The Miraculous Holy House of Loreto

Our Lady of Loreto

St. Francis of Assisi went to the Holy Land, in 1220, to convert the Saracens or die trying.  During his time there, he went to Nazareth and spent time at the Holy House, where the Annunciation took place, where the Holy Family lived from the time they returned from Egypt until Jesus began His public Ministry.  Francis spent much time, praying there.  We believe the Holy Family spoke to him in the little House; because when he came back to Italy, he went out on the road, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom.

One of the first places he went to was a little town of no accord, north of Assisi, off the Adriatic Sea, about thirty miles inland from Ancona.  The town was called Loreto.  Francis told his brothers to begin preaching there.  They looked around and protested, saying the town was too small and the area too remote.  Francis prophesied “Someday this place will be known as the holiest place on earth.”

Seventy four years later, the Holy House of Nazareth arrived in Loreto.  Had Mother Mary spoken to St. Francis about this move when he was in Nazareth, before the Crusaders had lost the battle, and had been expelled from the Holy Land?  He knew something!  Was this one of the many things our Holy Family shared with this, one of their favorite sons?

Our Lord Jesus loves His Mother Mary.  He watches out for Her, and protects everything on earth that had anything to do with Her time here.  And so it was, in the year 1291, when the Saracens (Moslems) decided to vent their venom and hate against Christ, and all things Christian.  The Crusades were over.  The Christians had been defeated and run out of the Holy Land.  By destroying every holy place in Palestine, the Moslems thought they could eliminate every sign or vestige of Jesus’ existence in history.

St. Helena, Emperor Constantine’s mother, had made churches of all the holy places in Jesus’ life.  It was as if the Saracens believed, if they took away these outward signs of Jesus, they could wipe away that Love that beats in each and every person’s heart, that longing to be more, to love and be loved more.  We wonder, were the Saracens the ones who really wanted to destroy man’s hope, or could it be it was the fallen angels who know all too well the needs and desires of the human heart?

The Saracens went on a rampage.  There would not be a stone left upon a stone on any of the holy places.  If there were no longer any Shrines where Jesus was born, where He grew up, where He taught, where He healed and called man to new life in His Father, where He died for us, where He rose giving us eternal hope that we, too, would rise, then man would forget he has a Savior, and have no reason to live.  Satan was having a field day.  He could see the last remnants of Christianity destroyed in this Holy Land.

The Saracens descended on Bethlehem.  They went to the church built over the spot where Christ was born.  They would level it!  But when they approached the building, they believed to be where He was born, they saw a mosaic outside depicting three Arab kings (the three wise men).  This could not be the place of Jesus’ birth, they thought.  This is a mosque, dedicated to Arab kings of the past.  So they left this place, and continued looking for the birthplace of Jesus.  Our Lord had used the Angels to form a shield around the church, which blocked the minds and senses of the Saracens.  He would not allow this place, where His Mother had given birth to Him, to be desecrated.

At about the same time, hordes of Saracens rode, for all they were worth, their horses covered with foam of white lather as they strained to go beyond their limit, towards Nazareth.  They would destroy the house of Mary.  Never again would Christians celebrate the Annunciation, there.  Never again would they be reminded of the Jewish Virgin’s yes that helped to redeem the world.  It was well known that Jesus’ Apostles and disciples began celebrating Mass in the Holy House of Nazareth soon after Jesus’ death.  It was a Shrine from the earliest days of Christianity.  This was an important place for the Saracens to destroy.  This is where it had all begun.

We believe the Lord uses His Angels to do the extraordinary.  He has great power, and He has given the Angels some of His power that they might glorify His Name, and help us in our walk toward Him.  While we agree that God formed nature, and adheres to the rules He has set up for nature, we also believe God can do anything He wants, whenever He wants.  We contend it’s wrong for humans to put God into a box, placing earthly limitations on what He can and cannot do.

If God, in His majesty, wants to set aside the laws of Nature, and give Angels bodies with wings, and superhuman strength to pick up large objects, like houses, and transport them at the speed of light anywhere He chooses, we say Yes, Lord, praise You Lord, thank You Lord.  Jesus tells us, “I assure you, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would be able to say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,’ and it would move.  Nothing would be impossible for you.” (Mt17:20)

Do I believe God can move mountains, and with faith I can?  Yes, because He told me so.  Do I believe God, through His Angels, lifted up the Holy House and moved it out of Nazareth to protect it from the hatred of His enemies?  Yes, because I have seen it.  Do I believe God can move men’s hearts?  Now, I shout yes from the mountain tops because through prayer, I have experienced it.

