Overcoming infertility through prayer to St Philomena the Wonder Worker

Baby Filomena Elizabeth

The following story comes from Australia. It is told here in the words of Filomena’s mother Elizabeth. Having been married on the feast of Mary the Mother of God on the 1st of January, 2000, Francis and I were trusting that God might bless us with a baby at some stage.  This was going to be a big challenge for me, as I had never considered myself to be very maternal because my reproductive cycle was always extremely “light on” or in other words “spaced out.”  Nevertheless my husband was always trusting in God’s providence and he never doubted that one day we would have a baby. I think that I “flunked” the Billings Ovulation method because in the end, our Billings practitioner was not convinced that I had been fertile during any of the months that we had consulted her, so Francis and I stopped the analysis and started praying.  Instead of consulting the medical fraternity we consulted Jesus in the tabernacle and prayed many Saint Philomena Chaplets before a statue of Saint Philomena at Saint Patrick’s in the city.   In April 2001 I discovered that I was pregnant. The great miracle had happened.  Saint Philomena made her presence felt very strongly during the labour and we subsequently named our gorgeous daughter Filomena.  There were some special pointers that Saint Philomena had indeed interceded for us in bringing about this great favour. One of these indicators was a small incident with an Italian friend of ours.  She came and visited our baby daughter when she had just been born.  She then put a question to her father when she got back home asking him to guess what we had named our daughter.  He paused for a couple of seconds and then said “Filomena.” Our friend could not believe it!  Incredible, how did he guess it? Our friend said that the name Philomena is an extremely old fashioned name in Italy and a name that probably only one’s grandmother or great grandmother might have. We thank Saint Philomena for her intercession and pray that we will able to have a brother or sister for our little Filomena.

The story above is one of the many accounts of answers to prayer from my book entitled:

Help from Heaven (Answers to Prayer), which can be read free on-line by clicking here. Please pay a visit.

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A wonderful conversion through the intercession of St. Philomena the Wonder Worker

This story comes from Sydney, Australia.  It is related by the mother of the boy, who is the recipient of the favour.

When one of our teenage sons began drinking heavily, smoking pot and being involved with a heavy metal rock band, my husband and I decided to give him over to the care of Saint Philomena, who we had heard was a patron saint of youth and a wonder worker.  We had heard her story and had been impressed by the many miracles which had been attributed to her intercession.

We prayed a novena and went to our first Mass in her honour.  As the Saturday night binges progressed to the whole weekend and then to week nights we decided to pray the novena continuously, imploring Saint Philomena desperately as our son’s condition continued to worsen. By this stage he would come home from work and prowl around restlessly until the phone rang and then he was out again. His pores oozed the sweet/stale smell of beer continuously.

Usually he was very gentle – even when he was drunk, but he became more agitated, blaming us for filling him with all the “God stuff” as he was growing up.  This occurred on the Saturday night of the August Mass in honour of Saint Philomena. The week that followed was very distressing.  He went off to work on the Friday at 5am as usual and I was surprised when he came home at 1.15 p.m. – his usual home time on Fridays, but lately he had gone straight to the pub and we were lucky to see him all weekend.  My son came out of his room and put a broken CD into the bin. I was again surprised and so had a look at the title of the CD. He had dozens of heavy metal CDs. It was named “Diabolos Music.” I said, as I had often said, that means Devil’s music and that it was dangerous.  Usually he would laugh if off, but this time he said “I know mum.”

He brought out the printed lyrics of the song and said that the words to this song kept going through his mind and that he felt that he was going mad, but that he was at peace now. I was almost too scared to ask him why? how?  when? I just asked if he had called on God and he said “Yes.”  At work that morning he had experienced an overwhelming sense of peace and love. A feeling of great burden had lifted off him.  He felt the presence of a woman.  He looked around but there was no one there.

My son still had the music filling his head – so I gave him a much better tape to listen to. When his mate rang that night, before he left, he asked us to pray for him and said that he would not be

late. After a couple of Rosaries and Divine Mercy Chaplets, we were disappointed as the night wore on, because our son did not turn up.  Finally around 2 to 3am he came in.  My husband hurried out and I started another Rosary – hoping that my husband wouldn’t ruin the obvious start that my son had made.  When my husband finally came back to bed a few hours later, he said that they had been talking and praying the Rosary together.

My son had waited back to make sure that his friends got home safely. He wanted to go and tell them about his experience. They were not interested and as he listened to them, all he would hear was “hate” in their talk. That morning August the 15^th was the feast of the Assumption.  He went to the Sacrament of Confession and afterwards he shed many tears.  Our eyes were also filled with tears of joy. He went to three of the four Masses that weekend and did so for many months after.

