Showing results by author "Bob Lord" in All Categories

How does a just king, a loyal defender of the faith, turn on all that he vowed to protect, betraying church and country? Was it the limitless power he had, the power to decide between life and death, that gave birth to him placing himself above his pope and church? Was it the example of other Henrys before him? This chapter is about one man's infamy and the powerful men and martyrs God raised up to defend his church. But before we speak of King Henry VIII and the martyrs who died rather than deny the Church, we want to touch briefly on some of his predecessors.

There are many stories that can be told of a mysterious voice warning you of danger, of something or was it someone interfering in the knick of time. As we started to write this book on Angels, we found ourselves remembering incidents in our lives we had long forgotten. Could it be our Guardian Angels reminding us? Why not?

We follow Mother Mary on a journey again to a far-off place high up in the mountains, where no one would consider going. We have never really paid much attention to what towns are located where in Japan, other than Tokyo, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima. In looking on a map, we find Akita to be a thriving metropolis in the north of the country, with a population of about 300,000 people - a lot more than you would consider for a small town in the mountains of Japan.

Padre Pio was gifted with the cross of Jesus from his earliest days. His personal relationship with Jesus and Mary manifested itself to him from the time he was a child. His entire world centered around the little church of Our Lady of the Angels in his little home town of Pietrelcina. It might as well have been his home. He spent more time there than at his home. All the important events in his early life took place in that church.

Prophetess of Germany, visionary, mystic, doctor of the Church. Come with us as we travel to Bingen, Germany, and the area of the beautiful Rhine River which is where St. Hildegard lived and had her visions. It was also here where she wrote her books on her visions and many other things, like a morality play put to music, which she also wrote. She wrote a book on herbal medicine, which is used to this day in that area of Germany.

We bring you the life of Saint Peregrine the Cancer Saint at Forli, Italy; incorrupt body. The Lord came down from the cross, and healed him of cancer of the leg the night before it was to be amputated. Room where the miracle took place. Ex-votos, for the miracles attributed to him. This saint has been credited with many miracles of healing.

It is popularly believed Arius was born in Libya in AD 270. He is credited with having started one of the most deadly heretical sects to attack the early church - that of Arianism. It has continued assaulting the church until today, under many titles. Our first encounter with Arius is somewhere between AD 300-311, when he joined up with a group of heretics called Meletians. Evidently, he did not find what he was searching for and left them. Explore more with the audiobook, Arianism and 4th Century Heresies.

Seldom in history do we find a shrine and a village that owes its existence to one man and his dream. As unique as this is, rarer still is a sanctuary village with the ancient heritage of pre-Christ Pompeii. As this audiobook is about Our Lady and the miracles that came about through her intercession, you will see how she played an integral part in guiding one man to build her shrine - a sanctuary where the needy could come, with their cares and worries, and she would answer them.

Born of a very devout mother and father who, in times when families were feuding amongst themselves, were called by some, "Jesus Christ’s peacemakers," it would appear from the very moment of her birth, God had special designs on Rita. There is a tradition in Roccaporena that as an infant, while she slept in a basket, in the fields where her parents were working, white bees swarmed around Rita’s open mouth. Not only did the bees not sting her, but it is said that they dropped honey into her mouth without her uttering a cry of warning to her parents.

This story is about another who suffered, only as a Dry Martyr for her Lord, a willing victim of sacrifice for her Church. Just as Blessed Anna Maria Taigi was being born in Italy, another child was coming into the world, Napoleon Bonaparte. When Anna Maria opened her eyes and let out her first cry, it was to a world groaning in pain, a world inundated by sin and perversion, very like our own. The throne of France was heading madly toward its own destruction and demise, taking Christianity down with it.

God raised saints from the four corners of the world, each with their own unique charism, to touch his children and defend his church.

“Born poor and humble of heart, undaunted champion of the Catholic faith, zealous to restore all things in Christ, crowned a holy life with a holy death.” Who was Pope Saint Pius X? This is the story of a Pope who refused to stay buried in the annals of history. The boy who became Pope always worked with the image of Mother Church and her founder Jesus Christ before him, leading the way, as if on a path, beckoning him to follow. He never ceased being the boy who worked and struggled endlessly to keep alive the true teachings of the Church!

When we wrote on the life of St. Teresa in our book Saints and other Powerful Women in the Church, little did we think that we would, some day, be using her visions of heaven, hell, and purgatory to affirm these important truths of our Catholic faith.

Paray le Monial is a beautiful, quiet town nestled in the center of France. But the power that emanates from this town is pure Holy Spirit. You can still feel the presence of our Lord Jesus. For, it is here that our Lord appeared to a nun over a period of 17 years. He brought his faithful message of love to an unfaithful people who had grown cold. Here, he, once again, spoke of that tremendous love of his to become man and suffer death - even death on the cross.

One of the most fascinating gifts the Lord has given us is His own burial cloth. How His image was projected onto that cloth, and how it has survived these 2,000 years is nothing short of miraculous. We have always had a great love for and devotion to this gift of Our Lord. Let us share with you the history and the journey of the Shroud.

When Saint Leopold Mandic had dreamed of the priesthood, his eyes traveled over the Adriatic Sea to far-off lands to bring the Gospel of Hope to brothers and sisters starving and thirsting for this Lord who died for them. He was not to even travel from village to village, like Father Francis and Saint Anthony (Saint of Padua), proclaiming the good news.

God's beloved children of Ireland are a paradox in terms. Those who only see the surface of the Irish people, don't know about the years of suffering, persecution, famine, Martyrdom, and near annihilation of them as a people, all for their faith. When they joke that there are more Irish in Boston than in Ireland, there is somewhat of a note of melancholy, mixed with the joke.

Saint Dominic Savio was born of very poor but holy peasant stock, one of ten children. His parents were from Castelnuovo D’Asti, ten miles outside Turin. When things got desperate they were forced to leave, to find work in a small village outside of Chieri called Riva. There on April 2, 1842, a boy child was born to Charles and Brigid Savio, whom they baptized Dominic. When Dominic was two years old, the family moved once again, to a village near their home town of Castelnuovo d’Asti, Murialdo.

The Life of Saint Veronica Giulianni. Discover the monastery where she spent her life as a religious. The cell where she lived; the bed she slept on, the pillow-case which still shows the blood-stains from her Stigmata, the tree to which she levitated, the cross upon which she hung, and the cross she carried. The Devil attacked and tormented her.

As her illness had taken a toll on her strength, Saint Gemma Galgani was not able to return to school. She remained at home and taught her sisters and brothers. At her beatification, one of her brothers said, "Gemma always brought the olive branch." She lovingly cared for the needs, both spiritual and physical, of her family, often at the neglect of herself. She had no use for fancy clothes, and adorned herself in simple, extremely austere black dresses.