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Our Lady Of Medjugorie
PRAYER TO THE MOTHER OF GOODNESS, LOVE AND MERCY*, QUEEN OF PEACE:
O Mother mine, Mother of goodness, love and mercy, I love you infinitely and I offer myself to You.
By means of Your goodness, Your love and Your grace, save me.
I desire to be Yours.
I love you infinitely, and desire You to protect me.
From the depth of my heart I pray You, Mother of goodness, give me Your goodness.
Let me gain Heaven by means of it.
I pray You, by Your infinite love, to give me the grace, so that I may love every man, as You have loved Jesus Christ.
I pray You to give me the grace to be merciful towards You.**
I offer myself to You completely and desire that You follow my every step.
Because You are full of grace.
And I desire that I will never forget this.
And if, by chance, I should lose grace I pray You to restore it to me once more. Amen.
*Dictated by Our Lady to Jelena Vasilj;, 19th April 1983.
**The phrase (I pray you to give me the grace to be merciful towards you) means (Give me the grace to love your will which is different to mine).
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NOVENA To OUR LADY, MARY, QUEEN OF ALL HEARTS
O Mary, Queen of All Hearts, Advocate of the most hopeless cases;
Mother most pure, most compassionate;
Mother of Divine Love, full of divine light, we confide to your care the favors which we ask of you today.
Consider our misery, our tears, our interior trials and sufferings!
We know that you can help us through the merits of your Divine Son, Jesus.
We promise if our prayers are heard, to spread your glory, by making you known under the title of MARY, QUEEN OF ALL HEARTS, Queen of the Universe.
Grant, we beseech you, hear our prayers, for every day you give us so many proofs of your love and your power of intercession to heal both body and soul.
We hope against all hope: Ask Jesus to cure us, pardon us and grant us final perseverance.
O Mary, Queen of All Hearts, help us, we have confidence in you. (3 times)
(Go to confession, receive Holy Communion and recite thin prayer for nine consecutive days.)
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Our Lady Queen Of Heaven - Fatima
The Eucharistic Prayers From Fatima:
In the Spring of 1916, a year before Our Lady visited the three children of Fatima, an Angel of God came to them as a herald of his Queen and taught them this prayer:
"My God, I believe, I adore, I hope in and I love You. I ask You to pardon those who do not believe, adore, hope in and do not love you," (3 times)
In the late Fall of the same year, the Angel prostrated himself before the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of Jesus Christ and taught the three children thus to make reparation to our Eucharistic Lord:
"Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly. I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, In reparation for all the outrages, sacrileges, and indifferences by which He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners." (3 times)
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Our Lady Of Fatima
An angel who identified himself as the angel of Peace appeared first to the three shepherds of Fatima; they were prepared by the angel before the apparitions of Our Lady about a year later. The three children were Lucia dos Santos, age 9, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, ages 8 and 6 respectively.
The 13 of May of 1917, Our Lady appeared to three little shepherds, for the first time and the apparitions took place on the 13th. of the month for the next 8 consecutive months. Our Lady requested the children to pray the Rosary and to make reparation for poor sinners. They were given a vision of hell, and on the last apparition Our Lady revealed herself as the Queen of the Rosary, there were about 70.000 people on the day of the last apparition in October, there was a great miracle of the sun and many people converted and received healings. Our Lady requested that a Church was built there.
The message of Fatima is the message for this century, it calls for Repentance, Penance, conversion and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady made several prophecies, including a secret message which is kept at the Vatican. There is a great basilica in Fatima Portugal, where millions of people come yearly to pay tribute to Our Heavenly Mother and to request her intercession before her Son.
Sister Lucy is still alive and She received further messages from Our Lady, one which is the devotion of the five first Saturdays for five continuous months in reparation for the offences committed against Her Immaculate Heart.
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Our Lady of Fatima - Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, although it is over 80 years ago that Thou first came to Fatima, we hasten today to come before Thee. We prostrate ourselves at Thy throne of grace and we seek to fulfill as far as we are capable of, all that Thou hast so graciously requested when Thou didst visit the Church Militant in Thy Fatima apparitions.
The abominable sins of the world, the persecutions waged against the Church of Jesus Christ, still more the apostasy of the nations and of Christian souls, and finally the forgetting of Thy motherhood of grace by a great number grievously wound Thy Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, so united in its compassion to the suffering of the Sacred Heart of Thy Divine Son, Jesus Christ.
