Why Pray To Virgin Mary?

2,540 thoughts on “Why Pray To Virgin Mary?”

1. @#1559
   Dear Sil, my sympathy for your cause! May this message help you to be strong and may find peace in your heart, trust God! We live on earth full of trials but by the grace of God, we remain standing like trees. Even if the leaves are falling, still there are new leaves of hope waiting. When we feel being poisoned by stress, pressures, pain, and failures, the best antidote is to pray. This is for you Sil:

   Whenever I am troubled and lost and deep despair,
   I bundle all my troubles up,
   and go to God in prayer.

   I tell him I am heartsick,
   and lost and lonely too. That my mind is deeply
   burdened and I don’t know what to do.

   And then, I just keep quiet
   and think only of peace
   and if I abide in stillness my restless murmurings cease.

   Jesus king of mercy I trust in you!

   Ave Maria!

2. that all nonsense.we are nit told of where Mary went after Jesus acceded, know knows, maybe she became a sinner or something else and then pray her…how????lets not be blinded by cheap believes that are not based on the word of God.

3. 1563

   Jimo,

   Throughout Christian history there have been confirmation of Mary’s appearances and although there are recorded false ones the majority have been confirmed.

   And the confirmers are not alone members of the Catholic Church of Christ.In fact enquiries have been carried out by atheists,agnostics, and members of other faiths and although acknowledgeing the reality of cures,etc., could not provide answers.The latter includes scientists who after serious studies could not provide answers for authentic cures of many people.

   Also scientists have studied stigmatism and Eucharistic miracles and allied cures without being able to condemn them as false.So bear in mind God is God and he works in mysterious ways.To limit his activity to whats recorded in the Bible is very unchristian for it is an attack on his power and will.

4. “Are apparitions of Mary, such as Lady Fatima, true messages from God?”

   In Catholic tradition, there are many reported occurrences of Mary, angels, and/or saints appearing and delivering a message from God. It is likely that, at least in some of these cases, the people were genuinely seeing something supernatural. While some of what is seen in various places is perhaps the work of charlatans, other apparitions were apparently authentic. However, an apparition being authentic does not mean it is a message from God or a genuine appearance of Mary, an angel, or a saint. Scripture declares that Satan and his demons masquerade as angels of light (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). Satanic deception is just as possible an explanation for the apparitions.

   The only way to determine whether an apparition is a “lying wonder” or a genuine message from God is to compare the message of the apparition with Scripture. If the teachings that are attached to these apparitions are contrary to the Word of God, the apparitions themselves are then satanic in nature. A study of the teachings of Our Lady Fatima with the “Miracle of the Sun” is a good example.

   It would indeed seem that something spectacular happened on October 13, 1917, and that “something” did in fact appear and deliver a message. The fact that its timing coincided with what had been told to the shepherd children three months earlier would seem to tie this event with the apparitions they had been seeing over the previous months, first of the angel and later of the “Lady of Fatima.”

   When one compares the message of Fatima to what the Bible teaches, it is evident that the message of Fatima combines some biblical truth with several unbiblical practices and teachings. The following paragraphs are quoted directly from a website dedicated to the “Lady of Fatima,” http://www.fatima.org. Specific words or sentences are underlined to indicate them to be unbiblical (not taught by the Bible), or anti-biblical (contradictory to the Bible). Following the lengthy quotations, more information will be given with specific reasons for classifying these apparitions as “lying wonders.” Here then is a quoted summary of the overall message given by the Lady of Fatima:

   The Message of Lady Fatima in General

   “The general Message of Fatima is not complicated. Its requests are for prayer, reparation, repentance, and sacrifice, and the abandonment of sin. Before Our Lady appeared to the three shepherd children, Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta, the Angel of Peace visited them. The Angel prepared the children to receive the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his instructions are an important aspect of the Message that is often overlooked.

   “The Angel demonstrated to the children the fervent, attentive, and composed manner in which we should all pray, and the reverence we should show toward God in prayer. He also explained to them the great importance of praying and making sacrifices in reparation for the offenses committed against God. He told them: ‘Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication, for the conversion of sinners.’ In his third and final apparition to the children, the Angel gave them Holy Communion, and demonstrated the proper way to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist: all three children knelt to receive Communion; Lucy was given the Sacred Host on the tongue and the Angel shared the Blood of the Chalice between Francisco and Jacinta.

