouri begins a life in the courts of law. His father had him trained to become a lawyer. By the time he was 16 years old, he was so proficient in his studies, he received a degree of Doctor of Laws. And this came about in spite of the fact that the required age to receive such a degree was no younger than 20 years of age. Although his father's focus was to groom him for the world, his mother, who was highly spiritual, was the loving instrument who would prepare him for a future life as Jesus and Mary's troubadour.

One of the most powerful Sacramentals is the Brown Scapular. On July 16, 1251, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock, accompanied by her Heavenly Army of Angels and made the following promise: "Whoever dies wearing this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire." Now, it was not our Lady's intention that the Scapular should replace the living out of a holy and virtuous Christian life. Instead, she meant it to remind us of the life she led, one of obedience to the Will of the Father, of humility, of fidelity, a willing vessel bringing the Savior to us.

When we wrote on the life of St. Teresa in our book Saints and other Powerful Women in the Church, little did we think that we would, some day, be using her visions of heaven, hell, and purgatory to affirm these important truths of our Catholic faith.

According to tradition, Our Lady of Perpetual Help is considered the oldest icon in the Church. It is believed that the first icon of the Virgin of the Passion (or Our Lady of Perpetual Help) was in fact painted by St. Luke. And who better than he to paint this sorrowful image of Mother and Son? For, St. Luke, of all the Gospel writers, wrote most personally of the Lord in his infancy up to his death on the Cross.

We sometimes believe that the only reason she is not weeping all the time is because she has the Beatific Vision of her Magnificent Son to comfort her. There’s an expression, “You can’t get hurt if you don’t stick your chin out”. She always sticks her chin out. She is always being hurt. If we study the history of the world, in particular the 16th through the 19th centuries, we become alarmingly aware that we’ve hurt Mary very deeply. However, very seldom do we ever hear her complain about the outrages committed against her.

March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation. On this particular year 1945, it fell on Palm Sunday. This is such an important season in our church. But in those times, during the final days of the war, thoughts were not focused on Palm Sunday, or the Feast of the Annunciation, or even Easter, for that matter. Ida Peerdeman, the woman to whom the virgin Mary chose to come, called it a "hunger winter". Priests would visit private homes, rather than take a chance on Nazi retaliation for trying to perform religious ceremonies, like Mass, especially not in public places, like churches.

A rainbow is a promise. God our father reaffirmed the promise he made about our redemption in the Garden of Eden when Noah landed on the rock after having spent 40 days and 40 nights in the ark during the flood. The Lord stopped the rain, and gave us a double rainbow. We believe that when we die, when we shake off this mortal coil, we go to the next step in our eternal existence, from a physical, bodily life, to a new life, a new beginning.

The battle is on for souls! Families are waking up, taking notice of the world’s influences on their children’s lives and they are horrified! And rightly so! They’ve lost control. We get call after call commending us on our television programs on the Super Saints. And they are from Catholics and non-Catholics, lay people - like parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles; religious, Nuns and Pastors - thanking us for bringing heroes their young people can use as role models. The cry is always the same!

This is an account of recorded miracles connected with the practice of the Eucharist over the centuries with a view to showing that miracles still happen today.

Saint Edith Stein was born in Poland on October 12, 1891. Her parent were Jewish. She was a brilliant student. When she turned seventeen, she entered a Girl's High School in Breslau. At the same time, in another part of Germany, another teenager - Adolph Hitler was failing an entrance exam to the Academy of Arts and already blaming it all on the Jews. Two teenagers, one a Saint and the other damned to hell for all eternity.