History, Devotion Objectives

 

Devotions to The Lord of Pardon, Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, crucified on the Cross, has been practiced in the Philippines for a number of years, some dating back to 1937.   A Byzantine, Orthodox Bishop told the author of the presence of a Lord of Pardon icon in Mexico City, in front of the great Mexican Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  This icon supposedly dates back to the early Catholic evangelization of Mexico.

The Lord of Pardon devotion was re-started in the Philippines by Fructuosa Duco, affectionately called “Nana Osang” (whose picture is below) by her followers. She was an ordinary seamstress in a Manila garment factory back in 1966 when she heard a male voice calling her.  Continuously hounded by this voice which she thought was a ghost in the factory, she quit her job and got a job with another company.  The voice followed her there. This continued to call her One day she decided she couldn’t run anymore.  It seems that this voice would follow her anywhere.  She decided to ask the voice who he was.  The voice was The Lord’s and told her to go to Olongapo City, in Zambales province and if she doesn’t go, that city would be destroyed.  (Olongapo City was near Subic Bay, a major U.S. Navy port.  At that time, it was the main rest and recreation area for the U.S. Armed Forces in the Far East, especially those involved in the Vietnam War.  It was then known as ˜Sin City.)  The Lord told her that the sins in Olongapo City were worse than those of Sodom and Gomorrha.  Her presence there would spare the city.  She moved to Olongapo City more of the fear that, if she disobeys, she would cause the destruction of the city and its people.  Through Divine assistance she was able to find a home and settled there.  She was told to start healing people, i.e., she became a faith healer for several years.  She became widely known as a miraculous healer.  Then one day, The Lord told her that since she was now well known, it was about time that she introduces Him, The Lord, as The Giver of her healing powers.  She was told to see a young priest in the parish of San Pancrasio in Manila, who will help her start The Lord of Pardon devotion.  When she first introduced herself to this priest, he could not believe this stranger who talks about a mission from heaven.  But after several meetings,signs and events, the young priest was convinced that everything she had said were all true.  The Lord of Pardon Seven-Day Devotion was then born.  That young parish priest is now a mon-signor, Msgr. Melencio de Vera, who has since retired.  Conspicuous among the graces showered by the Lord of Pardon on His devotees was the protection He afforded to those homes in Zambales He had visited before the Mt. Pinatubo eruption of June 15, 1991.  Those homes were protected from the collapse of their roofs after the accumulation of ash were turned into a big mass of mud by the monsoon rains.  When this miracle circulated around town, the invitations to The Lord of Pardon to visit people’s homes more than tripled.

Nana Osang mentioned to the author that Our Lord wanted the world to know why He is hanging on the Cross and how thirsty He is for mankind’s love.  Due to Nana Osang’s age, she is now 85 years old; the propagation of the devotion has come to a crawl.  This web site is therefore dedicated to this desire of The Lord of Pardon and for the greater glory of God here on earth, the love, honor, respect and veneration of Our Blessed Virgin Mother and the salvation of souls.

DEVOTION OBJECTIVES

The devotion to the Lord of Pardon is being propagated in order to bring again the message of Gods love, mercy, forgiveness, generosity and gratitude to those who seek Him over and above the glitter of this material, superfluous and chaotic world. The objective of this devotion is to keep alive in our hearts and our minds the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 365 days a year; not only during the period of Lent nor just for the seven days of Holy Week.  Only by constantly pondering on the price of our salvation; JESUS LOSING HIS LIFE DUE TO HIS LOVE FOR US and the debt of gratitude WE OWE OUR RESCUER, JESUS, OUR LORD, could we stay on the path of salvation.  (A majority of the saints and mystics achieved their extraordinary holiness simply by contemplating and meditating on the Passion, Wounds and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the concurrent Sorrows of Our Blessed Virgin Mother). With open arms and hearts, let us embrace this devotion that we may gain eternal life in the kingdom of The Lord of Pardon.

