Healing the broken hearted .....a story from America

The small church was crowded. All around me people worshiped a god that I didn't believe existed. Why was I there? My neighbor asked me to come. To be honest, I thought they would leave me alone if I did. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had attended services with my family a few times, but it was more of a ritual or a way to celebrate holidays. What I hadn't anticipated was the wetness pressed against my eyelids as I clenched them shut. My motto? Never them let them see you cry. I wasn't about to break down in front of people I didn't know. I wasn't crying because I felt the presence of God or that I sensed his love for me. I fought tears because I was mad, so angry that I shook inside. How dare the preacher stand there and talk about the love of God. It was easy for him and people like him to spout off about a God who existed, who had a purpose for every person. Well, maybe their God had taken a personal interest in them but he didn't live at my house.

The mother I am about to share with you is the not the mom I have now. You see, she had an encounter with God, and he brought her out of the darkness of emotional pain and healed her. In order to share my story, I have to share a little bit of hers as well. My mom left home at 16 years old, pregnant and newly married to a boy . She lost her first baby to cystic fibrosis when the toddler was less than two years old. She had her second child at 18 and left her husband at the age of 21. He came to visit her one night and forced her to have sex. She discovered two weeks later she was pregnant. I was that baby.

Growing up, I never knew what to expect. Would it be the mom who brought home sweets to surprise us, or the woman who spouted horrific things as she ran out the door and threatened to kill herself? There were humiliating punishments, harsh words, and tearful requests for forgiveness.

Please don't get me wrong. It wasn't always bad in my home, but when it was it was loud and chaotic and frightening. One day my mom chased me through the house, brandishing an umbrella as she screamed at me. I ran out the door and into the rain. I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans and no shoes. The cold rain pelted me as I ran down Latimer Street. I pushed through the wetness, pumping my arms as I ran as fast as I could. Finally I stopped, bending down to catch my breath as my tears meshed with the raindrops. I slowly turned around and walked home, sat on the curb, and wept until my throat closed. I was stuck. I couldn't run away. I had no money, no place to go. I was 13 years old. Where could I go?

I started smoking at the bus stop, pushing boundaries with my teachers, and drinking with my best friend. My attempts to be tough must have appeared hilarious to others. I was skinny to a fault and looked younger than my age. Being tough didn't come natural. My heart was gentle and I hated conflict and fighting, yet every single time I let my guard down someone hurt me. Angry words all sharp and pointy, a knife in my soul. That's when the hardness crept in. Never let them see you cry. Never give them a chance to know you care.

One day it all came to a head. My mom pulled us around her in her bedroom. She put a gun to her head and threatened to shoot herself. I was scared, but not because I thought she would die, but because under my breath I whispered, just do it. Who was this person I was becoming?

Two years later I stood in the little church. The pastor sang, strumming on the guitar as people knelt at the altar. He loves you, he said.He has a plan for your life. Yeah, right. I pointed my chin at the sky, my eyes closed, and I challenged this God of which he spoke. If you are real, I whispered, and I don't believe you are, but if you exist and you know me and you love me like he says, I need to know. 

I expected nothing, yet I received everything as a tender touch reached past my hardened heart. I've had trouble explaining this moment to people over the years. Did you see God? No. Did you feel God's presence? Yes, but so subtle and deep inside of me, touching areas that I had closed long ago to anybody, that I knew it was God. Tears broke and streamed down my cheeks and for the first time in a long time I wept. I felt as if He had wrapped me in a warm blanket, enclosing me in his love. I stumbled from the church. I ran home and told my mom. 

Did everything magically change? No. My circumstances were still the same, but everything was different on the inside of me. 

Today I am a mom, an author, a speaker, and a wife. . Today I am still running after the same God that touched my life when I was 15. I always tell my teen audiences that one day I'll be an old woman running after God with my walking frame. You see, he's done a million things for me. He's been with me through difficult times, but my love for him will always be wrapped around that first moment when he reached down to an angry, hurting, skinny 15-year old teenager and silently whispered that he loved me. I still can't help but whisper back, I love you too. 

(the rest of her family became Christians too)

She shall crush thy head...more rosary stories.

(from the Secret of the Rosary)

Blessed Thomas of Saint John was well known for his sermons on the Most Holy Rosary, and the devil, jealous of the success he had with souls, tortured him so much that he fell ill and was sick so long that the doctors gave him up. One night when he really thought that he was dying, the devil appeared to him in the most horrible form imaginable. There was a picture of Our Lady near his bed; he looked at it and cried with all his heart and soul and strength: "Help me, save me, my sweet, sweet Mother!" No sooner had he said this than the picture seemed to come alive and Our Lady put out her hand, took him by the arm and said:"Do not be afraid, Thomas my son, here I am and I am going to save you: get up now and go on preaching my Rosary as you used to do. I promise to shield you from your enemies."