In order to make reparation for so many crimes, Thou hast asked for the establishment of the reparatory devotion to Thy Immaculate Heart; and with the purpose of ending the punishments sent by God that Thou didst foretell, Thou made Thyself the messenger of the Most High to request of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, united with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to Thy Immaculate Heart. Alas, Thy message has not yet been fully taken into consideration.
This is why, in order to hasten the happy day when the Sovereign Pontiff will accede at last to the requests of Thy Divine Son, without ascribing to ourselves an authority that does not belong to us, but penetrated with solicitude for the condition of the universal Church, by a humble supplication addressed to Thy Immaculate Heart and united to all faithful bishops, priests and believers, we are resolved to respond for our part to the requests of Heaven.
Deign then, O Most Holy Mother of God, in the first place, to accept our solemn act of reparation that we present to Thy Immaculate Heart. We offer it to Thee in reparation for all the offenses by sinners and unbelievers, which most certainly deeply offend 'nee and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In the second place, as much as it is in our power, we give, deliver, and consecrate Russia to Thy Immaculate Heart: we implore Thee, in Thy maternal mercy, to take this nation under Thy powerful protection, to make of it Thy domain where Thou reignest as Queen, to make of this land of persecutions a "vessel of election" and of blessing. We beseech Thee that Thou make this nation submit to Thyself so well that, converted from its "legal" impiety, it may become a new kingdom for Our Lord Jesus Christ, a new inheritance for His sweet scepter, and having returned from its ancient schism, and come back to the unity of the one fold of the eternal Shepherd; and thus subject to the Vicar of Thy Divine Son, may it become an ardent apostle of the social Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ over all the nations of the world.
O Blessed Ever Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, we implore Thee furthermore to manifest to the world the truth of Thy universal mediation of grace by so brilliant a miracle of Thy suppliant all?powerfulness. Deign at last, O Queen of Peace, to bring to the world the peace that the world cannot give, the peace from weapons and the peace for souls, the peace of Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and the Kingdom of Christ through the reign of Thy Immaculate Heart, O Mary. Amen
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Our Lady Of Lourdes
Our Lady appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous, a young poor and sick girl in the grotto of Masabielle, close to Lourdes in France in 1858. She asked for a chapel to be built in the site of the apparitions and when asked who she was, She replied :
"I am the Immaculate Conception."
Our Lady asked Bernadette to wash her face at the fountain but there was no fountain there, so Bernadette dug a hole in the ground, and with muddy water washed her face while people ridiculed her, however from there sprang the famous fountain of water that has healing attributes. Many sick people have bathed themselves in that water and there have been at least 64 reported miraculous healings.
Millions of people from all over the world go to Lourdes yearly in the hope of obtaining help from the generous Mother of God.
Bernadette became a nun, she died when she was 35 and her body is still incorrupt.
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Our Lady Of Lourdes and Bernadette
APPARITIONS OF LOURDES -- Our Blessed Mother appeared to a poor and sick fourteen year old girl who lived in the Pyrenees at a time of turmoil in France. On Thursday, February 11th 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, her sister Marie and another friend had gone to a nearby river to gather firewood. While Marie and her friend crossed the river to search the other side, Bernadette stayed on dry land. While searching for wood she heard a loud noise like the sound of a storm coming from a nearby grotto known as Massabielle. At the mouth of the grotto was a rosebush which was moving as if it were windy, which it was not. From the interior of the grotto she saw a golden-colored cloud, and soon after a Lady, young and beautiful who came and placed herself at the entrance of the opening above the rosebush. The Lady smiled at Bernadette and motioned for her to advance. Bernadette lost any fear she may have had and fell to her knees to pray the Rosary. After both she and the Lady completed these prayers (with the Lady only said the Lord's prayer and the Gloria), the Lady slowly withdrew to the interior of the grotto and disappeared.
Bernadette experienced eighteen visitations from Mary over a six month period never knowing who the Lady was until the last apparition. During the ninth apparition, Mary instructed Bernadette to dig a hole in the ground and drink and bathe in it. The hole later turned into a spring of water which Mary promised would be a healing spring for all who came to use its waters. Mary also asked Bernadette to tell the local pastor, Cure Peyramale to have a chapel built in honor of her appearances there. The Cure accused Bernadette of lying about the apparitions and told her to find out from the Lady just who she was and demanded from her that she perform a miracle by making the rosebush in the grotto bloom. On March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation, Mary answered the Cure's request when she told Bernadette, who had only received a rudimentary religious education, "Que soy era Immaculado Conceptiou" I am the Immaculate Conception. With these words, Our Lady confirmed what the Pope had declared as official Catholic Church doctrine just four years earlier - a highly unlikely fact to be known by an uneducated fourteen year old in rural France.
