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I married a Baptist twenty-one years ago. I felt that he was more Catholic than my first Catholic husband. He was kind, thoughtful, loved family and children. I had a Catholic annulment from my first marriage but my fiancé, Tom, was divorced too, so we were married by a minister who was a friend of the family.
During our first twelve years of marriage, we both attended Catholic mass as a family and our two children went to Catholic schools. I went to confession about every month. During one confession to a priest that was in his eighties, he began asking me questions.
"Yes," I replied.
"Have you been married before?"
" Yes, but I have a Catholic annulment".
"Does your husband have a Catholic annulment?". I felt my heart drop.
"No, he's not Catholic," I replied.
"Your husband has to have a Catholic annulment, even if he isn't Catholic, for you to receive the sacraments". " I'm so sorry but I can't absolve you of your sins".
I had the deer in the headlights face. I just remember saying something lame like "okay".
"Have I shaken your faith?" he asked.
"No, I'm fine."
A packet would also be sent to his ex-wife with a questionnaire she could fill out, but it isn't a requirement that ex-spouses send it in. Some choose not to. The questionnaires then would be mailed to Archdiocese of Cincinnati Tribunal for a decision. It also cost $350. It took about five months for my husband to receive a Catholic annulment. We had our marriage blessed in the Catholic church on February 1st. I mention the date because three years later my husband became Catholic on February 1st. The annulment process and one-on-one time with a priest immersed my husband in the beauty of the Catholic faith setting him on his own journey, which lead him to conversion.I don't know why I didn't look into the rules of the Catholic Church twenty-one years ago. I did what my older sister did, when she divorced and remarried. I just thought those were the rules, but I never asked a priest about it. Some people get mad at the priest (in the confessional) when I tell this story, but he was doing his job and I am so thankful for it. At the time, I thought it was a test of faith. Later, I knew God was doing something else.
God wasn't testing my faith, He knew what was going to hit our marriage in a few years, so he set up events that would protect us. Because our marriage was blessed in the Catholic Church and my husband became Catholic we could both receive the sacraments. Which strengthened our marriage. I'm not sure if we would be married today had we not listened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I think about all the "what ifs". What if my confession was absolved, what if my husband didn't want to get an annulment, what if I became angry leaving the Catholic Church?
Tom and I have had many ups and downs over the years, and I am sure more are coming. What I know now is that with trust in God, holy obedience and the sacraments of the church, we can conquer anything.
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My interest in Medjugorje, Croatia Hertzagovina, began in the 1980s when Life Magazine did a cover story on the six children who were having apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She has been appearing to the children, now adults, for over 31 years. After decades of hearing about Medjugorje, I finally went on a pilgrimage there this year.
Five years ago, I made the decision to go. I just had to find a group that was going. At our local Catholic Store, I got a name of a woman, Jennifer, who had been 6 times and was planning another pilgrimage. I emailed her, and we planned to meet in Dayton, Ohio. On the day of our meeting, she became very ill and was taken to the hospital. Time passed, and I thought it wasn't meant to be, so I dropped the idea. Last year, in October, I started thinking about it again. I really wanted to visit Medjugorje. I had saved Jennifer's email, just in case.
I got a call from a volunteer at Radio Maria, who needed me to fill in at the Rosary Rally in Dayton. The volunteer said you will be volunteering with a woman named Jennifer. I laughed to myself. I knew it was the same Jennifer who planned the trips to Medjugorje. When I got to the Rosary Rally, I introduced myself, and I told her that we were supposed to meet 5 years ago, but she was taken to the hospital. She thought for a moment and then remembered it. I asked her if she had any trips planned.
Jennifer told me she began feeling like she should take another group to Medjugorje, but she wasn't sure. On the way to the Rosary Rally, she said the Blessed Mother, if you want me to plan a trip, you will have to give me a sign. We both laughed out loud.
It wasn't smooth sailing from there, far from it. Plans came and went, people came and went then finally, we had our group. Thirteen of us, from a 2-year-old to an 80-year-old. My husband decided not to go because of his work schedule, but my friend Mary was going, and we were to be roommates.
We went in June, flying from Dayton to Charlotte, to Germany to Croatia. We took a 2-hour bus trip to Medjugorje. We stayed in a pensione style hotel, where we had our meals together. It was right across the street from where the first apparition was reported.
Medjugorje has weather very similar to Ohio in the summer. The foliage was also similar, but the ground didn't have soil. It was just rock. There were olive trees and vineyards. The only other person I knew on the trip was Mary. We had met a prayer group, and all of our get-togethers were at church functions, so we were not fast friends. I was a little apprehensive about staying in a room with someone I didn't know well.