We believe there has always been a legion of Angels protecting the house of the Annunciation.  Here, Gabriel appeared to Mary, and the Holy Family lived until Jesus began His public ministry.  We believe Gabriel never left this place.  But now, when danger seemed so imminent, we can visualize an army of Angels racing down from Heaven, their wings glistening in the sun, Michael joining Gabriel, his red cape whirling around him.  The sky was filled with Angels, from one end of the horizon to the other.  The earth shook with the vibrations of their wings.  They swooped down and formed a barricade around the house.  The Angels were here, and they meant business!

Our Lord had good reason to call forth His Angels.  The Basilica, built over the Holy House, had been destroyed twice before by the Arabs, once as long ago as 1090 A.D.  For some unknown reason, they had never disturbed the crypt (lower church), where the Holy House and the grotto were located.  The Crusaders rebuilt the Basilica shortly after they arrived in Nazareth.  Acts of sacrilege by the Moslems, were a major reason the Crusades began in the first place; for it was right after the atrocity to the Basilica of the Annunciation that the Holy War began.

The second time, the Basilica was destroyed, was in 1263.  Again, the crypt was not disturbed, praise God.  But then, the Crusaders were not able to rebuild the Basilica, and the Holy House was left unprotected.  When it was evident the Crusaders had lost the Holy Land in 1291, our Lord Jesus decided that since He could not depend on man to protect this holy place, He would send the Angels.  They would surely defend this Shrine to His Blessed Mother and their Queen.  The Lord gave the Angels a mandate!

“Move the Holy House; take it to a safer place, far from the hatred of My enemies in this land of My birth.  Lift it; lift it high into the air, where they can’t get at it.  Don’t let them see it.”

We can be sure Michael and Gabriel were in charge, supervising the movement of this most holy place, where the Holy Spirit had formed the Savior of the world in the womb of Mary.  In unison, the Angels raised the house from its foundation, and carried it high into the sky, resting it upon clouds which hid it from the earth.  When the Saracens arrived, with hatred in their hearts, craving to pillage and burn, they were astonished.  There was nothing there!  Only the grotto remained.  They left it alone; it had no meaning to them.

The Angels transport Our Lady and the Holy House

The Angels carried the Holy House, high above the mountains and deserts of the Holy Land, across the expansive Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas to Illyria (It’s difficult to give the actual name of the country where the Holy House landed.  We have called it Yugoslavia for years, but there is no more Yugoslavia.  The closest to correct that we can determine would be modern-day Croatia.  Although the pilgrims were given a name which was sort of a conglomeration of Croatians and Slovenians,”Schiavoni.”) On May 10, 1291, it quietly set down in the little hamlet of Tersatto, in Illyria now known as Croatia), far from the battle cries of Palestine. 

It was early in the morning, when the local people discovered, to their great surprise, a house resting on the ground.  There was no foundation under it!  Curious to see what it was, they ventured inside.  They found a stone Altar.  On the Altar was a cedar statue of Mother Mary standing with Her Divine Son in Her arms.  The Infant Jesus had the two first fingers of His Right Hand extended in a blessing, and with His Left Hand, He held a golden sphere representing the world.  Both Mary and Jesus were dressed in robes.  Golden crowns were poised on both Their heads.

The villagers were awestruck, but confused, until a short time later, Our Lady appeared to the local Priest and said,

“Know that the house which has been brought up of late to your land, is the same in which I was born and brought up.  Here, at the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel, I conceived the Creator of all things.  Here the Word of the Eternal Father became Man.  The Altar which was brought with this house was consecrated by Peter, Prince of the Apostles.

“This house has come from Nazareth to your shores by the power of God, of Whom nothing is impossible.  And now, in order that you may bear testimony of all these things, be healed.  Your unexpected and sudden recovery shall confirm the truth of what I have declared to you.”

The Priest, who had suffered for years from an illness, was immediately cured.  He promptly told all the people, and word of this Gift from God, spread throughout the countryside.  Pilgrimages began coming immediately to the Holy House of Nazareth, in Illyria.  God had chosen to bring it to this little village, and the villagers lovingly responded by erecting a modest, quite primitive building over the house, to protect it from the elements.

However, the joy, the Croatians had experienced at having this most precious gift in their midst, was short-lived.  Three years and five months later, on December 10, 1294, the Holy House disappeared overnight from Croatia, never to return.  Saddened by the loss, Nicholas Fangipani, a devout man from Tersatto, built a small church, a replica of the Holy House, on a hill where the original had stood.  He placed an inscription:

“The Holy House of the Blessed Virgin came from Nazareth on the 10th of May, in the year 1291, and left on the 10th of December, 1294.”

The people from Croatia continued venerating Our Lady in their replica church.  So great was their devotion that Pope Urban V sent the people of Tersatto an image of Our Lady in 1367, which was said to have been painted by St. Luke, the Evangelist.

