A Sad Day...

Today I had the oppurtunity to go to a funeral. Its a long story but I guess I will tell it!

One of my best friends Matt, his Dad about 2 months ago was diagnosed with Terminal cancer. About two weeks ago as I was attending a pilgrimage (I'll tell you about that later) my Best friend Amelia told me that he had only two weeks to live! I was horrified! Well, on Monday the 2nd November, 2009 at 8:10 am, he passed away on All Souls Day!! The best day to die in the entire Churchs year I think! I got to school that day and my friend Bernadette told a group of us. My other best friends Caitlin and another friend of mine Lauren ran staright up to the Chapel, we stayed there for 15 minutes beacuse at that time ti was only around 8:45am. We missed the first part of assembly. Luckily first period was Study so Caitlin and I ran back up to the chapel and started to say the Rosary, half way through Matt's closest friends joined us. Caitlin, my friend Jancarlo and myself stayed in that Chapel for 45 minutes and we prayed and prayed for his soul and his family. I couldn't help but cry and sob. Anyway, today washis funeral and Matt was so storng. He had so much faith that I didn't even see him cry, although he claimed to have at the requim mass!! Matt is the nicest guy and he doesn't deserve this cross, but obviuosly God has given him this to show him something, and something good always comes out of the bad!! It was a hard day for all of us, and I couldn't help but cry when I gave him a hug. I would like to close with a short prayer in Repose for Thomas Bayley's Soul and all his Family that they may gain graces from this tragedy:

Eternal Rest Grant to Tom, Oh Lord,
and May Perpetual Light Shine Upon Him,
May He Rest In Peace,
Amen...

Danielle Rose explains "See you in the Eucharist"

Danielle Rose explains "See you in the Eucharist". She gets very emotional!! Check out her music here! She has a beautiful song called Defining Beauty, the name of her 3rd album I think!

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today is the Feast of The Assumption. My family and I went to Mass this morning. It is actually the only Holy Day of Obligation in Australia! I was invited to go to the Old Rite mass for the feast where my best friend was singing but my Mother dearest needed my help because my Dad is up north attending a Wedding!

Since the fifth century the Church has held implicitly the belief on the Assumption of the Blessed Mother, body and soul, into Heaven. It can be deduced from the Liturgy, from pious documents and the writings of the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church. The Dogma was promulgated by Pius the XII on November 1st, 1950.

God Bless,

Chanel

Dear and Glorious Physician, A Novel about St. Luke

Hi Everyone!

I just finished reading, about a week ago, the absolute best book in the entire universe of the world!!! Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell, is such a great book. It is about the life of Saint Luke, or in his time, Lucanus, adopted son of the noble tribune Diodorus Cyrinus. It is basically a biography of his life. He was the only Gospel writer to have never met or seen Our Lord. He travelled all over Greece, Rome and finally to the Holy Land were he personally spoke to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Apostles James and John. He was a handsome man, some say he was Apollo himself. He decided to dedicate himself to work among the poor as a physician. He had a healing power and would you believe it, he was an Atheist! He cursed God and hated him, until his conversion! He started hating God after his derest friend, the young Rubria died, but I will not ruin the stroy any more!! I read this book in about two days and it is approx. 1 and a half inches thick! I cried in it a few times, because it can get very emotional! I recommend to teenagers! A must read for all...

Sacrifice Beads and St. Therese

Hey People's!

I started making these sacrifice beads yesterday. We had in our possession i think 3 of them not knowing what they were. We assumed they were chaplet beads but I don't know how we found out they weren't. My Dad, my brother and myself recieved them from two girls from America at WYD08 in Sydney. I made a blue pair with a the medal of St. Therese the Little Flower and another naturasl wooden bead one with the Miraculous medal on it. They are soooooooo easy to make. Especially, the beading part.


Today is also the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel who appeared to Saint Simon Stock in 1251. She introduced the Brown Scapular to the world.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pray for us!
Saint Simon Stock, Pray for Us!

St. Maria Goretti

Today was the traditional feast day of Saint Maria Goretti! What a pure and chaste saint! She is a great saint who all of us young teens should be praying to, especially in the Culture of Death today!! There is so much impure sins going on today, especially those displaying women on billboards and posters! You cannot even walk down the street today without looking at impure images!! Most advertisements have a woman or girl displaying the product the company is trying to sell! This is sad... We should be praying to St. Maria Goretti! What a girl to stand up to her faith!!

"It is a sin Alessandro, you will go to hell!" She would rather have died than do an impure sin with a man! Seriously, what would you do? Go into panic, scream for help, faint? The possiblities are endless. We can only pray to Maria to protect us from any harm or to stand up to sins like these! Didn't Our Lady say to the 3 Fatima children that impure fashions were to come about!

There is alot of immodesty and impurity in today's society, and we are the ones to stand up and fight against it, even of that means we die for the Faith, just as St. Maria Goretti did! We must remain together as one, to fight against this sin of the world and the Culture of Death. It all starts in this generation of teen girls, us! This is something we ought to think about....

St Maria Goretti, Pray for Us

Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for Us

Updated my Website and Purity Rings

Hey Everyone!

I just updated my website on webs! Check it out and write a comment!

http://faithfullteens.webs.com/

The other day I bought a beautiful song called With This Ring, by Amanda Vernon. It is about her wearing a purity ring! That got me thinking that maybe I should really get one! It would be nice if I had a reminder to save my body for my future husband. One of our families favourite priests does a ceremony for the True Love Waits, so I think I will do that, although you have to be 16! I am still thinking about wearing one now anyways....

