Hell: Go There Now So You Can Avoid It Later (video title)

Jesus Revealed to St. Bridget Why He Allows Evil People to Prosper (video title)

St. Joseph (video)

 

A Real Dragon Slayer? (video)

The Real St. Valentine & the Meaning of Commitment (video)

 

Will I Be Attacked By a Demon? (video title)

What the Enemy Admitted—Out Loud (video title)

The origins of the Christmas Tree

God bless!

Hallowtide Day 2 - All Saints' Day

Surviving the Dark Night of the Soul - Explaining the Faith (video title)

On Bad Thoughts ~ St. Alphonsus

St. Faustina: Her Life and Spirituality - Explaining the Faith (video title)

Today, October 5, is the the feast day of St. Faustina Kowalska. This date marks the anniversary of her death in 1938. The Diary of Saint Faustine Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul, is an excellent read and inspiring for anyone seeking to grow spiritually. Reading about the life of a future saint gives one insight into the trials and tribulations of a soul seeking to grow. Saint Faustina's diary is different than the writings of other saints in that she writes about direct visions of Jesus, who asked her to bring the message of Our Lord's Divine Mercy to the world.

Eternal Father, I offer you the body, blood, soul, and divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You!

The full Divine Mercy chaplet can be found here: https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/pray-the-chaplet

ps - On a side note, this day would have been the birthday of my deceased brother. I believe he would have had a devotion to St. Faustina if he had survived longer than just short of 22 years that he had on this earth.

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:

You’ll Never Gossip Again After Hearing This Saint’s Story! (video title)

A good lesson in this day and age when online gossip flourishes.

bumps, thumps, and... flowers

This is a little story about signs from heaven.

It started with a picture flying off the wall in front of me... sideways (August 2023). I already posted about that, so I won't repeat the details again. You can follow the link to read that part of this story. To sum it up, however, I took it as a sign that my uncle who died in a helicopter crash in Vietnam 55 years earlier (to the minute of when the picture flew off the wall!) needed prayers to reach heaven. I prayed a rosary novena and never thought of it much until this past summer.

Wondering if I had done enough started to bother me more and more, until August 27 rolled around (the anniversary of my brother's death in 1997--my brother who was absent from the family picture that flew off the wall in August 2023).

That day, I had been in the dining-kitchen area and heard a couple knocks from the dining table and investigated, but nothing was there, except one of the cats sleeping on a chair; she wouldn't have made the sound I heard. Later that afternoon, I was in my bedroom and heard a couple of knocks but dismissed it as the house creaking. That night, I was kneeling in prayer by my bed and nightstand and heard three knocks seemingly from the nightstand. That's when I realized it happened three times that day. It was the anniversary of the death of one of my two brothers, but I had been wondering over the few days prior if I needed to offer more prayers for my uncle, so I started adding my uncle to my rosary intentions and offering daily masses for him.

Then I got sick in September soon after my ten-year anniversary at my day job and took a lot of time off work and worked from home some days, in the hopes of not giving the crud to my boss. I also didn't go to any masses for three weeks. In that time, I offered my suffering as penance for my uncle.

This past week was the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux (the little flower) on October 1; I went to daily mass that day. I had finally been getting back to Sunday and daily masses, although scaring people away with clearing my throat frequently (I'm on antibiotics now, which seem to finally be kicking out the crud). I had asked St. Therese for a sign that my uncle had finally reached heaven after all my rosaries and the masses I had offered up for him. I had wanted to know if I had done enough and could switch to offering masses for my brother and others (aside from the rosaries, which I pray for several intentions).

I didn't know it at the time that those who pray to Saint Therese of Lisieux have been known to receive flowers in answer, usually roses but it can happen with any flowers. Friday morning (yesterday; three days after my request for a sign), I went in to work to find a lovely bouquet from my boss with a note of thanks for 10 years with the organization. I almost never get flowers from anyone, and this was a month after my anniversary date. (I was at work a few days in early September before the first crud hit and in mid-September as I was getting over one illness before the second hit.) I just learned that flowers are the way one gets an answer from St. Therese.

Along with this, I had an incredible joy and good feeling all day that left me puzzled about why I felt so good, and my senses of taste and smell were cranked up high. I found this described as a flower for the soul, also credited to the intercession of St. Therese. That all returned to normal today, but Friday was special.

And today (Oct. 5), the day I realized all this, would have been my brother's birthday. There are no coincidences with God.

The saints are alive in heaven, and to ask their intercession is to honor God's goodness. They are closest to Him and looking upon Him to eternity. From heaven, they help us and bring us closer to God to become saints ourselves. St. Therese is one of many whose intercessions result in miracles and even simple answers like this. 🥰 

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

God bless!

