NOVENA TO THE HOLY GHOST – SECOND DAY

 SECOND DAY - (Saturday, 6th Week of Easter)

Come, Thou Father of the poor!

Come, with treasures which endure!

Come, Thou Light of all that live!

The Gift of Fear

The gift of Fear fills us with a sovereign respect for God, and makes us dread nothing so much as to offend Him by sin. It is a fear that arises, not from the thought of hell, but from sentiments of reverence and filial submission to our heavenly Father. It is the fear that is the beginning of wisdom, detaching us from the worldly pleasures that could in any way separate us from God. “They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and in His sight will sanctify their souls.”

Prayer

Come, O blessed Spirit of Holy Fear, penetrate my inmost heart, that I may set Thee, my Lord and God, before my face forever, help me to shun all things that can offend Thee, and make me worthy to appear before the pure eyes of Thy Divine Majesty in heaven, where Thou livest and reignest in the unity of the ever Blessed Trinity, God, world without end. Amen.

 Our Father:

Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Hail Mary:

Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and in the hour of our death. Amen.

 Glory Be (7x): 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Act of Consecration:

On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses,I offer myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God.I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve You by unfaithfulness to graceand I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Your light, and listen to Your voice, and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You and give myself to You and ask You,by Your compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds, and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore You, Adorable Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against You. Give me grace, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Father and the Son to say to You always and everywhere, “Speak Lord for Your servant heareth.”

Prayer for the Seven Gifts:

O Lord Jesus Christ Who, before ascending into heaven did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me that He may perfect in my soul, the work of Your grace and Your love. Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Your true disciples and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.

http://www.dailycatholic.org/novpent1.htm

The Queenship of Mary (Feast Day 31-May)

QUEENSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS PROPERS

                                                      Mary, Our Queen

                                   

                                          (Image)    St. Petronilla  60 A.D.

                                  Commemoration of ST. PETRONILLA      Virgin

                                               WITHIN THE OCTAVE

                       DOUBLE, SECOND CLASS / WHITE VESTMENTS

                                                      Missa “Gaudeamus”  

 This feast was established in the Traditional Calendar by Pope Pius XII for May 31st to cap off Mary’s Month of May. In AAS 38, Pius XII declared: “Mary is queen by grace, by divine relationship, by right of conquest and by singular election.” He also proclaimed in Ineffabilis Deus that her queenship should be venerated “as something extraordinary, wondrous, [and] eminently holy.” Medieval hymns proclaim often Mary’s title as Queen such as Salve Regina, Regina Coeli, and Ave Regina Coelorum. In the Litany of the BVM or Litany of Loreto she is proclaimed Queen in 12 instances beginning with “Queen of angels” to “Queen of peace.” There is also the fifth mystery of the Rosary: The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

INTROIT:

Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a feast in honor of the blessed Virgin Mary, our Queen, on whose solemnity the angels rejoice, and join in praising the Son of God. Alleluia, alleluia.

Ps 44:2

My heart overflows with a goodly theme: as I sing my ode to the King.

V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a feast in honor of the blessed Virgin Mary, our Queen, on whose solemnity the angels rejoice, and join in praising the Son of God. Alleluia, alleluia.

COLLECT

Let us pray.

Grant we beseech You, O Lord, that we who keep the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Queen, safe under her protection, may be worthy to have peace now and glory in the future.

Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

Commemoration of SAINT PETRONILLA

Graciously hear us, O God our Savior that as we rejoice in the festival of blessed Petronilla, Your Virgin, so may we be nourished by the food of her heavenly teaching that we may be enlightened by the fervor of her dedicated holiness.

Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

EPISTLE – LESSON:

Lesson from the book of Ecclesiasticus

Eccli 24:5; 14:7; 14:9-11; 24:30-31

From the mouth of the Most High I came forth, the firstborn before all creatures. In the highest heavens did I dwell, my throne on a pillar cloud. Over all the land, over every people and nation I held sway, and by my power I have trodden under my feet the hearts of all the high and low. He who obeys me will not be put to shame, and they who work by me shall not sin. They who explain my shall have life everlasting.

