After reading many posts and believing that we are indeed facing times, that have been propheised about. I have started to try to think back over my years and remember what the Lord has taught me and shown me regarding His protection and the insights He has given me, that will serve to help me and my family and friends in the coming years of turmoil. I then thought that collectively we on the MOG forum would have many insights and instances that could help each other and edify us giving us all hope, inspiration and help for the coming tribulation. I would really appreciate hearing about others insights and answers to prayers. To Kick off, I'll start with a wonderful story of God's providence to our family. Growing up my brothers and sister and I were very blessed, as Dad and Mum took us every year on a camping holiday, to a place called Jeureslem Creek its on the East coast of Australia, very remote and absolutly beautiful, we had to travel over rough dirt roads that had to be cleared some years also we had a trialor to carry all provisions, tents, lights, non perishable food, clothing bedding ect and a 12' tinny/boat upside down on the trailor; we then had to transport all our provisions over the creek, a very large creek, in the tinny and set up camp. No other people camped there. We had the ocean on one side and the creek on the other side. Dad was very resourseful and he new where to dig for fresh water beside the creek that he would then siphon it through a rubber hose that drained continuously into the creek and we would collect that for all our washing and cooking needs and even our drinking water when needed. We had the whole area to ourselves for four weeks and we fished and caught crabs and prawns, swam, played and had just the best time and we made it to mass every Sunday by travelling across the creek in the tinny to the car and traveling to a small village where mass was celebrated every Sunday, we also got provisionat this village when needed. Dad buried in the scrub, an old keroscene fridge with a makshift tin covering and each year he'd retrieve it from the hidden spot and get it going, amazingly that fridge continued to do its Job yaer after year even though some years bush fires would rage over it ect. Dad was a fitter and turner and vertually a Jack of all trades. Anyway, one year 1981, there was a tremendous cyclone that lasted a week and prevented us from fishing or from getting any supplies and we had run out of fish and needed food, I know we had a heap of potatoes. We all prayed, but I think Mum prayed the most. With a break in the cyclone my brothers went for a walk down to the beach which had now swollen the tide was receding but due to the cyclone the ocean comes across the peninsula and joins the creek, it is always a sight to behold when this happens. On the beach itself the foam of the waves on the sand was thigh high. Of course no fish stayed in the coastal waters in cyclone whether like this, with waves crashing and sand in the sea that made the sea turbid. My brothers came back and excitedly told us that there was a very large cod that was still alive and flapping [thats very important, a fish that is dead can not be eaten as it could have been dead for hours], it, the fish, was way up on the sand, but they needed more help to get it as it was so big. My Dad and my Husband Michael, [Michael and I were newly weds], went down to the beach to help bring it back. The fish was so big it fed us all for the next few days until the cyclone had ended and we could get more provisions. Michael and I had to go to work about four days later and were even able to take a couple of slabs of the fish home. Mum and Dad, my sister and one or two of my brothers stayed there for another week or two. Mum and I knew God had provided for us and I think dad was the most astonished but I could see he was amazed at this sign of love from God and I could see him pondering, I really don't know what my brothers and sister thought at the time. They probably thought it was just good luck.
Wow what amazing holidays you and your family enjoyed. Sounds like you are more than ready for any storm. Living in a small country with people always around I don't even know where to begin in making ourselves self sufficient.
Yes they were amazing. But alas now that beach place is closed to campers. And the old dirt roads we used to travel to get there have all gone and its illegal to go on that land now. I think its crown land or airforce owned. When I wrote the above I was trying to think of the many times prayer has been answered and then that Fish came to mind. Therefore I had to give the back ground info. The Storm will certainly have its effects here in Australia and things have radically changed since my childhood. For one thing everyone in Australia needs a fishing licence to just through a line in the water and all fishing areas are patroled by fishing inspectors. It makes you wonder where the Government gets it money from to pay for all this ridiculous policing. Don't be disheartned about where you live. I started this thread so we could all tell of our spiritual lessons and I'm sure you have many. So another one is when my husband became redundant at his work, we tried to start a business which became a money pit. We were also raising our children at the time. Michael was out of full time work for 16years and over those years he had 4 jobs that lasted approximately six months each. We did it really tough but we prayed the rosary and we went to Sunday mass and I went to Friday mass and confession and took my youngest every Friday and took my older childern out of their schools about once every month to take them to confession and mass on the fridays. We never had much money and one day I decided to add up all the money that had come into the household over the previous year and then add up all the purchases and bills that had been paid out over that year and the differenc was astonishing, there was at least a $15000 difference. The difference was that the bills totally outweighed the income yet we had payed these bills. How? No one had helped us we dare not take out another mortgage. So How? I remember speaking about this astonishing fact to my parish priest. He was a very Holy priest and nothing astonished him in regards to Gods faithful providence. He believed God continually preformed little miracles in everyones lives, even though most are never aware of them.
