Dear Friends,

Welcome to our first e-letter! Each month or as often as we can, we will post a free e-letter on our website, Lilies of Saint Maria, for all our visitors to read. Both Rebekah and I, Bernadette, will take turns writing the e-letter. I was voted to write the first. We will try to include some inspiring words, any news from here or afar, magazine sneak peeks or updates, prayer requests, and/or anything else that we think would spark your interest. To make this letter more convenient to read, it will not only be available to those visiting our site, we will also send it to you via email after you sign up for it HERE.

Our audience is, of course, directed toward Catholic girls and teens, but hey, we invite everyone to share in this new endeavor.

Just a Few Thoughts . . .

I am writing this on the Feast of Divine Mercy. For those of you who are unaware of this feast instituted by Pope John Paul II in 2000 you can find out lots of information about it on www.divinemercysunday.com. I'll briefly state that it was ultimately instituted by Christ who appeared to St. Faustina. He explained that on the First Sunday after Easter He will open the floodgates of His mercy upon the whole world. All those who receive Communion after recently going to Confession, will have all their temporal punishment due to sin erased. It will be as if we were rebaptized. Christ is so good!

Coincidently, while praying my daily prayers I looked up on my wall to where I have listed the Eight Beatitudes and just guess which one stood out the most? Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Girls, read that again and slower this time. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Only if we forgive our brothers and sisters will we be forgiven. This is told to us in the Our Father. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. However, that Beatitude takes a step further. We are to be like Christ - merciful, not just forgiving. Showing mercy is to forgive no matter what, if we are repentant. Mercy accepts no excuse to neglect or delay forgiving one another.

Just yesterday, I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the "Third Step to a Good Confession" stood out from the rest this time. Make a firm resolution not to sin again. Just hold it, let this seep in . . . Okay, if we truly love our Lord, are sorry and contrite for our sins, would we go to confession and receive absolution then walk back into our life without the thought of what Christ just did for you? What you just did? Are you going to commit those same sins you just confessed without the slightest thought that you just told our Lord you were "heartily sorry for having offended Him and you detest all your sins?" Girls, with all your strength and love that I know your feminine hearts possess, "firmly resolve with the help of His grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin!"

I have been searching through contemplative, cloistered Religious communities and I thought just to tell you a few of the things I have learned in my research about these orders.

You may lose your freedom of land and space to walk and roam, yet your freedom is boundless in the space the cloister gives to walk within the Lord.

A girl does not become a nun to get away from the world or flee from it and all its sorrows, miseries, sin, pain and yes, joy and love, but to embrace it all the more purely and wholly. These women separate themselves from the world in order to better give themselves - their whole life - to the world- the whole world.

Their lives are centered around prayer, their apostolate is in fact prayer and penance. They become living prayers, ever burning before the Lord for the Church and the world. Every act of their day becomes valuable in the eyes of God, their prayers, penances, work, recreational activities become a perfume of love to their Spouse. Their apostolate is not centered around one particular good work or mission such as teaching or nursing, they embrace it all.

A contemplative does not keep her Jesus to herself. Like St. Therese, she desires to "remain ever at the foot of the cross to receive the Precious Blood and to pour it out upon souls." It is a life of pure Faith because a contemplative never sees, here on earth, the result of her prayers and supplications. But in Heaven what happiness to see the multitude of souls that have benefited by them . . . souls who perhaps otherwise may not have been there, had it not been for her daily sacrifices.

It needs a great heart to fashion a contemplative, a capacity for love so wide and deep that only God can fill it, a missionary zeal so ardent that no fewer than all the souls in the world can satisfy it.

Help Us Spread the Word . . .

• Do you know of any generous Catholic people (or are you one?) who would be willing and able to become Sponsors for our apostolate? This means those people who have the time and means to promote St. Maria's Messenger.
• Can you be able to reach a large audience of Catholic girls and/or families?
• Can you be able to tell them about St. Maria's Messenger in its true form - honestly and with sincerity? (No car-salesman pitches.)
• Can you tell girls through ads, website(s), flyers, etc.?
• Are you able to do all this with the little we have to offer in return? (Prayers and an ad for your company/work on our website and in our magazine.) Note: We cannot supply sponsors with the money, supplies, and equipment needed to spread the word unless otherwise noted after contacting us.

We greatly look forward to your help in this matter. Please pray about this, do not just brush it aside as another one of "those." Thank you!

Also, another thing almost any one can do for us. Post flyers about our magazine in your Parish Church (permission needed first, of course). Just click here and up will pop a page you can print off and then distribute. Using colored paper (or ink) will help the flyer stand out better.

Please Keep In Your Prayers . . .

• Jacob: He is 16 years old and his heart is in critical condition.
• Wright Family: A Catholic family of 11, three of whom were in a horrible car crash. One died and the rest are in serious condition.
• Hanson Family: They are a new Catholic family singing group and would appreciate your prayers.

If you have any prayer requests please let us know so we can add them to our prayer list!

Saint Maria's Messenger Sneak Peaks or Updates . . .

None this time.

SMM Catholic Reporter (home, national, or world news). . .

Home: Please check out www.magiclandfarms.com to find out what we have been up to at our farm. My Papa regularly updates the website, especially the Magicland Farm News section.

National: http://www.lifenews.com/state1619.html

World: http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=43793 | http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=43798

Extras . . .

Here are a couple articles I received via email from the editor of Crisis magazine. Thought you might be interested. . . .

Does The Gospel of Judas Undermine Christianity?