   “Our Lady stressed the importance of praying the Rosary in each of Her apparitions, asking the children to pray the Rosary every day for peace. Another principal part of the Message of Fatima is devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, which is terribly outraged and offended by the sins of humanity, and we are lovingly urged to console Her by making reparation. She showed Her Heart, surrounded by piercing thorns (which represented the sins against Her Immaculate Heart), to the children, who understood that their sacrifices could help to console Her.

   “The children also saw that God is terribly offended by the sins of humanity, and that He desires each of us and all mankind to abandon sin and make reparation for their crimes through prayer and sacrifice. Our Lady sadly pleaded: ‘Do not offend the Lord our God any more, for He is already too much offended!’

   “The children were also told to pray and sacrifice themselves for sinners, in order to save them from hell. The children were briefly shown a vision of hell, after which Our Lady told them: ‘You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.’

   “Our Lady indicated to us the specific root of all the troubles in the world, the one that causes world wars and such terrible suffering: sin. She then gave a solution, first to individual people, then to the Church’s leaders. God asks each one of us to stop offending Him. We must pray, especially the Rosary. By this frequent prayer of the Rosary, we will get the graces we need to overcome sin. God wants us to have devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to work to spread this devotion throughout the world. Our Lady said, ‘My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.’ If we wish to go to God, we have a sure way to Him through true devotion to the Immaculate Heart of His Mother.

   “In order to move ever closer to Her, and therefore to Her Son, Our Lady stressed the importance of praying at least five decades of the Rosary daily. She asked us to wear the Brown Scapular. And we must make sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of doing our daily duty, in reparation for the sins committed against Our Lord and Our Lady. She also stressed the necessity of prayers and sacrifices to save poor sinners from hell. The Message of Fatima, to individual souls, is summarized in these things.”

   On the same website, there is recorded an interview between Sister Lucy (the 10-year-old shepherd girl who was among the three children who saw the apparitions in 1917) and a Father Fuentes. The interview took place in 1957. In this interview focusing on Fatima and its message, Sister Lucy says the following:

   “Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin, and the devil knows what it is that most offends God, and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily to seize them.

   “Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world, but She made me understand this for three reasons. The first reason is because She told me that the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. And a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. Hence from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil; there is no other possibility.

   “The second reason is because She said to my cousins as well as to myself, that God is giving two last remedies to the world. They are the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others.

   “The third reason is because in the plans of Divine Providence, God always, before He is about to chastise the world, exhausts all other remedies. Now, when He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever then, as we say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offers us with a certain trepidation the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother. It is with a certain trepidation because if you despise and reject this ultimate means, we will not have any more forgiveness from Heaven, because we will have committed a sin which the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Ghost. This sin consists of openly rejecting, with full knowledge and consent, the salvation which He offers. Let us remember that Jesus Christ is a very good Son and that He does not permit that we offend and despise His Most Holy Mother. We have recorded through many centuries of Church history the obvious testimony which demonstrates by the terrible chastisements which have befallen those who have attacked the honor of His Most Holy Mother, how Our Lord Jesus Christ has always defended the honor of His Mother.

   “The two means for saving the world are prayer and sacrifice. [Regarding the Holy Rosary, Sister Lucy said:] Look, Father, the Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we will sanctify ourselves. We will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls. “Finally, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Most Holy Mother, consists in considering Her as the seat of mercy, of goodness and of pardon, and as the sure door of entering Heaven.”

   In the above paragraphs concerning the message that Sister Lucy felt that the apparition wished to communicate to the world, there are so many things that are not only not found in Scripture but are contrary to Scripture.

   1) Mary is referred to as the “Most Holy Mother” and having an “Immaculate Heart.” By this Catholics do not mean that she was given the righteousness and holiness given to saints through the imputed righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) but that she was saved from sin in every form through having been conceived in her mother’s womb without the stain of original sin. Never does the Bible refer to Mary as being sinless. Never does it refer to her having an immaculate heart. Rather, Mary refers to God as her Savior (Luke 1:47). This places her with the rest of humanity, as a sinner needing a Savior, but the Catholic Church holds that Mary was saved from sin through the merits of Christ by being conceived without sin and then living a sinless life. Again, never is this taught in Scripture. Rather, what Scripture teaches is that there is only one exception to the truth that we are all sinners (Romans 3:10, 3:23, etc.). That single exception is Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5).

