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The United States of America 1776 - 2010
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A nation of people blessed beyond all reason
whose tragic end was a useless reason.
The Queen of Peace – A Ray of Light
The Field of Apparitions – February 7, 2009
O Mother, lead us when you will be here for our Nation's healing. We will trail here with our tears and humble ourselves from all 50 States of our beloved land, and even other nations. O Patroness, come to your people, afflicted with a moral disease, and pray over us, our families, our nation, and nation by nation heal the world. O Mother, lead us…
We could not express any better to you if you were to miss July 1 – 5, 2009 to save the United States than the following letter shows. It was written by a 15-year-old girl who wrote of her experience while here at Caritas when Our Lady was with us in August of 2005 when she was 12-years-old. It will help you understand to do everything you can to be here in the presence of Our Lady July 1-5, 2009 to receive graces not only for yourselves, but also for your families, our nation, and the world. For any open heart, it is an experience of a lifetime and a decision, after it is over, of regret only when you must leave.
There is something about Caritas, when you step out into the Field or the Tabernacle, or even the hay barn, that tells you, in some way, that this is a different world. Yes, it is the same physical world, but the spiritual atmosphere is so changed that it is not of this world. Here in God everything lives and works and has its being. It is in this world but not of it. The air, especially the wind, seems like it came down from Heaven to grace this valley. And you can feel it. Stepping out into the Field is not like going to some foreign country; it's like going home.
Even when there is a severe thunderstorm overhead, as "Remember When it Rained" , I still felt as safe as if I was sitting at home. Normally storms set me on edge. In the Field, on August 5, 2005, fear did not even cross my mind. More and more spectacular displays of nature were thrown at us, in a Heavenly birthday party for Mary, the Mother of God, and it utterly failed to frighten me. Possibly because in some dim way we could all guess that this storm was a direct action of God. I do not recall much in particular about "When it Rained", save for a thought when it began to hail, "Oh, it's hailing now. Oh, well," and after which I just kept on praying.
The main thing I remember is this intense feeling of peace. To me it seemed like some kind of inner glow or fire, purely spiritual, because I was cold and drenched to the bone on the outside, but with this quietness inside that is really hard to explain. Somehow, I think we have all felt it, there is this part of our mind that keeps on chattering in even the holiest places, nagging us about the world, the flesh, and the devil. You beat it back time after time but that insistent voice always comes back. But there, in the Field, with that intense feeling of peace, that voice was silent, utterly silent. Instead of fear and worry, that simple, trusting peace was there. The best I can describe it is as an interior quietness of mind and heart. It was a peace that was not disturbed by anything exterior, at best it might acknowledge the fact that there was a 'very vicious electrical event' taking place in the sky, but it did not give way to fear. Instead it continued to conduct the soul to a real communion with God. I do not remember saying any prayer, besides the Rosary; I've never been too good at spontaneous prayers. But that did not matter then. Helped to a kind of peace that I guess Adam and Eve had before their fall, after a fashion, I simply felt God's presence, and knelt, and that was enough.
Oftentimes returning to Caritas, even for an hour or two when we happen to be in the neighborhood, I have felt something similar to that quietness of mind and heart. It has never really been to the same great degree as it was 'when it rained', but it has been of the same order. I know not what makes it so, but something about Caritas has that interior quietness. Kids can be shrieking and flopping off hay bales in the barn, pilgrims can be wandering up and down, looking for the schoolhouse (behind the Tabernacle, ma'am), and community members can be running around looking for each other, but somehow, behind it all, that peace still reigns.
But that should not really be surprising. If Our Lady is the Queen of Peace, and the valley has been consecrated to God for Her purposes, along with every plant, animal, person, and even the mountains themselves, there should be no wonder that Her peace reigns in Her Queendom. It should be no wonder that the wind, Her sign, reminiscent of the Breath of God that swept over the waters at the beginning of Creation, should be here again to remind us that God will bring, create, something new in the world through Caritas. It should be no wonder that the pine tree, growing up in the middle of a cow pasture on the Word's command so that years later men might see God in it, should recall to our minds our Lord's mysterious ways. It should be no wonder that peace reigns at Caritas, where the will of God is carried out. What should be wondered at is how long it has taken us to realize it all. What should be wondered at is how long it is taking us to turn around, chunk the world, the flesh, and the devil, and return to the Creator and what He has ordained for us. For our hearts were made for Him, and they are restless till they rest in Him.
Even if it takes our feeble human minds forever to grasp what Caritas is, something in our hearts realize it, when we step onto the hallowed ground of the Field and out of the unreal world, into the immensely real world of our true home.
St. Florian, Alabama
When a nation falls and our Nation's present course is clearly death, the only...the only remedy is the precise instructions given in 2 Chronicles 7:14:
"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land."
With a moral decline which will destroy us, it is a tragedy to know and understand the gravest crisis our Motherland has ever experienced and not come before the Mother and cry out to Her, "Mother, lead us!" A tragedy of a nation gone by the wayside, when they could have appealed, "If my people who are called by my name humble…", and did not, and cease to be. Will the United States of America end soon? This is for the first time a legitimate question with a real possibility. The tragedy that did not have to happen. The United States of America – 1776 – 2010 – a nation blessed by God as no other in history.
Do not miss this moment to be with Our Lady and offer up intense prayer for the healing of our Nation. Come to Alabama and join thousands of other who desire to see God, once again, put in the first place in our hearts, in the hearts of our families, and in the heart of our Nation, not only for its own sake, but the sake of the world.
In the Love of Our Lady,
Responding to Our Lady's choice to begin the July 1-5, 2008 gathering over the bed, the place where She began everything here 20 years ago in 1988, the founder of Caritas said, "I was surprised by this, but at the same time felt a joy and a little mystery that Our Lady started these special days leading up to July 4th from the Bedroom." Sixteen years of seven novenas per year has resulted in the accumulation of tens of millions of prayers along with much fasting and many sacrifices for the gathering of the consecration of the United States of America into Our Lady's complete possession on July 4, 2008. The day of July 4, 2008 was viewed as a day pleading for deliverance. Our Lady choosing to appear in the Bedroom on July 1, instead of the Field, speaks of what the first day was dedicated to—a day, like as in the Old Testament city of Nineveh, in which all will spend it in repentance and seeking forgiveness in order to save ourselves and our nation. It all begins in the family and the bedroom signifies the need of the family to be healed, the spirit of the family to be strengthened. The nation will be healed when the families of the nation become strong. It is not by chance Our Lady chose to start the July 1-5, 2008 gathering by appearing over the family bed. As we approach the July 1-5, 2009 gathering, we are in prayerful anticipation of how Our Lady will lead us.
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