These prayers and meditations are designed to bring us closer to God and to help us gain eternal salvation:  by inculcating in our hearts and souls the primary reason for our being, i.e., to love, adore and serve our God, our Maker and Greatest Provider, with all our hearts, our minds, our souls, and with all our strength.  As Our Maker, He made us to His image and likeness.  Because He made us to His image and likeness, He infinitely loves us and would forgive us for all of our transgressions.  He is our Greatest Provider, for Our Lord provides for all our needs, both temporal and spiritual.  Unlike our natural fathers, who provides only for their own natural children, Our Eternal Father provides His graces and blessings to all of mankind His children, the just and the sinners, alike.  Our Lord wants us to engrave in our hearts the desire for His kingdom, first, and He promises that He will take care of everything we need. Let not the cares of this material world lead us away from the path of eternal salvation.  Our Lord of Pardon assures us that:For Your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.  Seek ye, therefore first, the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:32-33).

     The foundations of this devotion are:

1.   The Holy Rosary of Our Blessed Virgin Mary,

2.   The Seven Last Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross before He died, and

3.   The Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

By the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we honor and learn to imitate the mysteries and the virtues of the life, death, passion and glory of Jesus and Mary.  According to St. Louis De Montfort the Rosary is a priceless treasure which is inspired by God.

The special role of Our Mother in our redemption and salvation as designed by The Blessed Trinity is very evident: for the fifteen decades of the rosary begins and ends with the edification and glorification of Our Blessed Mother.  The first decade (The Annunciation) starts with the Blessed Mother being excitedly and reverently greeted by the Archangel Gabriel with the good news of her being chosen to be the Mother of the long-awaited Messiah.  The last decade of the rosary (the Coronation) enshrines Our Blessed Mother as queen when she was crowned as the Queen of heaven and of all creation by The Blessed Trinity.  This glorification of her by our Creator Himself is proof that after God, she has the greatest power and abundance of graces in all of creation.  All the gifts, virtues and graces of the Holy Ghost are distributed by Mary, to whom she wishes, when she wishes, the way she wishes and as much as she wishes.’  With this privilege she is able to help and bring miserable sinners like us to Her Son, Jesus Christ that we may be saved from eternal damnation.

To the initial benefits noted above in the recitation of the Holy Rosary, Our Blessed Virgin Mother gives this additional FIFTEEN (15) promises (these she gave to St. Dominic and to Blessed Alan De La Roche):

1.  Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the rosary shall receive

signal graces.

2.  I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the

rosary.

3.  The rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat

heresies.

4.  It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of

God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift

them to the desire of eternal things.  Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.

5.  The soul, which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the rosary, shall not perish.

6.  Whosoever shall recite the rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred

mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.  God will not chastise him in His justice,

he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God,

and become worthy of eternal life.

7.   Whosoever shall have a true devotion for the rosary shall not die without the sacraments of

the church.

8.   Those who are faithful to recite the rosary shall have, during life and at their death, the light of

God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death, they shall participate in the

merits of the saints in paradise.

9.   I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the rosary.

10.   The faithful children of the rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.

11.   You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the rosary.

12.   All those, who propagate the holy rosary, shall be aided by me in their necessities.

13.   I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the rosary shall have for

intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.

14.   All who recite the rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only Son, Jesus Christ.

15.   Devotion to my rosary is a great sign of predestination.

The rosary (and the brown scapular) of the Blessed Virgin Mary are weapons and armors that Heaven has allowed our Blessed Mother to use in order to help and save us.  With the rosary, we are able to acquire plenary or partial indulgences that would help to save not only our souls but also those of our loved ones, our neighbors and the poor souls in purgatory.  Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Blessed Virgin Mary herself, made this promise to St. Simon Stock on July 16,1251: “Whosoever dies clothed in this scapular (The Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel), shall not suffer eternal fire”.  To St. Dominic, Our Mother promised, “One day, through the rosary and the scapular, I will save the world.”