He has never drunk alcohol, smoked pot, nor has he listened to heavy metal rock music since that time.  He threw out all his CDs and heavy metal T-shirts.  His conversion was sudden. We felt that it was miraculous. He now has a great love for Jesus and Mary, for Saint Philomena, the Pope and for the Catholic Church.

Looking back now we can see the strong spiritual battle that was going on for him in those last few weeks.  He even said a couple of times that he was tempted to go and kill someone.  We continue to pray the novena to Saint Philomena for our son for his continuing conversion and thanksgiving and “with joy in our hearts, we will bless God who is admirable in His Saints.” Our son attended the World Youth Day in Rome.  (M.W.)

Editor’s note: This conversion took place in the late nineties and is still going strong today.

This is one of the many story in my book entitled: Help from Heaven (Answers to Prayer), which can be read free on-line by clicking here.

Please pop over and have a look.  I promise that you will not be dissappointed.

Help the Holy Souls in Purgatory and read inspiring testimonies of their  powerful intercession for their benefactors

and then teach this devotion to others, so that they will pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory as well.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the death of Blessed Mary MacKillop and also her feast day.

Today is the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Blessed Mary MacKillop of Australia and it is also her feast day.

She was a much misunderstood woman who suffered greatly at the hands of the clergy particularly the bishops.  Blessed Mary MacKillop was unjustly accused of so much, for example, each month she suffered great pain for a couple of days and had to stay in bed on these occasions.  There were no suitable pain killers in those days, so the doctor suggested that she take a tablespoon of brandy to dull the pain. Another nun even measured it out and administered it to her.  Despite this she was accused of being an alcoholic!  She was pronounced “excommunicated” by a bishop when she was just asking for a clarification of his words. This was actually an invalid action on the part of the bishop and was fixed up when he was dying. There is heaps to say about Blessed Mary MacKillop and I can also relate some great stories about her intercession. Do yourself a favour and read the story of her life.

Favours granted through the intercession of Saint Mary of the Cross (Mary MacKillop of Australia) Feast day August 8.

Prayers to find a good spouse

A lady in the USA asked for a petition to be placed at the shrine of Blessed Mary MacKillop in Australia.  One at the petitions was for her 28 year old daughter Lyn to find a good husband. A few days after the petition was placed at Blessed Mary Mackillop’s tomb, Lyn’s mother received a telephone call from a man that Lyn had dated eight years ago. Lyn and her former boyfriend went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, in France to pray there to discern God’s will for their lives.  They have since married. Another of the mother’s petitions to Blessed Mary MacKillop was also answered.  Her son decided to give up living with his girlfriend.  They started to attend Mass regularly and also began making preparations to marry.

Blessed Mary MacKillop “fixes” a microwave oven

I had arranged to go on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Blessed Mary MacKillop at North Sydney.  On the morning that I was due to go I discovered that my microwave oven had stopped working. When I went to the shrine I prayed for many important petitions.  I also mentioned to Blessed Mary, the little matter of my microwave oven. When I arrived home I tried my microwave oven again.  It was still not working.  After this I slammed the oven door very hard and the microwave started working!  It seems that the only thing that was wrong was that there was a fault in the closing mechanism of the door. The microwave oven was not fully closing. It only appeared to be fully closed.

These stories are in my book Help from heaven (Answers to prayer) which can be read free-online by pressing here.

The Plight of the Holy Souls in Purgatory

Try the following imagination exercise to help you to imagine the plight of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.  (It won’t be sufficient, but it will be useful).  I have taken these examples from real life scenarios involving relatives. Put yourself in the following scene: you are over eighty years old and live by yourself in a small house in a retirement village.  You have a fall and break your hip and lay in agonising pain on the floor for three days, unable to reach the telephone and call for help. You have no food and drink for three days and there are other problems. (Use your imagination to fill in the gaps here).  You cannot be heard when you call for help and are terrified that no one will find you and you will die there all alone. Three days later someone notices that you are not around and goes to investigate and rescues you. The Holy Souls are much worse off than that and are waiting for your prayers and sacrifices to rescue them, relieve their pain and deliver them from Purgatory.

