Friday, March 30, 2012

Fr. Higgins: The Man I Saw Brought Back to Life

Fr. John Higgins - Photo Courtesy of St. Peter's List

Fr. Higgins: The Man I Saw Brought Back to Life | St. Peter's List

(Reprinted with permission from  and St. Peter's List.)

By Fr. John Higgins

Who doesn’t enjoy a good BBQ with friends? When I was asked to a young couple’s home for a Young Adult Ministry Home Mass and BBQ I packed my Mass kit and off I went. I arrived about 6:00 pm with a hearty appetite and was greeted by about 15 young people. Then the phone rang and everything changed. I had to drive about 10 miles to a hospital where there was an emergency call.

I drove quickly, thinking that the nurse in charge of the ER, Anne, would be waiting for me. I knew her and her husband and children from the parish. When I walked in I could see paramedics at the foot of the only occupied gurney there, so I hurried and walked in. “Sorry, Fr. John, you’re too late. He’s gone.” Anne said, smiling. She had a lot of compassion, but also understood that I’d come as fast as I could. They were removing wires from an older man. I noticed that he was wearing a Brown Scapular, one of the old cloth ones. I reached and said “He’s wearing an old fashioned Scapular”. When I touched it there was a beep from a monitor, then another. The nurse, Anne, said “What did you do?” I said “Nothing!” She and another nurse jumped to work, reconnecting wires and calling for help. The Paramedics stood with their jaws dropped. The patient opened his eyes and said (in an Irish accent) “Oh, good, Father. I’ve been waiting for you. I want to go to Confession.” I nearly fell over. I’d done nothing but seen and touched his Scapular. The next thing I knew they were working on him. He didn’t get to go to Confession, but I gave him an emergency absolution as they worked. One of the Paramedics asked if I was OK and sat me in a chair.

A couple of weeks later the man came to me for Confession and told me that the doctor couldn’t figure out what happened and had to tear up the Death Certificate he’d already started to fill out. The Paramedics had come to see him in the hospital and shown him their notes. At the bottom of the page they’d written the time and place of his death and then in big bold letters had added “BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE BY GOD”.

Miracles still happen. And no, I didn’t do it. It just happened according to God’s will. Why does He intervene in some cases and not in others? I really don’t know. I haven’t figured that out yet. But I do know that God has worked miracles in my life, the most important for me not being what He did for someone else, but what He has done over and over to bring me back from sin and death, through the Sacraments into His Covenant Relationship.

That man still had to die a natural death to be raised from the dead into eternal life. The resurrection Jesus offers all of us is eternal too. And that’s what we look forward to at Easter.
***

Fr. John Higgins

Fr. Higgins was born in Indiana. His mother brought him to California when he was about three years old. They lived in South Gate, Covina, Lynwood and then in 1965 they moved to Downey. Fr. Higgins attended Downey High School for two years and graduated from there in 1967. He attended Cerritos Community College, worked in Downey, Bellflower, and Long Beach before entering the Seminary in 1974. He was ordained to the Priesthood in 1981, has served as Campus Minister and Religion Teacher at Bishop Garcia Diego High School in Santa Barbara, and worked in seven parishes before his assignment to St. Raymond Parish in 2003. He also currently serves as the Chaplain at Downey Fire Department – serving both firefighters and victims.

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Amazing Accounts of Muslims coming to Christ

God's "Miraculous Movement": Amazing Accounts of Scores of Muslims coming to Christ

The following excerpt is from breakingchristiannews.com:

What's even better than one Muslim coming to the Lord Jesus and being saved? A whole mosque-full of people receiving Christ!

As astonishing as it sounds, that is the report from a former church planter who worked among Muslims in West Africa.

Jerry Trousdale, now the director of International ministries for City Team International, has written a book, Miraculous Movements, that details some of the "unprecedented" events taking place currently among the Muslim population there.

Trousdale notes that there have been "multiple cases of entire mosques coming to faith" in Christ; "tens of thousands" of Christians with Muslim background who are now dedicated to fasting and praying as intercessors for the Muslim people; seemingly impossible achievements being done through ordinary people allowing God to use them, along with many other extraordinary happenings.

Trousdale told the Christian Post (CP), "This is just good news that God is in the same business as He was in the book of Acts. Disciples are multiplying greatly and even priests, imams and sheikhs are becoming obedience to the faith. So I no longer doubt that we can finish the task in this generation."

