Each month

November 2021

octubre2021

Called to Heaven

Dear Friends,

November begins with a great Solemnity, All Saints' Day. We celebrate in a special way all the anonymous saints who rejoice in God's presence and share in Christ's triumph and glory. It is a day to be glad about God's action in countless souls and to remember that we too have received the call we must answer. In his homily on November 1, 1981, St. John Paul II addressed these words to those present: "The Solemnity of All Saints bears a particular call to holiness. We must remember that it concerns a universal call, that is, valid for all human beings without differentiation because of age, profession, race or tongue. As are the saved, so are the called. This call is fitting and opportune on the day we celebrate the saints and sanctity.” No one is exempt from the call to holiness, and a holiness in today’s reality. We cannot delay our response to this call because we do not know when the Lord will demand an account for our life. We must be holy today. This is a beautiful call, because grace works in us and, with our freedom based firmly on Christ, we respond yes to this grace.

The day following this solemnity is All Souls’ Day. We know that only those who are pure and spotless can enter Heaven. If a soul enters God’s presence stained with sin, it must be purified. The Church calls this purification “Purgatory.” The Church has had the practice of praying for the deceased ever since the early centuries. As Christians, we are bound to love and help our neighbor. The greater our neighbor’s need, the greater our obligation. If we are moved to help someone dying of hunger and thirst, how much more ought the hunger and thirst of these holy souls move us to compassion. Their hunger and thirst are much greater than physical hunger and thirst. God desires that we help them by our prayers and sacrifices. Our Blessed Mother desires the same, as She has asked in some Marian apparitions. Let us not forget that the souls in Purgatory will repay us a hundredfold. They do not forget those who helped them reach Heaven. St. Catherine of Bologna said, “I received many and great favors from the Saints, but still greater favors from the Holy Souls.” When they finally obtain their liberation from their pains and rejoice in the glory of Heaven, they fall prostrate before God’s throne and pray for those who helped them. They will also help us at the hour of our death, as we can see happened in the life of St. Gertrude. When she was near death, she was tempted ferociously by the devil. He tempted her with the thought that she would spend a long time in Purgatory for “wasting” indulgences and intercession on other souls when she could have applied them to herself. The Lord Himself went to drive the enemy away from her and said that He would take her directly to Heaven and multiply her merits by hundreds for all she had done for the souls in Purgatory. Without a doubt, the biggest favor we can do them is offer Mass. The rosary and many small sacrifices and indulgences are also a big help.

It is good for the soul to think of the insulted and hurt Heart of Christ, and to wish to not have to go to purgatory. This encourages us to live a holy life and be purified here in order to go directly to Heaven.

In Garabandal, praying for the deceased was a deeply rooted tradition. In some of the ecstasies, the girls were led to the cemetery where they placed their crucifixes kissed by Our Lady on top of the graves.

This month, let us not forget to pray for the souls in Purgatory and ask them for help to respond to God’s call to holiness. In the last apparition, the Virgin Mary asked Conchita, “Conchita, won't you respond?” She asks us the same question.

Will you respond? Will you respond to God’s call? Will you start taking it seriously today? Thinking that one day we will find ourselves in God’s presence encourages us to fill our hands with good deeds of charity, hope and faith.

We trust in the Blessed Virgin Mary’s help, who ardently desires our salvation and is willing to help whoever asks.

God bless,

Garabandal.it Team

October 2021

octubre2021

Dear friends,

We have begun October, a month dedicated especially to the rosary. Some people say that it is a repetitive and boring prayer, but that is absolutely untrue. Praying the rosary is contemplating the life of Christ through the eyes of Mary. In many Marian apparitions, She has insisted that we pray the rosary. In Garabandal, She taught the children to pray the rosary, and to do so slowly. They said, “We must think about what we are praying; praying is speaking with God and Our Lady. When we say the Our Father or the Hail Mary we are speaking with God and Our Lady, and we have to say it the way that we speak with a person that we love a lot—slowly, and from our hearts.” This “from the heart” is very important. It tells us that we must put effort into paying attention to what we are praying, and to Whom we are speaking. It is possible that sometimes we pray it distractedly, and even though our lips move, our mind and heart are elsewhere, but we must try to ensure that most of the time, we do not pray like that. Today, more than ever, we are in need of this prayer that calms hearts and works miracles.

One of the miracles most attributed to the praying of the rosary was the miracle of the rosary in Hiroshima. This miracle occurred on August 6, 1945. At 8:15, an atomic bomb exploded in the city of Hiroshima. Everything within a radius of approximately 2.5km of the bomb was destroyed, and everyone was burnt. However, one place 1km from the epicenter of the bomb remained standing: a residence of Jesuits. It is humanly unexplainable how it is possible that even the church attached to the house was destroyed, and yet the residence remained standing, and the Jesuits of that community did not suffer a single effect, both at the time of the bombing and afterwards. Through the years, over 200 doctors have conducted physical tests on the Jesuits who, inexplicably, did not suffer a single physical effect from the bombing. Fr. Hubert Schiffer explained, in a Eucharistic Congress, over 30 years later: “I was in the middle of the atomic explosion and am still here today, alive and saved.” He attributed it to the protection of the Virgin Mary: “We prayed the rosary daily in the community.”

This miracle is one of many that, throughout history, have shown us how a constant and faithful devotion to the Virgin produces fruits. These miracles which the maternal presence of Our Lady produce can be small or great, striking or less remarkable, but all deserve the response of a grateful heart and the constant remembering of the goods that we receive from God through the hands of Mary. As an attentive Mother who looks after Her children, She does not cease to repeat Her petition to Jesus: “They have no wine.”

Let us thank Our Lady for her presence and attention and for the gift of the rosary. It would be a very good resolution in this month to put effort into praying the rosary—and not just personally but with our family or a group of friends—putting into our prayer all the intentions of our hearts and of the world, which is so greatly in need of God and of conversion.

May God bless you all,

The garabandal.it Team

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.

Ok