This video is an introduction to the rosary. It introduces the various prayers, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Doxology and the scriptural basis for each prayer. It also discuss the Mysteries, and how the rosary engages you on three levels.
Join Father Robert Reed as he serves as a tour guide on the ultimate insider excursion. Stand feet away as The Holy Father vests and celebrates private morning Mass, sense the joy as he creates new bishops for the Church, sit at the table in the pope's private dining room, accompany the pope as he meets with Heads of State, be escorted by Swiss guards inside restricted areas and catch the pope's private moments right before his most public encounters.
Each year, millions of people jam St. Peter's Square for the Sunday Angelus blessing of Pope Benedict. But none of them have ever been inside the pope's private study the minutes before he steps up to his study window to address the masses.
Watch this video as the heavy bronze gates of the Vatican City are thrown open for an exclusive tour of the worlds smallest state. There can be no greater guide than the man who knows the basilicas intricacies best: Joseph Ratzinger, better known to the world as Pope Benedict XVI. In this intimate documentary, he provides a first hand glimpse into life at the Vatican, where the Pope is absolute ruler and the official language is still Latin. From the archives of the Inquisition to the catacombs and museums, he guides us around numerous locations inaccessible to the public. Many have never been filmed before.
Traditional Latin Mass filmed on the Feast of the Sacred Heart in the small chapel of the International Seminary of Saint Cure d'Ars, Flavigny, France, in 1999. The seminary is the Society of Saint Pius X's second European seminary.
Concerned that Satan's influence in the modern world is increasing, the Vatican is renewing its campaign against the Devil. Its Chief Exorcist now performs up to 50 exorcisms a week.
In the 1990s, Imam Ashafa and Pastor Wuye led opposing militias in Northern Nigeria. Now the men work together bridging religious conflicts between Christians and Muslims that have killed thousands.
'My hate for the Muslims then had no limits' states Pastor Wuye, whose militia killed Imam Ashafa's spiritual leader and two cousins. Ashafa spent 3 years planning revenge, until one day, a sermon on forgiveness changed his life. The men met and are now working on a peace accord. Imam Ashafa explains, 'even though we differ in some theological issues, we will make the world a safer place'.
The Jesus Prayer - "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner"
Emmy Award winning filmmaker, author and theologian, Dr. Norris J. Chumley and historian and author the Very Reverend Professor John A. McGuckin embark on a journey of a lifetime. Their goal is to trace and document the origins of early Christian monastic life and to meet the keepers of thirteen holy sites in the regions where Christianity and the Church began.
Over the course of eight years, they gradually gained the trust of the most eminent Patriarchs, Archbishops, Abbots, Abbesses, Monks and Nuns who allowed them unprecedented access to the inner sancta of these sacred sites—never before seen by the outside world. Their travels took them to the cave of St. Antony in Egypt; St. Catherine’s monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai; across the Mediterranean to the Greek peninsula of Mt. Athos, to the forests of Transylvania in Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and finally to Russia.
Along the way, they repeatedly discover the use of a simple and elegant ancient prayer. The prayer has been chanted in remote caves and active monasteries for centuries but is largely unknown to the Western World, until now. Many say that with this prayer, it is possible to communicate directly with God.
Discernment of spirits is the interpretation of what St. Ignatius Loyola called the “motions of the soul.” These interior movements consist of thoughts, imaginings, emotions, inclinations, desires, feelings, repulsions, and attractions. Spiritual discernment of spirits involves becoming sensitive to these movements, reflecting on them, and understanding where they come from and where they lead us.
The Holy Mountain Athos (The Garden of the Mother of God) was created by ancient Byzantine emperors to be the spiritual capital of Orthodox Christianity. Millions of Orthodox Christians believe it is the most sacred place on Earth.
There are 2,000 Anthonite monks living in what is the most unique monastery complex in the world; most pray all day. Some monks even tell that they pray while they sleep -- and they only get about three hours of sleep a night. The monks divide their day into three parts: They spend about eight hours a day in church, and when they're not resting their time is dedicated to the work needed to keep the 20 monasteries running. Mt. Athos is also beautiful and has probably changed less than any other inhabited place on the planet. Some of the monasteries here are perched high on cliffs above the Aegean Sea, with sylvan hills as a backdrop and architecture that could have come out of a medieval fairytale. It was the architecture that first attracted a young boy from Winthrop, Mass.
"It was just so impressive and I turned around and I said to him, 'Dad, you know, I don't think I am going to believe that somebody lives in that building until I step on those balconies myself," says Fr. Iakovos, one of three monks originally from the U.S. He came to Mt. Athos 25 years ago and he points out that it's not just the way of life that hasn't changed, neither has the Divine Liturgy that the monks celebrate every day. "You have to understand, the words that we are saying in today's liturgy are the same words Christ was saying, are the same words that saints from the first century, the second century, the third century, the fourth century".
Over the last millennium, the 20 monasteries here have been a repository for sacred treasures and religious relics that date back to the days of the Byzantine Empire. Father Matthew, from Fond du Lac, Wis., was given special permission by the abbot of Vatopedi Monastery to show just a few of the almost 4,000 religious icons stored there, the highlight, a restored icon of Christ dating from the 14th century.
These priceless artifacts are kept behind lock and key and are rarely seen by pilgrims or even the monks themselves. The lock system was ancient and extraordinary. It requires four separate keys to unlock the door to the inner sanctum, and normally takes at least two monks to unlock the door, because no one monk is allowed to have all four keys at the same time. It could be described as "a medieval version of the nuclear launch control."
The rare treasures on Mt. Athos have attracted many invaders over the centuries. Fr Maximos, a former professor at the Harvard Divinity School who is from Long Island, N.Y., tells that the German forces were about to invade the peninsula. The monks met with German officers who told them the only way to save themselves was to make a direct appeal to Hitler. The monks wrote a letter and asked Hitler to place the Holy Mountain under his personal protection and "It seems that Hitler liked the idea and accepted the invitation to become the personal protector of the Holy Mountain."
Hitler's plan was to loot the sacred treasures though, and he sent an advance team of academics to photograph and catalogue almost everything on the Holy Mountain. In the end, not a thing was ever taken -- no one really knows why -- possibly divine intervention.
Most monks today consider the Nazi episode a small blip on the road -- after all, the monks there have been devoting their lives to prayer for 1,000 years. They say they try to get as close to God as humanly possible.
Fr. Nikandros, from Melbourne, Australia, says their monastic life also serves another mission -- as frontline warriors in the battle of good versus evil. "We fight against the angels of the dark side, you see -- of the devil -- Satan".
