Many of you might remember a gracious lady, aptly named Donna Marie, who bore eleven of the most precious kids one could ask for. A true “Lady of the Home”, the name ‘Donna’ is an English-language feminine first name meaning “woman” in Italian. The original meaning is closer to “lady of the home” and was a title of respect in Italy, equivalent to Don for men.’

Donna has a gift for you; many years ago, she coined a supplement to the traditional “Bless us O Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive.  From thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen” that “graced” your homes for decades; you should consider for your homes and hearts an addition.  In these many years, I have never written it down.  It is a true oral Catholic tradition in our home and now spreading to three states.  So far…

The prayer goes like this; and as with all gifts, you choose to learn it and use it or you go back to whatever it was that you were doing.  Or both:

“Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Holy Spirit , God the Father, and St. Joseph,  I consecrate to you my mind, my words, my body, my heart and my soul in order that your Will be done through me this day”  Amen.

Long, maybe but concise, powerful in that it’s words are full of the power of eternity and Eternal Beings and those created, who like you and I WILL exist…forever.

It involves the twin precious hearts of a mother and her Son, to whom many Catholics consecrate themselves and their families; and two fathers, One existent for all eternity and one who dwelled on earth, the best husband bar none and who became a great saint (this liturgical year is dedicated to St Joseph).

These are words of action:  The Trinity is invoked and an act of the will is espoused: “I consecrate…”

Speaking of forever, it is real. All of you reading this WILL always exist.  Think about that; this should reOrient your focus.

A woman’s right to choose as well as man is WHERE:  heaven, which does exist for those who follow the Father’s wishes, called to follow His Son Jesus; and the place where the sad, rebellious angels of old live, hell.  Yes, People, make all the noise you want: HELL does exist and it isn’t going away any time soon…actually EVER.

It too is very real.  But we spend more time worrying about the next car we will buy (or dress), vs dwell on the hell that hell brings on FOREVER to those who choose it.

Both exist, just as much as this 553 sextillion wide, multi-billion being universe God created easily for OUR good.  Not His!

I am reflecting on another gift you should know about: that of Pope St John Paul the Great, who taught us how to live AND when God deemed appropriate, how to die gracefully.

Another take on Divine Mercy…

This popular pope’s favorite feast is Divine Mercy Sunday, that follows on the 8th note and day of Easter. It encapsulates the Divine Mercy Saint Faustina, nee Helen Kowalska and her voluminous diary.  In her messages from Jesus, St Faustina says He called for the Feast to follow by a week the celebration of His Resurrection.

Contemporaneously, Mary, another amazing woman who adopted 12 (myself and the 11) after we were married, is reading the 600 page Diary written almost a hundred years ago.  Images of life, of hell (there’s that yucky place again) and prophecies in the 20th century.  So much more of a visionary in the most trampled real estate in Europe, Poland.

PopeStJPtheGreat taught us what?  How to die FULL of GRACE. 

The consummate servant in life, the Father used His Son’s able servant, John Paul II, to show the world who is in charge.  And that God will NOT be mocked; but rarely is this facet shown in its simplistic truth: man may think he/we are gods, but we are nothing but mere ashen flesh. We cannot create nor have the right to destroy God’s handiwork, even if she is confined to a bed unable to move about the cabin.

Recall these facts: On Saturday April 2, 2005, JPII took his last breath after the Divine Mercy liturgy ended, his “Amen” to a great life, that Saturday night after sundown.

Interestingly, 16 years later another Donna (Steve & Donna C. are clients and friends) lost her mom in a “holy death” at about 9pm on 2021’s Divine Mercy vigil, leading (as the Abbey’s Fr. Sebastian mentions, a direct pathway to heaven) her home forever as well.  Pray for Elaine Copeland if you will!

Remarkable God-incidence as the worldwide known Karol from Poland as Donna C’s mom is known best by those close to hear.  God prefers we access the mercy of His Son to the alternative

What you may not remember about those three days in 2005 (3/31 thru 4/2/2005), is the world had been fixated on the purposeful “paralytic abortion”, the planned killing of a paralyzed  Catholic sister in the Lord named Teri Schiavo (Italian for “slave”) Schindler.

She miraculously stayed alive, for 13 days, WITHOUT water and the only food was the House of Bread born Bread of Life, the Eucharist.  Fr. Pavone, the priest for life founder, surreptitiously gave Teri fragments of the Eucharist on three separate occasions while the necromancers prohibited any other sustenance.  I contend this makes Teri a true Eucharistic miracle. 13 days, a number frequenting Mary’s arrival at Fatima in 1917 and Jesus’ death on the cross on the Hebrew calendar, Friday the 13th day of Abib/Nissan.

The pope, the president and his brother, so many others worked tirelessly to spare her life that year. Ironically, I met Teri’s parents at an Anaheim conference and they contend there is no way she wanted to die; she communicated with mom and dad and just became another senseless evil killing.  The media was no help: in the Guardian

“Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose condition sparked an epic legal, medical and political battle that has gripped America, died yesterday, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed by the wishes of her husband and the orders of several courts.Mar 31, 2005″

But hell would NOT allow her to live; the cabal of Scientologists, the godless and even “well meaning” legalists got this beautiful but health challenged woman a death sentence. She was NOT in a vegetative state.  This was no veggie tale but a true good vs evil battle.

