What a great testimony...it is actually very helpful in our personal journey. The humanist western world is trying to destroy all that is Christian. So, at first they had debates then they started changing policies. Know that they see the courts on their side...they can start ignoring all that is holy. But if they see the light shinning through they get mad and try to stop it. We are all a little mad...to go against the world has never been easy. And in this point in history, it is getting harder and harder to live our faith. But don't stress...we are actually that little light that is fighting the darkness. We don't have to do anything special...we just have to live our faith. With God in you... people will start gradually taking notice. Good people will come closer and bad people will flee. Just accept your state and enjoy the journey. Don't stress what you can't change. Just try to keep on the path. Yes we are a little mad but that OK. God is with us. May Gods Will be Done
Another suggestion, Northern Lights - You can make acts of faith, hope and love in their names - just go to the immaculate heart of Mary, and ask her to take you and all of your family into her heart, which is in the Divine Will, and do it FOR them! I am the only person of faith in my family, as far back as I can see until now. There have been times when I fretted to excess over the fate of their souls. And I was comforted, time and time again, in prayer, with the understanding that my concerns are the Lord's concerns, and that they would not be eternally lost. So, share your spiritual treasure with them, in the Divine Will, and trust in the Divine Mercy of our thrice holy God!!!
You have friends here. You and your family are in my prayers. Keep in touch here on MOG, keep praying, all prayers will be answered. God bless. This thread is what Christianity is about.
I have been overwhelmed by your offers of prayers and words of encouragement. I will too hold you and all yours before the Lord in prayer,
I will try to remember you at mass and prayer as much as I can through the weeks. Great obstacles like this are signs of a call to great holiness and sanctity. The saints were called to walk on the mountains, the rest of us on the gentle hills. You are, clearly a mountain climber. Keep on climbing and you will save, many, many souls from hell, not just your own. I have seen wonderfu leffects of grace and the direct intervention of God in my own family. Our God is a God of miracles, not just yesterday but today. You may enjoy this:
That is interesting lynfiat. I have given Miraculous medals to my children and grandchildren and their partners. Do you know a Consecration prayer to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary you could post on the thread for us to use. In Chalie's blog he says the rescue promised in late 2017 early 2018 will be through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. While we call this the Triumph of Immaculate Heart of Mary, the way Charlie writes it seems to be closely linked to the Immaculate Conception of which Miraculous medal is the well known sacramental.
Couldn't resist posting your link in full, Thank you Miker. It’s Tough to Raise Good Parents These Days For many converts, open persecution isn’t something that happens in the outside world but at home CARRIE GRESS, PH.D. JANUARY 11, 2016 Whether members of the JPII generation or millennials who have discovered the faith, young people are coming in to the Church. Their homecoming, however, is not always welcomed by their parents or grandparents. For many parents of converts, particularly those who grew up in the ’60s and bristle at authority (unless it is their own), their offsprings’ return to the Church can feel like a slap in the face. There is a palpable sense of betrayal: “Didn’t we raise you better than that? You aren’t even pro-choice anymore? And what’s with all these children?” For many converts, open persecution isn’t something from the outside world but happens at a place they think of as home. Threats of being dropped from the will, cutting off communication and angry standoffs are not uncommon. One set of parents announced to their 24-year-old son who had just joined the Church, “We like the old John better.” And when the topic of religious life or the priesthood arises, parents without faith can be the toughest nuts to crack. One young woman who felt called to life in the cloister could simply not overcome the pressure her parents put upon her as an only child. Another mother, whose son entered the seminary, would rant angrily at his male Catholic friends who were not becoming priests. “Why aren’t they taking you instead of him? He is my only son!” Such outbursts can certainly put a strain upon even the most pious as they try to live out the fifth commandment: honor your mother and father. Such relationships put young Catholics in the awkward position of trying to not only endure their parents’ displeasure but to also actively help bring their parents back to the Church. As I discuss in my book Nudging Conversions, helping parents return to the faith can be a difficult enterprise because the natural parent-child dynamic is upset. No one wants to feel like her family has turned into Freaky Friday, where the child becomes the mature adult and the parent returns to (or never left) a stunted adolescence. To face this parental problem, prayer is the place to start. The healthier your own faith, the easier it will be to endure the derision and/or to pass the faith along. Through prayer, the Holy Spirit will also give you insights into what to say to your parents and what to pray for, given their own particular situation. Each person is unique and will have an equally unique journey to discovering God. There are certainly times when relationships can be toxic and boundaries need to be set, and again, this is where the Spirit’s counsel is crucial. Patience is the second critical tool. The good news is you don’t have to convince your parents of the truth of Catholicism in one sitting. It is a process, like peeling an onion (and yes, sometimes there are accompanying tears). It is easy to become frustrated or irritated with your elders when