   2) Sister Lucy speaks of devotion to the “Immaculate Heart” of Mary and saying the Rosary as the “last two remedies to the world.” She also states that there is no problem that cannot be solved by saying the Rosary. It is the teaching of Fatima that saying the Rosary will lead to the salvation of many souls. Again, never is such a teaching found in Scripture. The Rosary’s main prayer is the “Hail, Mary,” which is repeated fifty times. The first half of it is a quote from Scripture of the greeting of the angel to Mary, “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” but the second half says, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” Besides giving Mary a title which Scripture does not, it asks Mary to pray for us. Indeed, Catholics not only see Mary as the one through whom ALL of God’s grace flows, and the one who intercedes to her Son on our behalf, but Catholics also direct prayers to her to deliver people from sin, from war, etc. Pope John Paul II’s prayer from the early 1980s to Mary is an example of such. In this prayer he repeatedly pleads to Mary to “deliver us” from nuclear war, famine, self-destruction, injustice, etc.

   Again, never do we find a godly person in Scripture praying to anyone but God or asking for intercession by anyone but those still living on this earth. Prayer to Mary or to saints is not found in the Bible. Rather, Scripture directs us to pray to God (Luke 11:1-2; Matthew 6:6-9; Philippians 4:6; Acts 8:22; Luke 10:2, etc.)! God entreats us to come boldly unto the throne of grace (His throne) that we may find grace and help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16). God promised us that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us according to the will of God with groanings that cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26). Why do we need to go through a saint, angel or Mary, especially considering the fact that neither the example of doing so nor the command of doing so is ever given in Scripture? Concerning prayer, we have the repeated example of two things in Scripture:

   a) Prayer is made to God alone (1 Corinthians 11:5; Romans 10:1; 15:30; Acts 12:5; Acts 10:2; Acts 8:24; Acts 1:24; Zechariah 8:21-22; Jonah 2:7; 4:2, etc.)

   b) Requests for prayer are made only to the living (1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Hebrews 13:18, etc.)

   In addition, nowhere is it taught that Mary is all-seeing, all-hearing, and omniscient (or nearly so), as she would have to be to hear and respond to the multitude of prayers that are directed toward her from the many Catholics who pray to her simultaneously around the world. Instead Scripture teaches that both angels and the spirits of the dead are finite beings, able to only be in one place at a time (Daniel 9:20-23; Luke 16:19f).

   3) One of the repeated messages of Fatima is the call for personal “reparation” or “penance.” This Catholic concept teaches that we must make amends to God and to Mary for the sins we have committed against them. Repeating one of the phrases from “The Message in General,” the angel told the children to “make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended…” Reparation is defined as “an expiation … something done or paid as amends; compensation.” This ties in with the Roman Catholic teaching of temporal punishment which a person can take care of through penance now or through time spent in purgatory later. The Bible NEVER speaks of the need to make “reparation” for our sins or doing “penance” to pay for our sins. Rather, what it teaches is that we are to offer our lives as living sacrifices to God in gratitude for all of the mercies He has shown us in salvation (Romans 12:1-2). When a person becomes a Christian, his sins are forgiven and paid for in full by Christ. There remains no further payment that can be made for them, no further expiation required.

   4) A key aspect of following the Lady of Fatima is the bowing down before and venerating the images associated with the apparition. Throughout the Bible, we find that any time someone bows down before one of the “saints” or angels, he is told to get up and to stop. Only when done to “the Angel of the Lord” (a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ) or before Jesus or God the Father is such veneration accepted. Catholics make a distinction between “worshiping” God and “venerating” Mary and the saints, but when John the Apostle prostrates himself before an angel, the angel does not ask, “Are you worshiping me or venerating me?” The angel simply tells him to stop and to “worship God” (Revelation 19:10). Likewise, when Peter was being “venerated” (prokuneo – the Greek word that the Catholic Church uses for “veneration” as opposed to “adoration” which only God deserves) by Cornelius in Acts 10:25, Peter tells Cornelius, “Stand up, I myself am also a man.” It should be noted that prokuneo is used in the Revelation passage as well. Thus, we have the repeated example of an angel or “saint” being “honored” and the command to stop doing so!