Her crime was she was “non verbal”.  Her body did not move “gracefully” as a ballet dancer and to the godless world, her mere existence was vile…yet she had worth, not just to Mr and Mrs Schindler or her brother, but to many others.  Like EVERY life cut off early and without God’s explicit permission, including 63 million baby boys/girls sacrificed for heart parts and solve like organic slaves, so far in our ‘advanced’ but sad , too often, evil world.

I contend the mother of 11 Donna’s life was shortened yet Donna realized her role those last months was to suffer for others and gain spiritual wealth for a disbelieving world. But this was GOD’s call, not mine.  Nor mankind’s.

Judges try to evaluate the facts to assess the truth: they try to be just,  need to be merciful and the best do exhibit grace.  But, always remember, the One Judge you DON’T want to face is our Father God, without the Divine Mercy passageway to safety.

Donna Marie lived 49 years less 49 days, as her sister Caryn pointed out; Caryn had been planning a “49ers’ California Goldrush type birthday and ironically had counted the days.  She loves her sister very much and her sister Donna from heaven is praying for her daily to return to the faith of her father and our Father in heaven.

A few years ago, Mary, a gracious and beautiful woman became a stepmom to those special 11.  Only God knows why, this amazing never married definitely Catholic lady said yes to this miscreant author at Nativity church on the 8th of the 6th month, sharing the 30th birthday of her future stepson, Nathaniel of Dayton.  But her “I do” has been a blessing to the 11.  Ask any of them what they think of her: you will get 11 different answers.  I haven’t asked yet; you can.

But dwell on God’s truly Divine Mercy now.  And forever.  He showed mercy and power in taking home His servant, a great pope who took up the cause of his fellow Polander, the visionary Helen Kowalska with determination. The cause for her sainthood as well as the spreading of her ministry and devotion to the revealed imagery of Christ, blood and water emanating like rays of light.

God desires ALL of us reading this to be happy forever with him, the saints, Mary, and…like in that prayer Donna wrote: those people.   OR choose to live with the god of the hellhole called hell; it’s your choice.  Book your ticket to either because there is no alternative (other than the purging place which is heavenbound).  None.  Choose wisely seeking the Mercy of a loving ETERNAL God.

The miracles of the Divine Mercy events and St Faustina (Helen Kowalska’s) journey is incredible.  In fact, even the beginnings of the Divine Mercy devotion IN the United States is miraculous.  This year we celebrate the 80th anniversary of Fr. Joseph Jarzebowski’s escape and miraculous arrival in the US; his “side of the bargain” (spreading the devotion) began on May 1, 1941 in Washington DC.

From the Marians of the Immaculate Conception site:

“Father Joseph journeyed from Poland through Lithuania, Russia, Siberia, and Japan, before finally setting foot in San Francisco, Calif., four months later. Through his travels, amid the terrors of war and despite many hostile inspections from suspicious guards, Fr. Joseph was able to bring with him a copy of The Divine Mercy image hanging in St. Michael’s Church in Vilno. He also carried copies of two documents written by St. Faustina’s spiritual director and confessor, Fr. Michael Sopocko: the Second Memorial to the Polish Hierarchy, and a manuscript on the Feast of Divine Mercy.

That manuscript, thanks to the Felicia sisters, became the first 2000 copies of millions.  The Devotion is thriving in these last days because of the work of Fr Joseph and the desire of God to give us EVERY opportunity to live unending joy.  Forever and beyond.

Prophecies abound in the Church; Our Lady of Guadalupe (Her cactus tilma image); those of Fatima, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Shroud of Jerusalem/Turin and others INCLUDING St Faustina’s Diary exhibit the love God has for His human race.  The one singular HUMAN race.  The continued mantra, “Follow the Science” is just another weaponized ObamaNation etymology department fakery.   “Foolowing the people with scientific frauds” is not what makes America great.  God’s blessings for this covenant nation does.

“Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Holy Spirit , God the Father, and St. Joseph,  I consecrate to you my mind, my words, my body, my heart and my soul in order that your Will be done through me this day”  Amen.

Mary, the amazing stepmom, continues to give, changing her life for a great generation of young Beckmans who are going older, ‘growing’ their separate ways over time YET remaining a family; not many ladies, especially Disney villainous stepmoms on the USPS postage sheet, would change their lives.

But families, like all relationships, need doses of selflessness, humility, a willingness to give as well as take.  Centered where?  On the Divine Mercy of our “Shroud of Turin” visible Savior.  He didn’t ask how much to give, to give in or to take the needs of others seriously over His own: HE GAVE HIS ALL…AND MORE!

Donna’s Grace before meals supplement above, and that of her grace within, may be another cause to take up; it may not become as widespread but its mission is clear: let God lead your life and follow His Will.  She did as the gracious stepmom does today.  As to wills, not mine but thine, Lord.