Encouraging Words for Teen ACTS Retreat, June 29 - July 1, 2018

6/29/18   3:58 a.m.             

“Oh, My Children!  I have a tender love for you.  I was thinking about you the whole time I was in such pain for you during My Passion and Death on the Cross.  I was overflowing with love for you, like a fountain of Living Water.  I was breathing New Life into you as your sins melted away in My Precious Blood.”

“I reached out to your very precious soul, and pulled you close to Me.  I filled you with My Light, and banished the darkness from your mind.  I rescued you from yourself.  I placed you on solid ground, on My Love for you that will never fail.”

“Oh, yes, My Child, I love you!  Come to Me.  Come, let Me hold you.  Rest your head on My Heart.  Hear My Heart beating for you.  I love you, My Child, I love you.  I bless you, My Child, I bless you!  Halleluia, Halleluia, Amen!”

Call to be Missionary Disciples

Jesus calls each of us to be a missionary disciple.  What does that mean?

Jesus tells us what it is like to be a missionary disciple.  “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’  Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.  Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give…Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave.  As you enter a house, wish it peace.  If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you.”  Matthew 10:7-8,11-13

“The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  To me, the kingdom of heaven is something that can be experienced here and now, “at hand.”  It is God’s love, joy, and peace in our hearts.  It is definitely believing in God’s Love, Goodness, Kindness, and Mercy!

Jesus says to, “Cure the sick.”  Knowing that you are loved by God will automatically put you on the road to healing.  Believing in His Goodness, Kindness, and Mercy for you, will give you hope to overcome your illnesses – spiritual, mental, psychological, and physical.  Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  (John 4:14)  Jesus is the source of living water that brings healing to your heart and soul.  When you invite Jesus to come into your heart, and to be the Lord of your life, then He becomes a spring of living water, running over, to cure you, and the sick around you.   Jesus Himself gives all of us eternal life when we believe in Him.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)

Jesus calls us to, “raise the dead.”  We are to love and have mercy and compassion on those around us who are spiritually dead in their sins.  We are to raise up, and lift up their hearts, in prayer, to our Lord.  We are to beg God to rain down His precious Blood and Living Water upon their hearts, so that they will turn from their sinful ways, and live a new life for God.

Jesus tells us to, “cleanse lepers.”  It is easy to want to stay away from the people in our lives that we don’t like.  It takes courage to pray for them, and even more courage to reach out to them.  Jesus says, “The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name – he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.  Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”  (John 14:26-27)  Ask the Holy Spirit to be with you and guide you.  Allow yourself to be an instrument for God to use.  Cleansing a leper can be as simple as inviting someone to go with you to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where Jesus is present through the priest, to forgive and to heal.

Jesus exhorts us to, “drive out demons.”  Any thought that pulls you down, and does not reinforce and verify God’s love for you, is not from God.  Guard your heart and soul.  Always say, “yes,” to God’s love in your heart and soul.  Say, “no,” to thoughts that cause you to harden your heart.

  Saint Paul says, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?...No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 8:35, 37-39)  Saint Paul goes on to say, “Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.”  (Romans 12:21)  Driving out demons can mean encouraging a person to trust in the Lord, instead of doubting; to banish fears with the love of God; to replace anxiety with faith in God, etc…

Jesus says, “As you enter a house, wish it peace…”  A “house” can also mean a person’s heart and soul.  When you are with someone, you can wish them the peace of our Lord.  Saint Paul says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19)  You are not only a house, but a temple!  Even Jesus referred to His own Body as a temple.  He told the Jews, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up…he was speaking about the temple of his body.” (John 2:19-21)

Love is calling you.  Love is calling you to be a missionary disciple.  Do you hear it?  Believe in God’s Love for you!

My prayer is…

that the Lord’s Loving Will be done in my life today

that I may love Jesus

with all of my heart

that I may love Jesus

with all of my soul

that I may love Jesus

with all of my mind

that I may love Jesus

with all of my strength

that I may see God’s love for me today

and share His Love with others

Amen!

