Our Lady of Akita (Japan)

With all the events in Japan over the last few days; the 8.9 earthquake and the 23 foot tsunami, and the events still to unfold; the possible meltdown of the nuclear facility there due to the earthquake and tsunami, I thought this may be a good time to see if Our Lady has every appeared in Japan.  It did happen, in 1973, in Akita, Japan, not too far from Sendai which was very near the epicenter of the earthquake.

I looked up Our Lady of Akita on the internet: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Akita, and on EWTN.com: http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/akita.htm.  She left 3 messages with Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa.  Her messages, like all of Her apparitions, strongly ask for prayer and penance to atone for the sinfulness of the human race, otherwise mankind will suffer and suffer greatly.  During the time of the messages, there was also marks of stigmata on both a statue of Mary and on Sister Agnes’ hand.  (I will write on stigmata in a future entry to this weblog.)  The statue was reported to have shed real, human tears as well as bearing the stigmata (marks of Jesus’ suffering).

Crying statue of Mary - Akita, Japan

I will not say that God sent these catastrophes to Japan.  I don’t know God’s mind and will not pretend to think that I know His message.  It just the natural order of things.  The Earth is constantly evolving/changing and these types of occurances are just going to happen periodically.  But I will say, that we need prayer now and LOTS of it!  The folks in Japan are suffering terribly.  Pray for these people!  Pray that the nuclear power plant doesn’t meltdown!  Pray for clean water and food!  Help in anyway that you can.  Send aid if you are blessed with extra.

I wonder if Sister Agnes and her convent made it safely through the earthquake.  I’m sure they did not suffer from the tsunami since the wave was on the eastern coast and Akita is more on the western side of Japan.  But I’m sure they are praying and attempting to help in any way possible.  This would be a good time to ask Our Lady of Akita to intercede for these people and ask that God’s mercy be extended to all.

Shrine of Our Lady of Akita

Dear Lord, please send legions of angels and miracles to the people of Japan.  Please, Lord, take away this suffering on them.  In Jesus’ name, we pray.  Amen.

-Deneen

How do you make a Saint?

Pope John Paul II is set to be canonized a saint on May 1, 2011.  I admired him greatly and would love to be in Rome for the festivities.  It’s going to be crowded, I’m sure.  I was able to attend a Mass in Baltimore when he visited the United States in 1995.  Nothing lifts your heart more than when you have a stadium filled with people from all colors of Christian faiths; there were about 50,000 people there that day, saying the Lord’s Prayer in unison.  WOW!  I never saw so many priests gathered in one place!  The whole day was simply amazing.

Pope John Paul II

That leads me to today’s topic.  What makes a saint?  Beyond the obvious of being a very holy and upstanding person, of course.  What specifically are the steps that have to be worked through before a person is officially declared a saint?  {Google is a wonderful tool!}  Off to the internet I went and here’s what I came up with from ‘Ask a Catholic’ (http://www.cptryon.org/ask/ask/index.html):

Question: How do people become recognized as saints?

The road to sainthood begins at the grass-roots. Ordinary Christians, perhaps in a parish or a religious community, recognize that someone of extraordinary holiness has lived among them. The memory of that person inspires them. The story of his or her life is told, perhaps in a book. People pray to the person, asking intercession for some favor, and their prayers may be answered. Extraordinary signs, perhaps a cure from sickness, occur. A local group may be formed which seeks to make this person’s life and gifts more widely known.

After a long period of time, sometimes many years, the bishop of the diocese where that person lived may be asked to begin the local process for declaring a saint. If he sees merit in the request, he sets up a board of experts to investigate the person’s life, soundness of faith and reputation for holiness. Those who knew the person are interviewed. If miracles are attributed to that person’s intercession, they must verified by medical experts. Finally the bishop must ascertain from the other bishops of the region if this person is known and venerated more widely than in one local area.

Then, if there is reason to proceed further, the bishop may petition Rome to begin the process of beatification.

Beatification

Beatification is the next step toward sainthood. It begins when the local bishop provides the materials he has accumulated to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Using the materials, officials of the congregation create an historical-critical account of the candidate’s life and spirituality. One important criteria sought at this stage is the historical importance of the candidate: Did he or she meet a particular challenge of their time and place? Did the candidate offer a new example of holiness to the world in which he lived? Or was he truly a martyr, one who died for faith in Jesus Christ?