Each of the Seven Last Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ is recalled and meditated upon, on each day of the seven days that The Lord of Pardon would remain in the home of the host.  Words as used in this sense is a misnomer.  Our Lord, while suffering on the cross, actually said seven statements that expresses:  His infinite love, mercy and forgiveness for us; His concern for our well-being; His emotions as a man; His desire for our love and gratitude; His perseverance in His suffering (in order to complete the task of our salvation); and His total obedience and resignation to the will of our Eternal Father.  These are statements of fact, of what He has done for us.  Whatever He has done for us, He expects us to do the same to others:  For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also. (John 13:15).

The Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Fr. Faber, is the price of our salvation, for Our Lord died from loss of blood.  “It is out of the Precious Blood that men draw martyrdoms, vocations, celibacies, austerities, heroic charities and all the magnificent graces of high sanctity.”  By His Precious Blood, Our Lord delivered us from hell, opened up the gates of heaven and cleared the path to our salvation.  Like fresh, exhilarating rain falling down on parched dry soil, His Blood refreshens our souls, which is withered by the lack of sanctifying grace.  His Precious Blood, full of His merciful and invigorating love, vivifies our souls with much needed grace, to make us worthy of spending eternity with Him, the Eternal Father, and the Holy Ghost in eternal glory.  By drenching us with His Precious Blood, He returns our souls to its original pure state, the purity lost by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  For whosoever is drenched, literally or figuratively, by the Precious Blood of Our Lord, would gain eternal salvation.  (Tradition notes the cure, conversion, and salvation of Longinus, the centurion who pierced the chest and heart of Our Lord after he died on the cross.  According to tradition, the blood of Jesus spattered on his blind eye and his sight was restored.  He then became a true believer in Jesus as the True Messiah.  He died a martyr for Jesus.  There are several churches in Europe named after him.)

During the times of the Old Testament, the blood of the sacrificial lamb was splashed on the altar for the atonement of the sins of the assembly.  Similarly, the Precious Blood of Jesus, was splashed all over Jerusalem:  from the garden of Gethsemane, through the scourging at the pillar, the crowning of thorns, the blows and beatings in the Via Dolorosa and finally, on Calvary with the hammering of the nails into His hands and feet and the piercing of His chest with the lance.  Jesus is The Lamb of God, our Sacrificial Lamb; and He shed His Precious Blood for the atonement of our sins.  In whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins, according to the riches of His grace, (Ephesians 1:7).

The litany of the Precious Blood of Our Lord in this seven-day devotion familiarizes us to the benefits and graces provided by the same Precious Blood.

For a private devotion, Jesus made these FIVE (5) promises to those who reverently pray TWO (2) Paters, Aves, and Glorias, daily for THREE (3) years in honor of The Drops of His Precious Blood that He lost on the way to Calvary

1.  The plenary indulgence and remittance of your sins.

2.  You will be free from the pains of purgatory.

3.  If you should die before completing the said three (3) years, for you it will be the same as if you had completed them.

4.  It will be upon your death the same as if you had shed all your blood for the Holy Faith.

5.  I will descend from Heaven to take your soul and that of your relatives, until the fourth generation.

By the remembrance of the grief, the suffering and pain Our Lord God Almighty — The Blessed Trinity, and Our Mother, The Blessed Virgin Mary, has to bear, due to our offenses; let us instill in our hearts the resolution not to sin anymore, and to live a pure and chaste life for the remainder of our sojourn here on earth.  Let us also resolve to thank God for all the things He gives us, the good and the bad, and, the small and the big, for it is His will; and to ask Him for the grace necessary for us to learn how to love, adore and serve Him according to His great pleasure.

