2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.

3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.

4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means!

5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.

6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice. He shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.

7. Whoever shall have true devotion to the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.

8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death, they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.

9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.

10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.

11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the rosary.

12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.

13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.

14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons and brothers of my only Son Jesus Christ.

15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination (of going to heaven).

  They end up losing their dignity, their purity for worldly things.I wanted to ask them how they see themselves. I wanted to ask them how they value themselves.  Do they feel that they mean nothing if they do not have all those fancy stuff?  I wanted to tell them that what matters to people is not really how much we have but what we are and who we are.  That if we take away all the clothes, gadgets and other material possessions, we are still special.  God created us in His own image and that makes us special. 

We always have something to offer this world.  God gave us talents and intelligence that makes us stand out. Even if we feel that we are nothing, we are actually something and we should not let commercials and other marketing propaganda change the way we feel about ourselves.

“what profits a man when he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”

“real poverty is not when we have no food on our table nor when we have no money in our pockets. Real poverty is when we do not have God in our hearts.”

Purity of thought, purity of soul, purity of heart- these are things that seem too difficult to achieve when your mind has been corrupted by our society, by the media. These are the things that I fear are no longer feasible for the youth of today. They seem to have to much knowledge of the world and worldly things. More so, they had been quite exposed to sexual matters which results to teenage pregnancy, abortion and premarital sex. What happened to the innocent children this world use to have? They can probably be near extinction and are probably suffering from the non-acceptance of the society they are in. Purity now seems to be taboo when it use to be the right thing to do or the right path to take. Our youth had been turned into an amoral group in the society.

I wonder what kind of world my children will live in when this moral blindness continues When this culture of impurity, this culture of death continues… It seems to be a rather chaotic, Godless world where I would not want to live in. It is now up to the parents of todays youth to stop it. It is now time for parents to show their children the right path, to bring their children to God…. Only then, when the youth and the world reunites with God can we be sure that this world is still going to be a safe place for children to grow.

I have seen priests who says green jokes, seen priests who wear branded clothes, priests who always ask people to give more money,priests whom do not seem to have pure intentions or have sexual inclinations. Yet,I have also seen priests who serve the church in ways that is worthy of the priesthood. I have seen priests wearing sandals, riding a bike to go from one church to another. I have seen priests who give up their jackets to those who need it more. I know priests who left all the luxuries in life to serve God in the suburbs, owning not even a penny. I have seen priests who serve the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, the lost. I have seen more good priests than those who are bad.

Priests are also humans and they also fall to temptation. They need us to pray for them to keep them strong in following their vow to become the vicar of Christ. The media and other people will try to find those priests who fell to discredit the Catholic church, to make people lose their faith and stop going to church to hear mass. When they do, let us always remember that these fallen priests represents the weakness of humanity and that makes the need for good priests even greater to help us preserve our soul and lead us to God. Thus, I urge everyone to pray for our priests:http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=2593

I planned this day to be perfect. I was supposed to spend a week in Cebu with my family. Then, my brother was sent back here in Luzon in December so there is no reason tom go to Cebu anymore. Then, we planned to go to Laguna to be with the brothers but that did not push through because of the Lenten season. They are fasting so we cannot bring them some feast. Then, we planned to go to Sta Rosa, Laguna at the nuvali area but my boss called for a management meeting which had to attend so I cannot take a leave from work anymore. So I just decided to celebrate it by having lunch with my peers, going to mass after, having a merienda with the team, then dinner with my family. Then, my sister got sick, mancom was cancelled, i had to bake my own cake, deliver it to the office, attend a client meeting, eat with the team for a while then leave them again to attend to some work, then it’s past 6pm and I had to go home, dinner with my family then go home.

It was good but one thing that is lacking is the time I spend with God which now made me feel this void and sadness in my heart. There was no deeper happiness. It was a tiring day, fun but not meaningful. I am thankful for it but my previous birthday celebrations were a lot better, a lot quieter, a lot more meaningful.

Somehow, I guess i should anticipate that this will be a lifelong struggle-to find meaning in all our endeavors and to receive the assurance that you are indeed doing God’s will. Maybe I will just let myself be led. Just like the vision of Christ that I often see in my prayer - Jesus, waiting for me at the bend of the road, as if He is telling me that I may not know what lies ahead but one thing is for sure, He will be with me throughout the entire journey.

