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Lourdes is such a tribute to, and affirmation of, the love and care, the concern, patience, and attention that is showered on us by our Heavenly Family. It is also a magnificent prayer of faith the world has been given in the the desire of Our Sweet Mary, Bernadette’s Aquero (Dear One), to take care of our physical and spiritual needs. The natural question we are asked after we have visited Lourdes is, "Did you see any miracles, any cures in Lourdes?" The account of the apparitions at Lourdes, France 1858.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola discovered a dark cave, virtually unknown because it was so overgrown with brush. There, he would spend hours, sometimes all through the night, praying without interruption, except for the occasional sounds of God's four-legged and winged creatures calling out to one another. The cave at Manresa was a battlefield, a lonely battlefield, with Ignatius battling one temptation, winning that battle only to be put to the test with another temptation and another battle.

This audiobook discusses some of the saints, visionaries, and mystics down the ages. They include Saint Catherine of Bologna, Saint Gemma Galgani, Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Veronica Giuliani, Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Saint Joseph of Cupertino, and many others.

The Lord has given the church many heroes down through the centuries, and each person he gives us is for a specific reason for a specific time, but not only for that time. The 19th century is a perfect example of that. The church suffered greatly during that century, but the Lord knew we needed him to be at our sides to assure us that he would keep his promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church.

St. John Bosco, better known as Don Bosco, is one of the great apostles of the 19th century. His ministry was to the children of Turin in Northern Italy, victims of the Industrial Revolution in that country at that time. Don Bosco was God's gift to the Church of that century. The magnetism of Don Bosco reached out and touched souls all over the world. He was one of the most multi-faceted diamonds the Lord has ever given us.

Bob and Penny Lord track the life of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, the Flying Saint, and Patron of Students. They travel to Osimo, Italy, where the saint spent his last seven years, where he is buried, and where his shrine is located. They visited Assisi, where he spent much of his apostolate; Rome, where he had a special Audience with the Pope; and Loreto, where he flew to venerate Our Lady in the Holy House of Nazareth. See his chapel, his vestments, and learn about the wisdom and spirituality of Saint Joseph

The Life of Saint Veronica Giulianni. Discover the monastery where she spent her life as a religious. The cell where she lived; the bed she slept on, the pillow-case which still shows the blood-stains from her Stigmata, the tree to which she levitated, the cross upon which she hung, and the cross she carried. The Devil attacked and tormented her.

When Our Lord wants a message to get out to his church, he raises up a powerful saint to do the task. Such a saint was Gertrude the Great! She was the one to plant the seed which would bloom through the hands of another powerful saint and visionary St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, four centuries later, and subsequently through Saint Faustina Kowalska in the 20th century, through the Mission of Divine Mercy.

Come with Bob and Penny to Sicily to share in the lives of two powerful saints of Sicily, Santa Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo, and the famed Santa Lucia, patron saint of eyes and breasts, and patron saint of Siracusa, Sicily. Go with Bob and Penny to the top of Monte Pellegrino, where St. Rosalia lived her final days and where she appeared to a hunter and saved the city of Palermo from the Plague. Come to Venice and Siracusa, where the story of the life of St. Lucy unfolds.

Our Saint was born in the beautiful countryside of Verdu in Catalonia, Spain in or around 1581. There's not much known about his childhood, other than he was born of a distinguished old family of Catalonia. However, his family instilled in him the love of Jesus and the love of his fellow man. Otherwise, how could he possibly have dedicated his life to helping the poorest of the poor, the lowest of the low. From an early age, it was well known that he was destined to live his life for the Church. So when he was old enough, he was enrolled in the University of Barcelona.

Come with us to the little hamlet of Ars in France, where we trace the life of the this super saint, known as a saint of the eucharist, and perfect confessor. Discover his church in Ars, and venerate his incorrupt body; discover his confessional, the rectory he lived in, his bed the devil set afire, the shrine to his incorrupt heart, and the altar where our lady appeared to him and where he was healed through the intercession of St. Philomena.

Alfred Bessette (later known as Brother André) came from very humble beginnings, much like those of Jesus. He was born on August 9, 1845. The baby was so frail and sickly, his parents were afraid he would not live; and so, Alfred was baptized the moment he was born. He was conditionally baptized (when there is doubt concerning a previous baptism) the following day in the church. With the loving care and prayers of a very pious mother, our future Blessed lived to an old age!

Saint Alphonsus Ligouri begins a life in the courts of law. His father had him trained to become a lawyer. By the time he was 16 years old, he was so proficient in his studies, he received a degree of Doctor of Laws. And this came about in spite of the fact that the required age to receive such a degree was no younger than 20 years of age. Although his father's focus was to groom him for the world, his mother, who was highly spiritual, was the loving instrument who would prepare him for a future life as Jesus and Mary's troubadour.

According to tradition, Our Lady of Perpetual Help is considered the oldest icon in the Church. It is believed that the first icon of the Virgin of the Passion (or Our Lady of Perpetual Help) was in fact painted by St. Luke. And who better than he to paint this sorrowful image of Mother and Son? For, St. Luke, of all the Gospel writers, wrote most personally of the Lord in his infancy up to his death on the Cross.

The history and account of the miraculous image of Our Lady that is known as Our Lady of Czestochowa.

We sometimes believe that the only reason she is not weeping all the time is because she has the Beatific Vision of her Magnificent Son to comfort her. There’s an expression, “You can’t get hurt if you don’t stick your chin out”. She always sticks her chin out. She is always being hurt. If we study the history of the world, in particular the 16th through the 19th centuries, we become alarmingly aware that we’ve hurt Mary very deeply. However, very seldom do we ever hear her complain about the outrages committed against her.

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. A faithful daughter, a loving wife and mother, an obedient nun, a lover of the eucharist and mother Mary - a role model for today.

Saint Teresa later wrote of Saint John of the Cross: "I realized that he was a saint, and had always been a saint." Before her was a figure tiny in physical stature, as the world measures, but a towering giant in the eyes of the Lord. She recognized the same fire burning in him that raged inside of her. She was 52; he was 25. She, a nun twice his age! He, a young friar with a dream to become a Carthusian hermit.

Realizing he was not able to handle all of the niceties of his office, due to the tensions he was constantly under, Pius IX had handed over most of the diplomatic chores of his Papacy to Cardinal Atonelli, but he died in 1877, and Pope Pius IX died the following winter. It is fair to say that the Vatican was in a diplomatic shambles after the death of Pope Pius IX. So who was the Lord going to choose to put in the hot seat of the Papacy? He chose a very strong, but very peace-loving Cardinal from Perugia, Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci, to be known as Pope Leo XIII.

We have been asked to write on lay people who became Saints. As we researched our last book, Visionaries, Mystics and Stigmatists, we found ourselves writing on many saints and blesseds, brothers and sisters who came from a life very much like our own; they never entered the religious life but instead served the Lord right where he had planted them, within their families. St. Frances of Rome is one such saint and visionary.