Deeper Truth

Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us and the Apostle Saint Matthew

Stand In The Gap With Us and the Apostle Saint Matthew 9/21/2023
Matthew, Apostle of Jesus Christ whose parents named means, "Gift of Yahweh" who for the longest time would not be recognized as such.
Being a Jew, Matthew worked as a tax collector for the Roman rulers which set him in great distaste of the Jewish population.
Tax collectors were known to be deceitful and even violent.
A tax collector was seen as a traitor against their own people. Look at what Jesus says in regard to tax collectors:
"For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?" Matthew 5:46
"If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector". Matthew 18:17
"The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector." Luke 18:11
You can get the picture that tax collectors were seen as great sinners. St. John the Baptist offers this advice to the tax collectors coming to him for baptism, "Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Collect no more than is appointed you." Luke 3:12-13
Jesus was not afraid to associate with prostitutes and tax collectors, whom he regarded as ones who needed a physician, "Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him." Luke 15:1
Responding to criticism by the religious leaders, Jesus states, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. "But go and learn what this means: 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us and Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong

Stand In The Gap With Us and Saints Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions 9/20/2023
Saint Andrew Kim Taegon (August 21, 1821 – September 16, 1846); Saint Paul Chong Hasang and Companions (d. between 1839 – 1867)
In 1846, St. Andrew Kim Taegon was arrested once again and sentenced to death for his faith. He was executed by beheading at the age of 25, becoming one of the first Korean martyrs. His unwavering faith and devotion to spreading the Gospel, even in the face of extreme persecution, earned him the title of saint.
Saint Paul Chong Hasang is considered a leading figure in the revitalization and growth of the Church in Korea. Despite severe hardship and persecution, he kept his faith and served as a sterling example of piety for others.
The first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured, and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital.
Andrew’s father Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839, and was beatified in 1925. Paul Chong Hasang, a lay apostle and married man, also died in 1839 at age 45.

Deepertruth: Stand in the Gap With Us and Saint Januarius

Stand in the Gap With Us and Saint Januarius 9/19/2023
Today the Church celebrates St. Januarius, the patron saint of Naples and of blood banks, and his strange story is one of the best.
Januarius is the patron saint of Naples, where the faithful gather three times a year in Naples Cathedral to witness the liquefaction of what is claimed to be a sample of his blood kept in a sealed glass ampoule.
The Church believes that the miracle takes place in response to the dedication and prayers of the faithful. When the miracle occurs, the mass of reddish dried blood, adhering to one side of the ampoule, turns into completely liquid blood, covering the glass from side to side.
Many centuries ago, Saint Januarius died for the Faith during the persecution of Diocletian. God, through the blood which His servant shed for Him, some of which is conserved in Naples, continues to strengthen the faith of the Church, and to work there a regular miracle by its means.
The bishop is believed to have been martyred during the Christian persecution of Emperor Diocletian. In local lore, the failure of the blood to liquefy signals war, famine, disease, or other disaster. The liquefaction traditionally happens at least three times a year: Sept.

Deepertruth: Blessed Alexandrina Maria Da Costa PORTUGAL, 1904-1955

Blessed Alexandrina Maria Da Costa PORTUGAL, 1904-1955
Blessed Alexandrina Maria Da Costa was Nourished Only By The Eucharist For Over 13 Years
On her tomb are the words she wished to be placed there: “Sinners, if the ashes of my body can be useful for your salvation, draw near to them, pass above them, and trample on them until they vanish. But sin no more; do not offend our Jesus any longer!”
Alexandrina remained paralyzed at age 21 from a dramatic incident in which she fled from the threat of violence. She did not permit herself to be overcome by sadness and by loneliness, but thought: “Jesus, You are a prisoner in the tabernacle as I am here on my bed, so that we can keep company”.
Following the physical sufferings from the paralysis, mystical sufferings were added: for four years, every Friday she saw the sorrows of the Passion, and after this period, for another 13 years until her death she was nourished only by the Eucharist. Her life became a continuous prayer for the conversion of sinners.
Alexandrina Maria was born in Balasar, Portugal on March 30, 1904. At age 14, in order to escape an attack by three men and to maintain her purity, she jumped from the window, but did not escape without suffering injury. The consequences were terrible, if not immediate. In fact, several years later, she became bedridden from a progressively increasing paralysis, from which she suffered for the remaining 30 years of her life. Yet, she did not despair, but entrusted herself to Jesus with these words: “As you are a prisoner in the tabernacle and I am a prisoner on my bed for doing Your will, so we can keep ourselves company”.
As a result, she began to live through ever more powerful mystical experiences, and from Friday, October 3, 1938 until March 24, 1942, for up to 182 times, she relived the sufferings of the Passion.
 

