Holy Coincidences-Affirmations of God’s Presence and Plan; For audio only PPN;
Have you ever felt that ordinary things have happened to you at extraordinary times? This episode of Truth of the Spirit offers you “Holy Coincidences-Affirmations of God’s Presence and Plan” with Patti Brunner. We need affirmations of the presence of God in our lives. And all receive benefit from considering how often God is with them during the day and how often His angels give them small messages of hope and of awe and wonder. It is your soul and your cognitive state of mind that allows you to connect the various ‘happenings’ with God’s plan for you.
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As we participated in the Sunday mass online of my parish last Sunday, the priest, Fr. Rodolphe Balthazar of Haiti, proclaimed the Gospel about the finding of the pearl of great price. He then asked us to contemplate our ‘pearl’, our main desire. As I considered it, I knew it was not the end of the pandemic or healing for those I pray for regularly. The Lord has called me to a world-wide evangelization on the internet to help whoever will listen to hear truth and be saved, but it is the salvation of my own children that are foremost in my heart’s desire. In those brief moments of contemplating my pearl of great price, I recalled a spiritual experience I had—before Cursillo and my Holy Spirit conversion—when I first recognized that desire. The memory flooded me in those precious moments of God’s Presence through the Word.
Later that evening, I was transcribing some of my older journals. The Lord had sent me to them weeks ago to review for ideas for podcasts. By ‘Holy Coincidence’ I came upon an entry I made 13 years ago. It noted that on that date I had been reviewing even older journals and the story of the same spiritual experience I had 13 years before that! And I commented, then, how thinking of it had touched me. Just a coincidence? I think not. I believe it was a “Holy Coincidence”, an affirmation of God’s plans made visible; an affirmation of God’s presence in my life! An affirmation that my personal life is in God’s plan! And so is yours!
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit. I’m your host, Patti Brunner. Today’s episode is “Holy Coincidences-Affirmations of God’s Presence and Plans“. Are you curious about the spiritual experience that the Lord reminded me about in such an extraordinary way? It was an extraordinary experience!
My mother-in –law, whom I loved dearly, died when she was only 54 in 1982. Thirteen years later, my father-in-law was dying of lung cancer and my husband and I had been driving the 5 hours across the Ozark Mountains to visit him as often as we could. One night I was in my bed at home when I heard the bedroom door rattle and I heard Patsy, my mother-in-law, call my name. Immediately, I knew that it was her presence, from heaven, visiting me even though I didn’t see her. I can’t recall everything that happened that night. I know I listened and prayed and got up and read the bible with her. The main message she had for me was that the Lord would grant me a favor. I immediately requested that my children would come to know and love the Lord. She told me, that before God would grant this favor, Rick and I had to pray together. So, we began praying side by side with our youngest daughter during her night prayers. It was the best we could do, and it was a struggle. Several months after my experience, my husband asked me, “Don’t you think mom wanted you to ask for healing of Dad?” I told him that it never had crossed my mind. If I could have anything I wanted as a favor from the Lord, salvation for my daughters was my pearl of great price.
I believe it was a ‘Holy Coincidence’ that the next year we attended Cursillo and both had major spiritual conversions that affected our youngest daughter, for sure. I continue to pray that our continuing Christian journey is affecting our older daughters and their families, too, as my husband and I now pray every night as a couple.
After we attended Cursillo, I joined a small weekly group, a reunion group of women. We shared with one other experiences of when we were most aware of Christ’s presence in our daily life and why. As we learned through Cursillo, recognizing God’s Presence with regularity brings joy to mind—even when God Is recognized in troubling conditions. As different people shared their experiences we saw the uniqueness of the relationship each have with the Lord. A few struggled to answer the question whereas others had difficulty in choosing which of their spiritual experience to share. Some recognized God in a flower or a kind word spoken by another. Others had experiences that had deep significance in their relationship with God and his call on their lives.
Depth or shallowness can be according to the plowing and preparation of the field, but each recognition of Christ’s Presence is real, whether it is like a rock skimming across the water or a bucket raised from a deep well. I noticed, too, how the interplay of nature and human nature brings forth the opportunity to see God’s face.
We needed this affirmation of the presence of God in our lives. All God’s children have similar needs. And all receive benefit from considering how often God is with them during the day and how often His angels give them small messages of hope and of awe and wonder. Recognizing ‘Christ Among Us’ and the ‘Spirit of the Lord Within Us’ shows the Way by small ‘consolations’. ‘Lord knows’ how often the enemy reminds us of our failings trying to bring us to despair. ‘God incidences’ lead us to repentance and hope as Truth prevails.
One time I was driving through the parking lot of Walmart when I heard a voice in my heart that said, “Slow down!” Now, I never drive fast through that parking lot, and I wasn’t then, but I felt it was important to drive even slower. Then, suddenly, a toddler ran out in front of my car. Holy coincidence! And so, by avoiding hitting this child, the universe is traveling by God’s plan! My personal life and that toddler’s life are in God’s plan!
The earth has been placed in motion. It turns of itself each daily cycle but also travels the elliptical path to provide seasons each year. And what you may not recognize is its path as the sun follows its own trajectory in the universe which has its course that was set at the beginning of its creation. Lots of things happen on the earth each day. But God’s plan is in motion. So, too, God has formed you from the dust of the earth and each particle of your body is in motion from life to death. Consider this greatness of creation for a moment. [Pause]
But you are much more than particles of matter—something ever greater. You have been created in the image of God. You have a soul that shall transcend time and space.
