Wake Up! Midnight Is Fast Approaching!!!

What is our country coming to? Is it too late for the Culture as Michael Vorst seems to think? Acceptance of sexual perversion was the downfall of Sodom and Gomorrah. What makes us think that this culture - filled with death and sexual perversion - would, unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, be exempt from Divine Justice?

We must be prepared to stand strong and bear whatever it takes to witness to the Truth. Last Sunday's Gospel prophetically says that we must be prepared for the Master's return.

. . . Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be . . . Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master's return . . . Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival . . . You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come . . .Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute (the) food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so . . . But if that servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful . . . Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more. ~ Luke 12:32-48 (NAB)

Much of this Real Catholic TV video re-iterates what Fr. John Corapi said this last Saturday at the conference in San Antonio. Fr. Corapi spoke emphatically on the need to stand against the culture's approval of evil and the need for us to evangelize. He reminded us that when God's people were unfaithful, they were sent into exile. We must be good stewards of the Faith. Know the Truths of the Faith. Build it up in those whose faith is weak by speaking the Truth. Fight against the present evils of this world. Do not hoard the Faith, thinking you are secure in your salvation, by burying the talents given to you until the Master's return. Be the good and faithful servant by witnessing to the Faith and you will multiply with His Grace the talents He has entrusted to you. 

"Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more." (Luke 12:48)

What are you doing to prepare for the Master's return? Wake up! Midnight is fast approaching. Steal yourselves against the present evils by immersing yourself in the Faith - both spiritually and intellectually - completely. Fortify your intellect and will with Grace and Knowledge of the Faith to stand strong as a witness (martyr). The time will come. As Michael Vorst says,

"The clock is running out. A great awakening is needed . . . We cannot lose the war for our souls. Get to your loved ones. Invigorate the strong, strengthen the weak, and shore up the lapsed. This must become the primary focus of our conversations in our homes. . . . What is going on is a marshaling of the church - a concentrating - a process by which those who adhere to the faith are being more densely packed - more solid - so that they will be able to resist . . . Be living Catholics. Pray for courage - superhuman courage.  . . .This is your chance - the moment planned and prepared for you from all eternity - to shine brighter than the stars of heaven. With what love will your heavenly Father behold your light in the darkness of so much evil!"

Spreading the Message of Kibeho

This weekend, I was blessed to be able to meet a woman named Immaculee Ilibagiza. Saturday night she spoke at the Paramount Theater in Austin. Immaculee is a survivor of the 1994 Rwanda genocide - when radicals from the Hutu Tribe attempted to purge the country of the Tutsi. Over 800,000 people were hunted down and slaughtered in the span of 100 days. That is more than six men, women and children murdered every minute of every hour of every day for more than three months. Immaculee is only one of 300,000-400,000 survivors of the genocide. She lost her parents, two of her three brothers and many other relatives in the racial cleansing.

So how did Immaculee survive? Her father, a devout Catholic man known for his kindness, gave her his rosary and sent her to another village to hide at the house of a friend. Although he was a minister, He was Hutu. But her father assured Immaculee that this man would never kill anyone and that he would provide a safe haven for her. Immaculee obeyed her father and for the next 91 days, she would live in a tiny bathroom with 6 other women and a 7-year-old girl sharing what scraps of food the minister was able to sneak for them. They had to wear the same clothes, could not bathe, and could only flush the toilet when they heard the toilet flush in the adjoining bathroom. At the end of her ordeal, Immaculee was physically very weak and she weighed 65 lb. But spiritually, this woman became a giant.

Instead of complaining and asking God why the slaughter of her people was taking place, Immaculee asked God to assure her of His love as she prayed her rosary over and over again. She also asked the pastor who was hiding them for a Bible. She had a heartfelt desire for a renewed faith in God.

"I was reading the Bible for guidance, to know the truth. Now I want to know step-by-step what do You want me to do. I want to read line-by-line. If You say, ‘trust’, I want to try it. If You want to tell me ‘love them’, let me try it.”

Immaculee was certainly fed by the word of God. For some time, she concentrated on Matthew 17:20 - "... truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." It was through prayer and meditating on scripture that Immaculee was able to let go of the anger and hatred toward those who were involved in the Rwandan holocaust and forgive them. 