Crisis Magazine e-Letter

April 13, 2006

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Dear Friend,

It just keeps coming... one after another.

First, there was The Da Vinci Code, which sent historians and art experts into fits over its countless errors and distortions.

Then there was a lawsuit in Italy and a feature-length documentary... both of which argue that Jesus never actually existed (if you read my last e-Letter, you know how to respond to that claim).

And now, we have the Gospel of Judas... which is being promoted by National Geographic as a bombshell that could destroy the very foundations of Christianity.

The press -- going for sensationalism over fact -- has jumped on the story, intoning solemnly that new light has been shed on the life of Jesus, and that the traditional biblical accounts have been thrown into question.

In reality, this latest episode says less about Christianity than it does about the media's profound ignorance of ancient history.

But just in case you missed all the press hoopla, let me give you some background. . .

In 1978, an Egyptian farmer unearthed a box that contained an ancient manuscript. He sold the document to a dealer in Cairo, who then tried to sell it himself.

Finding no buyers, he put the piece in a safe deposit box in a New York bank... where it sat for 16 years. Finally, a buyer purchased the manuscript in 2000, and in 2001, National Geographic teamed up with a Swiss antiquities foundation to restore and translate the ancient text.

In it, they discovered several apocryphal documents. . . the Apocalypse of James, the Epistle of Peter to Philip, fragments of another ancient book (temporarily titled the Book of Allogenes), and the Gospel of Judas.

The text was carbon dated to between the third and fourth century, though the gospel itself was penned in the mid-second century.

But here's where it really gets interesting. . .

You see, the Gospel of Judas tells a different story of Christ's relationship to the man who would betray Him. In fact, according to the newly found gospel, Judas wasn't His betrayer at all.

Apparently, Jesus (who came from "the immortal realm of Barbelo") took Judas aside at one point and asked the apostle to turn Him in. . . so that through the crucifixion, He could be freed from His body.

So Judas wasn't such a bad guy after all. And traditional Christianity may have gotten the whole religion thing wrong from the start.

At least that's what most of the media coverage has been saying.

Here's where a drop of historical knowledge would do wonders for secular journalists. In point of fact, the Gospel of Judas is hardly a theological earthquake. After all, the Gospel of Judas is one of the Gnostic gospels. There are many others... the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of the Egyptians, etc. And with the possible (and partial) exception of Thomas, they offer no reliable historical insight into the actual events of the first century.

You see, Gnosticism was a parasite theology. It latched onto whatever religion was available and rewrote the host's scriptures and doctrines to fit its own unique beliefs. Often, the villains of the original religion were turned into the heroes of the Gnostic variation (and so we often see Cain lionized in Gnostic texts). Furthermore, Christianity was not its only victim... there were also Gnostic forms of Judaism and paganism as well.

One of the primary tenets of Gnosticism is salvation through hidden or secret knowledge -- the name itself comes from "gnosis," the Greek term for knowledge. And so, not surprisingly, the Gospel of Judas begins with a nod in this direction:

"The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week three days before he celebrated Passover."

What follows is a relatively short summary of Gnostic belief, dressed up in Christian garb: There's a spark of the divine trapped within the prisons of our bodies... Through knowledge, we'll learn to free ourselves... etc.

Of course, like any good Gnostic, the Jesus of the rediscovered gospel shares his knowledge with Judas, even going so far as to arrange His own arrest.

He tells Judas:

"'But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.... Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star.' Judas lifted up his eyes and saw the luminous cloud, and he entered it."

While the Gospel of Judas sheds no light on historical Christianity, it is nevertheless a significant find. After all, it's a pretty big deal when an ancient work long considered lost is rediscovered. And the document does flesh out the heavenly pantheon of second-century Gnosticism.

But that's as far as it goes. In the end, this is just another Gnostic gospel... interesting if you're a scholar of Gnosticism, but of little value to anyone else. As for it's historical reliability, St. Irenaeus said it best in A.D. 180:

"[The Gnostics] declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas" (Adversus haereses 1:31:1).

Before I sign off, I want to make a quick recommendation. You may have heard about the five-part miniseries, "God or the Girl," to be shown on the Arts & Entertainment channel. If not, the program -- a documentary, really -- follows the ups and downs of four young men who are considering the Catholic priesthood.

I had the opportunity to watch a preview of the show, and despite the unfortunate title, it's absolutely wonderful. While presented in the style of a reality TV program, it has none of the lurid sensationalism of the genre. Quite the contrary. This is a thoroughly respectful look at the trials young men experience when considering a vocation to the priesthood.

The show premiers on Easter night, but there will be a showing of all five episodes on April 23. Here's the Web site, complete with the program's schedule:

http://www.godorthegirl.com/index.php/

We've rightly criticized the Arts & Entertainment channel in the past, when they've aired their tiresome "debunking the Bible" shows. So let's now give them full credit for putting together a powerful and emotionally moving testament to Catholic youth and the priesthood.

The best way to thank them (and ensure future programs of this quality) is to watch. Don't worry, it won't be difficult. This is an immensely enjoyable show and I give it my highest recommendation.

Have a blessed Triduum,

Brian
May this Easter Season abound with many blessings for you and your family!
God bless!

In Jesus and Mother Mary,

Bernadette and Rebekah Fox

Editors
Saint Maria's Messenger
A Catholic Magazine for Girls
5426 S. Gordon Ave.
Newaygo, MI 49337
www.saintmariasmessenger.com
saintmariasmessenger@yahoo.com