Has anyone else had the Lord bless them like this

[zakattack60]

Before I start I just whant to say sorry for spelling mistakes and sorry if this is in the wrong section. Im a long time lurker and a first time poster… But i just need to share my experience of yesterday! yesterday Wed before Holy Tursday I felt the need to go to confession. So I go online and find that a local church is holding confessions at 7 (or so i thought the site was kinda confuseing and i dont go to that church), the only problem is I work till 8. Now i was hopeing to get out early anyway with the economy being as bad as it has been people arnt eating out as much (im a dish boy at a local eatery) and ive been getting out at 7. So I said a prayer to the Lord asking to get out at 7 like i have been. The Lord blessed me and i did end up getting out at 7! So i get in my car drive over to the church and proced to walk to where i belived the confessions are. As i walk i come acrossed a group of people and one of the parish priests. And i ask where the confessions are and to my suprise the priest says that there are no schedualed confessions tonight! Iwas so dissipointed untill the priest offered to hear my confession anyway!.. I felt so blessed and know that the Lord loves for me to repent from sin! He not only let me get out of work early but placed a priest in the right place at the right time if i came a few minutes latter or earlyer i may not have been able to recive the sacrament i felt so grateful and blessed by the Lord i just had to share… and whated to know if any one else has had an experience like this? Once again sorry for the spelling and sorry if its in the wrong section Mods feel free to move it if you have to and put it in the right section

 

[RUINATION_IPA]

A wonderful story! These little signs from God are amazing aren’t they! There’s no ‘coincidences’ with God!

 

[zakattack60]

I know that is exactly how i feel God works little mericals threw out or lives if we notice them or not.

 

[allhers]

Once, years ago, I hadn’t been to confession in a very long time and was feeling pretty disgusted with myself, not exactly in the best frame of mind and just knew that I needed to go. I didn’t look anywhere to find out what time or when the new Parish I had just moved to was having confession.

I just drove over there and walked into the Church. Father was walking toward me, he stopped and greeted me and I don’t know if it was the look on my face or just the fact that he was such a very holy man but all I said was…“Father could you hear my confession?” (I almost whispered it.) The next thing I knew, he turned around and lead me right to the confessional, with a wave of his hand, as though he was saying (without words), “right this way”.

It just seemed to me at the time that he was waiting there for me, like God had told him to expect me and that he just knew that I would be along any time. I always believed that God led him right to me. I could have gone into three other doors and we would have never seen one another. Who knows how much longer I would have waited then.

I found out later the times that they usually hold confession and it wasn’t on the correct day of the week or even close to the correct time that day. (I had never left the Catholic Church but I had, like so many others, quit going to confession thinking that since no one else seemed to be going, why bother.) I will never make that mistake again, not ever.

God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to behold! I try now to go at least once a month, sometimes twice a month.

I will forever be grateful for that holy man of God and for all of His Priests that serve us.
I thank God for them all.

 

[Agatina]

Dear Zak,
Yes, oh Yes!! My life is full of events like you described! Way too often & way too unusual to be just coincedence (sp?).
The Bible it says “you do not have, because you do not ask”. This time you asked and He answered!
Of course, he may not always say yes but this time you asked for something good that our Lord wanted for you and then you perservered & went out of your way. Jesus is saying to you now “Well done my good & favorite servant”.
Imagine what life would be like if we turned it over to Him and just let Him guide us into doing His work on earth. Wow!
I’m still trying to learn how to do this; trying to learn to perservere. To do just what you did all the time.
Keep up the good work Zak. I have a wonderful grandson, 24, named Zac. So I love that name.
Thanks for posting this question. It is a good one!
Love in Christ Jesus

 

[elizebeth123]

I will be going through Easter Vigil on Sunday. During a rehearsal last night our Priest took me aside and told me he decided to do a conditional baptism, rather than full baptism. Of course, he told me the only problem with that was that I had to do a confession before Saturday. Little did he know I had been having nightmares over the past several weeks, and not sleeping, thinking about my past sins…I am relieved to be able to receive the opportunity of confession! God’s grace is beautiful…

 

[zakattack60]

Thanks Agatina you are so right about what you said about us learning to trust God more offten with our lives. And thank you about my name I really like it to and so dose my mom. And thank you Elizebeth for shareing its grate to see the Lord working in our lives and the people around us!

 

[Heath_Bar]

I had a similar experience just a few weeks ago! I wanted to make a confession during Lent, as I haven’t been since the Advent season. Our parish is not having a lenten penance service this year, and it is usually tough for me to get to regularly scheduled confession times, since we are a very small rural parish and we only have a limited time for them. So, a couple of weeks ago, I had made up my mind to make the time to get to regularly scheduled confession, and missed them both.

