Sal's Message June 6, 2011

The evening was attended by many of our Sisters and Brothers. Aswe allowed Jesus to come into our Hearts through song, we could feel His Holy Presence. A word was rec'd from Geri, [[ I Know Each One Of You And I Know Your Needs. ]]--also--was heard, { I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have called you and you are mine. }} Hearing these words filled us even more. The teaching was on Making A Choice, and as believers, we have the power of the Holy Spirit in us. We know we have choices to make--and we can choose joy, peace, positive attitudes, and stability. We can enjoy every day of our lives, but that will not happen by accident. We must choose to do so. So remember choose to live a life that matters, and allow Jesus to walk by your side. We offered up are prayers and close in Peaceful, loving Joy. Until next Monday have a cool and bless week.. Sal

Relationship Problems

AJU has made the following prayer request:

I'm 29 years old (Protestant Christian) currently in a Relationship with a Girl who's 8 yrs my senior, (from a different Christian background), who I want to marry and settle down with by GOD's Grace. But Parents on both sides (my Dad & Mom and her Dad) & Relatives do not agree, (due to the age & background) and don't want us to marry.
We would like to marry & settle down with GOD's Grace & Blessings and Approval of both our Parents, on both sides.

Please pray for us to get married & settled down without any obstruction and for GOD to guide us both through our remaining lives, to treat each other with care, honesty, love, trust & understanding and also for us to remain steadfast in our faith.

Please pray for us, to be Blessed by Our Father's Grace and for his timely intervention, so that we would not have to split up or hurt the Parents on both sides.

Now we have started having problems, she does not see a future for us together & wants to be just Friends (after more than 1 year); as she feels she's hurting me !!! I'm completely broken up inside... I don't want to hurt her or lose her !!! I know she still likes me & is hurting inside... She has taken this decision to save us from the problems she thinks will happen in the future...

Please pray for Our Heavenly Father, to show us the way forward; as we both know if we are in a Relationship today its only b'coz of GOD's Grace & Plan or we would never have met at all in Life !!!

Pray that:
(1) Our Heavenly Father talks to her Heart & makes her understand we both are going to b miserable, if we are not together...
(2) Our Heavenly Father talks to all the Parents & Relatives on both sides and make their Hearts accept us...

New Job Needed

The following prayer request was left by an anonymous poster:

I would like to request prayers for my daughter. She and her husband have become parents to a son this past December. While she presently has a job, she has applied for a new position bringing her closer to home. It would help relief the pressure of a 10 hour day with a shorter compute. Being closer to home would also help her to be more assessible to answer the needs of her child and family. Lord, please bless her with the opportunity of an interview to insure her success. Amen

Prayer for Discernment

If anyone is out there, I ask for your prayers that my family and I will discern God's will for us. We need to come up with the decision today as to which of two houses God wants us to move to. Thank you so much!

What Was Lost is Now Found - Thanks, God!

I had a scare this morning and lost something that if not found would have caused problems both practical and financial.

This was a big deal.

But as I searched, I prayed.

And the items in question were located (in a place, where had I not found them, someone else certainly would have and then we would have had huge problems.)

So, I just want to say Thank You to God, and Saint Anthony who certainly came to my aid this morning!

Healing in Relationship Needed

Christine left the following prayer request:

Hi all,
I have been struggling with my own prayers and decided to put in a prayer request.

I have separated from a great man in my life that I now believe God has given me since December 2009. While I knew he was the right one, I had allowed negativity to cloud my judgement and behaviour, and led to his departure.

The months that followed, I had agonized and continued to be negative and suspicious of his motives. But praying not only for my recovery but also thanking for him has made me see how much I had meant to him and his efforts to help me. But I was continuously pushing him away. Now that this is clear, all the other issues surrounding us in the past year that I have influence over were also resolved.

