Testimonial Talk Presented to Our Saviour’s Catholic Church, 

2/18/12 and 2/19/12

By:  Cindy Cunningham

Our Saviour’s Catholic Community

5301 N. Atlantic Avenue, Cocoa Beach, FL 32932

321-783-4554 

Hello.  My name is Cindy Cunningham.  Without divulging my age, I was baptized here in 1963 and Our Saviour’s is very dear to my heart.

Throughout my life I’ve always had a great love and faith in Jesus and I’ve feebly tried to be a good Catholic.    Of course I spent many years “wandering the desert”, but my faith never wavered.  About four months ago, Jesus decided to come into my heart in a big way.  

The Holy Spirit came upon me through an intense call to prayer.   My whole body and soul were being led to pray.   Specifically, to pray for the “lost children of Jesus”, the souls in our world who don’t know Jesus and the souls that DO know Him, but think their sins cannot be forgiven.   Jesus has shown me how much he loves each of us.  How losing even one child of His feels the same way we feel at the very thought of losing one of our own children.  He showed me that we all have a responsibility to help Him lead His children to Heaven.

When I received this call to prayer,   I immediately began reading my Bible and praying.   But my prayer life was horrible at the time, so I asked the Lord for guidance.  The Holy Spirit led me to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Rosary, and I haven’t let go of it since.  Through my prayers my life has changed and many graces have been showered upon me.  The Lord and our blessed Mother have brought me here today to tell you of their great love for us and to share my story and their messages.

When I was called to prayer, there was an extreme urgency.  It was like I had to “come up to speed” quickly and pray fervently because time is short.   Throughout the bible there’s urgency for repentance and conversion, so this is nothing new.  But this experience is new to me, and Father Heslin and Father Kiskama are helping me to understand what it may mean.   

If you look at the world around you, it doesn’t take long to realize that Satan is real and he’s alive and well.  Some days he seems to be gaining the upper hand in the battle of good and evil.  I’m sure Satan is counting on us Catholics to ignore the attacks on our church and to ignore our world collapsing around us.  He’s counting on us to keep quiet and to do nothing.

But think about where this is heading IF we do nothing.  Imagine a world with no Catholic Church, no mass, no Eucharist.  This isn’t a made up “Armageddon” scenario.   It’s happening now to millions of people all over the World and we should never be so arrogant to think it can’t happen here.  There’s nothing Satan would rather do than destroy the Catholic Church, and he’s hard at it.   But Satan can only destroy our buildings, he cannot destroy our church.  WE are the church, and we all know who wins the battle in the end!

So today,   I am here to ask you to help our Lord in His battle against Satan.  At Mother Mary’s request, I am asking you to pray, specifically, to pray the rosary.

St. Padre Pio tells us that “The Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world” and our Blessed Mother’s message through the centuries has never changed.  It’s always the same.  PRAY!  But her message has taken on a new urgency and she’s telling us we can no longer just wait and hope everything will work out fine in the end.  She’s telling us that through prayer, we have the power to lessen the effects of evil and the power to change our fate. Wow!

And I also have a request from Our Lord.  He is calling us to a new Holiness in His Church.  He is calling us to embrace our sacraments.  For me this has meant a return to the sacrament of Confession, which led me to a new understanding of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  Yes, I said confession-it’s important! Receiving Jesus at communion without sin is so very powerful.   He truly desires for us to have a personal relationship with him through the sacraments.  He loves us so much and He’s reaching out His hand to each of us, we just have to grab a hold and not let go.   And saying the rosary?  That always brings us closer to Jesus.    

Our Lady of Fatima told us to “Say the rosary every day to obtain peace for the world”.  This sounds impossible because we’re all “strapped for time”, but quoting Father Tobin “There are 96 fifteen-minute periods in each day.  Can you truthfully say you’re serious about your relationship with God if you don’t give Him at least one or two of those periods?”  

So here are some ideas:  you can say the rosary with others after the 9 am masses and Monday nights at 6pm here at church, you can say it in the car, as Father Tobin’s family did, or during your daily walk, or at the beach, or wake up earlier and say it in bed, or say it as a family after a meal or mass.  You can even say it in your head if you don’t have your beads.  You can say just one decade, if that’s all you have time for.  There are even Rosary Aps for your phone.  And don’t worry if you lose your place or forget a Hail Mary, just keep praying.   And when Satan tries to distract you, (because he will), just keep praying.  And don’t worry if you stop to talk to Jesus in the middle of the rosary, that’s great! That’s what the rosary is for.  It’s been given to us to help us pray more meaningfully.

As I mentioned, it has been only 4 months since I re-discovered the rosary, and I can tell you this for certain…praying the rosary will make a powerful difference in your life, and if we all pray together, it will change our world. 

So where’s your rosary?  Is it buried in your closet or hidden in a drawer?   Mother Mary’s asking you to find your rosary, dig it out, and pray it.  Pray for evil to be removed from our homes, our churches, our country, and our world.  Pray for our families, priests, bishops and Pope.  Pray for the leaders of our country.  Pray for the conversion of souls.  If we all unite in prayer, I have no doubt that our Blessed Mother will hear our prayers and offer them up to Jesus.

In closing, many people believe the Holy Spirit is being poured out at this time like never before.   And I believe it’s being poured out right now on OUR church, Our Saviour’s Catholic Church.   If it’s poured out upon you, please do not ignore this wonderful gift.  Please do not ignore the voice calling you to do God’s will, because that voice you hear calling you, is the voice of Jesus.     

Thank you.

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