The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady the Mystical Rose, and the Miracle of the Sun witness story - written July 15, 2011.
John 19:26 – 27
When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple there whom He loved, He said to His mother, “Woman behold, your Son.” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.”
Psalm 37:4
“Take delight in the Lord, and He will grant you your heart’s requests.”
Psalm 118:24
“This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it.”
Chronicles 28:9
“As for you, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and a willing soul, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the mind’s thoughts. If you search for Him, He will be found; but if you abandon Him, He will cast you off forever.”
Jeremiah 29:13
“When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart.”
Genesis 3:15
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel.”
Revelation 12:1
“A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”
Daniel 9:13-19
As it is written in the law of Moses, this evil has come upon us. We did not appease the LORD, our God, by turning back from our wickedness and acting according to your truth, so the LORD kept watch over the evil and brought it upon us. The LORD, our God, is just in all that He has done: we did not listen to His voice. “Now, Lord, our God, who led your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and made a name for Yourself even to this day, we have sinned, we are guilty. Lord, in keeping with all Your just deeds, let Your anger and your wrath be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain. On account of our sins and the crimes of our ancestors, Jerusalem and Your people have become the reproach of all our neighbors. Now, our God, hear the prayer and petition of Your servant; and for Your own sake, Lord, let Your face shine upon Your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, my God, and listen; open Your eyes and look upon our desolate city upon which Your name is invoked. When we present our petition before You, we rely not on our just deeds, but on Your great mercy. Lord, hear! Lord, pardon! Lord, be attentive and act without delay, for Your own sake, my God, because Your name is invoked upon your city and Your people!”
My Witness Story
It was almost six months time from my retreat in May which included the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Anne Seton, the Fatima Shrine in New Jersey, the Foyer of Charity retreat with Martha Robin, which was based on the Gospel, four months from the Unbound conference, and one month after the seminar with Fr. Yozefu Ssemakula, which was on generational healing for our families -- when a friend mentioned that I should write a book and that she and her husband would help me publish and market it.
When I explained to her that I had, in fact been writing a book for two years that God had called me to write she exclaimed that I needed to finish it!! With her enthusiastic support I felt compelled to take a short 3 day retreat and write. I decided to return to the Roslyn retreat center in Richmond since it is very quiet. I called for a certain date but they were unavailable for that time period and I was told that I could come on the December 8th. I decided that this is when God wanted me there so I asked my husband if this would work with his schedule and it did so I went.
Since I was there over a holy day of obligation I began to wonder where I would celebrate the Holy Mass. I decided it was only fitting that I celebrate Mass with the Benedictines at Mary Mother of the Church Abbey and began to plan that.
I later realized that this very retreat was over First Friday, which is the day we honor the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and so far it had worked out for me to do this devotion for the past four months and I did not want to miss this particular First Friday so I began to ask God how I could do everything I wanted to do, which included writing my witness stories, and still get the extra restful sleep that I needed.
The day before I was to return home I planned to celebrate Mass at St. Benedicts because each night they had a Mass at 5:30 p.m. In this way I could sleep in which would give me some extra rest, fulfill my devotion to our Lord’s most Sacred Heart on First Friday, and celebrate my Sunday obligatory Mass which would coincide with the feast of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception, December 8th, which was Saturday night!
I trusted in God to arrange this all because He always provides -- He is very creative and always gives us choices!!!
On Thursday night once I arrived and was unpacked it was time for me to leave for Mass at St. Benedicts. Once there I was blessed with receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation through Fr. Kauffman and after Mass, since it was the vigil of First Friday in honor of the Most Sacred Heart of our Lord, St. Benedicts offered Eucharistic Adoration, so I stayed for an hour after Mass to spend time with Our Lord exposed in the monstrance.
St. Benedict’s Church is so beautifully decorated. Behind the altar, and below the tabernacle, each Apostle at the Last Supper, with Our Lord, is depicted. Above the altar are beautiful mosaics of Our Lord Jesus with his Most Sacred Heart exposed and below Him are Mother Mary and Good St. Joseph kneeling. Below them from left to right are: St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Benedict, St. Jerome, and St. Ambrose. These mosaics raised my heart, mind, and soul to heaven as the Mass was celebrated and later in the time of adoration that I had. I was very thankful for these gifts as I knew it was, by God’s grace, the best way to begin my retreat.
