A Mother Rejoices on Our Lady’s Feast Because Her Children Recovered from Covid-19:

She Celebrates Our Lady’s Birthday, Sept. 8, 2022 with the People of Vincenza, Italy 

By Phoebe Wise 

Our Lady of Monte Berico

I love this story about Our Lady of Monte Berico because the Virgin Mary chose to appear to an elderly person, a 70-year-old woman.  

She requested that the people build a church in that spot and promised to end the plague that had been killing people there in Vicenza for decades.  No one believed the poor woman, but she remained faithful, and when the Virgin appeared to her again two years later, the people — weary of the plague — finally believed and built the church.  It’s a beautiful shrine. People in Italy and around the world prayed to the Virgin to end the Covid-19 plague, and she did it:  the virus has weakened, and few people are dying from it anymore. 

   

Shrine of Monte Berico, Vincenza, Italy

But sadly many people have been killed and injured by these hideous vaccines, which are a cannibalistic sacrifice to Moloch.  They are a whole new pagan religion.    

The institutional church abandoned us in this plague. Instead of leading prayers and processions and telling the people to repent in dust and ashes, they shut down worship and mandated an evil potion that is killing people and destroying their fertility.  This is how you can tell the enemy has taken over most of the hierarchy.    

Do I sound like a doomsayer?  I’m just saying what I see.    

But nonetheless I am feeling great joy.  Our Lady of Monte Berico HAS  sent a cure for the plague of Covid — the weakening of the virus — but no one is acknowledging it.  

Instead, the governments and some of the churches are continuing to mandate and promote these deadly Covid shots because they provide great profits to the elite.  I cannot do anything about the evil elites of the world, but I can acknowledge Mary’s loving intercession.  I am just a 71-year-old woman, but I have the immense privilege of seeing what Our Lady the Queen of Heaven has done for us and thanking her.  I know that my guardian angel and my patron saints will augment my humble thanks and make it worthy for her.   

And more people are waking up to what a lie these shots are.  My daughter and son-in-law got the shots, but they have since realized they are worthless.  They got Covid over the weekend, and are still suffering the effects, but I am not worried about them dying from this plague, thanks be to God.  All glory to Jesus, and to Our Lady of Monte Berico for her powerful intercession.   

I am now praying to Our Lady that she will intercede for us to end a greater plague, which is the blindness of the people to the immorality, worthlessness, and physical dangers of these shots.  And all of that stems from lack of faith in God.  The people blindly put their faith in government and pseudo-science without following the moral law, which in medicine says, first do no harm.   

Test all remedies fully to make as certain as possible that they are safe and effective.  And of course, the most basic principle of all:  do not take innocent lives to save other lives.  Do not create medicines and lab procedures that require the cruel vivisection of tiny babies.  There can never be any justification for this evil. 

With everything we have been through in the past two and a half years, I am still feeling joy and thanks.  Our Lady got us through those dark times with her most Holy Rosary when we were abandoned by our bishops and clergy.  We never lost hope and faith; we knew that even if the virus took our lives, we were not abandoned by God.  And now He has sent a cure, thanks to Our Lady and the intercession of so many saints and angels.    

I am just wondering if God will raise up more widely recognized saints in this time.  I see many lay people fighting for truth and for human rights, and some of them are Catholic.  Many more are not Catholic or even Christian, but God is helping them to fight in the public square.  Among the bishops there are only a handful, who are fighting the insanity of an abortion-tainted vaccine.  

I think that this is the hour of the humble and unknown lay people like us.  We are not known or recognized, and speaking for myself, certainly not saintly, but we are resisting the lies and offering up our prayers, and thereby perhaps according ourselves to God’s Providence in some way known only to Him.  

I know one thing:  God always values prayer and thanksgiving, even from sinners.    I am happy because there is something I can do about the plague:  I can trust in Him and thank Him.  I am praying that our country will wake up to the lies and turn to God again.   

At the end of the story of Our Lady of Monte Berico it says that the people in thanksgiving for her protection during World War I promised to celebrate her birthday every year in a special way.  

Today is Sept 8, the Nativity of Our Lady.  I am wishing you and the rest of the world a very happy feast day of Our Lady.

 Read about the miracle of Our Lady of Monte Berico here:

https://handmaidsoftheimmaculate.weebly.com/blog/our-lady-of-monte-berico-renowned-shrine-in-vincenza-italy

Lebanon is broke and starving

The Future for Lebanese Youth is Grim

by Susan Fox 

The water from the faucet is undrinkable. 

At least two people in every Lebanese family has cancer. 

The unemployment rate has been driven up to 45 percent since the start of the October 2019 revolution, forcing 60 percent of the Lebanese into poverty in 2021.

The average  monthly salary for a person in Lebanon reached  $50, but 90 percent of it goes to the government to pay for undrinkable water, electrical black outs, and a personal  generator. The rest must go for food, rent and medicine, but food prices have risen 500 percent in two years.