   Thus, praying to Mary is contrary to the scriptural admonition to pray to God and the scriptural example to do so. It is also illogical to substitute praying to an all-loving, omniscient, omnipotent God (Psalm 139; Hebrews 4:14-16) for praying to some saint or Mary, when there is no scriptural evidence that they can even hear prayers. To pray to saints and Mary on a worldwide basis is to ascribe to them the attributes of omnipresence and omniscience which God alone possesses—this truly is idolatry!

   5)Concerning the “Miracle of the Sun,” there are repeated cases in which “lying wonders” are spoken of in Scripture (Exodus 7:22; 8:7; 8:18; Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22; Revelation 13:13-14). God tells us in Deuteronomy 13:1f that when someone makes a prediction that comes true or gives a seemingly miraculous “sign,” but he is teaching the worship of strange gods, not to give heed to him but rather to treat him as a false prophet.

   For a Christian, the “content of faith” ought to be the Bible and what it teaches (Isaiah 8:20; 2 Timothy 3:16). And while Catholics may argue that the “Lady of Fatima” is not calling on us to worship “strange gods” but to worship the true God, the idea of venerating Mary to such an extent that her “Immaculate Heart” is put on the same level of devotion as Jesus’ “Sacred Heart” is undeniably the exaltation of a woman to a position never given to her in Scripture—equality with God. To honor her as one would honor Christ is to exalt her. Likewise, to focus on Mary to such an extent that we spend more time praying to her than to God is also idolatrous, especially in light of the direct commands of Scripture to pray to God and the complete silence in Scripture concerning any exaltation of, or prayer to, Mary.

   Was the “Miracle of the Sun” a lying wonder? Based on biblical teaching, it would certainly seem so. Satan has no problem mixing enough truth to make a teaching seem right with just enough error to damn souls to hell. Where is the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ—the message repeated throughout the whole of the New Testament—ever mentioned in the whole message of Fatima? Where is it ever mentioned that salvation is only through faith in Christ’s finished work on Calvary and that our works have no merit apart from Him (Ephesians 2:8-9)? Penance and making offerings for reparation of our sins are antithetical to Christ’s finished work on Calvary and of our need for salvation by grace alone through faith in Him alone. Calling upon Mary and her “Immaculate Heart” and viewing the Rosary as the ultimate means of saving souls fly in the face of such biblical truths as Acts 4:12 and 1 Timothy 2:5. “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

5. Apocalypse (Revelation) 12:17
   And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

6. Kirsten’s path from the Evangelical Church to Catholicism

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   This article was originally printed by the editor in October 2008 in “Restoration”, a Madonna House publication… Kirsten married David of this site (Jan. 1, 2011).

   She Hungered for the Eucharist: A Conversion Story

   “Why do we only have communion once a month?” Kirsten asked herself in frustration. “I want it every day.” “We” was the small Evangelical Church to which she belonged.

   Kirsten, who was in her early thirties, had recently moved from Calgary, Alberta to Kelowna, British Columbia to join a prayer house.

   She loved the passage in John 6. I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life… For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him (53-56).

   “Why do people never talk about this passage,” she wondered. “Why do they never preach about it?”

   Kirsten felt the need of Christ’s strength and sustenance, a strength and sustenance she felt she would receive only from communion. She had read an evangelical article about people doing a most unusual thing—”giving themselves communion.” She felt called to do this—every day!

   So in the morning as part of her prayer, her “fellowship with the Lord,” she ate a cracker and drank water as a memorial of the Eucharist. Then she would pray for anywhere from ten minutes to an hour and a half.

   In 2003 when she’d been with the prayer house for two years, Kirsten felt the Lord was calling her to go to Ottawa. A couple from her province had been talking about opening a prayer house there to pray for the Canadian government, especially for its political leaders.

