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Kitty’s Big Plans for October 7, 2020

Hey, Friends! I had the idea during this morning’s LIVE video to do something special on October 7, 2020, Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and Our Lady of Victory, the last day of our 54-day rosary novena, and our consecration day at the end of our 33 Days to Morning Glory retreat.  Here’s the plan:

8:30 am CT Mass at St. Peter Catholic Church in Covington, LA  (be sure to get there early if you want a seat!). You can also watch the live-stream on their YouTube channel!

9:00 am CT Gathering in front of the Blessed Mother statue on the right side of the altar to pray our consecration together (I will be live-streaming the event on my YouTube channel).

9:30 am CT Head over to Benedict’s Plantation in Mandeville for the Magnificat breakfast with speaker Jodi Awbrey (tickets no longer being sold as of 10/2/20).

7:00 pm CT Kitty’s YouTube Concert to celebrate our Big Day. I will also be drawing that night for all of the prizes I am giving away to Sounds of Peace donors (See “It’s GIVE-AWAY time!”), including my pastel painting of the roses!

This will be so fun! If you would like to make a donation for the fresh roses that we will put around Our Lady for our consecration day and the end of our 54-day rosary novena, you have three options:

  1. Venmo (www.venmo.com, to @kitty-cleveland) or
  2. Pay Pal (www.paypal.com, to orders@kittycleveland.com) or
  3. Check (payable to Christiaria, LLC, PO Box 843, Madisonville, LA 70447).

Be sure to send me a note that it’s for the roses and/or make it a number NOT divisible by $25 (so I don’t get it confused with Sounds of Peace donations). I’m excited! This will be so special.

Love, Kitty

 

Heads up! We’re moving from Facebook to Instagram.

Hi, friends! After the Facebook debacle this morning (and in earlier weeks), I’ve decided to move our LIVE morning rosary and “33 Days to Morning Glory” retreat from the Kitty Cleveland Music Facebook page to Instagram starting this Monday, September 21, 2020, at the usual time (rosary at 6 am CT, 33 Days at 7 am CT). We will also continue our livestream on YouTube.

My Instagram name is kittycleveland. If you’re new to Instagram and IGTV, Just go to www.instagram.com and search for my name and photograph. I’m hoping that link will take you right to my page. You can also download the Instagram app to your phone or iPad.

While I was hoping Facebook would stop muting my original and licensed music, that was not to be. The good news is that it will introduce me to a whole new audience on Instagram! I’ll still be at Facebook and YouTube this weekend, but without the music. See you then!

It’s GIVE-AWAY time!

Hey, Friends—I have a special offer for you. For every contribution of $100 to my Sounds of Peace ministry to the poor, the sick, and the dying (between August 14 and October 7), you get the following:

1). Four (4) Sounds of Peace MP3 player packages (a $500 value) donated to the needy in your name, PLUS a Sounds of Peace package mailed to you or someone you designate (upon request, a $125 value);

2). One entry into a LIVE drawing for the following prizes on October 7th:

—My original pastel painting of blush roses (a $350 value, see below), PLUS
5 signed, titled, and matted prints of my painting of Our Lady of Good Counsel with 5 packages of matching blank notecards (a $50 value), PLUS
5 copies of the classic “Life of Union with Mary” by Fr. Emile Neubert (a $20 value), PLUS
10 copies of “Miracle Hour: A Method of Prayer That Will Change Your Life” by Linda Schubert (priceless)

FWIW, I don’t make any money from these donations. But NOW is the time to store up treasure in Heaven, friends! Let’s do this! Click here to participate: www.kittycleveland.com/soundsofpeace.

P.S. For every $50 donation, I donate two Sounds of Peace players to the needy, PLUS you are entered to win everything except the original artwork. www.kittycleveland.com/soundsofpeace.

"Blush Roses," by Kitty Cleveland, pastel on paper, 9x11.5

Additional gifts from Kitty

33 Days to Morning Glory, Online Consecration and Retreat–please join us!

Hello, Friends! This book, 33 Days to Morning Glory, profoundly changed my life. But I’m not only going to tell you why; I’m going to invite you to experience it for yourself.

Please join me LIVE every morning at the Kitty Cleveland Music Facebook page for my story and for a daily meditation from the book. We will end with a powerful consecration (or reconsecration) to Jesus through Mary. You don’t want to miss it! I’ll also be uploading it every morning to my YouTube channel before 8:00 am CT.