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength…you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Mark 12:30-31a

Love is The Answer

“…whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  This is the commandment we have from him:  whoever loves God must also love his brother.”  (1 John 4:20b-21)

            I’ve always wondered about these verses in the bible.  It seemed to me that I could actually have a very strong love for God, who I couldn’t see, and still have great difficulty loving certain people that I could see.

            Little did I realize that God was asking me to change the way that I loved.  God wanted me to have some, “skin in the game,” to take risks, be involved with the lives of those around me, and prove my love by my actions.

            It’s easy for me to feel love for people who are kind.  It takes a certain amount of sacrifice to love those who are bitter, resentful, angry, or just plain mean.  I can’t do this alone.  What I need is Jesus’ spirit of sacrifice.

            I love the rosary meditation that I heard recently for the fourth joyful mystery, when Mary took her baby Son, Jesus, to the temple to present Him to the Lord.  In this prayer, my brothers and sisters in Christ, who stayed after Mass to pray the rosary, asked Mary, our Holy Mother of God, to obtain for us the spirit of sacrifice.

            Later that same day, I opened a prayer book about Saint Anthony of Padua that I received in the mail.  Even Saint Anthony encouraged people to repentance and sacrifice in their lives.  I read how Saint Anthony was not only a finder of lost things, but more importantly, I finder of lost souls!

            That’s what I want to be – a finder of lost souls.  I don’t have to travel very far to do this.  In fact, I can start with my own family!  It’s not going to take classes, or job experience, or money.  It’s going to take my heart.  It’s going to take a decision, an act of my will, to love, no matter what.

            Love is the answer, but not just any kind of love.  What my heart needs is God’s agape Love – that compassionate, merciful, forgiving, sacrificing love.  This is the kind of love I need to give to my family.  My heart needs to give this kind of love to find lost souls.

            I see my family every day.  Sometimes they can be the most difficult to love.  These are the precious ones that God has put into my life.  This is a training ground of love.  God knows my heart is not perfect, and I need His help if I am going to learn how to love like He loves.  Jesus says, “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.”  (John 13:34)  At this rate, I need Jesus Himself in my heart to love my family with agape Love!

            So, how do I get this agape Love?  This is how it happened for me.

I desperately needed to know deep in my heart and soul that I was loved by God as a child, that I am loved by God now, and that I will be loved by God forever.  To know this, I needed to spend lots of time in prayer with God, even years.  God graciously blessed me with visions of Jesus and Mary taking turns holding me as a child in their laps, where I soaked in their love.

Eventually, Jesus showed me something I didn’t know I had - inner wounds from childhood.  These wounds were holding me back from becoming the person God intended for me to be, fully alive in Him.  I didn’t know how to fix my heart and soul.  All I knew was that my wounds had far reaching effects into my relationships with my husband and children.  I had a father-daughter relationship with my husband, instead of a partner-partner relationship, and I had buried my authority as a mother.  I lived my life in fear, not in love.  Only God could see the wounds that needed healing in my heart and soul.  Mercifully, He set into motion certain events in my life that would bring this about.

I praise God that He knew exactly the steps I needed to take.  He blessed me with three amazing women - a spiritual director, a therapist, and a very close friend who wasn’t afraid to tell me the truth!  When I went to confession at a Catholic Women’s Conference, I realized that God was asking me to face my fears, and talk to my parents.  Talking to them was like ripping a band-aid off, but I needed to expose my inner wounds, and give Jesus permission to touch and heal me there.

Then, in prayer, Jesus showed me my wounds on His Body on the Cross.  I saw the sacrifice that Jesus made to heal me, because He loves me.  I saw how Jesus and I were united in this pain, and at the same time, we were united in His healing, freeing, rising, agape Love from the Cross!  “For if we have grown into union with him through a death like His, we shall also be united with Him in the resurrection.”  (Romans 6:5)

Some miraculous things started happening.  After twenty-eight years of marriage, my husband finally agreed to go with me to a Worldwide Marriage Encounter Retreat!  Wow!  Our communication is improving more and more every day.  Our love for each other is growing deeper as each day passes, like a second honey-moon!   He is even playing you tube love song videos for me during breakfast every morning!