If the candidate was martyred, a miracle need not be sought. If the candidate did not die as a martyr, then one miracle after death must be proven, through the scrutiny of a body of medical experts. Once they find it acceptable, and the candidate’s life is judged truly heroic by a group of theological experts and cardinals, then the pope can declare that beatification may proceed. After the beatifcation takes place, the candidate can be called blessed and veneration may be offered by the local church. The pope can then go further and canonize the blessed.

Canonization

Canonization is the final step that declares someone a saint. It means that the candidate, already called blessed, is entered into the worldwide list of saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. First, however, in the case of a candidate who is not a martyr, the church looks for another authentic miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession, as a sign from God of the candidate’s heroic holiness. Then, if the candidate’s reputation for holiness continues to grow worldwide, the pope may decide to canonize.

For a detailed discussion of this process, consider looking at Kenneth Woodward’s book, Making Saints, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.

This “Ask a Catholic” response written by Fr Victor Hoagland, C.P.

 So I guess that answers my question.  I guess I better get busy with those miracles!  🙂

Blessings,

Deneen

The ‘Other’ Sheens

We’ve been sick here in my home.  The flu bug bit all of us and we have not functioned, at all.  I haven’t posted since February 25th!  It’s been all I could do to get a bit of supper on the table and keep the kitchen sink from filling to the brim with dirty dishes.  And if I see another bowl of chicken soup, I’ll grow feathers and lay an egg!  LOL!

Speaking of a full kitchen sink…..my sink is painfully full of the ‘stuff’ coming out of my television in regards to one very misguided moviestar; Charlie Sheen.  This post, however, isn’t about the pornstar-lusting, drug-loving, very lost child of God.  Nope, this post is about the other two men of the Sheen family; Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez. 

Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez

Did you know that the Sheen family is of Spanish, Roman-Catholic descent?  And not only are they Catholic, they appear to practice their faith.  How refreshing!  But of course, a practicing Christian isn’t newsworthy – it’s clean laundry as opposed to the filthy, dirty laundry the public likes to hear about.  (Sorry Charlie.)

Emilio and his father Martin have just finished a movie called ‘The Way’.  It’s about a 500 mile pilgrimage route that begins in the French Pyrenees and ends at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. 

Santiago de Compostela Cathedral

Martin’s own father, Francisco, followed the route, locally called ‘El Camino’, many years ago.  Five hundred miles!  Can you imagine walking that far?  It apparently takes about 40 days to complete and has been a pilgrimage route since the Middle Ages.  The Cathedral is reported to be the burial-place of Saint James the Greater, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ.  Wikipedia reports that the route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987; it was also named one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.  The full name in English is called The Way of St. James.

The movie, ‘The Way’, is a story about a man, who is estranged from his son, and finds out that that son dies in a storm in the Pyrenees on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.  The rest of the film is about this man’s journey, along with 3 others, to find himself.  There’s a great article in the Arlington Catholic Herald, March 3-9, 2011, http://www.catholicherald.com/detail.html?sub_id=15233, about how the Sheen’s feel that the whole making of the movie had so many ‘coincidences’ that it had to be divine providence.  That certainly wasn’t Charlie talking! 

Well, I plan on seeing the movie.  I want to see about this pilgrimage that the God-following Sheens have taught me about.  I never heard of it until today.  Instead of wanting to watch a porn movie (again, Sorry Charlie), I want to see a movie that will help to strengthen my faith, maybe take a moral inventory of my soul, and receive God’s light into my life.  I wish the media would put THAT on the news!

Dear Jesus, please deliver people from the chains of addictions and help them to see The Way back to you.  Amen.

– Deneen

It’s about time!

Finally, ONE state – only ONE state – in the whole United States is FINALLY regulating abortion clinics.  Virginia grew some scruples!  God Bless the Old Dominion!