GRADUAL

 Apoc. 19:16; Ps. 44:10

Upon His cloak and upon His thigh He has written the name: King of kings and Lord of lords.

V. The queen stands at His right hand, clad in robes of gold from Ophir.

ALLELUIA:

Alleluia, alleluia.

V. Blessed are you, O Virgin Mary, who stood beneath the Cross of the Lord. Alleluia.

V. Now with Him you reign forever. Alleluia.

GOSPEL:

Continuation ☩ of the Holy Gospel according to Luke

R. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.

Luke 1:26-33

At that time, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And when the angel had come to her, he said, Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. When she had heard him she was troubled at his word, and kept pondering what manner of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace with God. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and shall bring forth a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David His father, and He shall be king over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.

R. Praise be to Thee, O Christ.

S. By the words of the Gospel may our sins be blotted out.

OFFERTORY:

Sprung from a royal line, all radiant is Mary, by whose prayers we most devoutly beg to be helped both in mind and in spirit. Alleluia.

SECRET

Accept, we beseech You, O Lord, the gifts of the rejoicing Church and grant by the pleading merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen, that they may be helpful for our salvation.

Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

R. Amen.

Commemoration of SAINT PETRONILLA 

 Accept this gift, O Lord, from a people dedicated to you. We offer it in honor of Your Saints for the help we have received from them when we were in trouble. Through our Lord

May the offering made by your devoted people be pleasing to You, O Lord, in honor of Your Saints, through whose merits they know they have received help in times of trial.

Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

PREFACE

Blessed Virgin

It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God: and that we should praise and bless, and proclaim Thee, in the Feast of the Blessed Mary, ever-Virgin: Who also conceived Thine only-begotten Son by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and the glory of her virginity still abiding, gave forth to the world the everlasting Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Through whom the Angels praise Thy Majesty, the Dominations worship it, and the Powers stand in awe. The Heavens and the heavenly hosts together with the blessed Seraphim in triumphant chorus unite to celebrate it. Together with these we entreat Thee that Thou mayest bid our voices also to be admitted while we say with lowly praise:

COMMUNION:

Matt 19:28-29

Most worthy Queen of the world, Mary ever Virgin, who have borne Christ the Lord, the Savior of all, intercede for our peace and salvation. Alleluia.

POSTCOMMUNION

We who have celebrated the sacred rites in honor of holy Mary, our Queen, pray, O Lord, that through the intercession of her in whose honor they have been joyously performed, they may be helpful for our salvation.

Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

Commemoration of SAINT PETRONILLA

O Lord, You have feasted your family with the food of heaven. May we always be refreshed through the intercession of Your Saint whose feast we celebrate this day. Through our Lord…

  Sources: Divinumofficium.com –  Daily Catholic.org

  View Live Mass: http://www.livemass.org/LiveMass/daily.html

Novena to the Holy Ghost- FIRST DAY: May 30

Novena to the Holy Ghost For The Seven Gifts -  (Friday, 6th Week Of Easter

The Novena to the Holy Ghost precedes the Feast of Pentecost. It is one of the oldest novenas since it was first made at the direction of Our Lord Himself when He sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Ghost on the first Pentecost. It is still the only novena officially prescribed by the Church. Addressed to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, it is a powerful plea for the light and strength and love so sorely needed by every Christian. To encourage devotion to the Holy Spirit, Holy Mother Church has enriched this novena with an indulgence of ten years on any day of the novena with a plenary indulgence if one participates in at least five exercises and moreover go to confession, receive Holy Communion and pray for the proper intentions. Accompanying each day is the Act of Consecration to the Holy Ghost and the Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost. Those who make a private novena in honor of the Sanctifier either before Pentecost or at any other time of the year, may gain an Indulgence of 7 years once on any day of their novena. A Plenary Indulgence under the usual conditions at the close of the novena; but if a public novena is held, this indulgence is available only to those who are lawfully hindered from taking part in the same.