   “Ottawa!” she told the Lord. “I don’t want to go to Ottawa. I don’t know anyone there; I’m a westerner. This is not in my plans.” And since that house was not yet opened, she stayed where she was, waiting on the Lord.

   In the summer of 2006 Kirsten had a dream about the Eucharist. In that dream she felt the Lord saying to her that more healing for her would be found in the Eucharist and more treasures and depths,that cannot be found in communion as she knew it. At this point, Kirtsten had been “doing communion” every morning for four years.

   When she woke up, she said, “Lord, if that dream is from you, put it in my face because otherwise I’m not touching it. That’s Catholic!”

   Catholic? To Kirsten that meant idol worship, Mary worship, meaningless rote prayers, and other bad things as well.

   In January 2007, just a few months after her dream, it was time to head east to Ottawa. When the people in her church were blessing her to go, someone gave her a prophetic word: “There is something for you at Dows Lake.” Dows Lake? She had never heard of it, and promptly forgot about it.

   When she arrived in Ottawa, she attended a church conference, staying at a hostel because the house of prayer was not yet ready for her to move into. Since it probably wouldn’t be ready for a couple of months, she asked the Lord to find her a place to stay in the meantime. Perhaps she’d make some contacts at the conference.

   The last day of the conference, she met a woman who, on discovering she needed a place to stay, said to her, “I just sold my townhouse, but the new owners won’t be taking possession for another two weeks. You are welcome to stay there until then.”

   Kirsten was very grateful, and as she was driving to the town house, the woman happened to mention that she was Catholic. When she heard this, Kirsten was very much afraid. “O God,” she prayed, “please protect me from deception.”

   The woman had many Catholic books, and Kirsten spent much of the next two weeks reading—about the Eucharist, the lives of the saints, and other Catholic subjects. She avoided the CD about the conversion of Scott Hahn.

   She was also looking for a place where she could live when the two weeks were up. It was February, and the snow was knee-deep. She’d tried a number of things, but nothing suitable seemed to be available.

   Finally she bought a copy of the city’s daily newspaper, The Ottawa Citizen, and looked at the ads. There in bold print were the words, “Dows Lake.” Dows Lake! There in Dows Lake, which she later discovered was the name of a neighborhood, was a room for rent, one described as being in “a clean, quiet, Christian home.”

   Kirsten phoned, explained that she would only be there for a few months, and asked if she would be able to spend the mornings in prayer.

   “Oh, yes,” the woman answered. “I’m a charismatic Catholic, and there’s a lovely church just two blocks away that you’d love.”

   Oh no, another Catholic! Kirsten had never met a single Catholic until she was in her late twenties, and now she had met two in a row.

   “You won’t find me setting foot in that church,” Kirsten said to herself. “I’ll just tolerate that house until I can get out. I pray the bIood of Jesus over me. Save me from deception, Father.”

   The last night in the town house, Kirsten got up the nerve to listen to the Scott Hahn CD. As soon as she put it in the machine, she began to weep. She knew that the Holy Spirit was speaking to her. Scott Hahn, too, had been anti-Catholic. He had been a prominent Protestant theologian and now he was a Catholic. Surely he hadn’t been deceived!

   That night she wrote in her journal, “Lord, I fear where you are asking me to go. Help me to just keep following you.”

   She moved to the room at Dows Lake and some time later, it hit her. “There’s a theme to what’s happening in my life. It’s called ‘Catholic.’”

   She figured that maybe God was leading her to that house so that she (Kirsten) could open up this woman’s eyes and free her from her Mary-worship and rote prayers.

   After some hesitation and praying for the Lord’s protection, Kirsten did attend Mass with her landlady. When it came time for Communion, she wept and wept and wept.

   She started attending Mass and every time the same thing happened. When Communion time came, she would weep.

   Then when her landlady invited her to a New Life Retreat, she went. Gradually there grew in her a love for things Catholic. There was nothing gradual about her hunger for the Eucharist, however. It was a raging fire.

   In June the director of the house of prayer phoned to let her know that the house was ready for her to move into.

   What to do? She knew that she was moving toward the Catholic Church. Would they still let her be a part of the Evangelical prayer house? One thing was clear. If she had to make a choice between the house of prayer and the Catholic Church, she would choose the Eucharist and the Catholic Church.

