Catholics
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God Bless all of you and your families!!
I felt so much strength in these prayers! Kay every time I mentioned the part for your son I got a special tingle...please let us know how that go's I felt an intuition that that prayer may being answered now.
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I posted a special intention for my Novena prayer. I will tell you that my prayer... in the Novena... would have been answered tonight.... at 10:30 PM my time. I asked specifically. Today was the day.
I did not get my pray intention. I just found out.
How is it...... that the Bible tells us....... Ask in my name... and believe.... and you will have it.??
I had no doubt... none.......... full trust in Him.
So...... when I just found out my prayer was not heard... or answered like I asked.... in full faith and trust.... I was really shocked.
Are there better Catholics on this thread, that can help me understand this?
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Oh ESTEPP.I wish i could I too at times feel prayers go unanswered. The way i get through the dissapointment is to say God just says no right now and He knows why and maybe someday I will understand. Dont get me wrong that doesnt always work or help but it does get me through. I hopw your intention is heard or if not an understanding of why it did not come to pass... many blessings and hugs to you!
Maria
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I am so sorry Laura. I do remember a priest once saying that all prayers are answered, but sometimes the answer is no. We don't know why. I can tell you I have felt the same way as you.
Mmm5 thank you for letting me know about the feeling with my son. I will let you know how things go with him. I appreciate the prayers.0 -
While not being Catholic, my friend is. She brought me a Scapula (spelling?) just before my surgery and I felt so much better about having it. I will be praying for you. I hope you have plenty of peace in your heart.
Agada
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Estepp
some of God's greatest gifts are seemingly unanswered requests. He may not answer in the way you wanted but in the way that is best for you. Last year Number 1 princess applied for a position with a big financial company whose HQ is in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a beautiful city. She had her heart set on the job, got right through to the final interview, but didn't get the position. Another post came up shortly afterwards which she applied for in a company which is the biggest reatailer over here. Been there just under a year and is getting on great. Wasn't she fortunate that she didn't get the job in the financial company. My prayers for her were answered but in a totally different way and much better.
So Estepp God may well have answered your petition but in a way that is better for you. I agree with you Tinkertude.
Girls I need some prayers. Got a touch of food poisoning with the resultant upset bowels which is still continuing - like going to the toilet 10 times a day ! ! ! What is worse is that this Saturday and Sunday there are important football matches in the championship, last round before the 1/4 finals and I will not be able to go - too risky. So girls lets hear a collective sigh for Frankie not getting to the f/ball - one needs to get one's priorities right ! ! lol.
Agada we know exactly what you are talking about. As a matter of interest it's a scapular because it hangs over you shoulder which is the scapula. Glad to hear that it comforted you
take care all.
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Thank you for your responses. What you all so graciously say is right.
Frank, I do understand the utter despair in you being a no show at the game.... UURRGGGG...... that is just murder and not right ! Hope your back in the " game" soon!
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Estepp
Something you wrote caught my eye. "some better Catholics than me can help me understand". I have to tell you that while I don't even know you I think you are one of the best Catholics. You started a thread very publicly in his name. Put your heart and soul on the line in blind faith and have helped so many (whether we post on here or not) with healing both pnysically and spiritually to me there is no better Catholic. Your posts to others are always so kind and supportative. Your faith is so genuine and it really shows through. You have been a strong inspiration to me. Leading by example without show in love with Jesus is what I think a great catholic should be.
As others have written He did answer your prayer just not when or what you wanted. But I am certain that He is right there for and will be watching over so that you will "see" shortly what he has in mind. You are a daughter with whom He is very pleased
Liz0 -
When I was small, I remember praying for something in particular. I thought my prayer had not been answered for I did not get what I had asked to receive. My Father told me something I have remembered through the years about prayers and the answers to them.
He said God listens to and answers all prayers. He says, "Yes, of course I will do it!" or "No, I will not do that for that is not what you need me to do." If he does not say a simple yes or no, he says, "I have something better in mind for you and and this I shall do when the time is right so be patient."
As I think back over the many prayers of my life, I am now grateful for the prayers that seemed to me to have been "unanswered" by God for he has never failed to grant the thing I really needed and hadn't the wisdom to know I needed it when I prayed for something else.
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Laura - God loves you! :-) Everyone's response was just right!
"More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones." - St. Teresa of Avila
Frank - prayers for you... so sorry about the tile time follies. It's a terrible thing to endure.
My daughter, good daughter that she is, packs my lunch for me and every day puts in a napkin with a humorous quote. Today's quote goes with Frank's suffering: "If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhea, does that mean that one enjoys it?" D'oh, you must be one of the 4, Frank! :-)
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lol..Theresa your daughter sounds great!!!!
