Airbournemillennial

The  historic Christian practice  of asking our departed brothers and sisters in Christ—the saints—for their intercession has come under attack in the last few hundred years. Though the practice dates to the earliest days of Christianity and is shared by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, the other Eastern Christians, and even some Anglicans—meaning that all-told it is shared by more than three quarters of the Christians on earth—it still comes under heavy attack from many within the Protestant movement that started in the sixteenth century. Can They Hear Us? One charge made against it is that the saints in heaven cannot even hear our prayers, making it useless to ask for their intercession. However, this is not true. As Scripture indicates, those in heaven are aware of the prayers of those on earth. This can be seen, for example, in Revelation 5:8, where John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of “golden bowls full of incense, which are ...

Because of the Unusual Abilities Padre Pio was Claimed to Possess. The Holy See instituted Investigations of the Related Accounts. The Local Bishop, P. Gagliardi, did Not Believe Padre Pio’s alleged Miracles, Suggesting that His Capuchin Brothers were Making a Display out of the Monk to Gain Financial Advantage. When Pi us XI Became Pope in 1922, the Vatican became Extremely Doubtful. Padre Pio was Subject to Numerous Investigations.  The Vatican Imposed Severe Sanctions on Padre Pio to Reduce Publicity about him: It Forbade Him from Saying Mass in Public, Blessing People, Answering Letters, Showing His Stigmata Publicly, and Communicating with Padre Benedetto, His Spiritual Director. Padre Pio was to be Relocated to Another Convent in Northern Italy. The Local People Threatened to Riot, and The Vatican Left Padre Pio Where he was. Fearing these Local Riots, the Vatican Dropped a Plan to Transfer Padre Pio to Another Friary, and a Second Plan for Removal was Also Changed. Fro...

It is indeed a remarkable fact that, as the devil made use of Luther, an apostate monk, to abolish the Mass and deny the Real Presence; in like manner, God made use of His arch-enemy, the devil, to prove the Real Presence. He repeatedly forced him publicly to profess his firm belief in it, to confound the heretics for their disbelief, and acknowledge himself vanquished by Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. For this purpose, God allowed a certain Mme. Nicola Aubrey, an innocent person, to become possessed by Beelzebub and twenty-nine other evil spirits. The possession took place on the eighth of November, 1565, and lasted until the eighth of February, 1566. Her parents took her to Father de Motta, a pious priest of Vervins, in order that he might expel the demon by exorcisms of the Church. Father de Motta tried several times to expel the evil spirit by applying the sacred relics of the holy cross, but he could not succeed; Satan would not depart. At last, inspired by the Holy Gh...

HOW KING RATBOD PUT OFF HIS BAPTISM TILL IT WAS TO LATE Ratbod, King of the Frisons, who is mentioned in ecclesiastical history in the eighth century, at one time was ready to get Baptised and even met Saint Wolfrand at the Baptism waters. But the king refused to be baptised at the last minute after discovering he would be unable to find any of his ancestors in Heaven and even proudly boasted St. Wolfrand that he was not afraid of hell; that he wished to be there with the k ings, his ancestors, and most illustrious personages. “Moreover,” he added, “later on, I shall be always able to receive baptism.” “Lord,” answered the Saint, “do not neglect the grace that is offered to thee. The God who offers the sinner pardon, does not promise him tomorrow.” The King did not heed this advice, and put off his conversion. A year after, learning the arrival of St. Willibrord, he dispatched an officer to him, to invite him to come to the court and confer baptism on him. The officer having travel...

HOW THE HOLY SOULS REPAY US FOR OUR HELP . “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” (2 Mac 12:46) . St. Thomas of Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians, says that the fire of Purgatory is equal in intensity of the fire of Hell, and that the slightest contact with it is more dreadful than all the possible sufferings of this Earth. . St. Augustine, the greatest of the Holy Doctors, teaches that to be purified of their faults prior to being admitted to Heaven, souls after death are subjected to a fire more penetrating, more dreadful than anything we can see, or feel, or conceive in this life. “Though this fire is destined to cleanse and purify the souls”, adds the Holy Doctor, “still it is more acute than anything we can possibly endure on Earth.” . St. Cyril of Alexandria does not hesitate to say: “that it would be preferable to suffer all the possible formats of Earth until Judgment day, than pass one day in Purgatory.”...

HOW SAINT VINCENT FERRER SAVED TWO HOPELESS SINNERS THE LADY “The Saint passing to Pampeluna, and his sanctity being well known to all the inhabitants, they besought him to interest himself in behalf of the spiritual needs and conversion of a person of notoriously bad character, who would continue impenitent to the last day of her life. The charity of St. Vincent, which desired nothing so much as the salvation of souls, drew promptly and with joy into the presence of this poor sinner. He unhappily found her completely hardened. She was obstinate and so despairing of her salvation that she exclaimed, blaspheming: “It is impossible for me to be saved; God cannot pardon either the multitude or the enormity of my sins.” The Saint began, then, with all the energy of his soul to offer her powerful reasons which might encourage her to hope for a generous pardon from God. But it was useless, that soul was hardened in evil. Seeing this, St. Vincent raised up his heart to God...

Saint Vincent is known to have converted at least 25-30,000 Jews. Once in a church in Vera Cruz a host of little white crosses once fell upon the Jews in the congregation. There was a rich Jew of Andalusia, named Abraham, who began to leave a church in anger while Vincent was preach-ing. The Jew did not like what he was hearing. As some peo¬ple at the door opposed  his passing through, St. Vincent cried out: "Let him go! Come away all of you at once, and leave the passage free!" The people did as he ordered, and at the instant the Jew left, part of the porch structure fell on him and crushed him to death. Then the saint rose from his chair and went to the body. He knelt there in prayer. Abraham came to life, and his first words were: "The religion of the Jews is not the true faith. The True Faith is that of the Christians." In memory of this event the Jew was baptized Elias (in honor of the prophet who had raised the boy from the dead). The new convert establish...

God alone knows the number of souls whom our Saint led from sin to penance by a daily course of preaching extending over a period of twenty years. But if we may judge by the exterior signs which everywhere accompanied his presence, we can easily conceive that there would be very few persons, who were privileged to see and to hear him, and could still resist the efficacy of his influence on their souls. And how was it possible to remain insensible to his touch? He preached with such energy, such vivacity and vigor, that he no longer appeared an old man broken down by age and infirmity, but a youthful herald of the Gospel fired with an impetuous ardor. He could be heard at a great distance round; and he was understood by people of every nation, although he spoke only the Valencian dialect. His sudden display of energy during his preaching was as a miracle which enraptured his hearers. On leaving the pulpit, he became feeble, weary, and infirm; his countenance was ...