October 5, 2020 Reflection – Prayer and fasting work miracles…

October 5, 2020
St. Faustina Kowalska

Dear Family of Mary!

“…do not forget, little children, that prayer and fasting work miracles in you and around you…” (September 25, 2020)

Our Lady has encouraged us to prayer and fasting since the very beginning of her apparitions in Medjugorje.  She tells us that miracles happen because of our prayer and fasting.  And indeed it is so!  Though we may not see the results of our prayer and fasting in this life, we will rejoice over the miracles that have been wrought through our intercession in Heaven.  God needs our prayer.  It is a gift that we can give, a gift that is pure when freely offered for others.

St. Faustina was a prayer warrior!  She was asked to pray for many souls during her short life as a sister.  Here is one example:

During the night, I was suddenly awakened and knew that some soul was asking me for prayer, and that it was in much need of prayer. Briefly, but with all my soul, I asked the Lord for grace for her.

The following afternoon, when I entered the ward, I saw someone dying, and learned that the agony had started during the night. When I verified it – it had been at the time when I had been asked for prayer. And just then, I heard a voice in my soul: Say the chaplet which I taught you. I ran to fetch my rosary and knelt down by the dying person and, with all the ardor of my soul, I began to say the chaplet. Suddenly the dying person opened her eyes and looked at me; I had not managed to finish the entire chaplet when she died, with extraordinary peace. I fervently asked the Lord to fulfill the promise He had given me for the recitation of the chaplet. The Lord gave me to know that the soul had been granted the grace. He had promised me. That was the first soul to receive the benefit of the Lord’s promise. I could feel the power of mercy envelop that soul.

When I entered my solitude, I heard these words: At the hour of their death, I defend as My own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or when others say it for a dying person, the indulgence is the same. When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person, God’s anger is placated, unfathomable mercy envelops the soul, and the very depths of My tender mercy are moved for the sake of the sorrowful Passion of My Son.

Oh, if only everyone realized how great the Lord’s mercy is and how much we all need that mercy, especially at that crucial hour!  (Diary 809-811)

St. Faustina prayed and sacrificed for souls on a daily basis.  Today is her Feast Day and the day that she died.  Let’s ask her to pray for us from heaven, to grow in our commitment to prayer and fasting, so that many miracles will take place, miracles of love, conversion, healing, and especially salvation!  We want to see miracles happen in us and around us!!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2020