He bent down to pick the rosary up when it fell from his neck and then realised he was on a landmine.
read more
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Saved by a Rosary!
He bent down to pick the rosary up when it fell from his neck and then realised he was on a landmine.
read more
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Lord’s descent into the underworld
At Matins/the Office of Readings on Holy Saturday the Church gives us this 'ancient homily', I find it incredibly moving, it is abou...
-
A French newspaper has reported Pope Francis, once Benedict dies, will abrogate Summorum Pontificum and handover Old Rite's celebrat... -
I was at the Verona Opera Festival when Summorum Pontificum was published but it wasn't until All Souls Day that I first attempted to s... -
In a conversation with our bishop recently, I thought he said that some parishes in the diocese were already using the new ICEL translations...
16 comments:
Talking of Rosaries, I posted an amber one I bought in Riga to A.F. she should have got it by now.
amazing grace!!!
If ever a bullet ricochets off a set of rosary beads and brains Osama Bin Laden, that would be a sure sign that Our Lady of Victories hasn't retired.
What a truly splendid story, especially seeing as his great-grandfather also credits his life being saved to a rosary.
If you are true to your faith our Lady will always guarding his children on earth.
I will indeed include all the other soldiers in my daily prayers.
Mr Petek; What an absolutely tasteless comment to wish for a religious object, which is meant for prayer, to directly, or indirectly, cause the death of another person, albeit Osama bin Laden.
It is core Catholic teaching that all human life is sacred. Osama bin Laden's life is also sacred no matter what he has done or how odious he may be to some people (myself included). To say otherwise is to strike at a central teaching of the Church.
Parepidomus,
Thank you for taking that up, I did actually read MP comment, I would have disallowed it if I had.#
You are quite right. all life is sacred.
Wait one second, everyone.
Osama bin Laden's life is forfeit, for a whole lot of reasons, including his active campaign to murder non-Muslims and to wage a war inherently unjust because intended to subjugate the world to a false religion and its law.
Further, the fact that he calls God as a witness in favour of a duty to do these things is blasphemous.
Remember that the Feast of Our Lady of Victories was proclaimed for the Church in thanksgiving for the naval victory at Lepanto in 1571, which has been attributed to Our Lady's intercession.
Around fifteen thousand Turks were killed in that battle.
Another fifteen thousand were killed in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The feast of the Holy Name of Mary is celebrated on 12 September on the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church in commemoration of the victory in this battle of Christian Europe over the Muslim forces of the Ottoman Empire.
Before the battle King John Sobieski had placed his troops under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After the battle Pope Innocent XI, wishing to honour Mary, extended the feast to the entire Church.
Sixteen thousand Turks fell in the Battle of St Gotthard (Szentgotthard/Monoster) in 1664, against an army led by General Raimondo Montecucculi.
This town is not very far to the north from where my ancestors lived. In fact, their graves are at one end of the County of Medjumurje, Croatia; the Turkish frontier was at the other in the 16th-17th centuries.
Pardon me for being so bellicose, but if it hadn't been for King John and General Montecucculi - and Our Lady - it's virtually certain that my ancestors and I would have been Muslims, not Christians.
Our Lady has obtained many military victories for Christians down the centuries, and I can't see how this could possibly be to her dishonour, even if it entails the death of many adversaries.
One other thing I should add to my last comment, which hasn't yet been posted at the time of writing and which mentions the Battles of Lepanto and Vienna, where Our Lady's aid was invoked by the Christians and in which a total of 30,000 Muslims fell.
Muslims circumcise their males in profession of the faith of Abraham, and Osama bin Laden is unlikely to be an exception. It is written in Paul's letter to the Galatians at 5:2 that any man who accepts circumcision is under an obligation to keep the whole Law of Moses.
The Law of Moses ceased at the death of Christ. Parts of it are unlawful to keep because inconsistent with the profession that Jesus is the Messiah, and this is the unspoken premiss of the defined faith of the Church that it is forbidden to practice circumcision. Any of the rest of the Law could lawfully be reinstated by a legislator or by the custom of the people, as well as - in its entirety - by circumcision.
The Law of Moses imposes the death penalty for the crime of false prophecy. This, together with the fact that Our Lady is the Ark of God, might explain why Muslim warriors have died in large numbers when their Christian enemies have invoked her protection in battle.
In ancient times the Ark was lethal to approach, so the High Priest had to screen it with a cloud of incense on the one day of the year he was allowed near it, lest he look upon it and die.
The church would also traditionally held that agressors to life deprive the right to life themselves.
Leaving that aside, this story is proof of Our Lady's saving intercession. May it be an occasion of grace for others.
Michael,
The Church still allows the taking of human life in extreme cases, if as at times it has to happen, let us not relish the prospect.
Better to pray for conversions.
Agreed, Father. But I suspect that this Rosary miracle is a sign from Our Lady that it isn't a sin for Private Hockton and his comrades to soldier in Afghanistan.
If so, then it must be a sin for Mr bin Laden and the Taliban to reciprocate. As St Augustine wrote in his Letter No. 189, war is waged against the violence of those who resist.
Now, as for the previous comments about the sacredness of human life, this means that only God can take it, and He can do it either Himself or through a created minister.
That minister might be an angel. In the alternative, it might be a member of Her Majesty's Armed Forces.
An example of an angel is the one who - while in the Beatific Vision - struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers without the slightest compunction or reluctance (2 Kings 19:35). That's four times as many men in one night as the number of the Muslims who were killed in the three battles I mentioned.
Still, there will be joy in heaven even among the Angels of Death over one sinner who repents.
Time to stop digging, Michael.
"Osama bin Laden's life is forfeit..."
Maybe you go back and check the catechism on that one.
Anonymous, I know exactly what the Catechism says on this.
I also know what the traditional teaching of the Church says on the death penalty.
The new teaching cannot stand without the old. Otherwise the Church would find itself teaching that murdering a criminal is admissible where urgently necessary to defend society.
By definition this would be nonsensical. For the State cannot innocently take the life of a criminal save where the death penalty is deserved in retribution.
Without a retributive indication there is no right to punish at all.
Where it is present, it is sufficient justification for imposing a punishment that fits the crime.
The Crusaders didn't exactly hold all human life as Sacrosanct,they had a Rosary in one hand and a sword in the other.
Anyway killing Osama would not help one single jot.
Nickbris, according to Professor Riley-Smith a Crusade was known to be underway by the fact that the Pope attached a formula for the forgiveness of sins to the document appealing to Christians to participate.
For this to be any good, the enterprise must have been pre-qualified as a just war. Which it was, given that the Muslims had entered the Holy Land as aggressors in the 7th century, and the Roman Emperors had never relinquished their title.
Even the Baltic Crusades couldn't be undertaken without casus belli.
Post a Comment