A beautiful transformation took place in my heart and soul.  In the places where I was bound by sin, hiding, and hurting, Jesus set me free.  I am free to love much deeper than before.  I am free to allow God’s agape Love to flow through my wounds, united to Jesus’ wounds on the Cross, and out of my heart to the hearts of lost souls.  I am free to council my children with truth and love, instead of seeking their approval.  Praise God!

Jesus told Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska in her Diary, “When you say this prayer, with a contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner, I will give him the grace of conversion.  This is the prayer: (Diary, 186) ‘O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You.’” (Diary, 187)

I am so thankful to God that He not only knows how to heal me, He knows how to reach and find the souls in my family.  All I need to do is trust in Jesus and Mary.  In prayer, I bring my family to the foot of the Cross, and entrust them to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  In prayer, I also bring my family to Mary, kneeling beside her lap, and entrust them to her Immaculate Heart.

I trust Jesus, in His Mercy, to give my family the grace of conversion.  I trust Mary to bring my family to Jesus.  I trust Jesus to help me make the sacrifices necessary for my family to see His agape Love for them through me.  I trust Jesus to help me keep His commandment to love my family.  “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” (John 15:10)  I want to remain in Jesus’ love, as much as possible.  I want to remain in His agape Love.

I want to love all the people that I see, starting with my family.  Then I’ll know that I’m loving God, who I can’t see.  Then I’ll know that I’m loving God the way He wants me to love Him.  Jesus, please set my heart on fire with Your agape Love!

Words of Encouragement for Women's ACTS Retreat May 10-13, 2018

5/8/18        6:30 a.m.

“Oh, My daughter!  You are so precious to Me.  I have always loved you, since the beginning of time.”

“Come to Me.  I want to hold you in My Loving Arms.  I want to hold you close to Me, close to My Sacred Heart.”

“You are all that I care about.  Your heart and your soul are My Delight.  I created you to be much more – full of My Love, My Peace, and My Joy!”

“Open your heart to Me.  Allow your eyes to gaze upon Me.  Allow Me to hold you, My Precious Daughter.”

“I am your Heavenly Father who loves you.  I am your Brother Jesus, who died on the Cross for you.  I am your Holy Spirit, who stirs up the fire of My Love in you.”

“Come, My Love, let us walk together, you and I, hand in hand.  I have many things to show you.  I will teach you everything you need to know Me, to follow Me, and to love Me.”

“I love you, My Daughter, I love you.  I bless you, My Daughter, I bless you.  Halleluia, Halleluia, Amen!”

My Love

2/7/05    3:22 a.m.    Monday

“Oh, My Children!  You are so precious to Me!  I love you so very deeply.  My Heart goes out to you!  I invite you to open your heart to Me.  Allow Me to love you.  Let yourself go in My Hands.  I am the One who created you.  I am the One who designed your very soul.  I gave you your heart for one purpose – to love Me.  The love that we share can’t help but to spill over and touch the hearts of everyone around you.  My Love is contagious!!”

“My Love is a very special kind of love.  It is selfless.  It is holy.  It has power to change lives.  It has power to heal.  It has power to strengthen.  It has power to nourish through My Holy Word.  It has power to move mountains through faith.  It has power to free a person from sin.  It has power to shed light on the darkness in your heart, to expose it and expel it.  My Love is the basis for every virtue.”

“My Love comes from Me, and I offer it to you, that you may have My Awesome, Powerful Love dwelling inside your heart.  I love you, My Children.  I desire you to have My Love rooted firmly in your heart.  I desire you to have the desires of My Heart, to follow through with My Holy Will, to act upon My Holy Word.  I desire you to dwell in Me that I may dwell in you.  I desire for you to be filled with My Holy Spirit, to be filled with My Holy Love, to walk in My Holy Ways.”

“You are so precious to Me.  I love you, I love you, I love you!  Allow Me to give you My Love.  Allow Me to so fill you with Myself that you can’t help but to love as I love, to act as I act, to be as I Am, to be full of Me.  I desire to be One with you.  I love you!  I desire to unite Myself with you so that My Love will radiate throughout the whole world!  I love you, My Children.  I bless you, My Children!  I bless you with My Love!  Halleluia, Halleluia, Amen!!”

