Goodnewsletter articles May 2008

We have included below some of the articles from our curren May Issue of Our Good Newsletter
Hello again, sweetfamily!
We are so excited!
The Lord has been working powerfully in our ministry and in our lives! It’s not logical; it’s super logical; it’s Divine! It’s getting to be that time again, when politicians are making promises they cannot, or will not keep. Our faith is in the Lord and His willingness to listen to His Mother and the Saints who earned a place in Heaven, with Him! So although we get discouraged by what we hear and see, we trust in the Lord and His Love for us! We live by that wise and holy saying, “What would Jesus do?”We trust in Him! Things are happening in our ministry that is beyond explanation! Brother Joseph had an idea! He sharedit with us and we said “O.K. go with it!” He put the internet towork for us! He listed our books and DVDs and the response grew and grew! Then he had another inspiration! Write a blog for the internet sharing our knowledge of the Eucharist, Mother Mary, the Angels and the Saints. We said Yes! And the response has been rewarding!
So again, we shout from the mountain tops,Trust in the Lord! He loves you! He is with you!
Happy Birthday Mother Angelica!
For the weekend of April 20, we went to EWTN and the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama, to visit and celebrate with Mother Angelica,her 85th birthday. We were smart enough to go to Hanceville on Saturday; the day before the big event, so that we would hopefully be able to spend some quality time with Mother, and give her the presents we brought her for her birthday. She has a great love for St.Gemma Galgani, so we brought her a statue of St. Gemma, which we brought back from here Shrine in Italy, as well as a DVD on St. Gemma's life. We also gave Mother our book, Visionaries,Mystics and Stigmatists, which has a chapter on St. Gemma.Mother looked great. Look at the photo Sr. Margaret Mary took of us with Mother at the parlor.As we predicted, the next day was a mob scene, with somany people wanting to wish Mother happy birthday, andbring cards and gifts and flowers. The Nuns had a special breakfast for her. The Knights had to have time with her.Other friends and benefactors were there. So we just bided our time until it was all over, and then we got to see her one more time. However, you can imagine she was exhausted by this time. So we took the photo you see on this page, and bid her farewell until the next time, which we hope will be this summer.We trust in the Lord and His Love for us! Now, don’t get the wrong impression. We don’t get to see Mother whenever we want. When we go there, it has to be in faith. It’s a hit and miss situation. If she’s feeling well, we get to see her. If she’s not, we wait and wait, and sometimes have to leave without having seen her. Of course, we do get to spend quality time before the Blessed Sacrament, and see a lot of friends that we’ve known for years. But seeing Mother is never a definite.
Our Bags are Packed – Our Cameras are Ready We’re on our Way!
Thank You, Jesus, we’re on the road again. Our Super Saintsseries is so popular, we’re continuing to make more programs.We’ve had many requests over the years to make a program on Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Prior to the beginning of our September Pilgrimage to Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, Bob and Penny, along withour camera woman, will go to Northern Italy, where we will meet with Wanda Gawronska, niece of a truly precious and important role model of the young Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, or as Pope John Paul II called him, when he beatified him, “A Man of the Beatitudes. Pope John Paul II said Blessed Pier Giorgio had been his hero from his youngest days. With Wanda’s generous assistance, we will tape where he lived and evangelized, serving the poor, leaving nothing for himself, even to the end of his short twenty four years on earth. We will take you to his shrine in Turin – and then to the family homestead up a mountain in Pollone, a sharp contrast to the impoverished area where he felt most comfortable.His story is a profound invitation to the young to become Saints. His selfless short life was devoted to serving God byselflessly serving the poor. Much maligned and unappreciatedby those closest to him, he labored tirelessly until withoutan ounce more of life to give, gave up his spirit at the tenderage of twenty four to the Angel of Death. He died as helived, thinking of others to his last breath, a glorious death a testimony to all he believed in.
Saint Lucy
When we were in Siracusa, Sicily last year, making the program on Our Lady of Tears, we began to make a programon St. Lucy, there at her shrine in Siracusa, only to find thather body is in the Church of St. Jeremiah in Venice. So weare setting out to complete taping the life of Saint Lucy, early Christian Martyr, listed in the Roman Martyrology with St.Agatha, in Venice, where her incorrupt body is available tosee and venerate. As always we are so excited!
Saint Gaspar del Bufalo
After we have taped St. Lucy, we will drive to Rome, wherewe will tape the life of Saint Gaspar del Bufalo—Priestand Founder of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. Hisministry was to the poor and they loved him. Napoleon andhis cohorts knew this was an important man to have on theirside if they were to peacefully extract taxes and rule theRomans. St. Gaspar was summoned to appear before oneof Napoleon’s Generals, the action being to convince him toswear allegiance to Napoleon. All the General’s promisesor threats could not convince Gaspar to swear allegiance toNapoleon, as Pope Pius VII had forbidden it. After much threatening and cajoling, Gaspar’s famous last response was“Non posso, non debbo, non voglio.” (I cannot, I ought not,I will not). That cost him banishment at first and when thatdidn’t persuade him, and he kept coming back to Rome, makingtrouble for the French, imprisonment in the most putrid, acrid smelling dungeons. However, St. Gaspar outlasted Napoleon.After Napoleon’s fall from power, Saint Gaspar returned toRome and his ministry. His story is exciting and meaningfulespecially in these days.I cannot, I ought not, I will not.
Celebration of 50 Glorious Years
While in Rome, we will have a solemn celebration of our50th wedding anniversary and renew our vows. Our dearfriend, from our days in Southern California, William CardinalLevada, who celebrated our 25th Anniversary in WestlakeVillage, California, will celebrate our 50th Anniversary inRome. Our actual anniversary falls on December 21st, butthe Cardinal has graciously consented to celebrate our Mass in Rome on August 31st.
Our dear friend and former driver, AldoBulletta, from Rome, is also celebrating his 50th Anniversarythis year, and so he will join us for this momentous occasion.
After all of that, we will pick up our group at the Rome airportand begin our pilgrimage.
What a schedule!!


