Join me as we pray night 8 of the traditional Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows.

This 9-night devotional exercise will conclude tomorrow night on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, so that we can fully enter into it.

This is powerful and life changing.

Thread 🧵 👇👇 The Vigil of The Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross:

Sweet Mother of Sorrows, Providence wished that Saint Helena, like you the mother of a king, find the cross of your Son and lavish honors on this relic of relics.

Grant me, Sorrowful Queen and Mother, that, like Saint Helena, I always honor the symbol of our salvation, the Cross. And like the Church, may I hold it high, display and wear it with gratitude and pride.

Above all, may I unite my sufferings to that of Jesus on the cross, and carry my crosses not in shame but in faith, love and patience as He did. 👇

The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary was no ordinary event. It was the dawn of salvation and the beginning of the New Testament.

Drawing from Mystical City of God, here is the dramatic story of her birth with heaven, earth, and even hell caught up in the glorious mystery…🧵👇 From her first instant in the womb, Mary was different. Conceived without sin, her soul was “entirely absorbed in spirit and entranced by her first vision of the Divinity.”
Before she ever saw the light of day, she loved God perfectly. It was a love that would never end, even in eternity.👇

Join me tonight & for the next 8 nights to pray the traditional Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows.

This 9-night devotional exercise will conclude on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, so that we can fully enter into it on Sept. 15.

This is life changing.

Thread 🧵 👇👇 Prayer in honor of the First Sorrow of Mary: Simeon’s Prophesy in the Temple.

Most Sorrowful Mother, grief filled was your heart when, on offering your divine Son at the temple, Holy Simeon foretold that a sword would pierce your soul. There and then you knew you would suffer with Jesus.
Queen of Martyrs, let me unite my heart to yours in this pain, and ask you the grace to keep the thought of my death in mind, so I may always avoid sin.👇👇

🧵 Do you know the story of Brother Daniele Natale?

The Capuchin monk was a spiritual son of St. Padre Pio, who experienced Purgatory and came back to life to tell about it!

This is his amazing story and more proof of the purifying fire of Purgatory that we all must know. 🧵 👇 In 1952, Brother Daniele was diagnosed with spleen cancer and underwent surgery.

After falling into a coma for three days, Brother Daniele died. Relatives gathered to pray.

After three hours, the friar removed the sheet covering his body, stood up, and began to speak!! 👇👇

Believe in Purgatory is not new or even an invention of the Middle Ages. It goes way, way back.

Saint Perpetua suffered martyrdom in Carthage in 203 AD.

Before being put to death, she herself wrote about Purgatory & the value of prayer for the dead.

The story is 🤯

🧵👇 She wrote of several visions she had about her deceased brother. In the first vision she saw him “exiting from a dark place where there were many desolate and thirsty people. They were all very pale, with dirty clothes, and wounds on their faces like her brother had when he died.”

She prayed for him.

Tomorrow is September 1.
Saint Teresa of Avila believed that how you begin a new month shapes everything that follows.
She discovered using holy water could consecrate your days, protect your soul, and transform your home into a place of peace.
This is part of that story. 🧵👇 The great saint says a simple few gesture on the first day of the month could transform the next 30 days.
Saint Teresa, a Doctor of the Church, says that new beginnings are not just dates on a calendar. They are sacred thresholds, moments to place our time under God’s protection.

Jesus himself speaks of Purgatory in about 20 different scripture verses, but still many disbelieve.

They say, “where is it specifically shown in the Bible?”

The answer may lie in the “Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.”

Let me explain 🧵 🧵 👇👇 First off, let’s read the parable together:

“There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’” - Luke 16:19-31

Our Lady of Czestochowa has a 2,000 year old history of miracles, and has become the Queen of Poland.
Her image juxtaposes a powerful, heavenly Queen with a suffering mother & perfect nurturer. Her scars a sign of suffering she shares with her people.
This is Her story… 🧵 The icon was created by Saint Luke himself. He painted the portrait of Madonna and child on a tabletop built by Jesus himself, which served as the Holy Family’s household table.
The icon was discovered by Saint Helen in the 300s & was enshrined in Constantinople for 500 years.

