Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter Sunday Cenacle

CHAPEL OF THE APPARITIONS AT THE SANCTUARY OF JACAREÍ/SP

MESSAGES FROM OUR LADY AND SAINT APOLONIA

Marcos: Forever be praised JESUS, MARIA and JOSÉ!

MESSAGE OF MARY MOST HOLY

"-My children. I am the joyful Mother of Redemption!

On Easter Sunday, my son JESUS, brighter than the Sun, appeared before me in the oratory, where since Friday I had been praying recollected and suffering. And then with His Divine Heart incandescent with love, He raised Me from where I was prostrate, He kissed Me and My Blood Tears, which since Friday had flowed unceasingly; they became Luminous Tears of joy, joy and jubilation.

With His Hand, My Divine Son JESUS took from My Heart, the Sword of Pain stuck in Him; He kissed Me, embraced Me and together we became one Flame of Love!

Rejoice with Me, My Children, for your resurrection is also near! Soon when the Heart of JESUS triumphs in the world with My Heart and that of JOSEPH in the great 2nd PENTECOST, Our Resurrection will be complete! You will have peace! You will be raised to a high degree of holiness, love and purity; proportionate to the degree and love, obedience and docility you now have towards My Messages.

Your holiness will be so great that even the Holy Angels will be delighted with it!

Therefore, I invite you to continue to follow Me along the path of prayer, penance, perfect correspondence to My will.

Every day I want to beautify you, to perfume you, to flood your souls with the efficacious graces of my Immaculate and most pure Heart.

You will be firm and attentive, My Divine Son JESUS from one minute to the next will rip Heaven and appear on the clouds with millions and millions of Angels; and those who are Ours will be taken by their Guardian Angels and led to the good together of Our Sacred Hearts; where they will be clothed in beauty, holiness, peace and happiness indescribable and unknown on earth.

You will stand firm, for only those who are strong will triumph.

My daughter APOLONIA will now also give you the Word of the LORD, which is His saving will for you.

I am very grateful to you for coming here to comfort Me in this week of My Great Pain.

Peace My children. Today I give you a great and abundant blessing so that throughout the year it may accompany you and be with you always.

MESSAGE FROM SAINT APOLONIA

"-Dearly beloved brothers. I, Apollonia, servant of GOD, servant of MARY MOST HOLY bless you today!

As you well know I am the martyr of the LORD, I was tortured and had all my teeth pulled out with pliers for love of my JESUS; to whom I had consecrated myself and whom I loved from all my Heart, desiring to be no one else but my JESUS and of course, his holy Mother who is inseparable from him!

I gave My life, for love of GOD, because He deserved that I would give Him everything and if I had a thousand other lives, as many as I would have given for Your love.

And what do you do? Have you loved the Lord with all the strength of your hearts? Has He been your true, unique and exclusive love? You already know that outside of GOD you have no license to love anything, you can only love the creatures of GOD, in GOD and in the measure predisposed by Him. Is this how you live? Is this your love? Or are you still putting the creature in the creator's place and worshipping him as if he were GOD?

Are you not putting yourselves, which is far worse, in GOD's place to worship as if it were GOD?

I call you to a radical conversion of your heart, putting all other things in their proper place, that is, in the last place. and putting GOD and HOLY MARY in the first place!

Here in these Apparitions you must learn true love; you must be formed in love so that you may become more lovers of GOD and of the VIRGIN MARY that the world has never seen or known.

For so much of Heaven She has come down here every day, are you learning well the teaching that is given to you?

Have you prayed that your intelligence may open to understand? Have you prayed that your Hearts may open and be enlightened to understand and love what you know?

Here in this place the Lord has prepared great plans for each one, which will be carried out more or less according to the degree of love, faith, effort and obedience of each one.

You know that you are destined to beautiful dwellings, to very high places in Heaven; but that you will only be given if you correspond to the designs of the One who from the Throne has loved you, chosen you, called you, and given you.

