Excerpted from "Leaflets" column

 

You also we have to renew our Lenten commitments during the course of our 40 days. Getting off-track is not a reason to forget them. If you had decided to read from the Bible for 10 minutes every day and found two days go by without reading a word of it - don't despair. Get back on course on the third day. Maybe try to read an additional few minutes for a couple of days to make up for the days lost.

You also may want to re-evaluate the Lenten practices you chose. It's not much of a challenge to give up chocolate souffles if you don't make them or have them available in a store or restaurant nearby. Remember that our fasting should be sacrificial.

Of course, don't give up things that are necessary to your good health. If you need to eat with medication, go ahead and have a mid-day snack with your pills even if you've vowed not to eat between meals.

Consider "offering it up" for Lent. It used to be very popular to offer up pain on behalf of the holy souls in purgatory. Why not offer up your impatience at a long traffic signal for those who cannot afford transportation? Instead of cursing the person who cuts you off in traffic, pray for the safety of those who drive for a living.

As you go by a bus stop, pray for those using public transportation who may look weary. If available in your area, try to use public transportation occasionally and pray for those who advocate on behalf of a cleaner, greener environment. Decide that you will make an effort to recycle wherever possible. As you do so, offer up prayers of thanksgiving for God's gifts in nature.

If your child is misbehaving, offer up your calm response to couples that are desperately trying to conceive. Offer up aches and pains on behalf of those who have serious or terminal illnesses. As you patiently wait for the neighborhood chatterbox to finish talking, think of those who cannot see, speak or hear.

It all boils down to - remembering to pray during Lent. When you feel tempted to disregard your Lenten promises of prayer, charity and fasting, pray for the strength to remain true to your pledges. If you have family and friends who are experiencing challenges in their Lenten devotions, pray for them that the good Lord will strengthen them as well.

Don't forget to pray for those who will be entering the Church at Easter. Pray that their faith will be sure and strong. Pray that their joy will be complete and that blessings will flow unto them and their families. If you see them at church, make them feel welcome. Let them know they are in your thoughts and prayers. [In fact, you might send them a note at Easter to share in their joy of becoming Catholic.]

Whatever your Lenten promises, periodically review them and then renew your faithfulness to fulfill them.

 

... God grant you abundant blessings always - Father Thomas Heier, C.M.M.

 

 

Excerpted from "Our Family Album"

 

Praying for Healing

 

I have received LEAVES for a long time and I pray for the LEAVES family. Most of the time my prayers have been answered after a long prayer time. Seldom have they been answered in a dramatic way.

Almost a year ago it came to my mind to pray for a fellow who was the victim of an accident almost 50 years ago. I had witnessed a young man who had been hit in the eye with a stone while playing in a park with a few other young men. One could tell that he was in a lot of pain. I didn't know his name, but occasionally wondered how he had fared over the years.

Out of the blue, a friend mentioned this man and the incident. I knew immediately that this was the one I had been praying for. The news was not good. He had been blinded from that stone and is still blind. Still, he's had a good life despite his affliction.

I am praying for restored sight for this man. I have a special devotion to Bl. Mother Marianne Cope of Molokai. She was from the Syracuse, NY, area, for which I also have a special place in my heart, and she needs a miracle for her canonization. I'm hoping that healing this man's blindness will be that miracle - Name Withheld.

 

Unusual Way

To Receive a Rose

My brother-in-law, my husband and I went shopping. As we reached the door of the store, an employee asked me if I would like a rose. He didn't offer one to my husband or brother-in-law, just me.

When I accepted the beautiful deep red rose, I asked the man why he was giving out roses. He said that someone bought them and then returned them to get his money back. I spent the drive home from the store holding the rose and smiling - Emma Taylor.

 

 

 

Little Flower Sends

A Sea of Roses

I recently went through a scary medical trauma. I grew up always praying to the Little Flower and my mother signed me up for LEAVES many years ago.

My faith has always been strong and I believe in putting my trust in God. During this time of going for several medical tests and praying to the Little Flower, I took a morning walk.
My usual route is to stop at a corner and walk back to my home. This one day I proceeded to turn right and go around the block. I was met by a sea of roses on every fence and yard that I had never seen or noticed before.

I knew then that it was a sign from the Little Flower that everything was going to be okay, and it was! - M.P.

 

 

 

Excerpted from Father Engelmar Testimonies

 

A "Novena in honor of Father Engelmar Unzeitig" is now available. We will send a copy of the novena to whoever requests it. Send your request with a stamped (postage for one novena, currently 39 cents), self-addressed envelope to us at:

LEAVES

P.O. Box 87

Dearborn, MI 48121-0087

 

 

Fr. Engelmar has been powerful for my family. My husband was let go from his job. He had a well-paying job, but because of a mistake he made, they told him he needed to resign. In the area that we live, the jobs are very few and far between for what he is trained in. We have had many factories and businesses close in this area.

My husband does not have a college degree for what he does. He is self-taught all these years. So every time he applied for a job in his area of expertise, he was told to get a college degree. After many months of trying and many prayers and novenas to Fr. Engelmar, he received a call that he had been waiting for. A business offered him a job in his field today.

I believe in Fr. Engelmar very deeply and can never express fully my gratitude and love. I will continue to pray to Fr. Engelmar for my husband's success with his new job - D.B.

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I began praying the novena in honor of Fr. Engelmar to sell our house quickly and at or near our needed price. I began the novena Jan. 25 and on Feb. 5, a call came from an interested buyer. We closed the next month. We are grateful for Fr. Engelmar's intercession - P.J.K.

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My donation is to thank Fr. Engelmar for prayers and petitions answered - L.P.

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I want to give testimony to a cure after a novena to Fr. Engelmar. For five months I suffered from dizzy spells with nausea and head pain that lasted from two to three hours. After many medical tests and seeing four different doctors, we could not find a cause or cure for my problem. After the ninth day of my novena to Fr. Engelmar, my dizzy spells left. Thank you, Jesus - L.K.

 

 

 

 

Shoulder Wound

Of Our Lord

O Most loving Jesus, meek lamb of God, I a miserable sinner salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of Thy Shoulder on which Thou didst bear Thy heavy cross, which so tore Thy flesh and laid bare Thy bones as to inflict on Thee an anguish greater than any other wound of Thy Most Blessed Body. I adore Thee, O Jesus most sorrowful. I praise and glorify Thee and give Thee thanks for this most sacred and painful wound, beseeching Thee by that exceeding pain and by the crushing burden of Thy heavy cross to be merciful to me a sinner, to forgive me all my mortal and venial sins and to lead me on toward heaven along the way of the cross.

Amen.

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Comment: It is related in the annals of Clairvaux that St. Bernard asked Our Lord which was His greatest unrecorded suffering and Our Lord answered:

"I had on My shoulder, while I bore My cross on the way of sorrows, a previous wound that was more painful than the others and that is not recorded by men. Honor this wound with thy devotion and I will grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask through its virtue and merit. And in regard to all those who shall venerate this wound, I will remit all their venial sins and will no longer remember their mortal sins"

[Submitted by Father Rawley Myers].