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Theresa....... that was GREAT! LOL
Liz....... when I read your post... tears flowed for me. I am just now able to type a thank you to you. You " woke me up" to what is really important. God works through you I see.... From my heart.... THANK YOU.
Thank you everyone for writing words love and truth to me... I swear..... sometimes I act like a child.... lol..... I am glad I have good people like you around!
I hope to hear stories of answered prayers from you all....in whatever form you received them.
Laura
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theresap60 nice one lol. next time i'm running to the toilet at 4 00am I will tell myself - maybe I'm the 1 in 5 and therefore I'm special, so enjoy lol. tell your daughter she gave me a good laugh.
As I said what's worse is not getting to the F/ball. The matches are on TV but watching on TV is not the same. For instance the referee can't hear you :-
1 - querying his intelligence
2- asking if he has 20/20 vision
3- and asking if his parents were definitely married lol
One bright aspect (no pun intended ) weather forecast is for dry warm and sunny starting today and lasting over the weekend.
take care all and have a nice weekend
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Frank-------you sense of humor is great. In Readers Digest one time there was dicussion regarding how long a minute was and the responder said "Well that depends, are we talking a football minute, a hockey minute, a baseball minute, a basketball minute. It's all relative" Only a sports fan would get that one. LOL
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Today is the feast day of my favorite saint - Mary Magdalen. I'd like to share with you from today's Office of Readings:
Reading From a homily on the Gospels by Gregory the Great, pope
She longed for Christ, though she thought he had been taken awayWhen Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and did not find the Lord's body, she thought it had been taken away and so informed the disciples. After they came and saw the tomb, they too believed what Mary had told them. The text then says: The disciples went back home, and it adds: but Mary wept and remained standing outside the tomb.
We should reflect on Mary's attitude and the great love she felt for Christ; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found, and while she sought she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for him who she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed, as the voice of truth tells us: Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.
At first she sought but did not find, but when she persevered it happened that she found what she was looking for. When our desires are not satisfied, they grow stronger, and becoming stronger they take hold of their object. Holy desires likewise grow with anticipation, and if they do not grow they are not really desires. Anyone who succeeds in attaining the truth has burned with such a great love. As David says: My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? And so also in the Song of Songs the Church says: I was wounded by love; and again: My soul is melted with love.
Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek? She is asked why she is sorrowing so that her desire might be strengthened; for when she mentions whom she is seeking, her love is kindled all the more ardently.
Jesus says to her: Mary. Jesus is not recognised when he calls her "woman"; so he calls her by name, as though he were saying: Recognize me as I recognize you; for I do not know you as I know others; I know you as yourself. And so Mary, once addressed by name, recognizes who is speaking. She immediately calls him rabboni, that is to say, teacher, because the one whom she sought outwardly was the one who inwardly taught her to keep on searching.Responsory
On her return from the Lord's tomb, Mary Magdalen told the disciples that she had seen the Lord. Blessed is she who deserved to be first with the news that Life had risen from death.
While she was there, weeping, she saw her beloved, and then told the good news to the others. Blessed is she who deserved to be first with the news that Life had risen from death.
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Sheila - I haven't forgotten about your earlier questions to me... I've been harried this week. I'll "noodle it" (as Traci says) this evening before 10:00 prayer time.
Frank - I love your sense of humor! I think we're cut from the same cloth when it comes to being a sports spectator.
As I'm sitting at my desk, my outside temperature app says it's 102 degrees!!!!! The drive home will be exhausting ... the sun beams face on as we head west.
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Thank you for posting on Mary...... she was always one of my favorite. I always new... how ever awful I was.... He was going to take me back... if I wanted Him too.
Frank........LOL..... love it brother!
Can we pray tonight. for all of those in these very high temps.... that everyone gets relief soon!
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Laura
Good idea the temps have been brutal so some prayers for relief may be in order. Also can we say some prayers for the tragedy in Norway, those poor children at the hands of a killer.
Liz0 -
Why do we do things or say things totally out of our normal character as if we were speaking through someone else? There are many times I've seen folks here write beautiful prose or prayers or advice, and I'm not saying it's out of character for them b/c I don't know everyone here, but some words are just gushing with love or wisdom for each other. It's the Holy Spirit working in you ... how do you know this? Ask, Is it from love and caring for each other? Then it's from God.