First Day 

Holy Spirit! Lord of Light!

From Thy clear celestial height.

Thy pure beaming radiance give!

The Holy Ghost

Only one thing is important – eternal salvation. Only one thing, therefore, is to be feared – sin. Sin is the result of ignorance, weakness, and indifference. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Light, of Strength, and of Love. With His sevenfold gifts He enlightens the mind, strengthens the will, and inflames the heart with love of God. To ensure our salvation we ought to invoke the Divine Spirit daily, for “The Spirit helpeth our infirmity. We know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself asketh for us.”

Prayer

Almighty and eternal God, Who hast vouchsafed to regenerate us by water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given us forgiveness of all sins, vouchsafe to send forth from Heaven upon us Thy sevenfold Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Fortitude, the Spirit of Knowledge and Piety, and fill us with the Spirit of Holy Fear. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary ONCE

Glory be to the Father SEVEN TIMES

ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE HOLY GHOST

On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses,I offer myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God.I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve You by unfaithfulness to graceand I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Your light, and listen to Your voice, and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You and give myself to You and ask You,by Your compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds, and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore You, Adorable Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against You. Give me grace, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Father and the Son to say to You always and everywhere, “Speak Lord for Your servant heareth.”

 (To be recited daily during the novena)

Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost

O Lord Jesus Christ Who, before ascending into heaven did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me that He may perfect in my soul, the work of Your grace and Your love. Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Your true disciples and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.

(To be recited daily during the novena)

Fr Pfeiffer May26th´14 Rogation!GOD CONTROLS

Fr. Hesse explains why Vatican II is Not A Council of the Church

Catholicism and Wealth Redistribution

(Catholic Family News) – Subsidiarity requires healthy and robust mediating bodies and institutions with important roles to play in preventing and correcting violations of commutative and distributive justice.  Calling simply for redistribution by the State violates the principle articulated by Pius XI: “Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do.”



Catholicism and Wealth Redistribution
 
By Brian McCall, J.D.
In a recent address to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major U.N. agencies His Holiness Pope Francis is reported to have called for “the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state”  to help curb the “economy of exclusion.”[1]  Unfortunately, the Vatican has not made available the actual text of the speech and all that exists at the time of writing this article is a report by the media in attendance.  Yet, the call for redistribution by the State and general denunciations of inequality are consistent with many passages in His Holiness’ extremely lengthy Apostolic Exhortation,Evangelii Gaudium.[2]

Francis’ general denunciations of inequality and calls for wealth redistribution by the State have been hailed with joy by Marxists and others with Socialist leanings.  Although the great popes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were falsely accused of favoring Socialism,[3] these same popes were also accused by Socialists as unduly favoring Classical Liberal Capitalism.  The fact that both of these forms of Liberalism accused the popes of being of the other type indicates the truly independent stance of these popes on Catholic principles. 
As far as I am aware, no one has publicly suggested that Pope Francis favors Liberal Capitalism.  The only accusation seems to be one of Socialist sympathies.  Leo XIII and his successors were unjustly accused of being adherents of both Socialism and Capitalism because they rejected both systems as false philosophies (although acknowledging that the false systems may accidentally contain some elements of truth).  These popes taught neither Classical Liberal Capitalism nor Liberal Socialism but Catholicism which opposes all forms of Liberalism.  The popes avoided the errors of both of these Liberal systems because they refused to limit themselves to the imprecise generalities employed by the polemicists for both of them.  They presented Catholic teaching on economic justice with all its critical distinctions.  Thereby, they avoided the errors of both systems.

Continue reading - http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/34de37aafc8a8763a6aa75371ca241d4-230.html

Vatican II, Pope Francis and the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate

Mourn not for The Church of Holy Innocents; mourn for yourselves, New York!!

                                      Massacre At Holy Innocents?

