Author Topic: Purgatory (Read 47583 times)

poche · « **Reply #180 on:** June 20, 2017, 01:54:33 AM »

God wants in His service generous souls who have no thought of themselves, but who direct all their attention and good will to making Him loved and who serve Him at the expense of their own interests. God's graces are pure gifts which He does not owe us. He gives them to whomsoever He pleases without anyone having the right to question Him about it. Who has the right to lay down the law to the Divine Master? Therefore, receive in all humility and gratitude the special graces with which Jesus favors you, without trying to understand the why and the wherefore. Jesus wishes you to soar above all that is created so that not one bond or thread binds you to earth. You must live the life of the elect, whose only occupation is to enjoy, love and lose themselves entirely in God Himself.

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6253

poche · « **Reply #181 on:** June 28, 2017, 01:35:43 AM »

November 2, 1890 — A Remembrance. This is the last Benediction of the month of the Rosary.
I am going to try to make you understand, as far as you can upon earth, what Heaven is like. There are ever new feasts which succeed each other without interruption. There is happiness, always new and such, it would seem, as has never been enjoyed. It is a torrent of joy which flows unceasingly over the elect. Heaven is above all and beyond all — GOD: God loved, God relished, God delighted in; in one word, it is to be satisfied with God without ever being satisfied!
The more a soul loves God on earth, the higher she advances in perfection, the more she will love and understand God in Heaven.
Jesus is the true joy upon earth and the eternal felicity of Heaven.

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6253

poche · « **Reply #182 on:** July 01, 2017, 01:52:31 AM »

"One of the most wonderful manifestations of God's benevolence during the struggles of the primitive Church in these United States" – such is the impressive estimate of the learned Jesuit scholar, Father Joseph M. Finotti, concerning the extraordinary but little known spiritual drama which took place some 200 years ago near Martinsburg, West Virginia.

http://www.olrl.org/stories/wizclip.shtml

poche · « **Reply #183 on:** July 04, 2017, 03:28:36 AM »

And in fact, in the year 1797, on a farm near the present Middleway, Jefferson County, West Virginia, a Lutheran family was saved from diabolical persecutions by a Catholic priest and then instructed in the Catholic religion by a mysterious, invisible Voice from the other world, that continued for seventeen years to enlighten, guide, and inspire these former Protestants and their Catholic friends to live as fervent and model Christians. Frequently during those years, this mystic Voice, whose "influence was always beneficial," communicated timely warnings, prophecies, and messages of charity and mercy for many persons, which resulted in numerous conversions.

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poche · « **Reply #184 on:** July 10, 2017, 02:36:21 AM »

That such seemingly miraculous phenomena did actually take place has never been questioned by serious historians. According to the scholarly Professor P. J. Mahon, in his Trials and Triumphs of the Catholic Church in America (Chicago, 1907), "no facts are better substantiated." Non-Catholic authorities also confirm the truth of the events. In 1904, an article in The West Virginia Historical Magazine admitted, "the people there had no doubt of the facts related." And as recently as 1941, the West Virginia guidebook of the American Guide Series compiled by the Writers' Program of the Works Project Administration gave nearly a whole page to an objective account of the locally famous Mystery of the Wizard Clip.

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poche · « **Reply #185 on:** July 19, 2017, 12:47:05 AM »

We shall now narrate the principal incidents of this fascinating and significant chapter in the early history of the Catholic Church in the United States; in the same words, for the most part, as they are recorded by eyewitnesses and by the children of eyewitnesses in Father J. M. Finotti's valuable collection of docuмents entitled The Mystery of the Wizard Clip (Baltimore, 1879, 143p.). Holy Scripture teaches us "it is honorable to reveal and confess the works of God" (Tobias 12:7). And it is our hope and prayer that many American Catholics – and non-Catholics too – may come to share Father Finotti's conviction that this stirring historical narrative "draws our heart near to God; it teaches lessons of supernatural wisdom; the Finger of God is Here! ... Herein lies the beauty of the story."

http://www.olrl.org/stories/wizclip.shtml

poche · « **Reply #186 on:** July 22, 2017, 12:05:18 AM »

Adam Livingston was an honest and industrious Lutheran who owned considerable property in York County, Pennsylvania. Due to mysterious causes, however, his property began to diminish in various ways: his barn burned down, and his horses and cattle died. As these losses continued, Livingston and his family decided to move. Early in the seventeen nineties, therefore, with his second wife and several children, he left Pennsylvania and migrated to the lower end of the lovely Shenandoah Valley, where he settled on a large estate of the triangle formed by Charlestown, Martinsburg, and Winchester, all of which were then in the state of Virginia.

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poche · « **Reply #187 on:** July 30, 2017, 11:15:16 PM »

But there too the same mysterious forces continued to afflict the Livingston household. There too the cattle and horses died. Now the very house in which Adam and his wife and children lived seemed to have become haunted: at night, they were kept awake by weird noises, such as loud knocks and rumblings as of galloping horses and wagons. But even in daylight, their furniture would be suddenly banged about and their crockery smashed onto the floor by invisible hands. Chunks of fire rolled out of the beds across the rooms. At times, the heads and legs of chickens and geese were seen to drop off suddenly. But by far the most sensational of these devilish afflictions was the strange persistent clipping and cutting that attacked almost every piece of cloth and leather on the Livingston estate. Sheets, table clothes, shirts, dresses, suits and even leather boots and saddles, whether in use or locked up in closets, were skillfully slit and clipped into crescent-shaped strips by invisible shears! The noise of the scissors clipping merrily away was distinctly heard on many occasions by members of the family.