Well I can identify with struggling to pay bills and keep the show on the road. My husband's business faced close down many times and I was at my wits end trying to find money to pay bills and keep going. As a family we always prayed the rosary and somehow or other we always managed. Praying the family rosary is a great blessing.
I can't say I have any great insights others here don't. But I know we all are very blessed and favored by God and the Blessed Virgin Mary when compared to the general population (even of Catholics) who have no idea what is going on. - God has given us knowledge that only a tiny fraction of people in the world know. I know many unapproved prophecies may be incorrect, but taking the approved alone and we have a good understanding of the events taking place most others don't.. To whom much is given much is required. I feel that it is our task to spread the word quickly, particularly once the big prophesied events begin to happen “in the open”. At the end of our lives we will be asked what we did with this knowledge like in the parable of the talents. Did we invest it and bring in great fruits or did we hide it and keep it to ourselves with little or nothing to show for it. - He has possibly given us this knowledge also so we can prepare ourselves, family and friends. I don't think he is necessarilly going to whisk everyone away miraculously to refuges, though he could. There are many prophecies that say te good will suffer along with the evil. God speaks quietly like he is to us now. Get away from the coasts, from major cities, etc. Stock up on supplies, be spiritually prepared. - Also, and here is my big failing, to pray, sacrifice and become the saint God wishes me (and us all) to be. I don't know about others, but for myself sometimes I get so used to the daily signs of the times that I forget how blessed I am that He has opened my eyes to see and it was for a mission because I (all of us) am to be His trumpeter. I am ashamed sometimes at how many souls are being lost because I don't pray enough or spread the word about what is going on. Think of it. Even, one soul in Hell forever because I was lazy and scared. How utterly horrible.
I must have told this story ten times on the forum, but maybe it bears repeating for the 11th time. My father and elder brother were both Interned 9imprisoned without trial) and when I came home from junior smeinary my motehr has eight of us in the house and no turkey. She ended up with five trukeys, the next door neighbours came with one, the butcher from up the street came down with one, a charity turned up with one and so on. I can't recall what my mothe rdid with the five turkeys but she thought of something. I recall one time when I was complainging to my mother about a sudden unexpected bill. She asked me if I had the money to pay for it and when Is aid I did she asked me what I was worried about then. She then told me that one thing in life not worth worrying about was money. The more I think about this the more extraordinary it seems. For a woman who much of her life must have struggled severely to make ends meet.
This post gives me hope. I can see it is indeed possible to rough it and make it. It also reminds me of this book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Family_and_Other_Animals
Another amazing thing I've noticed in life, is that when you pray for something in particular, you seem to go through so much doubt/suffering/pain, as it does not ever seem to eventuate and can take an inordinate amount of time. However, just by keeping up the prayer even when all seems hopeless, at the eleventh hour, God seems to step in, normally in ways unexpected and your left in awe, humbled and gobsmacked, that it finally came about. This has happened in so many ways and events in my life that I believe there is a lesson there in everyone of them but I really need to ponder them more closely to see what God has taught me or shown me that may be of help in the future and I will post some of them when I have more time. God bless Carolyn
Another thing I've noticed in the spiritual life;... is when you are in so much physical grief or stress that you find it hard to pray, as you normally would. That is, there are times when the pain/agony that you are living or even the circumstances of your life are so extrodinarily demanding or where everything is totally out of your control because of your obedience and therfore, your normal practice of prayer is taken from you. During these times you ache for your old life back or for Gods love to manifest in ways you understand. I have found at these times that I long for my normal prayer life to return, I yearn for mass, I yearn for confession, I yearn to be alone in the church before the blessed Sacrement; I cry unto God 'I am a worm not a man/woman, I understand, I am no longer able to pray as I would want for you have placed me here in this circumstance and it is what I deserve, but all I crave for is prayer and all I do is yearn for you my God. I started to realise that God sometimes will place you in that position so He can feel your yearning, and I believe that is a prayer. Because at these times you are actually praying at a much deeper level and in a fuller sence; as the Holy Spirit, speaks for you in moans and utterances that are intelligible to you or to your wisdom or knowledge. Your whole life becomes one of a living prayer, from the moment you wake in the morning until the moment you retire at night. Your sensibilities are devoured with the grief that you are living physically. But your life becomes fixated only on God. Your mind and spirit tortured with feelings of unworthiness, as you praise God for His rightousness and plead like patheticness itself, for a sight, a sound, a touch or a taste of Him, that is your all. Prayer becomes something you cannot attain as you would like, and God is all that you desire.
