my Wounded Healer Super Hero

 

My five-year-old grandson is star struck with super heroes.  There are many of them: Ninja turtles, Power Rangers, Spiderman, and The Incredibles are a few I’ve heard about.

That has me thinking – just what is a SUPER HERO?

Ok, I get it that these characters are the good guys who defeat the bad.  But, what are we teaching our kids about defeating the bad when it seems you have to have super human strength and be able to beat up or destroy with a wide grin on your face?

Sadly, it seems to me that more and more, the lessons of Jesus Christ are being ignored and forgotten.  Jesus is our ultimate SUPER HERO!!  He defeated the ultimate bad guy – Satan!!  Our Savior came into this world to preach Love and Forgiveness.  He was pure Good and Love and how did mankind respond?  Jesus was mocked, beaten, tortured, and murdered.  Jesus could have stopped this madness.  After all, He was God.  Instead He offered Himself up for our sins and our salvation.  His sacrifice was a lesson in Redemptive Suffering and the power of Forgiveness.  The Cross became the ultimate symbol of LOVE!

Too often people are judgmental, selfish and proud.  We look for the worst in others to make us feel better about ourselves.  We choose to be divisive and  disrespectful of all God’s children who are different than ourselves.  The world has become a harsh and unloving world.  The people who do choose to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ are mocked, beaten, tortured and murdered.  These followers are the new Super Heroes.  They are standing up for their beliefs and their God.

Our Lords’ mother has been making trips to this earth regularly during the last few centuries.  She has been warning about times like these.  She always asks for prayer and sacrifice.  She always asks that we change our hearts and follow her Son, Jesus.

This is the message given in Medjugorje today by our mother, Mary:

“Dear children, with motherly love I implore you, love one another.  May there be in your hearts, as my Son desired from the very beginning, love for the Heavenly Father and for your neighbor in the first place – above everything of this world.

My dear children, do you not recognize the signs of the times?

Do you not recognize that all of this that is around you, all that is happening, is because there is no love?

Comprehend that salvation is in true values.  Accept the might of the Heavenly Father, love Him and honor Him. Walk in the footsteps of my Son.

You, my children, my dear apostles, you are always gathering around me anew, because you are thirsty. You thirst for peace, love and happiness. Drink out of my hands. My hands are offering to you my Son, who is the spring of clear water.

He will bring your faith back to life and purify your hearts, because my Son loves pure hearts and pure hearts love my Son.  Only pure hearts are humble and have firm faith. I ask for such hearts of you, my children.

My Son told me that I am the mother of the entire world. I ask of those of you who accept me as such to help me, with your life, prayer and sacrifice, for all of my children to accept me as a mother – so that I may lead them to the spring of the clear water.

Thank you.

My dear children, as your shepherds offer you the Body of my Son with their blessed hands, always in your hearts give thanks to my Son for the Sacrifice and for the shepherds that he always gives you anew.”

He has healed us with His Wounds.

He has given us His Mother to help us follow His footsteps.

Let’s teach our kids about the Greatest Super Hero – OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!

C’est Bon

Love,

Sherry

 

 

 

 

 

I’m a Soul Woman

An Angel Frees the Souls of Purgatory (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was born on All Souls’ Day, (November 2nd).  This has led to a curiosity with regard to souls and purgatory.

My parents are in their seventies.  I have very early memories of seeing my parents cleaning and painting tombs of loved ones in preparation of All Souls’ Day.  To this day, even though my parents are no longer young and agile, they continue their loving care of the graves of departed family members.  Praying and attending mass for deceased family members was the normal custom of my family and my local community.

As a child, the thought of purgatory was scary.  I knew witches, goblins, and vampires were creations of imagination; however, purgatory was a real and scary place.  A place people went to suffer for sins committed.  A place for “purging”.

As an adult, purgatory still seemed scary.  Jesus seems so loving and forgiving in the Good Book; it did not seem possible that purgatory was part of His plan.