The apparitions were declared authentic in 1862 and Lourdes rapidly became one of the world's major pilgrimage sites.Thousands have been cured from a variety of illnesses, both physical and spiritual, and a clinic to support the millions of pilgrims who come to Lourdes
operates to this day. Bernadette returned to a life of obscurity. She became one of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Nevers and died there in 1879 after a long and painful illness. She was declared a saint in 1933, not because of the apparitions, but because of her dedication to a life of simplicity and service.
Her body remains incorrupt.
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Our Lady Of Guadalupe
We are a visual people and look to see the beauty in God’s presence. To see a Catherdral in shimmering white 'jewel' light excites us and gives us joyful knowing that we are in the presence of Our Lord. To have this is to have the heritage given us through the Catholic fullness of faith.
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Our Lady Of Czestochowa
Our Lady of Czestochowa at Jasna Gora: The Miraculous Picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa is one of the oldest of the Blessed Virgin in the world. The image portrays the Holy Mother pensive in sufferings, with deep sorrow reflected in her eyes and clouded brow. Science traces the origin of the picture to the 5th or 6th century A.D. But prior to the year 1382, the history of the Miraculous Picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa is shrouded in legend and tradition. Legend claims that St. Luke, the Evangelist, painted this picture on a cypress table top from the Nazareth House.
In the year 326, St. Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great, located the Sacred Picture in Jerusalem and brought it back to Constantinople where it remained for centuries venerated by the emperor’s family. The Holy Picture reached Southern Poland as part of a dowry in a marriage between royal families from Constantinople and Kiev.
Ladislaus, Prince of Opole and regent for Louis the Great in Poland, had found the Sacred Picture in the castle of Belz during the war with Ruthen Lords. Seeking a more suitable place for the Venerable Image of the Blessed Mother, he brought the picture to Czestochowa, a small town in central Poland. In the year 1382, the Pauline Fathers (the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit) were entrusted with the guarding of the Miraculous Painting of Our Lady of Czestochowa. In 1430 a devastating attack on the Polish Shrine resulted in tragic losses and the damaging of the holy picture. To this very day, despite the attempts to repair the damage, the slashes on the face of the Virgin Mary are still visible.
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Under the heroic leadership of the Prior of the Monastery, the Shrine withstood the attacks of a Swedish invasion of 1655. This great victory proved to be a tremendous boost to the morale of the entire Polish nation. As a result, King Jan Casimir, in 1656, made a solemn vow proclaiming the Mother of God to be the 'Queen of the Polish Crown' and the Shrine of Jasna Gora to be the 'Mount of Victory' and a spiritual capital for Poland.
PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA:
Holy Mother of Czestochowa, Thou art full of grace, goodness and mercy.
I consecrate to Thee all my thoughts, words and actions - my soul and body.
I beseech Thy blessings and especially prayers for my salvation.
Today, I consecrate myself to Thee, Good Mother, totally - with body and soul amid joy and sufferings to obtain for myself and others Thy blessings on this earth and eternal life in Heaven. Amen.
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Our Lady Of The Rosary
Domingo de Guzman was a Spanish preacher who went to southern France to oppose the Albegesian heresy which was spreading rapidly. In 1208, while he was praying at a chapel in Prouille, Mary appeared to him and gave him the Rosary and urged him to preach the Rosary to all people as a remedy against heresy and sin. The factual basis for this series of events is questionable. Nonetheless, Domingo (Dominic) founded an order of preaching friars who went on to halt the Albegesian heresy and establish monasteries all over the world. The order is commonly referred to as the Dominicans.
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Our Lady Of The Nations
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, send now Your Spirit over the earth.
Let the Holy Spirit live in the hearts of all nations, that they may be preserved from degeneration, disaster and war.
May the Lady of All Nations, who once was Mary, be our Advocate. Amen.
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Our Lady Of The Miraculous Medal
In the summer of 1830, a 24 year old novice of the Sisters of Charity was awakened by a young child, about five years old, dressed in white who called to her: "Catherine, Catherine, wake up. Come to the chapel; the Blessed Virgin is waiting for you."