Our group included Jennifer and two of her children, her father, and stepmother. Two girls that were friends from Springfield, Ohio, an 80-year-old grandma, two teachers, a woman just widowed, and me and Mary. Our breakfasts and dinners were always enjoyable. Lots of personalities with lots of different ideas, but we all had one thing in common; we wanted to get closer to Jesus through his mother.
We were there for 10 days. We went to Mass at St. James Church every day, sometimes twice a day. Every evening in a large outside open church behind St. James, there was adoration of the Blessed Eucharist for 2 hours. Some evenings were chilly, so we would wrap up in sweaters and hats. Then after adoration, we would have dinner at a restaurant. Mary and I discovered we had a lot in common, and we became very close and laughed a lot.
Some people in our group did have unique encounters while there. Jennifer's daughter saw the miracle of the sun while waiting in line for confession. Jennifer had a spiritual twist of fate. One of the teachers from the group saw the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus. One of the girls from Springfield took a photo, then later saw an angel in it. One of the teachers' legs was healed.
For me, I felt Jesus' and his mother's presence there. What I realized was that It was the same Jesus I felt in my home church, in my home adoration chapel, the same Jesus I thought in a little chapel in my parents' hometown in Kentucky, at a shrine in Cleveland, in the Basilica in Orlando, in the white chapel in Bermuda, in St. Patrick's in New York City. I said to Him, "Oh, It's You" with a smile. I got to know Jesus more that week. Mostly from his holy people. Especially the visiting priests that said Mass every day and heard confessions. I met priests from all over the world. A Spanish-speaking priest blessed some items I had bought, we didn't speak the same language, but he understood me. He also made the sign of the cross on my forehead and blessed me in Spanish. A priest from Austria who spoke both German and English heard my confession. He gave me excellent advice in English but absolved my sins in German. He told me his English wasn't as good as German, so I was absolved in German. One day while leaving a restaurant with packages of gifts to take home, I saw a priest sitting at an outside table with friends. He looked at us as we were leaving. I said I didn't want to bother him but asked if he would bless our gifts. He was from Uganda, and with a big smile and heavy accent, he said it was his duty. No matter the different languages, and encounters with people of different cultures, there was a feeling of love. We had a common link, the love of Jesus and Mary.
The latest news from the Vatican about Catholics not participating in events dealing with the apparitions of Medjugorje wasn't surprising to me. People should always use discernment. It is not necessary to believe in the apparitions of Mary to be Catholic. On the other hand, Medjugorje isn't Vegas. There isn't much to do there besides going to Mass and praying. I saw two visionaries while there, accidentally. I saw Mirjana getting into her van and Ivan talking to a group of visitors outside my hotel one afternoon. They weren't rock stars. Just regular people. No one was acting like they were the Beatles. They were humble people. Mary's Medjugorje messages to the world are of coming back to Jesus, fasting, penance, and prayer.
If there is one thing I learned from Medjugorje, it would be that there are devout people worldwide that love Jesus and would go to a distant Balkan village because His mother is reported to be appearing there. In the people there, I saw the deep love for our Blessed Mother and her son Jesus. I'm so thankful for my experience. I did feel God's presence in a different way that I can't quite describe. It was another concrete reality that I brought home with me and still have today.
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My husband and I have been remodeling our home during the last couple of summers. This past summer we rejuvenated our fireplace by adding stone, a mantel and a hearth. It took about a month to finish. The stone guy that worked on the fireplace was a very nice looking man about 35 years old, who was covered in religious tattoos. Danny had a lively, likeable personality. He arrived every morning with a smile on his face. Everyone in our family loved talking to him and laughing at his stories. One day I commented on his religious tattoos saying "You may be more religious than me", which started one of the many religious conversations we had with each other. A couple of his stories really made me think. The first is the story of a healing at an altar call and the second one is about an atheist that converted a drunk to Christianity.
Danny grew up in the Pentecostal Church. He had many problems throughout his life including being a heroin addict several years ago, but he said he never could deny God's existence because of something that happened to him when he was young. During an altar call at his church, a girl about 15 years old that was born with one leg longer than the other, went up to the altar. While she was being prayed over, Danny saw her shorter leg grow. She was healed in front of everyone's eyes and walked out of the church with no limp.
Danny had many stories about how God changed his life or rather saved his life, but this next story really made me think about how God works in everyone's life.
