St. Mary's Monthly Prayer Service Scheduled for January 17, 2013

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

From the Homepage of www.Christian-Miracles.com:

Please consider visiting St. Mary's Catholic Church for Mass and prayer services. 

With help from Loci B. Lenar and support of Father Richard Tartaglia, including Barbara Jones from the National Conference of Catholic Women (NCCW), prayer requests which are submitted through "Christian-Miracles.com" are prayed for every Monday morning after Mass during Holy Hour Adoration, held between the hours of 8:30 to 9:30 am.  If you're unable to attend St. Mary's Church, please remember to join in prayerful unity on Monday mornings every week as we petition God to answer all of our prayers. 

Are you in need of prayer?  Submit your prayer requests to PrayerRequest@Christian-Miracles.com 

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

Previous services have included prayer for Christian Unity.  However, prayers for world peace are always included.

St. Mary's prayer service is held every third Thursday of each month at 7:30 PM with a new theme. January will focus on Christian Unity.  The prayer service is scheduled for January 17, 2013. 
 
There is great power through the Holy Spirit when people join together in agreement while praying for God’s help and intervention.

However, if you cannot attend St. Mary's prayer service, you can still join in by praying in unity with St. Mary’s Church for all special prayer intentions.

God wants us to approach him with the desires of our heart. Our Lord calls us to connect with his divine grace in order to receive blessings in our lives. 

Trust and believe in God's word and wait for his timing to receive an answer to your prayers. Miracles happen when least expected!

Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. (Isaiah 65:24)

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)

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 by email to PrayerRequest@Christian-Miracles.com. Your email will remain confidential.

Prayer request can also be submitted at the following link:  http://www.christian-miracles.com/prayerrequest.htm

Mr. Lenar visits Father Richard Tartaglia on a regular bases for spiritual guidance and shares with him the prayer requests.

Saint Mary's Monthly Prayer Schedule and Related Themes for 2013 

Christian Unity - Thursday, January 17 at 7:30 PM

  
Lent - Thursday, February 21 at 7:30 PM

  
Easter - Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 PM

  
St. Mark - Thursday, April 18 at 7:30 PM

  
Pentecost - Thursday, May 16 at 7:30 PM

  
John the Baptist - Thursday, June 20 at 7:30 PM

  
Mary Magdalene - Thursday, July 18 at 7:30 PM

  
Michaelmas Day - Thursday, September 19 at 7:30 PM

  
Church Memorial Day - Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 PM

Thanksgiving - Thursday, November 21 at 7:30 PM

Advent - Tentatively set for Thursday, December 19 at 7:30 PM 

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)

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

Creed's Scott Stapp Returns to his Faith

CBN TV - Video

Lead singer Scott Stapp of the rock group Creed shares about his journey to find a real relationship with God.

Dorothy Day: former atheist and social advocate journalist, on the way to sainthood

The video and following news story is from RomeReports.com:

The story of Dorothy Day depicts a passionate woman, always in search of truth. As a journalist, her journey could have her become Church's first journalist saint.

LUCETTA SCARAFFIA

Osservatore Romano

“She was a great writer and American journalist, who was not Catholic. She was an atheist and a socialist, who was very involved in the worker movement. At a certain point she converted to Catholicism and created a large movement working closely with workers, and with the poor, through a magazine called the Catholic Worker.”

She had a tough life, and even underwent an abortion. But after her conversion, she changed her life. In addition to the magazine, she also established soup kitchens and shelters where victims of the Great Depression could eat and sleep. She also advocated actively during the Second Vatican Council to condemn war.

LUCETTA SCARAFFIA

Osservatore Romano

“She worked with a group of women from all around the world and from different religions to pressure or lobby the Second Vatican Council, and to make a statement for peace and to condemn war, which until then the Church had never done. They achieved it.”

A woman with a strong will, she never stopped fighting her entire life for causes she deemed as just. Her stance is supported by “Women, the Church and the World,” a supplement to the Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper.

LUCETTA SCARAFFIA

Osservatore Romano

“We published a page from her diary where she talks about how they were invited to an audience with the Pope, and he addressed them. That was, in fact, the last audience of John XXIII, and it took place precisely with those women who asked for peace. They were very happy.”

Dorothy Day died in New York City in 1980, at 83 year old. Precisely there, in her hometown, the canonization process has started. And her supporters are expecting good news soon.

'Miracle' in the Marsh

View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

NBC 10 Philadelphia

The following excerpt and video is from NBCPhiladelphia.com:

A 3-foot tall statue standing in the marsh along the shoreline in Brick Township, New Jersey is being called a miracle.

Since Hurricane Sandy hit, residents had been focused on the clean-up and recovery.

It wasn't until days after the flood waters receeded those who live along Sheldon Avenue, spotted Saint Francis of Assisi. The small concrete statue, faces away from the waters that flooded their homes.

While no one knows for sure how the statue is still standing in a spot where so much has been torn down, Saint Francis has become a welcome sight at the shore and a sign that things will get better.

Read More: Miracle in the Marsh

Columbus Catholic Women's Conference Scheduled for February 2013

Photograph Courtesy of Loci B. Lenar

Celebrating the Year of Faith -| Register

The 6th Annual Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference will be held on February 23, 2013 at the Ohio State Expo Center, Lausche Building.

Speakers include Fr. Leo Patalinghug, author of "Grace Before Meals," and cooking show host, Savoring our Faith on EWTN. 

Suzanne Fowler, mother of seven and author of "Light Weigh and Building the Family Cookbook," and founder of Light Weigh One King Bible Study Weight-Loss Programs. Suzanne teaches to use our connection to God to maintain spiritual and physical well-being.

