ST. MICHAEL CENTER

ADVISORY BOARD

Our Lady of Sorrows is a particular devotion to the Blessed Mother that focuses on her sufferings. The Seven Sorrows of Mary are:

1) The Prophecy of Simeon

2) The Flight into Egypt

3) The Loss of Our Lord in the Temple

4) Jesus Meets Mary on the Way to Calvary

5) The Crucifixion

6) Jesus's Body is Taken Down from the Cross

7) The Burial of Jesus

This devotion of Mary is powerful in not only casting our demons but also healing of wounds. There is a Rosary to Our Lady of Sorrows that Our Lady herself asked us to pray at the apparition of Our Lady of Kibeho.

St. Michael, who is the St. Michael Center's patron and namesake, led the Heavenly forces against Satan and his fallen angels. He continues to wage this war for our souls today. Tradition also holds that he is to escort those who are going to Heaven at their moment of death. He is a champion and protector of all Christians from dangers and perils.

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He has appeared in a cave in Gargano four times. A basilica was built on the site of these apparitions in his honor. It was through his intercessions that many were spared of a plague spreading rapidly at that time in Europe. Rocks from Gargano are considered to be his relics.

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There are also many legends of him protecting Christians from both physical and spiritual dangers. His role as general and commander of the forces of Jesus against Satan and all evil works is crucial to the exorcism ministry.  We understand that St. Michael is spiritually present at all exorcisms.

Pictured here is St. Gemma Galgani, also known as the 'The Flower of Lucca'. Born on March 12, 1878 in Lucca, Italy, she was one of 8 children. Gemma was constantly plagued with health issues of one kind or another, all of which she offered up to Jesus. From an early age she had a deep love of prayer.

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When Gemma was 19 years old her father died and it fell to her to care for her brothers and sisters. Eventually her siblings grew up and were able to share the responsibilities. Gemma was proposed to twice but refused both times as she wanted only to be with Jesus. She desired to be a nun but her poor health prevented this. She fell ill at one time with meningitis and through the intercession of St. Gabriel Possenti, was healed.

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However, the most notable feature of her life was her mysticism. She had apparitions of St. Gabriel Possenti, she could speak directly to Jesus, she went into many ecstasies, and she was also given the grace of the stigmata. Physicians would try and surprise her to study her stigmata, but when they would come, it would go away. Under the obedience of her confessor she was compelled to write an autobiography. The autobiography was at one point stolen by Satan who tried to burn it. Pictures exist to this day of this autobiography with scorch marks on it. Her clear love of Jesus made her especially hated by Satan who would regularly try to attack her. She was known to spit at, mock, and ignore Satan even during his strongest attacks (which she was later strictly forbidden from doing by her spiritual director). St. Gemma's forceful rejection of Satan and offerings of her suffering for the conversion of sinners makes her intercession quite powerful in the exorcism ministry. She is one of our strongest advocates.

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She died of tuberculosis at the age of 25 on April 11, 1903.

Francesco Forgione was born on May 25, 1887 in Pietrelcina Italy. He would later take the name Pio in honor of Pope Pius I.

As a child he was very holy. He was known to be able to see guardian angels as well as speak to Mary and Jesus. His remarkable holiness was also met with remarkable suffering. Francesco was often ill and his family was poor. He was not able to study much between his bad health and needing to help his family. Eventually his family sacrificed a lot to allow him to go into the Capuchin Friars.

Padre Pio is still to this day well known for his incredible gift of healing and the stigmata among many other miracles such as bilocation, reading of hearts, and casting out devils.

Satan would harass Padre Pio often, coming into his cell at night both tempting and beating him. Through all of these attacks Padre Pio remained faithful and at peace following Christ.

The remarkable woman who would be known as Mother Teresa began life named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje. Moved to pursue missionary work, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. She received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Therese of Lisieux. In December of 1929, she departed for her first trip to India, arriving in Calcutta. Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, On May 24, 1937, becoming, as she said, the "spouse of Jesus" for "all eternity." From that time on she was called Mother Teresa.

It was on Sept 10, 1946 during a train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, that Mother Teresa received her "inspiration, her call within a call." On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus' thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life.

Jesus revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.

Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On December 21, she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and tuberculosis. She started each day with communion then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him amongst "the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for."

On October 7, 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India.  It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers.

Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honored her work.

There was a heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, the darkness. The "painful night" of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother Teresato an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of the poor.

On September 5, Mother Teresa's earthly life came to an end. She was given the honor of a state funeral by the Government of India. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. St. Teresa of Calcutta was canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016. St. Teresa of Calcutta is the patron saint of World Youth Day, Missionaries of Charity and a co-patron of the Archdiocese of Calcutta.

