Catholics
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I am going to choose some excerpts from the book Embraced by the Light, by Betty J. Eadie.
Betty had a near death experience after a partial hysterectomy in 1973. Her book is a very vivid account, and I remember she was on Oprah to discuss her NDE. Betty also talks about her great fear of God and a disconnect with Spirit that existed before her NDE, and completely changed afterwards. She says, "now I knew there was a God."
The first excerpt involves part of her journey, teaching and understanding of Heaven. Her words do mirror exactly what I have always felt was the truth of me, and I have mentioned it here before. She absolutely talks of God and Jesus, Angels and other spirit guides...but this is where I opened the book, so I will start here...
"To my surprise, I saw that most of us had selected the illnesses we would suffer, and for some the illness that would end our lives. Sometimes healing does not comes immediately, or at all, because of our need for growth. All experience is for good, and sometimes it takes what we would consider negative experience to help us develop our spirits. We were very willing, even anxious, as spirits to accept all of our ailments, illnesses and accidents here to help better ourselves spiritually. I understood in the spirit world our earth time is meaningless. The pain we experience on earth is just a moment, just a split second of consciousness in the spirit world, and we are very willing to endure it. Our deaths are often calculated to help us grow...
Under the guidance of the Savior, I learned that it was important for me to accept all experience as potentially good. I needed to accept my purpose and station in life. I could take the negative things that had happened to me and try to overcome their effects. I could forgive my enemies, even love them, and thereby nullify any bad influence they may have had on me. I could seek good thoughts and kind words, and thus bring healing ointment to my soul as well as to others. I saw that I could begin to heal myself, spiritually first, then emotionally, mentally and physically. I saw I could spare myself the corrosive effects of despair. I had the right to live fully.
more to come...
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{{{Traci}}}, I must be psychic (LOL), I just got back to the computer and voila you just posted!!!
I'll read it now
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Squid your probably typing as i am right now . Does anyone remember KUBLER -ROSS that wrote the definitive book on the DEATH and DYING the five stages of grief. When she published her work on NDE's she was ostrazied from the Psyhiatric community as a Quack. She was the first scientist to publish on it. It was heart breaking at the time. She had spent so much time with people dying . She kept notes on their NDE's . She even divised an experiment with patients permission to weigh them immediately before and after death. Without anything changing there was a very small weight change. Can't remember how much. But her work and ideas re:NDE's was denigrated by the science community.
Checked on nurses thread---there's 2 that aren't right. but they are still posting. Nursing not only eats their young they desecrate the olders. And we chose this profession why?
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The next excerpt involves prayer, which is perfect for our group!
I saw the sphere of earth rotating in space. I saw many lights shooting up from the earth like beacons. Some where very broad, and charged into heaven like broad laser beams. Others resembled the illumination of small pen lights, and others were mere sparks. I was surprised when I was told that those beams of light were the prayers of people on earth.
I saw Angels rushing to answer the prayers. They were organized to give as much help as possible. As they worked within this organization, they literally flew from person to person, prayer to prayer, and they were filled with love and joy by their work. They delighted to help us and were especially joyful when someone prayed with enough intensity and faith to be answered immediately. They always responded to the brighter, larger prayers first, then each prayer in turn, until all of the prayers were answered. I did notice, however, that insincere prayers of repetition, have little, if any light; and having no power, many of them are not heard.
I was distinctly told that all prayers of desire and need are heard and answered. When we have great need, or when we are praying for other people, the beams project straight from us and are immediately visible. I was also told that there is no greater prayer than that of a mother for her children. These are the purest prayers because of their intense desire, and, at times, sense of desperation. A mother has the ability to give her heart to her children and to implore mightily before God for them. We all have the ability, however, to reach God with our prayers.
(and one more excerpt coming..)
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Squid love you honey have to go to bed Sheila
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I understood that once our prayers of desire have been released, we need to let go of them and trust in the power of God to answer them. He knows our needs at all times and is simply waiting for an invitation to help us. He has all power to answer prayers, but is bound by his own law and by our wills. We must invite his will to become our own. We must trust him. Once we have asked with sincere desire, doubting nothing, we will receive.
Our prayers for others have great strength, but can only be answered as far as they do not infringe on another's free will-or as long as they do not frustrate others' needs...The range for our help for others is immense. We can do far more good for our families, friends and others than we ever imagined.
END
and so ends tonights/todays
NDE. She does describe in vivid detail the colors, the beauty, other Angels, Jesus, and much more. So if it resonates, great, if not, then it is one woman's story, and only meant to open up our minds to the importance of prayer, the potential that we have our own purpose and mission, and that things like illness and pain (suffering) may be in place to help us grow spiritually, and to perhaps be accepting of our challenges as we may prosper in them. Let me know what you think, if you want.traci
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good night Sheila (40 minutes too late) Love you too. Paula, did you fall asleep while I was hard at work, typing away? (LOL)
Good night ladies.