TIME7:00 am CT (shouldn’t last more than about 10-15 minutes each day)

We would also love to have you join us for the rosary every morning through October 7th at my Facebook page or YouTube channel every morning at 6:00 am CT. Please join us, and share this post with your family and friends. Heaven has need of our prayers right now!

Isn’t the rosary “vain repetition?” And other common concerns about the Mother of God.

First of all, thanks to everyone who subscribed to my YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/c/kittycleveland). We got over 600 new subscribers in 24 hours, which made it possible for me to broadcast the rosary LIVE this morning with my daughter at 6:00 am CT! God is so good, and so are my friends.

Second, I got a well-intentioned (but misguided) email today from a sister in Christ praying for my “deliverance” because I pray the rosary. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to address her points in case any of you has the same concerns:

CLAIM #1: The rosary is “vain repetition” in prayer, which Jesus condemns in Matt 6:5-15 (“Do not babble on as the pagans do…”).

RESPONSE: I love that she quoted from Matthew 6, because that was the chapter I recommended this morning for meditation during our rosary. Don’t you just love the Holy Spirit?!️ I will simply say that the Hail Mary’s we pray are meant to aid in our meditation on specific mysteries from the life of Christ (we meditate on 5 different scenes in each rosary, for a total of 20 different mysteries—Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious—over the course of 4 days). Fingering the rosary beads and praying the scriptural prayers of the Our Father and Hail Mary are meant to bring us into peaceful contemplation of the biblical scenes, that we might know Jesus and the “good news” more intimately. It is not meant to get God’s attention by the multiplication of our words, which is what the pagans (and frankly, some superstitious Catholics) did and do. Watch Karlo Broussard‘s video. He does a great job of explaining this here: https://www.catholic.com/…/did-jesus-condemn-praying-the-ro…

CLAIM #2: The rosary is not in the Bible (and the Bible alone is our authority).

RESPONSE: Here’s a quick response to the doctrine of sola scriptura, which is the belief that the Bible alone is our authority (an idea which, ironically, is not found in the Bible): https://www.catholic.com/…/a-quick-ten-step-refutation-of-s…. As to the prayers of the rosary, the bulk of the prayers are actually straight out of the Bible. The “Our Father” is from Jesus himself. The “Hail Mary” is composed of the words of the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation and the words of Elizabeth at the Visitation. The second half of the prayer, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,” was added during the Black Plague in the Middle Ages. We ask her to pray for us just as we would ask our family and friends to pray for us. But Mary, who is “blessed among women,” the Queen Mother of the King of Kings, who was given to us as a mother at the foot of the cross (“Behold your mother”), and at whose prompting Jesus performed his first miracle at Cana, is all the more worthy to bring our petitions before the throne of God.

Shouldn’t we also pray directly to God? Yes, of course! Mary is not a substitution for God, and she is not our Savior. We must listen to the heart of Jesus and converse with him throughout the day if we are to call ourselves Christians. But Mary is part of the family, dearly beloved and chosen by the Lord to be his mother, the Ark of the New Covenant. It must grieve him deeply that his followers do not love her as he does. Still concerned? Tell Jesus about it, and ask him to introduce you to the Woman (as she was called both by Jesus at Cana and then John in the book of Revelation) who cooperated with Him in the plan of your salvation like no one else. Because sometimes (daily, for me) we just need a Mamma, especially one that knows you and loves you and cherishes you like she does, to take you by the hand and lead you straight to Jesus, which is her sole mission.

The “Glory Be” is simply a prayer of praise to the Triune God. And the “Apostle’s Creed,” which starts the rosary, is a recapitulation of the core tenets of Christianity. It was finalized by the Catholic Church in 390 AD. Remembering what we believe is good, and countless saints and martyrs sacrificed everything so that it could be passed down to us. We should do the same.

CLAIM #3: By asking Mary (or any saint) to pray for me, I am worshiping a false idol. The saints are false idols.

RESPONSE: Nope. The only One I worship is the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Mary is not my Savior; she is my beloved Mother. And who am I not to love and honor her as Jesus does? Also, she is not among the dead, she is among the living! Recall what happened at the Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah—who were very much “dead” in the earthly sense—appeared conversing with Jesus. I could go on and on, but others do a much better job explaining why we ask the saints (who know us and love us) to pray for us: https://www.catholic.com/tract/praying-to-the-saints

CLAIM #4: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (the Holy Eucharist) is idol worship. God is everywhere, and we can worship him in our hearts.