Gifts of the Holy Spirit enable us to live a holy Christian life. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are:
Wisdom - desire for the things of God, and to direct our whole life and all our actions to His honor and glory
Understanding - enable us to know more clearly the mysteries of faith
Counsel - warn us of the deceits of the devil, and of the dangers to salvation
Fortitude - strengthen us to do the will of God in all things
Knowledge - enable us to discover the will of God in all things
Piety - love God as a Father, and obey Him because we love Him
Fear of the Lord - have a dread of sin and fear of offending God
from Isaiah 11.And Paul talks about other gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12: ecstatic utterances, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul outlines the fruits of the Holy Spirit- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control.
I like to go back to St. Teresa of Avila, since I was reading about her the other day. Doctor of the Church, but in her day, many of her contemporaries thought of her as a heretic and she went through the Inquisition. Here are some snipits about her from this website:
http://www.doctorsofthecatholicchurch.com/TA.html
Saint Teresa is the Doctor of Prayer. Her writings on this subject are unsurpassed. Not without reason did the church proclaimed Sts Teresa and St Catherine of Siena the first women Doctors of the Church in 1970. Teresa was a wise and practical woman who was extraordinarily kind and charitable, and greatly gifted in the explanations of the highest degrees of prayer and union with God, and love of neighbor.
This extraordinary Hispanic woman was beset with numerous challenges both within the church and in her own religious order. Despite the insurmountable hardships she faced, her obedience to authority, faithfulness to prayer, and docility to the Holy Spirit to carry out her call and mission, never wavered despite great controversies and sufferings. Her trust in God and Jesus Christ, her Beloved, was what she treasured and what she held onto with her whole being. She confessed that "...I know from experience-namely that no one who has begun this practice (of daily prayer) however many sins he may commit, should never forsake it."
It wasn't until Teresa was around forty that she first began to be drawn to prayer in a powerful manner. Prayer became her passion. Prayer for her was not a compelling event at first neither is it for 99% of us.
The more we live God's will, the more the will of God takes on a new aura and we are more energized despite the headaches, pains and challenges.
She prayed in 'dry' times when there were no spiritual consolations and when she was animated with God's Holy Spirit. It did not matter how she felt when she prayed- only that she always had the intention to pray! All love, human and spiritual, when prayerfully lived and executed, is extraordinarily pleasing to God.
God increased Teresa's confidence to achieve things that were most uncommon for a woman ever to imagine. Nuns were supposed to stay in their places and out of sight. For Teresa she felt called to do more and that required more visibility. This was a radical departure. Many people did not like it or were upset. During this time, male domination was rife in and outside the church.
Teresa was suspected by the Inquisitors. They were the Roman Catholic tribunal for the discovery and punishment of heresy. People were accusing her of heresy. These paralyzing thoughts could have led her to be burned as a witch that was not uncommon. Fr Christopher whose source is listed tells us that the Inquisition finally exposed her as a fraud, and the shock was felt throughout Spain.
According to Cathleen Medwick's book on Teresa of Avila, her writings were investigated six separate times by the Spanish Inquisition. It is also reported that the papal nuncio considered her unstable, restless, disobedient and a contumacious female.
Thanks to St Teresa of Avila, there are probably over 70 Discalced Carmelite Women Communities in the United States alone.
The Holy Spirit prevailed through St. Teresa of Avila! The Holy Spirit can prevail through us too, in thought, word and deed, if we are open to receiving and giving His wisdom and love! Thanks be to God!
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Oh good grief! Sorry about that long post.
Liz and Laura - great ideas for prayers tonight! See you then!
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I am here
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Lord God,
your own Son was delivered into the hands of the wicked,
yet he prayed for his persecutors
and overcame hatred with the blood of the Cross.
Relive the sufferings of the innocent victims of war and terror; especially those in Oslo,
grant them peace of mind, healing of body,
and a renewed faith in your protection and care.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
**************************************************************Lord, we pray for the power to be gentle;
the strength to be forgiving;
the patience to be understanding;
and the endurance to accept the consequences
of holding to what we believe to be right.May we put our trust in the power of good to overcome evil
and the power of love to overcome hatred.We pray for the vision to see and the faith to believe
in a world emancipated from violence,
a new world where fear shall no longer lead men to commit injustice,
nor selfishness make them bring suffering to others.Help us to devote our whole life and thought and energy
to the task of making peace,
praying always for the inspiration and the power
to fulfill the destiny for which we and all men were created.*********************************************************************
All powerful and ever living God, we find security in your forgiveness. Give us fine weather we pray, so that we may rejoice in your gifts of kindness and use them always for your glory and our good. Amen
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Amen...
Goodnight sisters!
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here with you and blessings to all of you
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Be Not Afraid
You shall cross the barren desert,
But you shall not die of thirst.
You shall wander far in safety,
Though you do not know the way.
You shall speak your words in foreign lands
And all will understand.
You shall see the face of God and live.
