Feast of The Immaculate Conception

Friday December 8, 2017

 

The Feast of The Immaculate Conception has become one of my favorite feast celebrated by the church. This would not have been the case for me had it not been for the Thursday Night Prayer Group at St. Joseph’s in Emmitsburg. I have written many, many papers describing my eyewitness accounts of the apparitions of Our Lady in Emmitsburg and the presence of the numbers 13, 33 and 333. I have known for a very long time that without them I would be unable to write these papers. The most spectacular events of my life have been in relation to Our Lady’s apparitions at St. Joseph’s and all of them surrounded by out of nowhere, unexpected 13’s, 33’s and 333’s.

Many but not all of these events have been recorded in the papers that I write describing the events in Emmitsburg. Writing these written records of the Emmitsburg events is the very least I can do for God and His Mother as a small token of my appreciation for the front row seat I have been given to witness these events in salvation history. Our Lady of Emmitsburg has said many times since the closure of The Thursday Night Prayer Group that She is not leaving and based on the events taking place in my life, She means it.

After the 13, 33 and 333’s started happening to me in the very earliest days of my presence at St. Joseph’s I remember praying to God for an explanation of how and why this was happening to me. It was not long after that Sister Claire Mahoney gave me the Marian Movement of Priest book of messages from Mary to Fr. Steffano Gobbi and one day I sat down and read this message given June 17, 1989. It reads in part:

"Calculate now its number 666, to understand how it indicates the name of man. The number, 333, indicates the divinity. Lucifer rebels against God through pride, because he wants to put himself above God. 333 is the number which indicates the mystery of God. He who wants to put himself above God bears the sign, 666, and consequently this number indicates the name of lucifer, satan, that is to say, of him who, sets himself against Christ, of the antichrist.

"333 indicated once, that is to say, for the first time, expresses the mystery of the unity of God. 333 indicated twice, that is to say, for the second time, indicates the two natures, that of the Divine Person of Jesus Christ. 333 indicated thrice, that is to say, for the third time, indicates the mystery of the Three Divine Persons, that is to say, it expresses they mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Thus the number, 333, expressed one, two and three times, expresses the principal mysteries of the Catholic faith, which are: (1) the Unity and the Trinity of God, (2) the incarnation, the passion and death, the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mary also went on to say she came to Fatima on the 13 of each month because the number 13 is symbolic of the Divine Trinity, One God and Three Divine Persons. Anyway this is how it has happened to me starting in St. Joseph’s during the apparitions down to this very day 19 years later. With that said I will now describe the events of this past Feast of The Immaculate Conception.

I got up this morning and got ready to pick up my mother and take her to the 8:30 mass at “Home Parish” in “home town”. We arrived and I got mom seated shortly before mass began. Fr. _______ was the celebrant and it was a very nice mass. Mass ended and I drove mom home. I then went back to my house and got ready to go visit C.R.C. who is working at The Grotto of Lourdes in Emmitsburg. I left my house and drove to Emmitsburg and when I arrived at St. Joseph’s I glanced at my watch and the time was 1:33:33.

The church was locked as it always is and it made me feel somewhat sad. During the days of the apparitions the church was always open and it was a vibrant and prayer filled place where everyone felt at peace and at home. I stood on the porch looking at the locked door and suddenly remembered the grand days of the apparitions, I had vivid recalls in my mind of many Thursday nights and feeling the tangible Love of God that was so real you could almost touch it. After a few minutes I left and started driving to the Grotto to visit C.R.C.. Before I got there my phone rang and it was C.R.C. asking when I would be arriving and I said in about 3 minutes.

I arrived at the Grotto and met up with C.R.C. who was driving the shuttle that takes people from the parking lot to the Grotto. He had a couple of passengers and after he dropped them off he and I walked directly to the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. As we arrived there I glanced at my watch and it said XX:XX:13 (13 seconds). I asked C.R.C. what time he gets off from work and he said “Right now”. C.R.C. suggested that we sit down and pray the rosary together. We prayed the rosary and when we finished we both noticed that the time was 2:13.

I considered the sequence of events that had to happen to cause us to finish the rosary at that precise time and even after all these years it still amazes me how it happens this way. I know without any doubt it is Our Lady of Emmitsburg. C.R.C. suggested that we go get something to eat. He said he would like to go to The Palms restaurant that is close to St. Josephs so we both drove our own cars there. When we arrived there was a car parked directly in front to the church with the license plate of 33.

We ate lunch and sat there and talked for a while. After we finished eating we walked back to our cars that were parked at St. Joseph’s. C.R.C. got in his car to leave and I got in mine. As I was pulling out to leave a fairly fast moving car came from around the corner directly in front of St. Josephs and I had to slam on my breaks. That car had the license plate of 033. Again when I least expected it upon leaving St. Joseph’s I am met with the number 33. I called C.R.C. on my cell phone and told him about it and it was then he pointed out to me that the time was 3:33.

I drove back to the Grotto and prayed another rosary for C.R.C. and any vocation he is discerning and when I finished I got in my truck to leave and the time was 4:13.

R.C.

Dec. 31, 2017

4:33 PM