Catholics
Comments
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Thank you your post meant so much to me.
God Bless!
Jan
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Traci - you ask such good questions!! Michelle is right in her response so can't add much. I think there are about 10,000 saints, many who are patron saints of different causes. To become a saint, among other requirements, is to have caused at least one documented miracle thru God while they were on earth. One Catholic belief (and correct me anyone if I'm wrong) is that praying to a saint doesn't take the place of praying to God. But, praying to a saint to intercede (on your behalf) directly to God can be more powerful than 'regular prayers.' Have I got that right ladies?
geewhiz - a "lurker" no more...
another great story. I don't especially like the term lurker either. Visitors sound better, but I don't suppose it matters. The point is all are welcome.
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I think that we have a number of quiet participants on this thread who read regularly, some of whom may join in the prayers, but who may not yet be ready to post about their faith in a public place, or may not feel the need to post right now. They will post when they are ready, and we should include them in our intentions.
Those who live a cloistered life don't make public statements or declarations, but they are no less an important part of the Catholic Church.
Thank-you for all of the prayers. Friday was as healing a day for everyone in the family as is possible under the circumstances.
I loved Theresa's account of her "embrace" by the Holy Spirit. I think that those kind of things happen all of the time, but we are so focused on day to day concerns in this world that we don't always notice or recognize them.
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I agree lets drop the discuscussion on lurkers. It's creating conflict --Not worth it . Sheila
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Good morning (or good afternoon),
Jan ~ will be praying for your low onco score, quick healing, lift depression.
Janet ~ thanks for sharing about St. Mary of MacKillop. You are right about praying to Saints is to ask them to intervene to assist us in praying to God.
geewhiz ~ thanks for sharing your story. No white truck and stray jacket for you (LOL). I can relate to your story! Please read the verbiage below (it was an email to me by my Principal from a Catholic H.S. and he's a Priest). So don't feel guilty about putting a pause on your Faith before, we all went through it and I want to share it again.
YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH VERY DIFFICULT AND SOUL-SEARCING TIMES, PAULA. YOUR RESPONSE IN TURNING BACK TO MORE REGULAR RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE IS NOT UNCOMMON: WE ALL NEED GOD BUT WE DON'T ALWAYS KNOW THAT WE NEED GOD. YOU HAVE LOTS OF COMPANY, AND THAT IS NOT ONLY TRUE OF LAYPEOPLE, I CAN TELL YOU. GOD DOESN'T MOVE. WE ARE THE ONES WHO COME AND GO. BUT THE DOOR IS ALWAYS - AND I MEAN ALWAYS - OPEN. I THINK OF A POEM I USED TO LOVE DOING WITH STUDENTS: THE PULLEY, BY GEORGE HERBERT, A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY WRITER. HE SAID GOD GIVES US ALL SORTS OF GIFTS AND THEN RESERVES "REST." BECAUSE AS HE SAYS, IF GOODNESS DOESN'T TOSS US TO GOD'S BREAST, THE FELT NEED FOR HIM WILL. I THINK THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE EXPERIENCING AND WHAT WE ALL DO WHEN WE ARE REALLY IN NEED. THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS WITH ME. MY FAITH NEEDS STRENGTHENING TOO AND YOU ARE MINISTERING TO ME HERE.
For Novenas ~ I purchased a book called "The Church's Most Power Novenas" by Michael Dubruiel from Amazon. ISBN: 978-1-59276-097-8. The book is a pocket sized book measuring 4" x 6 3/8" x 3/8", consists of365 pages. Light weight, easy to carry. In the forward section, he talks about the Novenas, History of Novenas, Novena problems to avoid and Trust. In the Appendix, it also has all the prayers common to Novenas.
My National Broker Exam is set for Tues, Oct 19th at 5pm PST (8pm EST). We have 3 hours to complete it. Please pray for me that I will pass, I'm worried because my memory is definitely not as sharp as before BC. I will also skip my rad that day. Theresa you are right, if I flunk, I can take another, but will have to wait 30 days and it will cost money
Prayers for this group and all of our intentions, Amen!
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Thank you all for helping me learn more about your faith. I really respect people's passion and enjoy learning so much. I actually hope that after I cross, I will spend much time studying and learning, it is almost as good as food for me.