Deepertruth: Stand in the Gap With Us and Saint Joseph of Cupertino

Stand in the Gap With Us and Saint Joseph of Cupertino 9/18/2023
Joseph of Cupertino was a Conventual Franciscan Friar (OFM Conv.) and is recognized and honored as a Christian mystic and saint. He is the patron saint of aviation, astronauts, mental handicaps, test taking, and students.
During Mass or prayer, he would often be lifted from his feet—he was observed levitating more than 70 times. The experience of levitation is a physical expression of the deep prayer that raises the heart and mind to God. In Joseph's case, a number of his levitations were well-documented.
Joseph of Cupertino is most famous for levitating at prayer. Already as a child, Joseph showed a fondness for prayer. After a short career with the Capuchins, he joined the Conventual Franciscans. Following a brief assignment caring for the friary mule, Joseph began his studies for the priesthood. Though studies were very difficult for him, Joseph gained a great deal of knowledge from prayer. He was ordained in 1628.
Joseph’s tendency to levitate during prayer was sometimes a cross; some people came to see this much as they might have gone to a circus sideshow. Joseph’s gift led him to be humble, patient, and obedient, even though at times he was greatly tempted and felt forsaken by God. He fasted and wore iron chains for much of his life.
The friars transferred Joseph several times for his own good and for the good of the rest of the community. He was reported to and investigated by the Inquisition; the examiners exonerated him.
 

The Virgin Mary returns to the Philippines in 1610

Join John Carpenter, Don Hartley, and the Deeper Truth research team as they examine this visit by Blessed Mary to Manaoag in 1610,
A middle aged farmer who was walking home heard a Lady's mysterious voice. He looked around and with great awe he saw the radiant Lady with a Rosary on her right hand and a Child on her left as she stood on a cloud veiling a treetop. The man fell on his knees. He told the people of the apparition. And soon right on the spot where the Lady appeared a chapel was built. A town quickly flourished around it and was called "Manaoag".
a middle aged farmer was on his way from a grueling day in his farm. Foremost in his mind, of course, was his family. He worried about his home and his crops which he knew would be laid to waste any time the raiders come for another depredation. Faced with this hopeless prospect, he resorted to the wellsprings of his faith. He has been taught by the good Padre to have full trust and faith in the goodness and mercy of God and in the protection offered by the Heavenly Mother.
These thought came into him. He signed resignedly to Virgin Mary and somehow his fears vanished as he continued his slow homeward. As he followed the path from the hill in the deepening dusk, he became aware of a mysterious light coming from somewhere. He turned to the west to assure himself that he was not being deceived, and sure enough he saw that the sun has set.
He made a full and turned his gaze to the light- a tree nearby. Instantly he recognized the radiant face of a woman holding an infant in her arms. Unable to grasp that significant of the phenomenon and overcome by superstition, he wanted to run. In a moment of hesitation, he heard a sweet voice called out his name.

Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us and Saint Robert Bellarmine

Stand In The Gap With Us and Saint Robert Bellarmine 9/17/2023
He is one of the patron saints of catechists and catechumens. Bellarmine entered the Society of Jesus in 1560. After studying in Italy at Rome, Mondovì, and Padua, he was sent to Leuven (Louvain) in the Spanish Netherlands, where he was ordained in 1570 and began to teach theology.
He always taught that the most important truth of our faith is our belief in the real person of Jesus, God's only Son, who died and rose from the dead to save us from sin and death. Although Robert was named a cardinal in 1598 by Pope Clement VIII, he always led a humble and caring life.
Bellarmine declared that "according to our doctrine, the one and true Church is the assembly of men, bound together by the profession of the same Christian faith, and by the communion of the same sacraments, under the rule of legitimate pastors, and in particular of the one Vicar of Christ on
Robert Bellarmine said: “The fact that there is in the Pope a power in regard of temporal affairs is not a matter of opinion but of certainty among Catholics; although there is no lack of disputes over what kind and manner of power it is
When Robert Bellarmine was ordained in 1570, the study of Church history and the fathers of the Church was in a sad state of neglect. A promising scholar from his youth in Tuscany, he devoted his energy to these two subjects, as well as to Scripture, in order to systematize Church doctrine against the attacks of the Protestant Reformers. He was the first Jesuit to become a professor at Louvain.