The people from Tersatto, or Fiume, as it was also called, grieved over the loss of the Holy House and the image of Our Lady.  A Franciscan recalled a group coming across to Loreto from Dalmatia as late as the 16th Century.  He wrote: “In one particular group, there were about 500 pilgrims from Tersatto, with their Priests.  They began their procession into the church of the Holy House on their knees, crying and weeping.  As they approached the Holy House, they wailed in their own tongue, `Come back to Fiume (Tersatto) O Mary, come back to Fiume, O Mary O Mary.’  Repeating these words over again, and with bitter tears, they reached the Holy House.  On seeing Her when the doors were opened, their fervour renewed and they began to repeat the same words again, mixed with many tears.  And they went on with their chant as they went round the Holy House on their knees.”

Another eyewitness account of pilgrims from this area, took place in 1784.  “I myself have heard and seen them in great numbers every year kneeling nearly whole summer nights in front of the closed doors of the Shrine of Loreto; not content with having worshipped, kissed and bathed with their tears the walls of Mary’s blessed House all day, and then sung their chants outside, and prayed to Her, weeping to remember them, in such a way that anyone who saw the repetition of that sorrowful scene was moved to devotion and compassion.”

To this day, pilgrims from that area of Croatia, are given special privileges at the Holy House in Loreto, not because of who they are as much as in sympathy for their great loss.

The Angels move the Holy House to Loreto, Italy. Read More

Day of Recollection on the Angels!

Holy Family Mission invites you  to a Day of Recollection

“Angels in light of Divine Revelation”

and Fallen angels

With Msgr. Scott Marczuk

 

Thursday, October 11^th, 2018             12:30 to 6:00 pm

 

Includes Mass, Eucharistic Exposition & Benediction

Please confirm your attendance as dinner will be served.       

Everyone is invited.

No set fee, a love offering will be taken up and greatly appreciated.

Holy Family Mission

65 Holy Family Mission Road, Morrilton, AR

CALL US to Register free

501-354-6100     800-633-2484

 Or register via the internet use link:  

https://www.journeysoffaith.com/events-1/retreat-on-the-angels/form

Surround Yourself with the Angels

Hello family!

As I started my drive home from Holy Family Mission Saturday, I began with the prayer Bob and Penny taught me. I’m not sure if it’s a traditional prayer, I never learned it in school, or maybe they made up, but 23 years later, I am still reciting it whenever I travel (or before children go out Trick or Treating):

Dear Lord Jesus,

We ask you to send all the Guardian Angels to form a protective circle around this (car, home, plane, child etc) with St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael in charge.  Angels and archangels in front of us, in back of us, to the right of us, the left of us, above us, below us. We ask for our Lady of Guadalupe to cover us with her mantilla, Our Lady of Loreto to sit on top of (whatever), and Our Lady of Czestochowa to keep anything away from us that could harm us in any way, physically, spiritually, emotionally or mentally, and bring us safely to our destination so we can glorify your name in everything we say or do. Amen.

There’s such a sense of comfort to know I have angels surrounding me. I’m not sure why, if it’s the images I’ve seen of St. Michael or all the accounts of his presence but I feel especially protected by him from the enemy.

“Michael is famous for rallying the forces of the good Angels against those of the fallen angels. We see paintings of St. Michael hurling them down into the fiery pits of hell. And this great battle that took place before the earth was formed, is still going on. Michael is someone we can call on when we feel the modern day world of Lucifer swallowing up so many good and unsuspecting brothers and sisters. There are times when we feel as if we are walking through a holocaust; chaos and destruction all around us, threatening to envelope us, when suddenly we feel covered by a warm, protective shield. To us, that shield is our St. Michael, given to us by the Lord, to turn to, when things get rough.”

Taken from Heavenly Army of Angels, Bob and Penny Lord, Copyright 1989 & 2007

For more information on The Heavenly Army of Angels and St. Michael, click here

You are in our prayers. We love you!

Andrea (and Rob)

