Tag Archives: catholic

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Connecting To Our Roots

Dear Reader,
I am currently in Italy on vacation and had thought I would wait until getting back home before writing anything new for my blog. As usual, the Lord has a different timetable. Since this blog is directed by Him, I am sitting on a bus on the way from Sorrento to Positano thinking about what to share with you.

The images in my mind are a bit of a jumble…so I ask your forbearance as I separate out the thoughts for coherency.

We, as a Catholic people, have forgotten our roots. We have turned away from our homeland, the Vatican. I do not necessarily mean the Magesterium or the Basilica but rather the remembrance of what took place on that hill in Rome so many years ago to Christ’s Vicar on Earth, our first Pope, St. Peter or if you prefer, San Pietro.

I had the amazing privilege and honor to tour underneath the Vatican during this trip to Italy. The tour takes you into the necropolis where Romans were buried according to their traditions in the time before and after Christ. It also leads you to St Peter’s tomb. You are not able to touch the tomb but you are able to see pieces of it from several angles. A column here, some marble there, the table built above as a chapel of sorts by early Christians. You are not allowed to take photos so I am unable to share the scene.

I can however share the feeling. I was overwhelmed with humility and longing for closeness to God. The very fiber of my being vibrated…it was almost as if my very DNA felt as though it was “home”. This holiest of places, where Christ’s Vicar on Earth, Peter, was crucified and interred, finishing the mission Christ gave to him as He ascended to Heaven. I was standing right there!

So unworthy am I to be in the presence of even the bones of Peter! Yet, I was afforded this gift and am now charged with sharing with you, dear reader, what I’ve been asked to take away from it.

First, the selflessness of Peter. Yes, he denied Christ three times when Our Lord was swept up to begin the inevitable path to crucifixion. Yet, Christ also gave Peter a great charge…the one to guide His flock, to ensure His gift of redemption was heard and understood around the world. Peter did just that and through unbroken succession, Christ’s Vicar on Earth, the Pope continues to nurture and guide us in our faith and on our individual journey to sainthood. If only I could be so selfless perhaps I wouldn’t need confession so often!

Second, that God continues to call us home, both to the Vatican and to Heaven. The Vatican fills our mortal selves with the knowledge and fortitude for the journey through our earthly existence to our ultimate destination, Heaven. At the Vatican, we can touch the Divine, walk where the saints trod and revisit the magnificence of our faith. I also cannot discount the hundreds of churches in Rome, each with relics and tombs that allow us within a glass pane’s width of a saint! A journey I believe every Catholic should attempt at some point in their life.

Third, it is never and I do mean never (at least in our earthly existence) too late to listen to God’s call and begin your own journey of discovering the purpose He created you for. While the path is not particularly easy and to be honest, is often frustrating for someone (like me) used to instant answers and immediate rewards, it is one with the ultimate reward..heaven!

When I am home safe and sound, I will add some photos from the Basilica and the Vatican Museum as well as a few of the churches I had the great honor to explore and pray in.

More on the “singing rocks” during my accidental pilgrimage as well over the next days.

Yours in Christ’s Love,
Mrs. Summitt

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Prayers of Protection

I feel compelled this evening to write a post focused on praying.  Not just any prayers, but specifically prayers targeted at protecting us and using the authority given to us by God to drive evil from our midst.

Usually, I keep my less mainstream way of viewing prayer’s capabilities to my immediate family but today I experienced a very marked call to share it in this blog.  Some may find it fantastical, others may consider it fear mongering, but regardless of any single person or group’s perception, this post will be written.

I’ve often heard the saying, “Satan’s biggest accomplishment has been convincing people that he doesn’t exist.”  I agree with this statement.  I’ve had discussions with lifelong Catholics who have shared that they believe that Satan doesn’t exist.  That hell doesn’t exist.  That while people may do horrible things, there is no Satan, demon or evil entity urging people to do bad things.  Needless to say, I pray for people who hold these views.  The Devil/Satan is there and He is still hoping to gather more souls away from God.

Back to the topic at hand, prayers of protection.   I have faith that as I say the words of these prayers that God hears me and pulls me to Him as a father to a child, protecting me from the elements and those who might do harm.  He empowers me to dispel the darkest of entities and banish them from my presence.  He charges his Archangel, St. Michael, to defend me.  He provides me an army to drive out any and all evil with St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael and all the Holy Archangels.  All I have to do to invoke this amazing heavenly security system, is pray.  (How awesome is that!)

I’d like to share two prayers I have been using recently.  One written by Pope Leo XIII while the other author remains unknown (at least to me).  The first is familiar to most Catholics and is finally being said at the end of Mass again here where we live.  The second may be familiar to some.  I learned of it through a holy card with one of the orders I placed on the Cukierski’s website.

