Are you saved? (video title)

 

LEARN YOUR FAITH! The Queenship of Mary | Dr Scott Hahn (video title)

Part 2 of 2: Understanding the Sacraments. A New Summary! Explaining the Faith w/Fr. Chris Alar (video title)

How Becoming Catholic is a Story of Awakening to Something More (video title)

Is The Rosary Demonic Deception? - A Catholic’s SHOCKING Answer and Message... (video title)

God Loves You as You Are, Not as You Wish You Were (video title)

Fr. Dan Reehil, Exorcist: Can Horror Films Attract Demons? (video title)

The Devil in Our Culture: Hollywood, Freemasonry, Yoga & The Occult | Dr. Dan Schneider (video title)

Who fights for you when you can’t? The invisible battle you can’t ignore. (video title)

I've always had an interest in angels, which should be evident by my longest-running book series (Starfire Angels). Those fictional angels aren't real angels, but I did intend them to be as close as a mortal creature could be.

But I have a particular attachment to St. Michael. I've learned that when we're drawn to a particular saint, it's because God has assigned them to help us in some way for our spiritual growth. (I use the common image of St. Michael in Book 22 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds, along with parts of the Pope Leo the XIII's St. Michael prayer and the guardian angel prayer in a way that fit perfectly in the story, but neither is referenced to the source. Those who know will know.)

I've recently purchased stones from the cave mentioned in the video and noticed a change for the better in my prayers in the vicinity of these stones. They were also recommended by one of the exorcists I listen to, and he had said they are powerful, but they're sacramentals, not relics. They're something different, because they come from the cave in Gargano, Italy, consecrated by St. Michael, the angel tasked with sending Satan and his minions from heaven.

We all have a guardian angel, but St. Michael commands the armies of heaven.

St. Michael, defend us in battle!

God bless!

Here's a longer presentation about this powerful defender we can call upon to help us, not because God won't but because God made angels for this purpose:

Why Must I Confess My Sins to a Priest? | Understanding the Sacraments (video title)

Feeling off lately? The enemy might be closer than you think. (video title)

St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle,

be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host,

thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits

who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

(prayer by St. Pope Leo XIII)

Lukewarmness is the Enemy | Battle Ready with Fr. Dan Reehil (video title)

Understanding the Sacraments: A New Summary! Explaining the Faith (video title)

Never question an internal command to pray...

Yesterday, near the end of the late afternoon mass at the church I attend on weekdays (because of my schedule and I like that they have a communion rail so I can accept Our Lord on my knees in humility and reverence), a darkness fell. It wasn't the lights. Rather, there are big sections of window, and the sun's light had been diminished.

I looked to the window and felt a catch in my chest.

Not again.

Ominous clouds loomed in the sky, blocking the sun. We've had nasty weather two other times already with tornadoes and it was a 100 F day yesterday (not unusual for July, when we usually get the nastiest weather). Seeing dark clouds concerned me.

After mass, I prayed that I made it home before any bad weather hit.

I made it with plenty of time. In fact, the radar showed nothing coming for us, yet I had a sense that I should be praying my Rosary.

I didn't.

I came to regret that.

A severe storm formed out of nowhere on the radar only about 15-20 miles away to the southwest and quickly headed right for us, but I hadn't checked in the time since before it formed to when it hit, so I didn't know it was there, much less barreling towards us. I was trying to write while ignoring that little voice that was nagging me about praying the Rosary. I wanted to do things my way.

I did that until the first "THUNK" hit on the house. And it was loud. A few more hit and I looked out the window to see large white balls of hail. Not the pea-sized we normally see. These were golf-ball sized (as seen in the sampling below with my hand, hail balls which had already melted down a bit).

When I realized what was happening with the hail, I ran upstairs and grabbed my Rosary. No sooner did I start than the hail turned to pea-sized and soon quit. However, there was more red on the radar. I continued through two sets of mysteries because there was another system to the north that refused to move and had been expanding towards us with a tornado watch included in that. The worst of it dissipated during my prayer.

