Portsmouth Roman Catholic

Perhaps there are other ways that God the Father could have found  to redeem mankind.   He chose however to go to a woman in Nazareth and ask her permission to conceive his Son Jesus Christ in her womb.   "Behold the handmaid of the Lord" replied the woman "be it done  unto me according to thy word"   So without the consent of Mary the salvation of mankind could never have happened and she could not have prepared him through life for his death.    When the clever people were running about the Church telling us she was "just a woman"  I remember my reply was "Yes, isn't it wonderful!" Then we had the scene at the foot of the Cross when St John was told that Mary was his Mother.   But was not that woman in Revelations 12 whose baby the Red Dragon tried to devour not a mother to many children, the children the red dragon, having failed to destroy her and Jesus, went after them?   The question we must ask is how can Mary fulfil that role a...

One of the false teachings or perhaps just thoughtless teachings is that the relationship of Mary with Jesus is the same as the relationship he has with every other human.    There is nothing special about it, she is just a subject as the rest of us are subjects to the King. But St Bridget heard Jesus say this to Mary "Mother you denied me nothing on earth, so how can I deny you anything in Heaven"   We need not question the accuracy of St Bridget in saying this for the   saying is exactly what we would expect between a Son and his Mother.    What loving mother would deny her children anything which would make them happy.    And all through his life Mary was there loving him as a child, encouraging him in his mission as an adult, and suffering with him at the foot of the Cross.      Her whole life was devoted to him.   Should we expect therefore that Jesus in heaven would cast aside his mother because somehow he was God again...

My last post was quite depressing and when I read it again I almost despaired for I lived through the changes Sr. Mariana talked about and felt completely helpless.   I saw the secular programme in Catholic Schools driving out the truths that were once taught and the devotions of the heart cast aside as childish.   And I saw the results in the way that young people began to despise the Church yes, and began to lose their innocence.  I witnessed the spread of divorce as the Church co-operated with questionable annulments so that "you can get an annulment" was the usual response to anyone who left a spouse even from Catholics who should have known better.   The Church was not changed in these matters to bring it closer to Christ, but to bring it closer to the secular state. But what can we do?   Should we go about stamping our feet asI once did?   No this is a battle to decide not just the future of the Church but the future of the world.    If we...

Our Lady  prophesied that at the end of the 19th Century and especially in the 20th Century that Satan would reign almost completely by the means of the Masonic sect. The Queen of Heaven told Mother Mariana that this battle would reach its most acute stage because of various unfaithful religious, who, " under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, would turn upon Religion, who nourished them at her breast ." " During this time ," she continued, " insomuch as this poor country will lack the Christian spirit, the Sacrament of Extreme Unction will be little esteemed. Many people will die without receiving it – either because of the negligence of their families or their false sentimentality that tries to protect the sick from seeing the gravity of their situations, or because they will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil. Thus many souls will be deprived of innumerable graces, consolations and the strength ...

What kind of person was Mary, the Mother of Jesus?    I remember when feminists were sweeping the Church in England, she was presented as a woman who did nothing and that this do-nothing Mary was what the Church was presenting to women as a model.   Now there can be no doubt that Mary was a humble woman.    When Gabriel appeared to her she was troubled by his saying "Hail, full of grace..." and that she had found favour with God.   When she visited Elizabeth and the baby John lept in Elizabeth's womb she was told by her cousin "Who am I that I should be honoured by a visit from the Mother of my Lord?"   Yet again there was only humility in the answer Mary gave  "My soul doth magnify the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God My Saviour  BECAUSE HE HAS LOOKED DOWN ON THE HUMILITY OF HIS SERVANT........."   Chosen to be the Mother of God what normal girl would not look upon herself as someone special and  be tempted to exalt herself. ...

In my childhood days we did not have the digital radios we have today.   You just press a button and get  the station you want and there is no need for fine tuning.   What we had then were valve radios and if you switched it on you had a job sometimes to listen to the station you wanted since  so many other broadcasts were interfering.    So you sat there turning a nob right and left until you got the best reception possible.  You could then sit-down and enjoy your program. As a Catholic I am a little bit like that, and I am sure there are many Catholics with the same problem.   O yes, we believe and we practice our Faith but perhaps we are not fine tuned into it and the real impact of  the Gospel is not heard as we struggle to hear it in our every day lives where  so many other worldly things interfere. Let me turn to Our Lady of Fatima.   I have heard from childhood the story of the three children and the appearance of Our Lad...

