Checking in with the Anchoress I find this.
Nuns on the run!
Build, build build!
The Anchoress:
This monastery looks like it will be a true spiritual oasis, when completed. I think you’ll really enjoy checking it out, and if you have something or someone you want to memorialize, there are lots of opportunities, there.
It’s a great life!!
From a sermon by Saint Gregory of Nazianzen, bishop
Serve Christ in the poorBlessed are the merciful, because they shall obtain mercy, says the Scripture. Mercy is not the least of the beatitudes. Again: Blessed is he who is considerate to the needy and the poor. Once more: Generous is the man who is merciful and lends. In another place: All day the just man is merciful and lends. Let us lay hold of this blessing, let us earn the name of being considerate, let us be generous.
Not even night should interrupt you in your duty of mercy. Do not say: Come back and I will give you something tomorrow. There should be no delay between your intention and your good deed. Generosity is the one thing that cannot admit of delay.
Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the needy and the homeless into your house, with a joyful and eager heart. He who does acts of mercy should do so with cheerfulness. The grace of a good deed is doubled when it is done with promptness and speed. What is given with a bad grace or against one’s will is distasteful and far from praiseworthy.
When we perform an act of kindness we should rejoice and not be sad about it. If you undo the shackles and the thongs, says Isaiah, that is, if you do away with miserliness and counting the cost, with hesitation and grumbling, what will be the result? Something great and wonderful! What a marvellous reward there will be: Your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will rise up quickly. Who would not aspire to light and healing.
If you think that I have something to say, servants of Christ, his brethren and co-heirs, let us visit Christ whenever we may; let us care for him, feed him, clothe him, welcome him, honor him, not only at a meal, as some have done, or by anointing him, as Mary did, or only by lending him a tomb, like Joseph of Arimathaea, or by arranging for his burial, like Nicodemus, who loved Christ half-heartedly, or by giving him gold, frankincense and myrrh, like the Magi before all these others.
The Lord of all asks for mercy, not sacrifice, and mercy is greater than myriads of fattened lambs. Let us then show him mercy in the persons of the poor and those who today are lying on the ground, so that when we come to leave this world they may receive us into everlasting dwelling places, in Christ our Lord himself, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Pray with me:
From the treatise On Prayer by Tertullian, priest
The spiritual offering of prayer
Prayer is the offering in spirit that has done away with the sacrifices of old. What good do I receive from the multiplicity of your sacrifices? asks God. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and I do not want the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and goats. Who has asked for these from your hands?
What God has asked for we learn from the Gospel. The hour will come, he says, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit, and so he looks for worshipers who are like himself.
We are true worshipers and true priests. We pray in spirit, and so offer in spirit the sacrifice of prayer. Prayer is an offering that belongs to God and is acceptable to him: it is the offering he has asked for, the offering he planned as his own.
We must dedicate this offering with our whole heart, we must fatten it on faith, tend it by truth, keep it unblemished through innocence and clean through chastity, and crown it with love. We must escort it to the altar of God in a procession of good works to the sound of psalms and hymns. Then it will gain for us all that we ask of God.
Since God asks for prayer offered in spirit and in truth, how can he deny anything to this kind of prayer? How great is the evidence of its power, as we read and hear and believe.
Of old, prayer was able to rescue from fire and beasts and hunger, even before it received its perfection from Christ. How much greater then is the power of Christian prayer. No longer does prayer bring an angel of comfort to the heart of a fiery furnace, or close up the mouths of lions, or transport to the hungry food from the fields. No longer does it remove all sense of pain by the grace it wins for others. But it gives the armor of patience to those who suffer, who feel pain, who are distressed. It strengthens the power of grace, so that faith may know what it is gaining from the Lord, and understand what it is suffering for the name of God.
In the past prayer was able to bring down punishment, rout armies, withhold the blessing of rain. Now, however, the prayer of the just turns aside the whole anger of God, keeps vigil for its enemies, pleads for persecutors. Is it any wonder that it can call down water from heaven when it could obtain fire from heaven as well? Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God. But Christ has willed that it should work no evil, and has given it all power over good.
Its only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.
All the angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they come from their barns and caves they look out to heaven and call out, lifting up their spirit in their own fashion. The birds too rise and lift themselves up to heaven: they open out their wings, instead of hands, in the form of a cross, and give voice to what seems to be a prayer.
What more need be said on the duty of prayer? Even the Lord himself prayed. To him be honor and power for ever and ever. Amen.
A priest who saw heaven, hell, and purgatory. The
death experience of Father Jose Maniyangat.
Fr. Jose Maniyangat is currently the pastor of St.
Mary’s Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in
Macclenny, Florida. Here is his personal testimony:
I was born on July 16, 1949 in Kerala, India to my
parents, Joseph and Theresa Maniyangat. I am the
eldest of seven children: Jose, Mary, Theresa,
Lissama, Zachariah, Valsa and Tom. At the age of
fourteen, I entered St. Mary’s Minor Seminary in
Thiruvalla to begin my studies for the priesthood.
Four years later, I went to St. Joseph’s Pontifical
Major Seminary in Alwaye, Kerala to continue my
priestly formation. After completing the seven years
of philosophy and theology, I was ordained a priest
on January 1, 1975 to serve as a missionary in the
Diocese of Thiruvalla. On Sunday April 14, 1985,
the Feast of the Divine Mercy, I was going to
celebrate Mass at a mission church in the north part
of Kerala, and I had a fatal accident. I was riding a motorcycle when I was hit head-on by a
jeep driven by a man who was intoxicated after a Hindu festival. I was rushed to a hospital
about 35 miles away. On the way, my soul came out from my body and I experienced death.
