God bless!

Pax et bonum!
Lisa A., MI
lanat@rcn.com
http://www.consecration.com
Prayer is the best weapon we possess, the key that opens the heart of God.
-- St. Padre Pio

==============

January and February, 2008

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Friends - Past, Present and Future

Throughout our lives, we have made many friends. There are the friends of
our past who we grew up with and over the years have lost contact with.
Then there are the friends who we associate with now, but then there are our
friends in the future - namely, those whom we now pray for their release
from Purgatory. They are now strangers to us but in the future they will be
our friends in Heaven.

This newsletter will speak of a friend from our past. John had emailed us
asking for a Chaplet of Our Lady of Sorrows. We emailed him back and asked
him if he was affiliated with a Monastery where we worked prior to our
retirement. (We had not known John's last name at that time) He then
realized Friends of the Poor Souls was our apostolate and was glad to be in
touch with us once again. John has joined our apostolate and shared with us
two experiences he had with a Soul from Purgatory. We would like to share
them with you.

===================

John's first experience is as follows:

(John says) It happened at a Catholic Charismatic prayer meeting in 1989.
At that time my wife was in a PVS (persistent vegetative state) coma due to
an operating room accident -- since October of 1987, so at the suggestion of
a friend I started going to Healing Masses and prayer meetings in the hope
of asking for healing and prayers for her. On this particular evening, after
the prayer meeting ended, people would be allowed to ask to be "prayed over"
by the prayer group members for whatever intentions they had. Several
members of this prayer group had very discernable manifestations of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit (Word of Knowledge, Wisdom, Faith, Healing,
Discernment, etc. - as mentioned in St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians),
and after the pray-over they would share with you (if God allowed it) what
they "saw".

I asked to be prayed-over for my wife. When they were finished, one of the
ladies had a somewhat puzzled look on her face. I asked her what she "saw",
and she told me of her vision in very great detail. She said that she was
shown a plain wooden casket, rising from the ground, and then standing
upright. The lid opened, and then inside was a woman's skeleton. The
skeleton's arm and hand reached out - to me - and pulled back in again, as
if 'beckoning' me for something.......like it was saying "Come here." The
lady saw her do it several times in row.

Well, I immediately thought that the skeleton was that of my wife, who was
not dead - yet. "Is this God's way of telling me that she is going to die
soon?" I asked. "No, I saw no indication of that", she said. But the lady
was quite certain of two facts: it was a woman's skeleton; and it was not
my wife's. She asked me if I had any idea of what this could mean. I had
no explanation for it.

But, then after a minute or two, I remembered something! That very day I
had been passing by Immaculate Conception Cemetery, when - on a lark - I had
decided to go in and try to find my grandmother's grave. It was unmarked,
but my Mom had told me that it was over in the "St. Joseph" section, so I
had wandered over there near the statue of St. Joseph, but I did not see
anything that I could recognize as possibly having been grandma's grave. As
I was walking through that area, I almost tripped over a depression in the
ground. It was a grave that had sunken in an inch or two, and apparently
had not been visited or attended to for a very long time. There was no
marker, no flowers, nothing but grass. I got such a lonely feeling when I
walked over to it; so I stopped and said a "Hail Mary" for whoever was
buried there - figuring that no one had probably prayed for this person in
many years. Then I continued looking for grandma's grave, but to no avail.

I told this to the lady who had seen the vision, and immediately her whole
face lit up in a wonderful grin! "That's it!", she said. "The 'woman in
the casket' was the occupant of that grave. She was beckoning to you to
pray for her. She kept beckoning to you for more prayers!"

Then, the lady asked me if I regularly pray for the souls in Purgatory - but
I told her "No." My mom, when we were growing up, ALWAYS said a small
prayer for the souls in Purgatory whenever we passed a cemetery - but I
never did. It was just today that I felt I should, for the first time. So
the lady explained to me that I should start praying, regularly, for the
Holy Souls in Purgatory. I've been doing that very thing, ever since.

The second experience happened about three years ago.

(John says): I had been riding a bicycle back and forth to work for several
years because my car broke down beyond my financial ability to have it
repaired. Each day I would try to pass through Immaculate Conception
Cemetery on my way to work, and then again on my way home. As I would go
through the cemetery I would recite (and still do) the prayer of St.
Gertrude, wherein Our Lord told her that every time that prayer was recited
with devotion He would release 1000 souls from Purgatory into Heaven. My
former landlady was a 3rd Order Carmelite, and she told me that prayers for
the dead take on special beneficial strength if said while in a cemetery -
so that's why I started to say that prayer in my travels each day.

One winter's night, there was no moon and it was especially dark and
bitterly cold out. I had stayed late at work, and was soon freezing on my
trip home when I approached the cemetery. For some reason, I became very
scared that particular evening to enter. I couldn't figure out why I was
suddenly so scared to ride through the cemetery, as I had done hundreds of
times before. Well, I went in anyway. After only riding a few feet I
started to realize..."John, what are you so scared of? At worst, these are
just some poor spirits waiting to get to Heaven! There's nothing to worry
about."

Just then, about 50 feet inside the cemetery gate, I had to stop my bicycle.
I didn't know why.......but I was starting to feel something 'funny'
happening to my body.....all of a sudden I was starting to warm up, all
toasty inside. I could no longer feel the bitter cold of the night.
Then -- I'll never forget this as long as I live -- I could feel dozens of
people crowding around me -- hugging me -- warming me. And, even though I
could not see them with my eyes, my 'mind's eye' saw them all smiling! I
stayed there, straddling my bicycle, basking in this wonderful warm loving
feeling for about 10 minutes.

Slowly, I started to realize that after being scared only a few moments
before, here I was being warmed and 'thanked' by those souls whom I had
realized "....were just waiting to go to Heaven..." It was WONDERFUL!

Many are the times, through the years, when I ride through that cemetery
while praying for the poor souls -- hoping to relive that experience. Alas,
nothing so far. But, at least I know that they are there - in Purgatory -
and that they really do need and appreciate all of the prayers that we offer
for their release.

=============

God bless you both for caring so very much for our suffering brothers and
sisters!

--
http://friendsofthepoorsouls.blogspot.com
http://relicbadges.blogspot.com