When Our Lady said this the devil fled and Blessed Thomas got up, finding that he was in perfect health. He then thanked the Blessed Mother with tears of joy. He resumed his Rosary apostolate and his sermons were marvellously successful. Our Lady blesses not only those who preach her Rosary, but she highly rewards all those who get others to say it by their example.

Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to honour the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary. So he used to hang a large rosary on his belt and always wore it, but unfortunately never said it himself. Nevertheless his wearing it encouraged his courtiers to say the Rosary very devoutly. One day the King fell seriously ill and when he was given up for dead he found himself, in a vision, before the judgement seat of Our Lord. Many devils were there accusing him of all the sins he had committed and Our Lord as Sovereign Judge was just about to condemn him to hell when Our Lady appeared to intercede for him. She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances whereas she put the rosary that he had always worn on the other scale, together with all the Rosaries that had been said because of his example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins.

Looking at him with great kindness Our Lady said: "As a reward for this little honour that you paid me in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See that you spend these years wisely, and do penance." When the King regained consciousness he cried out: "Blessed be the Rosary of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, by which I have been delivered from eternal damnation!"

After he had recovered his health he spent the rest of his life in spreading devotion to the Holy Rosary and said it faithfully every day. People who love the Blessed Virgin ought to follow the example of King Alphonsus and that of the saints whom I have mentioned so that they too may win other souls for the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. They will then receive great graces on earth and eternal life later on. "They that explain me shall have life everlasting life." [1] Ecclus. 24:3

A link to the confrasternity of the Holy Rosary :- if you would like to join the oldest prayer group in the world:-  http://rosaryconfraternity.org/the-confraternity/enroll-in-the-confraternity/

A Miracle in Bogota..a story from Columbia..

Brother Araguen, a catechist teaching in the thick jungles south of Bogota, was suffering from tongue cancer and taken to the city for an operation. He dearly hoped to save his tongue so that he could continue his work.

The doctors began by doing only a partial ablation, but the cancer developed and appeared to require a total ablation. The night before the operation, Our Lady appeared to the brother and touched him. He was cured immediately.Continue teaching catechism," she said, "and recite the Rosary with the children. Do not tell anybody about what has happened until you have spoken to the doctor." 

The next morning, the brother refused to be anaesthetized, so the doctor was called in, who spoke to him about the importance of prolonging his life, even at the price of losing his tongue. But the brother explained to him that the cancer had disappeared and the doctor noted that the excised part of the tongue had been entirely and perfectly reconstituted. 

A bronze plate at the Jesuit College in Bogota commemorates this event and Brother Araguen lived many more years, singing the praises of Our Lady and extolling the power and the importance of the Rosary, while teaching catechism to children.

Near Death Experiences..

Taken from a friends Facebook..

..., an outreach from Singapore came, she had stage 4 colon cancer. we prayed together over the phone a lot and though prayer  helped;  her sickness is a very difficult one. Her liver and other organs already contracted cancer. Her doctors in Singapore were so apprehensive , knowing that her case was so advanced that they too were not sure of what would be the outcome of the operation. Well, she made it! She was healed and free from all cancer cells. 

But this is not the story..... While she was in the hospital, she was gasping for air, and can't breath. she found herself wandering in midst of darkness. She felt afraid and so very nervous, she could not see anything but darkness. She tried to pray but she could not find the words. She stopped and tried to seek in her heart what should be done and words came out of her mouth begging God for forgiveness. While she was asking for forgiveness, she saw a light but not enough to see the surroundings. as she walked closer to the light, she faltered in believing, just hoping that this experience will end. She could not understand why she was doing a left turn, then again darkness overshadowed her, then she saw a red light not so far from her and she was going. and she was hearing loud cries of people in the red light. 

The red light was starting to engulfed her and the feeling was so hot the she could not bear it. She cried out loud to God telling Him that she was not for that place and deep in her heart, she truly repented. A video of her past was shown to her and she felt so unworthy and ashamed, but the Lord accepted her cry. Again she being drawn to the light. She felt so much peace and ready to enter but she remember her kids and one among them who was not yet reconciled with her. Right there and then she asked for an extension, but the Lord had no response to this, until she made a commitment that she will serve the Lord for the rest of her life. 

At that moment, she came back and saw her husband crying and praying for her recovery. She is now testifying for the Lord. She and the husband with the sister in law came to tell her story and most especially to thank the Lord in the chapel where we offered her suffering to God.