Then I read Sister Faustina’s Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul.  Jesus told Sister Faustina, “You are the secretary of My mercy; I have chosen you for that office in this and the next life.”  The Diary was kept the last four years of her life.  She died in 1938 after filling several notebooks of her divine revelations, visits from poor souls in purgatory, and the gift of the Divine Mercy Chaplet which was dictated by Our Lord Jesus Christ.  It was through this Diary that I finally understood the meaning of Redemptive Suffering and the depth of Our Lord’s Mercy.

Recently I have read another great book.  “Get Us Out of Here“, by NIcky Eltz is a captivating interview with Maria Simma, an Austrian mystic.  Ms. Simma, who passed away in 2004, was visited most of her life by holy souls from purgatory.  She gives a personal account of details the souls have provided her regarding church traditions, child rearing, guardian angels,….I could not put the book down!  Very fascinating to me was the fact that the souls begged for prayers, masses, and for generations to care for their tombs of beloved family members.

I am no longer scared of purgatory.  I want to enter God’s Kingdom clean and worthy.  I think of it as entering a very clean, immaculate house.  If I have trampled in the mud, I will want to hose off my shoes and wipe them clean.  It is a sign of respect for the house I am entering.

And besides, if I end up in purgatory, the next stop is Heaven!

In the meantime, I have scheduled masses for my loved ones who have passed away.  I pray for the souls in purgatory every day.  And I plan on taking over mom and dad’s tomb duties this year.  It is time for the next generation to remind the young ones never to forget those who have passed on – they may need our prayers!

1 John 2:16-17

“If you see your brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray to God, who will give him life.  This applies to those whose sins do not lead to death.  But there is sin which leads to death, and I do not say that you should pray to God about that.”

 

C’est Bon

Love,

Sherry

 

 

 

Room 411

There is a grave in Church Point, Louisiana of a girl who suffered and died at the age of 12 years old on August 11, 1959.  The girl’s name was Charlene Richard.  In southern Louisiana, she is known as our “Little Cajun Saint”.

The book, “My Name is Charlene“, by Rev. Joseph Brennan, has awe inspiring testimonies of people who knew Charlene during her days here on earth and those who have prayed to Charlene for her intercession and received miraculous healings.  The testimony by Rev. Brennan was most touching as he recalls being the priest assigned to ministering to Charlene during her last two weeks on earth, in room 411 of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana.  In fact, Father Brennan had the awful task of telling Charlene, at her parents’ request, about her illness and prognosis.  In his testimony, Father Brennan recalls, “Then I said, “In a couple of weeks a beautiful lady is going to come and take you home”.  Looking at me with those brown Cajun eyes, she said, “When that lady comes, I will tell her that Father Brennan said hello.””

Thus began a two week period of the young Charlene offering up her sufferings, willingly carrying her cross with Jesus.  Father Brennan could not understand how someone so young could understand the concept of redemptive suffering.  She suffered and prayed, and taught us all that no suffering is in vain.

Today, fifty years later, ten thousand people visit Charlene’s grave every year.  It is a resting spot that I find peaceful beyond words.  You feel the presence of the Holy Spirit when you combine your prayers and intentions to those ten thousand people and Charlene Richard.

God works miracles through suffering.  His only Son was able to defeat evil and open those doors of heaven through his acceptance of God’s will and His suffering.  Our loving mother suffered with her Son as she watched Him carry His cross and die on it.  Suffering with faith is never easy; nothing that is good for the soul is ever easy.  But, we must remember that Jesus showed us the Way.  By picking up our crosses and walking with Him and trusting in Him. we can save not only our soul, but the souls of countless others.

Prayer to Charlene Richard

Charlene, when you were only twelve years old, you showed heroic faith, hope, and love; dying of leukemia, you joined yourself to Jesus on His Cross and offered your intense pain for others.  You thereby echoed St. Paul’s words to his people in Colossians 1:24: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of His Body, the Church.”

Charlene, I believe you are with God.  Please ask our Heavenly Father, His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit to grant me the following favor: (mention favor sought).

Charlene, thank you for helping me.  May Jesus Christ always be praised.  May Mary, Jesus’ Ever-Virgin Mother, always be blessed.

Amen

C’est Bon

Love, Sherry