The Rosary Saves the Life of a Young British Soldier in Afghanistan

Glenn Hockton, 19,  wearing the miraculous rosary that saved his life

Near the end of World War II, British soldier Joseph "Sunny" Truman with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was captured with six other soldiers in his platoon. Forced to march across a field away from the advancing Allied armies, Truman spotted a rosary on the ground. As he bent down to pick it up a bomb nearby suddenly exploded. He was the only one of his captured platoon to survive the blast.

Sixty five years later in 2010, a rosary would save the life of his grandson Glenn Hockton, 19, with the Coldstream Guards in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Before he was deployed, Glenn asked his mother for a rosary to take with him. She recounts the miraculous story, "He felt like he had a slap on the back. He bent down to pick up his rosary to see if it was broken. As he bent down he realized he was on a landmine."

Glenn knew that stepping off the landmine would mean instant death because it would spring up and explode. The only thing he could do was stand there and wait for help. For 45 terrifying minutes, he waited while his colleagues successfully managed to get to him.

The landmine incident wasn't the only time Glenn's life was miraculously spared. On a separate occasion, he was shot and the bullet embedded itself in his body armor. He was winded, but otherwise unhurt. His mother and stepfather keep the bullet as a reminder of Divine Providence.

Glenn's mother Sheri Jones with the bullet retrieved from his body armor

The rosary is our Holy Mother's powerful armor against the opposing forces of man as well as the spirit. Pray the rosary daily for the safety of our young men and women in the military!

Little Known Fact: Elvis Sang About the Rosary

Elvis Presley is known for being the King of Rock and Roll and a handsome movie star.  He had a spiritual Christian faith and almost everyone has heard his fabulous, "How Great Thou Art," but not many of us have heard his song, "Miracle of the Rosary," which he recorded in 1971. Here are the lyrics:

Oh blessed Mother we pray to Thee
Thanks for the miracle of your rosary
Only you can hold back
Your holy Son's hand
Long enough for the whole world to understand

Hail, Mary full of grace
The Lord is with thee
Blessed are thou among women
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
Oh holy Mary dear mother of God
Please pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death

And give thanks once again
For the miracle of your rosary

Our Holy Mother has touched hearts all over the world; from the poorest of the poor to the wealthiest in Hollywood. Pray the rosary that all may come to know Jesus!

Our Holy Mother Saves a Priest from Eternal Fire Through the Rosary (With Video Link)

Fr. Steven Scheier was ordained in 1973. He became a parish priest and preached according to what the people wanted to hear. Catholic moral and dogmatic truths were left out of his homilies for the sake of keeping the parishioners and the money coming into the parish. At the same time, in his desire to fit in and be popular with others, he behaved in a way that would garner their acceptance, rather than the holy way in which a priest should deport himself. Deep down he knew he was not being the type of priest he should, but he hid that enough for people to believe he was a good priest.

On October 18, 1985, Fr. Scheier was traveling from Wichita to his parish, Parish of the Sacred Heart, in Fredonia, Kansas, 86 miles away. He was involved in a terrible head-on collision  with a pickup truck. Fr. Scheier was thrown from his vehicle. His entire scalp was taken off on the right side and the part of his brain was sheared off..

In the ambulance on the way to the hospital he repeated the Hail Mary over and over. A nurse in the ambulance who had helped save his life, unfamiliar with the prayer, tried her best to help him pray.  Once at the hospital, the doctor sewed his scalp back on and called for the Lifewatch helicopter to bring him to another hospital in Wichita. He had broken the second cervical vertebra in his neck; the "hangman's break." At that time he was given a 15% chance to live.

Throughout the entire tragedy,  his parishioners and people of other denominations led a huge prayer effort at the hospital and the rosary was recited for his recovery. Father Scheier needed no surgery. He spent two months in the hospital before he returned to his parish in May 1986.

One day when celebrating Mass and proclaiming the Gospel about the fig tree (Luke 13:1-9), the page enlarged, became illuminated, and came off the lectionary toward Fr. Scheier. Startled, he finished Mass as best he could. Once back at the rectory, Father Scheier was able to remember a spiritual experience that had taken place just after the accident had occurred. Fr. Scheier found himself standing before the judgment of Jesus. The Lord showed him his entire life, and how he had failed in his priestly service. In the presence of Jesus, it is impossible to state anything but the truth and Father Scheier acknowledged that all the sins being revealed were true. He knew he deserved hell and stated so. He used to go to confession regularly before the accident but he did not have a purpose of amendment with true repentance, and had always thought there would be plenty of time convert his soul.  

At that moment he heard a woman say, “Son, will you please spare his life and his eternal soul?”

The Lord replied, “Mother, he has been a priest for twelve years for himself and not for me.  Let him reap the punishment he deserves.”