I am with you. so that you may gloriously reach the victory of your souls in Heaven!

You must invoke Me at all times; you must have a true life of Communion and Union with Me and the other Saints of the Lord.

Our existence, the truth of Our presence, may it never be for you only a theoretical idea; but may it be truly: life, union, and bond of love that unites your souls with You.

I am your elder sister, grown up; who is already in the fullness of the age of CHRIST in Heaven. So I know how to help you, I can help you and I want to teach you!

Be My docile students! Learn from Me that I have already achieved and won the Crown of Eternal Glory. Learn from Me that I am holy and pure of heart and you will be then; true children of GOD, much loved by Him; His image, likeness, and most clean mirror that can perfectly reflect the holiness of VIRGIN MARY.

Move on, without letting anything disturb your peace! You live in the most evil times of all human history, that is why the devil torments you so much; with sufferings, difficulties, trials, loneliness and misunderstanding of the world. But you must not pay attention to him, nor to his provocations, intimidations or suggestions!

Triumph over him by keeping your eyes fixed on the Heavenly Star which is the Holy Mary and do not look at matter, the dust of the earth for even an instant! If you do not want to take the shape or likeness of the dust of this earth!

Keep your eyes fixed on the Celestial Star, the Morning Star that is Holy Mary, and you will always have in you the likeness of Her features.

I love you all and today I bless you with the Glorious VIRGIN of the Resurrection.

I will return, I will return here in the month of June, on the 2nd Sunday to give you new blessing and new recommendations that the ALMIGHTY has entrusted to me here. Peace!"

February 9 - Day of His Feast

Vida Saint Apolonia

The six years from 243 to 249, during which the course of the Roman Empire came under the direction of Philip the Arab, were considered: a truce interval of the anti-Christian regime. In the last year, however, there was an episode that proved that the aversion to Christians, at least in the African province, had not disappeared.

The event was narrated by Dionysus, the bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, in a letter he sent to Bishop Fabio of the Diocese of Antioch in 249. In the letter he wrote that: "On February 9, an Alexandrian charlatan, "an evil soothsayer and false prophet," who was infusing the pagan population, always ready to be agitated, provoked a terrible revolt. The houses of Christians were invaded. The pagans sacked the Catholic neighbors or those who were closest to them, taking their jewels and precious objects. The furniture and clothes were taken to a square where they built a big fire. The Christians, even the old and the children, were dragged through the streets, beaten, dragged and condemned to death, if they did not deny the faith aloud. The city seemed to have been taken over by a crowd of angry demons.

"The pagans also arrested the kindly Virgin Apolonia, who was old. She was violently beaten in the face because she refused to repeat the blasphemies against the Church, so she had her teeth torn out. In addition, she was dragged to the big fire that burned in the center of the city. In the midst of the mad crowd, they said that she would be burned alive if she did not repeat aloud a pagan declaration renouncing faith in Christ. At this moment she asked to be released for a moment, being attended she jumped quickly into the fire, being consumed by fire".

The martyrdom of the Virgin Apollonia, which apparently ended in suicide, caused a great questioning within the Church, which began to evaluate whether it was right and licit to voluntarily surrender to death in order not to deny the faith. This doubt also found echo in the book "The City of God" by St. Augustine, who also did not present a definite position.

However, the gesture of the martyr Apolonia, her reclusive life dedicated to Christian charity, caused great emotion and devotion in the entire African province where she consummated her sacrifice. She became venerated because it was precisely her apostolate among the poor of the community that put her in the spotlight of hatred and persecution of the pagans, and her cult spread to the dioceses in the East and West.

Churches dedicated to her have sprung up in various European cities. In Rome a church was erected, now missing, near Santa Maria in Trasteve, Italy.

Her life has not been recorded in any other way, but her devotees have elected her, in the course of time, as a protector against mouth diseases and toothache. But her example of generous and unconditional offering to Christ remained. The Church canonized her and made her cult official according to the date quoted in Bishop Dionysus' letter.