WHEN ST THERESE GAVE ME A ROSE-PRINT SCARF
On Christmas Eve, I went with friends for a scrumptious dinner at the home of some neighbors. A roast ham was enjoyed by all. One of the hosts has a fantastic devotion to the Little Flower, aka, St Therese of Lisieux.
She was telling me that she called on her when her little boy was at death's door, and he recovered miraculously, the disease just disappeared. There was also a time when she owed a big bill, and it was mysteriously paid. Every occasion that the Little Flower has interceded in big ways, she has sent roses within a day. So, this lady who is eagerly awaiting my Padre Pio book (as are a few other people it seems) volunteered to pray to St Therese for the completion of the last draft that I'm working on. Then she said, "Watch out for the gift of roses!" I demurred, and said that it could be a long wait.
I thought the roses would come on the day of the book's publication, but no, on Christmas morning, a friend of mine for 10 years gave me this beautiful scarf, not even 12 hours after the dinner party. She knows me well and knows my taste for rococo fashion. But it is a rose-printed scarf!
I wish all my readers a blessed and peaceful 2024, God willing I will be doing much more blogging than last year, and will be giving updates as to the date the book on Pio will be published.
I am somewhat dismayed that a comment I posted on https://thepathlesstaken7.blogspot.com/2022/08/st-augustine-on-only-way-to-control.html was never addressed (it wasn't even cleared for posting I think), the very strong possibility that Catholicism/Christianity in general harmed my life and someone else's was never even attempted to be addressed, or at the very least a response that "I'm sorry this happened to you and your family, I'm sorry it appears that Catholicism made yours and someone else's life worse, and even if I don't agree with that assessment I will pray for you and hopefully Jesus answers my prayer on your behalf and finally answers your prayers this time". I understand this is a private website and of course the admin can filter what they want, but to present itself as a supposedly compassionate website open to the truth (which is what Christianity in general presents itself as, as compassionate and truthful) and then pretending uncomfortable truths others experienced don't exist because it conflicts with their dogma seems disingenuous at best.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments - both of which I have only just read - please bear with me. I just trawled through my spam folder and found your original comment, if I am not mistaken you commented under the name, SidV88? Presently, I have 413 spam comments, and I do endeavor to read them all, but some get overlooked, especially if a post attracted many spammers, as did the post on Augustine's prayer life and how he got the grace to be chaste. Had I seen your comment when you left it, it would have been published and answered then.
DeleteI am very sorry for the pain you are in, and all you have endured. I will say that my post on Augustine concerned the grace to have control over bodily appetites, not that the appetites can or will be entirely removed.
I will pray for you and your wife. I know very little of your circumstances and don't think the comments section is appropriate for the solving of complex, personal dilemmas, thus may I suggest you and your wife seek a holy priest. If I may make another suggestion, perhaps a Norbertine priest. St Augustine is their spiritual father, and they may be able to guide you expertly.
Prayers will continue. God bless you and your wife.
Thank you for your response, yes you identified my comment correctly. I appreciate your prayers, I am mainly praying my wife is not deported now and she doesn't become a felon for her panic attack on a plane (she was blackmailed by her adopted parents to fly to her home country's embassy saying that if she did not go, her grandmother would become homeless--the stress was too much for her). My wife is in no condition to see anyone, not even a priest, she is in constant despair and it hurts every day to watch her suffer. She hates God even more for letting her suffer so much... I did talk to a priest myself but he said there is nothing to do except he will pray for her and advised me to "be there for her" until the possibility she is deported as a result of her public psychiatric meltdown (the irony being if I let her become dependent on me now and she is deported, it will just break her again). Her trial (even though no one was injured in her psychiatric emergency, the US is very backwards in regards to sympathy for mental health) isn't until months from now (April may be delayed further) and I'm worried if she'll even last that long physically. Her current doctors have not been much help.
DeleteI regret every day that I agreed with her pushing for marriage as it's clear now that she was not mentally prepared for life in this country. I feel if I had dealt with hormones the "sinful" way beforehand, maybe I would've had the strength to tell her no and she never would have come here to suffer. I did tell the priest this but he rejected my reasoning without detail, probably because it goes against Catholic teaching.
I found this website reading up on Padre Pio trying to pray for a miracle for her, despite practically every prayer I had to Jesus and saints going unanswered all my life. But I don't know what to do anymore. Anyway, thank you for your prayers.
You are most welcome for the prayers, they will continue.
DeleteYou are the most beautiful woman that has ever lived.