In The Mystical City of God, Mary of Agreda tells the story of the Blessed Virgin Mary rescuing one of Jesus’ earliest followers from the fires of Hell.
This was recounted to her by our Virgin Queen herself. It’s a moving tale of her power & her humility.

This is the story…🧵 The Girl Snatched from the Jaws of the Dragon

In the early days of the Church, among the 5,000 first baptized in Jerusalem, there was a poor and humble young girl. She had begun well, serving in her household duties with the zeal of new faith, but in her sickness she weakened.

“As happens to many souls,” writes Venerable Mary of Agreda, “she fell from her first fervor and in her neglect committed some sins endangering her baptismal grace.”

Lucifer saw his chance. Disguising himself as a woman, he came with deceitful words:
“Withdraw from those people who are preaching the Crucified. Do not believe them, for it is all falsehood. If you obey, you shall live peacefully and free from danger. But if you follow them, you will be punished by the priests and judges who crucified their Teacher.”

The girl hesitated. Something within her longed for Mary, whom she had seen with the Apostles. “What shall I do,” she asked, “about that Lady who seems so kind and peaceful? I desire her goodwill very much.”

The devil snarled back:
“This One is worse than all the rest, and Her you must shun before all.”

Poisoned by the serpent’s lies, the girl resisted every attempt at rescue. A disciple came, then Saint John himself, but she would not listen. She turned her face away, covering her ears. Around her bed, legions of demons swarmed.

I’ve been reading the Mystical City of God.

If you want to learn to receive the Eucharist in the way Mary did & obtain the truly infinite power it contains, you will want to read this thread. 🤯

These are HER exact words about how to receive & the enemies trying to stop us. 🧵 O my daughter! Would that the believers in the holy Catholic faith opened their hardened and stony hearts in order to attain to a true understanding of the sacred and mysterious blessing of the holy Eucharist! If they would only detach themselves, root out and reject their earthly inclinations, and, restraining their passions, apply themselves with living faith to study by the divine light their great happiness in thus possessing their eternal God in the holy Sacrament and in being able, by its reception and constant intercourse, to participate in the full effects of this heavenly manna! If they would only worthily esteem this precious gift, begin to taste its sweetness, and share in the hidden power of their omnipotent God! Then nothing would ever be wanting to them in their exile. In this, the happy age of the law of grace, mortals have no reason to complain of their weakness and their passions; since in this bread of heaven they have at hand strength and health. It matters not that they are tempted and persecuted by the demon; for by receiving this Sacrament frequently they are enabled to overcome him gloriously. The faithful are themselves to blame for all their poverty and labors, since they pay no attention to this divine mystery, nor avail themselves of the divine powers, thus placed at their disposal by my most holy Son. I tell thee truly, my dearest, that Lucifer and his demons have such a fear of the most holy Eucharist, that to approach it, causes them more torments than to remain in hell itself. Although they do enter churches in order to tempt souls, they enter them with aversion, forcing themselves to endure cruel pains in the hope of destroying a soul and drawing it into sin, especially in the holy places and in the presence of the holy Eucharist. Their wrath against the Lord and against the souls alone could induce them to expose themselves to the torment of his real sacramental presence.

Good morning world.

No matter how far you fall into the pit, you can be brought back to the light.

Not by your own power but by He who created you. All glory and honor to Jesus Christ!

Do you know the story of Blessed Bartolo Longo?

🧵 Bartolo was born in 1841 in Italy. While studying law, Bartolo drifted from his faith & was swept up in the nationalistic movement of Italy. He was fascinated by & attracted to the political movements that surrounded him. He became rabidly anti-Catholic, just like his professors.