After Reconciliation, Mass, and Adoration, once I returned to the room, I texted a friend of mine, Alice, who was a parishioner of St. Benedict’s to see if we could meet for a lunch or dinner to talk about what God was doing in each of our lives. She texted back saying she had just arrived at St. Benedicts in order to pray in adoration - prayers for priests, asked if I could return.
I explained that I could not because I was supposed to be focused on writing and getting much needed sleep, but asked if she could meet with me on Saturday somehow. She did not respond right away.
After texting her, I found it very hard to sit and write. In fact I found that I was avoiding it all together. By the time I got into bed that night I had only done a bit of editing to the Table of Contents on the book and then decided to watch a DVD on the Fatima Message that I had gotten from the Fatima Shrine in NJ which was about the feast of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, 1917.
When I woke up the next morning I realized that I had fallen asleep during most of the DVD but the parts that I remembered were of an interview with an elderly man that had actually been present as a little boy during the Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, Portugal on May 13, 1917 during these apparitions of our Holy Mother Mary. That was neat to see and hear. The interview revealed that other than the approximate 70,000+ people that actually traveled to the site in order to see the Miracle of the Sun that Our Lady had promised on May 13, 1917 that there were people within fifteen miles away from the Cova de Iria (Cove of Irene – Irene means Peace) that had also witnessed the Miracle that day. It was even reported in local newspapers and even later in the New York Times!!!
On Friday morning I woke around 9 a.m. and showered and then sat down and began writing. I had to break at noon in order to eat lunch at the retreat house. The lunch room was filled with nurses on a conference. After lunch I returned to my room and began writing some more. At 4:30 I left for Mass at St. Benedict’s for the Vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States of America.
I was excited to celebrate Mass on this great feast of our Mother. She knows our needs and is always interceding for us and I had some requests for not only my family, but for our nation and our world.
During Mass I decided that after receiving Holy Communion that I was going to move closer to a statue of Our Lady that was on the left side of the church. Once I settled down I took out my Magnificat prayer book and prayed the Anima Christi. I was told that this is a prayer of exorcism and I am always praying to be kept safe from any demons so this was the prayer that I had been praying for half a year after receiving Holy Communion.
In the prayers of the Mass that night we invoked Our Lady under many titles, but one that struck me most was her title of "Mystical Rose."
I had heard this title before but realized that I did not know anything about her under it. In Fr. Kauffman’s homily that night he particularly mentioned her under this very title.
After Mass during adoration I began to gaze at Our Lady in the statue to my left. It is an exquisite statue of her and I loved how the parishioners had placed a beautiful crown of pearls, with a very long veil on her head for her feast.
Then I noticed that she held a rose! I had never seen a statue of her holding a rose and I wondered to myself if this depicted her under the title of Mystical Rose. While wondering this my eyes rested at her feet where I saw a reliquary!! I nudged the lady in front of me and asked her if the relic was of St. Benedict. She told me it was a relic of the True Cross!!! I felt blessed on this great day that was both First Friday and the vigil of the Immaculate Conception - the day when I was blessed with being near a relic of the True Cross! As I thought of this, God's living and effective Word came to me.
“When you look for Me, you will find Me. Yes, when you seek Me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:13)
About 15 minutes later one of the men who had served at Mass came by the statue area to turn down the lights and at my request assisted me so that I was able to venerate the Cross of which our Lord had suffered and died for my sins on!!
I had a few other times in the past, at different places, been blessed with this same grace and each time it was always unexpected.
I left the chapel noticing that an older couple remained in adoration. Once in my car I saw a car across the lot with the lights on and thought that I should see if anyone was in it, because it could possibly be the older couple’s car and would run the battery down. I decided if it was that I would go back and let them know.
As I got closer to the car I could see that someone was in it and then laughed because it was my friend, Alice who I had texted the night before asking if we could meet while I was there at St. Benedict Catholic Church.
We ended up going to dinner that night and talked for about two and half hours of the great things that God was doing. Just before she dropped me off at my car she mentioned that a lady that she had met in the past had just sent her something about our Lady under the title Mystical Rose and praying for priests!!
Alice organizes adoration at St. Benedicts and she has also started praying for priests there too. She was not at the Mass that night so she did not know that we had invoked our Lady under this title nor that father had it in his homily, so I found it very much God's way of speaking to me about this devotion to His Queen Mother under the title of Rosa Mystica.
I smiled when Alice began telling me this and told her that we had invoked her under this title at the beginning of Mass and how father had mentioned her under this title in his homily and how he had also mentioned that she was a part of our faith and that our faith in Jesus was inseparable from Mother Mary, because they are One Flesh - One Heart.