ReplyDeleteOh no, I'm just a pale imitation of an Irish farm girl, the most beautiful woman that ever lived bar none was the Blessed Mother. Her beauty is beyond compare.
DeleteDear Mary, how do I contact you. I would love to invite you on Mother and Refuge YouTube channel
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! If you leave your email, then I can contact you and we can set something up. Wonderful that you have called your channel after Our Lady, well done.
DeleteAs in, leave another comment with your email. God bless you.
DeleteMARY!!!! Greetings, benedictions, and felicitations! That is a lovely shade of red and looks very nice on you. Very classy, too. A good start to your blog for 2024 . Prayers for the other commenter and his situation.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your prayers for my wife, I really appreciate it and if prayer does work then she needs all the prayers she can get. I am also giving prayer and Jesus a chance another time, for my wife's sake, praying every day until her trial.
DeleteBut if the worst happens, and even beyond the worst that she's deported over a mental health breakdown and forcibly removed from me and our cat forever... I'll just try not to think about that, but it would be hard for me to continue trying to believe in a just and merciful God after that, and I would be re-evaluating what is said to be sinful if that would have prevented such suffering. I hope it doesn't come to that, I might visit my parish priest again in the near future but right now I'm following his advice to stay with her as much as I can, as she's basically in constant mental anguish while waiting for her trial.
James! Dear friend, how absolutely lovely to hear from you. Thank you so much for your generous comment and for your prayers for SidV88. You are as good and kind as ever. May I wish you and your family a most blessed and joyful 2024. More posts planned and a battle plan in place for finishing the book.
DeleteDidn't mention this in my other comments, I've read through almost every (English anyway) Padre Pio book there is (I think) and many of the same miracle stories get repeated. So if your book has new stories that would be nice. I've had him appear in my dreams twice in my life.
DeleteIn 2010 after praying for my tinnitus that I was stricken with in 2009 to be cured, I did see Padre Pio in a dream. He didn't say anything but pointed behind me. I looked behind me and saw a large metal black cross. Then I woke up. To this day I have no idea what the dream meant, my tinnitus was never cured (my ears are ringing loudly as I type this and will until I die or a cure is found, albeit sleep and life functioning has improved over time), and I assumed the dream was just my imagination at best or a sick demonic/supernatural joke at most. Needless to say any faith I had severely waned after that although I did still pray.
After the incident mentioned in my other comments that happened a few months ago, after hiring a lawyer I then turned to prayer again as now my family was at stake. This dream happened shortly after I talked to a priest. Padre Pio appeared to me in a dream, the only other time since 13 years prior, now in a setting that looked like an amusement park. He told me that the priest spoke to me correctly, that taking sinful "options" while I was single wouldn't have prevented the current situation. I will be honest, I'm not sure I believe this but that is what he said. Padre Pio then asked me to say "Thank you" and I did, but I was not clear what I was saying thank you for (for some reason my memory of the details of my wife's suffering was obscured during this dream). Padre Pio disappeared and the dream continued with me following a young black child around the amusement park (I'm Asian so this makes little sense) and then I woke up.
Normally I wouldn't share these online but since you seem devoted to Padre Pio and presumably look for new stories about him, here they are. However as is obvious it's not clear if these are going to have happy endings so I would advise not publicizing them outside this comment, these are just for your own personal Pio research I guess. I wasn't entirely in control of myself in either dream (more like a spectator in a movie with limited interactive sequences, not like full video-game style in-dream control), thus I couldn't "test" the dream like asking Pio to say "Blessed be Jesus and Mary" etc. For what it's worth I related the latter dream to my wife in an attempt to provide hope, but she told me the dream was likely demonic and a sick attempt to make me say "Thank you" for even more horrific sufferings in the future like her possible deportation. So how this Padre Pio dream story will play out in reality, I obviously don't know right now other than hope this time help will come.
Thank you for your comment, you've given me much to discern as regards Pio appearing in dreams.
DeleteStumbled on this blog. Very interesting! I too am a traditional Catholic from the Philippines. Thank you for your wishes.
ReplyDeleteHello! How can I subscribe to this blog so I will know when your Padre Pio book will be released? Also, I would love you to follow my FB page, I am a devotee of St. Philomena too. God bless.
ReplyDeleteDear Blanche, Thank you so much! I am afraid that Blogger stopped the subscription service, but if you leave a follow-up comment with your email, I will put you on the list of people to be notified. Also, if you would like to leave a link to your FB page I'll check it out. I am not on FB at the moment, but that could change. God bless you and your devotion to St Philomena
Delete