So i did talk to my BC Sister this afternoon, which was very healing for me. We are going to get together again, and also help each other in our new normal, and embrace our lives.So very happy right now, AND I am off to the pool with my friend, so I will be back later to read all of your wonderful posts, learn more about Saints and asking for intercession. geewhiz, what a beautiful experience, the timing, everything about it is so blessed. I am not sending any men in white suits your way. Again, stop me if I am off base, but throughout the Bible, there are Angels that have appeared, and God spoke to Moses, visited Mary, and I would love if it more could chime in with their Bible knowledge. I too have had more experiences, no more with my Dear Angel friend, but I have had dreams that came to fruition, two in detail. One that got my friend good because I told him before it happened to him. What is that? I don't know..are we picking up on energy, future energy...all very confusing. The most important part, in my humble opinion, is to always strive to work with God, light and positivity.
I am off to swim....see you all later,
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Sheila, I respect your request to hush the lurker conversation, but a thought: how about combining Janet and Pat's to "Quiet Visitors"
Traci, the difference between the Holy Spirit and God? They're one and the same. The Trinity is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit... the mystery is that they're all one. I had a monk tell me that the Trinity represents kind of a family all rolled up into one Person. God the Father is the Creator, created all for the Son our brother, the one who walked among us, who is also God, and the Holy Spirit is like the feminine part of God, the nurturer, the one who comes and breathes the life of the Father. The Holy Spirit is represented in Scripture as wind, breath, fire, dove... traditionally the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are fear of the Lord, piety, knowledge, understanding, counsel, wisdom and fortitude. Nice article: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0451.html
As for special ways of praying with Saints, yes novenas are pretty traditional, but just asking them for help... being a nag :-), like the scripture reading today about the nagging widow and the judge. The Saints want nothing more than to help if it is God's will. Like the Virgin Mary, they intercede for us... like brothers and sisters going to Dad on our behalf. Yes, we can go directly to God and we do go directly to God with our requests and gratitude, but it's nice to have brothers and sisters ask him too.
Paula - you are wise to say "without good spiritual guidance" you are stuck. There is a danger of putting too much emphasis on the sixth sense... card readers, fortune tellers, dreams, etc. It's hard for us to discern good from evil sometimes, which is why when I'm disturbed about something like that, I'll talk to a priest of spritual advisor. They've had training and can lead us in the right direction. You have a powerful sixth sense and it would be good if you could channel it with a good spiritual advisor and/or priest. I had a friend at my last employment who had several dreams, like your airplane one, that came true. Very spooky, but very much of our human/spiritual side. Some of us are more attuned to it than others. That was a great letter from your priest friend. You know, they LOVE it when a penitent, good person comes to them for help... it really does minister to them too. When you give, you receive. So everyone, don't ever think your confession is too bad or too trivial or that your questions are too stupid. Priests, nuns, spiritual advisors can all tell a true, searching soul and love it when they can minister.
Jan - I'll say a chaplet of Divine Mercy for you today. The waiting and uncertainly is a heavy weight to bear. Have you tried mentally letting it go, giving it all to Jesus? Sometimes, if I feel the need to really communicate (not necessarily talk) to Jesus, I picture us at the last supper table. I'm not sitting up with the 12, but sitting in the room while all this activity is bustling around us. I look up, and Jesus is looking at me, just me and him gazing at each other lovingly. It helps me lift despair from my heart.
Janet - thank you for the link! Me too: Dear St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop, we rejoice in your sainthood. Please pray for the women in this fellowship that we may have God's healing. Amen.
Welcome geewhiz and toby!!!
There's so much goodness here and so much reading to do!!
Peace and all good to you!
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Yes Theresa, those few words are at the essence of all...'if it is God's will.' That's the hard part and the part that requires the most faith. Whenever I wonder why prayers aren't answered - I have to remind myself that they are answered - it just might not be a 'yes.' Might be 'no' or might be 'not yet.' It may not be the answer I wanted (my will), but it's God's will and only He knows how all the puzzle pieces fit of our individual life on earth in connection with everyone we know and don't know. I think even Mother Theresa struggled with this deeply & often in her life in her mission with the poorest of the poor, suffering & disease. I've actually been meaning to read a good biography of her to understand how she coped- anyone have a suggestion?0
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Perfectly said, Janet.
How about: Mother Teresa, A Simple Path. Compiled by Lucinda Vardey. It starts with "I can tell you about my path," said Mother Teresa, "but I'm only a little wire - God is the power. Talk to the others, the sisters and brothers and the people who work with them. Some are not Christians, talk to them. You will know what it is when you see it. It is very beautiful."