Mariam Baouardy was born January 5th, 1846 in Ibillin which is a village near Nazareth in the Holy land. She also had a younger brother, Paul. When Mariam was 3 both her parents died of an infectious disease and she was separated from her bother, who she would never see again. She was sent to live with her wealthy uncle. She eventually moved to Alexandria where her uncle arranged a marriage which she refused. Enraged, her uncle made her a serving girl and treated her very poorly. In an attempt to escape, Mariam enlisted the help of a Muslim boy to help her get to her brother in Galilee. The Muslim boy thought he could convert Mariam but when his intentions were made clear she refused. This nearly cost Mariam her life as the boy slashed her throat and dumped her body into a ditch. According to Mariam, who lived the rest of her life with a raspy voice and a large scar, she was saved by a woman in a blue habit who later was identified as the Blessed Virgin.

She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition when she was 18 in Marseilles. However, she was eventually refused from the order due to her incredible mysticism. She would often go into ecstasies and had regular conversations with Jesus. Later in life she would receive the stigmata. In June 1867 she entered the Carmelites in Pau where she took the religious name Mary of Jesus Crucified. She was also known to have a brilliant devotion to Our Lady and the Holy Spirit. She died in Bethlehem while founding another convent there.

 

St. Mary of Jesus Crucified was possessed by the devil at one point as a suffering for the expiation of sins. This makes her a fierce opponent to evil and her intercession very powerful in casting out Satan.

Youssef Antoun Makhlouf was born in the year 1828 in Bekaa Kafra which is in Northern Lebanon. He was raised in the faith and had two uncles that were both hermits. As a child he had an intense love of prayer.

In 1851 he entered Our Lady of Maifouk monastery and then went to the monastery of St. Maron joining the Maronite order and taking the name Charbel. After his studies he became a hermit and spent the next 23 years in prayer. When he died on Christmas Eve 1898, lights were seen around his grave and his body secreted sweat and blood. It is through his intercession that many healings have taken place. These miracles have brought many back to the faith.

Mary Magdalene plays an incredibly important role in the life of every Christian, even today. She is sometimes referred to as the 'Apostle to the Apostles' because she was the person chosen by God to announce to the apostles the mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus.

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All that is substantially known of her life is known from scripture. It is likely that she was a terrible sinner before meeting Christ. Upon meeting Christ, she was liberated from her possession by 7 demons. This changed her life forever and she began to follow Christ.

Born in Dardilly, France May 8, 1786, he spent his childhood under the shadow of the French Revolution. The Revolution caused priests to minister in secret which was awe inspiring to the young boy. He was catechized in secret by two nuns and received communion and confirmation in secrecy.

In 1802, the Church began rebuilding in France. John Vianney was studying for the priesthood in 1809 when he was drafted into Napoleon's army. He fell sick two days after joining and was taken to a town, instead of a hospital, where deserters would go called Les Noes. Here he remained for a little over a year and started a school for the children there.

After his ordination he was made assistant to a bishop and then sent to Ars where he founded a home for girls. It was also here that he tirelessly pursued his flock preaching challenging homilies and hearing thousands of confessions. It was also widespread that he had the gift of reading souls. He tried on several occasions to leave to become a monk but was always prevented, once by his own parishioners.

Satan would come and attack John Vianney often because he was tearing souls from the clutches of evil. He was so frequently attacked that he had a nickname for Satan which was "the grappin". It is reported he said one time sarcastically, "Oh the grappin and myself? We are almost chums" (Aleteia). He sustained many brutal attacks from Satan, especially when he was going to hear the confession of a very horrible sinner.

Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18th 1920 outside Warsaw in a small town called Wadowice. He had a brother as well. In 1941 when his father died he was left without family as his brother and mother had both passed previously. To make matters worse, he was a Catholic during the Nazi occupation of Poland. He was a man well acquainted with the Cross. Trusting in God he became aware of his call to the priesthood and joined a secret seminary where he began his studies.

Being a holy priest, he quickly rose in the ranks of the Church from bishop to Cardinal. Of great significance were his contributions to the Second Vatican Council especially on the document Gaudium et Spes. He was later elected Pope on October 16, 1978.

He was a leader in the fight against communism. All the while he maintained his avid outdoorsmanship with a particular love of skiing.

According to Fr. Gabriel Amorth, a deceased exorcist of Rome, Pope John Paul II was known to have been an exorcist while he was a priest. It is also known that during his papacy he liberated a woman from demonic possession according to Cardinal Jacques-Paul Martin's posthumous memoirs. (Aleteia)