Righteousness Natural Health Image of Mary The Eucharist Sacramentals
Protection of Body
With the Breastplate of Righteousness
A breastplate is like a fitted shield worn over the torso to protect a person from injury. It’s comparable to a bullet proof vest. It’s worn over the torso because that is where all of one’s internal organs are located. So, it’s one of the most crucial pieces of armor for bodily protection. St. Paul refers to the breastplate of righteousness, though. Why? Because God blesses righteousness with bodily protection and provisions.
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“Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but sin overthrows the wicked.” (Proverbs 13:6)
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“For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield.” (Ps. 5:12)
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“He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly… his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.” (Isaiah 33:15-17)
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“If a man is righteous and does what is just and right… he shall surely live, declares the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 18:5-9)
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“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Mt. 6:33)
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“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Mt. 5:6)
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For more information about living righteously, read “The Examen” by Stacy Mal. The Examen is an in-depth examination of conscience, looking at each of the ten commandments.
Natural Health
Obviously, living a righteous life is first and foremost, but in addition to that, Jesus and Mary have spoken about other ways that we can be protected in our body.
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One of the most obvious ways to protect the body is to take care of it and live a healthy lifestyle. It is very difficult to live a righteous life when one is sick and suffering from ill-health. For more on this watch Stacy Mal’s video “Healthy is Holy.”
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When the body struggles with chronic issues such as inflammation, weight gain, poor gut health, hormone imbalances, and erratic blood sugars it becomes very difficult to practice virtue on a daily basis. The unhealthy body, full of imbalance and turmoil, wages war against the soul which seeks balance and peace. And so sometimes a person must start living righteously, by first living healthily. They must begin to make changes physically in order to experience a transformation spiritually. For more on how to do this see the Health section of this website.
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The truth is, God created the earth (and the food within it), and He said that it was “good.” (Gen. 1:30-31) Everything we need to be healthy has been provided for us—including medicine.
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“The Lord created medicines from the earth, and a sensible man will not despise them.” (Sirach 38:4)
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“The leaves of trees serve as medicine for the nations.” (Rev 22:2)
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“Their fruit is used for food, and their leaves for healing.” (Ez. 47:12)
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“God makes the earth yield healing herbs which the prudent should not neglect…” (Sirach 38:4)
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Over the years, Jesus and Mary have reiterated this truth to visionaries throughout the world. On October 13, 2014, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a woman named Luz de Maria de Bonilla, a Catholic mystic and prophet living in Argentina. She told Luz, “Unknown diseases will continue to attack humanity, one after another; but as they reach man, I will provide you with the natural means for fighting them.”
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On November 20, 2018, Jesus appeared to her and said, “My beloved people, many diseases are looming over humanity, and I mention this and make it known to you so that you can protect yourselves. Viruses swarm through the air and you should protect yourselves; for this My Mother has given you and will continue to give you the natural medicines necessary so that you might put them into practice, because some viruses have been deformed in laboratories so that they would not react to human medicines. It will be then that unbelievers, having to make use of everything found in nature and which My Mother has mentioned to you, will be surprised to see how health, if it is Our will, recovers.”
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For more information on these messages and the natural means references, visit the Countdown to the Kingdom website here. Or browse a PDF of compiled remedies given to Luz de Maria here. You can also read the e-book, Rebuilding Your Temple Immune System by Stacy Mal, here. Or you can watch the Rebuilding Your Temple Immune System webinar here.
The Image of Mary
And the Miraculous Medal
On November 27, 1830, Mary appeared to St. Catherine Laboure in France. She appeared to be standing on a globe, with the head of a serpent under her foot. The Virgin Mary’s arms were outstretched, and rays of light were flowing from her fingers.
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She asked St. Catherine to have a medal imprinted with the image she saw. She explained to her, "These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them… All who wear it will receive great graces; they should wear it around the neck. Graces will abound for persons who wear it with confidence."
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The medal was produced and distributed throughout France. So many people reported miracles attributed to the medal that it became known as the “Miraculous Medal.”
