Testimony about Marian Devotion

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anonymous1995

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I started to practise my Catholic faith in Grade 5, but my fervor in prayers and devotions gradually waned as I proceeded to high school.
One day in my last summer vacation, I accidentally came across on this forum and Google Rosary testimonials and the devotion to Our Lady Help of Christians, and I felt a particular urge and attachment to the title. So I picked up my Rosary beads and tried Rosary Novenas, but failure best described my early stage of spiritual life.
Very often, I immediately fell asleep while saying the Rosary before bedtime, and sometimes the Rosary would even be crushed (yes!) into pieces as my head rolled over it - I couldn’t explain why. And my Novena was always ‘interrupted’ by my laziness in continued devotion. Yet, our Mother does not turn a deaf ear to my prayers. My Novena petitions are heard.
Now, look at the following dates and you will be amazed at Our Lady’s power:

15th August 2012 - I received my AP exam results and got 5s in all subjects
October 2012 - I applied for universities
8th December 2012 - A prestigious university accepted me
24th May 2013 - I received an interview for a scholarship

What’s so special about the dates? ALL of them are the Feasts of Our Lady! 15th August is the Assumption, October is the Month of the Holy Rosary, 8th December is the Immaculate Conception, and 24th May is the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians!!!

Of course, my testimony does not and will not end here. What I ACTUALLY gain is the rich spiritual fruits yielded from Rosary devotions.
I have not read the Holy Bible for years. A perusal of the Bible usually drained all my energy and it WAS a boring and tedious process, considering the laundry list of Old Testament characters and ‘irrelevant’ historical events. Nonetheless, even since my prayer of the Rosary, I always perceived an absence of something inside my dry meditation, and I slowly came to realise that the gap is my lack of Blibical knowledge. So, to remedy for my handicapped contemplation, I fetched myself a Holy Bible and experienced the very joy of Bible reading, which now becomes my daily habit. The Bible is an interesting novel of the Divine Wisdom which is the supreme way to get in touch with our Creator, and it is encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI in Verbum Domini.
Rosary and my devotion to Our Lady Help of Christians also result in my aversion from sins, sexual temptations, worldly temptations and all sorts of displeasure. In the past, I was always assaulted by the thought that my birth is nothing more than a mistake - I am unworthy due to my poor accomplishments compared to my peers in areas like sports and music. My lack of physical attraction to the opposite gender nearly pulled me into Hell. ROSARY DEVOTION, HOWEVER, enables me to RECOGNISE THE TRUE VALUE AND VIRTUE OF LIFE. Earthly issues should be left in God’s hands, seeing that we humans are mere creations journeying through this world for several decades. Eternal life should be the ONLY goal of life.
ROSARY is a
WEAPON AGAINST THE EVIL,
THERAPY FOR LIFE,
RELIEF OF AN OPPRESSED SOUL and
AFFIRMATION OF VIRTUES!!!

I am so sorry for my unpolished writings, but I hope you will find my testimony encouraging , especially when Rosary and the devotion to Our Lady Help of Christians appear to be a burden rather than a blessing.

So, my message to those reading my post is:
  1. Pray the Rosary DAILY
  2. HONOR our Mother in the title of OUR LADY HELP OF CHRISTIANS
  3. PRAY for the poor souls in the Purgatory
Do the aforesaid and embark on an exhilarating journey!!!

N.B. I felt an impulse to share the above story after honoring Our Lady Help of Christians through Rosary yesterday night. I also feel an inadequate promotion of the title on CAF.

By the way, Pope Francis said that miracles happen, but prayer is needed. SO TRUE!!! (And I knew the quote on 24th May… 😛 )
 
anonymous1995 said:
I started to practise my Catholic faith in Grade 5, but my fervor in prayers and devotions gradually waned as I proceeded to high school.
One day in my last summer vacation, I accidentally came across on this forum and Google Rosary testimonials and the devotion to Our Lady Help of Christians, and I felt a particular urge and attachment to the title. So I picked up my Rosary beads and tried Rosary Novenas, but failure best described my early stage of spiritual life.
Very often, I immediately fell asleep while saying the Rosary before bedtime, and sometimes the Rosary would even be crushed (yes!) into pieces as my head rolled over it - I couldn’t explain why. And my Novena was always ‘interrupted’ by my laziness in continued devotion. Yet, our Mother does not turn a deaf ear to my prayers. My Novena petitions are heard.
Now, look at the following dates and you will be amazed at Our Lady’s power:

