Is There Hope For Every Man!

[neilbaird79]

Hello,

My name is Neil, I just turned 34yrs. old. All I can say is that this has been the worst year of my life. My wife of 9 yrs. is divorcing me. Ive lost my home, my business, and havent seen my two children in over 8 weeks. On top of that, Im living w / my brother who is very selfish and abusive. I feel trapped, because I have no where else to go, at this time. I attend Mass, everyday when I can, and pray constantly. just looking for advise, from a catholic perspective. Any insight would help.

 

[Alison]

Dear Neil,
things will look up, I assure you, from the bottom of my heart. You’re embracing God very tightly right now, may you always stay there. Things will look up ALWAYS when you’re there.
Here’s the conversion story of Aneel Aranha–funny that his first name too sounds like yours – he came to speak at my parish one to two months ago. He too lost everything, his business and also his family. May it find you some peace:

Aneel Aranha- (Founder of Holy Spirit Interactive)
holyspiritinteractive.net/columns/aneelaranha/returnoftheprodigal/

 

[dmelosi]

Hello,

My name is Neil, I just turned 34yrs. old. All I can say is that this has been the worst year of my life. My wife of 9 yrs. is divorcing me. Ive lost my home, my business, and havent seen my two children in over 8 weeks. On top of that, Im living w / my brother who is very selfish and abusive. I feel trapped, because I have no where else to go, at this time. I attend Mass, everyday when I can, and pray constantly. just looking for advise, from a catholic perspective. Any insight would help.

Neil, keep up the searching with the church.

After that the most important thing you can do is to make every effort no matter how you feel to move a step forward. Too many times people get stuck in a rut and the days, then weeks, then months, then years go by. Make every effort no matter how hard to move forward. Don’t stand still and do nothing because of depression.

 

[monicatholic]

dear Neil,

mediate on this, ask the Holy Spirit to quiet you and enlighten you.

**Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?

Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life.** No one comes to the Father except through me. (Jhn 14:1-6)

then, do all things with love, Neil.

every moment we’re called to love God more and to be more open to His love. moments of suffering are particularly good for growing in God’s love.

 

[neilbaird79]

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.
Alison, I read the conversion story of Aneel, you sent me. Much of the things in his life, I can relate to in mine. The crazy thing is that a couple of weeks ago. I was deep in prayer, and I felt a peace come over me, like I was being held in my mothers arms again , and I heard a voice say, You will do my work. I havent told anyone until now.

Dmelosi, I am trying to keep moving forward, the hard part is that shortly after my wife served me with the divorce papers, I found out that she had met someone else and spent a weekend away with him. I was devistated and started drinking heavily. I ended up with a revoked license. Now I cant find anyone to hire me, even though I hold a Master plumbers license. I went from owning my own business to riding a bike to church. Talk about being humbled. But your absolutely right, I need to get out of myself and listen to what God is showing me to do. thanks for the advise. I greatly apreciate it.

Monicatholic, I found great peace, in that reading. I can say that the hardest part of all this was not loosing my posessions, but the people I held so dear , for so long. I will do everything with love, however hard that seems right now, surely the place where he is going , must be better than where Im at. Thank you so much.

 

[manualman]

Hang in there and spend some of your down time in the sacraments and prayer. Personally, I like praying the rosary while hiking in the woods. Give it a try. You won’t have so much time for it when you are employed and working off your debts.

No qualified plumber is going to starve to death in America. Your license could be an issue, but you’ll get it back in time. Stay off the juice!

I’m a civil engineer and sit at a desk all day. Once you get work, enjoy that you get the satisfaction of seeing the solid results of your work and the satisfaction of having done it well. Sometimes I wish I’d gone the plumber route.