(LifeSiteNews) — Let us prepare our souls for the graces heaven is about to shower upon the earth in return for its homage. Tomorrow the Church will be so overflowing with joy that she will seem to be already in possession of eternal happiness; but today she appears in the garb of penance, confessing that she is still an exile. Let us fast and pray with her; for are not we too pilgrims and strangers in this world, where all things are fleeting and hurry on to death? Year by year, as the great solemnity comes round, it has gathered from among our former companions new saints, who bless our tears and smile upon our songs of hope. Year by year the appointed time draws nearer, when we ourselves, seated at the heavenly banquet, shall receive the homage of those who succeed us, and hold out a helping hand to draw them after us to the home of everlasting happiness. Let us learn, from this very hour, to emancipate our souls, let us keep our hearts free, in the midst of the vain solicitudes and false pleasures of a strange land: the exile has no care but his banishment, no joy but that which gives him a foretaste of his fatherland. With these thoughts in mind, let us say with the Church the Collect of the Vigil. PRAYER O Lord our God, multiply thy grace upon us; and grant us in our holy profession to follow the joy of those whose glorious solemnity we anticipate. Through our Lord. Let us close this month as we opened it, by homage to Mary, Queen of the holy Rosary, and Queen of all the Saints. The ancient Dominican Missals furnish us with a formula. SEQUENCE In the virginal garden, the young shoots of spring push forth, and burst into blossom with fruitful abundance. The frost and the winter have passed away, the snow and the rain are over; and roses spring up on earth from a heavenly seed. The rose has produced a lily; during the whole time of her exile she gathered the produce of her Son’s garden: Joy for the just, and justification for sinners, glory for the elect, salvation for all. The gifts Christ brought from heaven, and the sufferings he endured on earth, he bestowed upon the world when he overcame the world. He sheltered under the rose-tree’s foliage, he was wounded by the thorns, he was crowned with its flowers; thus does he call us, purify us, reward us. Because of the leaves and thorns and flowers of the rose, we shall enjoy the delights of that rich land, where she, the fair cultivator resides. The empress, who joyfully presides over our militant companies, and over the nine choirs of the triple hierarchy. Hail! thou, who by a new triumph dost repair the loss we sustained, when the enemy triumphed in the first combat. See how again he threatens fierce revenge; unless thou oppose him, every Christian must perish. Hail, home of the Word, sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, daughter of the most High Father! In the various perils of this life, bring us unfailing assistance against the darts of the enemy. May lilies intertwined with roses from the garden of heaven, be our crown of victory after the combat. Amen. This text is taken from The Liturgical Year, authored by Dom Prosper Guéranger (1841-1875). LifeSiteNews is grateful to The Ecu-Men website for making this classic work easily available online.

(LifeSiteNews) — Imagine walking into a city where large Christian families aren’t accused of selfishness for harming the planet but are the cornerstone of society. A place where men are men, women are women, and children are celebrated as gifts from God — not burdens to be managed. Where the laws forbid the poisoning of young minds with LGBT propaganda, not just in schools but everywhere. No “diversity quotas,” no woke HR indoctrination, no Satanic invocations at city hall. Imagine a city with no graffiti and no drug-induced vagabond street living. Imagine a mayor — or a governor — who is not ashamed to defend Christian civilization. Now stop imagining. This place is real. It’s not in Texas or Tennessee — it’s in Russia. And the man leading it is Gleb Sergeyevich Nikitin, governor of the historic region of Nizhny Novgorod. Born in St. Petersburg in 1977, Nikitin came up through Russia’s civil service ranks — highly educated and efficient. Along with a Josef Schutzman, a traditional Catholic whose family of eight moved from America to Russia, and Fabrice Sorlin, the father of a family of 10 who moved to Russia from France, I met with Governor Nikitin. It was a formal meeting where a professional translator, the deputy governor, and the head of the agency just set up to welcome new families were on hand. The governor explained that demographics have mandated an openness to life. “We suffered from wars, famines, revolution, etc. and lost so many of our people and therefore had to turn around,” he explained. Nizhny Novgorod sits where the Volga and Oka rivers meet — the “Heart of Russia,” as it’s long been called. Founded as a fortress in 1221, it became a bustling trade center and remains one of Russia’s most important religious, cultural and economic hubs. The region is deeply Orthodox, with 600 Orthodox churches, but it also has a small, vibrant Catholic community with one Catholic church currently in the city and another in the works. Today, with over three million residents, it is a living crossroads of faith, industry, and education — and, under Nikitin, a place where large families are valued again. Nizhny Novgorod (Credit: John-Henry Westen) What’s happening in Nizhny Novgorod reflects something bigger across Russia. The country itself is unashamedly pro-family. So much so that when a mother gives birth to her 10th child, she’s invited to the Kremlin for a state dinner — where President Vladimir Putin personally presents her with the “Heroic Mother” award. Imagine that. In Russia, mothers of large families are treated as heroes. In the West, they’re often mocked. It tells you everything about where our societies are headed — and who still understands what truly builds a nation. However, Governor Nikitin’s vision isn’t just for Russians. He helped create the OKA Agency, led by Jakob Pinneker, to welcome families from abroad — especially those fleeing the moral collapse of the West. The agency helps