“But Son,” she responded, “If we give him special graces and strengths then let’s see if he bears fruit. If not, Your will be done.”

There was very short pause, after which Jesus said, “Mother, he’s yours.”

Ever since his memory of this miraculous second chance, Father Scheier has been devoted to Our Lady. Father Scheier learned the beautiful truth that no one of the Blessed Trinity can refuse the wishes of Our Lady; Our Holy Mother.

At the foot of the cross Jesus looked on his mother Mary and, with the words, "Mother, behold thy son," and to John, "Behold they mother," Jesus Himself made Mary the mother of each of us, and of the Catholic Church.

Father Scheier's miraculous Gospel passage, “Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?”
“Sir,” the man replied, “Leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.” (Luke 13:7-9)

Click this link to see a video of Father Scheier telling his story. Father Scheier Speaks of His Near Death Experience With Jesus and Mary

Pray the rosary to save the souls of priests and other religious; our leaders in faith.

Miracles Within Tragedy

 Top: Representative Gabrielle Giffords

Bottom:  On her wedding day to Astronaut Mark E. Kelly in 2007

On January 8, 2011, a mentally deranged twenty two year old man approached and shot Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and a group of people who surrounded her as she was having a public meeting with her constituents at a supermarket. The gunman killed six people and injured thirteen others.

Oftentimes things happen, whether serendipitous or tragic, where God's hand can be seen in the works. The following paragraphs describe some amazing facts within this horrible tragedy.

 Christina with her mother Roxanna

One of the tragic losses was a nine year old girl. Christina Taylor Green was one of 50 babies born on 9/11/01 featured in a book called, "Faces of Hope."  She had just made her first Holy Communion last spring, and sang in the church choir of St. Odilia's Catholic Church. Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of the Diocese of Tucson, away in Jordan at a Bishops' meeting, wrote in a letter when he heard of the tragedy, "Let the children come to me,' Jesus said (Matthew 19:14). Christina is with Him."Her date of death is 1/8/11; if you add the 1 and 8, you get 9. Once again we have 9/11. Her courageous, yet heartbroken mother Roxanna says Christina is a little angel in heaven with her grandmother who passed away last year.

Congress in session, the reading of the Constitution

Father Jonathan Morris, parochial vicar for the Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral said that it is a miracle of God that Representative Gabrielle Giffords is alive and was communicative after she was shot. The bullet which hit her entered the temple and exited her forehead. She is expected to live although the extent of her injuries is unknown. In an ironic twist, the first order on the agenda for the new 112th Congress this past week was to read the Constitution on the House floor, something that hadn't been done for 217 years. Representative Giffords read aloud the part of the Constitution which speaks about important freedoms, including speech, assembly and religion,  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Daniel Hernandez holds Gifford's hand as she is wheeled to a waiting ambulance

Rather than running away, Daniel Hernandez ran toward the shots as he heard them being fired. He noticed many people lying on the ground, including a little girl. He began moving from person to person checking pulses, "First the neck, then the wrist," he said. Then he saw Giffords. She had fallen and was lying contorted on the sidewalk, bleeding. Using his hand, Hernandez applied pressure to the entry wound on her forehead. He pulled her into his lap and held her upright against him so she wouldn't choke on her own blood. Giffords was conscious, but quiet. While holding Giffords, he gave verbal instructions to others who were trying to help victims on the scene. Daniel Hernandez helped keep Giffords alive until paramedics arrived. He climbed into the ambulance with her and on the ride to the hospital, held her hand. She squeezed his back. Later, he was ecstatic to learn that she was alive and fighting, and a hospital physician credits him with helping save her life. Hernandez, was a 20 year old student at the University of Arizona who had been U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' intern for only five days before this tragedy occurred.

 

Judge John Roll

Also killed was well-respected Federal Judge John Roll, age 63. Receiving an email blast about his friend Gabrielle Gifford's event, "Congress on Your Corner" at, ironically enough, Safeway grocery store, he decided to stop by before he spent Saturday at home. As was his usual routine, he had just attended daily Catholic mass at the nearby St. Augustine Cathedral. Minutes later, he was dead.

Scene of the shooting

 Bill Badger is credited with stopping the carnage before it got worse. He heard the gunshots and saw that Loughner was shooting down the line of waiting people. The shooter looked right at him and shot just as Badger ducked to the left. He felt a sting at the back of his head. After that, Badger noticed Loughner paused to reload his 9 mm Glock. An unidentified person behind the shooter sprang into action and slammed the shooter in the head with a folding chair. When the stunned shooter slumped forward, Badger grabbed his left arm while another person grabbed his right. Together they pulled him to the ground. The shooter attempted to grab the gun which had landed inches from himself, but the heroes grabbed it away. Badger stated, "While we had him on the ground I saw blood running and it wasn't until then I realized it was coming from the back of my head." Badger was taken to St. Mary's Hospital with a bullet graze to the back of his head . Badger is a 74 year old retired United States army colonel.