The St. Michael Prayer

Short Version:

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

Long Version:

“O Glorious Prince of the heavenly host, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle and in the terrible warfare that we are waging against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits. Come to the aid of man, whom Almighty God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of Satan.

“Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven. That cruel, ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.

“These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where the See of Holy Peter and the Chair of Truth has been set up as the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be.

“Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious power of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly find mercy in the sight of the Lord; and vanquishing the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.

V. Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.
R. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered the root of David.
V. Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.
R. As we have hoped in Thee.
V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto Thee.

Let us pray.

O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as supplicants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin Immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious St. Michael the Archangel, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all the other unclean spirits who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of souls. Amen.”

Prayer of Authority 

In the Name of Jesus Christ, By the Power of His Blood…

In the Authority of His Word given to me as a Christian…

I bind and reject you satan and I command you to leave and I seal this room and place of employment, and all the members of my family, friends, relatives and possessions, in the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

I bind and reject all familiar spirits, all companion spirits, all cardinal spirits and spirits of affliction.

I bind and reject all spirits in the air, in the wind, in fire, in the netherworld, in the elements, all satanic forces of nature.

I bind and reject all spirits of confusion, disruption, division, fear, disbelief, deaf and dumb, disobedience, and spirit of games.

I bind and reject all the aspects and attributes of these spirits.

I bind and reject all interlocking spirits…

I command that there will be no communication between you or anyone else.

I command that you leave quietly.

In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I break and dissolve every curse, spell, hexes, evil wishes, evil desires and hereditary seals.

I come against all satanic vows, pacts, satanic sacrifices and Voo Doo practices.

I break and dissolve all links with psychics, clairvoyants, astrologers, mediums, occult seers, satanic cults, fortune tellers, seances, ouija boards, tarot cards and occult games of all kinds.

Come Holy Spirit and fill this room corner to corner, ceiling to floor.

St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and all the Holy Archangels, come and fight this battle for me.

I ask the help of all the Holy Angels, Holy Dominations, Holy Powers, Holy Thrones, and Holy Principalities to be my “Shield of Defense” against all evil spirits.

I ask this in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the power of His blood and in the authority of His Word given to me as a Christian.

Amen.


Some additional prayers of protection can be found at this site:

http://www.catholicwarriors.com/pages/warfare_prayers.htm

I strongly urge you to prayerfully consider using both of these immediately and frequently (feel free to sprinkle some holy water around the place as you do!).  If your loved ones won’t say them with you, then say them on your own.  Believe in the words and promises given to us as Catholics and Christians by God.

God Bless!

Mrs. Summitt

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I’m No Saint

I’m no saint.

While this pronouncement, dear readers, certainly won’t shock my husband and family (or even me), the discovery of how much I would like to be one, will shock us all.

In my pre-saintly ways I would have blamed others for this.

Fr Larry Richards comes to mind.

Note:

If you really want to feel like a bad Catholic, read Fr Larry’s book, Surrender.  

If you want to BE a good Catholic, read AND implement Fr Larry’s call to action in his book, Surrender.

However, I am currently evolving. A work-in-progress as my banner says above. Instead of blaming someone else, I would like to call out my soul. It has been longing, yearning, fighting for decades to be allowed its own way; the way our souls were designed.  It finally has found its own voice and it is urgently coaxing me to make sainthood my number one priority.

Before you condem me as a narcissist or heretic or other unkind word, I ask that you continue to read…

I’m not saying I want there to be a St. Mrs. Summitt’s Feast Day where priests talk about my saintliness and extol the faithful to mimic my pious ways.  I honestly hope no one notices once I’ve attained living saintliness.  After all, it only really matters if God deems me worthy of the title, not man.

If I were you, I’d be thinking at this point, “Why do I actually care about some married lady who is going to make her husband’s life miserable by becoming ‘saintly’?”  This married lady doesn’t want you to care about her journey to sainthood.  She wants you to care about yours while sharing why she now cares about her own.  (I’ll let Mr. Summitt speak to the misery of living with someone who wants to be a saint but admits to being a bit off from that goal)

All of these years I felt that it was improbable for me to live a life that was truly for God first.  I mean, I said I did.  I prayed that I would.  But who really wants to do that?  Have you looked around?  There’s some pretty sweet stuff out there for those who put themselves first:  cars, houses, boats, jewelry, travel, daily mani/pedis and root touch-ups.  Sure, that’s all “of this world” and I’m supposed to focus on “the next” but Lord, Powerball is $350 MILLION…can’t I pray to win it?  If it be your will?  I promise to do great things for You and Your Church with the money…and then I’ll focus on saintliness.