As mentioned in one of the articles I read, we only have to watch MTV for one minute for us to realize that they are promoting pornography, materialism, hatred and greed. It is kinda worrying to see children lose their sense of morality and base their identity and self worth on the amount of gadgets, brand of clothes and amount of money they have. It is sad to see kids sell themselves like pieces of meat in exchange for some money to buy clothes, phones, drugs or alcohol.

As a child, I grew up with television as my playmate but in spite of the bad things the media are showing during my time, I can probably say the things I use to watch are a lot more wholesome than what are being shown today. Our local media industry is not an exemption. One of my nephews came to me one day with a W sign and told me “whatever” when I was teaching him something. I saw this scene in Bubblegang, a local comedy show. The show seem to be teaching our kids to be disrespectful to the older ones.

Spend a day watching television and you will see shows promoting sex, vampires, witchcraft, occultism, materialism, hatred, and the likes. The same goes with the songs we hear.

Oh well, whether or not the Illuminati is real, the state of our children makes me worry about our future and it is really up to the parents to stop it. Call me conservative, but I prefer those days when my parents force us to eat together, when they spank us when we say foul words, when they force us to pray the rosary and to be home by 6pm. I prefer those days when they still teach us to obey our parents and that’s simple life is better. Those days when they teach us that a person’s heart is more important than money or beauty. Those days when they teach us that we can have all the money in the world but we will not be happy when we don’t have God, when we don’t have love. I pray for parents to still practice the old ways and for children not be lured to materialism and pornography. I pray that they may all turn to God and not to some occult practices or groups.

I think that is what makes people strive harder and harder to gain more money or gain more power.  The good but empty feeling.  The emptiness drove them to strive for more, thinking that the emptiness will be gone as they go on.  They never stopped to realize that the emptiness will not be filled with more money or more power.  Like animals, they fight to get a bigger part of their share.  They drove away those who are weak.  They step over those who fall.  Not realizing that if only they help those weak get their share.  If only they stop to help those who fell to stand up again.  If they will only stop to realize what was really missing, they will realize that getting more will not fill the emptiness but love.

In my journey, I have come to realize that only in giving will I find fulfillment and contentment.  Only in helping will I find joy.  Seeing the faces of the people whom I have helped one way of another fills my heart with an overflowing joy.  Hearing the words thank you makes me feel that it is all worth it.  Gaining new friends fill the emptiness I use to feel before.

I am not saying I am perfect and that I never trample on the weak in my entire life.  All I am saying is that, now that I have come to realize these things, I have become more sensitive to my own actions. Whenever I feel that I am trying to get more than my share, I stop and ask myself what I will gain from getting more and most of the time, the answer is none.  What profits a man when he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?  Nothing.  I would rather lose this world than lose my soul.

I grew up in a Catholic family.  My great aunts, with whom I grew up with, were churchgoers and they sort of force me to go to mass with them.  Then there is also the evening prayers, the rosary, the chapel visits every May to bring flowers.  There are also the prayer for the souls in purgatory, the no-taking-a-bath on Good Friday, no pork and no meat Lenten.  I use to dread all those, stopped practicing all those things when I had a chance, and even said that they were not in the Bible anyway.

Then, I went to a Catholic school in college.  They taught us about the different religions.  I was even fascinated with Buddhism.  I almost went to an Iglesia ni Kristo church.  I attended Bible studies under the protestant church.  Went out with a Seventh Day Adventist, and almost went to their church.  I did not eat pork for about a year during the time when we were dating.  I then got into a relationship with someone from Dating Daan.  I did not go to church for years and I probably would have gone searching for the right church until my brother entered the seminary under the Alliance of the Two Hearts.

Even after my brother has entered, I still went on with my promiscuous life.  Materialism and other worldly things succumbed me.  Until that day when I went to a test I never even imagined would happen to me.  I thought I was too smart for that.  You will probably say that after going through the test, I would have become a better Catholic but I was not.  I still went on.  Everytime I will come from  a retreat, I will be good but days after that, I will be back to my old life again.  There are things that I never understood and if I don’t understand something, then you cannot really expect me to believe and follow. Until I have encountered another problem, probably the worse I had been through.  My boyfriend left me for another woman and I was so broken.  I was too proud to accept that someone has fallen out of love for me and has chosen someone else whom in my opinion, is a lot less than I am.  From that brokenness, I found healing.  After I became so broken that my God started fixing me.  If you have been reading my blog, you would have seen my long journey.