Then I told Alice about how I had moved closer to the statue in the church and how the statue of Our Lady was holding a rose and then asked Alice if this statue of Our Lady was a statue depicting Mother Mary under the title of Mystical Rose.
Alice laughed and said she had never noticed and within the past few days a friend of hers had told her that this statue is of Our Lady under this title and it even says it on the statue itself!!
I then mentioned to Alice that while at the Unbound conference when other faithful Catholics were interceding for me, I discovered that I doubted God.
This really surprised me because when my friend Sally died, I felt with all my heart that God might very well raise her from the dead, in order to ignite our parish’s faith. So, how could I doubt God if I had faith that He would raise Sally from the dead?
I told Alice, that I was wondering if doubt is a human condition or if it is an evil spirit.
I left her that night at those words. She had told me that once she got home she would email me the information on our Lady under the title Mystical Rose that she had received.
Once back in my room I went ahead and looked the title up on the internet and found some information on it. I found out that Our Lady appeared in apparitions in Italy in the 1940s to a nurse asking that penance, sacrifice, and prayer be offered for priestly and religious renewal and too, for a call for Christian purity.
On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1947, the Rosa Mystica calls for an "Hour of Grace" to be celebrated between twelve and one o’clock in the afternoon. Psalm 51 is recited three times while kneeling, with outstretched arms, in an act of reparation and munificent graces of mercy and purity are released upon all mankind on the feast which celebrates the plentitude of grace and purity in Mary, "The Immaculate Conception."
This devotion to the Rosa Mystica, or Mystical Rose, ties into the Fatima Message. In one of the apparitions when Our Lady appeared with a young boy and young girl, one on each side of her holding up her mantle in which Our Lady said were Jacinta and Francisco (two of the Fatima visionaries) who would aid us greatly in offering sacrifices, penances and prayer.
This really resonated with me due to the past twelve years especially within the last six months of researching the messages of Fatima, Divine Mercy, God the Father apparitions, the Battle of Lepanto, Living in the Divine Will and the recently first American approved apparition in the USA based in Wisconsin.
Those years of reading and pondering were beginning to come together more and more in order to make sense to Heaven’s Peace Plan which God has given to us in Scripture and is echoed by His Holy Mother through her apparitions.
All of this information is for now – this present time!
I realized. My mind was analyzing what all of this might mean. I went to sleep knowing that this Holy Hour of Grace would be exactly this – Pure Grace flowing down from Heaven – Amazing sweet grace of God’s Love coming down to His Children through His Holy Daughter, Mother, and Spouse to the Holy Spirit of Truth - (Jn 7:37-39, Jn 14:16-20, Jn 16:13) in order to bless us!
I was realizing that God brought me to this retreat so that I might truly experience the Hour of amazing grace, poured out upon me, through God's Queen Mother Mary's powerful intercession!
I became extremely excited and expectant when I realized this!
I thought about how God never stops blessing His Children with His Grace, Mercy, and Love! I anticipated that my God was about to do something supernatural for me.
In the a.m. when I woke up around 8:30, and after I showered, I turned on my IPOD and began praising God in song, thinking of King David danced with song, in wild abandonment to God. (2 Sam 16:14-22)
Then I felt compelled to begin writing down my petitions so that when the Hour of Grace came I could focus my prayers on what I had written. I wrote for about 30 minutes and when I finished I began to worship and praise God in dance. This was only the third time I had ever done so and I found it very wonderful!
Then I noticed that it was noon and I opened my Bible and prayed with outstretched arms Psalm 51 three times for cleansing of not only myself but my family, our nation, and the world.
I had learned from Fr. Yozefu’s book, “Healing of Families” that we can pray in this capacity just like Daniel did in Daniel 9:3 – 27, and so I began my Hour of Grace asking for God to bless His Children – all the nations with His love, mercy, and healing through Mother Mary’s Immaculate Heart envisioning within my heart and mind - all of this marvelous grace flowing down to mankind from the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mother Mary - on her feast day!!
After praying Psalm 51 I began praying the Joyful Mysteries in union with the Legion of Mary as I am an auxiliary member. The Legion’s opening prayers before beginning the Rosary invokes the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit onto all mankind through our Lord’s Most Sacred Heart and through the intercession of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart as Mediatrix of All Graces, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, St. Louis de Montfort, (I add our baby Louis Marie) all of the Holy Angels, St. John the Baptist and St. Peter and Paul as well as praying the Magnificat, which is essentially a battle cry under the standard of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is an incredibly powerful invocation.