The Cave of Saint Michael in Italy

St. Michael’s Cave and Mountain
In our first book, This is My Body, This Is My Blood, Miracles of the Eucharist, we talked about Holy Clusters. We asked you to consider the concept of God as a Pilot flying high above the earth. From His vantage point, He can see great distances, and occurrences that are about to happen, and have already happened. Aboard His plane, we can see the pattern, He has created. We see clusters of holy places and events that seem to have no connection, other than that they were all instituted by Our Lord, and they are located geographically close to each other. The chronological sequence may be centuries apart. But time is a limitation put on man, not on God.
An example of clusters of holy places would be the area around Loreto, Italy, where the Holy House of Nazareth is located. Down the Adriatic coast, a short distance from Loreto, is a town called Macerata, site of a Miracle of the Eucharist, as well as a very special Shrine to our Lady.
If we continue farther down the Adriatic coast, we come to Lanciano, site of the oldest known Miracle of the Eucharist in the history of our Church. Lanciano is also the scene of a second Miracle of the Eucharist.
At the very heel of the boot of Italy, also on the Adriatic coast, is San Giovanni Rotondo, home of Padre Pio for over fifty years of his priesthood. Here, he received the visible Stigmata and bore the wounds of Jesus for fifty years. San Giovanni Rotondo is about twenty miles from Monte St. Angelo, where the Archangel Michael appeared towards the end of the Fourth Century.
Michael-Angel of God
St. Michael is a powerful Angel of God. He is our symbol of strength, power, courage and hope. Mentioned by name in three places in the Bible, Daniel 10:13-12:1, Revelation 12:7, and Jude 1:9, in each of these instances, he is doing battle with Satan. His name is actually Mica-El, which means “Who is like God?” That was his battle cry as he fought the battle against Lucifer and the fallen angels.
Michael is referred to in many other passages, when not by name, by rank and title. In Exodus, when Moses is leading his people out of Egypt, it is Michael, under the title of “The Angel of the Lord” who guards and protects them. It is implied that it was Michael who released Peter from his chains, and led him out of prison, as described in the Acts of the Apostles. It is also held by many that the Angel who wrestled with Jacob was Michael.
In our own Church History, Michael has always been highly visible. Prior to Vatican II, the prayer to St. Michael was recited at the end of each Mass, with the prayers at the foot of the altar. At funeral Masses, we pray that Michael will bring the soul of the deceased to the Father. “Deliver them from the lion’s mouth, that hell engulf them not, that they fall not into darkness; but let Michael, the holy standard-bearer, bring them into the Holy Light.”
From this prayer, we believe that Michael is responsible for bringing souls up from Purgatory to Heaven. There is an inspired belief that most souls are released from Purgatory on Christmas Day, that our sweet Mother Mary, Queen of the Angels, personally goes to Purgatory, to bring those who are ready to meet her dear Son Jesus to Heaven. Part of that tradition is that Michael accompanies our Lady to Purgatory to accomplish this joyful task.
Michael is always connected with Mary.
In all the paintings of the Holy House of Nazareth being carried to Loreto, Italy, by the Angels, St. Michael is always pictured in the lead, his red cloak flowing in the wind, guiding the house on its path.
In 1916, the year prior to our Lady’s extraordinary appearance to the three children at Fatima, an Angel, the Angel of Peace, came to them, and prepared them for her visit. He gave them the Eucharist. One of Michael’s titles is “Angel of Peace.” It is generally accepted that it was Michael who visited the children.
While the Angel who accompanied St. Catherine Labour‚ into the chapel in Paris, appeared to be a child, it is believed that he was St. Michael. It was in this chapel that our Lady gave St. Catherine the image of the Miraculous Medal.
Michael is known and venerated over all the world.
Michael is Patron Saint of Belgium. His image can be seen on the national currency. In Brussels, Belgium, there is a huge church named after him, with a large statue of Michael on top of the steeple.
Constantine the Great had a vision of St. Michael, and had a great Shrine built in honor of the event in a town outside of Constantinople. He named the town Michaelion. It is located in Sosthenion, about fifty miles south of Constantinople. It has been the scene of many physical cures and conversions. Today, that whole area is part of Turkey, largely inhabited by Muslims. But pilgrims continue to go there to pray, and miracles are still happening.
In Paris, in the midst of sinful Montmartre, the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, (Sacred Heart) stands tall, with a huge statue of St. Michael on top, defeating Satan with his sword.
St. Joan of Arc, co-patroness of France, and a very powerful woman in our Church, testified that one of the voices she heard was St. Michael the Archangel. He gave her the battle plans she carried out to save France.
In the northwestern sector of France, in the early eighth century, St. Michael appeared to the Bishop of Avranches, France, and claimed a mountain, which has become known as Mont St. Michel (the Mountain of St. Michael). In this chapter, we will be sharing the Cave of St. Michael in Gargano, in southern Italy, and the Mountain of St. Michael, Mt. St. Michel, in northwestern France.
Michael – Defender of the Church
The sound of the battle cry, “Mica-El” (who is like God?) can be heard echoing through the galaxies, bouncing from star to star, down through the ages, ricocheting off every corner of the earth. He is still warring, as he did when Satan and the fallen angels rebelled against God. His cry, “Who is like God? now attacks those heresies that would have us believe we are gods. The names are different, but the enemies are the same; as Paul said…
“Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities and Powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high.”(Eph 6:11-12)
Michael the Archangel is Defender of the Church, Angel of God, Angel of Peace, Protector of the faithful, Archenemy of Satan and all the evil powers roaming the earth seeking the ruination of souls. Michael is famous for rallying the forces of the good Angels against those of the fallen angels. We see paintings of St. Michael hurling them down into the fiery pits of hell. And this great battle that took place before the earth was formed, is still going on.
Michael is someone we can call on when we feel the modern-day world of Lucifer swallowing up so many good and unsuspecting brothers and sisters. There are times when we feel as if we are walking through a holocaust; chaos and destruction all around us, threatening to envelope us, when suddenly we feel covered by a warm, protective shield. To us, that shield is our St. Michael, given to us by the Lord, to turn to, when things get rough.
We share all this with you to get you ready for the Shrine we are about to visit, one of the most famous of the Shrines to St. Michael, the Cave of St. Michael in the Gargano, at the boot of Italy. But it’s also to give you a little background on this most important, most powerful Saint of our Church. As you can see, we have a great love and devotion to St. Michael, the Archangel. Our grandson Rob took the name of Michael as his confirmation name, as his grandfather, Bob, proudly stood by, as his sponsor.
There is a prayer our Ministry says before we travel, regardless of the distance. When we are on Pilgrimage, before we take off to visit the Shrines, we ask our Pilgrims on the bus to join us in this prayer. You might like to join us right now, as we pray:
Dear Lord Jesus, we ask you to send all the Guardian Angels to form a protective circle around this (car, plane, boat), with St. Michael the Archangel in charge. St. Michael in front of us, St. Michael in back of us, St. Michael to the left of us, St. Michael to the right of us, St. Michael above us, St. Michael below us. We ask for our Lady of Guadalupe to cover us with her Mantilla, and our Lady of Loreto (Patroness of Air Travelers) to sit on top of the (plane, car, boat) with the Holy House and the Infant Jesus. We ask that anything that would harm us physically, spiritually, emotionally or mentally be kept away from us, and that we be brought to our final destination to glorify Your Son’s Name.