One night Danny and his buddies were at a bar. One of his friends was an atheist, however when he was a young boy he went to bible school, so he knew about Jesus. When Danny and his buddies went outside to smoke, they saw an older drunk man outside the bar. To make his friends laugh, the atheist started preaching to the drunk man about Jesus. His friends starting laughing seeing the humor of an atheist preaching about God. The drunk man began listening to him intently. After a few minutes, the drunk man was overcome by the words the atheist was saying and decided to accept Jesus into his life. The laughing stopped. Danny found out later the man really did accept Jesus and his life was changed. The old man didn't know it was a joke.
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In 1802, in the catacombs of Rome, excavators found a chamber which had been unnoticed for seventeen centuries. In the chamber was a tomb with an inscription on three funeral tiles, Lumena, Paxte, CVM FI, a full reading of the epitaph was PAX TECUM FILUMENA, meaning Peace Be With You Philomena. There were also symbols on the tomb noting martyrdom and virginity: two anchors, a lance, an arrow pointing upwards, another arrow pointing downwards, a palm and a lily.
It was a remarkable discovery. The Court of Inquiry opened the tomb and found the remains of a young girl around 13 years of age. They also found a broken vial of dried blood most probably collected at her death as a testimonial of her martyrdom, which was the Christian custom of the time.
The blood was carefully placed in a crystal urn for safety. When the sun shone on the urn, everyone present witnessed the blood change. The blood glittered like gold and silver, and looked like diamonds and precious jewels. Cardinal Ruffo Scilla commented "And we have seen her blood change into several brilliant little precious stones of various colors; also into gold and silver."
The remains and relics of St. Philomena were housed at the Vatican until 1805. At which time, a priest in a small town near Naples, Canon Francis de Lucia of Mugnano visited Rome to acquire relics of a martyred saint for his private chapel. After some delay and difficulty he received the relics of Philomena to enshrine in his village church. Even before the remains arrived, signal graces were granted through her intercession and unusual events began to occur.
The day before their arrival, rain fell on the fields after a long season of drought. Once the remains and relics arrived at the church, villagers began to be cured of illnesses. Lord Michael Ulpicella, a lawyer, who had been ill and unable to move for six weeks was carried to the relics and immediately cured. A woman with a cancerous ulcer was cured after placing a relic on her wound. The most famous miracle was the cure of Pauline Jaricot, which later was formally approved by church officials. Pope Gregory IVI declared it a first class miracle.
A wax statue was made containing the bones of St. Philomena which were encased in a clear
case, so visitors could see her image at Our Lady of Grace Church (Madonna del Grazie) in Mugnano, Italy. The statue was dressed in robes. The blood of St. Philomena was also preserved next to the wax statue. This wax statue and blood have at times transformed in front of visitors. The blood has changed into the shape of a cross. The statue which contain the bones of St. Philomena have transformed into a more graceful pose and her features became more delicate. The statue now has a pleasing smile, not what the original artist had created.
Twenty years later, when the first case was replaced by a more beautiful one, it was noticed that the hair on the wax statue became more luxuriant. The case was a foot longer than the original and her feet moved to the extent of the case. Sometimes visitors have noticed the eyes open, while they are in prayer in front of the case. In 1841 and 1892, the statue changed position in the presence of people on pilgrimages to the church. From time to time there are reports of a knocking sound against the case when someone is praying there. There have also been many other accounts of St. Philomena's knocking, in homes across the world, to let people know she is with them and praying for them.
Little was known about St. Philomena until she revealed her story through private revelation to three people, a nun, a priest and a historian, from different parts of the world. The accounts were identical giving credibility to the revelations. One of the most well-known recipients was the Foundress of the Oblates of Our Lady of Sorrows, Mother Maria Luisa di Gesu', a Dominican Tertiary.
The private revelations to Mother Maria received approval by the Holy Office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on December 21, 1833. Here is St. Philomena's story.
St. Philomena was the daughter of a prince who governed a small state in Greece. Her parents were pagan and childless until a Catholic doctor at their palace told them about Christianity. They converted and soon after Philomena was born. They named her Lumena and gave her the name Filumena (daughter of light) at her baptism.
When she was thirteen years old, she traveled with her parents to Rome where her father was to see the Emperor Diocletian about an unjust war that threatened his state. Diocletian was mesmerized when he saw Philomena and granted her father a peaceful resolution if he could marry his daughter. Philomena's parents were so honored they agreed immediately. When they returned home she told her parents she couldn't marry Diocletian because she had made a vow to give her virginity to God. Her parents tried everything to convince her otherwise but she would not change her mind. She answered them. "My virginity, which I have vowed to God, comes before everything, before you, before my country. My kingdom is heaven."