15th August 2012 - I received my AP exam results and got 5s in all subjects
October 2012 - I applied for universities
8th December 2012 - A prestigious university accepted me
24th May 2013 - I received an interview for a scholarship

What’s so special about the dates? ALL of them are the Feasts of Our Lady! 15th August is the Assumption, October is the Month of the Holy Rosary, 8th December is the Immaculate Conception, and 24th May is the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians!!!

Of course, my testimony does not and will not end here. What I ACTUALLY gain is the rich spiritual fruits yielded from Rosary devotions.
I have not read the Holy Bible for years. A perusal of the Bible usually drained all my energy and it WAS a boring and tedious process, considering the laundry list of Old Testament characters and ‘irrelevant’ historical events. Nonetheless, even since my prayer of the Rosary, I always perceived an absence of something inside my dry meditation, and I slowly came to realise that the gap is my lack of Blibical knowledge. So, to remedy for my handicapped contemplation, I fetched myself a Holy Bible and experienced the very joy of Bible reading, which now becomes my daily habit. The Bible is an interesting novel of the Divine Wisdom which is the supreme way to get in touch with our Creator, and it is encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI in Verbum Domini.
Rosary and my devotion to Our Lady Help of Christians also result in my aversion from sins, sexual temptations, worldly temptations and all sorts of displeasure. In the past, I was always assaulted by the thought that my birth is nothing more than a mistake - I am unworthy due to my poor accomplishments compared to my peers in areas like sports and music. My lack of physical attraction to the opposite gender nearly pulled me into Hell. ROSARY DEVOTION, HOWEVER, enables me to RECOGNISE THE TRUE VALUE AND VIRTUE OF LIFE. Earthly issues should be left in God’s hands, seeing that we humans are mere creations journeying through this world for several decades. Eternal life should be the ONLY goal of life.
ROSARY is a
WEAPON AGAINST THE EVIL,
THERAPY FOR LIFE,
RELIEF OF AN OPPRESSED SOUL and
AFFIRMATION OF VIRTUES!!!

I am so sorry for my unpolished writings, but I hope you will find my testimony encouraging , especially when Rosary and the devotion to Our Lady Help of Christians appear to be a burden rather than a blessing.

So, my message to those reading my post is:
  1. Pray the Rosary DAILY
  2. HONOR our Mother in the title of OUR LADY HELP OF CHRISTIANS
  3. PRAY for the poor souls in the Purgatory
Do the aforesaid and embark on an exhilarating journey!!!

N.B. I felt an impulse to share the above story after honoring Our Lady Help of Christians through Rosary yesterday night. I also feel an inadequate promotion of the title on CAF.

By the way, Pope Francis said that miracles happen, but prayer is needed. SO TRUE!!! (And I knew the quote on 24th May… 😛 )
Click to expand...
 
Thank you for sharing your testimony about our Blessed Mother.

The Rosary prayer is a Gospel prayer, going through many important events in the life of Our Lord and includes our Mother as well.

Without daily fervent prayer the Sacraments we receive can fall on hard ground.

We always need to hear good exhortations to pray!

Thanks again!
 
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Ciaran_Belfast:
This is not my testimony please forgive me I have pressed the wrong button and copied some one else’s testimony. Sorry.
 
Ciaran_Belfast said:
This is not my testimony please forgive me I have pressed the wrong button and copied some one else’s testimony. Sorry.
Click to expand...
No problem! Do not worry about pressing wrong buttons. Actually, I was responding to the original poster’s message. I should have put the “handle” name above my response. 🙂
 
What happened was I was reading the testimony of anonymous 1995 and I started writing my own one and as I went to send it I was not logged on, and my name ended up on his one, I will do my one some day soon as I am not great on these computers as you now known. Forgive me once , GOD BLESS.
 
