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  i felt the holy spirit urging me to re-post this today.... The deeper meaning speaks volumes to me... A little over a year ago I sat with a half dozen other women waiting for a mammogram. The lady next to me asked, “How long has it been since you had your last one?” Taking a deep breath I replied, “Several years.” “So, you’re that woman?” She asked in disbelief. “Yes-I am,” I answered. I didn’t even try to explain why, because in that moment, the reasons rang hollow. The next day I got a call to return for a follow up mammogram because of suspicious calcification. After the experts read that one, I got another phone call. I would have to go under the knife for a breast biopsy to see if I had cancer. At that point I was really worried. My dear mother had died of breast cancer. So I told the Lord begrudgingly, “Fine, if you want me to have cancer for the conversion of so and so and so and so, then fine…I’ll accept it.” I was convinced it was a done deal. God however, was just beginning
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                                                       Dr. Benjamin

Ukraine Documentary 1990 "Prison of Nations"

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Please Pray for Peace in Ukraine       Thirty five years ago , April 27, 1987 the Blessed Mother allegedly appeared in Hrushiv Ukraine with a warning and words of consolation. She came on the Feast of the Ascension, exactly one year after the nuclear reactor disaster at Chernobyl saying "Do not forget those who have died...Chernobyl is a reminder and a sign for the whole world." In 1990 while producing a television documentary in Ukraine, I visited Hrushi and interviewed a handful of people who had witnessed the apparition above the church of the Holy Trinity. In all, some five hundred thousand witnesses claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary over a four month period. Mary apparently told them she came to thank the Ukrainian people because they had suffered so much at the hands of a raging lion who had been prowling around seeking whom he could devour. She said their suffering would come to an end and one day Ukraine would become an independent state. She then urged disciplined
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                                                    Discovering the Christian meaning of                                                                             "Suffering"            The Christian meaning of suffering as explained so beautifully by Pope St. John Paul II in “Salvifici Doloris,” is deeply rooted in our Christian anthropology and correspondingly, in our corporal and metaphysical intelligence. “Suffering seems to belong to man’s transcendence…” (Salvifici Doloris 2). We are actually wired by God, to benefit individually and collectively from the experience of suffering which, paradoxically, has the capacity to push us beyond the boundaries of self-will into the will of God. Ironically, that which separates us from the Father may draw us closer to Him than we ever imagined by rebooting the divine purpose for our lives which is to grow in wisdom and love.       The original sin of pride triggered suffering in the world by hi-jacking man’s natural harmony with

HEALING HOPE

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I am publishing this blog today asking for prayers for a friends 20 year old son who is entering Comunita Cenacolo today, after a long, difficult battle with his addiction to opiates, cocaine and other life threatening substances. I first wrote this for a blog published by my professor at Notre Dame Seminary here in New Orleans. From the Darkness Into the Light There is no challenge that will stretch a parent’s capacity to love with the merciful heart of Christ more than when their child is suffering from the brain disease of addiction. This is one darkness that will also push a parent to climb up on the cross with Jesus and cling in desperation to his battered and bloody body. The agony of the crucifixion and the pain wrought by active addiction are parallel journeys intimately embedded in the mystery of the Cross where victory over sin has been claimed