In order for us to achieve this objective, we should do the following:

a)    Obey THE TEN COMMANDMENTS of GOD and The SIX PRECEPTS of The Catholic Church, with humble obedience, sincerity, honesty and firm perseverance.  (See Appendices A and B).

b)    To avoid committing the seven capital sins (Appendix C) and avoid all occasions of sin (situations, person, place or thing) that would lead us to commit sin.

c)    To go to confession each time we commit a mortal sin, or each first Saturday of the month, whichever comes first.  Let us not gamble with our eternity!

(d)   To receive communion as often as we can, preferably daily, if not, every Sunday. (There are special graces, Appendix D, promised by Our Lord Jesus Christ and our Blessed Mother for the reception of communion on the first Friday and the first Saturday of each month, respectively).  By receiving communion frequently, we become Christ-like and we become one with The Eternal Father: He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me and I in him.  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by The Father; so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by me. (John 6:57-58).  By being like Jesus Christ, we would find it easier to live a holy life worthy of His kingdom.  [Remember: It is A SACRILEGE to receive Holy Communion when in the state of MORTAL SIN! Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.  But let a man prove himself; and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice.  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.  (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)].

(e)    To pray as often as we can as Our Lord Jesus has shown us by His example: And it came to pass that He went out into a mountain to pray, and He passed the whole night in prayer to God. (Luke 6:12).  Jesus also tells us, “that we ought always to pray, and not to faint.” (Luke 18:1). To get anything from God, we have to pray: “Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matthew 7:7).  And to ask everything through Him: “If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you.” (John 16:23).

f)     Recite the rosary as often as we can, possibly, daily.  If not daily, at least three times a week, to coincide with the three different mysteries.  By doing this we get the graces Our Blessed Mother promised.

g)    Wear the brown scapular (if you have not yet been invested with the scapular, DO IT NOW!).  This is an armor Our Lady gave us to protect us against all evil, visible and invisible.

h)    To forgive those who hate us or have offended us, especially when we pray the Lords prayer.  LET US ALWAYS REMEMBER JESUS WORDS: For if you will forgive men their offences, your Heavenly Father will forgive you your offences.  But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences. (Matthew 6:14-15).  ALSO:  But I say to you, love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and the and the bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.  For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? Do not also the heathens this?(Matthew 5:44-47).

i)      To show mercy and perform acts of mercy, spiritual and corporal (Appendix E), to our neighbors, for love of Jesus, for He says: Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy. (Matthew 5:7).  Any good works that we do to others, we do to Jesus. Amen, I say to you: as long as you did it to the least of My brethren, you did it to Me. (Matthew 25:40).

j)      To offer our daily activities to The Lord no matter how trivial it is, in order to please Him.  Remember: Everything that happens in our lives is His will!  St. Therese of the Child Jesus, called by Our Lord as His Little Flower, achieved great sanctity by offering every daily activity, however small or trivial, with love, sincerity and total dedication to Our Lord through the Blessed Virgin Mary.  During her earthly life, she did not do anything great or unusual.  Her sisters in the convent did not even remember anything she did that was of any consequence.  Due to her writings, of living our lives as given by God, even in the littlest way, she was recently named one of the Doctors of the Roman Catholic.  To become a saint is so easy!  St. Therese shows us the way!  One of our Popes even admiringly calls her, The Greatest Saint of Modern Times because of the numerous and extraordinary miracles attributed to her.  (The author can attest to this, since he, himself, is a beneficiary of the extraordinary graces Our Lord gave to St. Therese.)

k)   To resolve not to complain about any difficulties nor discomfort in life.  Lets offer them to Jesus: for love of Him, the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary (This is one of Our Mothers requests at Fatima in 1917).

THESE WE ALL SHOULD DO FOR GOD’S GREATER GLORY HERE ON EARTH, FOR THE LOVE, 

  HONOR, RESPECT AND GRATITUDE WE OWE TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, OUR MOTHER

AND THE SALVATION OF SOULS, INCLUDING OUR OWN!