First American Press Report

Dear children, grand children and friends,

You can imagine my surprise and my joy when my editor called on this cell phone from the beach this morning to congratulate me! He was surprised to realize that I had no idea what he was congratulating me about?

Mind you, since my return from Europe in December, I have had a number of very positive local comments on my book: ‘First American Title To Injustice’. And now it appears that the press is slowly catching on!

Without any phone call for an interview or any advance notice that the popular week end newspaper was going to do an article on my book, there it was in bold red headlines in this Sunday’s paper! My editor was even happier when he learnt that the article was totally unsolicited!

He believes that it will boost local sales tremendously and that we should use the article to accelerate sales internationally as well. This year Mauritius should welcome over a million tourists and the book is already available in the ‘boutiques’ of a number of the five star hotels. I am still working on getting it distributed across Europe and the US.

Considering the comments I am getting from European and American readers purchasing on line and the fact that some of First American employees are also buying my book, I would not be surprised if the European and American press also come out with articles of their own soon!

I will shortly be making some of my letters to Jim Dufficy and to various institutions holding large blocks of First American stock available to the public.

In the light of even more scandals and another $10 million fine just imposed on First American once again by the state of California where First American is headquartered, the purpose of making my letters public is to put all on notice that the pattern of corrupt behavior by First American has been going on unabated for years. It appears to be systemic.

Fines are cheap and no one must ever forget what Dufficy wrote some nine years ago: “… the company has no duty to do the correct thing…”

Institutions should divest fast. When it eventually all catches up with First American, investors will have been long forewarned and fund managers most certainly would not want embarrassing questions from their investors!

Fête de Saint François de Sales

“Pray as if it all depends on God. Work as if it all depends on you. Let God’s will be done.”

“God works gently and gradually. He draws us nearer one step at a time.”

The distance between a thought and the corresponding action needed to implement the idea takes the most energy often mixed with much humility.

A thousand mile journey begins with a single step. But it is difficult to travel alone. Saint Francois can lead us to the place where God dwells. He dwells everywhere. But sometimes at a particular time in a special place for whatever reason, we can feel His presence more intimately.

There are no glossy travel brochures with itineraries or enticing colorful pictures capable of adequately portraying that place. But when we get there, we know that we have arrived. Because our body, our mind, our heart and our soul tell us so.

Saint Francois was consecrated Bishop of Geneva on December 8 1602.

In 1610 he established a convent to care for the poor and the sick with Sainte Jeanne de Chantal.

Saint Francois died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 28 December 1622. His last word was “humility”. He believed that the key to love of God is “prayer”. He was declared a saint in 1665 and proclaimed a doctor of the church in 1877.

He is the patron saint of writers!

During a recent retreat in the French Alps, I felt very privileged to pray at the very chapel where Francois often prayed and gave retreats. There I felt particularly close to God and to all those I love very dearly.

Saint Francois de Sales:

The Church on Monts Voirons where Saint Francois prayed & gave retreats:

Notre Dame des Voirons. Looking and protecting all those we love and have placed under her protection.

Path leading to the chapel that is over 500 years old. Saint Francois must have walked by that tree now an old stump!

Catherine wants to become a Sister of Bethlehem some day!

Double ‘Clin Dieu’ – Scapular - Marie Rose!

Et ce temps qui passe… Et ce temps qu’il fait… Beau ou mauvais temps… Il est fait pour aimer et être aimé…

Celui qui a tout à offrir… a aussi tout à proposer…

Alfred Boegner: « Oh! Donnes nous, donne moi de me remettre à cet amour et d’en goûter l’ineffable douceur! »

La ou l’amour l’emporte sur la haine,
Dieu l’emporte sur le serpent,
L’esprit l’emporte sur la chair,
La paix et la justice l’emportent sur la gourmandise et la vanité
Et le bonheur et la joie de vivre l’emporte sur la tristesse et le malheur !

Dear God, thank you for spoiling us so much with so much love each time we put ourselves in Your Love.

As usual, the day started with mass yesterday. But I felt particularly at peace in, with and through God. I felt His joy within me and very close to all those I love. And God would carry on spoiling me all day until I went to bed!

I had picked up on a statement during father Jauffret’s homily. He said that the love Christ puts in our heart is always eventually victorious over the hatred the devil tries to plant there. Walking back home from church, I meditated on God’s love for us.

Thereafter, He decided to spoil me with tangible proof of His love all day!

The scapular I wear around my neck broke in the morning. I thought: If only I were in the States, I could go down to Kaufers and get another one right away. But here, in Mauritius, where would I find scapulars?

Prayerful aunt Germaine and aunt Lilly had invited us for lunch. After lunch, aunt Germaine (92 years old) asked me to fix the brand new paper shredder she had bought. I got it un-jammed and as I walked past aunt Lilly’s room she asked me to come in. She wanted to give me something. Believe it or not! She placed a brown scapular in my hand saying: “I wanted to give you that for some time!!!”