Written by Bob and Penny Lord from their book Heavenly Army of Angels

Join us on Pilgrimage to the Cave of Saint Michael and Request our Brochures

Go here for more about Saint Michael the Archangel

This is the Hour of Angelic Powers

Envision in your mind’s eye, a pitch black sky.  As far as the eye can see, there is not the tiniest glimmer of light.  All is dark!  Then, in an instant, without warning, the entire sky is ablaze with hundreds of thousands of small lights which form a massive sphere of brilliance.  The brightness of that light reaches out to every corner of the earth.  Gone is the darkness.  All is light!  That is our own vision of how the Angels may have been created.  In what is humanly referred to as the blink of an eye, the Angels were.  God anticipated the creation of man.  In His great benevolence, He knew we would need help from above, and so in less than an instant, the Angels were created.

God is so good.  He knows how little of our brains we use.  We cannot possibly understand His Ways.  God knows we could not comprehend the concept of Angels as invisible beings.  We have to see Angels to understand them.  So, for us, when they are manifested in human forms, He gives them powerful, muscular bodies, with gentle, beautiful feminine faces.  He incorporates the best of male and female and puts all of it into one form.  He gives them wings, for strength, speed and majesty.  But the decision as to whether they have wings, or take on the appearance of cherubs, or mighty soldiers, none of that has anything to do with us.  We don’t determine it, and it really is not for us to conjecture.  God makes those decisions.  If we decide whether God can give Angels wings, or cannot give them wings, or muscular bodies, or whatever, we limit His power and abilities.  And I don’t think God is going to put up with too much of that.  We cannot lose our perspective of who is the Creator, and who are the created.

There was such an important reason for the creation of Angels.  He made them a significant part of our lives.  He gave them power to help us through this journey to Heaven.  They’re there by our side at the drop of a hat.  And yet, we don’t use them.  A common expression today is, “Take the Angels off the unemployment line.”  We have either forgotten about them, lost faith in the ability of the Angels to help us, or are too embarrassed by our peers to mention Angels, fearing we’ll be ridiculed as old-fashioned.  Many of us have joined the ever-growing number of people searching for a better mousetrap.  We’re in the age of progress; there has to be something better, more powerful, more helpful, in the latest bag of tricks offered us by the world.  What our Faith has given us down through the centuries is the same old thing.  But it works!  If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it!

St. Paul went right to the heart of our belief in Angels, and the battle for our souls, when he warned his followers,

“Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the Principalities and the Powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high.”