After the storm from the southwest was passed but before the one from the north was known to be a threat, we went out to check the house and yard (between my praying a few decades of the Rosary). Fortunately, the golf balls were few and far between and our garden, trees, and my new roses were all untouched. Unfortunately, they were enough to leave holes in a few pieces of siding on one wall and likely the roof, as well as a couple nice dents to the youngest kid's car roof, but I'm not worried about her vehicle because it's old (2009) and had some cosmetic damage when we bought it two years ago and also because all the windows were fine. After all the nasty storms we've had in the last month, insurance adjusters are busy; they'll get to us when they can.

The picture above was taken after the rain was no more than a few drops here and there but the clouds still loomed over us with a clear sky to the western horizon. I went out and took pictures of the hail and the perfect shot of my first rose blossom. This is now my iPhone wallpaper, minus the watermark:

My first rose blossom of the three rose bushes
I planted less than a month ago!

After I had finished the Rosary prayers, the storm passed and merged with the north storm, but they grew along the western edge and dropped more pea-sized hail on us. No sooner did I start praying a single Hail Mary to ask her intercession to keep any large hail from hitting than the hail stopped altogether and only rain fell.

The moral of the story is to listen to that nagging voice when it's telling you to pray... To put it simply, when you're told to pray, obey. It was likely my guardian angel, and I am humbled by the consequences of not having listened when I should have.

Next time, I won't hesitate to grab my Rosary. I won't question any message from the Lord (who speaks through others, like our guardian angels, who are always with us). I will listen. It reminds me of Moses having to keep his arms up for the success of the battle of the Israelites in Exodus.

God bless!

How I Was Stunned by Scripture | John Bergsma (video title)

The below fits with the above quite well:

Why I Started Praying the Rosary (And Why You Should Too) (video title)

After watching the video, if you decide to try the Rosary, Our Lady's Psalter, the USCCB has the format here.

I've found that St. Louis de Montfort's 1st method takes one much deeper into the meditation of the life of Our Lord and His Mother and into developing the virtues they demonstrated in full. You can find it online here or in The Secret of the Rosary.

God bless!

Why I Left The Protestant Church | My Journey To Catholicism (video title)

This is another very well-reasoned conversion story.

I always find more after one video and will add any additional videos I feel support the first one within the next day, like this:

Why the Devil Hates Mary More than God (video title)

The Black Catholic Chick: I'm A Catholic Who REJECTED Mary Until I Discovered This... (video title)

I will testify that nothing brings you close to Jesus like devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the perfect example of what we should be as a child of God (and she was also the spouse of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Mother of God the Son.)

I'm not going to go into all the reasons. There are excellent books to explain these in greater detail than I can here. (Behold Your Mother is one of those.)

Know that if you have hate in your heart for the MOTHER OF GOD, you need to re-evaluate your relationship with God, who is love. If you hate anyone, you don't have the Holy Spirit. Hate is not of God but, rather, of Satan. God wants us to even love our enemies, so even more so His mother.

If you want to grow in love for Jesus, no one will teach you better than His mother, and the fastest way to discover that is the daily Rosary. (For help in thaat, I highly recommend The Secret of the Rosary and True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort.)

As others devotees of the Rosary have said, once you start praying a daily Rosary, you'll be changed. Either you'll give up sin and vice or you'll give up the Rosary to remain in your sin. The Blessed Virgin Mary will show you how to love God more fully. She will transform you, preparing you to be worthy of uniting with Jesus Christ, her son, Our Lord, the King of Heaven and Earth, the Word of God who was made flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit. I won't get into how Biblical the Rosary is here, since you can learn that in the links under the Marian Devotion section of my Faith Resources tab on this blog.

Her Immaculate Heart will prevail.

Added 6/18/25:

Spiritual Warfare, Sacrifice, and the Call to Holy Boldness (video title)