Since Valerie and Didier came here asking to pray the rosary, we have done so on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. Last night, before praying, I told them once again how happy I was to know that his mother loved to pray and taught the family to pray. This time Valerie said: “Yes! In fact, Marie Rose has a number of prayer books.” She got up, left the room and came back with a few of Marie Rose’s prayer books. Didier and I each picked one from her hands full of books.
Believe it or not! As I opened my book, the first thing I saw was: Devotion to the brown scapular!!! I immediately told Didier and Valerie about my earlier story. Then, I reached in my pocket and handed him the brown scapular aunt Lilly had given me. I told him: “Your mother wants me to give you this!” They were so moved!!!

As if that was not enough – Didier then randomly opened the prayer book that he had picked. It said: La Vie est priere! Believe it or not! The page Didier randomely opened the book at is a beautiful prayer to be said by couples who are engaged like them!

He read it aloud: “En mon coeur, Seigneur, s’est éveillé l’amour d’une créature que tu connais et que tu aimes. Toi-même me l’as fait rencontrer et me l’as présenté, comme jadis au Paradis
terrestre tu as présenté Eve a Adam afin que l’homme ne demeurât pas seul…Fais que je ne gaspille pas cette richesse que tu as mise en mon cœur… Je te prie Seigneur pour celle/celui qui m’attend et pense à moi, pour celle/celui qui a mis en moi tout l’espoir de son avenir… »

At the end of that very profound prayer and we all remarked that through, by and with God, Marie Rose was very much present among us!

Later as we prayed more, I wished that I had been able to tape record Didier’s prayer intentions. Apparently, he loves Eve very much because she looks a lot like his mother. Didier prayed for Eve’s to come back to the happiness she deserves so much. Together, we prayed that she would be here in time for her birthday or for Didier and Valerie’s wedding.

When we let go… and we let God… Miracles… Big and small do happen…!!!

Wendy felt that the ‘Living Faith’ reading was so appropriate for my birthday that she recommended I read it. “God will certainly move our hearts to fulfill our destiny if we will simply respond in faith.”

Let God’s will be done placing all of our trust in His Divine Providence.

Can We Pray The Rosary?

The request immediately followed the knock at the door! It was late. I ignored the request. But nonetheless I invited Eve’s nephew, Didier and Valerie to come in. Didier told me that they had prepared some food for me, that he felt that it was important that I eat well and he put it in the refrigerator.

Then Didier took a picture of his mother out. He handed it to me and said: “I brought that for you. I think that Eve looks very much like my mother. Can we say the rosary?”

This time, I could not ignore his humble and persistent plea. I asked them to sit down. I lit a couple of candles and we started praying, meditating and spelling out our prayer intentions.

Of course together we repeated one of his grand mother’s prayers: “Oh! Resurrected Christ, I beg that some of the light of your glorious resurrection shines forth in the mind of my children so that they may take wise decisions concerning their security and happiness.”

Almost two hours later, when we finished praying, I asked Didier where had he learnt to pray with such fervor? The simple answer was: “From my mother.” He told me that as a kid growing up, they prayed together as a family – And Yessss! He said what we have always known and believed: “Because the family that prays together stays together!!!!” That since his mother died, he has missed that fond togetherness during family prayer so much. That this void is what brought him full of hope to my door with the deep desire to pray with family!

I was elated to know that our family traditions have been shared and respected by so many members of the family over centuries across and around the world!!! It confirmed why I found Didier and Valerie to be such a transcending young couple and why Eve has inherited her generous most loving and forgiving heart! It is all in our blood, in the faith of our fathers, and in the love that Jesus has taught our family to hand down from one generation to the next!

I told Didier and Valerie how happy they had made me! Indeed, last night was definitely the best night I have had since my return to Mauritius. They have asked me to come and to pray with them every Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights! I just love it so much!!!

Divine Providence has created multiple circumstances for me to be here right now because this is exactly where I am supposed to be presently!

Victory of Life over Death…

Dear All,

As I told some of you, Eve’s nephew and his fiancée took Godda and I to spend my birthday on Ilot Mangenie.

Of course it brought back fond memories spanning decades. Some of them I was glad to share with some of you recently. I look forward to share more with more of you sooner than later. Was the sun sad that some of you were not there? Had it donned its halo just to say ‘Hello’ or was it to also express its sorrow?




Before taking the boat to go there, we went to clean and pray over his grand father’s tomb.



Then Didier and I snorkeled slowly (because of my heart) along the coast line in front of aunt Laurence bungalow.

Yesterday, was the anniversary of my grand father Louis Leclezio (born on January 4, 1873 – Died October 10, 1949)



Didier took Godda and I to visit his mother’s grave!



I find him to be a kid with a lot of depth. When I questioned his wisdom at such a young age, he humbly replied that he had inherited it from his mother. He explained that she was a Catechism teacher in Africa. Marie Rose taught him to value his faith above all else. It must be a common family trait. She loved the Beatitudes. Didier told me that his faith and his mother’s teachings had helped him overcome major trials in his life. Heretofore unknown to me, Marie Rose led many Africans to the baptismal font and was godmother to a number of them!