Please pray the rosary for the injured in this tragedy, and for the families of those who were lost.

Rabbi Reveals Name of the Messiah

Complete Article from Israel Today Magazine, April 30, 2007

"Shortly before he died, one of Israel's most prominent rabbis wrote the name of the Messiah on a small note which he requested would remain sealed until now. When the note was opened, it revealed what many have known for centuries: Yehoshua, or Yeshua (Jesus), is the Messiah.
 
A few months before he died, one of the nation’s most prominent rabbis, Yitzhak Kaduri, supposedly wrote the name of the Messiah on a small note which he requested would remain sealed until now. When the note was unsealed, it revealed what many have known for centuries: Yehoshua, or Yeshua (Jesus), is the Messiah. With the biblical name of Jesus, the Rabbi and kabbalist described the Messiah using six words and hinting that the initial letters form the name of the Messiah. The secret note said:

Concerning the letter abbreviation of the Messiah’s name, He will lift the people and prove that his word and law are valid.
This I have signed in the month of mercy,
Yitzhak Kaduri
 
The Hebrew sentence (translated above in bold) with the hidden name of the Messiah reads: Yarim Ha’Am Veyokhiakh Shedvaro Vetorato Omdim
 
The initials spell the Hebrew name of Jesus, Yehoshua. Yehoshua and Yeshua are effectively the same name, derived from the same Hebrew root of the word “salvation” as documented in Zechariah 6:11 and Ezra 3:2. The same priest writes in Ezra, “Yeshua son of Yozadak” while writing in Zechariah “Yehoshua son of Yohozadak.” The priest adds the holy abbreviation of God’s name, ho, in the father’s name Yozadak and in the name Yeshua.

With one of Israel’s most prominent rabbis indicating the name of the Messiah is Yeshua, it is understandable why his last wish was to wait one year after his death before revealing what he wrote.

When the name of Yehoshua appeared in Kaduri’s message, ultra-Orthodox Jews from his Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva (seminary) in Jerusalem argued that their master did not leave the exact solution for decoding the Messiah’s name.

The revelation received scant coverage in the Israeli media. Only the Hebrew websites News First Class (Nfc) and Kaduri.net mentioned the Messiah note, insisting it was authentic. The Hebrew daily Ma'ariv ran a story on the note but described it as a forgery.

Jewish readers responded on the websites' forums with mixed feelings: “So this means Rabbi Kaduri was a Christian?” and “The Christians are dancing and celebrating,” were among the comments.

Israel Today spoke to two of Kaduri’s followers in Jerusalem who admitted that the note was authentic, but confusing for his followers as well. “We have no idea how the Rabbi got to this name of the Messiah,” one of them said.

Yet others completely deny any possibility that the note is authentic. Kaduri’s son, Rabbi David Kaduri, said that at the time the note was written (September 2005), his father’s physical condition made it impossible for him to write.

KADURI'S PORTRAYAL OF THE MESSIAH
 
A few months before Kaduri died at the age of 108, he surprised his followers when he told them that he met the Messiah. Kaduri gave a message in his synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, teaching how to recognize the Messiah. He also mentioned that the Messiah would appear to Israel after Ariel Sharon’s death. (The former prime minister is still in a coma after suffering a massive stroke more than a year ago.)
Other rabbis predict the same, including Rabbi Haim Cohen, kabbalist Nir Ben Artzi and the wife of Rabbi Haim Kneiveskzy.

Kaduri’s grandson, Rabbi Yosef Kaduri, said his grandfather spoke many times during his last days about the coming of the Messiah and redemption through the Messiah.

His spiritual portrayals of the Messiah—reminiscent of New Testament accounts—were published on the websites Kaduri.net and Nfc:

“It is hard for many good people in society to understand the person of the Messiah. The leadership and order of a Messiah of flesh and blood is hard to accept for many in the nation. As leader, the Messiah will not hold any office, but will be among the people and use the media to communicate. His reign will be pure and without personal or political desire. During his dominion, only righteousness and truth will reign.

“Will all believe in the Messiah right away? No, in the beginning some of us will believe in him and some not. It will be easier for non-religious people to follow the Messiah than for Orthodox people.

“The revelation of the Messiah will be ful lled in two stages: First, he will actively confirm his position as Messiah without knowing himself that he is the Messiah. Then he will reveal himself to some Jews, not necessarily to wise Torah scholars. It can be even simple people. Only then he will reveal himself to the whole nation. The people will wonder and say: ‘What, that’s the Messiah?’ Many have known his name but have not believed that he is the Messiah.”