that is all very true. I went through a period like this. I knew I deserved it, but couldn't help my cries of why are you doing this to me instead of your wise "worm" response. I ached for Him during this time, especially in adoration when it felt like I was sitting alone in the church. I could think of nothing else except Him and my stressful situation all day long.
Sometimes the Lord will do things or give you things that you don't understand. Either the reason why you recieved them or what you are to do with this information. So here goes; For about the last 35 years I have been a member of the friends of the sufferings souls or FOSS as it is known here in Australia. I don't know when it started, but I think it was started by a lawyer/solicitor in Adelaide Australia as he is the person who sends me the reminder letter each year, when it is my turn to have a mass said for the holy souls in purgatory. In those days, when a person became a member, you were allocated a day to have a mass offered for the holy souls in purgatory. There were not many members at that time and the day allocated was usually your birthday, my birthday is the 12th September, so I expected this day to be allocated to me, however I remember getting the letter stating that my allocated day was to be on the 11th of September. I was a little surprised but realised that another member must have had the 12th of September and this day was alloctaed to them. Within a couple of years I had my first child Angela and she was born on the 11th of September 1982, I looked at this occurence, as a birthday gift to me, from God. On the 11th September 2001 we had celebrated Angela's 19th Birthday as a family, but we were going through some very painful experiences at the time. I was worn out and had gone to bed, happy that the next day was my birthday! As I settled in to sleep and was just dozing off, probably around 1030-1100pm, I was jolted awake and alert by an enormous sound of a crash that came from directly above our house. It was so loud that I didn't understand why my husband didn't wake, and I was beside myself, I shook Michael awake and said 'did you hear that!' He said, 'What?' I then explained to him that I had heard what sounded like a plane crash over our house. Michael said, 'just go to sleep you must have been dreaming' . I decided I should settle as that was it, it seemed, there was no other noise, as Michael and I spoke. I tried to settle but about 15 minutes later, I again heard another massive crash of a plane above our house and I just yelled at Michael, as I jumped out of bed and threw open the curtains to see where the plane had landed. Michael woke and questioned me and now he was quiet worried, as I said, I heard two planes crash above our house and therefore the planes that crashed must be outside our home somewhere. Michael got up and looked out the window with me, we both surveyed the surrounding areas of our property and beyond, there was nothing to be seen or heard. Michael went back to bed and he was a little annoyed at me for waking him with crazy stuff. I could not sleep so I decided that since tomorrow was my birthday I should try to relax and I turned on the TV. I watched an early morning US news show that was aired live from America to Australia. After watching about 10 minutes of the show it was interrupted with a news flash, saying that a crop duster plane had hit one of the twin towers in New York and they had some footage of this but then about 15 to 20 minutes later another plane hit the second tower. I woke Michael as this saga began to unfold and we watched together in horror. It was now the 12th September in Australia (my birthday). Obviously I prayed for the people that died and all those affected by this tradegy then and now but I do not understand why God allowed me to hear the crashes or to have me witness this (a little person in Australia of no consequence), as it really had no relevance to me. What is the reason? I have pondered the above for many years but still am none the wiser as to why this happened to me.
I think everything that is happening is to draw us deeper into our prayer life. After all, this is the way of the Divine Will.
