Category Archives: Prayer

I promise that the following will astonish you. Keep in mind that World War I was raging throughout this time.

1917 March: The Russian monarchy was overthrown* by a moderate, democratically-oriented regime. At this point, the Bolsheviks were minor players in Russian politics, with no more than twenty thousand members, out of a population of one hundred and forty million. They had taken an insignificant part in the revolution, had made many enemies as the most radical wing of the socialists, and their leader, Vladimir Lenin, was in exile.

1917 April: Eager to avoid a democratic, western-allied Russia, German High Command secretly escorted Lenin back into Russia during the holiest week in the Judaeo-Christian calendar.

April 2, 1917: Top secret German communique – “We must covertly do everything we can to deepen the differences between the moderate and the extreme parties, since it is definitely in our interest that the latter should win the upper hand; then another upheaval will be inevitable and will take forms which will shake the Russian state to its foundations.”

April 6, 1917 (Good Friday, Roman Triduum): Passover began at sundown and the United States officially declared war on Germany.

April 9, 1917 (Monday, Roman Easter Week): Lenin began his journey out of exile.

April 13, 1917 (Final day of Passover; Holy Friday, Orthodox Triduum): Lenin arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, where he met with leading Socialists and arranged with a representative of German High Command for financing of Bolshevik activities in Russia. The Germans would ultimately invest the rough equivalent to $100 million in today’s dollars in building up Bolshevik newspapers and membership throughout Russia.

April 15, 1917 (Orthodox Easter Sunday): Lenin and his group crossed into Russian territory at midnight, just as Easter was beginning.

1917 May to October: With German money and Lenin’s leadership, the Bolshevik movement grew rapidly. Meanwhile, the Blessed Mother appeared to three illiterate peasant children in Fátima, Portugal. Below are abbreviated forms of her messages to the children interspersed with key events in the rise of Lenin to power.

May 13: “I want you to return here on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months, and at the very same hour. Later I shall tell you who I am, and what it is that I most desire.”

June 13: “Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart.”

July 13: “If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and the world will enjoy a period of peace.” N.b., The Blessed Mother’s message made no sense at this time, because Russia was still a devoutly Christian nation and had been for 1,000 years.

Mid-July: Lenin’s revolutionary program met with its first serious reverses when the Provisional Government put down a premature Bolshevik insurrection and word began to leak out about German funding of Bolshevik activities. Lenin was forced to run back to Finland.

August 13: Anti-Catholics took the three Fátima children hostage, keeping them locked up and threatening them repeatedly with torture and death if they did not renounce their story about a heavenly visitor. They refused and finally, on the August 15 (the Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven), they were returned to Fátima and deposited on the steps of the rectory. Our Lady appeared to the children on Sunday, August 19. “Come again to the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of next month, my child, and continue to say the Rosary every day. In the last month I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.”

September 13: “Continue the Rosary, my children. Say it every day that the war may end. … In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.”

September 12: An attempted coup by the Russian military ended with its leader’s suicide. The Provisional Government had depended on the support it received from the military to keep the Bolsheviks at bay. With that support gone, the Bolsheviks began to win the upper hand.

October 13 (Saturday, The Miracle of the Sun): “I am the Lady of the Rosary. … People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend our Lord any more, for He is already too much offended!” The Miracle of the Sun was seen by tens of thousands, a great crowd that had come to the Cova but also people from far away. The event was recorded as fact even in an anti-Catholic newspaper.

October 12: Lenin returned to Petrograd from Finland. He then went underground, dating his letters as if he were still in Finland.

1917 November: The Bolsheviks led by Lenin seized power* and established an officially godless state that would aggressively spread its intolerant creed around the globe.

*The two Russian revolutions occurred in March and November on the Gregorian calendar. They are often spoken of as the February and October revolutions, because Russia at that time was still using the Julian calendar which was thirteen days behind the Gregorian calendar.

Source:

Lenin, Fátima and Holy Week By James J. Foley

http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/FR93403.TXT

Apparition messages

https://www.ewtn.com/fatima/apparitions/BVM.htm

It has been ten years since I came up with what I call A Road Map for Spiritual Growth. Looking back, I cannot quite believe it has ONLY been ten years. I’ve grown SO MUCH.

I was raised Catholic and have always taken my faith very seriously. I remember my earliest religion classes, preparation for First Penance and First Communion. I even remember coloring pictures in the church nursery and getting advice from my older siblings on the way to my first Mass. (No gum chewing stands out. I think my sister told me that one.)