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Traci, Sheila ~ I fell asleep sitting with DH and son watching a bit of tv and slept. I'm up to walk back to bed but needed to turn off computer first (LOL).
Body feels crummy and I could feel a small headache coming. The more I think about what rad onc said that the beam does hit my heart, all the more I want to stop the rads treatment.
See you sisters tomorrow. Good night and sweet dreams - God Bless!
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Traci
Your first post resonated soooooo much for me, I believe our spirits are guiding our will and we do choose our illness for growth, and I am desperately trying to grow here so I don't need to grow anymore with bc.....LOL!
I think for me it is Loss of CONTROL, and how that has impacted me my whole life. bc has made me completely powerless in so many things so I am choosing to take back my power by giving it all back to God with trust....so far when I really do this it works.
Thanks so much for posting it is a wonderful excerpt for us all to sit with.
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I have two suggestions for the group to consider.
First, I believe we all enjoyed partaking in the novena to Mary of Quadalupe. There have been other novenas mentioned individually. What if we did a novena a week or whatever the novena requires, as a group i.e. this weeks novena is to ST.______. We would be in collective prayer vs scattered. Each novena would be begun with a short description of the Saint or group. The description of the angels and there specific area of "work". was very enlightening as I don't remember ever hearing it that way before. Is it in the bible?The novena would be done here on the Catholic thread.
Secondly,I also suggest another topic thread where we put in our intentions only, and that the thread description specifically states that as such, that it is not meant to be a discussion area. This would allow us to review intentions without paging back. The PRO for that is then it would be no extra added work for one individual. For example, it was alot of work for Michelle to keep track of intentions and then repost them. Michelle your opinion here is very important because you were the one doing all the work related to the intentions. I forget who is now doing the work for the carmelite novena.I think it's theresa???
Then when the intention list is needed to be sent to say the carmelites, it just needs to be printed off. We also have the ability to make sure any private info is not transmitted, like are real names vs just our avatar name. Also when putting in the intention that may be printed and sent ,. we can assure whomever the intention is for that they define for us how they want their name placed.This allows for each of our intentions to be continued through each novena. No one will slip through the cracks. I hope this is written clear enough?
So in summary :
1.The topic thread would include our description of the intent for intentions only
2. Instruction to return to the catholic thread to be included in the novena that is ongoing at that time
3. Describe that we perfer no discussion on this thread, return to the Catholic thread or your own spiritual thread for discussion (i could see that others may want to add to the intention list That may not be Catholic. WE effectively have declared ourselves to be ecumenical in approach as we have invited all to join us. But There are other spiritual sites, That may want to list, but then return to there sites But clearly state our intent to send the list when needed to, to the group that is doing the praying that is outside our group, for example, the Benedictines or Carmelite order and if that is a problem then please refrain from posting an intention.
4 Add the list of the grouping of angels(this group is very long and specific and having it in the topic thread again would reduce having to page back or as a first posting)
5. Put in the topic thread whatever else we agree that needs to be there. The topic thread description would be long ,but I think managable
Namaste L&H's and faith Sheila
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I'm sorry but I guess this means I can't come here as I'm not Catholic or am I interpreting this wrong? Sorry for intruding on a Catholic thread. I will search out or start one for protestants that are Evangelical/Charasmatic. My apologies and God bless you all!
John 3:16
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Hi smiling spirit. What?? Absolutely you or anyone else is not intruding!! I think what Sheila is suggesting is to start a new BCO thread for Prayer Intentions - where anyone can list their requests for prayers.. There are several prayer threads and that may help to pull it all together. Woman on many places on the site in many different categories send out a call for prayers - emergency or otherwise. If I'm understanding Sheila right, doesn't change a thing for this thread. I hope so much you will stay - there is a big movement in the Catholic religion toward charasmatic and has always been evangelical in its missions. We all worship the same God and believe in Jesus Christ- that's what counts.
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SmilingSpirit: I'm not sure why you interpreted anyone's post as excluding anyone who is not Catholic? You are most welcome. All prayers are heard by God.0
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Smiling Spirit ---you misinterpreted what I meant. We have consistently invited all who wanted to pray with us. Please reread and if you can figuire out exactly what I wrote to give you that impression tell me and I will edit it immediately so no one else has a chance of misinterpretation. We are an all inclusive group. I will PM you right now in case you have left all ready.
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Sheila: yes, I am the one collecting prayer intentions for the Souls of the deceased for the Carmelites. I will only post them if the group wants me to post them.... I hadn't really intended on posting them b/c I figured it was personal, but also understand the power of group prayer.