News from the Pilgrimage Front
Again we shout, “We are so excited!!”
September 1st weare leading one of our favorite Pilgrimages to Italy, France,Spain and Portugal! If, when you read this column, the Lordis speaking to your hearts to join us, there are a few spacesavailable; and we would so love to have you with us!This trip will have a double purpose: a Pilgrimage honoring“The Many Faces of Mary” Our Lady’s apparitions, to theHoly House of Loreto, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Our Lady ofFatima. This is a very special year in Lourdes. We celebrate the150th anniversary of Our Lady’s Apparition to St. BernadetteSoubirous. People from all over the world are taking this opportunityto go to Lourdes for this special year. We have many petitions we bring with us to Lourdes. Our Lady has never beenoutdone in generosity.Of course, the pilgrimage will begin in Rome with an audienceand a powerful teaching from our beloved Pope BenedictXVI. We will take time to visit the shrine of Blessed Anna MariaTaigi and celebrate Mass there with our own Marian PriestFather Carter. During the sixteen days of our Pilgrimage, we will visit the Shrines of Rome, visit and venerate St. Francis andSt. Clare of Assisi, St. Clare of Montefalco, the Miracle of theEucharist of Lanciano, the Holy House of Loreto, St. Catherineof Siena, St. Gemma Galgani, St. Catherine of Genoa, the Infantof Prague in Arenzano; on the way to Lourdes, we will visitthe medieval walled city of Carcassonne; in Spain, we willvisit the castle of Loyola where St. Ignatius lived and had hisconversion; we will visit St. Teresa of Avila and her home, St.John of the Cross, adding the lives of the Saints as we travelto Fatima and Our Lady. It is a powerful pilgrimage.In October, when we are on Pilgrimage to Catholic Italyand Ancient Sicily, we, and our pilgrims, will have the distincthonor of viewing the body of Saint (Padre) Pio, or as weaffectionately call him Padre Pio. This is the first time histomb has been opened since 1968, when Padre Pio died.We have reserved tickets. Please sign up now, as wehave limited space available! Don’t miss out on this once ina lifetime experience! We want you with us! We’re lookingforward to venerating Padre Pio in the flesh. He has playeda strong and important role in our spiritual life. Although wenever saw him when he was alive, he continues to play an integralrole in our ministry, and in our mission. Padre Pio diedon September 23rd, the anniversary of Penny’s birth and theanniversary of the day we met. We have our yearly SeptemberConference on the weekend of his anniversary or a day or solater, if his anniversary falls during the week. Padre Pio saidhe would pray every day for his spiritual children on earthand in Heaven. What better gift could you give yourself andyour loved ones than to make this spiritual pilgrimage!In addition to visiting the Shrine of Padre Pio, we will havean audience and a powerful teaching from our beloved PopeBenedict XVI., visit the Shrines of Rome, visit and venerateSt. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi, St. Clare of Montefalco,the Miracle of the Eucharist of Lanciano, Loreto, the Cave of St. Michael, St. Gerard Majella,
and in Sicily, Our Ladyof the Tears, Our Lady of Pompeii, St. Agatha of Catania,and St. Rosalia of Palermo and San Stefano Quisquina.
We will also visit the ruins of Siracusa, the Greek temples ofAgrigento, and Palermo and the Shrine of St. Lucy.We’re looking forward to bringing these Saints to you,(and for those who can join us, bring you to them on pilgrimage)to listen to what they and the Holy Spirit have to say.We pray you will embrace them and be moved to have thecourage to be more for the Lord and His Church, the Church that flowed from His Side on Calvary. Both these pilgrimages are chock full of Spiritual gifts. Don’t miss out on them.
We love you…

