Listen, put it into your heart, my youngest and dearest son, that the thing that disturbs you, the thing that afflicts you ...

I will hear their weeping, their complaints

 and heal all their sorrows, 

hardships and sufferings. 

And to bring about what my 

compassionate and merciful concern is trying to achieve ...

Do not let your countenance, your heart be disturbed. 

Do not fear ...

Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? 

Are you not under my shadow and protection? 

Am I not the source of your joy? 

Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, 

in the crossing of my arms? 

Do you need anything more? 

Let nothing worry you, disturb you. 

Prayers for the victims and the survivors of the terrorist attack in Orlando, including their families, friends, and lovers.

Brussels: Why Trump will be our next President.

'We are allowing thousands and thousands of these people into this country and we're going to have nothing but problems.' 

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Today it's Brussels ...

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Prayers for the victims and survivors of today's terrorist hits.

Pray the rosary every day for peace.

Our Lady of Banneux, pray for us.

Heartbreaking News: Four Missionaries of Charity have been shot dead in Yemen during an attack by gunmen on a Church-run retirement home.

-source-

A Salesian priest from India is missing as well.

The attackers seized Fr Tom Uzhunnalil, a Salesian priest who lived at the facility. At the time of the attack, he "was in the chapel praying." - AsiaNews

The news is stunning:

Four Missionaries of Charity nuns from India were among 16 people gunned down by suspected Islamic fundamentalists on Friday in Aden, Yemen.

A Salesian priest from India who is in Aden at the time of attack has gone missing. “Seemingly they have taken him (Father Tom Uzhunnanil) along, but this is still to be confirmed,” says a message the Salesian Provincial secretary of Bangalore later in the day. 

The Mother Teresa nuns were killed when four gunmen stormed an elderly care home in Aden’s Sheikh Othman district. They killed a guard and shot randomly at residents, news agencies reported. - Source

This is surely a hate-filled, diabolical act - to kill innocents.  It is diabolical.

The victims are Sister Anselm from India,

 Sister Marguerite from Rwanda, 

Sister Judit from Kenya

 and Sister Reginette also from Rwanda.

Asia News

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Prayers for the martyred nuns and elderly residents, the missing priest and all missionaries - and all those suffering from terror, persecution, and massacre.

I need to repent and do penance, and keep repenting and keep doing penance.

O my God,I am heartily sorry forhaving offended Thee,and I detest all my sins,because I dread the loss of heaven,and the pains of hell;but most of all becausethey offend Thee, my God,Who are all good anddeserving of all my love.I firmly resolve,with the help of Thy grace,to confess my sins,to do penance,and to amend my life.Amen.

How I knew who The Eagles of Death Metal were.

I saw them on Kimmel.

What?

Don't read too much into the name of the group - they're pretty 'gay' as in, 'that's so gay' - in a way.  It doesn't mean they are gay gay - just in the fashionista rock-star sense - although ...  The name of the group is pretty much playful, as in 'what if the Eagles went Death Metal.'  That is totally not serious.

Actually, I kind of liked the group and thought Jesse Hughes was pretty cool in a weird way.  I can see why Parisians might like the group.

Anyway - continued prayers for the victims and survivors at Le Bataclan and the other attacks in Paris this past week end, and for those in the weeks to come.

*Nothing to do with 'cool' - I just thought I'd comment on the group since some people online are getting superstitious about their name.  Being an American group, and seeing that a concert is a fairly 'soft target' - that's probably what attracted the attention of terrorists.

I could be wrong.

Our Lady of Good Remedy

O Mother of the Divine Redeemer, who under the title of Our Lady of Good Remedy 

comes to the aid of all who call upon thee, 

extend thy maternal protection to us. 

We depend on thee, Dear Mother, 

as helpless and needy children depend on a tender and caring mother.

October 8 is the feast of Our Lady of Good Remedy.

800 years ago Christians were being captured and sold into slavery by Muslims, and nobody knew what to do about it. Then, in the year 1198, a man had an idea. St. John of Matha founded the Trinitarians to go to the slave markets, buy the Christian slaves back and set them free. To carry out this plan, the Trinitarians needed large amounts of money. So, they placed their fund-raising efforts under the patronage of Mary. They were so successful at that, over the centuries, the Trinitarians were able to free thousands and thousands of people and to return them safely home. In gratitude for her miraculous assistance, St. John of Matha honored Mary with the title of "Our Lady of Good Remedy." Devotion to Mary under this ancient title is widely known in Europe and Latin America, and the Church celebrates her feast day on October 8.

Pray for the Christians suffering under ISIS, those threatened, those enslaved and those tortured and killed.

Recent reports tell of eleven Syrian Christians who were killed by beheading and crucifixion near Syria's war-torn city of Aleppo after they refused to deny their faith in Jesus Christ. Among them, the 12-year-old son of "a ministry team leader" was mutilated and crucified.  The women raped in front of onlookers.

We need to do something.  At least turn to Our Lady in prayer - especially the prayers of the Holy Rosary.  Perhaps the Holy Father and the bishops will call for at least a rosary crusade to counter Islamic extremists.

Prayers to Our Lady for Syria

Intercede for Syria, O Our Lady, in this grave hour when from all around blow furious winds, bringing cries of death against Your Son and against civilization founded on His teachings, deceiving minds, perverting hearts and lighting the fires of hatred and revolution in the world. Help of Christians, pray for us!

