Love is a Key to God's Blessings



Jesus said, "This is My commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you."
John 15:12
Photo by Loci B. Lenar

 

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

This beautiful scripture is written by St. Paul (Paul the Apostle):

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Experiencing a Double Miracle

Eric and Nancy Pierre: Experiencing a Double Miracle - CBN.com 

The above video and following excerpt is from CBN TV:

When Nancy lost her first baby, the Pierre's grieved. Years later another troubled pregnancy not only had their baby's life in danger, but Nancy was in critical condition too.

Monthly Prayer Service being held at St. Mary's Church in Denville, New Jersey

St. Mary's Church Window
Photo by Loci B. Lenar

All are welcome to attend St. Mary's Catholic Church for Mass and prayer services.

The church holds a monthly service for prayer including special prayer intentions which are submitted through the website of Christian-Miracles.com.

Previous themes have included prayer for Christian Unity. This months theme is May and Mary.

The next prayer service is scheduled for Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 7:30 P.M. (EST). The prayer service is held every third Thursday of each month. However, prayers for world peace are always included.

With arrangements made with Fr. Richard Tartaglia and St. Mary's Church, prayer requests that are submitted through Christian-Miracles.com are prayed for every Monday morning after the 8:00 A.M. Mass, during Holy Hour Adoration, which is between the hours of 8:30 to 9:30 AM.

If you live in the area or plan on visiting New Jersey, please consider attending and joining in the evening prayer service with Fr. Richard Tartaglia. The service begins with singing of hymns followed with psalm prayers and then reading of the gospels. After the reading, Fr. Tartaglia gives his homily which is followed with a prayer of intercession for Special Prayer Intentions (prayer requests). The Lord's Prayer is recited and after that there is a closing prayer with a blessing given by Fr. Tartaglia. The prayer service is concluded with a closing song.

St. Mary's Catholic Church is located on 15 Myers Avenue in Denville, New Jersey. Father Martin Glynn is the head pastor of the church.

For directions to St. Mary's Church, please visit the following link: http://www.stmarys-denville.org/directions.htm

Regardless of your religious denomination, please feel free to submit your prayer request at the following link: http://www.christian-miracles.com/apps/prayers/.

Regarding prayer, Jesus said, "Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."  (Matthew 18:19-20)

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

St. Mary's Weekly Mass Schedule:

Sunday: 7:00, 8:30, 10:00, and 11:30 AM

Saturday: 5:00 PM

Weekdays: 8:00 AM and 12:05 PM - (Except June ~ Labor Day - No 12:05 PM)

Holy Hour Adoration is held every Monday morning after 8:00 AM Mass.

First Fridays: 8:00 AM, 12:05 PM, 8:00 PM - (Except June ~ Labor Day - No 12:05 PM)

Holy Days: 7:00 AM, 8:00 AM, 12:00 noon, 7:00 PM

Eve of Holy Days: 5:00 PM

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Devotional Prayers

Pope Benedict XVI in Fatima: "The Virgin's prophecy still hasn't been fully realized"

Benedict XVI in Fatima: "The Virgin's prophecy still hasn't been fully realized"

(If enough people pray, the course of history will change into an era of peace and bring forth Our Lady of Fatima's message of 1917 to a complete triumph.  -Loci B. Lenar)

The following excerpt is from RomeReports.com:

May 13, 2010. Close to half a million people attended mass with Benedict XVI in the esplanade of Fatima’s shrine and they prayed together with him in silence.

The celebration began with a procession with the Virgin of Fatima. Members of various army corps carried her on their shoulders from the Chapel of the Apparitions to the altar while some people threw flower petals.

Benedict XVI accompanied part of the procession in his pope mobile. Before starting the celebration he received a chalice as a memento from a trip of Father Antonio Marti, his former student.

The pope said that “whomever thinks the prophecy of Fatima is fulfilled is mistaken”, because the Virgin is the one who can change a person’s heart, when facing death and fear.

Benedict XVI
“At a time when the human family was ready to sacrifice all that was most sacred on the altar of the petty and selfish interests of nations, races, ideologies, groups and individuals, our Blessed Mother came from heaven.”

The pope said that he went to Fatima to confess to the Virgin that he “loves her”, to pray for mankind “afflicted by so much misery and suffering” and to pray for priests.

Before ending mass the pope visited the sick and blessed them with the Eucharist.

Read more: Benedict XVI in Fatima

Husband Celebrates Miracle as 'Brain Dead' Wife Wakes Up in Hospital

Husband Celebrates Miracle as 'Brain Dead' Wife Wakes Up in Hospital - FoxNews.com

The following news story appears on FoxNews.com:

DARWIN, Australia -- A woman who was diagnosed as being brain dead has recovered three days after her husband begged doctors to put in a breathing tube before switching off a ventilator at an Australian hospital, the Northern Territory News reported Wednesday.

Gloria Cruz, 56, underwent brain surgery after a tumor was discovered when she suffered a stroke on March 7 and was rushed to the Royal Darwin Hospital in Darwin, Northern Territory.

Doctors told her husband Tani Cruz, 51, the case was “hopeless” and she would probably die within 48 hours following the surgery.

After two weeks, a breathing tube was inserted in Mrs Cruz's mouth and the ventilator was turned off. Hospital staff were stunned when she woke from her coma three days later.

When a doctor recommended that the ventilator be removed and Gloria Cruz be allowed to die, her husband told them, "I'm a Catholic -- I believe in miracles.”

“I told him that God knows how much I love her -- that I don't want her to suffer but I don't want her to leave us,” he said.

A doctor described her recovery as "a miracle."

Mrs Cruz is now alert and getting around in a wheelchair at the hospital.

"She's well on the way to recovery,” her husband said.

Pope Benedict XVI: "We need Christians convinced and convincing"

Gloria.tv: Benedict XVI: "We need Christians convinced and convincing"

The following excerpt is from Gloria.TV:

The Church of today needs "disciples of Christ who are brave and faithful, devoted only to him, and who are convinced and convincing." These were the words of Pope Benedict when he arrived Saturday afternoon in Aquileia, an ancient Roman port city containing what is considered the mother-church of the region. It was the first leg of his two-day trip to northeastern Italy. He welcomed public authorities, bishops and faithful from the region, and those from areas evangelized from the Mother Church of Aquileia in Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Bavaria. In the city's historic Chapter Square, the Pope underlined that the Church of that city was the ninth of the Roman Empire and the Fourth of Italy.