Thank you Fatima, I had never though of this. How Beauitful! I believed that maybe the holy souls were somehow involved and they wanted me to be aware of this happening for some reason. The Divine Will and a deeper prayer life makes a lot of sence to me. God Bless you and yours Please Pray for me and for my family. Thank you Carolyn
Published on June 30th, 2015 | by Liesl See more at: http://www.ignitumtoday.com/2015/06...or-when-praying-is-hard/#sthash.Om7PjQuW.dpuf 3 Simple Prayers for When Praying is Hard Every Christian has at least one time in their faith journey when they feel spiritually dry. For some, this time in the spiritual desert lasts for a brief period of time and for others it lasts for a lifetime. While spiritual dry spells can encourage great spiritual growth, they are also a very trying time on a person’s soul. Spiritual dryness can lead to spiritual apathy which makes it hard to do the simplest tasks – even praying. If you’ve spent a prolonged time in the midst of a dry spell, sometimes it can be too hard to even muster a simple Hail Mary or Our Father. I know I’ve been there. I will start praying an Our Father, and get sidetracked about three lines in. So many words; so many lines (or so it seems, when prayer is hard). Throughout my wanderings in the spiritual desert, I’ve come to rely on a few very short and sweet prayers that are quick to utter while still expressing what is on my heart. Help my unbelief! Thy Will Be Done Show me where You are in this; show me Your peace. This a short article but well worth the read : )
How to Keep Faith Alive During the Dark Nights of Our Lives Take Care of Your Soul One of the great themes in the works of St. Teresa of Avila is the beauty and the grandeur of the human soul in the state of grace. Sometimes faith becomes weak not so much because of the big burdens but because we allow the little frets and cares and burdens to accumulate. If anything agitates us, we should go ahead and deal with it. Get it righted with the Lord before speaking to or meeting anyone. Whatever it is, invite Him into it. Regret nothing, not even the sins and failures. We are swimming in the graces of the present moment. We should breathe in the rich blessings of each new day and forget all that lies behind. We are made so that we can carry the weight of 24 hours, no more. The Lord has promised to help us with the burdens of today only. Small wonder so many in our world are heartsick and weary. PRAY An honest cry for help cannot be ignored by the living God. “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” Scripture, especially the psalms, teaches us how to cry out to God. This cry from the heart doesn’t have to be refined. It may only be a groan in the depths of the heart, but He will understand. He promised that His Word is a shield in time of battle. Shields don’t help unless we use them. We should pray for – ask for – faith. That is how we grow in faith – by asking for it. Read more: http://www.spiritualdirection.com/2015/07/11/keeping-faith-alive-during-lifes-dark-nights-part-iii-of-iv#ixzz3fmMyKxWh
You say you wonder why God let this happen to you.....I think we are all connected in some way. Especially as Catholic Christians. I remember that day very well. I live in Pennsylvania. One of those planes crashed not very far from where I live. It flew over very closed to where I lived and worked at the time. It was a scary time and still is. I fear that in some way it was a warning to the US. I'm fearful now that the warning has been igorned by the majority.....
You are very right IJoP, Little short prayers and thoughts of Jesus throughtout the day definately help. Sometimes just repeating the Holy name of Jesus or writing the Holy name of Jesus with your finger on your lap when at a work meeting, or on the pillow when you are falling asleep keeps the soul and heart focused on God. Once when I was with a group of mutual friends and we all get on well with each other, we were all seated at this large table and talking about various things, with a few different conversations happening at the same time. One person speaking rather loudly, who was sitting at the other end of the table speaking to those close around her, took the name of Our Lord in vain, in casual conversation, (she is a good person just rough around the edges). I then said in my mind ' Blessed be the name of Our Lord Jesus'. She immediately looked at me and said out loud, 'I'm sorry Carolyn'. A few of the people she was speaking to asked 'what are you sorry for?', she didn't answer them, I smiled at her and all the conversations continued as if nothing had happened.
In regards to the dry times or the dark nights, I believe the Lord caters to each individual according to that persons needs or personality. I expect that a lot of very good people would not understand other good peoples spirtual journey as we are all different but then again there is a lot of common ground that we all travel on. I've noticed in my spiritual life that the Lord seems to give me large doses of different events in one heap. It is perculiar (and it may also affect others). The Lord does this with the good events and the not so good events. Example; He gives me a plate of excessive Joy, like when a child of mine accomplishes something major, my heart basks in this for weeks. Or He gives me a plate of excessive rest like taking a holiday that nurtures not only the body but also the spirit for another 6 months. Or He gives me a plate of excessive serenity , like going on a weeks retreat to pray, where that time with God reverberates for months. Or He gives me a plate of excessive grief, like the death of a child or brother, which tears my heart apart for years. When we eat a meal most people like to have a variety on their plate; besides being heathy it makes the food more palatable. I don't think that I would like to sit down one day and just eat a large plate of meat and then the next day a large plate of pumpkin and the next day a large plate of peas. However, I think in the spiritual life the Lord does this for me, because He wants to instill in me the Majesty of the moment of these events, as they are all special, beautiful and Holy when given to Him and also He needs to teach me that these things are passing