I think I read it years ago, but I need to re-read it. I'm not sure if it addresses her years of depression but it is in her own words.
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Dear All sisters,
Theresa ~ thank you for your confirmation, it means a lot to me. Like geewhiz is saying, I don't want people to think I need a stray jacket. You're right about seeking Spiritual advisor and guidance. I don't have a priest that I can talk to here in town, but I do have 2 that I can correspond through emails. One being my ex-principal and the 2nd one is the priest that my s-i-l introduced to me, I've only written him twice briefly. Fr. Edwin said that I'm included in his mass daily. Just a thought came to me, I will email Fr. Edwin to include all of us sisters here (why didn't I think of it earlier?)
About my sixth sense, I used to be able to read people if there's danger in the near future. The problem was it is a sense of "danger" but not knowing what type of danger that made it hard to warn people, again, they might think that I'm crazy. Several incidents occured in the past, my office manager had dark spots on her face, my tuition said "someone in her family is gravely ill", my colleagues didn't see what I saw, when I asked my manager "what's wrong, is someone sick in your family? She responded, how did you know? I said, oh I just sensed it". Her father was gravely ill in the hospital in the United States, we were in Hong Knog. He passed away a couple of days later.
Another incident, back in 1995. I was talking to a painter who'll do interior painting of my house. His name was Michael. He stopped by my house to ask me if I had thought about the special techniques I may want on the wall. I said I don't know what I wanted. He said he can cut out several pieces of dry wall and apply different techniques and show me next week, then I could choose. We were just talking by the front entrance of my house. All along during the conversation, I could see a grey circle in between him and I. The circle is about 12-14 inches in diameter. I thought it was my contacts being dirty and I was shifted my head to the right and then to the left and he asked me what's wrong. No matter how I moved, the circle moved too, it's just in between him and I. I said, oh nothing. The feeling immediately after checking my visual at 2 different angles was "he's in danger". No clue what kind of danger, just danger. No clue when either, in the near future is the feeling. Well, 2-3 weeks had past, and I've paged him several times. I knew he was busy with his regular painter job, he was doing a side-job for me so I wasn't expecting too much. Few more weeks had past and I saw his colleague on the street doing another house. I stopped him and asked about Michael. He said, "oh you didn't know? He was killed several Fridays ago. I was then told that he was shot by his girlfriend's ex-husband. He stalked them, followed them to a motel and shot both of them. The woman survived and he didn't. In fact, I heard the news but didn't put the 2 together. The circle that I saw can be described as being identical to the splatter screen for a frying pan for cooking. It just doesn't have a handle, only the circle.
My girlfriend asked me, why didn't you say anything to that guy? I said, well the reading came abruptly, I got the sense of danger but what am I to say to the guy? "Hey, er I see this circle between us, now I'm not a psychic but I think you are in danger!". Here it is this Caucasian man being told by an Asian lady that he's in danger - imagine that. And what kind of danger and when, I didn't know. I still think of it often.
My f-i-l keeps telling me to meditate. I need to learn how.
And oh - I always wanted to mention that a suggestion that we "pray for the souls in purgatory". My m-i-l said that if we pray for the souls in purgatory, they in turn will pray for us.
Prayer of
St. Gertrude the Great Our Lord dictated the following prayer to St. Gertrude the Great to release 1,000 Souls from Purgatory each time it is said.
"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen."
St. Gertrude's life was the mystic life of the Cloister - a Benedictine nun. She meditated on the Passion of Christ, which many times brought a flood of tears to her eyes. She did many penances and Our Lord appeared to her many times. She had a tender love for the Blessed Virgin and was very devoted to the suffering souls in Purgatory. She died in 1334. Her feast day is November 16th.0 -
Hi Sheila and Traci,
Got a lymph node question for you ladies. My husband and I were about to give each other a hug about 2 days ago, Usually I am very careful about my left side, this time as we hugged, my L arm was still raising to his shoulder but his arm was coming towards me quicker and his forearm bumped under my armpit. It gave me a good jolt of pain although it wasn't bumped hard. And now, I feel that it has a mild buise inside and it also feels a tiny bit swollen. I've also had 4 rads so far.
Can that small bump cause anything on me or can it be a SE from rads? Please give me your advice.
Thank you in advance! xoxo
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Invocation Day 7:
Mary, Mother of the Church, help the church in these lands to follow your example of sublime love and profound humility. With you, may we be obedient to the commandment of love, and give our selves whole heartedly to seeking the glory of Christ and serving the needs our brothers and sisters.
refrain: O Lady of Guadalupe, pray for the Church in America and walk with us in the new Millennium of Faith.