Immediately, I met my Guardian Angel. I saw my body and the people who were carrying me
to the hospital. I heard them crying and praying for me. At this time my angel told me: “I am
going to take you to Heaven, the Lord wants to meet you and talk with you.” He also said
that, on the way, he wanted to show me hell and purgatory. Hell First, the angel escorted me
to hell. It was an awful sight! I saw Satan and the devils, an unquenchable fire of about 2,000
degrees Fahrenheit, worms crawling, people screaming and fighting, others being tortured by
demons. The angel told me that all these sufferings were due to unrepented mortal sins. Then,
I understood that there are seven degrees of suffering or levels according to the number and
kinds of mortal sins committed in their earthly lives. The souls looked very ugly, cruel and
horrific. It was a fearful experience. I saw people whom I knew, but I am not allowed to
reveal their identities. The sins that convicted them were mainly abortion, homosexuality,
euthanasia, hatefulness, unforgiveness and sacrilege. The angel told me that if they had
repented, they would have avoided hell and gone instead to purgatory. I also understood that
some people who repent from these sins might be purified on earth through their sufferings.
This way they can avoid purgatory and go straight to heaven. I was surprised when I saw in
hell even priests and Bishops, some of whom I never expected to see. Many of them were
there because they had misled the people with false teaching and bad example. Purgatory
After the visit to hell, my Guardian Angel escorted me to purgatory. Here too, there are seven
degrees of suffering and unquenchable fire. But it is far less intense than hell and there was
neither quarreling nor fighting. The main suffering of these souls is their separation from God.
Some of those who are in purgatory committed numerous mortal sins, but they were
reconciled with God before their death. Even though these souls are suffering, they enjoy
peace and the knowledge that one day they will see God face to face. I had a chance to
communicate with the souls in purgatory. They asked me to pray for them and to tell the
people to pray for them as well, so they can go to heaven quickly. When we pray for these
souls, we will receive their gratitude through their prayers, and once they enter heaven, their
prayers become even more meritorious. It is difficult for me to describe how beautiful my
Guardian Angel is. He is radiant and bright. He is my constant companion and helps me in all
my ministries, especially my healing ministry. I experience his presence everywhere I go and
I am grateful for his protection in my daily life. Heaven Next, my angel escorted me to heaven
passing through a big dazzling white tunnel. I never experienced this much peace and joy in
my life. Then immediately heaven opened up and I heard the most delightful music, which I
never heard before. The angels were singing and praising God. I saw all the saints, especially
the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, and many dedicated holy Bishops and priests who were
shining like stars. And when I appeared before the Lord, Jesus told me: “I want you to go
back to the world. In your second life, you will be an instrument of peace and healing to My
people.You will walk in a foreign land and you will speak in a foreign tongue. Everything is
possible for you with My grace.”After these words, the Blessed Mother told me: “Do
whatever He tells you. I will help you in your ministries.” Words can not express the beauty
of heaven. There we find so much peace and happiness, which exceed a million times our
imagination. Our Lord is far more beautiful than any image can convey. His face is radiant
and luminous and more beautiful than a thousand rising suns. The pictures we see in the world
are only a shadow of His magnificence. The Blessed Mother was next to Jesus; She was so
beautiful and radiant. None of the images we see in this world can compare with Her real
beauty. Heaven is our real home; we are all created to reach heaven and enjoy God forever.
Then, I came back to the world with my angel. While my body was at the hospital, the doctor
completed all examinations and I was pronounced dead. The cause of death was bleeding. My
family was notified, and since they were far away, the hospital staff decided to move my dead
body to the morgue. Because the hospital did not have air conditioners, they were concerned
that the body would decompose quickly. As they were moving my dead body to the morgue,
my soul came back to the body. I felt an excruciating pain because of so many wounds and
broken bones. I began to scream, and then the people became frightened and ran away
screaming. One of them approached the doctor and said: “The dead body is screaming.” The
doctor came to examine the body and found that I was alive. So he said: “Father is alive, it is
a miracle! Take him back to the hospital.” Now, back at the hospital, they gave me blood
transfusions and I was taken to surgery to repair the broken bones. They worked on my lower
jaw, ribs, pelvic bone, wrists, and right leg. After two months, I was released from the
hospital, but my orthopedic doctor said that I would never walk again. I then said to him:
“The Lord who gave me my life back and sent me back to the world will heal me.” Once at
home, we were all praying for a miracle. Still after a month, and with the casts removed, I was
not able to move. But one day while praying I felt an extraordinary pain in my pelvic area.
After a short while the pain disappeared completely and I heard a voice saying: “You are
healed. Get up and walk.” I felt the peace and healing power on my body. I immediately got
up and walked. I praised and thanked God for the miracle. I reached my doctor with the news
of my healing, and he was amazed. He said: “Your God is the true God. I must follow your
God.” The doctor was Hindu, and he asked me to teach him about our Church. After studying
the Faith, I baptized him and he became Catholic. Following the message from my Guardian
Angel, I came to the United States on November 10, 1986 as a missionary priest… Since June
1999, I have been pastor of St. Mary’s Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Macclenny,
Florida. Fr. Jose Maniyangat
Be Holy! 