When my daughter was about three years old she was very autistic. We sent her to the local preschool. She was totally unable to cope and cried a great deal and would sometimes vomit because of the stress. The pre-schooling for my daughter was totally unworkable. (She was unable to communicate at this stage of her life, but has since told me that she was afraid that I would never come back to pick her up from the preschool).
The autistic association came up with the idea of sending her to one of their schools which was many miles away. I was amazed that this was suggested in view of the fact that my daughter could not even cope with one hour at preschool so I turned to St. Joseph for his help and for seven Sundays in a row I prayed fourteen Glorias in honour of the seven Sorrows and the Seven Joys of St. Joseph.
On the first day that she was taken in the school taxi to the special school when they arrived at the school she hopped out of the car and waved goodbye to the lady from the autistic association who was helping out and from then on my daughter had no more difficulties separating from me in order to go to school.
Read my book: Help from heaven (Answers to prayer), free on-line
(composed by St John Vianney)
O great St Philomena, glorious virgin and martyr, Wonder-Worker of our age, I return most fervent thanks to God for the miraculous gifts bestowed on thee, and beseech thee to impart to me a share in the graces and blessings of which thou hast been the channel to so many souls.
Through the heroic fortitude with which thou didst confront the fury of tyrants and brave the frowns of the mighty rather than swerve from thy allegiance to the King of Heaven, obtain for me purity of body and soul, purity of thought and affection.
Through thy patience under multiplied sufferings, obtain for me a submissive acceptance of all the afflictions it may please God to send me, and as thou didst miraculously escape unhurt from the waters of the Tiber, into which thou wert cast by order of Thy persecutor, so may I pass through the waters of tribulation without detriment to my soul.
In addition to these favours, obtain for me, O faithful spouse of Jesus, the particular intention I earnestly recommend to thee at this moment.
(state your petition)
O pure virgin and holy martyr, deign to cast a look of pity from Heaven on thy devoted servant, comfort me in affliction, assist me in danger, above all come to my aid in the hour of death.
Watch over the interests of the Church of God, pray for its exultation and prosperity, the extension of the Faith, for the clergy, for the perseverance of the just, the conversion of sinners, and the relief of souls in Purgatory, especially those dear to me.
O great Saint, whose triumph we celebrate on earth, intercede for me, that I may one day behold the crown of glory bestowed on thee in Heaven, and eternally bless Him Who so liberally rewards for all eternity the sufferings endured for His love during this short life. Amen.
Oh St Philomena, virgin and martyr, pray for us so that through your powerful intercession we may obtain that purity of spirit and heart that leads to the perfect love of God. Amen.
Learn about the powerful intercession of The Holy Souls in Purgatory for their benefactors
Novena to St Philomena the Wonder Worker for the healing of autism:
http://missionbell.homestead.com/novenaforautisticchildren.html
One of my daughters suffered from a learning disability (autism). She was having great difficulty learning to speak. I made up special speech books for her from cheap second hand children’s’ picture books that I brought in bulk from church and school fetes. I had exhausted my supply of the picture books on this project and wanted to make up some more speech books for my daughter. About that time I read a book about a Benedictine priest of Belgium who lived in the nineteenth century. He was a wonderworker and a zealous promoter of the Saint Benedict Medal. One day I casually prayed to him in these words, “Father Paul of Moll, you are going to have to get me some more children’s picture books or give me some art ability.” After the prayer I went and got a large art sketch book. There was a book in the house which was illustrated with some cartoons of animals doing human activities like cooking the dinner and mowing the lawn. The pictures in the book were small. I sat down and looked at the cartoon book and began to sketch into the art book. I did not stop to look at the drawings that I was doing. When I finally checked my work, I was astounded to see that I had made pages of professionally drawn pictures, scaled up to large size to fit the pages. I have never had this art ability before or since. From my book: Help from heaven (Answers to prayer), which can be read free on-line at the following place:
http://missionbell.homestead.com/HelpFromHeavenBook.html
There are many stories in the book. Please have a look. If you wish to give me feedback, you will find my email address on the webpage.
The powerful intercession of the Holy Souls in Purgatory for their benefactors and ways to help them
The web page has accounts of the intercession of The Holy Souls in Purgatory, for their benefactors in cases of illness, addictions, cars that won’t start, infertility problems, serious weight loss problems, protection in accidents, conversion, chronic insomnia, their help for people who are experiencing major trouble with city councils, success with projects, employment, real estate, television sets that don’t work properly, finding lost property and trouble with relations, etc. and prayers and ideas on how to help The Holy Souls in Purgatory.