A beautiful and touching tribute to our Blessed Mother from so young a person! This is quite a blessing. Thank you for sharing it. I know her well, very well. Let your love for her grow and always remember that, ultimately, she brings us to her Son, our Lord Jesus!
👍
 
Thank you very much for your testimony about the Rosary. I know that feeling too, whenever you try so hard to pray the rosary but just fall asleep in the middle of it. I at least try and remember on days that I fall asleep doing the rosary that I at least got in one decade today. I am going to try my hardest, though, to pray the rosary every day during this summer no matter what.

If you have not done so, I invite you to read the book by St. Louis de Montfort called True Devotion to Mary it is all about devoting our lives to the Blessed Virgin. I have not read all of it yet, but plan on doing so this summer.

God bless you!
 
THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your replies. It is my earnest wish that passers-by will be ignited by the Holy Spirit to devote to Our Lady Help of Christians.

Oh I have heard of St. Louis de Montfort’s masterpiece, but I have not read through the online versions.

Ciaran Belfast no problem 😛

May testimonies flourish on the forum!
 
What a wonderful story!

Our Lady is the one I turn to when I am anxious. Pray the Rosary! Anxiety about whether I have done something right or wrong in God’s/Jesus’/The Holy Spirit’s eyes or the Church’s teachings often bothers me. I am an anxious person in general about everything. Over the years, Mary has always been there for me.
 
It is no question that Rosary is one of the most profound prayer requiring much focus as well as good understanding of the Bible. I would like to share some ideas for meditation.

I am not a ‘visual’ person who is good at imagining pictures of the Mysteries. The following is a list of hints which I think many will find them useful for enriching their meditations:
  1. Focus on one small part of the Mystery ONLY. Do not think that you can meditate well on every Mystery you pray at the beginning.
  2. Pay attention to the nuanced emotional fluctuations of Bible characters. E.g. how did Our Lady feel when she first saw Elizabeth? How did Joseph and Anna react when Mary told them about her pregnancy? How did Our Lady feel when seeing Jesus suffering on the Cross?
  3. Each Mystery should be a checklist of the essential virtues - reflect on your wrongdoings or flaws while meditating on the Mystery.
  4. Then, at the end of each decade, the last Hail Mary should be specially devoted for our repentance and adherence to the virtues we pondered on in our Meditations.
  5. Recall any Bible quotes pertaining to the Mystery. The quotes can be from Acts, Gospels or even the Old Testament. Sometimes, one Mystery is only a thread to lead us to reflections of deeper meanings. E.g. while meditating on the Last Supper, relate this episode with the preaching of the Apostles as recorded in The Acts.
  6. When you feel ‘dry’ or in serious lack of new ideas for meditation, try to ‘compare and contrast’ between Mysteries. Bible, in my opinion, is interactive and all episodes are linked to one another. E.g. while meditating on the Assumption, recall the joy of Gabriel during the Annunciation - maybe God has told Gabriel His wondrous plans for Mary and all Christians long before we know it!
  7. Mass readings can be related to Rosary mysteries. Extract meanings corresponding to Rosary Mysteries.
  8. Extract meanings and lessons from daily life experience. E.g. today I was unwilling to help mom with her chores, which is contrary to Mary’s benevolence in visiting Elizabeth despite her pregnancy. Relating Rosary prayers with your daily life IS A BRILLIANT WAY of integrating prayers with your life.
In response to those finding it hard to keep up with the practice of daily Rosary, I strongly encourage them to continue with it even though it seems to be exhausting and ‘meaningless’ at the beginning. At one point you will come to reckon Our Lady’s power in transforming you unknowingly. At one point, sooner or later, you will suddenly unravel the Heavenly beauty behind the Rosary devotion. What you have to do is to go on.

Procrastination is the common Satan tactic hindering us from Salvation. First you don’t want to begin saying daily Rosary. Then you find it hard to focus on meditation due to distractions. Then you find that your Rosary is always missing or broken which gives you another excuse for not saying the Rosary. Then you find yourself too occupied by work, studies, exams, relationships, games, comics, magazines, TV, movies, all sorts of things. Then you listen to all heresies disapproving and debasing the Rosary. With adamant determination to overcome them, Satan has no way to attack you. Remember in times of distraction and frustration that God has MUCH GREATER POWER reigning over Devils. What you have to do is to START YOUR ROSARY PRAYERS, leaving all the rest of your troubles and worries for God.

Feel free to share my reflections.
 
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