Next example:  you are in jail for over a year and a half, but receive only two visitors (very close family members), but other relatives don’t know that you are in there, because it has been covered up due to family shame and your friends don’t want to know you anymore.  Finally two relatives learn of this and rescue you for the last six months of your jail term by sending letters and photographs to cheer you up.  (You are helped by this). It is not possible for these two relatives to visit you because the jail is a long distance from where they live, but they do what they can to help you.

The Holy Souls are in a jail like that waiting to hear from you (receive your prayers and sacrifices) to alleviate their pain and suffering and deliver them from Purgatory so that they can enter heaven), however unlike the jail that the relative was in, their jail does not have good meals, a TV set for good behaviour and a library and a chapel with a statue of Mary and Jesus in it, a reflection garden and a Catholic chaplain to help.  The Holy Souls are in a terrible place with no comforts. 

The powerful intercession of the Holy Souls in Purgatory for their benefactors

Have you ever prayed the Mother Teresa Emergency Novena? (It is also known as the Mother Teresa Express Novena.)

Have any of you ever prayed the Mother Teresa Emergency Novena consisting of the Memorare prayer said nine times in a row for an intention? If you did so, could you tell me if you prayed it by yourself, or with one or more people and what the results of the novena were. If you prayed it with more than one person, how many people prayed it with you?   (The novena was named after Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, who received striking favours through this novena).  I would also like to know if you prayed a variation of this novena and the results of that.

This is the Memorare prayer:

Remember O most loving Virgin Mary that never was it known in any age that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession was left unaided, inspired by this confidence, therefore I fly to thee O Virgin of Virgins my Mother, to you do I come, before you I stand sinful and sorrowful, do not O Mother of the Word Incarnate despise my prayers but in thy mercy graciously hear and answer them.  Amen.

A few suggestions

Life is full of situations that need help immediately, not in a week’s time.  If a mortgage is going to be foreclosed at lunchtime today, because you can’t pay it, a nine day novena or even an eight hour novena is not quiet the way to go!  Think of this emergency novena as being like an express train. It is 10.30 a.m. and  you have an appointment in the city at 11 a.m. so you catch the express train that speeds pass many stations, not the slow train that stops and picks up passengers at every station!  Imagine also that you leave at petition station and arrive at miracle station!  I like to see a picture of Mother Teresa on the outside of the train, with the words: The Mother Teresa Express novena on it. It helps to use your imagination when praying.

Update

On this blog I have another posting on this novena. It is called the Mother Teresa Emergency novena is  a real winner!

Here are some testimonies to this novena

A terrible smell

Julia noticed a very bad smell in the back room of her house. She searched for the source, but could not locate anything that could be causing this smell.  It was summer and the smell got worse and worse.  Julia remembered that a dog had got into the yard and went under her house a few weeks earlier.  She had been too scared to check whether it was still there.  It had been raining a lot and it crossed her mind that the dog might have got trapped under the house and died there. The smell did seem to be coming through the floor boards. Some relatives came to visit.  Julia was really embarrassed by the awful smell, but the relatives said that they could not smell anything.  Maybe they were just being polite or their noses did not work anymore!

Before Julia went to bed that night she said The Mother Teresa Emergency Novena for a solution.  In the morning when she came out to the back room, much to her dismay, the smell was still there. In the back room there were some boxes with cartons of long life milk in them. The boxes were stacked up on top of one another.  She looked down and saw a white gooey substance leaking from under the boxes. The box at the bottom of the pile had been damaged by the other boxes on top of it and one of the cartons of milk inside it had leaked. The leakage had obviously started on the previous day, but it had not yet leaked out from under the box, so it was hidden at that time. This was the source of the dreadful smell. Julia was very relived to know what had happened.  It was an unpleasant smelly mess to clean and fix, but when that was finalised the horrible smell was gone!

Permission granted after a firm refusal!

The Mother Teresa Express Novena was prayed, plus prayers for and to the Holy Souls in Purgatory asking for their help, and also to the saints, when work leave was refused to a girl, who wished to take time off to go on a pilgrimage.  She had accumulated lots of leave, but the particular time off that she had requested could not be accommodated.  After the novenas were prayed, the favour was granted.

Computer trouble

My brother telephoned to tell us that he had a problem with his computer, and to seek our advice regarding same. We were unable to help him. He was cleaning the keyboard when the screen picture turned on its side. No matter what he tried, the situation could not be remedied, e.g. trying various keyboard combinations, rebooting the computer etc. To make matters even worse, it was a five day holiday period over Easter, when it would be more difficult to find computer experts to help out.  I made a Mother Teresa Emergency Novena (nine Memorares in a row), in order to get help. The next morning when my brother phoned, I inquired about the computer and was informed that it was fixed. My brother had found the correct combination of key strokes to get the screen picture to go back to the correct position.

