Dear Sisters,
I spent the last two days at the "Do What Love Requires" 2015 Arizona Marian Conference. There were the usual number of outstanding speakers among which was Christine Watkins. Christine had been an atheist, militantly anti-christian and later looked for meaning in life through the New Age.
She lived a deeply immoral life. Her choices had led her to be diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. She had lost her hair, was bleeding internally and was scarecrow thin. She was in terrible pain and it seemed that her life would end in her twenties. One day a Catholic friend visiting her was praying intently over her. She felt a strong feminine presence and she heard a loud "pop". Her eyes flew open and she asked her friend what had happened to her. He told her that Mother Mary had taken pity on her and had asked her Son to cure her, which He had done.
The deeper more profound and eternal healing that took place, was that Our Lord allowed her to see the condition of her soul. She had always considered herself a good person, but the Lord showed her that being nice and living a moral life were two completely different things. Christine was filled with remorse and called out for forgiveness from the depths of her soul. She sobbed out her regrets on her knees. A beautiful music sounded in her room. She opened a window, but the sound wasn't coming from outside. The room didn't have a clock radio and she didn't have a phone in the room. It was then that she was given to understand that the music was coming from heaven as the Lord and all the angels and saints were rejoicing that she a sinner had repented. They had given her a glimpse to the joy that was being felt in heaven because she, the prodigal, had been embraced by the Lord in His Awesome MERCY!
I find that God, who is a GENIUS, always has a way of tying these kinds of lessons with a bow for me. I've been spending the last couple of weeks reading The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri J.M. Nouwen. I picked up the book this evening, still profoundly moved by all that I had experienced at the conference and read these words, "Celebration belongs to God's Kingdom. God not only offers forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing, but wants to lift up these gifts as a source of joy for all who witness them. In all three of the parables which Jesus tells to explain why he eats with sinners, God rejoices and invites others to rejoice with him. 'Rejoice with me,' the shepherd says, "I have found my sheep that was lost.' 'Rejoice with me,' the woman says, 'I have found the drachma I lost.' 'Rejoice with me,' the father says, 'this son of mine was lost and is found.' All these voices are the voices of God. God does not want to keep his joy to himself. He wants everyone to share in it. God's joy is the joy of his angels and his saints; it is the joy of all who belong to the Kingdom."
There you have it my friends. The words spoken by Christine Watkins and the words of Henri Nouwen, all tied up in a beautiful LOVE bow.
With God's grace I hope to look into my own darkened soul and offer the greatest healer of all my bad habits, sins of omission and the sins that I commit due to family sins. I too want so much to be 'found'. And maybe, in some little corner of heaven, beautiful music will sound as this sinner repents!
Look deeply into your soul sisters, let's give God the JOY of being our savior! I will meet you at the confession line.
Love to all!
Prayer Warrior
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Thy Will Be Done
Dear Sisters,
Thursday, August 6 started out like any other day. I woke up, had breakfast, took a shower and started the list of chores that I had designated for the day. My husband had gotten up very early to participate in a 5:00 AM telephone conference. By 10:00 AM he lay down for a nap and I had decided to take a peek at my email since it was a quiet activity.
A phone call came in just as he started to fall asleep and I ran to pick up the phone, but it was too late. He had heard the ring and I could hear his frustration at having been awakened so quickly from his much needed nap. The words "B is missing", spoken by my elder daughter put me in a state of utter confusion. "What do you mean she's missing?" B's manager at the firm where they both work had called to see if L knew why B hadn't shown up at work that day.
It was 10:00 AM! "Did you call her phone?" I asked. "Yes! She's not answering. Mom should I go see if she's at the townhouse? Her roommate isn't answering her phone either." But, L was on a deadline and besides, I could hear the fear in her voice.
P and I prayed together right there in the kitchen. It was the very first thing we did. We turned to our God, to our Father and put our fear and our love into the short heartfelt prayer.
A quick look at the ADOT website showed that the traffic in the direction that she would have gone was moving smoothly. No accidents had been reported. Not wanting to waste any time, I decided to drive to the townhouse to see if she was there.