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poche · « **Reply #188 on:** August 07, 2017, 04:35:51 AM »

One old woman in Martinsburg, wishing to satisfy her curiosity, went to visit the Livingstons, but before entering the haunted house, she carefully took off her new silk hat and wrapped it in her large handkerchief, to save it from being clipped. Upon leaving, however, she found her new hat cut into small ribbons! Poor old Mr. Livingston's mental torture was acute and he turned to the Bible for help against these attacks, which were clearly diabolical. As Father Gallitzin later wrote, "the good old man reading in his Bible that Christ had given to His ministers power over evil spirits, started from his home to Winchester in Virginia, and having, with tears in his eyes, related to his minister the history of his distress, losses and sufferings, begged of him to come to his house and to exercise in his favor the power he had received from Jesus Christ. The parson candidly confessed that he had no such power. The good man. . .therefore rationally concluded that Parson S ____ could not be a minister of Christ ...and applied to other persons calling themselves ministers of Christ, some of whom promised relief. They came, prayed and read; but they prayed and read in vain..."

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poche · « **Reply #189 on:** August 13, 2017, 12:52:06 AM »

As a result of so many disappointments, Mr. Livingston almost came to the conclusion that Christ no longer had any true ministers on earth. So in desperation he turned to some local conjurers or magicians, one of whom promised to banish the evil spirit if paid a good sum in advance, but refused the job when the shrewd old farmer offered to pay him double that amount – after he succeeded! Three others came very confidently from Winchester, but took to their heels when they saw a large stone whirl around the living room without any support for fifteen minutes!

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poche · « **Reply #190 on:** August 19, 2017, 11:13:21 PM »

Then one night, Mr. Livingston had a strange dream. He saw a beautiful church and in it a "minister dressed in peculiar robes" and he heard a voice say to him, "That is the man who can relieve you." He decided to search that same morning for the minister dressed in robes. He was directed to the estate of a distinguished Catholic family named McSherry. Late that evening Mrs. McSherry saw Mr. Livingston, whose farm was about four miles away, coming toward her house and she met him at the gate. When he asked to see the priest, she told him there was no priest there then, but that one would "hold church" at a home in Shepherdstown the following Sunday morning.

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poche · « **Reply #191 on:** August 26, 2017, 11:47:52 PM »

On the next Sunday, the McSherrys met Mr. Livingston in the Catholic home in Shepherdstown. As soon as the priest, Father Dennis Cahill of Hagerstown, appeared at the altar vested for Mass, the old Lutheran farmer suddenly burst into tears and exclaimed, "That is the very man I saw in my dream – he is the one who will relieve me!" When the Mass was over, going right to the priest, he poured out his sad story and earnestly begged him for help. After much persuasion, Fr. Cahill agreed to visit the haunted house. The priest questioned the whole Livingston family, but they all told him exactly the same story. He therefore consented to say some prayers and to sprinkle the house with Holy Water. And as he was leaving, a sum of money that had lately vanished mysteriously from the farmer's locked chest was suddenly laid by invisible hands on the doorsill between the priest's feet!

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poche · « **Reply #192 on:** September 01, 2017, 04:43:09 AM »

Now the Livingston home became quiet for several days. But soon the weird noises and dreaded clipping started again. So Father Cahill came a second time and celebrated Holy Mass in the house, after which the various disturbances ceased – for good! The old Lutheran farmer was so deeply grateful for having obtained the relief that had been promised him, that he thereupon decided to accept the Catholic religion with all his family.

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poche · « **Reply #193 on:** September 11, 2017, 04:25:46 AM »

It was at this time, in the fall of the year 1797, that a very remarkable young priest was sent by his superiors to investigate these strange happenings at Cliptown: the 27 year old Father Demetrius A. "Smith", who was born Prince "Mitri" Gallitzin, the son of a German countess and a Russian prince-ambassador of the Empress Catherine the Great. Later, during his forty years of holy and heroic service to God at Loretto, Pa., he was to become famous as the great "Apostle of the Alleghenies." Here is his testimony: "My view in coming to Virginia and remaining there three months was to investigate those extraordinary facts at Livingston's, of which I had heard so much ... and which I could not prevail upon myself to believe; but I was soon converted to a full belief of them. No lawyer in a court of justice did ever examine or cross-examine witnesses more strictly than I did all those I could procure." Through the divine power of the True Church of Christ, the evil spirits were banished and in their place appeared a Spirit of Light and Truth whose inspiring spiritual guidance brought about profound changes for the good in the lives of the Livingstons, the McSherrys and their neighbors.

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poche · « **Reply #194 on:** September 18, 2017, 04:42:45 AM »

One evening, after he had been a Catholic for several weeks, Mr. Livingston perceived a dazzling light in one corner of his room and in an instant the whole house became filled with almost blinding light. And then the old man began to hear a mysterious Voice, which instructed him in the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist. Often the Voice would come and exclaim, "I want prayers" It would awaken Mr. and Mrs. Livingston at night and tell them to pray hard for perseverance and for sinners. Sometimes it made them pray for three hours; they admitted that it did not seem to be more than a few minutes. And it would suddenly summon the whole family in the evenings with these words: "Come-take your seats!" And then it would instruct them very thoroughly in the various dogmas of the Catholic religion.

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Author Topic: Purgatory (Read 47583 times)

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