God Bless,

Chanel

Month of the Precious Blood

Hey!! Well I haven't written anything in a LONG time! I have been so busy with my exams and school! I did pretty well and topped the class in HSIE (Australian History) and Elective History and came equal 2nd in my Science Class, with two of my buddies! On the 1st of July was the feast of the Precious Blood, it was also my cousins birthday (I would love to have a birthday on a special feast like that!) I never really knew anything about the Precious Blood. One of our close family friends lent mum a book about the Devotion to the Precious Blood. Here are a few excerts from the book:

"...Veneration of the Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is a devotion as old as our Holy Faith..."

"... In Holy Communion, all recieve the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ as a pledge of Life Eternal. True Catholics must venerate the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ unto the End of the World..."

"...One of the best means of participating in the graces and blessings of the Precious Blood is to offer it to the Eternal Father..."

"... Resolve to say the following little prayer every morning and evening:

O Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of thy Divine Son for the intention that one mortal sin may be prevented this day (or this night)..."

This book is called Devotion to the Precious Blood by Tan Books. I never really thought about the Precious Blood that much, maybe this month and in the future I will focus on the Precious blood alot more! I thought it was quite amazing that if the Precious Blood is spilt at Mass, the procedure to clean it up was quite extraordinary. It can be cleaned off the floor with a linen, than the linen soaked in a pan of water and laundered as usual. The pan of water is than poured out onto the Earth! I didn't realise that it was that long, I suppose I never really thought about it! It is amazing how much respect the priest shows towards the Precious Blood. The picture is of Christ of Limpias...

Chanel

May Feelings II

I thought this was an awesome video. I was watching Life on the Rock and Fr. Mark suggested to watch May Feelings II on Youtube. I did and it is awesome!! I love how he gets out his highlighters and writes "I Pray the Rosary" and everyone walks on with their t-shirts and the song I'm Yours. Hope fully you can spread the word about the video and get people to watch it!

Rosary Stars: Praying the Gospel

Here is a really cool video that I found while looking up a video (May Feelings, see above). It has all these movie stars and celebrities in it. Looks like a worthwhile movie to buy. Here is a little blurb about the movie:

Now you can pray the Rosary with today’s stars! This DVD features celebrities and champions who share their inspirational reflections on how they live and pray the Mysteries of the Rosary every day. It will help deepen your understanding of this timeless prayer. Includes a learning segment, historical timeline on the evolution of the Rosary and actual Rosary prayer with our Rosary Stars. Individuals and families’ prayer lives will be enriched.

Looks v. interesting! Wouldn't mind watching it myself! Some of the stars include people like Eduardo Verástegui (the leading guy in Bella), Lourdes Benedicto, (actress from ER) and heaps more!

Saint Tarcisius

Even though it is not his feast day any time soon, I still think he is closely associated with the Blessed Sacrament. He was a twelve year old acolyte and live during the third century. He was the boy martyr of the Eucharist. To read more go to:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/tarcis.htm

It's funny to think that nearly the whole congregation will go up to Holy Communion on a Sunday Mass and yet the lines for Confession are reduced to about 3 or 4. Do people think they are so perfect for Jesus that they could go up and receive Him or are they a little afraid of telling all their sins to a priest, or even (this is quite sad really) it's not "cool" to be seen in the line up for confession! I know a few people, 3 teenagers in particular, in my congregation that have not been to Confession and go to Holy Communion every Sunday. I just pray for them. For them it would be seen as "uncool", but Jesus thinks it is cool, and thats all that matters because he was the one who instituted the Sacrament of Confession.

"Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained..." Jn 20:23

And what am I saying, it's really Jesus in the confessional, acting through the priest. Why would you not want to go and kneel before the Almighty God and have your sins forgiven? Which leads me to another thing, why is it week in and week out, it is always the same handful of people going to Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament? Who would not want to go to see the Creator of Heaven and Earth who keeps you in existance at this very moment!? As our Lord says:

"Could You not keep watch for one hour..." Mk 14:37

God in the Streets of New York City

Feast of Corpus Christi

The feast of Corpus Christi is one time when our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is exposed not just to faithful Catholics but to all the world. This is a time when Catholics can show their love for Christ in the Real Presence by honoring Him in a very public way. It is also a wonderful way in which we can show our love for our neighbors by bringing Our Lord and Savior closer to them. So many conversions are a result of Eucharistic Adoration experienced from inside the Church. How many more there would be if we could reach those who only drive by the church in worldly pursuits.

Our family might be going to a procession on Sunday. But we have a very busy week, so were not sure if we can make it!! I would love to go...

For more information go to:
http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/pea/cchristi.htm

Butterfly- A Catholic/Christian Symbol

****************************************J.M.J****************************************
Hey,
When I was deciding about a background for my blog, my Mum said something about the Catholic Symbols of Jesus. They were in a kids colouring in book, so Mum went and got it and one of the symbols was a butterfly. I decided to use it and researched a bit of it on the net. Here is what I found:

Catholic Christian symbolism in art provides a clear graphic illustration which represents people or items of religious significance. What is the definition and the meaning of the Butterfly? The Butterfly Christian Symbol represents and symbolizes the Resurrection. The butterfly has three phases during its life:

1. The caterpillar - The caterpillar which just eats symbolises normal earthly life where people are preoccupied with taking care of their physical needs.

2. The chrysalis or cocoon - The chrysalis or cocoon resembles the tomb.

3. The butterfly - The butterfly represents the resurrection into a glorious new life free of material restrictions.

The Grace of Our Lord Jesus be with you all,
Chanel