I pray for a chance to have him open his heart to me.
I pray for me to have wisdom to see his needs and thoughts.
I pray that we will be open and honest to each other in all circumstances as we are still friends.
I pray that we no longer have to be so withholding about everything, even if it hurts ourselves and the other because honesty would help us grow in the relationship and friendship.
I pray that the love that I now understand and feel albeit delayed, continues to be pure and without greed, jealousy or wrong reasons

Evangelizing the Faith

On a Saturday morning when I look out the window and see well-dressed men and women, in pairs, making their way up to people's front doors and waiting patiently for someone to answer, I know what it means. And while some people will hide behind their curtains and pretend to not be home, I always answer with a smile.

Whether the people at my door are Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormon's, I always assure them with a smile that I am familiar with the saving ways of God and wish them a wonderful day.

As a Catholic, I have doctrinal differences with both of those groups, but I don't get into that on my doorstep. I may not agree with their theology, but I have deep admiration for their willingness to go out in the streets to proclaim it.

I have a hard time proclaiming my faith. Even in situations where it would be expected, I am uncomfortable doing so.

An example would be at the recent Baptism Class my husband and I taught. This is an informal meeting with several couples who hope to have babies baptized in the coming months. We go over the technical details of the day at our church as well as the meaning of Baptism and also some real life examples of how we live our faith with our children.

At this particular class we only had three couples. Two of them had older children (as well as infants), one who was going to be making his First Communion in the coming year. The mother of that child told me that she didn't go to church. Just didn't. She figured she could pray at home just as easily. The other mother of an older child's eyes lit up and she said "Oh yes, that's how I feel too!"

And there we sat, acting as representatives for the church. But we couldn't sit there and say that it was a sin not to go to church. To chastise them would simply convince them they were right in their position. But yet, we couldn't quietly let their assertions go, because it would seem like we agreed. So, I had to say something.

I told them that of course they could pray at home. That it was wonderful to pray at home and in fact they should do it all the time. But then I told them that the Mass offered them something they couldn't get at home. It offered the Eucharist. Don't cheat yourself out of that, I told them. I also shared how when I was in college I was not too consistent in my church going and that after several weeks of missing Mass I felt that something was out of kilter with my life. I went to Mass and suddenly felt much better. It was the first time I'd ever really gone to Mass because I "wanted" to and not because it was expected of me and I had reaped great benefit from it.

I don't know if these families will be getting to Mass anytime soon, but I'm hoping they'll try to go now and then.

And I have even more respect for people who go door to door to tell unsuspecting strangers about God.

Reconciliation Sought

The anonymous prayer request was left in the comments:

Please pray for my intention to have a reconciliation and forgiveness with my special friend. We had a simple misunderstanding that leads to our separation. I am praying and hoping that God will give us another chance to be good friends and lovers again. I believe that God let this things happened for us to be a better person for each other and it's just like a trial or storm in our relationship that we can make it and we will find our way to see each other again in God's time. I believe in God's power, mercy, love and miracle. I ask this in Jesus name Our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Marives

Difficulties in life need prayers

The anonymous prayer request was left in the comments:

Please pray for me and my current situation, I am in the midst of a ugly custody battle for my 2 wonderful kids.Please for me that I am blessed by the lord to receive a job worthy of my talents and education that will allow me do the lords will and support my family. a job is one of the stipulation that the court has to grant custody back to me. I have been unemployed for more than a year and it is becoming very difficult . My unemployment is exhausted and there just seems to be no end in sight. I know the lord is the only one that can turn this around. There are so many in this predicament, I know i need a holy intervention to make a difference.

Friend in need of help

An anonymous poster left the following prayer request on behalf of a friend:

Please pray for my friend, she is in desperate need of a revelation. There is a man who I believe is a scam artist in her life and it is like he has her under his spell. She is disabled and has a very kind heart,he has her suckered in by the fact that she will recieve her money very soon, but she has to keep on giving him more money to help him with fees and to keep his cell phone on and the list goes on & on. I have tried to prove to her that he is just using her and that if he were a real business man he would not need her help he would be able to take out a business loan or work somewhere and get these things for himself. He has even taken over her house and is using it for his office space leaving her with no where to go, She has to spend nights going from place to place like a vagrant because he has convinced her that he needs the full use of her house for his business dealings.He tells her he conducts his business meetings there etc. and has to make important phone calls and has her thinking it would be rude of her to be present for theses meetings in her own bedroom, yet she is a board member in this business. Her children and I have tried to convince her to put a stop to it but she won't. Please pray the blinders come off and she sees that the payoff is not going to come

Need Healing of the Heart and Soul

The following prayer request was left by an anonymous poster:

I have been thrust into a terrible situation with my husband committing suicide last year. Since then I met a wonderful man that I have mistreated. I have been suspicious and moody and angry and thrust things on him no one should have to listen to.