Catherine Laboure, who had expressed a strong desire to meet the Blessed Virgin, decided to follow the child down to the chapel. The candles were burning as if at a midnight Mass. About a half-hour later, at midnight, she heard a noise that sounded like the rustle of a silk dress. When she looked up she saw a beautiful young woman surrounded by a blaze of white light sitting in the Father Director's chair. The child who brought her to the chapel told her: "Here is the Blessed Virgin!" Catherine fell to her knees and placed her hands on Mary's lap. Mary told her: "My child, the good God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will have much to suffer, but you will rise above these sufferings by reflecting that what you do is for the glory of God. You will know what the good God wants. You will be tormented until you have told him who is in charged with directing you. You will be contradicted, but do not fear, you will have grace. Tell with confidence all that passes within you. Tell it with simplicity. Have confidence. Do not be afraid."
During this discourse with the Blessed Mother, Catherine was warned of dire future occurrences. Mary told her: "The times are very evil. Sorrows will befall France; the throne will be overturned. The whole world will be plunged into every kind of misery." After this apparition Catherine had written down "in forty years" when referring to this prophecy.
Five months later, in November,
Catherine experienced another apparition. In this event Mary appeared dressed entirely in white holding a ball topped with a little golden cross. The ball, she was told, represented the whole world, especially France, and each person in particular. Mary stood on a white globe with a green serpent under her feet on the globe. After a moment, an oval shape formed around the Blessed Virgin, and on it were written these words in gold: `O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.' Upon seeing this vision, Catherine heard a voice say: "Have a medal struck after this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces; abundant graces will be given to those who have confidence."
At this point, the oval seemed to turn and Catherine saw the reverse of the medal: the letter M surmounted by a cross, and below it two hearts, one crowned with a crown of thorns, and the other pierced by a sword. After hearing all of her accounts of these apparitions, her spiritual director, Father Aladel, still had doubts as to their veracity. He met
with the local archbishop and after due deliberation the archbishop authorized that the medals be struck since he found nothing contrary to the Faith in anything Catherine said or experienced. Within months there were a flood of reported cures and spiritual conversions
attributed to the medal; so much so that it came to be called the Miraculous Medal. Catherine went back to a life of obscurity in the Sisters of Charity once the medal had been fashioned and died in 1876. By the time of her death there were millions of Miraculous
Medals being worn by the devout all over the world.
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Our Lady Queen Of Peace Medjugorje
We are a visual people and look to see the beauty in God’s presence. To see a Catherdral in shimmering white 'jewel' light excites us and gives us joyful knowing that we are in the presence of Our Lord. To have this is to have the heritage given us through the Catholic fullness of faith.
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Our Lady Of The Pillar
After the crucifixion , resurrection and ascension of Jesus, his Apostles began to spread the message he left throughout Israel and shortly thereafter, through the Roman empire. One of these Apostles, James (the Greater), reportedly travelled as far west as Spain to the village of Saragossa in north east Spain. While James was there, he became disheartened because of the failure of his mission. Tradition holds that while he was deep in prayer Jesus' Blessed Mother appeared to him and gave him a small wooden statue of herself and a column of jasper wood and instructed him to build a church in her honor: "This place is to be my house, and this image and column shall be the title and altar of the temple that you shall build." The jasper column and the wooden statue can still be seen on special occasions at a church that houses them. About a year after the apparition James arranged to build a small chapel in Mary's honor, the first Church ever dedicated to the honor of the Virgin Mary. After James returned to Jerusalem, he was executed by Herod Agrippa in about 44 AD, the first apostle to be martyred for his faith. Several of his disciples took his body and returned it for final burial in Spain. The local queen, observing several of the miracles performed by James' disciples, converted to Christianity and permitted James' body to be buried in a local field. Eight centuries later, a cathedral in honor of St. James was erected after his gravesite was rediscovered by a local hermit. The hermit found the burial site after noticing an unusual star formation. The site for the cathedral was called Compostella (starry field) and it is a major pilgrimage site to this day.
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Our Lady Of LaSalette
The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to two young children, Melanie Mathieu and Maximin Giraud in LaSalete, France in the year 1846. At the time there was corruption, self-indulgence, greed and worldliness. Our Lady appeared sorrounded by light, she was weeping and gave warnings about the chastisements that would hit the world. She complained about people not keeping the commandments, about the apathy for religion and she disclosed the punishment that people would receive if they did not amend their lives. In 1851, five years after the apparitions at La Salette, the Bishop of the diocese, as well as most of the clergy declared the apparition as authentic and divine in origin.
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Our Lady Of Knock
County Mayo was in the center of a region of Ireland that had suffered great distress in the 1870's. Various famines and economic
dislocations produced by forced evictions had created yet another wave of Irish immigration. It was into this environment that the Lord
again sent His Mother to visit with His oppressed children.