Our Father, 3 Hail Mary's, and a Glory be
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Please pray the above for today, and be ready for 7am PST tomorrow and we will pray day 8 together, if you want to pray the whole hour I will be praying for an hour and reciting the rosary as well.
I am so excited and am happy to be joined by you lovely ladies.
I will post the prayer for tomorrow here tonight.
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Hi Michelle,
Is there a special way of praying the rosary tomorrow? And can you please add one more intention for me? I need to pass my National Broker Exam on Tues, Oct 19th.
Thank you so much!
God Bless!
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You can pray the whole rosary or a decade, you can do any of the mysteries it does not matter, just remember to offer all prayers, the novena to Our Lady on behalf of the intentions listed here and I usually sit and meditate on each intention and say Our Lady, Lord, and all the Saints hear our Prayers
I have added your intention as well
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Ladies Here is an updated list of the intentions to be prayed for, have had an overwhelming response. So happy this is happening. Please print this updated list for the prayers each day. The Intentions are below and we can add to them today if I have forgotten any or you just have new to add:The Ladies of this Catholic Thread and their specific intentionsPat, her Grandson's well being and CouragePrayersareanswered, success of surgery, health upon surgery, and positive prognosis of PathologyTheresa, Peace of mind and Health, for her 4 children to return to the FaithLMFSM, Health and Safety of her familyPaula, Return to health, relief from fatigue. For her Mother Terry's return to health, and for her Husband and children as well,support in passing broker's examRose, Return to Health, recover from Coma.Marylee and MJ, Peace and financial help, health of familyMichelle, return to health, intentions for Husband Rick, and family. Support for personal spiritual project. AMG!Laura, for her son Taylor and her friend on BCO here that needs support, and relief and healing of her LE Kindone (Betty) for her Husband's return to health, successful outcome of her upcoming surgery, and friend Debbie that is dealing with brain cancer. Patty and Steven, healing from Cancer For Sheila's dear Husband Greg, that he has found heaven and is at Peace.Traci, a return to health and her pain addressed, for her disabled Father, and for her Sister to find the true spirit. Torigirl, for complete response to surgery and therapy and complete eradication of bc.,for her brothers and sisters and all here on bc.org needing healing and support, end of bc for good. PatMom, for her brother's eternal peace and the healing of her family BCMOMOF3, for miracles in treatment and for her family For all of the ladies here: Laura, Jeannine, Apple, Carol, Barb, Judy, Sheila, Jan, Janet, Traci, Nita, Betty, Nancy, Pat, PatMom,Camul,NoniJones, YATCOMW,Pure.Paula..........and prayers for an end to breast cancer!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Michelle ~ thank you for updating my intentions.
xoxo
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Hi All,
Welcome Jan508, GeeWhiz, and Toby and all the other Namaste Friends! I think BC is a time when we all are searching for meaning and comfort and I'm glad that others come to this thread looking for that comfort. Welcome, everyone - posters or not, Catholics or not!
Squidwitch - I'm not having surgery - all my surgeries, including removing the chemo port - are done. Let's hope that's it for me.
DiamondGirl - I read the St. Helwig story....and, we think we have tough lives! Imagine being married off so young, raising 7 kids and then going into the convent.
God answers our prayers in ways expected and unexpected. Many years ago I adopted two children from the state - one was 9 and the other 12. The 12 year old is now 27 and has been through many difficult times. He has a 4 year old son, my grandson Will, who I took home on October 22, 2008 (at age 2) when my son and his girlfriend were incarcerated. Will has lived with me and my wonderful husband since. When I realized that Will may be with me for a long journey, I started to worry about living long enough to be there for him as he grows up - I'll be 72 when he graduates high school, for example. On October 16, 2009, I was back in family court (for like the 7th time) and the judge ended the visitation of the mother's family (a dysfunction, violent bunch) and reaffirmed my custody. I started praying to God to let me live a healthy and long life for my grandson. I usually prayed in the car going to work every morning and this was my request. On October 25th I felt a lump in my right breast -- that hadn't been there before, went to the gynocologist who sent me to the breast specialist, diagnostic mamogram, ultrasound biopsy...breast cancer diagnosed within a couple days. I felt bretrayed! Hey, God, this isn't fair! And, I was mad about it.
