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He Gave His Only Son

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

John 21:29

• There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.


• The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved-- they are Jesus in disguise.


• In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)


• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.


• The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.


• I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?


• I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.


• Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.


• If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

~Mother Teresa~

Six years ago I would never have imagined myself talking to you about prayer. I also wouldn't have paid much attention to the title of this article "Prayer is an Intimate Communication with You and God." Prior to returning to church, I thought that I could do everything on my own. This is not to say that I did not believe in God, on the contrary I did, I just believed in God on my own terms, when it was convenient for me. There also wasn't too much faith involved either. There definitely was no prayer life. I simply didn't list to what Christ was saying to me. I know now, that there have been many times in my life before returning to church, he has been trying to get my attention. I only chose to talk to Him when I thought something was unfair, something that was asked for and it didn't happen. Kind of like "Don't call me, I'll call you." kind of relationship. Funny, isn't that how a lot of people approach God?

As I kept on my wreckless journey without allowing God to guide me, I kept getting farther and farther away from God. At the same time I just didn't seem to know why my life always seemed to be in such turmoil, couldn't seem to figure out why my life seemed so empty. Many things that were happening in my life without God were things like heavy drinking, marijuana, etc. Not things that a good Christian usually is found doing. I realize now that I was trying to find something that was missing in my life and I was missing the point big time. I just refused to acknowledge the fact that I might be missing out on something, and that was the voice of Christ calling out to me. Looking back I see now that there were many different opportunities in my life when I could have said "Yes." to His calling to me. I refused to hear His voice.

I drifted so far away from God that I didn't even get my children baptized because their father who was agnostic demanded they be allowed to make their own decision on this type of thing. However, even though I felt distant from God I always tried to make sure that the kids knew about the nativity, the death and ressurection of our Lord. By now though, I had so much distance between me and God (how happy Satan must have been) I didn't think that even if I wanted to go back to church there would be no way that I could be forgiven.

Silently though, God never gave up on me, remained to have faith in me, even without me knowing it. He stood beside me knocking on my heart to let me in. But wall Satan had built between us was thick and it made me selfish, reckless, angry and somewhat self destructive. Just what Satan thrived on and just what broke God's heart.

After all the years of ignoring God, six years ago everything changed. Without reservation I heard Him, I heard His voice, felt His touch it was like an electric shock that began from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. I knew at that moment I had to return to church. The only person I knew that went to church at that time was my aunt. So I did the only thing I could...called her. She was a little shocked to hear from me, don't blame her. After shock disappeared she asked me to meet her at church. Gulp...that's what I was doing when I stepped into St. Joe's for the first time in my life. It was hard, all the guilt of all those years being gone and doing what I wanted to do weighed heavy on my shoulders. Little did I know how my life would change that very day. After Mass my aunt insisted that I meet Father John. When she introduced me she told him I was a "fallen away Catholic" I wanted to run, hide, anything to escape! Before I could get away, Father had me in his arms and whispered in my ear "Welcome home!" Wow! Welcome home! It was that moment I knew I had finally found the right path.

The wall Satan had built around me was being melted away by the forgiveness that God was about ready to pour all over me. Shortly after I would meet with Father John so that I might unburden myself from all the things that I did that broke God's heart. I asked Father what would it take for me to be able to rebuild my relationship with God. He gave me a one word answer. "Prayer." He immediately began to pray and helped me begin the path to prayer in my life.

Through the forgiveness of God, the friendship and love of Father John and many here at St. Joe's I was able to learn how to pray and learn exactly what it meant to pray. Pray has not only changed my life but it has also saved my life. One year ago last April I was admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, diabetes, kidney and liver failure. It was prayer that let me accept these things without fear, it was prayer that gave me back my life. I was told that the only thing they could do for me was to start me on dialysis the first thing the next morning. I knew there were many praying for me and I knew whatever happened was what God wanted. My dear friend Elsie came to visit and found out about the diagnosis and laid hands on me and prayed over me. Father John annointed me and I was ready for whatever. The morning of the dialysis the doctor came in and said. "I have miraculous news for you! We are not going to have to put you on dialysis after all!" I immediately told him about the prayer and his reply was "That's exactly what it had to be because we sure didn't do anything to reverse it!"

Prayer saved my life, prayer is why I am able to write this! After all these years I finally get it. I finally understand what prayer is all about. It is amazing and it comes in many different forms, formal prayer, the rosary, novenas, verbal conversation with God, silent contemplation, worship, music and more. One of my favorites is by St. Pio..."Pray, hope and don't worry. Worry is useless. God is mercifful and will hear your prayer. Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God's heart!" Wow! We hold the key to God's heart....Prayer.

Our Father in heaven wants to silence our restless hearts. He wants to embrace us with His never ceasing and endless love. He yearns for us to turn to Him, to talk to Him, to depend upon Him. He wants us to let go of all that confines us, all that comes between us and His unconditional love. He longs to hear from you, right now. Turn it over to God, right now......Pray!

URLVD

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