Abortion advocates are quoted in the today’s Washington Post saying that the new law could cause 17 of the 21 clinics in Virginia to close.  Now why would that be if they were so safe to begin with?  It’s like I said before, “Abortion might be legal, but it sure ain’t safe.”  Just possibly in Virginia, women no longer will be treated like chattel.  Please, don’t for a moment think I’m advocating abortion in any shape or form.  I’m not.  Women just deserve better than abortion.  And maybe, just maybe, if regulations are in place, and these slaughter houses are monitored, women won’t be so abused as they were in the past; abused so horribly, just so that someone could make a dollar.  Those clinics are wolves in sheep’s clothing, masking their moneymaking scheme in the lie that they are concerned for the woman’s ‘rights’. 

Three cheers for the courage that the Virginia legislature has shown this week.  For once, let’s hope this one is contagious and is caught by other states too.  God Bless all of those who voted in favor of this law.  I am very proud to say that today, I am a Virginian!

Today’s prayer, ‘Dear Lord, bless not only those who voted for this regulation, but also for those who did not.  Show them Your love and grace, so that they too will one day see the light and wisdom of Your ways.  Amen.’

God Bless,

Deneen

My First Prayer Team Member!

I had someone take me up on my offer of starting a prayer team!  Welcome Mary Young!  I’ve known Mary since I was about 4 or 5 years old.  We grew up in the same small town and my sister is married to her brother.  She used the term ‘Prayer Warrior’.  I like it!  We are in a kind of war after all.  A war against all the bad stuff we get thrown at us every day; the age-old battle of good vs. evil!  We’re the good guys and get to wear white! 

So far, I’ve managed to say the Rosary 3 days in a row and you know, it really does work.  Before I know it, 20 minutes have passed and traffic just doesn’t seem to be the irritant it usually is for me. 

It’s also really cool to know that there are folks out there who are reading my blog!  It’s very encouraging and gives me the positive affirmation I need to keep moving forward.  I want to be the one that when I get up in the morning, the devil says, ‘Oh shoot, she’s awake!’  🙂

I would like to extend the prayer team invitation again.  Join me and Mary in prayer! Remove some of the stress and craziness from your life and, for once, look good in white!!! 😉

Deneen

The Rosary – continued

As I was driving into work this morning, I was thinking about my post last night.  When would be a good time to begin praying the Rosary on a more consistent basis, I wondered?  Should I get up earlier in the morning?  Should I let some responsibility slide in the evening?  Then it hit me! 

As I sat in traffic (again) and listened to the local and world news (nothing good), weather and traffic (weather – good, traffic – not so good), sports (who cares!), and wondering why that person in the BMW had to cut me off, I realized, what a great time to spend in prayer with Mary and the Rosary!  What else did I have to do and I have 90 minutes to kill to boot.  But more than that, prayer removes me from the noise of the news and those irritable drivers entitled to drive in my lane when my car is already there. 

Besides, when you’re praying, you can’t be sinning at the same time!

I prayed the Rosary and my time in traffic just seemed to fly.  I was able to ask God for a specific need that I picked for today and arrived at work in a good mood.  It didn’t cost a penny, but left me feeling like I just spent an hour at the spa!

Prayer is good!

Here’s a link with all the ‘How to’s’ for praying the rosary –> http://www.catholicherald.com/faith/detail.html?sub_id=15042

I hope to hear from someone who wants to be my Prayer Team member soon.  I promise you lower blood pressure and a sunny smile to start your day!

– Deneen

The Rosary

The Rosary is a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and comes from the Latin word rosarium, which means “rose garden” or “garland of roses”.  It is popular tradition that Mary’s favorite flower was the rose.  It certainly is mine.  🙂

Something I learned today is that the Rosary isn’t just a Catholic devotion.  The Lutherns and the Anglicans pray the rosary too!  That was neat to find out.  A lot of protestant faiths however discourage this devotion because they believe that Mary, while an honorable woman, shouldn’t have a devotion because she’s not a god.  While she isn’t a god, that is true, she did bear Our Lord for 9 months and raise Him to adulthood with Joseph.  If God feels she’s good enough to bear His Son, I don’t see anything wrong with honoring the woman! 

Mary encourages that we pray, pray, pray!  Show as much devotion to her Son as possible to ward off the Evil One.  Sounds like a good plan to me.  What a good way to show that devotion, by immersing yourself in prayer with the Rosary for 15 to 20 minutes, and giving Old Scratch the boot!