   She met with the director. “We do want this house to be non-denominational,” he said “We’re all on a journey. We’ll still have you here.” So she moved to the evangelical house of prayer.

   By August it was very clear to Kirsten that the Lord was calling her to become a Catholic. She entered into a customized program which would prepare her to be received into the Catholic Church.

   Her hunger for the Eucharist was becoming unbearable. Finally, Kirsten went to the priest she had been talking with. “I can’t wait until Easter for the Eucharist,” she said. “Can anything be done? Can’t I become a Catholic earlier?”

   Fr. Charles knew that Kirsten had a theology degree and that she had been doing a lot of reading and studying, and he connected her with a couple of people so that she could get more input. He told her she could be received into the Church in November.

   And so it happened. On November 18, 2007, when Kirsten made her profession of faith, several people from the evangelical house of prayer attended.

   Kirsten doesn’t know where the Lord will lead her next but as of this writing she is a member of the Evangelical house of prayer—a Catholic, as she says, in an Evangelical world.

   What does she make of all these changes? “I’m learning I can’t put God in a box,” she said. “My vision is so limited. My prayer is: ‘Lord, help me keep up with you and keep following you.’ His plans are much bigger than ours. Never did I think I’d be living in Ottawa. And never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would become a Catholic!”

   Jesus king of mercy i trust in you!

   Ave Maria!

7. An Evangelical discovers the Rosary

   I was skeptical.

   Sitting there on the couch between my two friends, we began the Rosary.

   I had been a Catholic for just over four months, a whirlwind journey that brought me to a November confirmation. It was a shortened RCIA program. I told the priest that I didn’t want to wait until Easter to receive Our Lord. He granted my request because of my evangelical Theology degree and my six years as a full-time evangelical prayer missionary. As a missionary I had a dream about the Eucharist. I knew it was true.

   The Rosary was a different story!

   I knew it wasn’t something I ‘had’ to practice to be a good Catholic. As a former charismatic evangelical, I viewed the Rosary as an object of suspicion, a practice that Catholics felt they ‘had’ to do to be heard by God, or to gain His approval. I was wary of becoming wrapped up in “works”. After all, Jesus and I had a tight relationship and I didn’t think I needed “rote” prayers in order to get His attention.

   However, as a member of a faithful parish in a vibrant Catholic community, it was almost impossible to avoid the Rosary. I knew I needed to test it. In the past when I had concerns about something, the Lord had always been faithful to show me His will. I got a sense that I was to try it and involve my two friends.

   I summoned all my courage and asked Linda and Margarita if they would pray the Rosary with me on Easter Sunday. We would do it together because I didn’t know how. They would guide me through the prayers and I would follow along.

   Sitting on the comfy leather couch, with Linda on my right and Margarita on my left, we began the centuries-old prayer. I really wanted to give it an honest try, so I timidly prayed the prayers with a focused heart, while a part of me was still asking God to keep me from any deception or idolatrous worship.

   As we prayed through the decades, it was just as I suspected it would be, I didn’t feel any particular “anointing”.

   As we entered into the concluding prayer, “Hail Holy Queen”, something stirred deep within me and I began to cry. It quickly escalated into something that I can only describe as loud, wailing, desperate pleas for help, as my spirit cried out loudly, “Help me Jesus! Help me Father!” This was similar to an inner healing experience I had before becoming a missionary, except this was more powerful. It was like a wrecking ball was knocking down walls I didn’t even know were there, places that hadn’t yet healed.

   I found out later my friend Linda was panicking about what the neighbours would think. She handed me a pillow and I gladly used it to muffle the sound of my cries. After several minutes, it was done. I was more whole, somehow, on the inside. Many of the barriers that kept me from the Father and Jesus were no more.

   Without even realizing it, I had tapped into a mystery that countless faithful souls before me had experienced: the hidden strength of Our Lady who declares in the Bible, “my soul magnifies the Lord”; and magnify, she did! That experience was all I needed; I decided to pray the Rosary daily. It was the beginning of a beautiful relatiionship with Mary.