Mary is a figure of Ruth in the Old Testament who when she heard that her husband was planning to kill the Jewish people went and pleaded with him to show mercy and because of his love for her the King did so. If we turn now to Our Lady of Fatima you will see on the bottom of her dress a star, it is the star of Ruth.      Ruth means 'see and hasten'    Now when Mary sees any of her children in trouble she cannot come to help them quickly enough if they call on her.  They just have to say 'Mary' and she will be at their side.   I think of so many young people today who are living unhappy and perhaps sinful lives and they go on living these lives because the world offers them no remedy for their misery.   From an unhappy childhood they can go on to drugs, prostitution, self harm and even suicide.   Now I must be careful here, I am not preaching miracles.   "Just say a Hail Mary and all will be well"   That would be irresponsible. ...

The writer of Genesis lived thousands of years after the creation of man.   He believed in a God who was loving and meant everything to be good and yet looking around he saw so much evil.  Now evil could not be created by God so he reasoned that man himself was responsible for what he saw around  him.   Man himself must have rebelled against God.   He prayed for guidance and what he wrote was inspired by the Holy Spirit. A Messia would come, born of a woman who would reconcile mankind to God.    This is indeed what happened when Jesus appeared.   Born of the Virgin Mary he was the promised Saviour.    But let us look more closely at what God said in Genesis 3:15.   Talking to the serpent, the devil, he said "I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, it will crush your head and you will lie in wait for its  heel"   This is an extraordinary saying and could only have been inspired by t...

My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. You will inform your superior. As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity...the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayer of the Rosary. With the Rosary pray for the Pope, bishops and the priests. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres...churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of th...

                                                        FATIMA  The facts and photos

"On the 13th of October to prove to you that what I write in my blog comes from God, there will be a great miracle worked outside my parish Church on that day at 12 o'clock"   If I made such a statement seriously I am sure that the majority of people would laugh and some would come on the day to have a good laugh at me.    Others who read my blog and agree with much of what I say would perhaps be sceptical but wish me luck though their common sense would keep them away.   But there are always those who will be ready to believe and though sceptical will turn up out of curiosity. That was how things were in Fatima in 1917.   Three little children, the oldest of whom was ten, told people that the lady they were seeing in visions had promised a great miracle.   At least I was an adult and could argue the point but three uneducated little peasant children - surely it was a joke. Over 70,000 people turned up many to sneer and jeer and others to witness the...

When I wrote my last blog I received a couple of comments.  One was on a point which I had painstakingly covered, the question of women as deacons.  The other was an objection I have heard often that when all the altar servers become girls then boys do not apply.   There is some truth in this but the point I made about boy altar servers going on to be priests still applies.     A priest has a responsibility to foster vocations in his parish and one of the steps he can take is to encourage young men to serve at Mass.   It is a responsibility he must take seriously.     I think many priests have lost the vision of this part of their vocation and altar servers are just like Eucharisitic Ministers, Readers, or those passing the plate around.   They are just doing a job or helping the Community.   We seem to have lost the spiritual dimension to these tasks.  We are primarily serving God and whatever we do in Church must be seen as part o...

On the 13th October, 1884 Pope Leo XIII having celebrated Mass heard a conversation Between God and the Devil.    The Devil said that if he had power over the priests of the Church he would destroy the Church within 100 years.   The reply came "You have it"   Pope Leo then composed the Prayer to St Michael which he said at the foot of the altar in the vernacular with the congregation after every Mass until after Vatican II   When this prayer was stopped the devil seemed to roar in triumph and queenly modernists and feminists were let lose not only in the Church but in the seminaries and young priests came into the parishes who were ill prepared to uphold the Catholic Faith.   We saw Mass attendances fall and the teachings of Christ and His Church being ignored on the grounds that people could now follow 'their conscience'.   Things did not look good for the future.   But towards the end of the eighties and nineties some kind of miracle happened ...