Sr. Mary Michael, Sr. Joseph Maria, Sr. Catherine Marie and Sr. Mary Jacinta OP, Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, speaking On The Dignity of Women, On Marriage, On Motherhood and On Mary.

Schedule of Events

***

The photograph of the stain glass window of The Immaculate Heart of Mary can be seen inside Our Lady of the Mount Chapel. The Catholic church is located on Mount Bethel Rd, Warren, NJ.  Loci Lenar's photograph was chosen for promoting the 2013 Columbus Catholic Women's Conference in Ohio.

THE SEEKER OF SPIRITUAL PHENOMENA

Miracle of the Sun - Photo by Loci B. Lenar

Reprinted with permission from The Standard-Times and SouthCoastToday.com

First published on December 29, 2012 - The Standard-Times - New Bedford, MA

By LINDA ANDRADE RODRIGUES

In John 4:48, Jesus said, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe."

Miracles are happening all around us, according to Loci Lenar, whose mission is to report the news of Christian signs and wonders on his blog and website — "Angels, Wonders and Miracles of Faith" (http://lenarpoetry.blogspot.com) and "Signs, Wonders and Miracles" (www.Christian-Miracles.com) — which have recorded over a million page views.

Searching daily on the Internet, Lenar has published excerpts and links of Standard-Times' religion stories, including the conversion experiences attributed to Eucharistic Adoration at St. Francis Xavier Church in Acushnet, and the interview with Baptist minister and New York Times bestselling author, the Rev. Don Piper, who wrote about spending "90 Minutes in Heaven."

Lenar also documents his own spiritual encounters, following instructions from his spiritual advisor, the Rev. Richard Tartaglia of St. Mary's Church in Denville, N.J.

Sharing his own experiences, he has been interviewed several times for the program "Sacred Treasures" on the international Catholic station Radio Maria, which is broadcast locally by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate of Our Lady's Chapel in New Bedford at 88.5 FM (WPMW).

Ironically, Lenar grew up in a family of lapsed Catholics. His parents left Hungary in 1956 because of the revolution uprising against the government and its Soviet-imposed policies. They settled in Brussels, Belgium, where Lenar was born in 1957. Shortly after, the family immigrated to America. He became a U.S. citizen with his parents in1967.

"They weren't really practicing Catholics," he said. "We went to church on holidays."

A resident of Mine Hill, N.J., Lenar married in 1977; and the couple has a son and daughter.

"My kids were going to Catholic school, and my wife would take them to Sunday Mass," he said. "But I wouldn't go."

Then Lenar underwent a conversion experience.

"When I was about 30, I had a very profound dream," he said. "An angel came to me in my sleep and said that Our Lord Jesus wanted to speak to me. I started going to church."

Six months later, he had a second dream.

"I came face to face with Jesus," he said, who told him: "Come follow me for I have much work to accomplish."

At that time Lenar was suffering from cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heart beat) and severe headaches.

He started to pray for a healing.

"I was guided to St. Mary's in Denville, N.J., which wasn't my parish at the time; and I received the Anointing of the Sick," he said. "I started to feel better."

Then through prayer, he said he felt guided to receive the Anointing of the Sick again.

"I will never forget that day," he said. "I heard Jesus say, 'You are healed.' The symptoms disappeared, and I stopped taking medications. I haven't had any problems with the heart and the headaches for 20 years."

Lenar said that he believes God called him to guide people back to the teachings of the gospels, the church and the sacraments.

"It is important for people to recognize that God is real," he said. "When medicine can't help and even before, it is important to turn to God for healing and blessings. It's my testimony."

In addition to his gift as a spiritual locutionist, Lenar personally observes spiritual phenomena that he captures on film.

Cross of Light - Photo by Loci B. Lenar

"There are lots of things I have documented," he said. "A cross of light has been appearing on my property since 2005."

Tartaglia visited Lenar's home last April on Good Friday and saw the cross. The priest photographed the image and spoke about it in his homily, calling it a sign.

As part of his daily routine, Lenar visits churches to photograph stained glass windows and statues to use on his website and blog. During a visit to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Washington, N.J. in 2008, Lenar photographed rays of sunlight through a stained glass window, which appear to be flowing towards the ceiling. (See photo on top of page)

"I cannot explain the phenomena," said Lenar. "Remarkably, the stained glass window is a representation of the Miracle of the Sun which was witnessed by 70,000 people on Oct. 13, 1917 at Fatima, Portugal."

Signs of Archangel Michael - Photo by Loci B. Lenar

In 2009, he stopped to pray at The Church of St. Michael in Netcong, N.J. and photographed a statue of St. Michael the Archangel.

"Without the flash, you see the striking rainbow beyond the statue and around the arms," he said. "I gave the small memory card to Father Richard."

Catholics invoke St. Michael the Archangel in prayer for physical protection.

Lenar said that Jesus is calling people to pray for divine protection, not just for their families but for the world.

"We are living in difficult times, but through prayer we could change things," he said. "Through prayer violence could be mitigated."

Lenar added that Christmas time is all about signs and wonders, as Christians celebrate the miracle of Christ's birth.

"The prophecy is fulfilled," he said. "It is good to know that God's presence is still here. It didn't end 2,000 years ago. It still continues to our time."

***

Additional Note: Linda Andrade Rodrigues interviewed Loci B. Lenar on November 29, 2012 for this article.  There are two extra photographs added to the original Standard-Times' story. The two images are the Cross of Light and Signs of Archangel Michael. However, both images are mentioned in the original story.

Furthermore, all photographs by Loci B. Lenar were shared with Fr. Richard Tartaglia exactly as captured on the camera's memory card.  All images were transferred to a CD for church archives.