Slowly, God has started making me understand the value of the things He taught us through the Catholic church.  Now, I believe in the mass, the rosary, the prayers, the rituals.  No matter how much my mind rejects some of the things I learned, my heart keeps telling me that I am at the right track.  That I have never felt at peace until now.  The teachings were not easy but I surely believe they are from Jesus.

Let me try to explain some things and I hope you will understand but believe me, you will only do once you opened your heart.  It is like love, you just know you found the one.

I go to mass to be with Christ, to commemorate the breaking of the bread which He did during the last supper.  The priest represents Christ and reminds us of how Jesus died for us.  It is a celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection.  It is in the Eucharist where Christ lives and when we take part of the communion, Christ starts living within us.  God is present in the Eucharist and I pray, whenever I take the communion for Him to be part of me, to stay with me and guide me through this pilgrimage.

The rosary is a contemplative prayer.  You pray each  mystery contemplating on the life and death of our Lord.  Some say it is repetitive prayer.  I have no argument about that.  But each bead of the rosary is a prayer offered for the salvation of souls in purgatory or here on earth.  It is like a sacrifice you offer God to save souls.

I use to think confession is useless and why would I even bother telling the priest about my sins when I can tell those to God directly.  Yet, come to think of it, would it not be so much better if God can tell you that you have been absolved from your sins?  He gave the disciples the power to absolve His people from their sins and the priests are His disciples.  I have gone to various confessors but only those from the Alliance made me feel that I am really talking to someone sent by God.

I use to just disregard the Blessed Mother.  Yet, come to think of it, if God wanted and needed to use her for Jesus to be born here on earth, why would He disregard her once her mission has been served?  Do you think God is someone who just casts out people or things that He no longer have use for? Of course not.  If God used Mary as a vessel for Christ for Him to be born here on earth, don’t you think she will also have the power to be the vessel to Christ now that He is in heaven? I do believe she does have the power to talk to Jesus and be our mediator. And when I talk to her, it is like I am talking to my mother asking her to ask my father a certain favor.  Don’t we all go to our mother in time of need?  Mary is our mother, our mother in heaven and she is always waiting for us to knock on her door and implore her mercy.

What about the statues?  If I remember it correctly, God did not want us to worship statues of animals and other creatures.  But do you think God will also not be happy if we worship an image of Him?  Jesus have become man, thus He has a face, a body, an image.  What is wrong with making images of Jesus according to His human form and have it as God’s representative, a reminder that God became man and is truly present? We do not worship the wood, the painting, the statues, we worship God represented by those statues.  It is not easy to believe in something we do not see and having something to show us that it is real even if it is just an image, a representation that is probably based on man’s perception, make it easier for us to believe.  It should not be the end though, it is meant to be something we can start with.  This may not be the stand of the Catholic Church but this is how I have come to accept and believe in the sacred art.

I have had a rough journey but it sure feels good to be home.  The Alliance teaches us of victimhood, of redemption, of a reparatory lifestyle.  That we can offer our actions to console our God.  Jesus has suffered enough and to console Him, we should all take our cross and walk with Him.  I will not lie and say that the cross does not scare me.  No man would probably want to suffer but if suffering will bring me to Jesus and will at least, lessen His pain, as a Catholic, I willingly accept it.  Like what St. Francis de Sales said: “Many would be willing to have afflictions provided that they not be inconvenience by them”.  I wish not to be one of those people for as St. John of the Cross said: Whoever does not see the cross of Christ doesn’t see the glory of Christ”.

I am Catholic and I will always be Catholic.

How can we stay friends after what happened?  After I admitted my feelings, how can we stay friends?  I cannot comprehend why you do this to me.  I told you that I wanted to keep some distance but you sort of invite me to have lunch with you.  We kept on going like nothing happened, like I didn’t make the biggest confession of my life.  Ah, maybe you don’t really feel anything that is why you can go on like this.  But what about me?  What about my feelings?  What if I really fall for you and as you said, I am not your type so there is no chance you will feel the same.  I am not sure how I can handle that.

I prayed to God to take you out of my life if we are not meant for each other.  But now that you are staying, I cannot really know for sure that we are meant to be together.  Maybe during the two months that you are gone, something will happen that will bring us apart.  Or maybe, I will meet someone who will protect me from falling for you.  Maybe, I will find the one for me. Maybe…..