The following are words given by participants at the streamed meeting. 1 Corinthians 14:29 says that "Two or three prophets should speak, and the others weigh carefully what is said." 1 Thess 5:19-21 tells us not to despise prophecies, but to test everything and retain what is good.
Scripture Reading Psalm 146:8-10 - "The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the stranger, he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations! Praise the Lord!"
Scripture Reading Psalm 63:1-4 - "O God, you are my God; I shall seek you earnestly; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have seen you in the sanctuary, to see your power and your glory. Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in your name."
Vision - I saw myself and it was as though I was pleading with the Lord in the praises for all the petitions. My sense was that that is what the praises that I was lifting up and pleading with the Lord to take heed on all our prayers.
We need to pray in the Spirit often.
Fr. Donald Calloway's testimony - "From Ex-Convict & Drug Addict to Priest. He didn't grow up in a Christian household - no faith. His teenage years were lived in pagan terms. At one point he was living in Japan with his family. He caused so much trouble that he was kicked out of Japan. In the U.S. he had to go into his first drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. When he got out, he got worse.
During this time, his mom had a radical conversion because of a Filipino woman. She fell in love with Catholicism.
Through this time, Fr. Calloway got worse. He was living on the streets; rehabilitation center in Philadelphia for another three months. When he turned 18, he was in Louisiana and he got thrown in jail. A crazy life, drug use, etc. He got out of jail and went back to parents' house. His parents were going to church every day. They tried to get him to go to church.
Then he had a "divine 2x4". One evening he picked up a book on Virgin Mary in his parents' home. He had never heard of the Virgin Mary. He read that book in one night. The next day, he searched out and found a Catholic priest. The priest invited him to attend Mass, sit in the back and just to watch. What happened was that Fr. Calloway was falling in love with Jesus and Mary and the Church. He was being romanced by God.
That day in church, there were 5 Filipino women. They taught him to pray the Rosary, gave him all these medals of Saints, Scapulars. And then, he began his own process of becoming Catholic. He started to go to church every day. He was in church in the morning before the Filipinos. He was falling in love more and more. He knew Jesus was in the Eucharist.
The Filipino women were coming up to him and telling him that he could become a priest. He wasn't even Catholic yet. He kept praying and asking what God wanted him to do; get married, become a priest. He couldn't believe that God would invite him to be a priest considering what he had done in the past. It would take a lot of power to have this happen. As he kept praying, he felt he couldn't resist this. And he didn't have peace when he tried not to do it. And all this happened when he still wasn't Catholic.
When he became Catholic, he visited a religious community - the priests who run the National Shrine of Divine Mercy. These priests were awesome. After prayer, he was invited to join them and in 2003, he was ordained.
If there is someone in your life who doesn't want to go to church, etc., Fr. Calloway told us to never give up hope. Pray those Rosaries, the Chaplet of Mercy - they have power. Those sacrifices have power. Books are powerful. God's mercy is for everyone. He loves our loved ones more than we do. As long as we have a pulse, we have hope!
Georgina took her youngest grandchildren to church. When they were coming out, she asked if they remembered anything that struck them. The youngest grandchild said that the last time he came out of church, there is a song that stayed in his head, the Gloria. Georgina praised God for that.
Natalie thanked God everyone for their prayers. Her shingles were gone but she had a lot of nerve pain, couldn't sleep, etc. Now it's 95% gone, just some slight skin sensitivity.
50% Complete
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