Having a separate thread for intentions is really a good idea b/c I can't keep track! :-)
The Catholic thread has been an oasis in the desert for me. It's a place where I feel I can share and learn without feeling stupid or ostracized as we tend to be in the secular world.
Traci: Nice story... goes really well with the Suffering pamphlet I posted. It all has purpose and how we handle it really matters. And I bet you nurses really see some holy people of all walks of life during their suffering journey. Like Mother Teresa. And you have examples of some not so nice people too and can pray for them as well. You can witness how much they are blocking the Holy Spirit from their lives... And yes, you said it right - we did a Chaplet. :-)
Betty: I'm Feb 6!
Novenas are usually 9 days.... so we would not be able to do one weekly. Twice a month or monthly.
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Today I'm offering prayers for our doctors.
St. Luke, physician disciple, we pray to you and to our Dear Lord. Please guide the hands of our physicians. Give them the wisdom to make the right choices in our treatments. Send them divine guidance that they so need to compensate for the limited understanding of cancer and the absence of a clear path to treatment and a cure. Restore us to health through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Smiling Spirit, You are on the right threat. We all love the Lord and believe Jesus died for us. We wouldn't be Christians if that was the case. I an a Catholic/Born again christian. You belong and I love your prays as you pray just like me. Welcome
BETTY
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All are Welcome. (smiling spirit)
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Sheila: That was a wonderful post yesterday, especially directed at Laura, but it was like you were talking to me too.... about work, about LE, about life.
I decided after 1/1/2years---(total 3 years to no longer wearing traction), it wasn't. The richness in the diversity of things, that I've learned because I chose to leave the situation that was hurting me, has been amazing. We each think we are trained for one thing. We're not, once you reach a certain level of knowledge, you can move to other things.
We were given a "second chance" at life and now have the choice to really live freely. What I was doing before BC didn't bring me fulfillment on many levels and I had many "dark nights of the soul", but I feel I'm coming out of the darkness and know that I am not defined by my job. I am and will be what God wants me to be. My prayer is for discernment of God's will.
God bless you.
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I did have one more comment before I'm off.... From the book excerpt above:
I did notice, however, that insincere prayers of repetition, have little, if any light; and having no power, many of them are not heard.
That is very true. But I hope no one thinks that saying repetition prayers, such as the rosary or chaplets, have no power. For each decade of beads, there is a mediation you are supposed to do ... there are 15 mysteries of the rosary, so for instance, when you're praying the 5 joyous mysteries, you medidate on the decade of beads, The Annunciation, The Visitation, The Birth of Jesus, The Presentation of Jesus, The Finding of Jesus in the Temple. It's hard to do. The power comes from the mediation of those mysteries. And the Chaplet of Divine Mercy ... repetition of prayers, but each decade you mediate on 1. The nail going through Christ's right palm, 2. The nail going through Christ's left palm, 3. The nail going through Christ's feet, 4. The Crown of Thorns, 5. The spear in Christ's side. So your focus is always on the life of Christ, the passion of Christ. Without the mediation to go with the repetition, yes, they are less effective. The repetition has a purpose.
But only God knows our capability. Only God knows how well we can concentrate and how hard we are trying. We are weak and our minds wander. That doesn't make the prayer completely ineffective. He knows our heart.
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Well I hope Smiling Spirit is evaluating what I wrote to let me know why she interpreted it as not being inclusive. WoW talk about letting the sail ruffle-----means loosing the wind in the sail because you haven't got the sail and rudder quite right. I worked so hard to make it clear and the first response is someone feels unwelcome. Cheesh SS please come back as quick as possible because this has to be fixed asap.
Theresa you are on point with the separate thread helping to keep track and not missing anyones intention .I believe most of us have talked about memory issues As being one of the unwanted"Gifts" of BC. With the intentions if it's too personal we can work that out. One of the things I observed with Michelles writing was that she was very good at editing. mine re Greg and my concern about purgatory. I believe we will contiue to pray for our intentions until the intention changes for that person. having them all in one place will help us from becoming confused.
AS far as novenas, I have always wondered why the usual length was nine days Anyone Know?
The ability on BCO to edit a post, I have always felt was a huge advantage of this site. Which as is the case with Smiling Spirit as soon as she lets me know what made her feel unwelcome I can fix it. So my sail doesn't ruffle and the boat can sail into the wind with a taut sail Sheila
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Good morning sisters,
First and foremost, SmilingSpirit ~ you are most welcome here. You have sent prayers for me and Jeannine, and your prayer is most sincere and wonderful, please stay, I too think that you've misunderstood Sheila. All are welcome here!
Sheila ~ such a great idea!!! I was also posting the Saint of the day with the description. Is that what you like? I have a prayer book that lists THE CALENDAR OF THE SAINTS, and I think Theresa also has such a calendar (right Theresa)? I am attempting to find FREE websites that allows us to have group meetings, you can talk, draw on whiteboard etc. so we can do it while we are doing Prayer Group meetings and post intentions.