In Junior High, when many of the other Catholic kids in my class had whined or wiggled their way out of going to release time religious education classes with Sister Battle-axe, I still went. It cost me being in the choir, because they were the same period. That hurt. In Senior High, I was always one of the kids who signed up for youth group activities, retreats and days of prayer.

In college, I shocked the local priest by showing up during Freshman Orientation week to introduce myself and get the Mass schedule. By sophomore year, I was president of the Newman Parish Council. Dearest and I had our first date at a social function sponsored by the Catholic Charismatic prayer group.

Right after finding the house we wanted, we went to the local parish and joined up. I taught RCIA. Dearest chaired the Building Committee during the expansion. Sacraments were major family events. Sunday school and Youth Group were givens. The girls served on the altar until they were old enough for adult ministries, then they became Lectors and Sunday school teaching assistants.

Dearest and I went to every Bible study and, over the years, I had three spiritual directors. I’m not saying any of this to brag, but to explain how long and how hard I worked at my faith …. without making much progress. I really worked at becoming holy, because I wanted the peace and joy God promised. But until God gave me the wisdom to understand Self-Contempt and to create this Map for Spiritual Growth, I stayed mired in an ugly morass of anxiety-driven Scrupulosity.

It’s been ten years since I wrote the first version of A Road Map for Spiritual Growth. Since then, I have finally experienced the peace that passes all understanding. I am sitting here with tears, so GRATEFUL to God for giving me the wisdom that led to this growth. Scripture says, “By their fruits you shall know them.” I am about to turn 60. If my life is any measure, there is good fruit in A Map for Spiritual Growth.

A Map for Spiritual Growth

Scripture says that the virtuous heart produces good fruit, while the sinful heart produces bad fruit.

My religion teacher says that the sinful heart is characterized by the Seven Deadly Sins – Pride, Envy, Greed, Lust, Anger, Gluttony and Sloth – and that these vices are like two-sided coins, with each one having an opposite virtue.

Supposedly, if I could identify the vices (aka, root sins) that fuel my sinful heart, then I could identify the opposite virtues. Vices can be repented; virtues can be practiced. It isn’t that different from dieting, really. Stop eating the bad foods; start eating the good foods.

There is only one problem. I am 100% convinced my root sin is Self-Contempt. But Self-Contempt isn’t on any list of vices or sins that I have ever seen. And I have no idea what its opposite virtue might be. On top of that, the Church teaches that the chief of all vices is Pride and its opposite is the virtue of Humility, but that makes no sense to me. The last thing I suffer from is thinking too much of myself.

Plus, everything we are taught about Humility sounds exactly like me. But that can’t be right, either. We are supposed to love others as we love ourselves and I am very sure that I don’t love me.

These traditional formulations just aren’t helping me grow. Maybe I could make more sense of my spiritual situation if I traded in the two-sided coin metaphor for a number line.

I’ll put Pride (in its traditional sense) on the right side to represent the spiritual status of those who believe, “I am more special than anyone else.” And I’ll put Self-Contempt on the left side to represent the spiritual status of those who believe, “I am less special than anyone else.” It is suddenly so clear that true Humility must be right in the middle, where the virtuous soul knows, deep down, “I am unique and special, just like everyone else.”

The Bible is quite clear that Pride is the chief of all sins, so it is easy to be confused by the use of the word “pride” for only the right side. But in its scriptural context, pride is an improper emphasis on one’s place in His Creation.

The right-siders value themselves more than God values them; the left-siders value themselves less than God values them. In essence, SELF-CONTEMPT is pride turned upside down.

Only God has the right to judge the value of a human being and there are only two ways for a human being to be in relationship with Him. I can put Him first or I can put me first.

SELF-CONTEMPT is a form of pride, because it is an improper relationship. Unfortunately, “pride upside down” isn’t very edifying, so I’ll stick with SELF-CONTEMPT.

For those on the right side of the line, spiritual growth is about learning to love God and others more.

For those of us on the left side of the line, spiritual growth is more complicated because what we truly worship is not God or ourselves, but safety. Somehow, somewhere, somewhen, we were taught that we didn’t matter. Whether it was from abuse, neglect, or trauma, at some time in our lives we internalized this evil, toxic lie:

“I am unlovable and have no right to be safe.”