“A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning…”

Those are the words of Jeremias the Prophet. St. Matthew’s gospel tells us that they foreshadow King Herod’s murder of Bethlehem’s infant males following the birth of Christ, who Herod feared might usurp his ill-gotten earthly throne.

Holy innocents die for different reasons. In every generation. In every place.

A church — a very special church — by that name is scheduled to die in Manhattan’s Garment District.

Diocesan spokesmen, if they will tell you anything, will tell you that nothing at all has been settled. All is merely open for discussion.

Thus, it has been in every diocese, with every parish whose head already lays firmly upon the chopping block.

All such closings are tragedies. But this slated closure has already attracted city-wide and even national attention, from Capital New York to National Review Online to the famed Catholic blogger Father John Zuhlsdorf (blogging about it from Venice).

Most observers have focused on the fact that Holy Innocents — not only the frenetic Garment District’s oldest house of worship, but its oldest structure — is the city’s only church hosting a daily traditional Latin Mass, the Mass that defined Catholic worship for centuries, if not millennia.

The traditional Mass has recorded a significant comeback since Benedict XVI freed it via his 2007 apostolic letter, Summorum Pontificum, with younger parishioners, clergy, and seminarians particularly drawn to its grandeur, universality, and intense reverence. While two other Manhattan parishes (St. Agnes on 43rd Street and Spanish Harlem’s Mount Carmel) still host this “extraordinary form” of the Latin Rite, it is Holy Innocents that has, in a remarkably short time emerged as its vibrant spiritual center.

“Holy Innocents is a place where the New Evangelization is actually succeeding, and in its unique way!” says Fr. Zuhlsdorf, “New Evangelization meets Summorum Pontificum. It is the perfect combination, and it is working. Over the year Mass attendance has been steadily climbing. There is constant traffic in and out of this church as a spiritual oasis. Its location is ideal. Beautiful things occur at this church.”

Indeed they do. And yet, visitors might not at first find Holy Innocents beautiful at all. The oldest structure in the Fashion District is old. It is not fashionable. It wears its age not at all like the wardrobe of a grand dame of Fifth Avenue, but akin to a selection the shabby thrift shop its basement hosts. But, perhaps, that is part of its beauty. The wealthy do not particularly come here. Ordinary souls do. They climb its granite steps for Mass, to pray, to silently kneel before the Precious Host, to engulf themselves in magnificent Gregorian Chant, to remain overnight in prayer and devotion each First Friday, to offer 2,000 — two thousand — Hail Marys every Third Saturday, to confess their sins and to come away cleansed in a sense that those who never have cannot comprehend.

They are old here. They are young. There are poor and very poor, the wise and the addled. Many are Asian or Hispanic or Black. Many are certainly newcomers to this land but not necessarily to this faith. The meal served at 3 am following this Easter Vigil’s ceremonies and Mass featured not finger sandwiches but empanadas. They are people of one language on the altar but of many in the well-worn pews.

History lives here. Eugene O’Neill’s parents brought him here for baptism. The poet Joyce Kilmer found his way to faith here. The Crucifix found in Charles Bosseron Chambers’ famous painting “The Return” still graces Holy Innocents. A massive, recently-restored fresco of the Crucifixion by Constantino Brumidi (renowned for his work in the United States Capitol) dominates its sanctuary.

Processions through Times Square and Bryant Park are launched from here — the Word of Christ carried to the heart of The Beast, a more amazing sight. Far more amazing than whatever Holy Innocents’ property might fetch in Manhattan’s ongoing real estate bacchanal.

And there is also a shrine – to holy innocents. Not to the Holy Innocents of Herod’s day, but to our own. Historical scholarship indicates that Herod may have butchered as few as six. Abortion in our day “terminates” thirty-seven percent of all New York City pregnancies. Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who speaks of a “sacred responsibility” to “come to the assistance” of “the innocent baby in the womb,” now stands upon the verge of shuttering this shrine and this church.

“A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning …”

Mourn not for The Church of Holy Innocents; mourn for yourselves, New York.

 http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/26/massacre-at-holy-innocents/

Six hands kissed for six million!!