Yes, I can explain why Novenas require 9 days (will post later).
Today is St. Anthony Mary Claret (bishop)
Good morning sisters,
First and foremost, SmilingSpirit ~ you are most welcome here. You have sent prayers for me and Jeannine, and your prayer is most sincere and wonderful, please stay, I too think that you've misunderstood Sheila. All are welcome here!
Sheila ~ such a great idea!!! I was also posting the Saint of the day with the description. Is that what you like? I have a prayer book that lists THE CALENDAR OF THE SAINTS, and I think Theresa also has such a calendar (right Theresa)? I am attempting to find FREE websites that allows us to have group meetings, you can talk, draw on whiteboard etc. so we can do it while we are doing Prayer Group meetings and post intentions.
Today is St. Anthony Mary Claret (bishop)
St. Anthony Mary Claret (1807 - 1870), Cistercian Bishop who was also a monk and mystic wrote: "A son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a man who is consumed with love and who sets on fire everything in his path. He is a man who unceasingly expends himself to light the fire of divine love in the world. Nothing stops him; he places his joy in privations, he undertakes all works for the glory of God; he embraces willingly every sacrifice, he is happy in the midst of calumnies; he exults in torments. He can think of but one thing - working, suffering, and seeking at all times the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls, to imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ."
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Theresa I feel the same way you do re: work. As hateful as Bc and any cancer is, it has freed me to allow my buried, but very strong spiritual side to re emerge. The diivne interventions that kept coming throughout our illnesses, GREG and mines, were so humbling that only Gods mercy could be directing them. At his death the very first words out of my mouth were the Our Father and the Hail Mary. The lines in each regarding death never held as much meaning for me as being able to say them for the man I loved for so long, knowing that this was his moment for transition to the afterlife. I don't think I'd be sane at this moment if it weren't for our prayers. At any moment when I feel myself approaching despair these words bring me back.
Thank you for your kind words Sheila
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Good news sisters !!!
I've just found this free GROUP web-conferencing site. I'm signing up now.
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Oh my stars! So many wonderful posts, and I am just getting up. (I could sleep for a week or more!)
Theresa,
I VERY much agree about the prayers of repetition. I hesitated to write it, but I think we can view this as respecting the language of Catholicism, and the Intentions behind prayer. I do think it's important to always go to your heart, and find the true answer for You. There is another excerpt that talks about the reasons for all different kinds of Churches and Religions. The answer, according to this book is that each has a very important purpose and is all part of Spiritual growth. So it is stressed that we must all me tolerant of each other's Churches, Mosque. It is not for us to judge the purpose. I know some people that pray five times a day.
So that passage to me was more about praying without believing you will receive, so you say it over and over again. I don't feel that way at all about the Prayers in the Catholic Church, to me that is about reverence, meditative prayer, and bringing our voices and hearts together.
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and I will get back to all of your wonderful ideas and sharing, my dog is looking at my funny again.
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we perhaps could set up a chat room here? Stage IV has a chat room.
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I can post an excerpt from my Prayer book about "how we should pray"...
Mary ~ I have setup a free online group meeting allowing 25 participants this morning. It is safer than the chat room environment and has better control. But of course, this is for the Friday prayer meeting and other emergency group prayers.
I'll PM you individually.
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Ladies
I am the Queen of Novenas and love doing the work, they have helped tremendously in my life since my 20's and do them religiously. I would love to take on the next one as well if you will allow me.
If you go back to the early parts of this thread I posted two one to St. Jude (very popular and powerful) and one to St. Agatha.
I would like to suggest we start again tomorrow and will take the intentions via PM or here if you like. St. Jude is 9 Days as well and we can pray together on the 9th day perhaps in a local church at the same time in front of St. Jude, Most Catholic Churches have a statue, and if not the Novena instructs you to leave a copy of the printed st. Jude in any church 9 days in a row, so others can pick it up that may need it. I usually go to church 9 days in a row (it does not have to be a mass) light a candle and recite the prayers and leave a copy, then we could pray together at same time on 9th day perhaps in a church.
Let me know what you think.
The only thing I worry about on a conference thread is that we will leave this site and not share with so many that may want to join us. It may get confusing.
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Smiling Spirit I think you just misinterpreted Sheila;s post, you are most welcome here and I have enjoyed your prayers. Please stay if you feel comfortable.
PS St. Jude is the Saint of Desparate Cases when hope is lost on any certain issue.
St. Agatha is the patron Saint of Breast Cancer and Women's issues.
If you look at the paper classified ads, you will see many taking out ads to thank St. Jude for interventions.
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