Paul was one of the most brilliant men our Church has ever known.  He never wasted words on niceties, when it was important to get to the heart of a subject.  But he also didn’t go out of his way to antagonize people, unless he had a strong purpose.  Why would he make this statement, he, who’d had visions of Heaven, who was so close to Jesus and the Angels, if it were not true?  We find it so easy today to dismiss the notion of Angels and devils.  We categorize demons as psychological.  A Catholic priest, chairman of the Theology department of a major American Catholic University,

“dismissed the idea of a personal archdemon as `premodern and precritical’.  Individuals tend to personify evil, `because we see it in people.’  But for sophisticates acquainted with sociology and other disciplines, `sin is now seen as something systemic, institutional and structural, as well as personal.'”

Was Paul a seer?  Did one of his Angels bring this atrocious attack against our beliefs to Paul, two thousand years ago, so he could warn us (in Ephesians 6: 11-12) about these blasphemies which are so chic and sophisticated today?  Did he know that the day would come when his very words would be contradicted and held up to ridicule by those who are supposed to be on our side?  Can you picture St. Paul, one of the most brilliant men our Church has ever known, being reduced to a first century witch doctor?  What do the illustrious theologians of this final decade of the twentieth century, have to say about St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Anthony of Padua, St. John of the Cross, St. Bonaventure, and all the other Doctors of the Church, who always admitted to having used the teachings of St. Paul as a basis for their own writings?

Last year, we were giving a talk in a small southern town.  The hostess had asked her brother to introduce us.  He opened his remarks by saying, “I like what I read in Bob and Penny Lord’s books.  I’ve been to their talks, and they remind me of things my second grade teacher, Sister Mary Regina taught us as children.”  We thanked the man for his generous comments, but shared with the group present, we don’t mean to talk like Sister Mary Regina did forty years ago, just for the sake of bringing you down the path of Memory Lane.  The only reason, our master of ceremonies mentioned that our comments are reminiscent of something his grade school teacher might have said, is because he doesn’t hear these things any more.  And that’s sad!  We don’t try to bring you back to another time.  We’re re-focusing on values that should never have been given up.  We’re not trying to go backward.  We’re trying to steel up for what’s ahead.

The gifts of power the Lord gave us, and continues to give us, should not be categorized as simply childhood memories.  They are current, as modern and touchable as the Word, itself.  We are the losers when we allow ourselves to be influenced by respected scholars who would put these gifts on the back burner, or infer mockingly that they are throwbacks to a less informed, less scientifically based medieval church who needed magic and symbols to survive.  Demons have been replaced by neuroses.  That is certainly Satan’s joke.  And he’s laughing very loudly.  If there are no demons, well then, naturally, there can be no Angels!  Then, is there a God?

But there are so many gifts the Lord has given us, to help us through this journey, this pilgrimage to the Kingdom.  And one of the greatest aids we have, is the gift of the Angels.  However, very few know anything about them.  Don’t feel bad.  I never knew anything about them!  Oh, I always knew there were Angels.  They have been a part of my Catholic upbringing for as far back as I can remember.  I said the Guardian Angel prayer on and off until I was about eight or nine years old.  I’m sure the good Nuns told us stories about the Angels in grammar school.  But I never really thought anything about Angels.  They were there, but they didn’t mean anything to me.  It took me until I was almost forty years old to realize how important the Angels are, how much power the Lord has given them, and how they are literally there to help us get through this pilgrimage of life.

It began on a Labor Day weekend party in 1975.  Penny and I went to a friend’s house for a barbecue.  We had returned to the Church in January of that year, after having left for over three years.  Our life was now very exciting.  Church was the major focus of everything we did.  We surrounded ourselves with members of our Parish, who felt the same way we did about Church, Marriage and Family.

We had gone on a Marriage Encounter weekend in May 1975, which had changed our lives.  The very next month, Fr. Chuck Gallagher and 2,000 couples left for a pilgrimage to Lourdes and Rome.  Penny and I just couldn’t come up with the $500 each it cost to go, and so we missed it.  But when they came back and shared the glory, and the majesty, and the excitement of our Church, through their experiences in Lourdes and Rome, Penny and I vowed the next year, we would go on our own pilgrimage, even if we had to hock everything to get the money.

So we really looked forward to this Labor Day party.  A cousin of the host had been to Europe, and he was going to tell us about some of the shrines he had visited.  He began by sharing about Padre Pio and San Giovanni Rotondo, in Italy.  Now, we had never heard of either Padre Pio, or San Giovanni Rotondo, but we listened intently as he explained about this Franciscan Capuchin priest who had the Stigmata of Jesus for fifty years of his priesthood.  We were completely overwhelmed by the miracles and spiritual gifts attributed to Padre Pio.  So we decided, on the spot, that we would visit San Giovanni Rotondo.