Francis kissed  the hands of six holocaust survivors at the Yad Vashem memorial.  According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, a holocaust survivor is “any Jew who lived for any period of time in a country that was ruled by the Nazis or their allies.”  This means one need not have been in a concentration camp during the second world war to be a holocaust survivor.  Did you know that dear reader?  You could have been a Jew living in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Russia or one of Hilter’s Jewish soldiers and still have been a holocaust survivor.

So why did Francis kiss the hands of six Jews?  The significance of this number comes from Gematria a system of numerology used by Jews.  Its practitioners are most often but not always steeped in the esoteric Kabbalah.  According to Rabbi Geoffry W. Dennis, in The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism on page 104, gematria “is a complex hermeneutic technique in which numbers are used to reveal messages in texts and thereby derive insight into the order of the universe.”  As Rabbi Benjamin Blech relates in the last two pages of his book, The Secret of Hebrew Words,  the word TaShuVU (in English this translates as, “you shall return”) is misspelled in the Torah. This has been done for a very important reason by God.  For when one adds up the numerical value of misspelled TaShuVU one gets the year 1948 AD (5708 jewish date). This is the year the state of Israel was founded!  

Continue reading –  http://callmejorgebergoglio.blogspot.ca/2014/05/six-hands-kissed-for-six-million.html

HEARTBREAK!! Wife set to hang for marrying Christian US citizen gives birth to baby girl named Maya in squalid jail – and vows that she’d rather be executed than convert to Islam!!

EXCLUSIVE – Wife set to hang for marrying Christian U.S. citizen gives birth to baby girl in squalid jail

• Meriam Ibrahim gave birth five days early after months shackled to floor
• Lawyer tells MailOnline: ‘This is good news in what’s been a terrible ordeal’
• Doctor was sentenced to death for converting from Islam to Christianity
• She married Christian U.S. citizen Daniel Wani, who lives in New Hampshire
• She told husband she could not ‘pretend to be Muslim’ just to spare her life

Meriam Ibrahim, who has spent the past four months shackled to the floor in a disease-ridden jail in North Khartoum, gave birth five days prematurely. A doctor who is facing execution in Sudan for marrying a Christian gave birth to a baby girl in prison today. Meriam Ibrahim, who has spent the past four months shackled to the floor in a disease-ridden jail, gave birth five days early. The baby was born in the hospital wing at Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison in North Khartoum and is said to be healthy. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, her lawyer Mohaned Mustafa Elnour said: ‘This is some good news in what has been a terrible ordeal for Meriam. ‘I am planning to visit her with her husband Daniel later today. I think they are going to call the baby Maya.’

Meriam Ibrahim has given birth in a Sudanese jail after being handed the death sentence because a court did not recognise her marriage to Christian Daniel Wani, a U.S. citizen, who lives in Manchester, New Hampshire

Holding out hope: Daniel Wani outside his home in Khartoum, Sudan, ash he awaits the fate of his wife who has been held in shackles in prison with their toddler son Martin next to her

Meriam, 27, was sentenced to death by hanging earlier this month after being found guilty of converting from Islam to Christianity and marrying a Christian man, U.S. citizen Daniel Wani, who lives in Manchester, New Hampshire. She will receive 100 lashes before she is executed – sometime in the next two years. Before the birth, Meriam made the defiant claim that she would rather die than give up her faith. In a heart-wrenching conversation with her husband during a rare prison visit, Meriam told him: ‘If they want to execute me then they should go ahead and do it because I’m not going to change my faith.’ An Islamic Sharia judge said she could be spared the death penalty if she publicly renounced her faith and becomes a Muslim once more. Meriam insists she has always been a Christian and told her husband she could not ‘pretend to be a Muslim’ just to spare her life.