The CP article recounts one of the remarkable stories from Trousdale's book in which a man who'd been a respectable Muslim businessman had a dream that Jesus appeared to him telling him that He [Jesus] was the Light of the world—when he woke up he could no longer see. The dream and his loss of sight impacted him so much, he converted to Christianity, and—after attending Bible studies at a prayer camp—he became an effective witness and church-planter for the Lord among Muslim groups.

Read more: God's Miraculous Movement

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Our Lady's Monthly Message to Marija Pavlovic

Photo by Loci B. Lenar


The Medjugorje Web - Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje

Our Lady of Medjugorje's monthly message to Marija Pavlovic

Message of March 25, 2012: "Dear children! Also today, with joy, I desire to give you my motherly blessing and to call you to prayer. May prayer become a need for you to grow more in holiness every day. Work more on your conversion because you are far away, little children. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Power of Prayer

Photo by Loci B. Lenar

Prayer is the Key to God's Blessing and Grace

Jesus said, "I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive your trespasses."
-Mark 11:23-25

The beautiful stained glass window detail of Jesus can be seen inside the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Catholic church is located on High Street in Hackettstown, NJ, USA.

Read more: Devotional Prayers

Read more: Prayer is the Key to God's Blessings and Gifts

Read more: www.christian-miracles.com

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

St. Thomas More - Patron of Religious Freedom

St. Thomas More

 

Prayer to St. Thomas More

O God our Creator,
from your provident hand we have received
our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
You have called us as your people and given us
the right and the duty to worship you, the only true God,
and your Son, Jesus Christ.

Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit,
you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world,
bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel
to every corner of society.

We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened;
give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.

Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father,
a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters
gathered in your Church
in this decisive hour in the history of our nation,
so that, with every trial withstood
and every danger overcome—
for the sake of our children, our grandchildren,
and all who come after us—
this great land will always be “one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.


Copyright © 2012, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved. Cover image, istockphoto.com

Monday, March 19, 2012

VIRGIN MARY DOCUMENTARY WORLD PREMIERE ON CANADIAN TV



Our Lady Video Trailer

The video trailer of Our Lady and following press release is from Jessica Murray, Marketing Manager at Tell Tale Productions:

Halifax, Nova Scotia – March, 2012 Blessed Mother. Star of the Sea. Queen of Heaven. Madonna. Our Lady. She goes by many names and is celebrated by both Christians and Muslims around the world. She is one of the most celebrated women in history, even though little is actually known about her. She gave birth to the one of the most famous historical figures of all time, but she is only mentioned in the bible seven times. Each year millions of people around the world do pilgrimages to shrines dedicated to her and many claim to experience miracles.  

Our Lady is a one hour documentary that chronicles the life and significance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her apparitions and appearances on earth. Since 1981, Mary has been appearing in one of the most visited religious sites on the planet: Medjugorje, Bosnia. The film follows a pilgrimage led by New Brunswick native Marie Desjardins as she and a dozen others journey to Medjugorje for the 30th anniversary of these spiritual events.

Our Lady is created, written, and directed by Michael MacDonald and produced by Edward Peill of Halifax-based Tell Tale Productions Inc.

Medjugorje is potentially the most important event in modern history. It is a call to action for all to put their own interests aside to serve their fellow human beings.” says MacDonald. “As the Blessed Virgin said to the visionaries, God is real. He asks us to live like eternal beings - to remember that our pains and sufferings are only temporary. We must prepare ourselves daily by learning to love, and to accept love.

The film features world-renowned Marian experts Judith Dupre, Lesley Hazelton, and Charlene Spretnak as they reveal the role that Mary has played over the past 2000 years and the devotion she has fostered in so many followers around the world.

A new iPhone app called iMary will also be released in conjunction with the premiere of the Our Lady documentary. The iMary mobile app is the ultimate smartphone accessory for anyone interested in the Virgin Mary. The app features a complete and detailed database of all the Marian shrines across Canada with a geo-locator function indicating the distance from the user’s location. It also contains a comprehensive list of devotions, a Marian calendar, and a rosary. The iMary app is available on iTunes with a portion of the proceeds from each sale being donated to charity.

Our Lady will have its world broadcast premiere on VisionTV on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT (Check local listings). VisionTV is Canada’s only English language cable and satellite television analog specialty channel that airs multi-faith, multicultural and family-oriented entertainment programming.

Our Lady was produced in association with VisionTV, ZoomerMedia Limited, and CTS TV with funding from the Canada Media Fund, and Provincial and Federal tax credits.

For Media Inquiries please contact:

Jessica Murray - Tell Tale Productions Inc.  Marketing Manager
Tel: (902) 482-4650