Prayer is the most important thing to help the sufferer of panic attack. I have had firsthand experience of this unpleasant condition and have also given voluntary counseling, to people who have been sent to me, by a priest friend who did not know what else to do to help people who came to him, seeking prayers and help to overcome their panic attacks.
These people did recover from the condition. When you add prayer to the equation things improve out of sight.
As well as prayer, I would like to recommend to your friend the following advice. There are many books on panic attack, however the one which I would recommend to your friend is entitled: Living with It. The author of the book is Bev Aisbett. It is published by HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd.
A search of the Internet will quickly locate web sites which distribute the book. What is different about this book, is that it is actually a cartoon book with captions. The author of the book Bev Aisbett, is a professional cartoon artist, living in Sydney. She wrote this book, after suffering and recovering from this debilitating condition. The visual humour in the book is extremely valuable to the sufferer of panic attack, and instructs them in what the condition really is, and the techniques which you can use to overcome panic attack.
Briefly the symptoms of panic attack are caused by a release of a large flood of adrenaline into the blood stream, which ordinarily is meant to protect you in dangerous situations, such as when you would flee if you saw a violent person running toward you to physically attack you, or to help you to move with great haste out of the path of a speeding car, which was coming toward you. However in the case of panic attack the body releases a flood of these chemicals inappropriately, (when there is no real danger). However you are not sunk in this matter. There are steps that you can take to deal with the situation and be healed of panic attack.
I will outline some of these for you now. If you feel the condition of panic attack coming upon you with its unmistakable symptoms of heart palpitations, sweating, shaking, extraordinary fear that doesn’t match the situation that you are in, (for example you may be just simply shopping at the supermarket, where no real danger exists), there are special breathing techniques which can be used. Another technique is that you dare your body to unleash the symptoms upon you. The symptoms will abate or stop completely, if you adopt an attitude that says, “I do not care if the body unleashes the symptoms of panic attack upon me”. The release of adrenaline in panic attacks is not able to operate when this attitude is adopted. The more often you get on top of this matter the sooner you will recover from this condition.
It has been observed that consciously switching to a calm attitude, during a panic attack, somehow enables the brain to switch off further releases of Adrenalin, thereby minimising the severity of the attack.
The habitual use of relaxation techniques, such as lying down and listening to soothing music or using imagination techniques, such as the imagining yourself in a very relaxed calm place such as the beach, are also useful in the treatment and management of panic attack. It is important to replace negative and fearful ideas with the calming and positive ones.
It doesn’t really matter what stresses in your life led to panic attack, the important thing is dealing with it, and recovering from it.
Do you have an autistic child who is non-verbal. My oldest child was born with autism and she could not speak. She was already three and a half years of age and I was extremely worried, because my brother was also autistic and was non-verbal all his life, (except for two words, Mum and John.)
I prayed hard for help and it came. I developed a simple method that cost next to nothing and was easy and enjoyable and best of all very successful.
If you wish to learn how to do this for your own child, please visit the following link on my website.
http://missionbell.homestead.com/teachingautisticchildrentospeak.html
Here is a blog that might interest you from a chaplain at Lourdes, in France. Visit the autism page on his blog at:
http://immaculataconceptio.wordpress.com/prayer-petitions/autism/
Novena for the healing of autism
http://missionbell.homestead.com/novenaforautisticchildren.html
In the 1980’s an outdoor shrine of Mary Help of Christians was built and blessed in Sydney. Our daughter was three years of age at the time. She had severe autism and could not talk. The man who was in charge of the shrine was a friend of our family. He told us that he had a plan to hold regular gatherings at the shrine, where people would pray for specially chosen intentions. e.g. a person with cancer. He selected our daughter as the first person who would be prayed for. We willingly agreed. It was his hope that our daughter would receive a miracle healing. On the appointed day, a group of people gathered at the shrine. A Jesuit priest brought our daughter up to the microphone and introduced her to the people and explained to them that she had autism. He asked them to join with him in saying the Rosary for her healing. At the end of the Rosary the priest asked the people to keep this intention in their prayers. There was no instant miracle that day, but in the years to come our daughter made spectacular progress.
Useful information
The powerful intercession of the Holy Souls in Purgatory for their benefactors and ways to help them
Novena to St Philomena the Wonder Worker for the healing of autism