Before I prayed each decade I would play the song from Danielle Rose’s CD titled, “ Mysteries” that correlated with the mystery. By the time I finished praying the Rosary it was 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon. I decided it was time to eat so I drove to a nearby restaurant and picked up food and returned to the room to eat my meal.
I checked the clock as I sat down to eat with my bag of food on my lap. I decided that as I ate I would sit in front of the large windows in my room looking out over the field and trees so that I could gaze at the trees and the sky. I love watching cloud formations especially when they look like angel wings.
Then it happened!
At that moment I sat down and I checked the time in order to know how long I had before I had to get ready for Mass then I noticed that the sky was clearing a bit and that there was some blue sky through the cloudiness. A thought immediately came to my mind of the Miracle of the Sun and I automatically focused on the sun and this is when “it” happened. I saw the Miracle of the Sun of which I had heard of from people who had gone to places like Fatima or Medjugorje!!!
I saw a circle blocking the sun – in my heart I understood that it was the Blessed Sacrament in front of the sun and it was swirling!!! I saw colors of pink and blue swirling around it. Then the Host began to bounce up and down!
I had Danielle Rose’s “Mysteries” CD playing on the songs of the Joyful Mysteries while I stared at the Blessed Sacrament – the Sun- which signifies the Son, my King Jesus, swirling, bouncing and colors of pink and blue swirling, surrounding it.
Then I saw yellow within the colors as well. my friend Sally who had died came to my mind and I smiled because she had gone to Medjugorje and told me that when she left there she saw the Miracle of the Sun here in the states. I had never heard of anyone experiencing that and here I was experiencing it and so naturally I thanked Our Lady and Sally for praying for me from Heaven knowing that they both had asked for this grace for me!
As I gazed at the Sun (signifying the Son, my King Jesus) dancing, my heart prompted me to begin praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy as it was Mercy Hour – 3p.m. While praying it I began interceding for all of mankind again beginning with my family, then friends, then the nations of all God’s Children, my brothers and sisters.
After praying the Chaplet as the “Mysteries” CD played I became aware of each Mystery and during the Annunciation I gave my Fiat (my "yes) to God again to His Divine Mission for me, During the Visitation decade, I invited the Holy Spirit to overshadow me and for the Gifts to operate in me. At the Birth of our Lord I asked if I could have the grace of our Lord’s conception and birthing fully alive within my heart, mind, soul, and spirit in order that His Divine Will would always operate through me instead of my will. During the Presentation decade I thought of the sword piercing Our Lady so that the "hearts of many would be revealed" (Lk 1:35, 2:35) and the three swords in which of Our Lady Mystical Rose was pierced.
These three swords, according to the apparition, represented the loss of priestly vocations, grace, and faith. When one offers pure prayers of heart for priests that they might remain faithful to their vocation, a white rose replaces the sword of loss vocations from the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. When one offers sacrifices with love to God a red rose replaces the sword of loss grace and expiation of sins is made. When one offers penance with joy to our God then the golden or yellow rose appears to heal the wound in Jesus and Mary’s Heart.
During the Finding in the Temple decade my thoughts were in “Discovering God” in a new way – a more complete way than I had ever before, since this decade is about "finding Jesus in the Temple and Scripture reveals to us that our heart is the New Temple of God's Holy Spirit of Truth". (1 Cor 6:19, Jn 14:16-20, Jn 7:37-39)
The Gift of Tears flowed steadily from me as I received God's Peace, Love, and Joy which He was pouring out into my heart, through our Heavenly Mother Mary's powerful intercession.
I stayed like this, in prayerful contemplation, interceding and praying the Rosary for some time invoking all the Church Suffering, and Church Triumphant by name as many of the m that came to my mind – all with my eyes never leaving the Miracle of the Dancing Sun/Son.
Then my heart became still waiting to hear God speak. I remained in silence for a while and then the Sun Miracle slowed it's dancing and then the colors faded, and I asked God in my heart if it was time to get ready for Mass.
I finally got up and discovered that an hour and ten minutes had gone by. It was indeed time to get ready for Mass on December 8th which was the feast of the Immaculate Conception as well as the vigil of our Lord’s Resurrection Sunday!! God had signaled to me through His Sun Miracle ending that it was now time to receive HIs Son in Holy Communion, during Holy Mass.
Little did I know what God was about to bless me with during this Mass!!