Then, on Monday (which is my day off from work), I took my daughter to Tuscaloosa, AL on a campus visit for college. After the visit, we were travelling north on Interstate 65 back home and on a spur-of-the-moment, I said, “Hey, we’re going by the exit for the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament, where EWTN is. I’ve always wanted to see it, but we’ve never got the opportunity. It’s just off the Interstate. Whaddaya say?” My wife and daughter said “fine”, so in about two miles we turned off on the exit. The sign said, “Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament 18 miles”

My wife and daughter wanted me turn around right then and get back going to the house, but I talked them into going anyway, even though it was a bit further than I had expected off of the Interstate. Finally, we pulled up, and it was AWESOME! If you’ve never seen it, it is completely awe-inspiring.

Anyway, being a Monday afternoon, it was not crowded at all. We parked and went up to the large courtyard area, which was practically deserted, and I saw one priest standing there. We got close to him, and I recognized him. It was Father Mark, the host of EWTN’s “Life on the Rock”! I admire him a lot. So, my daughter tells him she saw him on television and he chats with us for a minute, then says, “If you’ve never seen the Cathedral, I’ll walk you up there. I was just on my way there. I’m scheduled to hear confession in about three minutes.”

I was blown away! I got chill bumps big-time. If we would have been a few minutes earlier or later, we would have never known about the opportunity to attend confession. And, to make it even more special, Father Mark was the priest who heard it.

 

[PacoG]

Yesterday, I went to confession at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle. The priest who heard my confession was a very happy and upbeat man. He heard my confession and told me that we all have our faults and that those faults get in the way of our relationship with God. God asks us to be sorry for them and to make every possible effort to mend our ways. I said my Act of Contrition and he gave me absolution.

I had been wearing a brown scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. I asked him to formally invest me with the scapular. He obliged me.

I normally walk away from confession feeling happy and clean. This time it was even more so. It was an amazing experience.

Since I started attending Mass regularly a year ago, I try to go to confession once a month. I am really beginning to love the sacrament. Reconciliation is such an amazing sacramental experience. It is so sad that it gets such a bad rap.

 

[ChristinaM]

Once when I was in college I was going through a struggle in my faith. I had a particular sin that I was really wrestling with, and I was having trouble making it to confession regularly. We only had the one priest and confessions were only scheduled for an hour a week.

Well, the parish that I was attending was having a week-long parish mission led by the Redemptorists, and on impulse I decided to go one night. Lo and behold, the night I decided to go, they were talking about the Sacrament of Confession, and the two Redemptorist priests were available to hear confessions afterwards. I had no idea they were going to hear confessions, but I happened to need the Sacrament.

I was so blessed and so happy. That was one of the best confessions I ever made. God be praised! (Ever since then I’ve had a soft spot for the Redemptorists. )

Heath Bar, the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament is an amazing place, isn’t it? Before I went there I never thought I would envy the life of a cloistered nun. I remember making a confession there and the priest was quite stern with me. But I really needed it at the time because I had become so lax about the particular sin that I confessed. God seems to send me the confessors I need.

 

[acadian]

Several years ago, I hadn’t been to confession in serveral years. I wrestled with the idea for months, but eventually picked out a date and a priest. I thought I had seen in the bulletin that confessions were heard before daily Masses, but perhaps I was mistaken. I showed up one evening before daily Mass and there was no priest. I sat in the back by the confessional and waited. Finally one of the “church ladies” in the parish offered to go get father. When he saw it was me, (I had known him for years) he asked, “Will this take long?” Mass was scheduled to start in a few minutes. “Not if you don’t talk too long.” That confession was short and sweet, but life-changing awesome.

Last summer, several things from long ago had come to my attention. They were things that had been forgotten and I was sure that they had been forgiven, but I figured I owed it to Jesus to confess them since I’d remembered them. I asked if that was His will, to give me the chance to go to confession. There was a visiting priest and after Mass, he mentioned that he would hear confessions now, since he hadn’t gotten there before Mass.

So there I was with the opportunity that I had asked for laid right in my lap. I’d love to tell you that I took advantage of it. But I didn’t. I argued with myself - go… don’t go…go…don’t go… And I walked right out the door with the rest of the people. I kicked myself. I felt so sorry - after the fact - that I turned my back on Jesus and walked away. All worked out well, though. I went a couple of days later and in the meantime I had a good realization on how easy it is to turn your back on God’s gifts and graces.

 

[Heath_Bar]

Heath Bar, the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament is an amazing place, isn’t it? Before I went there I never thought I would envy the life of a cloistered nun. I remember making a confession there and the priest was quite stern with me. But I really needed it at the time because I had become so lax about the particular sin that I confessed. God seems to send me the confessors I need.

Yeas, it is amazing! Mother Angelica is a future saint in my mind.

Sort of a funny story about my confession there, though. I had never been to confession before in the old-fashioned confessionals. I have always been face-to-face with the priest. So, I didn’t realize it had two sides for two different penitents. So, I get in there, kneel down, and say, “Forgive me father, for I have sinned. It has been four months since my last…” Then, the priest says, “Excuse me, I’m still hearing confession on the other side.”
I felt like a doofus, especially since he had just greeted me and knew exactly who I was. Then, my voice carries, I guess, so he kept asking me to lower my voice. Finally, he said, “Sir, just whisper!” I still felt great that I got to confess, but I felt pretty silly.