This person is very dear to me, and I know I am heartsick over what my late husband did, and the legal hassles and overwhelming sadness he left me with.

Please pray that my friend finds it in his heart to understand that I am heartsick but getting better, and that when I have a bad day, I did not LIE to him about changing. I am only human and sometimes scared and overwhelmed by all that has happened.

Please God, have mercy on me, and help me be composed, kind, loving and appreciative of all I have been given.

May God have mercy on my soul, which is so heavy and sad.

Pray for Reconciliation

Vashit left the following prayer request in the comments:

Hi Prayer Friends!

Please pray for reconciliation for me and Christian. It's almost 2 years now I have been trying to ask him for forgiveness but nothing seems better to him. His heart is still too hard. He is a special person in my life. I need him to realize and come back to me very soon.

Thanks!

Pray for Successful Surgery

The following prayer request was left in the comments:

Please pray for Jenna, a teenager who is facing brain surgery this week.

Pray for Healing

The following prayer request was in the comments:

I found the love of my life - and spent the happiest year of my life with him. A month ago, a sudden and devastating illness damaged his mind, and he lapsed into a coma. He is recovering slowly - but his memory has been brutally affected.

He does not remember me as his soulmate, which is what he professed me to be just days before he became ill. I am desperate, I am heartbroken, I feel so helpless. Please, women of prayer, pray with me that he finds his way back to health, and, if it is God's will, to me. I am lost without him.

A New Direction

I've decided that as well as the prayer requests I'd like to post some reflections on religion and the bible here. If any of the other contributors would like to do that as well, you are more than welcome!

Forgiveness and Redemption

In the Gospel this morning (John 21:1-19) we see the apostles encountering the risen Christ yet again. They haul in a big load of fish and then sit and have a breakfast of fish and bread baked over a charcoal fire. When they finish eating Jesus calls Peter aside and three times he asks Peter "Do you love me?" Peter answers that of course he does, but by the third time starts to get annoyed (as anyone who has repeatedly answered the same question from someone might be).

Jesus asks three times, not because he doesn't hear him answer, or doesn't quite believe what he's being told, but because Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus gave Peter a chance at redemption. Three denials earlier, and now three assertions of his love.

Peter probably felt pretty far past forgiveness when he first realized that he had denied his Lord just as Jesus had predicted. But Jesus gave him the opportunity to make up for it.

I find this very comforting. We stumble and fall along the way, but Jesus is always there, ready to forgive and to give us another chance.

Pray for Reconciliation

The following prayer request was left in the comments.

Please pray for me to reconcile with my ex in Arizona, I am grasping at straws after three years I am still in love and think the relationship will work
Bless You
T.B.

Pray for Peace Between Friends

The following prayer request was left in the comments:

I pray, and if you who are reading could please pray with me, that one day soon,a person who was my best friend for many years will come back and the spirit of unforgiveness and jealousy will leave her heart and that we can be reconciled and enjoy the friendship that we had in the past. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Pray for Healing

Theresa left the following prayer request:

Please add your prayers for continued healing for my son & his girlfriend & their baby, to continue to grow together, work through their problems and to rebuild their life. All of the shared prayers have brought them safely this far and I pray for them to continue on with HIS light guiding them along their way.

I give thanks daily for the strength, courage, friends, family & faith that I have, they are such a beautiful thing in my life.

Pray for Strength

The following anonymous prayer request was made in the comments:

Please pray for me and my family as we struggle with job loss. I have come back to the Church and wish only to take care of my family and let God do with me what He wills and that the Holy Spirit and Our Lady strengthen me to not falter. I have been devastated more so and have renewed gratitude for how He has helped me in the past and that when present difficulties lift I may keep Him uppermost in my mind.