I Am the Light

2/13/18      3:39 a.m.

“Oh, My Children!  I am the Light.  I am the Light that shines in your darkness.  I see the way for you.  I know the way for you.  I lead you by the hand.”

“I am never too far away from you.  I hold your soul in existence.  I know your every move, your every thought.”

“I am enamored with you.  I am in love with your heart and soul.”

“I created you out of love.  I called you into being.  I have a special purpose for you, one that only I know.”

“I will tell you more and more as you draw near to Me.”

“I hold your heart in My Hands.  You, whom I love.”

“Have no worries.  Trust in Me.  Have no fears.  Believe in My Word.  Believe in My Words of Love for you.”

“Cling to Me in your darkest hour.  I will cling to you.  I will be with you every moment.  I will warm your heart, and light your path with My Love.”

“I love you, My Children, I love you.  I bless you, My Child, I bless you.  Halleluia, Halleluia, Amen!!”

Pro-Life Healing Rosary Meditation for Joyful Mysteries

            Sometimes when I pray the rosary, my Lord Jesus shows me images in my mind.  I call it, “seeing with the eyes of my heart.”  Jesus gives me understanding of these images, sometimes while I am seeing them, and sometimes when I am writing down what I remember about them.  These are private revelations, and have not been approved by the Catholic Church.  The only reason I am sharing them is to stir up and strengthen your faith in the love that God has for you.

The following meditations are graphic.  In His tender love, mercy, and humility, Jesus gets to the heart of the matter, as only The Master Healer can.  Jesus encounters us, and is truly present, where we need Him the most, deep in our hearts and souls.  Jesus is adept not only at physical surgery, but also spiritual surgery, healing us of things we didn’t even know we needed healing of.  These meditations reveal the compassionate love that God has for all the aborted babies, and their mothers and fathers.

            As for me, I am not worthy to receive these visions.  I am completely at God’s mercy, a poor sinner.  Only by the grace of God, and His great love for little me, could I even begin to have the courage to open my heart, and accept His forgiveness, healing, and love.   These visions are a gift from God.  My constant prayer is to be a good steward of His gifts.  I thank God from the bottom of my heart for His gifts, and I give Him all the glory, honor, and praise!  The greatest gift is Jesus, Himself!  I pray that these rosary meditations will bring hope and healing to mothers and fathers who have lost their children through abortion.  Jesus loves each and every precious soul!  Jesus loves all the mothers, all the fathers, and all the babies!  Praise God!

1^st Joyful Mystery – The Annunciation

            While praying this decade of the rosary, I saw with the eyes of my heart, Jesus, as an unborn baby – incarnate - inside His Mother Mary’s womb.  Loving each and every soul, Jesus identified and suffered with all the unborn babies in the world, as they were being aborted.  Jesus, having compassion upon all the mothers, shone His Light upon all their wombs, healing them from the inside out.

^2nd Joyful Mystery – The Visitation

While praying this decade of the rosary, I saw with the eyes of my heart, Jesus, inside the womb of His Mother, Mary, and I saw John the Baptist inside Saint Elizabeth’s womb.  Little John leapt for joy inside his mother’s womb as he recognized the holy and awesome presence of Little Jesus, his Creator, God, Savior, and King!

^3rd Joyful Mystery – The Nativity

While praying this decade of the rosary, I saw with the eyes of my heart, the newborn baby Jesus in the loving arms of Mary and Joseph.  Then I saw each aborted baby made whole and new again.  One by one, Mary and Joseph held each baby in their arms, and bathed each precious child in their love!

^4th Joyful Mystery – The Presentation

             While praying this decade of the rosary, I saw with the eyes of my heart, Mary and Joseph bringing baby Jesus to the temple to present Him to the Lord.  Then I saw Mary and Joseph lovingly bringing and presenting each aborted baby, now healed, to the Lord!

^5th Joyful Mystery – The Finding of Jesus in the Temple

             While praying this decade of the rosary, I saw with the eyes of my heart, Mary and Joseph finding the Child Jesus in the temple.  Then I saw all the mothers and fathers of their aborted babies, finding their children, too, in the temple!  Praise God!