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Similarly, the Virgin Mary asked an American visionary, Maureen Sweeney-Kyle, to have an image painted as she appears to her in apparitions. The Virgin Mary explained to Maureen, “My Image (Refuge of Holy Love) leaves him (Satan) in terror. Use it. Carry it with you. Have it near you. Hold it prominent in your homes. He has no weapon to match this Holy Image. I am with you. I will defeat Satan through your prayers. I am blessing you.” (June 1, 1997)
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Her image is such a powerful weapon against Satan because Mary is full of grace and blessed among women. (Luke 1:26-28) In other words, she lives righteously. She is holy. And because of this, the Lord is with her. (Luke 1:26-28)
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What’s more, the image of Mary is a sign of his downfall. Mary is his adversary. She is the Woman who will crush his head with the power of God. Her victory has already been pronounced, foretold, and ordained by the Word of God in the garden of Eden. (Gen 3:15) It is undoable. And Satan hates the reminder.
The IMage
Our lady has promised great graces to those who wear or display the Image of Mary, Refuge of Holy Love.
It is significant that in these modern apparitions, our Lady refers to herself as the REFUGE of Holy Love. See below for more on "refuges."
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The image is also a great protection for homes. See more on homes here.
The Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Refuge and Ark of the End Times
A refuge is a type of shelter or sanctuary, a place of protection. As Psalm 91 explains, God is our most secure refuge
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“Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling-place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.” (91:9-10)
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One of the most direct ways to enter the refuge of the Most High is to enter the refuge of the Immaculate Heart of Mary because she is united with God. This is why St. Ambrose called her the Gate to Heaven.
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“Who is this Gate if not Mary? Mary is the Gate through which Christ entered this world!”
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Even the Blessed Mother herself spoke of this in Fatima when she told the children, “My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” (June 13, 1917)
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Mary leads us to God because God dwells within her. The Catechism of the Catholic Church supports this. “Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the Ark of the Covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is ‘the dwelling of God . . . with men’” (CCC 2676).
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It is interesting that the Catechism uses the word “ark” here. Some people think of an “ark” as merely a boat. Which is not true. The real definition of an ark is not a boat. It is “a place of protection or security; refuge.”
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So, it’s important to understand that Noah built a boat that served a purpose of being an ark (a refuge) during the flood. The word ark is not synonymous with boat. It describes how the boat was used. This distinction is huge because there are many different types of arks. If we limit the definition of “ark” to only boats, we will miss an enormous message from the Lord. The boat Noah built was only one kind of ark or refuge.
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Another type of ark is found in the book of Exodus. In Exodus 25, the Lord gave Moses instructions for building “the ark of the covenant.” This was not a boat. It was a rectangle box made out of acacia wood and covered with gold.
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God told Moses, “in the ark, you shall put the covenant that I shall give you.” (25:21) This covenant was the stone tablets that listed the Ten Commandments. In addition, they also kept within the ark a bowl of manna and the staff of Aaron, the priest. (Hebrews 9:4)
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The Israelites carried this ark through the desert as they made their way to the promised land. They renewed the covenant with God in the desert (Exodus 34:10-27), and while they did not see a rainbow, like Moses, the Lord did give them a sign: a cloud led them by day and fire led them by night.
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The similarities between the first and second ark are astounding.
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The first ark enabled the first remnant of God’s people to pass safely through the waters of the flood. The second ark enabled a second (larger) remnant to pass safely through the waters of the Jordan River. The first ark housed the people of God’s will as well as their food for the journey. The second ark housed the Word of God’s will as well as the manna he provided for their journey. The first ark preserved physical life from extinction. The second ark preserved spiritual life from extinction.
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So why does the Catechism of the Catholic Church refer to the Blessed Virgin Mary as an ark? Because she is referred to as an ark in Scripture.
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In the book of Revelations, at the end of chapter 11, St. John recorded a vision. “Then, God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple...” (Revelations 11:19)
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What did John see? Was it Noah’s ark or Moses’ ark? He did not see either one. It was a third ark.
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This vision continued. “a great portent appeared in heaven: a woman closed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head crown of 12 stars.”
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John wrote that he saw the ark of the covenant in God’s temple, and then he described a woman. So, the third ark is a woman. It is the Virgin Mary.
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Revelations continues, “She was pregnant and crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth… And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.”