Deepertruth: Stand in the Gap With Us and Saint Cornelius

Stand in the Gap With Us and Saint Cornelius 9/16/2023
Saint Cornelius was the bishop of Rome from 6th or 13th March 251 until his martyrdom in June 253. He was pope during and following a period of persecution of the church, while a schism occurred over how repentanct church members who had practiced pagan sacrifices to protect themselves could be readmitted to the church. He agreed with Cyprian of Carthage that those who had lapsed could be restored to communion after varying forms of Reconciliation and Penance.
St. Cornelius was a Priest that strongly believed in the gift of confession. In his time there were many Christians who denounced Christianity to Emperor Decius in order to be spared their lives. The Church leaders of their time thought they could never be brought back into the church after such behavior.
Cornelius's saintly name means "battle horn", and he is represented in icons by a pope either holding some form of cow's horn or with a cow nearby.
But Cyprian called him a martyr and later accounts said that Cornelius had been beheaded. He was buried at Rome in the crypt of Lucina, where his tomb can still be seen with the inscription Cornelius Martyr.
Cornelius is the patron saint of earache sufferers (perhaps because of his arguments with Novatian), domestic animals, cattle and, unsurprisingly, the town of Kornelimünster.
 
The greatest problem of Cornelius’s two-year term as pope had to do with the Sacrament of Penance and centered on the readmission of Christians who had denied their faith during the time of persecution. Two extremes were finally both condemned. Cyprian, primate of North Africa, appealed to the pope to confirm his stand that the relapsed could be reconciled only by the decision of the bishop.

Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us As We Honor the Sorrows Of Mary

 Stand In The Gap With Us As We Honor the Sorrows Of Mary 9/15/2023
It commemorates the profound union of heart that existed between the Mother of the Redeemer and the Savior, through which she experienced many interior sorrows as a consequence of His Mission, but particularly during His Passion and Death.
The Lucan passage is Simeon's prediction about a sword piercing Mary's soul; the Johannine passage relates Jesus' words from the cross to Mary and to the beloved disciple. Many early Church writers interpret the sword as Mary's sorrows, especially as she saw Jesus die on the cross.
The First Sorrow: The Prophecy of Simeon and Anna
The Second Sorrow: The Flight into Egypt. ...
The Third Sorrow: The Loss of the Child Jesus. ...
The Fourth Sorrow: The Condemnation of Jesus. ...
The Fifth Station: The Crucifixion of Jesus. ...
The Sixth Station: The Retrieval of Jesus' Body. ...
The Seventh Station: The Burial of Jesus.
Jesus promised St. Elizabeth of Hungary her four principal ones:
First, that those who before death invoke the Divine Mother in the name of her sorrows should obtain true repentance of all their sins.
Second, that He would protect all who have this devotion in their tribulations, and that He would protect them especially at the hour of death.
Third, that He would impress upon their minds the remembrance of His Passion, and that they should have their reward for it in heaven.
Fourth, that He would commit such devout clients to the hands of Mary, with the power to dispose of them in whatever manner she might please, and to obtain for them all the graces she might desire.”

Deepertruth: Stand in the Gap With Us as We Honor and Exalt The Holy Cross

Stand in the Gap With Us as We Honor and Exalt The Holy Cross 9/14/2023
The universal symbol of the Christian faith, the cross represents Christ's victory over death. The feast celebrates the redemptive transformation of a barbaric instrument of torture into a divine “tree of life” that brings hope to humankind.
This could also be a great day to go through your home and ensure that each room has a cross or crucifix in it, which is an old Catholic tradition. Pray the stations of the cross– another perfect prayer activity for today!
Early in the fourth century, Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher on that spot. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.