Intercede for Syria, Our Lady, in this troubled hour when the unclean waves of an open immorality, which has even lost the notion of sin, exalt the rehabilitation of the flesh in the face of the very Cross of Your Son, threatening to choke in this world the lily of virtue nourished by the Eucharistic blood of Jesus. Virgin most powerful, pray for us!...

Intercede for Syria, Our Lady, in this hour of passions and doubts when even the good run the risk of being lost…Unite all the Syrian peoples around Your Son in the love of the Church and the cultivation of virtue, in respect for order and fraternal charity. Queen of Peace, pray for us! - Excerpt from the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by Syrian Bishops 2012

This is interesting ... Martyred by Turks

The Martyrdom of St. Irene the Virgin Martyr of Lesbos.

"St Irene was the twelve-year-old daughter of the village mayor, Basil. 
The cruel Hagarenes cut off one of her arms and threw it down in front of her parents. 
Then the pure virgin was placed in a large earthen cask 
and a fire was lit under it, suffocating her within. 
These torments took place before the eyes of her parents, 
who were also put to death. - source

How St. Irene's grave and the earthen cask in which died were found.

St. Irene, the Newly Appeared Martyr of Lesvos (ca. 1451 – 9 April 1463) is an Eastern Orthodox saint martyred by Turkish soldiers with her companions Sts.Raphael and Nicholas on Bright Tuesday (April 9) of 1463, a decade after the Fall of Constantinople.

In 1959, workers found the holy relics of St. Raphael of Lesbos as they cleared rubble to build a chapel, and shortly thereafter St. Raphael, along with Sts. Nicholas and Irene, started appearing to many Lesbos residents and told them the stories of their lives. After St. Irene revealed to the residents of Lesbos the place of her grave, her holy relics were discovered on March 12, 1961 in the clay cask in which she was martyred. - Source

My thoughts.

The Turks massacred these Christians over 500 years ago - in much the same way ISIS is slaying Christians today.  How curious.  

What I find intriguing is that the relics of these saints were only discovered in 1959, and the stories of their martyrdom miraculously revealed.  (St Irene's relics discovered in March, 1961.)  The saints appeared separately to different people, asking to be remembered and venerated, and honored by a chapel.  Save for the greater glory of God, why did they suddenly seek to be remembered?  God only knows.

Yet could it be that their witness would soon become important for us today - when the threat of Islamic terrorism once again threatens the Church in the East, Middle East and Africa?  Just thinking out loud here...

Although I still have to wonder how some can claim Islamic terrorists are not Muslim, when the history of Islam is filled with violent persecution, enslavement, and the extermination of Christians? 

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"There is also the superstition of the Ishmaelites which to this day prevails and keeps people in error, being a forerunner of the Antichrist...

"From that time to the present a false prophet named Mohammed has appeared in their midst. This man devised his own heresy. Then, having insinuated himself into the good graces of the people by a show of seeming piety, he gave out that a certain book had been sent down to him from heaven. He had set down some ridiculous compositions in this book of his and he gave it to them as an object of veneration." - St. John of Damascus (8th c.)

ISIS threatens to throw homosexuals from the Leaning Tower of "Pizza" - after they conquer Rome.

ISIS executioners throwing men accused of homosexuality off building in Mosul.

Italians are making fun of the threat, but ISIS really does throw homosexuals from the tops of buildings, only to stone them to death at the bottom if they survive the fall.

As the above photo illustrates, there is precedent for the threatened atrocities - though it seems highly improbable, unlikely, even impossible that ISIS could invade and conquer Italy any time soon.  Nevertheless, the targeted executions which have already taken place, coupled with such specific renewed threats, outrageous as they may be, ought to at least get the attention of gay rights activists*, not to mention Obama - who refuses to call terrorism terrorism, refuses to admit ISIS is Islamic, refuses to admit the threat of radical Islam is spreading like wildfire and is a threat to the world, and refuses to put forward any meaningful plan to deal with ISIS.

* Yet gay activists continue to blast the Catholic Church as homophobic and oppressive.

Jordanian Pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh Burned Alive by ISIS

From Huffington Post:

A video circulating on social media on Tuesday appears to show the murder of a Jordanian fighter pilot by militants of the Islamic State group.

Supporters shared a video purporting to show Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh dressed in an orange jumpsuit standing in a cage, before being burned alive. - Finish reading here.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,

 Lord, hear my voice!

O let your ears be attentive

to the voice of my pleading.

*

Rescue me, Lord, from evil men;

from the violent keep me safe,

from those who plan evil in their hearts

and stir up strife every day;

 who sharpen their tongue like an adder's,

with the poison of viper on their lips.

*

To you, Lord God, my eyes are turned:

in you I take refuge; spare my soul!

 From the trap they have laid for me keep me safe:

keep me from the snares of those who do evil.

 Let the wicked fall into the traps they have set

while I pursue my way unharmed.

O my God!  I am heartily sorry ...

ISIS Brutally Executes Japanese Hostage Kenji Goto

Story

I'm so, so sorry.  Prayers now for Kenji Goto, as well as prayers for the victims and all of those murdered, raped, maimed and displaced by this reign of terror.

It seems to me many of us have forgotten the people who continue to suffer in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.  We get caught up in our stupid, stupid controversies and gossip.  We worry about stupid crap.  Stupid, stupid crap.

Stop and pray.  Shut up and pray. At least take time to pray a rosary, a chaplet - right now.

Prayers for the latest victim and his family.