At 7 o’clock in the evening on August 18, 1996, Fr. Alejandro Pezet was saying Holy Mass at a Catholic church in the commercial center of Buenos Aires. As he was finishing distributing Holy Communion, a woman came up to tell him that she had found a discarded host on a candleholder at the back of the church. On going to the spot indicated, Fr. Alejandro saw the defiled Host.
“God has a plan for each soul and carries it out very successfully. But it is well disguised under the name of misfortune, illness, and spiritual weakness.”
Is a Mass offered for one who is still living more powerful than a Mass celebrated for that person after he or she has died?
According to St. Francis of Assisi, “When spiritual joy fills hearts, the serpent throws off his deadly poison in vain. The devils cannot harm the servant of Christ when they see he is filled with holy joy.”
Conchita wrote in a letter on January 1, 1965: “Our Lady said that a warning would be given to the entire world before the Miracle in order that the world might amend itself. It will come directly from God and be visible throughout the entire world.”
Paul Zucarelli describes himself as an ordinary man who died nine times and encountered God. After witnessing the heavenly realm, he now lives to provide testimony and witness to the Living God and salvation in Christ. Paul’s story is not just another near-death experience story—it’s also a story of faith.
St. Patrick was a great missionary bishop who converted a whole land from paganism, overturning the religion of the druids. He consecrated 350 bishops, erected 700 churches, and ordained 5,000 priests.
Montligeon is not a mere pilgrimage destination but a vast spiritual fraternity as well, that brings together the living and the dead. People enrolled in the spiritual Montligeon Fraternity benefit from the daily perpetual Mass celebrated to their intent at the Shrine and in various places worldwide by means of its associate members. Initiated by Fr. Buguet at the very start of his charitable endeavors, its members nowadays amount to millions.
Catholic sacramentals are all around us. Images and statues of Mary adorn our home’s bookshelves and other nooks and crannies. We carry rosaries in our pockets and place them around our rear-view mirrors. Another popular sacramental is holy water. In all my travels to shrines throughout the world, I’ve noticed people wanted to bring home holy water.
No other story, no pagan legend or philosophical anecdote or historical event, does in fact affect any of us with that peculiar and even poignant impression produced on us by the word Bethlehem. No other birth of a god or childhood of a sage seems to us to be Christmas or anything like Christmas