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Through this vision, we see that the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the ark (the refuge) for the tribulations of the latter days. Why her? Because as the Catechism says, “she is the dwelling of God.”
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This new ark did not carry stone tablets, but Jesus Christ—the word of God made flesh. She did not carry manna, but the Eucharistic Lord, the bread of life. She did not carry a shepherd’s staff but the Great High Priest and Good Shepherd himself. She did not carry a man named Noah and his family, but a God-man named Jesus… and all of his brothers and sisters who “keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelations 12:17)
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In other words, anyone who enters the Ark of Mary, enters the refuge of the Most High described in psalm 91.
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So how do we “enter” Mary? We consecrate ourselves to Jesus through her as is described by St. Louis de Montfort. The Virgin Mary also spoke about this to Maureen Kyle, too, and gave her a specific consecration for these times. You can find that here.
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On June 7, 1986, the Virgin Mary told Father Gobbi, “In these times, you all need to hasten to take shelter in the refuge of my Immaculate Heart, because grave threats of evil are hanging over you. These are first of all evils of a spiritual order, which can harm the supernatural life of your souls… There are evils of a physical order, such as infirmity, disasters, accidents, droughts, earthquakes, and incurable diseases which are spreading about… There are evils of a social order… To be protected from all these evils, I invite you to place yourselves under shelter in the safe refuge of my Immaculate Heart.”
The Eucharist
The holy Eucharist is perhaps the most effective protection one can utilize on earth. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls it the "source and summit of the Christian life." (CCC #1324)
Jesus and his twelve apostles sat down in the upper room and ate the Passover meal together. Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, “he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’” (Luke 22:19-20)
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Protestants view the Lord’s Supper of today as a memorial that points back to the Gospels. And they view the Last Supper in the Gospels as a memorial that points back to the main event recorded in the book of Exodus. To Protestants, the Lord’s Supper is a memorial, always pointing backward, to a time in the past.
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On the other hand, Catholics believe it points forward to a time in the future. We believe the Passover meal in Exodus was a foreshadowing, a sort of prophecy, that points forward to the Gospels—when the Lamb of God would shed his blood for the protection of God’s people.
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In the book of Exodus, the Lord told the Israelites to eat the Passover meal every year. He said that it would serve “as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the teaching of the Lord may be on your lips.” (Exodus 13:9)
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Likewise, Jesus told the apostles to “do this in remembrance of me.” The Eucharist would not only be a reminder of his sacrifice; it would also be a sign. When we consume his body and blood, made present in the bread and wine, we are marked with the blood of the Lamb so that when God's wrath strikes the earth, it will pass over us.
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We reenact this new Passover in the Catholic Mass every week or every day—not because it needs to be reapplied because of some weakness in his blood, but because of the weakness in us.
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Like the Israelites in the desert, we grumble and complain about the hardships we encounter on our journey to the Promised Land of Heaven. At times we even run back to our captivity. We return in bondage to the desires of the flesh. We hold our minds captive to the errors of the world.
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So, each day, the Lord offers us a new escape. Each day we have the opportunity to repent, break bread, and mark the doors of our hearts with the blood of the lamb.
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This is how the Lord will renew the earth. He will do in the end exactly what he did in the beginning. God the Father originally created the earth through the Word of God. He said, “Let there be light” in Genesis, and it was so. Likewise, he will recreate the world through the Word of God, too—the Word of God made flesh, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine.
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“…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
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The final reign of God, therefore, will be a Eucharistic reign. It will be the triumph of a Eucharistic people.
The Blessed Virgin Mary on The Eucharist
Years ago, Fr. Gabriele Amorth encouraged a woman in Rome, named Valeria Capponi, to begin sharing her locutions with the world. And so she did. Recently, on August 11, 2021, Valeria shared an important message on the Eucharist that she received from the Virgin Mary.
"My dearly beloved little children, I never leave you on your own, otherwise the “other one” would make of you children of Satan. Never walk away from the Church of Christ, as He alone is the Son of God. At the moment you are surrounded by a thousand churches, [1] but always remember what I often say to you: My Son Jesus allowed himself to be crucified for you — no one else has given their life for their own children. [2] God is One and Three: there is no other God apart from the Most Holy Trinity. I seek to remind you that there is no other God apart from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Do not fall into the traps that the false church would like to propose to you.
