Showing results by author "Penny Lord" in All Categories

Paray le Monial is a beautiful, quiet town nestled in the center of France. But the power that emanates from this town is pure Holy Spirit. You can still feel the presence of our Lord Jesus. For, it is here that our Lord appeared to a nun over a period of 17 years. He brought his faithful message of love to an unfaithful people who had grown cold. Here, he, once again, spoke of that tremendous love of his to become man and suffer death - even death on the cross.

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.

There are three women who made their marks upon the Church with the work they did among the Native Americans and with the children of Canada. They are Saint Marguerite Bougeoys, foundress of Sisters of Notre Dame, Saint Marie Marguerite D’Youville, the first Canadian-born saint and foundress of the Sisters of Charity in Canada, also known as the Grey Nuns, and Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation, Foundress of the Ursuline Sisters in Canada.

We know Our Dear Lady was upset about how her priests and nuns, as well as the laity were being treated. She had always been so loving to her children. It was she whom Jesus allowed to intercede on our behalf. We drove him beyond reconciliation, and yet, because of her, he allowed his arms to be held back. It did not seem that mankind was going to get any better. It was time for tribulation. But the Mother, the loving Mother, asked again for one more chance to reason with her children, and again, the gift was given by the Son to the Mother.

Realizing he was not able to handle all of the niceties of his office, due to the tensions he was constantly under, Pius IX had handed over most of the diplomatic chores of his Papacy to Cardinal Atonelli, but he died in 1877, and Pope Pius IX died the following winter. It is fair to say that the Vatican was in a diplomatic shambles after the death of Pope Pius IX. So who was the Lord going to choose to put in the hot seat of the Papacy? He chose a very strong, but very peace-loving Cardinal from Perugia, Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci, to be known as Pope Leo XIII.

We trace the life of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha. Lily of the Mohawks. Kateri lived with the Mohawks and had her ministry.

Alfred Bessette (later known as Brother André) came from very humble beginnings, much like those of Jesus. He was born on August 9, 1845. The baby was so frail and sickly, his parents were afraid he would not live; and so, Alfred was baptized the moment he was born. He was conditionally baptized (when there is doubt concerning a previous baptism) the following day in the church. With the loving care and prayers of a very pious mother, our future Blessed lived to an old age!

Prophetess of Germany, visionary, mystic, doctor of the Church. Come with us as we travel to Bingen, Germany, and the area of the beautiful Rhine River which is where St. Hildegard lived and had her visions. It was also here where she wrote her books on her visions and many other things, like a morality play put to music, which she also wrote. She wrote a book on herbal medicine, which is used to this day in that area of Germany.

This is the story of a precious child of God who was born into royalty, yet never used or abused it. It is the story of a great woman, a daughter, a wife, a widow, a benefactress of the poor, a glowing example of a soul endeavoring to love her Lord more purely, yet faithful to her calling as wife and mother.

She was born with a crippled and paralyzed right arm and a disease commonly called in those days “Scrofula”, which is a form of tuberculosis that affects the neck. In her case, it also made her neck and cheeks malformed and not at all pleasant to look at. At times, she suffered from swelling and open, puss-filled sores. No one knew for sure who her parents were. Laurent Cousin may have been her father, but that was never determined for sure.

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!

The life of Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica, who brought about his conversion.

Table of Contents: The Franciscans; biographies of these Franciscan Saints; Saint Francis of Assisi; Saint Anthony of Padua; Saint Bonaventure; Saint Bernardine of Siena; Saint Joseph of Cupertino; Saint Maxmilian Kolbe; Saint Padre Pio. Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to The Franciscans and learn about Christian Saints.

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.

Apostle of the devotion to the precious blood was born in Rome on January 6, 1786. As a devoted priest, Saint Gaspar del Bufalo revived the works of the apostolate in Rome and later became a dedicated missionary. In his missionary travels of Italy, he invited the faithful to reflect upon and to adore the precious blood of Christ.

St. John Bosco, better known as Don Bosco, is one of the great apostles of the 19th century. His ministry was to the children of Turin in Northern Italy, victims of the Industrial Revolution in that country at that time. Don Bosco was God's gift to the Church of that century. The magnetism of Don Bosco reached out and touched souls all over the world. He was one of the most multi-faceted diamonds the Lord has ever given us.

Saint Margaret of Cortona began her life on earth in the 13th century. Let us go back to that time, to a little farmhouse in Laviano, in the province of Tuscany. There was a flurry in the quiet kitchen. Dusk had no sooner settled into night, when dawn was desperately trying to break through. Water was boiling; the midwife was there to assist the bringing into the world of a new life. It was a girl! The pain of childbirth soon disappeared, as the mother held her new baby in her arms.

The convent in which Dina spent her nine years as a religious nun burned to the ground in 1983. Therefore, there was no room where she had lived, no infirmary where she died, and nothing physical that you could touch in the new convent and school which was built after her death. But she was there, in every room we visited, every corner we turned, in the chapel where she is buried, and most importantly, in the eyes and spirit of every sister in the community. They all reflected the spirit of their sister in Christ, the precious little Saint of Québec.

Saint Paul was born in Tarsus, a port city in the southeastern part of Turkey. He was from a Jewish family who traced their roots back to the tribe of Benjamin. This Jewish community had been sent to Tarsus during the Diaspora. Pompey had made Tarsus the capital of the province of Cilicia. Mark Anthony gave the people of Tarsus freedom, immunity, and the right to become Roman citizens, which accounts for Paul's reference to, and pride in, his Roman citizenship. He invoked his rights as a Roman citizen many times during his ministry to get out of some serious scrapes with the Jews.

Ireland is a magical land, famous for its shamrocks and harps, leprechauns, shillelaghs, and green-eyed colleens with skin as white as milk. It is called the Emerald Isle, and the national color is green; Ireland is lush green, almost tropical in certain areas. The national drink is Guinness, although he’s a “damned Protestant”. Ireland is not only a country; it’s a state of mind, a way of life. We think of the Irish people as being quite fanciful, partly because of Barry Fitzgerald, who gave us our unofficial description of what an Irishman should be.