LEAVES Website for January-February 2006 Issue
Excerpted from "Leaflets" column
As we begin our journey through the year 2006, this is a good time to pause for a moment and evaluate your faith life. Is your faith a once a week trip to Mass? If so, is there a way to fit in one or more weekday Masses? If family, work or other obligations won't allow attending Mass during the week, consider honoring Our Lord through Spiritual Communion.
How often do you pray? Do you open and close each day with a prayer? Do you begin and end work or projects with a prayer? Travel with a prayer? If not, why not?
Think about all the times you do pray. Do you find yourself asking for help most often? Prayers of petition are important, still we also need to remember prayers of praise and thanksgiving.
There is an easy way to remember prayer - ACTS: Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Each day try to include each of these forms of prayers. Balance your prayers of adoration with those of supplication or petition. If you find it is time to retire for the night and cannot recall whether you have covered all your ACTS of prayer, pray the Our Father. The Lord's Prayer is a simple, yet profound, way to include the various prayer forms.
February is
Catholic Press Month. Please
remember to pray for
all those in our LEAVES family. Also, kindly
remember to pray for the LEAVES magazine. Pray that God's greatness and
glory will be reflected throughout the pages of our little publication. One way to help us
celebrate Catholic Press Month would be to send us
the names and addresses of two or three family members or friends to
add
to our subscriber list. Be assured that the only thing these people
will
receive is our magazine every other month. We do not sell our list of
subscribers, so no one need worry about getting a lot of junk mail as a
result
of being a LEAVES reader. Just as we Mariannhill
Missionaries remember the subscribers of
LEAVES in our prayers, so too do many others pray for all those in our
LEAVES family. We continually receive letters noting that readers are
praying for other readers and their intentions. Our LEAVES family is
truly a
family of faith and prayer. There is a coupon on the
back page of this issue that can be used for
new subscriptions. You are welcome also to simply write the names and
addresses on a piece of paper and mail it to us at: LEAVES, P.O. Box
87,
Dearborn, MI 48121-0087, or e-mail the information to us at: leaves-mag@juno.com.
<>... God grant you
abundant
blessings always - Father Thomas
Heier,
C.M.M.
Excerpted
from "Our Family Album" Roses from St. Therese My son Pat, age 53,
passed away very unexpectedly. I asked St. Therese
to send me a sign that he would have eternal happiness. St. Therese
surely
answered my prayers. One day a pin with a
rose came in the mail and the next day came an
advertisement with a large rose on the envelope. I continued to pray
and
asked for a sign when my brother had finished his purification and God
had
taken him to heaven. This week a beautiful
St. Therese rosary came. The person who sent it
had no idea I was praying for this wonderful favor. Thanks, St.
Therese. St.
Jude has also been my friend for over 50 years - M.M.R. 30 Years of LEAVES Before putting our house
on the market, I did a lot of sorting and
cleaning, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. I found a box
in the
attic full of old LEAVES issues, dating back to 1975! That's 30 years -
180
issues! I couldn't put them in
the recycling bin until I went through each one,
saving prayers, articles, testimonies and inspiring letters. By far,
St.
Therese and Fr. Engelmar are the most popular saints, and they
certainly
come through for me. When we desperately
needed a new van a few years ago, Fr. Engelmar
arranged the most miraculous outcome for us. Just last month St.
Therese
let me know she was praying for my intention. My brother and his wife,
both
in the 40s, have been undergoing fertility treatments to conceive a
baby. I
began a novena to St. Therese and that very evening, as I walked toward
the
church door for choir rehearsal, there at my feet were six red rose
petals!
It was Lent and no flowers were anywhere around. Three weeks later on
Easter Sunday, my brother and sister-in-law announced they were
pregnant! My family and I need St.
Joseph's intercession now as we have our house
for sale. My husband and I have lived all our 17 years of married life
in this
little cottage and our two sons have grown up here. With our older son
going
to high school next year, we need more room. My woodworker husband
needs
a big yard to build a workshop. Surely St. Joseph can relate to that! I've buried a statue of
St. Joseph next to the "For Sale" sign, along with
a miraculous medal, and put a second statue on the kitchen window
ledge. I
pray every day one or more of the many prayers I have to St. Joseph
(many
from my LEAVES issues!). Our home has been on the
market for a month. When we lowered the
price, we began to see some interest. Our realtor told us it almost
sold
yesterday to a young couple who had a difficult time choosing between
our
house and one two streets away. St. Joseph is working
for us and we have every confidence that he will
find us a new home at the same time he'll find the right buyer for
ours. I
want to thank St. Joseph, his most precious wife, our Mother Mary, the
holy
souls in purgatory, St. Therese, Fr. Engelmar and the Holy Spirit for
interceding to God the Father for us -
T.T. [NOTE -- Statues and
medals represent holy people. Besides, they may be
blessed. Consequently they should be treated with religious respect.
Ordinarily to bury them in the ground does not seem the respect they
deserve, unless it is to dispose of them permanently. To believe that
burial
of them is the effective way for the saint fo answer one's prayer
smacks of
superstition, so it should not be done -- The Editor.] Excerpted
from Father Engelmar Testimonies There is now available a
novena booklet of Fr. Engelmar Unzeitig,
C.M.M. You may receive a free copy of it by sending a stamped (postage
for one ounce, currently 39 cents), self-addressed envelope to us at:
I prayed and made
several novenas to Fr. Engelmar for my dear family.
First, my grandson got tuition, room and board for college paid for one
year.
Second, my granddaughter was able to keep her job as editor in a plant
as
250 were being laid off. Thanks, Fr. Engelmar - E.McD. + + + My miracle of cancer
cured is prominent in newspapers -
H.S. + + + My donation is to Fr.
Engelmar for negative tests. I promised it to Fr.
Engelmar regardless of what happens -
O.S. + + + My donation is a thank
you to Our Lord Jesus Christ and Fr. Engelmar
for a special favor for some medical exams that came out good - Mrs.
C.R.R. + + + I will never forget the
power of Fr. Engelmar. I have been worried about
financial problems for many months. I asked in several novenas for his
help
to guide me. He took my problem in the right direction, very
unexpectedly.
Today I am finally at peace for the first time in a few years - A.C. A
Mother's Prayer
(In 1988 my mother died
at age 94. In her prayer book, I found this
lovely prayer that I hope others will enjoy. My mother had two sons
enlisted in World War II. Both came home safely - Ruth Walton.)