Alice had told me that the Vigil Mass that night would be in honor of Fr. Adrian, a Benedictine from Mary, Mother of the Church Abbey and that the Bishop would be celebrating it with Fr. Adrian.
I knew this too was a gift to celebrate Mass with not only these holy monks of St. Benedict but with our Bishop Di Lorenzo. (And on the vigil that would normally honor St. Juan Diego if it were not on Resurrection Sunday) who is very special to me.
I sat near the Mystical Rose statue again and was so touched when, before Mass, the colors (flag) were posted and then when the cadets from St. Benedicts lined each side of the processional line, in their sharp uniforms with their swords unsheathed, honoring our Bishop and the Benedictine monks as they processed in.
I was especially moved when the cadets marched up to the altar in drill format, and unsheathed their swords saluting our King during the height of the Consecration, when Fr. Kaufmann held Jesus up high for us to adore and worship Him!!! This ran chills of supernatural delight up and down my spine!
WOW!!! After Mass when I asked Fr. Kaufmann if I could venerate the relic of our Lord’s Holy Cross again before heading home, I also asked him how often the cadets perform the salute at the Consecration with such reverence and he said that was probably the first time in about sixty years of thier doing so, due to their celebrating their centennial of education for the school!
Yippeee! And I was there to experience it!! The thought came to me that how wonderful it would be if all our military forces revered our Lord in such a way as this!
God is so good to us. He does indeed "let us find Him when we pray with all of our heart and mind!"
Thank you dear Mother Mary and Sally for your intercession. Both of you knew that the desire of my heart for years was to witness the Miracle of the Sun, and I wondered would I ever get to Fatima or Medjugorje to witness such a gift and this is where you, Sister Sally, blessed me with your story…….that God can do all things and is not limited to any place, time, or date!!
Thank You Heavenly Father for granting another desire of my heart!
Luke 1:37
“For nothing will be impossible for God!”
“For those who have faith no explanation is necessary. For those who do not have faith, no explanation is possible.” St. Thomas Aquinas – feast January 28th – Dr. of the Church and author of the Summa Theologica
On a web site dedicated to the Mystical Rose I read the following which confirmed what happened to me:
The Blessed Mother appeared with Blessed Francisco and Jacinta of Fátima and presented them as models and examples of sacrifice. She asked for devotion to her Immaculate Heart. She said that the advocation "Mystical Rose" symbolizes the “Fíat” of redemption and the “Fíat” of her co-redemption. On September 8 of 1974, she said to Pierina: "I am Mary, Mother of the Church. For the Church, for the Holy Father, for the priests and for all the children for the Church. I ask prayer, prayer, prayer, so that the true love for the Lord and true charity may return to hearts.”
That weekend God, through our heavenly Queen Mother Mary, revealed to me that we, just like Daniel, are to cry out to Him in union with the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother, in repentance, for all who do not cry out to Him; that we are His Church and we, united to Him and expecialy through His holy Mother Mary, are co-redeemers with Jesus. (1 Cor 3:9)
This is God's Divine Will; that we all participate in His redemption of mankind – We are His Mystical Body – we are His feet, His hands, His mouth, His eyes, His ears, His Body and we do not stand alone. United we stand, divided we fall!
God has a Divine Peace Plan for us as is revealed through the messages of His Mother through her apparitions at Fatima. It is to become like her in everything because she is fully human and perfect in our Triune God and when we learn from her, through her Motherly protection and intercession, we become just like her, One Flesh - One Heart and Mind of Truth and Peace with our Triune God, and in doing so we join her, she who is the Daughter of , Spouse and Mother to our Triune God. Once we join her, our hearts become one with hers and our Lord’s and His Most Sacred Heart which is united to her Immaculate Heart will Triumph and as Genesis and Revelations states God’s Peace Plan fulfilled through her will manifest and the serpent’s head will be crushed by our God’s humble handmaid and us who are His Children – Mary’s children as well because everything that is His He has given to her.
“In the End my Immaculate Heart will Triumph!” – Mother Mary under the title of Our Lady of Fatima 1917
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel.” (Gen 3:15)
“A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” (Rev 12:1)
To learn more about the Rosa Mystical apparitions:
http://lovecrucified.com/mary/rosa_mystica/rosa_mystica.html#swords_
http://lovecrucified.com/mary/rosa_mystica/rosa_mystica_response_miravalle.html
THE TIME FOR RESPONDING TO THE ROSA MYSTICA IS NOW by Mark Miravalle
and
click on the image of Divine Mercy and Rosa Mystica