Today is the 17th Anniversary of Terra Sancta Ministries (initially called “Terra Sancta Pilgrimages”). We were “born”—founded—on the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist (June 24) in 2008. This is our Mission Statement: Terra Sancta Ministries is a Franciscan ministry of Catholic evangelization that builds bridges with the Mother Church of Jerusalem and cultivates devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, to form Christian disciples that fervently follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Our goal is souls—their sanctification and salvation.
All salvation comes from Jesus, Whom we honor this week with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart (Friday, June 27). But the Holy Trinity gave all power over our sinful world to the Victorious Queen of the World, whose victory—“Triumph of her Immaculate Heart”—over the Devil, that red dragon (Revelation 12:3) will usher in the happiest era in the history of mankind (the “Era of Peace”) before the coming of the Antichrist. That’s why our ministry and shrine is so pertinent to today’s “signs of the times” (Matthew 16:13)—that we must gather under Our Lady’s maternal and immaculate mantle for protection against evil and for “aggression” against it so souls may be saved.
This said, you are invited to our celebration of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus this Friday with our Noon Mass. We will recite the Litany of the Sacred Heart and (re-)consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart. Everything entrusted to the Immaculate Heart is directly deposited into the Sacred Heart of her Son—but with greater purity and power.
Inseparable as Jesus is from His holy Mother, the Church calendar reflects that with the Memorial of her Immaculate Heart the next day, Saturday, June 28. After St. Joseph, this is the second patronal namesday of our Shrine. After Holy Mass, we will have a procession to the Shrine-Grotto to pray a Rosary for peace to the Queen of Peace (“Regina Pacis”), since to her Jesus has entrusted world peace. We will beseech her to contain the current military hostility in the Middle East so it doesn’t become—or doesn’t spread—World War III (as some are alleging) AND beseech her help for the greater war for souls that is always waging. Some refreshments will be available in our chapel basement to celebrate Our Lady and her future Triumph. (We will enter the nearby door that leads directly to the basement.) Come and rejoice!
To communicate with me, please email me directly at abunaalex@yahoo.com or call/text me at (313) 727-9784. O Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! O Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
In Jesus, Mary & Joseph,
Fr. Alex Kratz, OFM
Spiritual Director of Terra Sancta Ministries