While he was cleaning his mother’s grave his comment stunned me. He said that he hoped that our descendants would carry on the tradition and would also come to pray over our graves!!! I could not believe hearing that from him! I immediately told him how you kids in the States honor your mother’s grave and how Lou and I do so even if through photos and Google Earth! Indeed, I told him how I had often remarked that although Francois Leclezio (the first to land in Mauritius) was born in 1773, to this day, I pray for him almost daily. I also hope that God willing, over 200 years from now my descendants will likewise pray for me!

I found this marble plaque as we walked out of the cemetery. “The dignity of a nation is defined by the respect it shows towards the dead.”

On the way back from the cemetery, Didier commented on my book out of the blue. He volunteered that the lines he liked best were the following:

“I remembered a good friend, Jim Mc Creedy, telling me once that the dagger of despair is the devil’s most effective tool to poison our minds and drag us down into his abyss. I recognized that Carl Hagens had tried to stab me and inflict the final wound with that dagger when he had asked me if I felt like jumping from a bridge.

I considered the light bidding me from above and walking away from the law. I, in turn like a robot repeated: “In God I trust” over and over again to myself.

We had refused to yield to the devils of despair so hard at work at the anvils of evil.”

I was in utter awe to realize that he knew those lines by heart! Considering that in a weak moment of despair, his mother did jump, from a window, I had tears in my eyes and a huge lump in my throat.

I understood how God can continuously bring a bright ray of light into utter darkness. How he can use evil to bring forth goodness. I felt that if I had written my book just for Didier, for the joy of hearing his remark and for him to say how often the words: “In God I trust” resonate in his mind since he has read my book, the book would have been well worth writing.

I had never before considered that aspect of my book. I pray that it can continue to give hope to many others and save them from deathly despair.

Indeed I am now thankful to First American, to the likes of Dufficy, Hagens Berman to have complied to God’s Divine Providence in setting the scene just right and making it possible for me to write this book. It has a greater purpose far beyond their restricted parochial outlook on it. James J. Dufficy can criticize my love and respect of the Bible all he wants in his latest e-mail.

Once again God has shown me His Power over the worldly!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

AMEN!

Life - La VIE

Dear Children, Grand children, family and friends,

When I opened my mail on New Year’s day, the following is what I read: “… this baby is going to be born today on the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God (New Year's Day). Please keep the baby and me in your prayers.”

For ‘Thanksgiving’ 2006, I wrote: “I confess that I never thanked God enough for giving me the abundance I did not deserve.”

For Christmas 2006, my post on the blog was about ‘La Vie’ (Life)

To be given the gift of a new life to start a ‘New Year’ - Indeed, how much more spoilt could we be by God? What have we done to deserve so much love from our Father in heaven?

How eternally thankful should we be to God to have been born within a family that values and honors the sanctity of life and looks to God as the source and of ALL life with absolute power over it.

As I was reflecting on this wondrous gift that can neither be purchased nor duplicated at any cost without the will of God, I found some statements by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.

As your father and grandfather, my gift to you in gratitude for God’s (additional – 18th grand child) gift to our family is to share their comments with you.

“On October 4, 1965, when addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Paul VI challenged his audience: "You must make it possible to have enough bread for humanity's table; and not favor the artificial control of births -- something irrational -- to decrease the number of guests at the banquet of life."

"On other occasions, in a past which, hopefully, has been overcome for good, certain nations went to war to seize the riches of their neighbors. Is it not, perhaps, a new form of war that imposes a restrictive demographic policy on certain nations so that they will not claim their rightful share of the earth's goods?"

Notwithstanding "the attacks against the family and human life," he said, "there are numerous families that continue to be faithful, despite the difficulties, to their human and Christian vocation."

These families "react in face of the attacks of a certain contemporary hedonist and materialist culture, and are organizing themselves to offer together a response full of hope," as reflected in the growth of pro-life movements.

The deepest reason for happiness a person can have is to know he is loved by God with a mother's love, says John Paul II.

"As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you," God says in the biblical passage commented on by Pope John Paul II.

Earlier, in the Book of Isaiah, in Chapter 49, the Lord asks: "Can a woman forget her infant, be without tenderness of the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you."

"Only in the family, based on matrimony, is there hope for the grandeur, dignity and future of humanity."

"Families are the architects of society, and this should not be replaced by any political ideology,"

The family is the patrimony of humanity, and not limited to religion.

"Today the very identity of the family is subjected to dehumanizing threats,"

Mentalities are spreading that favor "divorce, contraception, abortion, denying in fact the authentic sentiment of love and attempting, in the last analysis, against human life, by not recognizing every human being's full right to life,"

Thank You Dear Lord for loving us so very much and comforting us all with the gift of LIFE through Terry and Christine. The gift of Finnian Patrick as he is in turn loved and comforted by his mother, father, 5 brothers and sisters on earth, one sister in heaven and all the family and friends!