RESPONSE: I won’t lie—this one really stung. Not because my ego is wounded, but because I love the Lord Jesus so much in the Eucharist—his sacrament of profound love and humility. It saddens me for her and for the millions of Catholics who also don’t believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the consecrated bread and wine, where he waits for us with so much love.

I will tell you that 99% (give or take) of the most profound inspirations, consolations, healings, and major breakthroughs in my life have taken place in the presence of the most holy Eucharist. Don’t take my word for it—go into any Catholic Church and ask Jesus to reveal himself to you if he is truly present–body, blood, soul, and divinity–in the Eucharist, the “source and summit of our faith.” It may not happen at that moment, but this is a prayer he will definitely answer when asked with humility and sincerity of heart.

From a post in Catholic Answers (www.catholic.com): “Faith-filled Catholics believe when Jesus said, ‘This is my body’ that he changed ordinary bread into His body. Likewise, when He said, ‘This is my blood,’ that He changed ordinary wine into His blood. The appearance may still be bread and wine, but the theological virtue of faith tells us it is no longer bread and wine, but the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Many of Christ’s disciples left Him when He declared one must eat His body and drink His blood to have life (John 6). It was correctly understood by these disciples that Christ was speaking literally, not figuratively, or else Jesus would have told them He only meant it figuratively. Jesus didn’t call them back, He let them go.

“I hope this gives you a better understanding of the depth of the Catholic belief in the Eucharist. I understand why someone looking at the Eucharist from a non-Catholic viewpoint might think Eucharistic adoration to be idolatry. However, when one understands (not necessarily agrees with) Catholic teaching, it is clear that Eucharistic adoration is worship ‘in spirit and in truth.’ (John 4:23)

Finally, yes, God is omnipresent! He is alive and well in the hearts/spirits of people of good will. Furthermore, he is using this period of quarantine and occasional separation from the Eucharist to remind me even more profoundly of the glorious indwelling of His Holy Spirit, which I received at my baptism (if you have an issue with infant baptism, look it up at www.catholic.com). 

Having said all of that, Cecilia and I would love to have you pray the rosary with us LIVE every morning on my YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/c/kittycleveland) and on my Kitty Cleveland Music page (now that they have mysteriously stopped muting most of my songs–hooray!). We’ll be there every morning at 6:00 am CT,/7 am ET through October 7th. And if that time doesn’t work for you, the recordings will always be available (God willing).

Please join me LIVE each morning for the 54-Day Rosary Novena!

Happy Feast of the Assumption, friends! I had an inspiration today to pray the 54-day rosary novena for peace and for all of your intentions LIVE on Facebook every morning at 6:00 am CT (I tell you a little bit more about it on my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/c/kittycleveland, but you can just come to my personal Kitty Cleveland Facebook page tomorrow morning). The world is in serious need of prayer, and we all have so many intentions. I don’t know about you, but I need some accountability!

If you’d like to join me, today pray the rosary on your own, and we will start tomorrow, Sunday, August 16, 2020, and end on October 7th, the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary. Yes, 6:00 am CT is really for early for some of us (me), but I think it should cost me something, a little extra sacrifice of love. You can find me on Facebook at “Kitty Cleveland.” Hope to see you there!

I had a mystical visit from St. Peter! Be encouraged…

So last Tuesday, August 4, 2020, I had something of an extraordinary encounter with the person of St. Peter. I wept through the whole thing (about 40 minutes) as he shared what he went through during the Passion of Jesus. A friend asked me to recount what happened, and this is the video of my retelling. For those of you at St. Peter Parish, who have been without our beloved pastor for months due to stroke, be encouraged! For those of you who are succumbing to fear and anxiety, be encouraged! Peter has much to teach us about new beginnings, the mercy of God, and the friendship of our big brothers and sisters in Heaven, who know you and love you. (P.S.You’re always welcome to join us at St Peter in Covington, LA, after 8:30 am Mass on Tuesdays for a Gospel reflection and the rosary!).

New art, from my heart

Ever since C19 caused almost all of my booked events to be cancelled or postponed, I’ve been finding great joy in oil painting, especially subjects of God’s beautiful creation.

This latest painting from my studio, which is now available, feels like a window into the countryside! I am also thrilled to be taking commissions. What can I paint for you? Proceeds benefit my Sounds of Peace music project for the poor, the sick, and the dying (www.kittycleveland.com/soundsofpeace)

Feel free to contact me for more information about this painting or about your original ideas for a painting. I love to hear from you!

“Fresh Air,” 36×36, oil on cradled panel. $2650

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