Bleak: The Omdurman Women’s Jail in Khartoum, Sudan where Meriam Ibrahim is being held

She told him: ‘I refuse to change. I am not giving up Christianity just so that I can live. ‘I know I could stay alive by becoming a Muslim and I would be able to look after our family, but I need to be true to myself.’ Daniel, a 27-year-old biochemist, revealed his wife’s defiant stance during an exclusive interview with MailOnline at his modest home in the dusty Sudanese capital city of Khartoum. Sitting beneath glamorous photographs of his wife taken at their wedding in December 2011, he said: ‘My wife is very, very strong. She is stronger than me. ‘When they sentenced her to death I broke down and tears were streaming down my eyes. Our lawyers were passing me tissues. But she stayed strong. ‘She did not flinch when she was sentenced. It was amazing to see, particularly because she is the one facing the death penalty.’ Daniel was in Khartoum trying to arrange for Meriam and their 20-month-old son Martin to live with him in the US when his wife was arrested in September. She was three weeks pregnant with their second child. She has been held since February in Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison, North Khartoum, with Martin.

Heartbreaking: This image captures the first time Daniel Wani was allowed to see his son, Daniel, and wife, Meriam Ibrahim, since September after she was jailed for marrying a Christian in Sudan

Rotten care: Martin is given a drink by prison guards. Daniel is not allowed to take custody of Martin because the authorities have ruled that the toddler is Muslim

The authorities will not release Martin into the care of his father because they claim he is a Muslim too. She spends much of her time shackled to the floor, is not receiving enough nutrition in her food to cope with the rigours of a difficult pregnancy and is rarely allowed outside. Both she and her bewildered son have contracted various illnesses because of the poor sanitation at the jail. A report by Human Rights Watch claims the prison is ‘beset with overcrowding’ and suffers from ‘poor sanitation, disease and the deaths of many children living with their mothers’. Daniel, who is originally from South Sudan, but is now a naturalized American, was initially refused permission to visit her. Describing his first visit after she had been inside for two months , he said: ‘The first time I only had ten minutes and we never even had a conversation with each other.  ‘I had to attend to my son first and once I had done that I was told by the prison guards that my time was up. ‘I wanted to take Martin away with me, but I knew I couldn’t. It’s not good place to be for a little boy to be. I am not allowed to spent time with them because the Sudanese officials do not recognise them as my wife and son.

Cruel: Martin, above, is pictured biting his lip unaware of the terrible fate his mother, Meriam, faces after being sentenced to hang for refusing to consider herself a Muslim. His family claim he is American because his father has been granted U.S. citizenship

Desperate: Daniel and Martin sit with their lawyer, Mr Mohand, during a visit. Daniel is wheelchair bound as he suffers from muscular dystrophy

‘They say the marriage is void. Now, even my wife is no longer my wife. And my son is not mine and my new daughter is not mine. They say I am a stranger to them. ‘I know my wife puts on a brave face but I can tell that she is in quite a bit of pain. She doesn’t get to leave the room for weeks. ‘She has suffered medical complications while in jail, but no one knows the full extent of what they are because she is in prison. It’s a difficult time. To see her walking in chains is difficult.’ Daniel, who is wheelchair-bound because he suffers from muscular dystrophy, cuts a forlorn figure as he wheels himself around his empty house. His child’s bed lies unused, as does a child-sized toothbrush. Daniel keeps himself busy by studying the regular barrage of paperwork that his legal team send him.  Like many in Sudan, both Daniel and his wife’s childhood were blighted by civil war. Daniel managed to escape the brutal conflict in 1998 when he travelled to America with his brother Gabriel. The biochemist returned to Sudan to marry Meriam at a Christian service in a chapel which was attended by around 500 people in December 2011.