The pain of SELF-CONTEMPT is intense. Our natural need for intimacy forces us to continually seek out the respect and approval of others, while our fear-driven self-hatred forces us to continually reject any respect or approval we are given, while simultaneously magnifying and brooding on any criticism, however small, undeserved or well-intended.

But more than ANYTHING, we fear God. And not in the good way the Bible talks about. We are terrified that He might get a glimpse of our true worthlessness and so we approach Him only in our party clothes with our party faces on.

Yeah, I know. It’s silly to think you can hide from God. But trust me. That’s where I lived for years.

But He is such a gentleman! All the time I kept my real self locked inside a dark closet, He sat outside the door, speaking softly or singing or just saying my name. He never opened the door, though He could have. And He never ridiculed me for thinking I could hide from Him. He just waited until I was ready to crack the door just the tiniest bit.

Maybe that’s when the idea for the Map came to me … when I finally let that closet door off the latch.

There is a lot more to the Map, but for today, I just want to share one example of how I used it to begin growing in peace and true Humility. (If you want the whole thing, send an email to Chrissy@ChrissyOriginals.com and I’ll send back the file.)

All of the traditional spiritual practices I’ve ever been taught were based on the two-sided coin model; they were designed to move people to the left on my number line. That works very well for people who value themselves too highly, because it moves them toward God. But it moves people like me AWAY from God and INTO greater Self-Contempt.

In the graphic below, the traditional Act of Contrition prayer is on the right. I was taught this prayer when I was seven years old. Saying it always aggravated my unholy sense of shame, moving me farther away from God and the peace I craved. Once I had the Map to guide me, I was able to write the Act of Contrition that’s on the left. Saying this prayer moved me to the right … toward God. Saying it made me feel some of the first spiritual peace I’d ever experienced.

Me: Dear God, Please bless my lunch and all that but … why did You let so much bad stuff happen to me this morning?! I overslept, then my car took forever to start. And now, they made my sandwich wrong and I’ve got only a few minutes to eat it before I have to be back to work!

God: Let me see. First, the death angel was at your bed this morning and sent one of my angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that. Second, I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if your car had started right away. Finally, the person who made your first sandwich is coming down with the flu and I didn’t want you to catch it. Anything else?

Me: Yes, thank you for taking such good care of me and I’m sorry I complained instead of trusting You.

God: You’re welcome and I forgive you. Now eat. Your boss is looking for you.

The annual World Watch List ranks countries by the intensity of persecution that Christians face for demonstrating their faith in all spheres of life – private, family, community, national and church.

For the 12th straight year, North Korea is numero uno on the Open Doors list of “worst places to be a Christian.” In North Korea, a Christian can be executed or forced into a lifelong labor camp along with several generations of his or her family just for possessing a Bible or for spending time in prayer.

NoKo is Atheist Communist. However, worldwide it is Islamic Extremism that is the worst persecutor of Christians. Overall, persecution of Christians worldwide continues to increase. It is estimated that 100 million Christians are actively being persecuted. A total of 2,123 Christians are known to have been martyred in 2013 compared to 1,201 in 2012. Syria had the most martyrs with 1,213. The death total in North Korea is not available.

Source:

http://www.religiontoday.com/news/north-korea-remains-number-one-persecutor-of-christians.html

Looking for some resolution ideas? Mine is 7. I really need to work on 7.

1)      Listen without interrupting. – Proverbs 18

2)      Speak without accusing. – James 1:19

3)      Give without sparing. – Proverbs 21:26

4)      Pray without ceasing. – Colossians 1:9

5)      Answer without arguing. – Proverbs 17:1

6)      Share without pretending. – Ephesians 4:15

7)      Enjoy without complaint. – Philippians 2:14

8)      Trust without wavering. – 1 Corinthians 13:7

9)      Forgive without punishing. – Colossians 3:13

10)   Promise without forgetting. – Proverbs 13:12

I read over at Twitchy that the MSM has slid so far into the cesspool of Progressive Morality that it is no longer safe to let your kids watch the ball drop. Apparently, NBC was so busy with their filth, they forgot to show the ball dropping! Unbelievable.

The tweet that scored the highest upticks was “a nation of moral depravity that will soon get the full wrath of Gods Justice upon it!” You got that right. My big wish for 2014 is that we’ll get Raptured BEFORE the Progs pull the debt trigger.

Source:

http://twitchy.com/2014/01/01/attention-parents-its-no-longer-safe-to-let-kids-stay-up-to-watch-the-new-years-ball-drop/