Your mind goes through so many scenarios in just a few minutes of time. A kaleidoscope of calamities ran through my head. I didn't know what I would be walking into. I turned to the only thing that made any sense at that moment...prayer.
God himself gave me the grace to say to Him from the depths of my heart, "Thy will be done!" I asked Mary to be with her. I prayed to her Guardian Angel. And I told God that if she was already with Him, that I would need the strength to accept it.
At 10:15 AM a call came from my husband over the Bluetooth in the car. "I have her. She overslept. She can't imagine how she could have slept that long, but apparently she must have turned off her phone alarm and kept on sleeping."
I lived a lifetime in that 15 minutes and died a thousand deaths.
God was with me through every heart-wrenching second of time, He never left me, He never wavered. He carried me through the fear to true faith. The old saying that there are no atheists in a fox hole is something that I could attest to.
I am so grateful that at this moment in time, all is well with my world. My children are healthy and safe. My husband is a rock of strength and God is my fortress.
Dear Father,
Thank you for every moment with my family.
When they were young and living with me I would lay in bed filled with gratitude that they were under my roof.
I am not with them all the time now, but you are.
Thank you dearest God for allowing me to parent my children.
Thank you sweet Lord for the love we have as a family.
And as they walk their journey of life, please guide and protect them every step of the way.
Lord please keep away all evil influences of drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, and unworthy companions. I humbly ask that you send them virtuous and worthy companions. I pray for their souls.
Jesus I trust in you!
Amen!
Thursday, August 6 started out like any other day. I woke up, had breakfast, took a shower and started the list of chores that I had designated for the day. My husband had gotten up very early to participate in a 5:00 AM telephone conference. By 10:00 AM he lay down for a nap and I had decided to take a peek at my email since it was a quiet activity.
A phone call came in just as he started to fall asleep and I ran to pick up the phone, but it was too late. He had heard the ring and I could hear his frustration at having been awakened so quickly from his much needed nap. The words "B is missing", spoken by my elder daughter put me in a state of utter confusion. "What do you mean she's missing?" B's manager at the firm where they both work had called to see if L knew why B hadn't shown up at work that day.
It was 10:00 AM! "Did you call her phone?" I asked. "Yes! She's not answering. Mom should I go see if she's at the townhouse? Her roommate isn't answering her phone either." But, L was on a deadline and besides, I could hear the fear in her voice.
P and I prayed together right there in the kitchen. It was the very first thing we did. We turned to our God, to our Father and put our fear and our love into the short heartfelt prayer.
A quick look at the ADOT website showed that the traffic in the direction that she would have gone was moving smoothly. No accidents had been reported. Not wanting to waste any time, I decided to drive to the townhouse to see if she was there.
Your mind goes through so many scenarios in just a few minutes of time. A kaleidoscope of calamities ran through my head. I didn't know what I would be walking into. I turned to the only thing that made any sense at that moment...prayer.
God himself gave me the grace to say to Him from the depths of my heart, "Thy will be done!" I asked Mary to be with her. I prayed to her Guardian Angel. And I told God that if she was already with Him, that I would need the strength to accept it.
At 10:15 AM a call came from my husband over the Bluetooth in the car. "I have her. She overslept. She can't imagine how she could have slept that long, but apparently she must have turned off her phone alarm and kept on sleeping."
I lived a lifetime in that 15 minutes and died a thousand deaths.
God was with me through every heart-wrenching second of time, He never left me, He never wavered. He carried me through the fear to true faith. The old saying that there are no atheists in a fox hole is something that I could attest to.
I am so grateful that at this moment in time, all is well with my world. My children are healthy and safe. My husband is a rock of strength and God is my fortress.
Dear Father,
Thank you for every moment with my family.
When they were young and living with me I would lay in bed filled with gratitude that they were under my roof.
I am not with them all the time now, but you are.
Thank you dearest God for allowing me to parent my children.
Thank you sweet Lord for the love we have as a family.
And as they walk their journey of life, please guide and protect them every step of the way.
Lord please keep away all evil influences of drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, and unworthy companions. I humbly ask that you send them virtuous and worthy companions. I pray for their souls.
Jesus I trust in you!
Amen!
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