Praying the Rosary is a very simple, repetitive devotion that contains the “Lord’s Prayer” (Our Father) followed by ten prayings of the “Hail Mary” and a single praying of “Glory Be to the Father” .  Each of these sets is called a decade.  The praying of each decade is begun by meditation on one of the “Mysteries of the Rosary’, which recalls an event in the life of Jesus.  There are 20 Mysteries of the Rosary; 5 each of Joyful Mysteries, Glorious Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries, and those I wrote about yesterday, Luminous Mysteries.

It’s so nice to sit quietly and reflect on those notable events of the Lord’s life and how the lessons He taught can be used in my daily life, to walk a straighter walk, to be a better person, to ask myself, ‘What would Jesus do?’  And then do it.  I don’t pray the Rosary often enough.  And frankly, I could use the 15 minutes of just being still, praying with(not to) Mary, listening for God’s whisper in the breeze.  I let life get me sidetracked all the time.  I have all the best intentions in the world, but then something happens like, the dryer buzzer goes off or the phone rings.  So that’s my homework for tonight.  Schedule time, every day, to sit and reflect in thoughtful prayer.  Wonder how well I’ll do by this time next week.  Would anyone like to tag team with me on this one?  I’m open to forming a prayer team, kind of like having a fitness coach, to make sure you do what you’re supposed to do.  We could support one another.  Let me know and I look forward to finding out who my Pray Team will turn out to be!

Goodnight and God Bless,

Deneen

Luminous mysteries and the Rosary

So what are these Luminous mysteries anyhow?  I noticed them being talked about over the last 2 or 3 years and I’ve been wondering when they came about.  They never existed when I was a kid, or so I thought.  Off to Wikipedia I go and I find out that they had their beginning under John Paul II. 

Here’s a quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_Mysteries

The traditional 15 Mysteries of the Rosary were standardized, based on the long-standing custom, by Pope St. Pius V in the 16th century. The mysteries are grouped into three sets: the joyful mysteries, the sorrowful mysteries, and the glorious mysteries. In 2002, Pope John Paul II announced five new optional mysteries, the luminous mysteries, bringing the total number of mysteries to 20.

So, the Luminous mysteries have been around for 9 years.  Guess I’ve been late to the dance.  The five new Luminous mysteries are:

1. The Baptism of Our Lord in the River Jordan  (Matthew 3:13-16)
2. The Wedding at Cana, where Christ manifested Himself  (John 2:1-11)
3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God  (Mark 1:14-15)
4. The Transfiguration of Our Lord  (Matthew 17:1-8)
5. The Last Supper, when Our Lord gave us the Holy Eucharist (Matthew 26)

I had to look up #3, but I knew all the rest of the events.  At http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201:14-15&version=NASB#en-NASB-24230 I found:  (Okay, I’m being lazy!  I didn’t feel like walking up the steps to get the Bible from my bedroom, 🙂 so I found a new Bible link on the internet. )

Mark 1:14-15 (New American Standard Bible)

Jesus Preaches in Galilee

 ^14(A)Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, ^(B)preaching the gospel of God,  ¹⁵and saying, “^(C)The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; ^(D)repent and believe in the gospel.”

So, now I’m up to speed on the Rosary!  Tomorrow, I am going to post all the Mysteries of the Rosary and also how to pray the Rosary.  There’s a really great article on this topic in this week’s diocesan newspaper, The Arlington Catholic Herald.  http://www.catholicherald.com/detail.html?sub_id=15028.

God Bless Everyone!

Deneen

Twenty-first century Catholicism

Guess what everyone?  The Catholic Church isn’t always the ‘backwards thinking’, ‘old-fashioned’, ‘blind-to-new-ways’ institution that many like to accuse Her of!  First of all, sticking to your guns and standing up for the right thing, may not always be envogue, but right it right.  Saying life is precious and should be protected 100% of the time from conception to natural death, for instance, is one of those ‘right’ things. Saying that it is okay to be chaste and virtuous is another one of those ‘right’ things as well. [No kids, everyone is NOT doing IT!]