Fighting for justice: The legal team from the Justice centre in Sudan trying to free Meriam Ibrahim includes (l to r) Thabit Alzubain, Mohned Mustafa, Mohammed Abdalnabe, Osman Mobarek, Elshareef Ali

Most who were at the wedding ceremony could vouch for the pair being committed Christians, defence lawyers say. But witnesses who were willing to give evidence on her behalf were barred from testifying because they were Christian. She even produced a marriage certificate identifying herself as a Christian. Despite this, the judge determined that because her father was a Muslim, even though he abandoned the family while they were living in a refugee camp in the South East of Sudan when she was six, she too was a Muslim who had broken the law by leaving Islam. But her mother, who is now dead, brought her up as Christian. Her mother was born in Ethiopia to Christian parents, but fled to Sudan because of famine, and chose to raise her daughter in the same religion. Meriam was arrested in mid-September, three weeks after her second child was conceived. At first the couple dismissed the allegations against them as trivial, but when the case grew more serious Daniel went to the American Embassy in Khartoum for help. ‘I thought this would be the one place which would help me, but they told me they didn’t have time to do anything,’ Daniel said. ‘I was upset because now that I am American citizen I thought they would help me. ‘I was threatened. They said “well your wife isn’t American, so we can’t help”. I felt disgusted. My home is in America and still they won’t help. It’s getting uglier and it’s not going in the right direction.’ Mr Wani said the State Department asked him to provide DNA evidence proving that Martin was his biological son. He added: ‘I have provided wedding documents and the baby’s birth certificate, but this is clearly not enough. It’s very upsetting that they don’t believe me. ‘They want me to take a DNA sample in Khartoum, then send it to the US for testing. It’s as if they don’t believe a word I say.’

Meriam insists she has always been a Christian and told her husband she could not ‘pretend to be a Muslim’ just to spare her life

The Sharia court has postponed her sentence, to give her time to recover from childbirth and to wean the new baby. Her lawyer, Mohaned Mustafa Elnour, a Muslim, has received death threats for defending her but has already lodged an appeal. If he does not succeed at the Appeal Court, he will take the case to Sudan’s Supreme Court. Speaking from his office in a ramshackle building close to the River Nile, he said: ‘Once this case became public there was only one way that this case was going to go. ‘The clamour for a guilty verdict from the Sudanese press and from government figures intensified and they got what they wanted. There is a large section of the public here that want her to be hanged. ‘But even if Meriam was freed she would never be able to live in Sudan again. It just wouldn’t be safe. ‘There are many Muslims who are very angry with this situation and they say that if the court doesn’t kill her then they will when she is released. ‘Muslim hardliners appear to hold sway with this case, although international support and condemnation of the case might help. ‘In fact, the British Embassy here has been helpful – more so than the American Embassy.’ Mr Elnour said the case hinges around the testimony of two men who claim to be her brothers, and one woman who claims to be her mother. In court they claimed that she had disappeared from the family home in a small village in the east of Sudan and then discovered her living in Khartoum, married to a Christian man. But the lawyer said all three witnesses have proven to be liars because their evidence to the court has been highly contradictory. He suggested that the trio are making up their story in an attempt to claim ownership of Meriam’s flourishing general store in a shopping mall on the outskirts of Khartoum. Mr Elnour added: ‘We can prove that Meriam’s mother died in 2012 and that the two others are definite fraudsters. But the court is not interested in our evidence.’ A petition calling for her release had last week reached more than 650,000.

‘Abhorrent violation’: Senators fight for Meriam

New Hampshire’s senators are working to save Meriam from being executed, calling her treatment an ‘abhorrent violation of human rights’.

 New Hampshire’s Senator Kelly Ayotte and fellow Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri have written to Secretary of State John Kerry urging him to grant the 27-year-old Sudanese woman political asylum. 

 

Rights: New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen and Senator Roy Blunt have written to Secretary of State John Kerry urging him to grant Meriam political asylum

 

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, (Democrat-New Hampshire) called the death sentence an ‘abhorrent violation of fundamental freedoms and universal rights’.

The British government had expressed its anger to a senior Sudanese diplomat over the pregnant mother’s sentence and urged him to pressure the government to overturn the ruling.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2640367/Sudanese-doctor-facing-execution-marrying-U-S-Christian-gives-birth-baby-girl-squalid-jail.html#ixzz330OXuDNx