Prayer wins again

Late last week a situation arose which was very difficult.  Prayer to and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory and the Mother Teresa Express Novena turned the situation around dramatically in two days.

The choir

Anna was organizing Divine Mercy Sunday devotions for her group. She had asked several choirs if they could help out, but they were all unable too. She mentioned this to her friend Cathy. Cathy promised to say the Mother Teresa Express Novena, (the Memorare prayer said nine times in a row) for a solution. She said the novena, and also prayed for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and asked for their intercession to obtain the favour. Anna found a suitable choir a couple of days later.

Other Information

Read accounts of the gratitude of  the Holy Souls in Purgatory for their benefactors

Read my book: Help from Heaven (Answers to Prayer), free on-line

Car that was “dead” is now running well (A favour of The Holy Souls in Purgatory)

Car that was “dead” is now running well  (The Holy Souls in Purgatory)

Right now I am feeling total awe, immense gratitude and the overwhelming feeling of just WOW. I say the Saint Gertrude prayer for The Holy Souls in Purgatory many times a day, since I found it on your web site. Yesterday when I was ready to go to Mass, I tried to start my car and there was nothing. It just would not turn over. I tried it several times during the day and my son tried it before he went to bed, but it still would not start. Before going to Mass this morning, I went to your web page, (as I do every morning before Mass) to say the prayer. I decided to read some of the things on the web page, which I did the first time that I found your web site, but have not done since then. I read about you not being able to open the lock on your door and about your husband helping. I thought that “I should pray to The Holy Souls in Purgatory about my car”, so before I went out, (I was intending to walk to Mass), I asked them to please pray that my car would start. I put the key in the ignition and said “please Holy Souls, pray that it starts,”  I turned the key and my car started! I was what you could call struck dumb. I could not believe it, they actually heard me and answered my prayer, so I offered up my Mass and my Eucharist for them. I pray that more and more people pray to and for The Holy Souls in Purgatory. They need our prayers, and they DO listen to us and pray for us. Just ask my car.  B.M. (USA)

This is the web link that is referred to in the story about the car:

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

This story comes from my book Help from heaven (Answers to prayer), which can be read free on-line at:

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

I welcome your feedback on the book.

A weight loss crisis (the intercession of the Holy Souls in Purgatory for their benefactors)

My son John has been in a group home since the age of 18.  He is very autistic, however he is verbal.  There were times when he became violent.  Now he is on various medications, but occasionally he still flares up. We visit him each week.

Over a year ago John started losing weight.  Something was very wrong.  John is a very tall boy.  The home said that he was eating lots of food, and knowing John that would be true, he has a big appetite, but the weight loss continued and he ended up looking like a thin cancer patient.

I was literally out of my mind praying for help, because no one knew why this was happening.  I prayed to all the saints etc, but especially to the Holy Souls in Purgatory because I really feared that John would die, because he just kept dropping weight.  Did he have cancer or worms or something else?  Doctors could not find anything wrong with John to explain the weight loss. It was a nightmare.

The carers at the home eventually found the answer.  After John’s meals he went to the toilet and put his finger down his throat and for the fun of it, he vomited up all the food.  John was cunning enough to flush the toilet while he was doing this, so that the carers would not know what was happening.  When this was discovered, the carers “kept John prisoner” after each meal for a few hours to let him digest the food.

They continued this for many months and John grew out of the “need” to vomit up the food. I can assure you I was really scared and even felt ill on account of John’s weight loss crisis. It was terrifying. John regained the weight that he had lost.  Please pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory and ask them for their intercession in all your needs, spiritual and temporal.  (Mary Ann),  Australia.

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.

The Fitness Plan

When Pat decided

to get fit,

He purchased himself

an exercise kit.

 

For a week, he worked hard,

at sit-ups and crunches,

And then he began to skip

corporate lunches.

 

After a week,

His muscles were sore.       

Pat decided to exercise

and diet no more.

 by Mary Ann (the owner of this blog)

 

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.

 

The Mission Bell (poem)

The Mission Bell,

What does it tell?

To come to church and pray,

To worship Jesus,

At the start,

Of each new dawning day.

To thank Him,

Serve Him,

Praise Him,

Love Him,

To abandon every sin.

And also to let go of life’s,

Distracting noisy din.

Our humble messenger,

The Mission Bell,

Takes care of us,

And serves us well !  

  by Mary Ann