So, the breast cancer journey for me began with great fear and anger...it was during an early chemo session that my oncologist came in to see me and said, "I usually don't say this to my patients - I feel very strongly that for some reason we need to go for a cure for you..so, we're going for the cure and I'm throwing the best (and worst) I have at you." I never said "cure" to anyone - including my oncologist. It was then that I realized that God had revealed this disease to me to keep me safe and to help me survive. It was an insidious tumor, hidden well in the side of my breast and had not shown up in previous exams. I am sure it was God's way of answering my prayers...catching this cancer before it turned into Stage 4. I'm not mad anymore - put my life and future in his hands and feel that as long as I do my best for myself and my family, whatever is God's way is just fine. I stopped worrying too.
I don't know why I needed to tell you this but I think we all have reasons to want to live and BC is a scary and lonely journey. I love this thread because we're all seeking comfort in God's arms and helping each other find that. I'm trying to accept His will and find peace in that.
Thank you sisters for your help in my own journey. I am very grateful.
Ciao!
Pat
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Pat: thank you for sharing your story. Life, for many of us, is SUCH a burden, then to have cancer on top of everything!!! Makes you wonder if the stress has anything to do with it. You have the right attitude now ... we're humans and the rain falls on the good and the bad, as does the sun. God comforts us on that journey.
I am grateful too for this thread and all my sisters.
Paula: thanks for the St. Gertrude prayer!
Back to work tomorrow. :-(
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can change
And the wisdom to know the difference.
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Day 8 (Tomorrow 7am PST)
Mary, Mother or all Christians, hear the prayers of all who worship the name of your Son, Jesus, our hope and salvation. Under the protection of your prayers , may the Church in America enjoy unbroken peace.
Refrain: O Lady of Guadalupe, pray for the Church in America and wake with us in the millennium of faith
Our Father, 3 Hail Mary's an a Glory be.
We will start this at 7am PST, please offer these prayers for our intentions above, if you have time a rosary would be great.
Any new intentions please PM me tonight.
Will post tomorrow after my visitation.
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Michelle,
Is this 0700 Eastern Standard Time? how does this work?
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Traci ~ it's 7am PST. tomorrow. You will say Day#8 prayer as posted by Mmm5 above (then read aloud the intentions requested by all on the list) and follow by 1 Our Father, 3 Hail Mary, 1 Glory Be. You can also say 1 decade of Rosary (10 Hail Mary and 1 Our Father).
xoxo
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mmm5-
I'm not that smart...I"m CST...what time will that be for me??? Thanks!
Tori
DE COLORES!
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7am Pacific Time
8 am Mountain Time
9am Central Time
10am Eastern Time
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thank you Paula, makes sense now..I had no idea what a decade was
So I was reading your question, and I can only speak from personal experience that it took until the third week of Rads before I noticed any redness and another week or so before it got more tender under my arm. I definitely am more tender under each arm, which I relate to my mastectomies and scar tissue. When my Rads MD would press on the area I would jump. I'm thinking it is more about your previous surgery, but as I always say, any concerns have your MD or the Nurse take a look at it tomorrow. Hopefully all is well.So, does that mean it's 0400 for me tomorrow?
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JanetinVirginia-
YOU ROCK! Thanks!
Tori
DE COLORES!
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Traci,
It'll be 10am EST for you.
Thanks for explainning about the rads SE. Funny, I wouldn't think that I would be allergic to Aquafor, it got me pinkish when I applied it twice yesterday. Today it is gone. Previous to that, I used Miaderm.
Weird. Aquafor is just a petrolatum.
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May I say, Thank you Jesus! for the 10:00 AM without sounding crass? I have big issues with waking up, and now that Paula sorted out my East and West Coast time zones, I am happy happy. Thanks Paula for re-directing me
I can give my best at 10:00, not so good at 0700.0 -
Oh, and Janet, I didn't see yours too, thanks for the time zone info!
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Geewiz--no truck will come for you, but thank you for coming here. Your story in the desert was so beautiful tears are flowing
Jan we welcome you also, may all that we know and share, help lift you for the dark place you are in. I was there too, It's no fun. Stay with us. Pm michelle--mmm5 with your intention for Mary of Quadalupe.
Namaste to all here and about--Dear God, His only Son Jesus, Our Mother Mary, and the whole of the Court of heaven, we pray for the healing of all, in mind and spirit and body. Take all these things that trouble us and cast them away. Amen
Sheila
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