Catholic and Enjoying It!
A reader writes:
Please ask all the prayer warriors you know to pray for our daughter Theresa. She’s 9 and newly diagnosed with osteosarcoma. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/littlemisst
Father, hear our prayer for Theresa’s complete healing in body, soul, and spirit. Give her caregivers grace, wisdom, counsel, knowledge, understanding, compassion, creativity, insight, skill and the proper technology to assist in her complete healing and give her and all who love her grace, peace, strength, consolation, faith, hope, and love through your Son Jesus Christ. Mother Mary, St. Luke, St. Peregrine, Sts. Teresa and Therese, and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for them.
Another reader writes:
Maybe some of your readers would be willing to help… I have two friends, a homeless couple. Not addicts or whatever the stereotype is. I’ve known them for a few months – basically come to the conclusion that helping them get under a real roof would not be spitting into the wind. They will either get the disability check or get get a job, or both. He has cardiac issues, has been told not to lift heavy things or do manual labor; and he just got turned down for SS disability; but they’re probably going to appeal. She is trying to get a job at BK, Dunkin Donuts, or some such – she’s worked in fast food before. She has some issues with pain in her hip and shoulder, and may not be able to stand for prolonged periods, but she’s trying anyway.
There are free clinics in Tampa – that don’t take you if you don’t have an address. She’s been in Tampa General twice in the past month — assortment of allergic reactions to bug bites, aforementioned hip and shoulder pain, and a gall bladder that might have to come out sometime. She panhandles on Sunday – the one day it’s legal in Tampa.
They do their best to find the friction point between ‘cheap’ and ‘healthy’ at Walmart, with their EBT cards.
Not trying to idealize — they’ve probably made bad decisions in the course of their lives — but they’re also just straightforward people who don’t have the resources to flourish in the present economy — education, technical certs, whatever. He’s been a day laborer, assistant to an auto mechanic, stuff like that. She’s worked fast food, daycare, stuff like that. At one point they worked at a chicken farm, which provided housing, but business got slow and they were laid off. But they do have the resources – determination and basic willingness to work – to get by with a little help.
Not asking for much. If I were still on active-duty orders, instead of working part time, myself, and trying to figure out how to move back to the Chicago area, I’d just do this myself.
Father, help this couple find the support they need and decent work at a living wage. Help them as well find complete healing in body, soul, and spirit for their various afflictions. Mother Mary and St. Joseph, pray for them. We ask this in the Name of your Son Jesus Christ.
Another reader writes:
I have serious addiction to porn. Would you ask for the intercession of people? If Mary will grant me in her prayers a truly sorrowful conscience and to help me in the confessional. I go to confession. But as soon as I go, after, I fall back in. The drive and desire keeps coming back as attractive. It’s affecting me by looking at all kinds of bad material. I may pray ans ask God for help. But, when it comes back, I cannot help it. I want truly the love of God to save me and heal me from all desires of sin. The worse thing is after going the the temptation and then the fall, I have a hard time dealing with family. I will start distrusting my Grandma, get real mean and angry. I begin to distrust a lot of people. I ask God to please not let me into such darkness of despair, anger, and having all the temptations which follow after. That, I feel my Grandma will allow other people to help her and take over. I begin to doubt her, and even her love for me. I’m afraid I will nag her and get her upset. I ask God to please not let me down into that. But to lift me out of my sins and totally cleanse me, and grant me a new heart. I pray for a miracle. I just want to be rescued and stop doubting God’s love. I fall into the tide of disordered material because I look at my age, feel these feelings will haunt me for the rest of my life, and I need to give in and handle them. I even go online single sites and try to find someone who will entertain these desires. I have fallen to both kinds of relations…I’m afraid of saying exactly what they are. I just want help and God to really save. me. Ask if God and Mary will give me the strength and being assured that if possible I can make pilgrimage to Our Lady who visited a Belgian Nun in Champion Wisconsin. Also, I pray and I promise to live out the devotion to Our Lady the un-doer of Knots. I pray, if God wills, and Mary’s prayers intercede to visit with God’s help, and Mary’s help to visit the shrine in Champion Wisconsin and ask for the gift of devotion. Please pray for me.
Father, encourage your son with the assurance that you love him no matter what and are proud of him for trying so hard. Give him the grace to overcome this and to find a way to channel his energy toward toward love of you and others and away from this self-hatred and sin. Give him, above all, peace of mind about the forgiveness and love you have for him at all times. Help him turn the mercy you give him into mercy for others in the grip of the same struggle. And free him from this sin to his good and the glory of your Name. Mother Mary, Un-doer of Knots, pray for him. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Reader Teresa Drollman of Wenatchee, WA writes:
Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Lord,
I am writing to request your prayers and support for 40 Days for Life in Wenatchee, WA.
40 Days for Life is changing our community through prayer. For 40 days, from Sept. 24th to Nov. 2nd, we will pray and fast for an end to abortion, participate in public outreach to spread the Gospel of Life, and stand witness in peaceful, prayerful vigil outside Family Planning of North Central Washington. 40 Days for Life invites the community to recognize the tragedy of abortion and emphasizes a call to prayer and conversion.
As prayer is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal to end the scourge of abortion, we humbly ask that you join us in prayer and fasting on behalf of all those who are organizing, participating and witnessing in this campaign. We pray:
- That God bless the efforts of His faithful during the coming 40 days of prayer;
- For the conversion of the workers at Family Planning of North Central Washington;
- For the women who are struggling and feel they have no alternative;
- For the women and men who have been a part of an abortion in the past;
- And most importantly, that God brings an end to abortion in North Central Washington.
We know that your prayers will be a tremendous help in the great struggle to end abortion.
Should you feel called to join us in public and peaceful witness at the prayer vigil outside Family Planning or for more information to sign up to participate in the vigil, please visit 40daysforlife.com/wenatchee or contact the campaign at [email protected].
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I thank you for listening to God’s call to pray for an end to abortion! May the peace of Christ be with you!
Father, hear our prayer for this and for all 40 Days for Life efforts around the world, through Christ our Lord. Mother Mary, pray for them!
HT: Te Deum Laudamus
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