After moving to the United States, Immaculee felt called to write about her experiences during the genocide. She met Wayne Dyer at a book signing and he asked to publish her story. Her first book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, was a New York Times best seller in March 2006. In December of that same year, 60 Minutes broadcast her story to the world.

Watch CBS News Videos Online
60 Minutes Interview - 2006

But there is so much more to her experience than could be written in one book. Immaculee now has four books and a number of CDs. Led By Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide continues her story after Left to Tell. Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa is about Mary's apparitions in Kibeho in Rwanda from 1981-1983 in which she warned the people of Rwanda that the genocide would happen unless they changed their hearts. She wrote a fourth book called  If Only We Had Listened that contains Our Lady's messages.

Diary of Immaculee

Immaculee now travels about the world speaking of her experiences. God is also using her to spread the messages of Our Lady of Kibeho. The apparitions to the original three seers were approved by the Vatican in 2001 and there currently are plans to build a huge basilica there where pilgrims can gather to pray.

I must say that I was deeply moved by Immaculee's sharing of her story at the Paramount Theater on Saturday. Although I had read  Left to Tell, I was not prepared to see the model of the tiny bathroom where she hid. I could scarcely imagine 8 people living in that 3'x4' space for 91 days. It brought me to tears.

Immacculee signing her books at St. John Neumann

Last night's event was at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Southwest Austin. Immaculee primarily concentrated on the apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho and how they impacted her faith before the genocide ever took place. It was a joy to hear this beautiful, Spirit filled woman share more of her story and her love for God and Our Lady. It is for this that she survived the genocide - to spread the message of faith, hope and forgiveness through love. It is a story that certainly illustrates that God writes straight with crooked lines. Truly, "Nothing is impossible for God." I have faith that one day, I will make a pilgrimage to Kibeho with Immaculee.

2010 - The House of Immaculee's father is rebuilt
and turned into a house of healing

2007 - Al Jazeera interview with Immaculee

2009 - CBS interview with Immaculee

Living Bread

Today is the climax of the Gospel for this 3rd week of Easter from the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John.

Wednesday, the 3rd week of Easter - John 6:35-40.
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." 

We only hear Jesus in today's reading. The last verse from yesterday's gospel is repeated and the passage continues with Jesus commenting on the lack of faith in these people who seek Him because of the signs. Even though they see Him, they do not believe.

What we learn is that faith is a gift - a grace. Only those who the Father gives to Jesus will come to Him and believe. It reminds me that Jesus once said, "Many are called but few are chosen."  It makes me want to cry out, "Lord, choose me! Choose me!" Those who are among the chosen will never hunger or thirst because when they go to Jesus, they believe. They have the gift of faith and because they do, they follow Jesus, not because of what He can do for them, but because Jesus is the Son of God who is first born from the dead. This is why Jesus is able to raise the believer from the dead on the last day.

The reading says that Jesus only does the will of the Father, not His own will. Since it is the Father's will to send Him those who believe, He will not turn away those who the Father has chosen to send. Not only will He save those who believe, He will also raise them up at the last day. Finally, Jesus repeats what is the will of the Father: that those who see the Son and believe in Him will have eternal life and be raised on the last day. Those who seek signs rather than the one who is the bread of life, will perish.

Left out of this reading and Thursday's are the following verses:

The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. 

Some people cannot see past the nose on their face. They stand murmuring among themselves about who Jesus is. They cannot get past Jesus' humanity to see His divinity - to see that He is what He says. It is grace to believe that the bread which came down from heaven to give eternal life is Jesus.

I Am the Bread of Life

by S. Suzanne Toolan 


I am the bread of life
He who comes to Me shall not hunger
He who believes in Me shall not thirst
No one can come to Me
Unless the Father draw him

And I will raise him up
And I will raise him up
And I will raise him up on the last day

The bread that I will give
Is My flesh for the life of the world
And he who eats of this bread
He shall live for ever
He shall live for ever

Unless you eat
Of the flesh of the Son of Man
And drink of His blood
And drink of His blood
You shall not have life within you

I am the resurrection
I am the life
He who believes in Me
Even if he die
He shall live for ever

Yes, Lord, we believe
That You are the Christ
The Son of God
Who has come
Into the world