August 21st, 1879 was another rain-swept day in County Mayo. As evening arrived, Margaret Beirne, a resident of the village of Cnoc Mhuire, was sent by her brother to lock up the local church for the evening. After she had completed this task, as she was returning home she noticed a strange brightness covering the church. However, preoccupied with other thoughts, she mentioned this to no one else. At about this time, another member of the Beirne family, Mary, had just completed a visit with the church's housekeeper, Mary McLoughlin. As they were walking down the road they came to a location where they could clearly see the church and its gables, at which time Mary O'Beirne turned to her companion and said, "O look at the statues! Why didn't you tell me the priest had got new statues for the chapel?" Her companion responded that she had heard nothing about new statues but she decided to look more closely. As they approached the church, Mary Beirne remarked, "But they are not statues, they're moving. It's the Blessed Virgin."
What they and thirteen others saw in the still-bright day was a beautiful woman, clothed in white garments, wearing a large brilliant crown. Her hands were raised as if in prayer. This woman was understood by all who saw her to be Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Queen of the Angels. On her right stood St. Joseph, his head inclined towards her. On her left stood St. John the Evangelist, dressed as a bishop. To the left of St. John was an altar on which stood a lamb and a cross surrounded by angels. All of this was seen on the gable wall of the church in a cloud of light and lasted for about two hours. Other villagers, who were not involved with the apparition, nonetheless reported seeing a very bright light illuminating the area around where the church was located. There were subsequent reports of inexplicable healings
associated with visits to the church at Knock.
The Church response to this series of events was typically circumspect. A commission was formed to gather testimonies of those
claiming to see the apparition and then a record of purported cures and devotional material was maintained until 1936. At that time, the head of the diocese of Tuam, Archbishop Gilmartin, authorized the publication of a pamphlet supporting devotion to the apparition at
Knock.
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Our Lady Perpetual Help - THEOTOKION
The image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is perhaps the oldest actual image of the Blessed Virgin herself. According to legend, St. Luke painted a picture of Our Lady while she was still living in Jerusalem. When she saw the beautiful picture of herself holding the Child Jesus in her arms, she blessed both the artist and his work proclaiming, "My grace will accompany this picture." The passage of centuries has proven that Mary did not forget this promise. So numerous were the miracles and favors granted by means of this picture that Pope Innocent III in 1207 stated that Mary’s soul seemed to have entered into this picture since it was so beautiful and so miraculous. When St. Luke completed the image, legend tells us he gave it to his personal friend and patron, Theophilus.
In the middle of the Fifth Century, St. Pulcheria erected a shrine in its honor in Constantinople. The picture remained there for a thousand years where it was venerated by countless Christians - kings and emperors, saints and sinners, rich and poor; and where it was the source of many miracles. The original picture is believed to have perished during the siege of Constantinople in 1453 but many copies that existed at that time have been preserved to this day. The spirit and miraculous power of the image still live in the present day image. Mary still lives among us, anticipating needs, saving, ministering, mothering - leading us along the way to heaven.
The Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is an authentic expression of Byzantine art from ancient times. The gold background represents the Kingdom of God and the gold shining through the clothing reflects the joy and glory of the Kingdom. The icon invites us to become sharers in this glory. The persons portrayed are: the Mother of God, Jesus Christ, the Archangel Michael, and the Archangel Gabriel. Mary’s head is tilted with maternal affection toward the Christ child on her left arm. Mary’s eyes are not fixed on her Child or on the instruments of the Passion which the two angels hold out to Christ. Rather, she gazes toward those who are looking at the picture. With eyes and attitude of sorrow and love she invites all to place their confidence in her. The Christ Child has the appearance of a teacher or master. In His mother, he finds the greatest comfort and tenderness. In His haste to run into her protective arms, He almost loses one of His tiny sandals thereby signifying to us that we should hasten to seek her loving assistance in our troubles. Christ’s fingers hold his Mother’s right hand, yet they rest quite loosely there. In this lies another lesson. Though Mary is His Mother, He is our God. To Him she owes all her graces. The image inspires the onlooker to exclaim: "Surely, this is the Son of God and His glorious Mother."
THEOTOKION - Our Lady of Perpetual Help O gentle protectress of Christians, unfailing mediatrix before the Creator, do not despise the prayerful voices of sinners, but in your goodness hasten to assist us trustfully cry out to you: "Inspire us to prayer, and hasten to hear our supplication. O Mother of God, intercede always in behalf of those who honor you."
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Created:
4/22/2000
Modified: 9/5/2000