It is exciting to see our Lord work.
This week a young man called andstated he wanted to purchase several dvds but was going to wait since he was doubtful about his financial situation. I responded back to him telling himabout the two events that have formed myself and this ministry into what ithas become. First, when I was still working as Holy Family Mission
Chemical Engineer in a paper mill, I saw the movie Patton.This occurred during the time in my life that I was discerningwhat the Lord wanted me to do with the rest of my life. Inthe movie there is a scene where General Patton states, "Thegreatest war of all time is happening and I am going to missit." That rang a harmonic note in my soul since I felt the greatestspiritual war of all time was happening and I was going to missit. Shortly, thereafter I left that Paper Mill and joined Journeysof Faith as a lay brother.
Second, Bob, Penny, Luz and myself were watchingSchindlers list and we were moved by the statement towardsthe end of the show where Schindler said, "If only I had moremoney, I could have ransomed more people from the Holocaust."This rang a note in our collective souls and we noted that we arenot about storing up treasure, but using money to bring peopleto Christ. We say many times during any given period, if onlywe had the funds to do this, we could reach more people.I shared with the young man (through email) these two eventsand he replied right away, "Forget the financial worries, Buildthe Kingdom!" Needless to say he ordered the desired dvds.
"Forget the financial worries,Build the Kingdom!"
We thought that statement was beautiful, especially in lightof the current economic situation and concern over rising prices at all levels. Maybe the Lord is asking us to step out in faith and press forward to reach more people.I also want to share some recent happenings here at HolyFamily Mission.
We have just started to release Mini-books.These are small mini-books from 25 to 50 pages on thelives of the Saints. See the order form for the current availablelistings. We are especially excited about the mini-books ont he Popes.
For those of you with internet service, you may want togo to our web site www.bobandpennylord.com and select Boband Penny Lord's Blog on the left side of the page. This blog is an ongoing file that contains information about the lives ofthe Saints for that period and other information that is timelyand concerning to you our supporters. Since it is a blog it has the features of sending comments and linking to your Internet Explorer. You can subscribre free. For more information onthese features simply go to our website.
Our philosophy is to use the means the Lord has allowedto be created to evangelize, like books, Television, videos,dvds, cds, the Internet, Pilgrimages and whatever else comesalong in the future. We believe that the Lord wanted these tobe great tools of evangelization and we want to use them forHis purposes.Please continue to pray for us as we promise to keep youin our prayers.
Finally, this spring, we planted several trees around theMission. The transplanted fig trees are doing great and theroses have a new lease on life now that the roots of the fig trees are not choking them.The purple martins are back in town eating all the mosquitos and we have several new families of barn swallows living under the eaves of the buildings here. In addition this spring we were visited by throngs of yellow finches. This time of year the sky is full of singing birds and it is quite a sight to see the martins and swallows gliding and swooping at the bugs.
I am reminded of my theme song by Louis Armstong. "I see birds in the air....Brother Joseph


Annual ConferenceSept 26 - 28, 2008"
Am I Not Here,Who Am Your Mother?"
Mother Mary's Apparitions
Guadalupe
Miraculous Medal
Lourdes
Fatima
Knock
and more!
For more information on our Good Newsletter click here

For more information on our Pilgrimages for 2008 click here