Well, the Catholic Church has joined the iPhone revolution.  In the NY Daily News, this article was released on February 7, 2011: http://www.nydailynews.com/tech_guide/2011/02/07/2011-02-07_forgive_me_iphone_new_app_okayed_by_catholic_church.html.  The article says, ‘Confession: A Roman Catholic app, thought to be the first to be approved by a church authority, walks Catholics through the sacrament and contains what the company behind the program describes as a “personalized examination of conscience for each user”‘.  It’s not confession on the ‘net’.  You still have to get absolution from a priest, but it helps those who haven’t taken part in the sacrament in quite some time and might be timid about what to say and when to say it.  I think it should be free though and not cost $1.99, especially since you can find the same information for free by surfing the internet for about 3 minutes.

My next question would be, do you think it will work?  Do you think an application on the iPhone would bring a long-lost sheep back to the fold?  Well, apparently, it already has.  The article mentions a gentleman who worked with the app and came back to the sacrament after a 20-year ‘hiatus’ from confession.  Welcome home, brother!

Another falacy that I’d like to shoot down is that the Catholic Church is against stem cell research.  That is NOT true.  The stem cells obtained from adults are perfectly acceptable.  The stem cells obtained from an aborted child are not – for obvious reasons that common sense should aleady have provided you. 

In a second article from the NY Daily News, this one from May 25, 2010, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/05/25/2010-05-25_vactican_supports_adult_stem_cell_therapy_project_with_nycbased_company.html, it states, ‘To prove the point, [the Vatican] launched a first-ever joint initiative with a Manhattan-based company that’s researching adult stem cell therapies — and pledged $1 million in funding to seal the deal’.  The stem cells are obtained from an adult’s bone marrow. The company being supported by the Vatican is called NeoStem (NYSE: NBS ) www.neostem.com.  

Three cheers for science and technology!  May the advances in these two areas keep progressing so that human beings can find forgiveness and healing while leaving the sin and guilt behind!  AMEN!

God Bless You!

Deneen

Do You Have the Fortitude and Moral Strength of a Saint?

Did you know that even the Boys Scouts have a patron saint?  I didn’t, until today.  It’s St. George.  Actually, he’s the patron saint of soldiers, but I guess you can consider the scouts as ‘mini-soldiers’! 

My son was chosen at today’s Scout Mass to give one of the prayers of petition.  He had stage fright and I was offering up prayers that he’d do a good job.  And since Father said St. George was their patron saint, I asked him to offer a prayer up for my son too.  (Must have worked, he did great!)

St. George

In my research on St. George, it sounds like he was an upstanding kind of guy; someone who stood up for his beliefs.  He was a Tribune in the Roman army for the Emperor Diocletian and was of Palestinian birth to Christian parents sometime in the late 3rd century.  When Diocletian started torturing and killing Christians because of their religious beliefs, St. George publically denounced the emperor and resigned his commission in the Army.  You guessed it, he was arrested, tortured and killed as well. 

 

Do you ever wonder what it’s like to live in a country where you are hated for your belief in God?  It’s so illogical to oppress people; to force them to do something they don’t want to do.  I’m not talking about disciplining your children; making them do something for their own good, or punishing a criminal who has abused his rights and privileges in society.  I’m talking about peace-loving citizens who practice the Golden Rule, people who don’t break the law except for worshipping a Being who is greater than the current dictator. Wow! I can’t even begin to imagine how it must be like to live in a place like that; a place where you are trapped, a place you can’t freely leave if you choose to do so.  To live with that kind of fear for yourself and for your loved ones, takes a strength that I’m not sure I possess.  Have I grown soft from living in a society that is protected from that kind of oppression?  Would I be able to stand up for my beliefs and say, like St. George, ‘I am a Christian! Nothing can shake my faith!’, especially when I know for certain that my life was about to become a living hell for having said so?  That kind of faith is what separates those who are proclaimed Saints from those of us who are not.  I’m not sure I even want to have that kind of faith.  It’s scary! 

 

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on this.  What would you do?  Would you run?  Would you hide? Or would you stand up for your convictions like St. George?  What if you had young children or old parents to protect, even if you wanted to stand up for your beliefs, but couldn’t, to keep them safe?  Could you leave your livelihood and everything you’ve made of your life because some nutty government said you couldn’t be trusted – just because you believed in God and openly worshipped Him?

May God always be a strength to you when you need someone with broad shoulders to lean on.  May your road to Heaven be a smooth one that does not contain too many crosses.  May you have the strength of a saint. Amen.

– Deneen