faithful families, entrepreneurs, and professionals relocate to Nizhny Novgorod, streamlining visas and housing. It’s a lifeline for those who want to raise their children in a place that still honors truth and sanity. While Western governments drive out Christian families with taxes and indoctrination, Nizhny Novgorod is rolling out the welcome mat. The centerpiece of Nikitin’s family policy is OSNOVA — the Nizhny Novgorod Life Project, part of a broader Five Years of the Family plan (2025–2030). “Osnova” means “foundation,” and that’s what this initiative is: the foundation for a culture of life. At its heart is a Parental Basic Income — up to one million rubles per child, given to every family without means-testing. Every new life is treated as an equal blessing. Other measures include grants for large families and pregnant students, vouchers for newborn essentials, “Family Quarters” neighborhoods, and crisis counseling for mothers tempted to abort. When I first encountered Nikitin’s sweeping policies, I asked him outright: “Are you the most pro-life governor in Russia? He smiled humbly: “There are others who speak more loudly than I do. But we have invested more than anyone to ensure families and children are cared for.” That humility is remarkable — less rhetoric, more reality. While Western politicians virtue-signal, Nikitin supports mothers and families. He builds where others only talk. At a time when so many leaders treat children as liabilities and faith as outdated, Gleb Nikitin stands as a sign of contradiction — a man who governs with the courage of a father and the heart of a believer. And perhaps the revival of Christian civilization won’t begin in Washington or Brussels after all — but in Nizhny Novgorod, where countless church bells proclaim that faith, life and family are still sacred.

(LifeSiteNews) — The daughter of a Hamas founder said Jesus revealed Himself to her as God in a dream, and that she has since embraced Christianity. Juman al Qawasmi, who grew up in Qatar and moved in 2022 to Gaza, where she was married to a Hamas member, recently told the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) how she miraculously came to know Jesus Christ after she began to have doubts about Islam and turned to prayer for guidance. Al Qawasmi was raised to hate Jews, Christians, and even Shia Muslims, and was taught that they should be killed, she told CBN’s Raj Nair. She began to question the radical religion and culture into which she was born when Hamas started killing Palestinians and other Muslims, and began “making people feel that if you don’t belong to Hamas you should be scared.” She also noticed that Hamas did not fulfill their promise to “give people equality.” Islam itself, in her experience, also instilled an attitude of fear and disquiet. “There’s something wrong with this religion,” she thought at the time. “I felt God would never be happy with me. I was always scared of hell,” said al Qawasmi, adding that she was plagued with doubts that God accepted her prayers. “Islam does not give you peace.” When a friend of hers who had become an atheist encouraged her to read the Quran objectively, without the assumption that it is a “holy” book, her eyes were opened to the absurdity of its claims and teachings. As an example, she pointed to a portion of the book in which God asks Muhammad’s son to divorce his wife so that Muhammad can marry her. While she became completely disillusioned with Islam and now rejected it, she knew “deep inside” that God was real. So she prayed to God “every single day: ‘God, if you exist, I want to know you, I want to meet you.’” After these prayers began, God healed her children, said al Qawasmi, when they “almost died.” She asked God in prayer to reveal Himself from 2012 to 2014, at which point the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) was bombing homes close by, including their neighbor’s home. She said the IDF called her husband to ask if their neighbors were home, and proceeded to destroy their house after her husband said they weren’t home. Al Qawasmi was very frightened and cried that night, thinking she might die. She implored God again in prayer, “God, if you exist I want to know you I want to call your name. I want you to save me.” That night, she had a dream in which she was sitting with her mother, who had passed away about a decade before, on a balcony, looking at the moon. “The moon was so big, and came closer to us. And my mom asked me to look at the moon. And I saw Jesus’ face come out of the moon,”  al Qawasmi said. What He told her in the dream translated to, “I’m the God Jesus. You’re my daughter. Don’t be afraid.” She had never heard the name of Jesus before, never having met any Christians. In Gaza as in Qatar, she was completely surrounded by Muslims.  “I thought, it’s a beautiful name. He’s a beautiful God. I felt peace inside my heart. For the first time I felt like someone loves me,” she continued. “Because I never feel love with my family… I love my family, but being Muslim, you don’t have peace. God is always mad about Muslims.” After the dream, curious to know more about Jesus, she searched His name in Google, and found a website created by an Egyptian Christian. The first verse she saw was “love your enemies.” This was a stunning contrast to the Quran, which “says to kill all the Jews and the Christians,” she noted. She contacted the website’s administrator, who asked her to read the Bible and told her there are “thousands of Muslims are seeing Jesus in their dreams and converting to Christianity.” “I accepted Jesus into my life and I’ve started my journey with Him,” she told Nair. Many reports have been emerging for years of Muslims converting to Christianity after seeing Jesus Christ in their dreams. This has been affirmed by Dinesh D’Souza, a former policy adviser in President Ronald Reagan’s  administration. The phenomenon has become so common that there is an acronym that such converts have become known by pastors as “MBBs,” which stands for Muslim Background Believers. Remarkably, Tom Doyle has found while ministering to the Middle East that around one in three MBBs had a dream or vision before converting to Christianity.