Messages from Diverse Sources
Monday, September 11, 2023
Pray the Rosary Every Day, Meditate on the Gospel
Message of Saint Rose of Lima given to Mario D'Ignazio, Seer of the Blessed Garden of Brindisi, Italy on August 2, 2023
Pray, pray the Rosary every day. Love Mary Most Holy, venerate Her.
Give thanks to Her for everything, invoke Her.
Do not fear adversity, God will always sustain you. When you suffer invoke Jesus and He will help you, do not fear.
Trust in God and in His Forgiveness, in His Clemency.
I bless you all. Pray the Rosary every day, meditate on the Gospel. Love one another as Christ loved us.
(She shows the picture of Our Lady of Pompeii and then disappears)
Saint Rosa of Lima
Isabella Flores de Oliva was the daughter of a Spanish couple in what was then the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. According to later legend, because her mother saw a rose hovering over her daughter at her baptism, she was given the first name Rosa at her confirmation by Archbishop Turibius Alfonso de Mogrovejo. Against the will of her parents, who had already planned the marriage, she became a Dominican tertiary in 1602 - or 1606; in the garden at her parents' house in Lima, she built a wooden barrack where she lived from then on. She fasted three days a week, slept on a bed of hard wooden planks and broken glass, and tortured herself with penitential exercises: she wore a wrought-iron crown of thorns on her head and a spiked chain around her body, burned her hands with unslaked lime, wore an iron crown of thorns, scourged herself. Finally, her confessors intervened against this self-flagellation. According to the legend, near Rosa's hut lived many mosquitoes that tormented people, but spared Rosa; she explained this by saying that she had made friends with the animals, they sang together in praise of God. To the astonishment of one visitor, the mosquitoes actually began to hum in such a way that their cooing together with Rosa's singing produced wonderful harmonies.
Rosa endured the most severe physical and mental pain with devotion: "Lord, increase my suffering, but also my love," she prayed: for she knew that love was the decisive factor. She supported her parents with handicrafts, housework, by selling weaving and embroidery; but also at work she prayed and meditated, the living dialogue with the Holy Spirit was an integral part of her life. Rosa criticized the clergy for their often dissolute lifestyle, and the colonial rulers for their cruel treatment of the indigenous population. According to tradition, she brought back to life two dead bodies that had already been buried.
Rosa founded the first contemplative monastery in South America, the Monastery of Catherine of Siena, named after the saint Rosa venerated, in the house of the de la Manza family in 1614. She herself took the religious name Rosa of St. Mary and was active in nursing the sick, engaged in preaching the faith, and exhorted priests to live a proper, spiritual life. The last three years of her life she worked as a domestic servant to Don Gonzalo de Massa, a government employee whose wife had taken a special affection for her. Shortly after her 31st birthday, Rosa suddenly predicted that she would die within four months. In fact, she was stricken with a severe and painful illness, from which she died as predicted.
Rosa died with a reputation for sainthood, and a few days after her death the process for her canonization began. Immediately after her death, the people began to venerate her with enthusiasm. Already in 1669, two years before her canonization, she was named Patroness of Peru. Her monument stands in Lima, and her image adorns the 200-sol bill of the Peruvian National Bank. Rosa has the importance for South America that Catherine of Siena or Teresa of Ávila have for Europe. "There was probably no missionary in the Americas who would have achieved more conversions with his preaching than Rosa of Lima did through her prayers and penitential exercises," Pope Innocent XI said of her.
Words of the Saint
In a letter to the doctor Castillo, Rosa writes about the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge:
"The Lord and Savior lifted up His voice and spoke with incomparable majesty: 'Let all know that grace follows affliction; let them see that the greatness of the gifts of grace increases in the same measure as the afflictions increase; let them realize that without the burden of affliction we cannot attain to the summit of grace. People should beware of error and self-deception. This is the only ladder to paradise; without the cross no one can find the ascent to heaven.'
When I heard these words, a fierce desire came over me, as if I had to stand in the middle of the square and shout with loud cries to all people of every age, sex and status: "Hear, you nations, hear, you tribes!" On behalf of Christ and with the words from his mouth, I exhort you: We cannot acquire grace unless we suffer tribulations; necessarily, toils must heap upon toils if we are to "obtain a share in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), to gain the glory of the children of God and the full happiness of the soul.
The same sting drove me to proclaim the beauty of divine grace. This weighed me down with distress, drove the sweat from my pores, and made me thirst. It seemed to me that my soul could no longer remain imprisoned in the body. But if it were held fast, it would break the chains and run free, alone and unhindered through the whole world, crying out: "Oh, if only mortals would realize how sublime the grace of God is, how beautiful, how noble, how precious; what riches it holds, how much joy and rejoicing!" No doubt then men would strive with zeal and diligence to inflict suffering and pain upon themselves! All over the globe, all men would seek sickness and torment rather than happiness in order to obtain the infinite treasure of grace. This is the reward and the ultimate gain of suffering. No one would complain about crosses and troubles he might encounter if he recognized the scales on which they are weighed out to men."
The prophecies of the End Times given to Mario D'Ignazio, seer of the Blessed Garden in Brindisi
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