   I believe that the barriers that were removed that day (whether from childhood self protection or deep wounds, I don’t know) enabled me to walk more fully in the Father’s will for my life. Now I’m married, and praying the Rosary daily with my husband not only strengthens our relationship with Jesus, but also with one another. We’re convinced that this prayer will help us to live a future marked by unity, faith, hope and love.

   PS – Kirsten was married to David MacDonald, Jan 1st, 2011.

   Jesus king of mercy I trust in you!

   Ave Maria!

8. Is the Eucharist a Pagan Sun God?

   One can see many picture frames sold of Mary, saints, holy family .. but if one is observant, we see there is a “moon/sun” shape ring shown hovering just above the heads. This is babylonian pagan sun worship that is not christian. Relics found in St.Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican showns various pagan gods intermixed with purportedly Christian biblical statues.

   To get to the bottom of the truth … one can watch David Clouds videos on youtube, that will take you on a virtual tour inside St.Peter’s basilica being led by a Roman Catholic tour-guide. Paste “youtube.com/watch?v=6mrcoVZZ8K8” to see the videos without the quotes.

9. 1569

   What a stupid and satanic based question!!!!!!!
   He has just revealed his true self!

   The ‘shape'(halo)is but an artistic symbol of the person sharing the grace of the Holy Spirit as an authentic follower of Jesus Christ to a holy level.

   This person claims that the Bible is the be all and the end all yet he denies the Eucharist and mocks it.Thus he is mocking Jesus Christ.

   When Jesus expressed this truth as confirmed by Scripture (about his presence in the Eucharist) many of his followers then walked away.That was at Capernaum.”How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” A question agreed too by the above author.

   Thus the hypocricy of the person ‘the written word is all that matters’ but denies the statements of Jesus when Our Lord performed the greatest miracle ever.

   Perhaps like another of similar mentality as referred too previously in an early article above he has no time for which the other referred to as ‘cannabalism’.

   Begone satan you will never succeed!!!!!!!

10. 1570:

    my post sure stirred up a hornets’ nest.

    The ‘shape’(halo)is but an artistic symbol of the person sharing the grace of the Holy Spirit as an authentic follower of Jesus Christ to a holy level.

    God does not share His glory but all born again believers “saints” in the body of Christ are made “partakers” (and NOT sharer’s) of His Grace. There is no exclusivity in the Kingdom of God. If the RC Church preaches exclusiveness, it is not the Church of Christ and is preaching another false doctrine/gospel which is not of Christ. When Jesus said in John 17:21 – “that all may be one” – he meant that all believers’ in the body of Christ must have one “spiritual” unity, being partakers in one body (a spiritual church) in which he is the head.

    2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

    That was at Capernaum.”How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

    Let’s take an example. if you met somebody on the street who tells you that you should eat his flesh. What would be your reaction?

    Begone satan you will never succeed!!!!!

    You are the true-blue satan posing as an angel of light with your fancy-dandy theories. May be you can be more trained at guerilla warfare instead by joining the Irish Republican Army. :)

11. Dear Liam,

    The guy you are talking to are possessed by the evil spirit. Have you not noticed that when he was cornered he has spreading so much venom in his tongue, (only a snake can do that) calling names not involved in your discussions, and sometimes, he was making argument that he did not even know the title he had created, (like Christian Initiation) it only appear in a pigment of his imagination dictated by his mentor the father of all lies.

    And the worst of it he has no etiquette, he did not even know to response properly in a debate. He would conveniently leave the issue when he cannot answer the challenge, am I right Alan? There is no hope for this guy, it is better to talk to a stupid fool than someone who speaks without thinking. (Prov.29:20)

    What I am seeing now is the fulfillment of the prophesy in Genesis 3:15 and the Rev.12:17, keep up the good work brother Liam.

    Jesus king of mercy I trust in you!

    Ave Maria!

12. 1573

    Alan, you are THEE possible example of exclusivity in the Kingdom of God.For although satan may try to use you as he has done thousands in the past and at present he is like yourself barking up the wrong tree.

    Jesus, is not just someone that you meet on the street.It was the last supper.”This is my body…this is my blood poured out for you”.
    In other words you are stating that Jesus was lying!But Jesus is the Truth and cannot be untruthful!