It is your soul and your cognitive state of mind that allows you to connect the various ‘happenings’ with God’s plan for you.
What are you doing this very moment? Do you think it is ‘happen stance’ that has brought you to this moment to hear and contemplate the truth and beauty of the Presence of God in your moment, this moment?
As a mother watches over the child in her care, God watches over you. As a father works and plans the future well-being of his family, God’s plans for you are not for woe but for everlasting joy in His kingdom. When the kingdom on earth is the same as it is in heaven, the joy of the Lord fills your heart. When you turn to Him in your struggles He is like the mother who bandages your wounds and holds you in her arms until everything seems alright and your peace is restored. But the ‘holy coincidences’ are to remind you God is with you even when there are no struggles that are pressing against your heart causing injury.
‘Holy Coincidences’ also come your way to affirm you. They remind you of God’s promises. They help you with clarity that you are on a good path. When they give a small reprieve during difficult or stressful times, accept and recognize them and recognize that the order of the universe is still on its proper course and the ‘falling stars’ are distant and cannot keep you from completing your journey and eternal life.
In the beginning of the 7th year after I was infused with the Holy Spirit, I heard the Lord say repeatedly to me: “Come into the quiet. Come into the deep.” I wasn’t sure what that meant. A few weeks later after praying the Luminous Rosary the Lord asked me to lay down all my ministries and come to Him as a child, to set aside being a “Martha” and that He would rebuild a ministry of His choosing for me. I asked for and received several affirmations that this was indeed what the Lord wanted for me. When I felt burdened to complete a recent promise to be a leader of a small group of a parish-wide event, the organizer approached me apologetically told me I was no longer needed. Holy Coincidence! I quickly found others to takeover various leadership roles I held in 7 or 8 ministries. And I discovered the joy of ministering only to the Lord. I discovered a personal deeper meaning of the parable of the 10 Virgins who didn’t share what was reserved for the Bridegroom.
At one point in the quiet, I discovered a very serious need in my family that I wouldn’t have even noticed if I had been busy. Holy Coincidence! After a year was up, the Lord asked me to “minister to the youth of the city”. I had ministered to teens in our parish in the past, but who were these ‘youth of the city’?
When the Lord sent me to our parish manager for advice, her eyes got big when she told me that she had just gotten a request from a social worker to send someone from our church to minister at our county Juvenile Detention Center. Holy Coincidence! Within two weeks I was ministering at the Juvenile Detention Center in the town next to ours that, previously, I didn’t even know existed. I ministered there every week for the next three years, to the ‘children of the city’ who needed the presence of God in their lives. It was part of God’s plan for them.
God’s affirmations to us can be little and simple. Last week the priest at Lourdes, France, said in his Mass sermon: “Little is much when God is in it”—like mustard seed and leaven. Like David’s stone that slew Goliath, like Moses’ staff that parted the Red Sea, like Samson’s jawbone of an ass that destroyed an army. The ordinary is extraordinary when God is in it.
Have you had someone call you and give you the encouragement you desperately needed? Holy Coincidences! I heard Dr. Mary Healy say in Tulsa that “human beings need affirmations.” God the Father affirmed Jesus at his baptism when He spoke, “You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased.”
Have you ever listened to the mass readings or the homily and thought, “Wow! That is just what I needed to hear today!” Holy Coincidence! Scripture is personal communication from God to his people. Often as you read it you will recognize God’s voice as he speaks to you, to encourage you and to tell you how much He loves you.
A benefit of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, is your awareness of God’s presence in your daily life, through the grace of the Holy Spirit—awareness of the ‘holy coincidences. A benefit of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the stirring of the flame so brightly that it burns the dross and self-centeredness from your heart and instead prepares it to yearn for the presence of the Word to dwell within you through the sacraments, through praise, through scripture, through obedience to the will of the Father, through the fruits of the Spirit including generosity, sharing and kindness, through the evangelization of yourself and others, through the gifts of the Holy Spirit especially tongues, healing and prophecy.
“The benefit of the Baptism of the Spirit is the awakening to the reality of faith—the purpose of Christianity and the Church as you are given the tools to step forward in faith for your unique purpose. Please note that although these gifts manifest for all they are not used the same by all. One person might be called to heal in the home, another at the market, another at the office, another at the ball field; another might minister to hundreds or thousands, another to minister to one. Be open. What would happen if you were chosen to minister to one person in your life and you chose not to do so? What would be the consequence if that one person who could only be healed by you? What if the Lord planned for you to minister to thousands and you did not accept his Holy Spirit in fullness and thus only ministered to 10 people? What would happen to the others? Who has rejected the Holy Spirit in the past decades? Has the Lord created you and given you the purpose of closing the gap others made?
“When you are filled with the Holy Spirit fully, life doesn’t become a ‘bed of roses’ yet you can be filled with the joy and peace that the bed of roses portrays.
Just ponder the benefit of the role of the Church being fulfilled by the awareness of Christ among us!
St. Theresa spoke of consolations received by the Lord as encouragements that build our faith. We don’t get them all the time, but the Lord certainly sends them exactly at the right time!
Please pray with me the PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of us your faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, instructs the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
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