In His Great Goodness

God in His great goodness

 through the prayers of Our Lady and St Joseph

 has given Holland Farm in Stronsay

 into our possession. 

We give Him our humble thanks

 that such a great gift should be added

 to our monastery in Papa Stronsay. 

We also offer our loving thanksgiving to Our Lady, Most Holy Mary,

 who never ceases to watch over Her children's 

spiritual and financial necessities. 

Countless are the times that She has prayed for us

 and we have experienced so many miracles

 as a result of Her prayers. 

If all men and women would accept Holy Mary as their Mother

 how happy the world would be! 

She is always looking out for us and Her prayers to God

 in our behalf are always heard, even with miracles. 

This is the reason that through the centuries Her countless children

 have given Her so many loving titles such as:

Star of the Sea

Mother of Perpetual Succour

Flower of Carmel

Mother Most Loving

Refuge of Sinners

Mother of the Afflicted and so very many more.

Her titles are humble expressions of love from Her grateful children.

Today we too publicly offer our humble thanks to so loving a Mother. 

To God alone be all Glory!

Our Thanksgiving is offered  to Jesus through Mary.

Fr. Michael Mary, F.SS.R.

Rector Major

Holland Farm, Stronsay

Always a beautiful day!

22 August

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Since our foundation in 1988, 

we have kept the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

as a red letter day.

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On this day Fr. Anthony Mary made his first vows in 1989;

this is his Silver Jubilee.

Congratulations from us all Father!

Ad multos annos!

Fr. Anthony Mary as a novice (left), at tea on his clothing day

Monastery of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary

Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England

22 August, 1988.

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Brother Nicodemus Mary made his first vows in 1993;

this is his 21st anniversary.

Congratulations Brother!

Brother Nicodemus Mary with Novice Brother Edmund

2 February, 2014.

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Brother Seelos Maria was born on this Feast in 1991;

this is his 23rd birthday.

Happy Birthday Brother!

Brother Seelos Maria with his family on his clothing day

2 August, 2011.

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For the perpetually professed

today is the second anniversary of our Public Profession 

of 

Religious Vows

as members of the newly erected

Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.

Thanks be to God and to Mary!

After the Public Religious Profession

with His Lordship

the Right Reverend Dom Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B.

Bishop of Aberdeen

22 August, 2012. 

Ready to die for the love of Jesus.

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- A group of 11 sick, disabled and elderly Iraqi Christians --including an 80-year-old woman with breast cancer -- defied terrorists who ordered them to convert to Islam or be beheaded, saying they preferred death to giving up their faith.

The united resistance prompted the Islamic State extremists to drop their demands and order the Christians to immediately leave their village of Karamless after first robbing them of their possessions, according to one of the survivors.

Sahar Mansour, a refugee from Mosul, told Catholic News Service in an Aug. 18 email that the group turned up at Ankawa refugee camp, where she is living, after they were released by the Islamist fighters. They had remained behind in Karamless because they were too weak to flee when the town was overrun by Islamic State militants the night of Aug. 6-7.

Mansour said she met the 80-year-old woman with cancer, who gave her name as Ghazala, in Ankawa Aug. 18 and heard her account of their escape.

"When the people of Karamless fled from the village they (the elderly) were alone," Mansour said. "She (Ghazala) told me when they woke up in (the) morning they were surprised when they saw nobody in the village."

Instead they were "afraid and terrified," she continued, when they met masked fighters from the Islamic State, who ordered them to go home and remain indoors.

Mansour said Ghazala told her that on Aug. 16, the terrorists assembled the group "and told them either to convert or to be killed by sword."

"Ghazala told me that all the people told the terrorists that 'we prefer to be killed rather than convert,"' Mansour said. She said Ghazala added that members of the group scolded the terrorists for ignoring Islamic sacred texts that forbade forced conversions of non-Muslims.

Mansour said the elderly told the militants that the Islamic State had nothing to gain from the conversion of a group of sick, disabled and elderly people.

"When ISIS heard that they told the people to leave Karamless immediately, without taking anything, to leave with only with the clothes they were wearing," she said.

"ISIS took all their money from all of them and their gold," Mansour said, adding that one person had the courage to ask the terrorists to return some of their money so they could buy food for their journey to the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

The group of five men and six women later arrived at the Kalak checkpoint, the gateway to Kurdish-controlled territory, in two cars.

There, they were allowed to contact relatives already in refugee camps, who were taken to meet them, Mansour said.

Ghazala was reunited with her brother, and she is receiving medical treatment for her cancer.

Source

1500 Christians and Yazidi forced into "sexual slavery"

Fr. Peter of the Angels ransoms Jesus.

The Miraculous Statue of the Most Holy Redeemer

was ransomed along with slaves from the Moslems in the 1600's. 

Let us pray to the Ransomed Jesus, our Most Holy Redeemer,

for the 1,500 souls taken as slaves in recent days.

13 August 2014 – Two senior United Nations officials today condemned in the strongest terms the “barbaric acts” of sexual violence and “savage rapes” the armed group Islamic State (IS) has perpetrated on minorities in areas under its control.

In a joint statement from Baghdad, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence (SRSG) in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov urged the immediate protection of civilians.

"We are gravely concerned by continued reports of acts of violence, including sexual violence against women and teenage girls and boys belonging to Iraqi minorities ...
“Atrocious accounts of abduction and detention of Yazidi, Christian, as well as Turkomen and Shabak women, girls and boys, and reports of savage rapes, are reaching us in an alarming manner," Ms. Bangura and Mr. Mladenov stated, pointing out that some 1,500 Yazidi and Christian persons may have been forced into sexual slavery.

The officials condemned, in the strongest terms, the explicit targeting of women and children and the barbaric acts IS has perpetrated on minorities. Acts of sexual violence are grave human rights violations that can be considered as war crimes and crimes against humanity, they warned.

Mr. Mladenov called on regional Governments and the wider international community for the immediate release of the women and girls held in captivity and to support the Government of Iraq’s efforts to protect its citizens. He pledged that his Office would closely monitor the situation to ensure accountability and advocate for support to the survivors of the “barbaric acts.”

While world leaders and newspapers keep guilty silence.

We are helpless to come to the assistance of our brethren in Iraq except by our prayers.

Of your charity read this letter from the Patriarch and carry them in your hearts to God.

They carry the Holy Cross and follow the Lamb to slaughter; 

Agnus redemit oves ~ the Lamb redeems the sheep;

the innocent Eastern Christians die 
for their guilty Western brethren;

with our rosaries let us wait beside them in their passion;

to pray for their perseverance.

(source)