they act like juveniles: when they are self-absorbed, won’t listen to reason or just want to hang out with their friends or watch a game instead of going to church with you. In fact, it can be really irritating and makes one think, It’s tough to raise good parents these days. Nagging, pestering and fire-hosing (too much info at once) are just not approaches that will work. But steadily loving your parents exactly where they are — warts and all — while planting seeds when possible, goes a long way. Many adults today have a lot of baggage given the current state of our culture. This can both be good and bad. On the one hand, when people have tried just about everything, sometimes the only thing they haven’t tried is returning to the faith of their childhood, or the Church they never considered before. The hard part, of course, is that with this baggage there can also be a lot of impediments to full communion, particularly in areas related to marriage and divorce. God, however, does not simply smooth over the difficulties but gets to the root of the problem. While it can be painful for everyone involved, there is nothing like the freedom that comes with living in God’s will, freed from the chains of sin. Sometimes, the very thing needed to transform a parent or grandparent can come from the most unlikely places. I recently heard about a child making her First Communion who, during the rehearsal, innocently asked her grandfather if he would be receiving the Eucharist too. That question changed the elderly man’s life.Why am I not receiving? went through his head over and over again until he realized it was just the culture and his own neglect that had led him away from the Church. He came back to his faith with zeal. Converting parents isn’t impossible. And no matter their protests, there is simply no better way to honor your mother and father. Carrie Gress has a doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of America and was the Rome Bureau Chief of Zenit’s English Edition. She is the author of Nudging Conversions: A Practical Guide to Bringing Those You Love Back to the Church and co-author, with George Weigel, of City of Saints: A Pilgrim’s Guide to John Paul II’s Krakow. A mother of four, she and her family live in Virginia.
Dear NL, You are so blessed to have your faith! Your belief in Our a Lady will be rewarded by her graces for you....and through your prayers, for your family as wel. Offer up this suffering for the conversion of your family...! It will happen. Find a Catholic, rosary prayer group and you will find a family that is bonded in the love of Our Lady. God bless you!
My dearest N.L., I previously posted you about putting Miraculous Medals around your parents house, and I would like to tell you the reason I believe in the power of the Miraculous Medal. First of all, I will tell you that I am a convert to the Catholic faith (23 yrs.), which is a miracle in itself, but this is not about me but about my family who were all Protestants other than my dad who was a fallen away Catholic. Several years ago my mom and dad were visiting my husband and myself (this was just a couple of years after I came into the Church), and my dad sat down on our loveseat and for some reason put his hand down into one of the cushions and pulled out a small miraculous medal. I had never seen the medal before and it did not belong to myself or my husband, nor anyone of my family as none were Catholic. Right after finding the medal my dad became very ill and spent 17 days in the hospital with kidney failure. As this is quite a long story, I will just give you bits of what happened. I knew that Our Lady was very much in charge of all that was happening to my dad, so I abandoned all to God through Her Immaculate Heart. About a year or so after this, my husband and I moved to another city and my dad and mom had to move in with us as he was still ill with kidney failure and my mom had cancer. We took my dad to a healing Mass and he went to Confession for the first time in many, many years. Long story short, my dad died in my arms and I cannot even begin to tell you the story of what happened - there are just no words to explain. I knew that Our Lady had healed his soul - not his body, and saved him. The miracles continued.... Six months after my dad died, my mom lay dying in our house and Our Lady saw to it that she would receive the Sacraments of the Church by two holy Priests who came to visit her. Mom mom would hold the Rosary in her hands and told me that it gave her much peace. She would call Our Lady, "Sister Mary" and told us that Mary and Jesus were standing by her bedside that we needed to stay our of their way. (Remember that the miraculous medal that I gave my dad to keep was still in their room in my house at the time.) When my mom died, there was an incredible odor of roses in her room and I could feel Our Lady's presence. But still the miracles continued.... My Uncle (another fallen away Catholic) was hospitalized in New York with blood clots in his legs. As we were living in Florida and taking care of my mom and dad at the time, it wasn't possible to visit him so I sent him a miraculous medal and a Rosary that I told my aunt (another Protestant along with her entire family) to put somewhere in his hospital room. The Rosary and miraculous medal disappeared (I believe a family member took them away), but he asked my aunt to ask me to send another one, which I did. Long story short - my Uncle died, but not without the Sacraments of the Church. My sister in seeing all these miracles became a Catholic. I am still praying to Our Lady for the conversion of my brother and the rest of my relatives. There are many more Graces Our Lady has granted me, and I have learned to be patient and believe that She will bring them all back to Her Son in His time. I will end with what Our Lady told Luisa Piccarreta, "Know that I will go all over the world; I will go to each individual, to all families, to religious communities, to every nation, to all peoples, and if needed, I will go about for entire centuries until as Queen I have formed my people, and as Mother, my children, who may know the Divine Will and let It reign everywhere."