FAREWELL TO A 'TSADIK'
 
Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri was known for his photographic memory and his memorization of the Bible, the Talmud, Rashi and other Jewish writings. He knew Jewish sages and celebrities of the last century and rabbis who lived in the Holy Land and kept the faith alive before the State of Israel was born.

Kaduri was not only highly esteemed because of his age of 108. He was charismatic and wise, and chief rabbis looked up to him as a Tsadik, a righteous man or saint. He would give advice and blessings to everyone who asked. Thousands visited him to ask for counsel or healing. His followers speak of many miracles and his students say that he predicted many disasters.

When he died, more than 200,000 people joined the funeral procession on the streets of Jerusalem to pay their respects as he was taken to his final resting place.

“When he comes, the Messiah will rescue Jerusalem from foreign religions that want to rule the city,” Kaduri once said. “They will not succeed for they will fight against one another.”

THE RABBI'S FOLLOWERS REACT
 
In an interview with Israel Today, Rabbi David Kaduri, the 80-year-old son of the late Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, denied that his father left a note with the name Yeshua just before he died.

“It’s not his writing,” he said when we showed him a copy of the note.

During a nighttime meeting in the Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva in Jerusalem, books with the elder Kaduri’s handwriting from 80 years ago were presented to us in an attempt to prove that the Messiah note was not authentic.

When we told Rabbi Kaduri that his father’s official website (www.kaduri.net) had mentioned the Messiah note, he was shocked. “Oh no! That’s blasphemy. The people could understand that my father pointed to him [the Messiah of the Christians].”

David Kaduri confirmed, however, that in his last year, his father had talked and dreamed almost exclusively about the Messiah and his coming. “My father has met the Messiah in a vision,” he said, “and told us that he would come soon.”

Israel Today was given access to many of the rabbi's manuscripts, written in his own hand for the exclusive use of his students. Most striking were the cross-like symbols painted by Kaduri all over the pages. In the Jewish tradition, one does not use crosses. In fact, even the use of a plus sign is discouraged because it might be mistaken for a cross.

But there they were, scribbled in the rabbi's own hand. When we asked what those symbols meant, Rabbi David Kaduri said they were “signs of the angel." Pressed further about the meaning of the “signs of the angel," he said he had no idea. Rabbi David Kaduri went on to explain that only his father had had a spiritual relationship with God and had met the Messiah in his dreams.

Orthodox Jews around the Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva told Israel Today a few weeks later that the story about the secret note of Rabbi Kaduri should never have come out, and that it had damaged the name the revered old sage."

Original article:  http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=128&view=item&idx=1347

More Christian Persecution

Once again, Coptic Christians were targeted for death in Egypt. On New Year’s Eve, just after church services for about 1000 people ended and many were exiting the church, a suicide car bomb exploded causing the deaths of 21 innocent people. 97 people were wounded. This attack comes in the wake of threats to Iraqui Christians from the radical Muslim Al Qaeda group. This suicide bombing was very different from the, sadly, more common shooting attacks.

The Christians in Egypt feel that the government does not take the attacks against them by Muslim extremists seriously. After the bombing, the people expressed their rage, "Now it's between Christians and the government, not between Muslims and Christians," shrieked one Christian woman as several hundred young men clashed with helmeted riot police in the street outside the targeted church hours after the blast.

Flaming mangled cars littered the street and blood was spattered on the church, a painting of Jesus inside, and the mosque across the street. Statues of Jesus and Mary inside had toppled to the ground. Later, after the dead and injured were taken away, Christians waved white sheets with red crosses drawn on them in what appeared to be blood.

In the United States, on the show “2010 in Review,” Katie Couric, a famous CBS evening news anchor, worried about the image of Muslims in America, said “The bigotry expressed against Muslims in this country has been one of the most disturbing stories to surface. Of course, a lot of noise was made about the Islamic Center, mosque, down near the World Trade Center, but I think there wasn’t enough sort of careful analysis and evaluation of where this bigotry toward 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, and how this seething hatred many people feel for all Muslims, which I think is so misdirected, and so wrong — and so disappointing.” She added, ““Maybe we need a Muslim version of ’The Cosby Show,’”

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak tried to downplay the attack against Christians to prevent religious tensions by calling this an attack against all Egypt and stating, "terrorism does not distinguish between Copt and Muslim."

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said the attack "offends God and all of humanity." He also condemned the bombing as a "vile gesture", the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in the Middle East and Africa.

Please continue to pray the rosary to help those Christians being persecuted, and to shine the light of truth into those who are deluded, believing that this is not a spiritual battle for souls. According to Our Lady at Fatima, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”