Haha, Terry, I was joking! I have known my brother would be a priest since he was a kid, and have prayed for him to come back to God and find his vocation for many, many years. I believe God has a very important purpose for him, as I've only heard God's voice audibly twice in my life, and one of them was when I heard Him say of my brother "Bring him to Me." All the hairs on my arms stood up. I have taken that command very seriously and I still am now, as I plan to be his prayer support through his entire priesthood. Two of my own children have already mapped out their own religious callings and I am very excited to encourage them! I'm happy to hear you say grandchildren will come as a blessing, though, because I do long for many grandchildren one day! But I can't think of any higher honor as a sister or mother than to have a priest for a brother/son.
I read an English historian who said what the reason why the English upper class are not in touch with their emotions, such as compassion is the English Public Boarding School system which sends them away from their parents often at very,very young age. This leaves them truncated in terms of their emotions..what the English call, 'Stiff upper lip'. After Queen Victoria was criticised for being pro Irish for donating to the Famine Relief Fund I recall she sent a large donation to the Battersea Dogs home to take the heat off.
I am reading ,for the umpteenth time, 'The Life of the Virgin Mary' by Blessed Catherine Emmerich. I am just at the point before the birth of Mary. Saint Joachim brings a large offering of sheep to the Temple in Jerusalem . One of the priests, Reuben rejects St Joachim's offering because both him and his wife, Saint Anna are infertile (they had their last child 14 years previously). This just about wrecks Joachim and Anna and they go into a sudden dramatic tail spin. This is the total opposite of the present day were it is people with large families that get hit and people with no children get the praise. I don;t think this change over really got underway until the dramatic changes and artificial contraception and the, 'Sexual Revolution', in the 1960's. Pope Paul, back then forecast what all this would lead to wonderfully well: https://catholic-link.org/paul-vi-prophetic-warnings-birth-control-humanae-vitae/ In July of 1968, fifty years ago, Pope Paul VI issued his watershed encyclical condemning birth control, Humanae Vitae. Its central premise speaks, authoritatively, the beautiful truth that sexual act reaches its fullness when it fosters conjugal intimacy, is open to procreation, and is lived out in the context of responsible parenthood. The conscious choice to artificially block procreation violates the integrity, beauty, and fullness of that act. Consequences Of Artificial Birth Control Pope Paul VI Predicted 50 Years Ago 1. It will open the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Has this prediction proved accurate? We now see a national rate of divorce of 50% in the United States, (having been at 3% for the first year in 1969). 2. A man who grows accustomed to the use of a contraceptive method may forget the reverence due to a woman and reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires. Today we experience an ongoing wave of sexual abuse scandals in Hollywood and television, politics, college campuses and beyond. The pornography industry earns an estimated $95 billion a year globally. The recent #MeToo movement cut across every demographic and only seems to grow. 3. The state may impose the use of contraceptive methods on everyone, thus intervening in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife. Two blatant examples come to mind: The HHS Mandate vs. Little Sisters of The Poor (a seven-year ordeal that finally ended with a federal rollback in the fall of 2017), China’s One Child Policy (officially suspended in 2015 but still wreaking havoc on demographics and has done irreparable harm to families, women and souls). 4 Differences Between Natural Family Planning And Artificial Contraception Artificial contraception deliberately blocks, sterilizes, and works against conception, while NFP respects the way God designed fertility. Some forms of artificial birth control work by causing abortions. Hormonal contraceptives like the Pill, NuvaRing, the patch, IUDs, etc., work by preventing the newly-conceived embryo from implanting in the uterine wall (resulting in death to the embryo). Possible side-effects of artificial contraception: – New England Journal of Medicine (2017) – Women using the pill have a 20% higher risk of breast cancer or even 40% higher in cases of prolonged use. – American Journal of Psychiatry also reports that women on hormonal contraceptives have a 70% higher risk of depression and are 3 times more likely to die by suicide. – Increased risk of blood clots, stroke, heart attack, depression, loss of fertility, and more. Although not always easy for couples, NFP is totally natural. Many methods are free of cost, it bears no increased risk of cancer, and couples who use NFP have a divorce rate of 5% in comparison the national rate of 50%.
Yes your brother going to be a priest is the most immense blessing of all. There have been no priests in our family for several generations. The story goes as follows. My great great grand uncle was the Parish Priest of a parish in County Clare, Ireland. In that parish there was a woman who cast spells at the behest of people and she has a blue bottle that she used for seeing the future and spell casting. Her name was Biddy Early. He challenged her and he took her blue bottle and threw in a nearby lake. She was furious and cursed the family and said that no member of the family would ever again wear the roman collar and there has never been a priest since despite some going forward but in the end they don't go ahead. People have said that we should get a special priest to pray against that curse.
You don't need to be a saint to see the growing problem. The richest man on the planet, Elon Musk, has said population collapse is a bigger risk to civilization than climate change. He's talked and tweeted about it many times. Yet, even when it's one of their own, the secular-powers-that-be refuse to listen.
I am trying as well to do my part. 3 on earth, 1 in heaven and you never know for more. I did get married back in May and we technically could still get pregnant but that is up to God. Although I joke with him all the time that at age 47 and my youngest now 12, that light at the end of the tunnel is within site. Starting all over would be an.......ugh........really God.......fine moment haha.
Wow! Congratulations. You are blessed. I'm sure it wasn't easy but I always notice how large families are there for each other through thick & thin.
The fly is the symbol of Beelzebub one the major demons, the Lord of the Flies. The reason why is that when they made human (especially child sacrifice) sacrifice to demons in the form of God's in Iraq /Iran region of the middle East millenia ago the blood drew the flies..hence Lord of the Flies. Witches oftne have familiars like cat sand toads in this case a fly. She sounds like a read honest to badness witch with great power in her Craft (Witchcraft)..
The blue bottle is a bottle that was blue not a fly. In fact a TD from Cláre dredged the lake in the 70s and is supposed to have recovered the blue bottle. After that he and his family suffered one misfortune after another.
OK so 2 sons 10 grandchildren-1 in heaven 3 great grandchildren I started very young {soon I will have to start saying I was born after my children}
You are blessed indeed PF! I have 3 children living, and like you, I had 3 miscarriages. But I didn't give up hope and kept trying and had my last baby when I was 38! Praise the Lord! I also got pregnant again at 42, but sadly, I miscarried. BUT it is definitely possible to have more babies even into your 40's. My mother had 15 live births, having had a few of us in her 40's (she had me at 43 and my brother at 45!) So don't give up hope PF, if it is God's will, it will happen.