Be not afraid.I go before you always.Come follow Me.And I will give you rest.If you pass through raging waters,
In the sea you shall not drown.
If you walk amid the burning flames,
You shall not be harmed.
If you stand before the power of hell,
And death is at your side.
Know that I am with you through it all.
RefrainBlessed are your poor,
For the kingdom shall be theirs.
Blest are you that weep and mourn,
For one day you shall laugh.
And if wicked men insult and hate you,
All because of Me.
Blessed, blessed are you.
Refrain0 -
Thank you Theresa and Laura- Namaste sheila
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Hello Hello Lovely Ladies AND Gentlemen,
sending my love to you all, and reading a few posts...
Thank God, the side effects of the Lipitor seem to have abated, and I have an appointment with the rheumatologist August 15th to take a closer look at the other stuff that I deal with.
but that aside, I have been in thought about the phase of cancer and it's aftermath, where one goes back to work, and you get caught up in the rat race, extra hours (unpaid,) skipping lunch due to the need's of others...and getting lost in the shuffle.
some of it has to do with the fear of ever losing one's insurance, so I try and work extra hard to do a good job (or stay off managment's radar...) but now I get back to not taking care of self.
But I feel like I am losing some of the lessons I have learned in my cancer experience. There is much I can be doing to honor and embrace my wake up call (sort of how I feel about having had cancer.)
and not forget to give back....
So has anyone else gotten swept up and then realized you are back in the same old patterns?
traci
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Traci !!!
Yes, indeed, BIG TIME. I hate it. And I have the exact same feelings as you do. I have this "good" job, even though I hate it and the commute, but the benefits are good and my doctors are close by. But the price to pay for it is a high level of stress and unhappiness. Skip and I are praying for a solution, but I had a thought this morning, that God might not be taking us seriously, because it seems the only time we worship and serve Him is when we're SUFFERING ... mentally or physically (or spiritually). When we were in NJ and had a short commute, we did minimum for Him. Now that we're suffering the commute, we're reading Morning Prayer together in the car and we're reading some good Catholic books on the way home. We didn't do that when life was more comfortable. We still don't do it on our comfortable weekends. So we really have to sort that one out. Put God first!
It's so easy to get back to the rat race where we started this journey, and now that I'm recognizing it, I'm trying my best to put the brakes on. Of course, it doesn't help that we have a lousy economy and to sell our worldly goods would still cause us to be in debt. Jobs are difficult to find b/c those who are unemployed have been desperately trying to find employment. So we're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
It's really hard, but it sounds like you've taken the first step in recognizing the bad old ways. Now we have to take steps to stop it. It really helps to have like-minded friends along the way also. Many, many people in our work place or old friends just don't understand what we went through and how so important our spiritual life is now, and they don't mean to do it, but they suck us back into the dark hole of worldly enjoyments. It's tempting and so real, then you wake up one morning and think, how did I get back here again!!!?? It takes a daily exercise of detachment and Christian charity and humility.
God bless you! Write if you like.
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Traci and all
Absolutley and I also was naive enough to think maybe things were back to "normal" . I went into this last surgery thinking ill bounce back in days this is revisional no big deal Ill come off of Tamoxifen for a few weeks feel great life will be good and thats it. Well how could I forget how bc as they say is the gift that keeps on giving. I took the Tamoxifen break but apparently it stays in your system for weeks so really got no relief from that and the surgery involved alot more than I anticipated and the pain was much higher and the recovery much slower than anticipated. Did I forget for a minute how much work goes into this journey? I think I did or at least wanted to forget but it reminded me real quick. So now I start the process of building my self back up .. wow im so tired I dont have the energy for it some days.
I am fortunate in so many ways. I have an incredible group of friends my hubby is awesome you wonderful ladies and Frank
and God above all and yet there are days when the tears just flow, I ask myself why? I dont know is the answer I always come up with. What a journey huh?? Sometimes I just get tired og being brave and string does that sounds selfish, just want someone to tell me its all gonna be ok Well thanks for listening to me vent just had to get it out this morning. You are all a blessing in my life tha k you for listening and your prayers
Namaste Maria
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Maria, It's going to be okay!
Traci, I know how you feel. I am out on disability right now and will be through surgery and rads. Just had my last chemo today! Yay! Still have Herceptin through next June though. I am help out a few hours a week at work with sales tax and payroll, but they are using an outside CPA and other employees to fill in most of my work. I am afraid to go back. It was a lot of stress. We were a small co that was just bought by a fortunr 500 co. And it seems like they were constantly adding things they wanted from me, with no instruction and no help. I am really not sure what to do. We do need the money, but not sure if it's worth it.
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