+JMJ
I was delivering mail at work this week. It wasn’t really that early, about 9:30 am maybe, and the silence hit me. There was no traffic. There were no people out and about. It was eerie, the lack of noise. The silence deafening.
The world has seemingly been brought to its knees. The store shelves are almost completely barren. Schools are closed. Businesses are closed. People are walking around wearing medical masks.
Our Churches are closed….. Public Masses are not being professed…..
It is becoming a world that is unrecognizable.
Our Church is unrecognizable…
The world has been turned upside down because of an illness.
My Illness
In 2014, I was so sick I begged the Lord to take me from this world. It wasn’t that I was suicidal and truely wanted to die. I just could not take the suffering anymore.
A long list of over 50 symptoms plagued me for much of my life, getting steadily worse as I got older. They caused me so much misery and pain. Tests seemed to always come back negative. Every doctor I saw told me it was all in my head. A couple tried to put me on anti-depressants and/or anti-anxiety medication.
Yes, I was depressed and anxious… but that was because they refused to listen to me!
I remember clearly the night I begged Jesus to take me. I was laying in bed so exhausted, but unable to sleep because I felt like I was being stabbed by red hot needles all over my body. It was constant and unrelenting. My husband had come to check on me and all I could do was sob.
“It’s getting worse,” I told him.
It was the look on his face that did me in. He was so worried and I saw the complete helplessness on his
I was a miserable mess, but he told me he loved me and went downstairs again. I can only imagine how much it hurt him to watch me suffer so much.
I got on my knees and I begged God to either heal me or take me. For my sake and for the sake of my husband who was suffering so much.
My Desperate Attempt
I tried desperately to put the pieces together of my failing health. I tried everything! I tried every supplement I thought would even remotely help. I tried
I was tapped out in every way possible: financially, emotionally, physically, and mentally.
With nothing left to try I finally went in search of a Saintly companion.
St. Raphael the Archangel
During my search, I stumbled across St. Raphael the Archangel. He is one of only three Archangels listed by name in the Bible and after learning that he is the patron saint of healing,
I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand and serve before the Glory of the Lord.
Tobit 12:15
The Book of Tobit: Prayers for Death
The Book of Tobit is a beautiful story of how a wealthy Israelite suffers and ends up going blind, at which time he begs God for death (sound familiar?)
So now, deal with me as you please; command my life breath to be taken from me, that I may depart from the face of the earth and become dust. It is better for me to die than to live, because I have listened to undeserved reproaches, and great is the grief within me.
Lord, command that I
Tobit 3:6be released from such anguish; let me go to my everlasting abode; Do not turn your face away from me, Lord. For it is better for me to die than to endure so much misery in life, and to listen to such reproaches.
At the same time a woman, Sarah, also begs God for death (coincidence? I think not) because she has lost seven husbands. Each one of them killed by the demon Asmodeus.
Why then should I live any longer? But if it does not please you, Lord, to take my life, look favorably upon me and have pity on me, that I may never again listen to such reproaches!
Tobit 3:15 (Emphasis added)
They both are brought to the point of despair. Thinking that there is nothing that can be done. No help.
I know that feeling completely. No hope. No joy. No will.
Just agonizing despair.
He Was An Answered Prayer
At that very time, the prayer of both of them was heard in the glorious presence of God. So Raphael was sent to heal them both.
Tobit 3:16 (Emphasis added)
Raphael was the answered prayer for Tobit and Sarah. He was sent by God to remove the white scales from Tobit’s
Their illness and suffering made them turn to God. He used their, seemingly, dreadful circumstances to bring them closer to Him.
My Answered Prayer
The words of St. Raphael almost leapt off the page at me. It felt as if he was speaking directly to me!
Take courage! God’s healing is near; so take courage!”
Words of St. Raphael, Tobit 5:10 (emphasis added)
I
Healing
It is through St. Raphael’s intercession that God graciously provided the doctor that saved my life and diagnosed me with Lyme Disease.
I most likely picked it up as a child playing outside, and left untreated for so many years, did a great deal of damage.
I started treatment and have healed enough to live a normal life, with a few lingering/chronic symptoms. But a couple of symptoms is a great deal better than the fifty I had when I was at my worst.
Tobit’s song of praise summarizes it perfectly:
When you turn back to Him with all your heart, and with all your soul do what is right before Him, Then He will turn to you and will hide His face from you no longer. Now consider what He has done for you, and give thanks with full voice.
Tobit 13:6 (emphasis added)
St. Raphael My Friend and Protector
St. Raphael is one of the saints I feel closest too. He is my patron saint in so many ways, which I won’t go into completely here. But I will say that God has refused me nothing that I have asked St. Raphael to request on my behalf.
The more I get to know him the more I see that God sent him to guide and protect me on my journey through life.
He Can Heal the Pandemic
We are in, seemingly, dreadful circumstances, as COVID-19 changes everything in our daily lives. Just like Tobit and
Our
I myself will pray the novena daily until this all over.
Do you have a patron saint? Is there a particular saint you feel close too? Whose intercession are you asking
Leave a comment and let me know!
Thrive in Jesus, my friends!