Still looking good on Monday
(added 10/7/24)

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10/7/24 updates: 

• I added a picture of how the bouquet looked Monday morning when I went into the office. Still beautiful!
• I removed what I had written about completing a 54-day novena because I realized I hadn't yet reached that count. I made one of my stupid math errors that happens on occasion (especially since I was still dealing with some lingering illness crud that affected my sleep). I have two weeks left to finish the novena, but there's an extra sense of gratitude as I am completing it in appreciation of God's grace through the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• I added another detail from Friday, which had puzzled me at the time but I dismissed, and then I learned from some more research of the flowers of St. Therese--the spiritual flowers. I believe I received this gift as well.

ps- for more on purgatory, check out the Uniquely Mary Youtube channel, which is also included on the Faith Resources tab listings.

The saints are alive in heaven and bring our prayers before God

I have a couple of events to share that show that the saints are alive in heaven and helping us.

God the Father is the creator of everything. We might think of ourselves as renters. Everything is His, and I offer all that I am back to him, which is why I have taken down some of my books and edited others. I don't want to offend the Lord but to honor Him. (I strongly encourage writers to exclude sex scenes and incitement of lust in readers in any form as well as any expressions using the Lord's name in vain. You are leading others to sin, which is a sin for you that you have to account for in your judgment.)

Sometimes we need help in this life, and like a good landlord, God comes to our aid when we need it, more so when we honor Him and don't put the things of this world above Him. We can go directly to God, but think of the saints like the property office staff who intercede for the renter to the owner of the property--they work more closely with the owner everyday than the renters do. In that, we can ask favors of those in heaven with Him. Those in heaven are referred to as the saints (whether the deceased who have attained heaven or the angels already in heaven). They are the pure, holy* souls who have attained the blessings of the beatific vision. They love us for God's sake and want to help us. It's part of their purpose, part of the way they continue to express their love of God and honor Him.

They are alive in heaven and hear our prayers. According to exorcists, they only hear when God allows it, such as when we address them directly, including the angels. By loving the saints and letting them help us, we are loving God, just as by loving others on this world, we are loving God. The saints are closer to God. We only worship God, but asking the saints for intercession, for the help we sometimes need when we can't do something ourselves or when temptations overwhelm us, is honoring God by acknowledging those He has deemed worthy to join Him in heaven.

That's a bit of an explanation of why we pray to (ask) the saints for help. They are our heavenly customer service, so to speak.

And now for a couple of new stories of saintly intercession, although one is not yet canonized.

The first story is of a request to Blessed Carlo Acutis.

I had trouble with one of the computers I use at work--a program not working--and I had tried EVERYTHING (I know quite a bit about computers--had been the technical person for a couple of small offices and hubby is a programmer). I was so frustrated and needed to use this particular program to update our online training. I had one last option and remembered Carlo Acutis (if his family sees this, thank you). On Monday, I said a little prayer and asked this young man of our modern world for his intercession... The program worked perfectly afterwards! I made the changes I needed to make and uploaded the updates. (Carlo Acutis was a kid who liked computer programming.)

Better than that, one of the backup drives that had been giving me trouble also started working perfectly. I hadn't even asked that in my simple little prayer request. I had almost given up on it and hardly used it because it would take sooo looong to run, but I plugged it in today for an end-of-week backup. I was shocked at how fast the login for the encrypted backup drive came up and it backed up like it hadn't done since it was new.

Thank you, Blessed Carlo Acutis!

Buddy after our ride before untacking and having
his hooves trimmed. The new Wintec 500 saddles
are great saddles at a fair price; it fits us both perfectly.

And while trimming my horse's hooves yesterday, he got a bit fidgety and I asked St. Francis to keep him occupied so I could hurry up and finish (a storm was coming in). St. Francis of Assisi is the patron of animals (among other causes) and even had a horse. My Buddy boy stood still for me after that, and I finished with a little time to spare.

(We had an excellent ride yesterday prior to my trimming his hooves, but I had a little prayer to St. Francis in my heart before getting in the saddle--calming supplements don't always work on Buddy. Much of the time, he stands better for hoof trimming before I ride, although it's generally a better idea to exercise a horse before trimming so they're tired and stand better. Not Buddy. It worked out well yesterday, though.)

Throughout my life, I've prayed to St. Anthony for lost items and have had some true miracles from his intercession, but haven't needed him for a little while. St. Kateri Tekakwitha is another saint who has come to my aid. Of course, I always honor St. Joseph and Our Blessed Mother; Mary goes without saying--the most powerful saint in heaven and greater than all other saints combined, according to demons.

Those alive in heaven are always there to help us before God. Never hesitate to ask for intercession. If they don't lead us to a solution within this world, they can lead to those miracles we need, through their petitions to God on our behalf.

God bless you and keep you!

______________

* Sanctus, the origin of the word saint, is Latin for holy.