Backyard garden shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes

Advertisement

Our Lady of Fatima (regarding Purgatory)

Our Lady of Fatima said that a girl named Amelia would stay in Purgatory until the end of the world. This is a sobering thought. If we pray for Amelia, her time in Purgatory might be shortened. 

Remember that Sister Lucia said that missing one Sunday Mass (deliberately) can send one to hell for all eternity. The same applies for missing a Mass deliberately on a Holy Day of Obligation. 

In view of this, it is good to remember St Therese’s teaching on avoiding Purgatory and going straight to heaven. The teachings are summarized here:  http://www.franciscan-sfo.org/ap/litfwrpu.htm

Loretta Young

The following story was told by the late Father Aeden McGrath an Irish missionary priest at a talk which he gave in Sydney, Australia.  Father McGrath was in China during World War II when the Japanese Army were in the country.  The Japanese were advancing toward the area where his parish was located. The local women were terrified of what was going to happen when the Japanese soldiers arrived. They begged Father McGrath who was a very short man to protect them.  There was very little that he could do. He prayed to Our Lady for help.  The Japanese soldiers arrived.  The Japanese sergeant had a big crush on Loretta Young the Hollywood actress, who he had seen in movies. He was keen to find out if Father McGrath had ever met Loretta Young.  As a matter of fact Father McGrath had met her, probably through association with Father Patrick Peyton (the founder of the Family Rosary Crusade). The sergeant ordered his soldiers to leave the people in peace, because Father McGrath knew Loretta Young!

This is one of the stories in my book: Help from heaven (Answers to prayers). The book can be read free on-line by pressing here. 

            

Help for people who are suffering from Panic attacks

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.

 

My book on answers to prayer (on line free): (An Appeal for more stories)

Dear Friends,

I have recently put up online the first edition of my book: Help from heaven (Answers to prayer).  

There are many stories of answers to prayer. They cover several saints, the guardian angels, St Raphael the Archangel, Our Lady and Our Lord (invoked under several titles), the Miraculous Medal, The Divine Mercy, The Sacred Wounds of Our Lord, The intercession of the Holy Souls in Purgatory for their benefactors, etc. There are also prayers, an article on how to meditate on the Rosary, an article on miracles, some poems etc. The stories came from friends, relatives and  acquaintances.  

The book is an apostolate to help people. It is not a commercial venture. 

I thought that it would be good if the book contained more stories of answers to prayers. If you have a story of an answer to prayer (that is original) that you think might be suitable for the book, please email me at:

 catacomb@bigpond.com 

Through your feedback the book might be improved.

Greetings and prayers for all your intentions,

Mary Ann

(Australia) 

The book is in two parts and can be read at the following links:   

Help from heaven (part one)

http://missionbell.homestead.com/HelpFromHeavenBook.html 

Help from heaven (part two – final section) 

http://missionbell.homestead.com/HelpFromHeavenBookPartTwo.html 

Please let your family and friends know about the book also, so that they can have a look.

Healing of autism (Mary Help of Christians)

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