Now, I didn’t pray those exact words, but something like it a time or twenty over the years…

I still play the lottery.  I try not to pray too hard about winning.  I do consider all the great works I could do if I won.  I acknowledge that it is unlikely God’s will includes a Powerball win for me.

Now that you see I am really a sinner and am self-aware enough to acknowledge the fact, you can breathe a sigh of relief that you don’t need to try and have me committed as a psychological patient for thinking I am St. Mrs. Summitt.

The journey forward is obstructed by my own lack of full community with God’s will in my life.  I do try.  I pray, I plead, I confess.  All with the goal of finding out what God wants of me while hoping it is something I am already doing.  Well, not any more, but that is pretty much how I wanted to view the whole “will of God” deal.  I always knew deep down that my pathetic attempts to make my will into God’s will would fail.

So now I am on a mission to uncover the mystery of God’s will for me.  As I mentioned on my redesigned homepage, this blog is a part of what I believe to be the first step on the path of living God’s will.  Buying Fr. Larry Richard’s book was another step (well, the reading of it more so).  Opening my heart to truly hear God’s voice and to wait until He chooses to speak…that is the current step on this journey and I have the patience of a 3 year old.  Gimme!  Mine!  Now!  No!  (Yes, I also pray for patience and the ability to quiet my mind.)

Even now, in the still of the night, I wait.  I don’t even know quite what I’m waiting for but I know that when it arrives, there will be no doubt that it is from God and that He will continue to give me the grace, if I choose to cloak myself in it, to rise to the occasion, make His will my own and step ahead on  the path.  The one that leads to heaven, to God’s embrace, to sainthood.

I implore you now to listen to your own soul.  Listen to the cries to allow it to be what it was always meant to be from the first moments of creation…your key to heaven, to God’s embrace, to sainthood.  I urge you to consider stepping on the path to sainthood with me, not for what it brings you in this world, but for what it promises in the next.

I willingly (if not somewhat begrudgingly) give my life to Him, make His will my own and pray for the fortitude to finish the journey the way God intended.

God Bless!

Mrs. Summitt

 

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An Open Letter to the Catholic Bishops in the US

Your Excellencies,

I write today to offer my pleas that you, as defenders of the faith, stand with us, the faithful in America, in refusing to allow the immorality of man to shutter the doors of our good works.  Every hospital, every adoption agency, every shelter, every college, every school, etc… needs to remain open.

We must stand firm against the tyranny of a government that is no longer for and by the people, but rather for and by a group of elitists who have an agenda so very different from our beliefs.  Stand up for our faith and for all that we hold dear.  Do not let the HHS Mandates also be a death sentence to all that is good and holy in our practice of our faith.

We must not be timid.  The early saints fought and died for their right to believe in Jesus Christ and his message of faith, hope and love.  How can we, almost 2,000 years later, close our doors with barely a whimper?  Yes, whimper.  For 40 plus years the majority of bishops of the Catholic Church in America have been silent and accommodating as progressives attempted to break us by convincing us that we didn’t need our communion rail, our nuns’ habits, our reverence for the Mass, our Sundays, our Confession, our love of the Blessed Mother, our St. Michael Prayer, our traditional priests, or even the truth of what it really means to be Catholic.  No more!

We need to return to our roots as a Church and remember that which makes us the beacon for the world.  We also need to stand, arm in arm, in front of our hospitals, adoption agencies, shelters, colleges and schools and force the government (yes, FORCE) to come and close us down.  We cannot go quietly into that good night.

Put out the rally cry.  Ask the faithful in every congregation to sign up to peacefully protest on the first day of the mandate’s effectiveness for faith based organizations.  Let us be there to stand for what is right as one, united Catholic Church.

FORCE them into either releasing us from this mandate or creating a firestorm when they have no choice but to pull our priests, nuns, doctors, nurses and caregivers out of our buildings to enforce their anti-Catholic mandate.

Let our children and our children’s children know that we did not give in to tyranny, but instead chose to stand and defend our faith in the light of day, no matter the cost. It is our right as Catholics and Americans to protect the freedoms and protections granted to us by God and recognized by the founding fathers of the United States of America.

As Abolitionist Frederick Douglass said in his speech at Canandaigua where he reminded his fellow countrymen of the cost of freedom,

“The general sentiment of mankind is that a man who will not fight for himself, when he has the means of doing so, is not worth being fought for by others, and this sentiment is just. For a man who does not value freedom for himself will never value it for others, or put himself to any inconvenience to gain it for others. . . .”

If we value our freedom to be both Catholics and Americans in this great country of ours, we must put forth the effort, through peaceful but visible protest to overcome the tyranny and injustice being imposed upon us.

I pray for us all, that we may have the courage of our convictions in this matter.

Your daughter in Christ,

Mrs. Summitt