Here's a short excerpt from my book on the rosary:
A Mystery in History: Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun
In 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, the pure faith of three very young children prompted an apparition of the Mother of God. At the time, Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia were seven, nine, and ten years old, respectively. After praying the rosary with the innocent, childlike faith that Jesus praised (Matthew 18:3), Mother Mary appeared to them and referred to herself as Our Lady of the Rosary. She would appear to them five more times, encouraging them to pray the rosary for an end to World War I. But when the children told the people of their village what they had seen, people doubted and scoffed. So the Blessed Mother promised a miracle that would convince the people that the children were telling the truth.
On October 13th, 1917, over 70,000 people showed up to see if there was really going to be a miracle. They were not disappointed. The sun moved in the sky, changed colors, and then seemed to move closer to earth. The rain-soaked ground was immediately dried. Eye witnesses said the sun was easy to look at without squinting, and some said they saw an image of the Virgin Mary. The whole crowd fell to its knees, many of the people were in tears. Many sick or infirmed people were healed, and many doubters were convinced.
It is interesting to notice that in the book of Revelation, Mary is described as the woman “clothed with the sun” (Revelation 12:1). In 1930, the Church confirmed that this was, in fact, a miracle, and both Francesco and Jacinta have been canonized as saints. There is much more to the visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the children of Fatima, but for the moment it’s important that Mary encouraged the praying of the rosary, and affirmed its power.
This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App
Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.
Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.
Enjoy!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
As I'm going through all my belongings as part of our move, I have come across some audio CDs of my old music, from when I had my band, Remember Rome - if any of you still have a CD player, and you would like me to send you some of what I have, send me the address to send them to at this email address: [email protected]
Some of these CDs are in their original cases, and some were demo samples, but either way, it's all original music written by me, and performed by me and my band back in the late 90s and early 2000s.
I'll be happy to find a good home for these CDs in case you might enjoy them, and because you all have been supporting me (and I haven't produced much content in the last month or so) I'll send you one or more CDs for free. Just give me an address.
Thanks!
Here's the link to the new edition of my Rome book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Second-Pilgrims-Guide-Eternal/dp/B0F8TGTWZX