    Or are you abandoning ‘scripture’as the source of all truth?If you are please have a rethink or turn to ‘tradition’:there you will obtain enough ‘truth’to help you return to ‘scripture’.

    In the meantime listen to St.Paul-“Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup,you are proclaiming his death,and so anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be behaving unworthily towards the body and blood of the Lord”(1 Cor.11:26)

    The Eucharist(or as satan’s disciples call it-the ‘pagan mass’)is the presence of Jesus offering himself to his Father.That is,it makes present in a sacramental way Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary.The early Fathers of the Catholic Church,reflecting on St.John,emphasised the blood and water which flowed from the side of Jesus as a symbol of the 2 great sacraments-baptism and the eucharist-by which we share in Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection.

    The Mass is the perfect act of worshipping God for in the Eucharist Jesus Christ is present (as he confirmed himself in Scripture).
    For this reason the Church founded on Peter calls the Eucharist ‘whole and entire,God and man,substantially and permanently’ !!!!!!!
    The “source and summit of the whole of the Church’s worship and of Christian life”.

    To conclude,’grace’is mysterious and therefore difficult to explain in human terms.But when we do have grace,or the divine life,God does live with us.He comes to live within us to begin,in an incomplete way,the possession of Him which we will have in Heaven.Thus (contrary to Alan’s opinion)there is a ‘sharing’of God’s life but that does not make us ‘divine’.

13. @ 1570

    Just want to add to what Bro. Liam pointed out

    John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

    – This happened when they denied Eucharist.

    Look at that number Alan.

    Who deny John 6:57 -58, belong to 666.

    57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

    58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

    Do you also notice how Jesus compared manna and himself as the living bread? Understand that Old Testament is the foreshadow of new testament.

    You deny the authority of Catholic church, but you give authority to yourself saying your interpretations are the one truth. Come on you’ll not find people in your own herd with same interpretation as your own. Are they all satanic? Why don’t you go and speak in their forums?

14. Dear Sharon,

    Nice combination in the context of the text with the figure, the message and the number corresponds each other.Surely this may stirred the hornets nest from Alan’s followers.You have been clearly identified in this text Alan, the text that you have used boomerang to you!

    Ave Maria!

15. #1573 and #1570

    Does eat my flesh and drink my blood = “transubstantiation”?

    You deny the authority of Catholic church, but you give authority to yourself saying your interpretations are the one truth

    I don’t deny the church, but rather the church’s heretical anti-biblical teachings. I haven’t given myself authority, but simply magnify God’s Word affirmed by his absolute faithfulness.

    Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

    Psalm 119:105 – Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

16. #1573 and #1570

    Psalm 12:6-7 – The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

    We need to exalt the Word of God much higher than men-made traditions.

17. Liam (#1558):

    Popes are human like ourselves and can sin.

    Are there you are my friend!! As you have rightly said. Therefore its important to note that we should note follow human interpretation be it from an normal citizen or even the Pope (“el papa”). We need to be like good bereans and check whether whatever the pope declares is in accordance with the scriptures. The scriptures are to be the sole guide to ascertain teachings declared by the human mind that is prone to sin, and full of heresies. Blind obedience is a big “no-no”, even if el-papa declares it. Historically the popes have been proved to be the biggest heretics and bigots themselves and the “stiff” British type upper lip they show themselves a class apart from the rest of humanity. Remember how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their “tamasha” always wanting public attraction to their religious overtures. Sort of seeking praises of men.

    Every year we see all heads of world religions including black magicians, sorcerers are invited by the papacy to participate in an ecumenical meet – a camaraderie – type of union at the Vatican at the excuse or pretext of fostering inter-religious dialogue ostensibly for world peace.

    But the book of Revelation clearly identifies that apostate church sitting on 7 hills (BTW Rome sits on the 7 hills) and fornicating with the kings of the earth.

    Rev_17:2 – With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

    Rev_17:4 – And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

    Rev_18:3 – For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

18. 1576

    The ordained Priest at Mass pronounces the words of Jesus,”This is my body;this is my blood,” over the bread and wine on the altar.

    At that very announcement the bread and wine cease to exist as Jesus stated it would.In their place is the body and blood,the soul and divinity of Jesus himself.Through the Priest Jesus almighty gives us hims