Showing results by author "Bob Lord" in All Categories

Realizing he was not able to handle all of the niceties of his office, due to the tensions he was constantly under, Pius IX had handed over most of the diplomatic chores of his Papacy to Cardinal Atonelli, but he died in 1877, and Pope Pius IX died the following winter. It is fair to say that the Vatican was in a diplomatic shambles after the death of Pope Pius IX. So who was the Lord going to choose to put in the hot seat of the Papacy? He chose a very strong, but very peace-loving Cardinal from Perugia, Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci, to be known as Pope Leo XIII.

In 1945, the Nazi war machine was finally crushed and cities and countries all over Europe were being liberated by the Allied Forces. Great shouts of joy could be heard. Young girls in Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, and other cities across Europe kissed young GIs and other liberating forces. Churches were filled with masses of Thanksgiving.

Our rich history is filled with undeniable signs, proof positive from the Lord that it was indeed his will that this New World be consecrated to his name, for his glory, and for his people. There are no coincidences with God. The heavenly mandate to evangelize new lands and to proclaim the name of Jesus was given to the Catholic Queen Isabella and her husband King Ferdinand to institute, in thanksgiving to Our Lord for having delivered Spain from the Moslems after 700 years of captivity.

Bob and Penny Lord's book focuses on the great army we have been given, the Heavenly Army of Angels, to give us strength and confidence that we are not alone because of this exalted assembly of the Heavenly Hosts. Their years of researching shrines have proven to be great assets in bringing you the Heavenly Army of Angels in the Old and New Testament and in the history of our church.

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.

Born in England, he felt the calling early in life to evangelize to the pagans and fallen-away Catholics in Germany. He worked tirelessly to bring the faith to the German people. Various Popes applauded his work, gave him the protection of Charles Martel, and made him Bishop, and then Archbishop, and finally Primate of Germany. He was martyred evangelizing.

Come with Bob and Penny to Sicily to share in the lives of two powerful saints of Sicily, Santa Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo, and the famed Santa Lucia, patron saint of eyes and breasts, and patron saint of Siracusa, Sicily. Go with Bob and Penny to the top of Monte Pellegrino, where St. Rosalia lived her final days and where she appeared to a hunter and saved the city of Palermo from the Plague. Come to Venice and Siracusa, where the story of the life of St. Lucy unfolds.

There are three women who made their marks upon the Church with the work they did among the Native Americans and with the children of Canada. They are Saint Marguerite Bougeoys, foundress of Sisters of Notre Dame, Saint Marie Marguerite D’Youville, the first Canadian-born saint and foundress of the Sisters of Charity in Canada, also known as the Grey Nuns, and Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation, Foundress of the Ursuline Sisters in Canada.

Saint John Eudes, founder of the Congregation of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and founder of Eudists. Come with Bob and Penny as they follow the fascinating life of St. John Eudes.

This happened during the life of our lady. We visited Zaragoza, Spain and the shrine built where the angels transported our lady while she was still alive.

"In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." We say it, but do we know what we're saying; are we really aware of the awesome truth we're proclaiming? Many of our newer, more traditional priests, before they begin to pray the Mass, preface it with, "As we should begin all things, let us begin in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

His (Francis Xavier Seelos) is a powerful story, one that you should take seriously. We are the most blessed, in that we were able to spend days at his shrine, interviewing Fr. Byron Miller, Joyce Boudreaux, and many other involved in the cause for his canonization. This is a one hour documentary taped at the Shrine of Blessed Seelos in New Orleans

Family, if there was ever a Saint who had complete focus in what the Lord was calling him to do, it was St. Peter Julian Eymard. He is called, among other things, Champion of the Blessed Sacrament. He had such an unbelievable singleness of purpose, in his great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and desire that eucharist adoration should be practiced worldwide, that he would found an order devoted solely to adoration of the blessed sacrament and the spread of that devotion. That religious order is called Priests of the Blessed Sacrament.

We have been asked to write on lay people who became Saints. As we researched our last book, Visionaries, Mystics and Stigmatists, we found ourselves writing on many saints and blesseds, brothers and sisters who came from a life very much like our own; they never entered the religious life but instead served the Lord right where he had planted them, within their families. St. Frances of Rome is one such saint and visionary.

The tradition of the image of Our Lady of the Gate goes way back, to before the time it was placed in the Chapel above the gate. There are legends supporting that it came to Lithuania by way of Poland in the late Fourteenth Century, when a Polish princess married into a royal Lithuanian family. Her name was Jadwiga. Tradition tells that she was the first one to introduce Roman Catholic practices into what was then primarily an Orthodox country. The Lithuanians welcomed the great love that was projected by the princess for the Mother of God.

Saint Roch, patron of plagues, miracle worker, patron saint of cholera, plague, epidemics, dogs, dog lovers, pilgrims, bachelors, surgeons, and grave diggers, among others. The Lord works in powerful ways. What a time for St. Roch to come back into our lives than now, when the world is in the midst of an epidemic.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Allotting became very popular towards the end of the 15th century, actually 1489, as a result of a major miracle. A little child, about three years old, had gotten too close to the edge of the river, and had fallen in. Not being able to swim, he drowned. When his mother found the child, she lost control of her senses for a moment, and then heard an inner voice telling her to rush the dead body of the child to the Holy Chapel of Our Lady. She ran for all she was worth to the chapel and laid the body of her child on the altar of Our Lady.

The miracle came to be because of faith and the hard work behind that faith. The early settlers to the New World, with hope and determination, laid the foundation of what you see, when you visit the awesome Cap-de-la-Madeleine. But let us begin at the beginning. The French government sent missionaries and explorers to the New World. In 1534, Jacques Cartier took possession of territory and called it New France in the name of the King of France. However, the founding of a permanent colony was not to come about until 1608, when Samuel de Champlain opened a relay station in Québec.

Bob and I have traveled all over the world, everywhere from the Shrines of the Holy Land to the Shrines of Europe, Mexico, and Canada. But although we had pilgrimaged to Italy many times, we had never visited the land of my ancestors. I think, in all of us, there is an unquenchable thirst to visit the land of our ancestors. For me, that is Sicily. My father was born there and came to this country at age three, and my maternal grandparents' roots were also in Sicily. One year, we decided to pack up our daughter and grandson and find Sicily!

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?