Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 5:36am

Never Give Up

 

If anyone doubts the power of prayer, please read this story by a mother who prayed unceasingly for her wayward son:

My prayers were unceasing now.  Not a half an hour went by that I did not talk to God about my son and ask His Blessed Mother to keep praying for Donnie. He returned home at nineteen. If nothing else, at least he was home with us, I thought.  Shortly thereafter, my husband was transferred  to Virginia.  Donnie came with us.   

 
     Matthew settled into fourth grade at a Catholic school, Don was sent out to sea on a six-month tour, I kept up my never-ending conversations with God and the Blessed Mother, and Donnie returned to his destructive lifestyle.  Then, suddenly everything changed overnight.  “Mom,” Donnie said as I passed by his bedroom early one morning. “I want to talk to a priest.”
 
     I stopped in my tracks. This was the moment  I had waited for so long, but when it finally happened I was shocked.  “What did you say?”  I asked, afraid to believe my own ears.  Donnie repeated his request.  There was a light in his eyes and his face was radiant. 
 
    Dumbfounded, I just stared at him. “Mom, I read this book last night,” he said, holding up a book of mine on apparitions of the Blessed Mother.
 
     “You read that book?” I asked, amazed.
 
     “Mom, I consumed this book,” Donnie said.  He did not understand it all, but somehow, through the beauty and love of the Blessed Mother, Donnie was overcome with the reality that her God was his God.
 
     I made arrangements for him to talk to a priest on base.  Donnie flew out the door and ran the half mile all the way to the chapel.  Something miraculous had happened to him that night. My spirits soared in wonderment as I thanked God.  Words cannot describe my joy–it was so complete.  Now I prayed that what had begun was for real and would continue without distractions.
 
     Later, I learned that all the pain, the sadness, the desire for any alcohol, cigarettes or drugs had evaporated overnight.  Donnie was left only with a craving for The Almighty.  The Blessed Mother had come to him with her son Jesus, Who washed him and healed him.  Tears of joy dripped onto the letter I wrote to my husband.  “You will be coming home to a very different Donnie.” I wrote.  After that, everything happened very quickly. Donnie immersed himself in Catholic books and began practicing the faith.  It would be another six months before he could be fully received into the Church, but  during that time, his all consuming zeal never let up.  Donnie told us early on that he had a great desire to serve God for the rest of His life and that would be his life.
On May  31, 2003,  ten years after he became Catholic, I again cried tears of joy as I hugged my son, the priest.   “I love you, Father Donnie,”  I told him after the bishop had congratulated him and introduced him as Fr. Donald Calloway.  My son had become a priest for life with the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception.  He went from being a high school drop out to earning a bachelor’s degree with majors in philosophy and theology, a Masters in Divinity and Doctorate in Mariology.
Go here to read the rest by LaChita Calloway at Catholic News and Inspiration Blog.  God is not our personal genie and He will not grant us all we request in our prayers.  However, each of our prayers are answered, sometimes dramatically as in this case, and sometimes in ways that we cannot imagine in this vale of tears.  Ours is not to fret about the results of our prayer, but only to pray.  God will answer in His time and in His way.

 

 

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Don the Kiwi
Tuesday, September 4, AD 2012 6:26pm

Fr. Don has been to NZ a couple of times to speak at our annual Eucharistic Convention in Auckland the week after Easter. He is an amazing priest.

As a youth, this guy was seriously deranged. He said, in a small brochure I read on his life, that he should have died several times from drug overdoses; that during his totally licentious youth, he should have had permanent STDs – but he never contracted one. He is amazed, looking back, that he hasn’t got major brain damage from the drugs he took.

His is certainly an amazing conversion story.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Tuesday, September 4, AD 2012 6:44pm

Saint Monica, pray for us!

Kyle Kanos
Kyle Kanos
Tuesday, September 4, AD 2012 7:11pm

There’s a CD from Lighthouse Catholic Media that tells this story from Fr Calloway’s perspective. A very amazing story of God’s love for all of us.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Tuesday, September 4, AD 2012 8:39pm

I’m sure there are things we have all done that has provided plenty of job security for our guardian angels.

Paul, Just This Guy, You Know?
Wednesday, September 5, AD 2012 11:35am

I don’t doubt the power of prayer. I only doubt the power of my own prayer. And of those who have said they were praying for me. I’m sure LaChita Calloway’s prayers were highly efficacious.

Foxfier
Admin
Wednesday, September 5, AD 2012 12:35pm

Paul-
I think I know where you’re coming from– part of why I ask saints to help me bug Him!

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Friday, September 7, AD 2012 6:00am

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