If you had money in the bank two years ago. Maybe you saved the equivalent of $3,000. Now it’s worth $300 and the bank won’t let you make a withdrawal until its value falls even further. There is literally no way to get food in Lebanon unless you have a cousin out of the country who will mail you dollars.  Fresh Dollars from the U.S. are the only way to survive in Lebanon.  

Lebanon is utterly broke and starving. The number of Lebanese living in poverty has risen from 28 percent of the population in 2019 to more than 60 percent in 2021. And it is forecast to rise to 75 percent. 

Yes, Lebanon  is regarded as a rich country. Yet 10 percent of Lebanon’s adults hold 70 percent of its personal wealth. And they are letting the trash accumulate on the beach, the chemical factories dump into the drinking water, and the fancy hotels on the beach dump their sewerage in the Mediterranean Sea, killing the fishing industry. Some incredibly selfish person used the Lebanese farmers to transport drugs into Saudi Arabia, hiding the drugs in the pomegranates. Now Saudi Arabia won’t buy its produce from Lebanon. The Lebanese farms produce better produce than California, and it will rot. The people can’t afford it. Their currency is worthless.The farmers have no market.

Remember the story in the Bible of the rich man who lived in luxury? At his door lay a beggar named Lazarus, who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. That’s the story of Lebanon.  

Let me introduce you to Lazarus in Lebanon. His name is Anthony Nasrani, a Maronite Catholic, handsome and faith filled. “There is no salvation outside Jesus Christ. I am saying this to all the people we help. Jesus Christ is the only one who can save you. I feel His presence in my heart.” the 20-year-old said. He is a volunteer for the MissionofHopeandMercy.org in Lebanon. He distributes food, rental money and medicine to those who ask for help. They are Syrian and Iraqi refugees and Lebanese Christians. He even extends the hand of mercy to Muslims. The Mission supports almost 5000 Lebanese families. For all his efforts he is fed, but not paid. Mission of Hope and Mercy runs on volunteers. Every cent  donated goes to the poor.

During the interview, the electricity shut down. This is typical. Beside Anthony is Khaled Bouyounes, who also volunteers to help the Mission. He runs a car rental agency, but he hasn’t made money in two years. Once a year for Ramadan, he rents some cars, but that is the totality of his business. Other Lebanese NGOs wear fancy jewellery and fine clothes. When Anthony and Khaled visit with dignitaries in the Church, the priests always remark how little they have. Khaled doesn’t have a car and must get a ride with Anthony.

Beirut waterfront explosion Aug., 4, 2020

They went to Khaled’s rental car business in a big building containing a hotel  so they could be interviewed over Zoom on a cell phone. The hotel has a back up generator, so the lights come back on. Khaled’s rental car headquarters was destroyed in the Beirut waterfront explosion on Aug. 4, 2020. Anthony estimates that about 40 percent of the people are still homeless and Khaled said the insurance companies did not pay people for the loss of their homes or their businesses. They still don’t know what caused the fire that started the explosion.

 

But there is a greater problem in Lebanon, according to Anthony, “Lebanese youth are not supposed to think only of food and drink. Where are their dreams? I want to help Lebanon, but first I want to grow myself too.” He wants an education. It’s the same for all the Lebanese children, who are sitting at home now twiddling their thumbs unable to pay for school.

Another war on Lebanon’s southern border is brewing. Lebanese Hezbollah is shooting rockets at Israel, who is returning fire. Anthony is asking us to us to pray for Christians in the Middle East. “They want us to hate Lebanon. They want us to give up on Jesus Christ. They want us always to be tired and sad,” Anthony said, “But this (Mission of Hope and Mercy) is the work of the Holy Spirit. God is working. He is dominating this place.”  

The Pope takes the Road to Babylon March 5-8, 2021!

Francis Walks Among the Treasures of Iraq

by Susan Fox 

Pope Francis disembarks on the first ever papal visit to Iraq on March, 5, 2021

Pope Francis took the road to Babylon, on March 5-8, 2021, in the first ever papal visit to Iraq. He walked the path of pearls.  For the treasure of Iraq is its martyrs. 

The pope spoke where the Church bloomed with its first fruits of the third millennium. When he walked into his first public meeting  in the Syrian-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation in Bagdad on March 5 everyone there remembered the 48 blossoms — ordinary lay Catholics, including two young priests, a pregnant woman and two small children —  who were killed at Mass on Oct. 31, 2010.

Five ISIS terrorists stormed the cathedral during Mass and massacred these people, but wounded many others. Little 3-year-old Adam shouted at the terrorists, “Enough, enough, enough!” before he was killed. 

Adam’s cry “was the cry of all Iraqi Christians who asked not to die but to be accepted as human beings with their inherent rights,” according to Fr. Luis Escalante, who worked on the diocesan phase of  for the beautification of these martyrs. “In the 21st century, the Church of Babylon has been called to offer her children as precious pearls to the universal Church,” the priest added. 

And the pope came to receive these precious gifts, saying, “Their deaths are a powerful reminder that inciting war, hateful attitudes, violence or the shedding of blood are incompatible with authentic religious teachings.” The Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation itself had been another victim of Islamic explosives, but now it is completely restored. 