Sort of as an aside, the cousin of our host mentioned that just about ten miles from San Giovanni Rotondo was the cave of St. Michael the Archangel.  In 490 A.D., Michael had appeared in that cave, and claimed the cave and the mountain for himself and the Heavenly Hosts of Angels.  We will go into more detail on the cave of St. Michael in a later chapter.  That was the first mention of an Angel I had heard since my childhood, when Sister Dolores used to tell us stories about the Angels.  But I hadn’t even thought about Angels since I “grew up”.  After having heard about the cave, Penny and I looked excitedly at each other.  We decided we would visit there, too.

Not two weeks later, our pastor, Monsignor Tom O’Connell, asked Penny and me to join him and a group, mostly ladies, to go to the San Fernando Mission church.  It was the Holy Year, and we would all get the same blessings if we made a pilgrimage to the Mission church, as if we had been in Rome, at St. Peter’s Basilica.  So Penny and I jumped at the opportunity.  We even brought our eight year old grandson, Rob, with us.  It was the first time Rob was an Altar Server.  He had always yearned for that gift, and it was given to him that day, unofficially.

After the Mass, we were given a tour of this, one of California’s famous missions.  The tour ended, naturally enough, in the gift shop.  I was excited about all the beautiful religious articles there, but I found myself drawn to a little statue of St. Michael the Archangel.  It took my breath away.  It wasn’t one of those great Italian alabaster or marble statues.  It was a little painted plaster statue, probably made in Spain.  But to me, it was the most magnificent image I had ever seen.  With the exception of Our Lord Jesus, this was the first time I had ever seen what I would call a beautiful man!  I couldn’t take my eyes off it.  He had all the rippling muscles of a powerful man; but his face was soft and gentle, almost feminine.  He stood with his sword poised, ready to attack Satan, whose head he was crushing under his feet.  His red cape flowed gently around him, and his wings were majestic.  He held Satan at bay with such ease.

This was the beginning of my love affair with the Angels.  I had to know more about them.  I began reading books on the Angels, everything and anything I could get.  When Penny and I began our sixteen years of pilgrimages, we visited every shrine known to man, that had anything to do with an Angel.  In 1976, we visited the Cave of St. Michael in Italy.  In 1977, we visited the Mountain of St. Michael in France.  We found out that St. Michael was the Patron Saint of Belgium.  It went on and on.  I photographed every Angel I could find, from the great Bernini Angels in St. Peter’s Basilica, to little cherub Angels in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Los Angeles.

Little by little, the Lord has been revealing to us the role of the Angels in our lives, the power they have been given by God, how much they want to help us.  I like to call the Angels our cousins.  I’m not sure if that’s Biblical, or liturgically correct, but I feel such a closeness to them, I believe they are directly related to us.

I need to feel the power that I know the Lord has given the Angels.  I need to feel it in a physical way.  I love to drive on the highway on a windy, cloudy day, and see what I like to call sculptures in cloud, images of Angels following my car, protecting me.  I can see their great wingspan, the majestic flow of their bodies as they move through the sky.  We’re in a time when hope, morals, all the values we have held dear, are being smashed against the rocks, destroyed, in order to make way for a new world order, a new age that will send us right down to the bowels of hell.  I need to know that there is strength, there is power, there is hope for me and my family and my church.  The Angels, from the sweet little cherubs to the mighty warriors, their muscles rippling, their swords drawn and ready, are just one more way Our Lord tells us loud and clear that He is in charge; He is with us always; He has not left us orphans.

We want to share that gift with you.  We believe you need it as much as we do, and as much as we want to share it with you.  But don’t keep it to yourselves.  We’re in a time when the power and availability of the Angels, to help us get through the rough periods, to counsel and comfort us when we need it, and to finally escort us to meet Our Lord and Our Lady when our time comes, must be shared.  You’ve got to get out there and spread the word.  Share some of the stories we’re going to tell you in this book.

You know what the most frustrating part of all this is?  We have this real urgency to impress on you how powerful the Angels are in our lives.  We use all kinds of poetic language to stress this point, but it just doesn’t seem to be enough.  For those of you who have followed our writings, in the past two years, we have been stressing power, the power the Lord gives us.  We have written about powerful men and powerful women; now we’re writing about an Army of Angels.  Can you see the point the Lord is trying to make through all of this?  He wants you and me to understand the power He has given us, because we’re going to need it, especially in this last decade of the second millennium, what may possibly be the end times.

We don’t really expect to fully understand, in our lifetime, the full nature or role of the Angels.  But we know what we know.  We can feel, deep down inside of us, how crucial it is that we reach out to the Angels now for help.  The Lord has given them to us; we must use them.