I am with you and never leave you on your own even for an instant because I know exactly what Satan would do with my dearly beloved children. The Church particularly recalls the Sacrifice of Christ. May the Holy Mass be your pride [and joy]; go to nourish yourselves with the Body of Christ, and then, even the Devil will be unable to do anything against you. Nourish yourselves often with the Holy Eucharist and I assure you that you will have nothing to fear.
The days to come will not be the best, but those who feed on the Body of My Son will be protected and will not have unbearable temptations. Seek to live in love and serenity; have no fear, because who is like God? My little children, you are safe in His hands. Pray and fast: I am near to you and no evil will be victorious against you. I bless you; may the Holy Rosary be your weapon."
Sacramentals
What the Church Says
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that sacramentals are “sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church.” (CCC #1667)
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In other words, a sacramental is a physical object that is blessed by the Church, most often by a priest, and used by faithful souls well-disposed enough to receive God’s blessing. These are aids to help souls live righteously and healthily. Sacramentals can include rosaries, crucifixes, medals, scapulars, etc. They can even include natural objects such as water and salt.
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Water and salt are especially important for bodily protection because the blessing of these objects contains not only a blessing but a prayer of exorcism as well.
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Below is a prayer that is prayed by a priest during the blessing of salt and water. Notice the protection of body and soul that it imparts. For this reason, it may be quite beneficial to spray or sprinkle holy water and salt around your home, or use it while cooking.
Note: Not all priests use the blessing with exorcism when blessing holy water. Ask your parish priest specifically for the below blessing.
Blessing of Water and Salt
To be Prayed by a Catholic Priest
“Thou creature of salt, I purge thee of evil by the living God, but the true God, but the holy God, by the God Who ordered thee through Eliseus, the prophet to be cast into the water to cure its unfruitfulness. Be though a purified salt for the health of believers, giving soundness of body and soul to all who use thee. In whatever place thou art sprinkled, may phantoms and wickedness, and Satan’s cunning be banished. And let every unclean spirit be repulsed by Him Who shall come to judge the living and dead, and the world by fire. Amen.
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O Almighty, everlasting God! Humbly we implore thy boundless mercy that thou wouldst deign of they goodness to bless and sanctify this creature of salt which though has given for the use of mankind. May all that use it find in it a remedy for soul and body. And let everything which it touches or sprinkles be freed from uncleanness and assault from evil spirits. Through our Lord. Amen.
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Then the priest blesses the water and prays, “Thou creature of water, I purge thee of evil in the name of God + the Father Almighty, in the name of Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, that thou mayest be water fit to brace us against the envious foe. Mayest though be empowered to drive him forth and exile him together with his fallen angels by the power of the selfsame Jesus Christ, our Lord Who shall come to judge the living and the dead, and the world by fire. Amen.
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Oh God, who for man’s salvation dost dispense wondrous mysteries with the efficacious sign of water, hearken to our prayer – pouring forth thy benediction upon this element which we consecrate with manifold purification. Let this creature serve thee in expelling demons and curing diseases. Whatsoever it sprinkles in the home of the faithful, be it cleansed and delivered from harm. Let such homes enjoy a spirit of goodness and an air of tranquility, freed from baneful and hidden snares. By the sprinkling of this water may everything opposed to the safety and repose of them that dwell therein be banished, so that they may possess the well-being they seek in calling upon they holy name, and be protected from all peril. Though our Lor. Amen.
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The salt and water are then mixed together, and the priest prays, “Author of invincible strength and king of an unconquerable empire, every the gloriously Triumphant One! Who restrainest the force of the adversary, Who overcomes the fierceness of the devouring enemy, Who valiantly putteth down hostile influences! Prostrate and fearsome we beseech thee, Lord, consider kindly this creature of salt and water, make it honored, and sanctify it with the dew of thy sweetness. Wherever it is sprinkled in thy name, may devilish infection cease, venomous terror be driven afar. But let the presence of the Holy Spirit be ever with us as we implore thy mercy. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with thee in unity of the same Holy Spirit, God, eternally."