They took her to Diocletian and he also tried everything to convince her to marry him but his promises, allurements and threats were equally useless. Diocletian had her loaded with chains and put into prison. After 37 days in prison, Philomena saw a heavenly light and a vision of Mary holding Jesus in her arms. Mary told her she would be there for three more days then a more frightful terror would come, but not to fear. Grace would overcome her and the angel Gabriel would come to her aid. After the Blessed Mother left, perfume filled the prison.
After three more days, Diocletian had her stripped and tied to a column to be scourged like her "spouse" Jesus, in front of men of the court. She was then put in the dungeon where she was expected to die. However, two angels came to her and covered her with a balm and she was immediately healed. When Diocletian saw her he told her it was because of the gods of Jupiter and tried to persuade her once again to be his wife, but she refused. In a fury, he had a guard chain an anchor around her neck and throw her into the Tiber river. Angels came to her rescue putting her on the riverbank in full view of a multitude of people. She was unharmed and not even wet. Many people who witnessed the event were converted to Christianity.
Philomena was then dragged through the streets and shot with arrows. She went into a heavenly sleep and when she awoke she was once again completely healed. Brought again before Diocletian he thought she was using magic so he had arrows made in a furnace that were shot at her heart. The arrows changed direction and went back to where they were hurled, killing six archers.
People began to renounce Paganism because of the public testimony which infuriated Diocletian. He ordered her head to be cut-off. She was beheaded on a Friday at three o'clock, the same day and hour as her spouse, Jesus.
Miraculous healings thorough the intercession of Philomena have been widespread and continue today. Her intercession is recognized in curing Pope Gregory XVI, who authorized her public veneration, naming her Patroness of the Living Rosary. Her intercession was recognized in curing Pope Pius IX of epilepsy when he was the archbishop of Imola. Pope Leo XIII, St. John Vianney, St. Anthony Mary Claret, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini and many other saints had a great devotion to her.
St. Philomena's feast day is August 11, she is the patron saint of infants, babies and youth. St. Philomena is a powerful prayer warrior. A Litany to St. Philomena is below, but use any prayer asking for her intercession, she is known as the Great Wonder Worker.
"Pray to St. Philomena, whatever you ask from her she will obtain for you."Pope Gregory XVILitany to Saint Philomena
Lord have mercy on us.Christ have mercy on us.Lord have mercy on us.God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity one God, have mercy on us.Holy Mary, Queen of Virgins, pray for us
Saint Philomena, pray for us.Saint Philomena, filled with the most abundant graces from your very birth,
pray for us.Saint Philomena, faithful imitator of Mary, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, model of Virgins, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, temple of the most perfect humility, pray for us.Saint Philomena, inflamed with zeal for the Glory of God, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, victim of the love of Jesus, pray for us.Saint Philomena, example of strength and perseverance, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, invincible champion of chastity, pray for us.Saint Philomena, mirror of the most heroic virtues, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, firm and intrepid in the face of torments, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, scourged like your Divine Spouse, pray for us.Saint Philomena, pierced by a shower of arrows ,pray for us.
Saint Philomena, consoled by the Mother of God when in chains, pray for us.Saint Philomena, cured miraculously in prison, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, comforted by angels in your torments, pray for us.Saint Philomena, who preferred torments and death to the splendors of a throne, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, who converted the witnesses of your martyrdom, pray for us.Saint Philomena, who wore out the fury of your executioners, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, protectress of the innocent, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, patron of youth, pray for us.Saint Philomena, refuge of the unfortunate, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, health of the sick and the weak, pray for us.Saint Philomena, new light of the church militant, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, who confounds the impiety of the world, pray for us.Saint Philomena, who stimulates the faith and courage of the faithful, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, whose name is glorified in Heaven and feared in Hell pray for us.Saint Philomena, made illustrious by the most striking miracles, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, all powerful with God, pray for us.Saint Philomena, who reigns in glory, pray for us.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,have mercy on us.
V. Pray for us, Great Saint Philomena,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ
Let us pray
We implore You, O Lord, by the intercession of Saint Philomena, Virgin and Martyr, who was most pleasing to Your eyes by reason of her eminent purity and the practice of all the virtues, pardon us our sins and grant us all the graces we need (and name any special grace you may require). Amen.
Composed by Saint John Vianney
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