We’re in a time when everything we have ever held sacred, is being taken away from us in a very sinister, subtle, organized way.  That’s the enemy’s modus operandi, subtle and sinister.  And we’re falling for it.  It’s crept into our churches, our seminaries, our schools, our homes.  We are all becoming victims of a ravenous hunger for knowledge, cleverly packaged for human consumption, with a promise to prove everything beyond a shadow of a doubt, or it does not exist.  Faith has gone out the window.  Either prove it or get rid of it.  Tradition is dwindling.  Show it to me on television, or on a printout sheet, a hard copy, or on a digital display.  We’re being overpowered by technology.

We’re told the concept of Angels is ridiculous.  “Give me a break.  Get out of the middle ages.  Forget that witchcraft.  Get into the twentieth century.”  We defend the Angels with the fact that Angels are mentioned in just about every other page of Scripture.  We ask, almost afraid of the answer, “You do believe in Scripture, don’t you?”  So the next attack is on Scripture.  It’s taken Satan two thousand years to build up enough false courage to attack the credibility of Sacred Scripture.  But he’s out to destroy everything that makes us a church, and a people.  The latest heresy is, Jesus didn’t say the words that are in the Gospels.  The Gospel writers put the words into his mouth!  Can you understand why we contend it’s so important that we have a strong Army to protect us?  We’re not only getting clobbered from the bad guys, and the world; now we’re getting it from the good guys, our own.  We pray to the Angels to give us the words to say, that will touch your heart, and compel you to turn in the direction of the Angels, for strength.  They function best when they have a strong prayer cover.  You must be a prayer warrior to give them the power they need to help you.  But before you can do any of that, you must get to know them.

So come with us now.  Get to know your cousins, and your very best friends, God’s Angels.  Find out who they are, what their role in Salvation history has been, how they fit into your life, and form a part of your life, how you can accomplish great things for God and yourself, how you can turn it all around, to the point of being able to change the course of history, by appealing to your Angels for help.  Learn how you are not hopeless or helpless.  You have strength; you have power; you have family and friends in God’s Heavenly Army of Angels.

Discover Bob and Penny Lord’s book on the Angels   http://www.bobandpennylord.com/new_page_24.htm

We are committed to bringing you the stories of the lives of the Saints and Blesseds.
We believe they are the true role models for our times and they have so much to offer us.

During his visit to America this month, Pope Benedict XVI told the young men and women assembled at St. Joseph’s Seminary on April 19 that they should study the Saints, the true role models for our time.

Pope Benedict told the young, “God is our origin and our destination, and Jesus the way. The path of that journey twists and turns ─ just as it did for our saints ─ through the joys and the trials of ordinary, everyday life: within your families, at school or college, during your recreation activities, and in your parish communities.”
“How then can we as believers help others to walk the path of freedom which brings fulfillment and lasting happiness? Let us again turn to the saints. How did their witness truly free others from the darkness of heart and mind? The answer is found in the kernel of their faith; the kernel of our faith. The Incarnation, the birth of Jesus, tells us that God does indeed find a place among us. Though the inn is full, he enters through the stable, and there are people who see his light. They recognize Herod’s dark closed world for what it is, and instead follow the bright guiding star of the night sky. And what shines forth? Here you might recall the prayer uttered on the most holy night of Easter: “Father we share in the light of your glory through your Son the light of the world … inflame us with your hope!”
“At times, however, we are tempted to close in on ourselves, to doubt the strength of Christ’s radiance, to limit the horizon of hope. Take courage! Fix your gaze on our saints. The diversity of their experience of God’s presence prompts us to discover anew the breadth and depth of Christianity. Let your imaginations soar freely along the limitless expanse of the horizons of Christian discipleship. Sometimes we are looked upon as people who speak only of prohibitions. Nothing could be further from the truth! Authentic Christian discipleship is marked by a sense of wonder. We stand before the God we know and love as a friend, the vastness of his creation, and the beauty of our Christian faith.”

And how shall we know them?
How shall we know who to follow? How shall we know who will lead us to Eternal Life with Jesus, beginning here on Earth?
We have spent the last 30 years traveling the four corners of the Earth to bring you over 200 Saints and Blesseds and we are not finished yet!
Saints like Dominic Savio, Patron Saint of Youth said, “No compromise!”
We must seek the truth which will set us free. How will we know who speaks the truth, who would lead us to Eternal Life with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The truth lies between the pages of the Saints we have written about and the programs we have made over the last 22 years on EWTN.

For a complete lisiting and information on the Saints and Blesseds we have written about and made programs on click this link http://www.bobandpennylord.com/vidalpha.htm

This week we completed the editing of Blessed Angela of Foligno, a blessed who considered herself a great sinner.
After she turned to the Lord she was named a “Theologian to the Theologians” by her peers.
We feel this Blessed is very important for our times. You may check out more information at http://www.bobandpennylord.com/yg188.htm Thanks