Pope Francis came to Iraq despite the Covid plague, two bombings in or near Iraq (one by Iran militias, the other by the U.S.)  and the fear his visit could worsen the Covid pandemic. The Pope endured enormous resistance and risked his life to make this historic visit.

But why did he risk his life? 

"To make sure that Christianity does not disappear from the Middle East and to support the courageous community of believers there," according to Human Rights Expert Dr. Christiaan Alting von Geusau, J.D., LL.M, president and rector of ITI Catholic University in Trumau, Austria. The West scandalously ignored the genocide of the Yazidi and Christians when the Islamic State (ISIS) took over large areas of Iraq seven years ago. (2014-2019)

Dr Christiaan Alting von Geusau, president
and rector of ITI Catholic University in 
Trumau, Austria

“The Pope put it on the map.” said Dr. Geusau “He reminded the largely ignorant media and political leaders in the West that the Christians are the original inhabitants of Iraq, Syria and the surrounding countries. Christianity was born in the Middle East and belongs there!” Other than often propagated, Christians are not alien to the Middle East, but in fact they are among its original inhabitants. What the Holy Father did was “absolutely necessary. The Catholic Church is not going to sit by and watch Christianity being rooted out of the Middle East for good,” Dr. Geusau said. 

When Pope Francis reached Qaraqosh, an ancient Christian stronghold in Northern Iraq where the city’s 50,000 population was forced out in a single night in 2014 by the advancing Islamic State, his message became forgiveness.The Kurdish troops abandoned everyone, and retreated north.Then came the Islamic state with the order to remove the population.  The Iraqi government and U.S. President Barack Obama did nothing while a humanitarian crisis unfolded the likes of which  we have not seen in modern times.  The population was forced to run into the hot desert up a mountain. If you stayed without converting to Islam you would be  killed, enslaved or taxed by the ISIS caliphate. Elderly women in walkers struggled over the mountainous terrain heading for the caves to the north. Meanwhile lack of water killed hundreds of women and children.

It was in Qaraqosh, that Pope Francis spoke of forgiveness in a partly ruined church. While much of the marble in the Church of the Immaculate Conception has been restored, evidence of the ISIS bombing was still strikingly visible. “The road to full recovery may still be long, but I ask you please do not grow discouraged,” the Pope pleaded in his address in Qaraqosh, “Forgiveness is necessary to remain in love, to remain Christian.”

Finally, on March 7 he spoke of mercy in Erbil, site of the Iranian militia bombings on Feb. 15, 2021. He reminded us that Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. (1Cor. 1:22-25) Christ revealed that wisdom not by displays of strength, but by giving his life on the cross. This was the piece de resistance of all the papal talks. The temptation is to react to the wounds of war and violence with human power and human wisdom and human anger. But Christ leads us along the paths of Providence. He invites us to rest in in His wounds. It’s the only place to find peace in the middle of such traumatic events.   

In Erbil, the pope reminded us the Church is sometimes not doing its missionary duty, bringing the richness of the Christian gospel to the entire world. “He (Christ) liberates us from the narrow and divisive notions of family, faith and community that divide, oppose and exclude, so that we can build a Church and a Society open to everyone and concerned for our brothers and sisters in greatest need,”

He was clearly talking about the Good Samaritan, who put aside his sectarian differences and rescued an injured Jew, who had been set upon by bandits. The injured Jew was ignored by his own countrymen — a priest and a levite — before the Samaritan came along. Jews and Samaritans endured a long standing rivalry. But it was the Samaritan who saw the man, bandaged his wounds, brought him to an inn and paid for his care until he recovered. 

The pope’s treatment of the issue of the genocide of the Yazidis showed this same Christian missionary zeal for a group of people who do not share our common Christian beliefs, but they share our humanity. Yazidis are older than Islam, and believe in a mixture of Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism.

Pope Francis vists a country still in ruins in Mosul 

“How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilisation, should have been afflicted by so barbarous a blow, with ancient places of worship destroyed and many thousands of people — Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, and others — forcibly displaced or killed,” the pope said in Mosul, “Today, however, we reaffirm our conviction that fraternity is more durable than fratricide, that hope is more powerful than hatred, that peace is more powerful than war.” 

Besides that, the pope participated in an inter-religious ceremony at Ur, the birthplace of Abraham. And he met with Ayatollah Sayyid al-Sistani, the leader of Iraq's Shiite Muslims. The pope thanked him for speaking up in defenced of the "most vulnerable 

and persecuted” during the years of ISIS violence in Iraq.

Speaking to reporters on his return trip from Iraq on March 8, Pope Francis candidly admitted that his own Catholics often think he is “one step away from heresy” when he talks about inter-religious harmony. But he feels “restless for fraternity” with non-Christians. The Catholic Church does teach that God is the Father of mankind. That means that every human being can hunger and thirst for the one true God and find Him in his own circumstances of life. Whether they recognise Him or not the grace of their salvation comes through Christ, through His Catholic Church.