What is This Saint of the Year Devotion All About?


This isn't superstition. St. Faustina and her religious order did the same thing!

I would like to explain to you about the practice of picking a saint at random to be your “holy protector and intercessor” for the year. Actually, the saint is the one who chooses us though.The tradition of letting a saint “pick you,”is not a new one. St. Faustina wrote about it in her diary, "Divine Mercy in My Soul".
The excerpt is below. . .

“There is a custom among us of drawing by lot, on New Year's Day, special Patrons for ourselves for the whole year. In the morning, during meditation, there arose within me a secret desire that the Eucharistic Jesus be my special Patron for this year also, as in the past. But, hiding this desire from my Beloved, I spoke to Him about everything else but that. When we came to refectory for breakfast, we blessed ourselves and began drawing our patrons. When I approached the holy cards on which the names of the patrons were written, without hesitation I took one, but I didn't read the name immediately as I wanted to mortify myself for a few minutes. Suddenly, I heard a voice in my soul: ‘I am your patron. Read.’ I looked at once at the inscription and read, ‘Patron for the Year 1935 - the Most Blessed Eucharist.’ My heart leapt with joy, and I slipped quietly away from the sisters and went for a short visit before the Blessed Sacrament,where I poured out my heart. But Jesus sweetly admonished me that I should be at that moment together with the sisters. I went immediately in obedience to the rule.”

Excerpt from "Divine Mercy in My Soul, the Diary of St. Faustina"

Sunday, June 9, 2013



AT A TIME OF ENDLESS THREATS TO HEALTH, REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR 'PROPHETIC' HEALING
Too often we react in retrospect. The damage is done. Heart problems. Cancer.

Where is the prophetic healing?

We need to anticipate. The Holy Spirit does this for us. He sees and guides. He helps us stay ahead of the game.

What is "prophetic healing"?

That's praying to gird ourselves against that which may afflict us in the future (or may be in an incipient stage). It's to strengthen. Each cell can be girded by the Holy Spirit against insult from chemicals, from viruses, from accident. It is to shield.
 


It's to put the body in harmony with the spirit.


It is to envelope.
 
Otherwise, the terrain around us is capricious (and too often, deadly).



Think about it: there are thousands of ways that we can meet our demise and this makes it all the more important that we pray before anything takes root, that we buffer ourselves, that we ask the Holy Spirit each day to touch any part of us that needs to be touched and to guide us as far as what we should eat and how we should live and how we should protect ourselves against any eventuality (especially those we don't expect). In this fashion can you rest better assured!

For if it's God Will, you can be protected against anything. Call it preventative "prayer medicine." Call it a spiritual "vaccine."


Another way of saying it is that we should pray for the minor miracles.



Ask for general health and also for protection against prominent ailments (arthritis, diabetes). Be specific. Be encompassing. See not with the eyes of the world, which are the eyes of fear.

A minor miracle is when the Lord intervenes before something becomes a crisis -- before it necessitates a major miracle.


Move the hill before it is Everest.
 
We must pray not in retrospect but proactively. Move forward in faith. Nip it in the bud. Don't let fear take hold of you. Consider God your real doctor. St. Catherine of Siena did that. There are prayers that ask this saint's patronage -- as well as that of others --
 



 
Your angel is also at the ready (just waiting to be asked).

Pray aggressively -- with an ardent heart -- against anything that may come in a negative fashion and you'll be enveloped in power. There is endless power in prayer (when it replaces anxiety) and there are prayers that are cancer-killers. We saw a few years back how an English Cardinal named Newman has been cited for the miracle cure of a living Massachusetts man.
 
"Lying in a hospital bed after surgery on his spine, unable to walk and in agonizing pain, Jack Sullivan propped himself up on elbows and prayed," reported a newspaper. "Not to some vast, unknowable god, but to a specific figure in the Catholic Church, vastly respected, yet mortal: Cardinal John Henry Newman, an Englishman who died in 1890. The healing, as Sullivan tells it, was almost immediate. He felt a tingling all over, was flooded with warmth, and, as easy as that, he could walk."
 
That's a major miracle. Never discount such! But how many more "minor" ones are there (or could there be)?
 
The Spirit vivifies our cells. He controls the molecules. He can rearrange anything if it is the Will of God because it is empowered by Him. Little miracles of vivification eventually become a big one.
 
Healthy food? Exercise? That's all good. But we can get a bit carried away, trying to follow all the advice and contradiction.
 
Keep it simple and keep it powerful and take every cell and tissue and organ of your body to the Blessed Mother for shielding under her veil.



In turn she'll take you to her Son -- Who sees every cell in your body in less than a glance and brings you into the harmony and health and fearlessness of Heaven.