February 23, 2004

"The Power of Heart Piercings"

One of the most powerful methods of intercession is when God allows the piercing of the heart.  All of us have experienced our hearts being pierced at different times.   It can be pierced with rejection from someone we love.  It can be pierced with loneliness.  It can be pierced simply because of misunderstanding.  Our heart is usually pierced because someone who is close to us has hurt us.  Those are the ones who God will use because it's love that pierces the heart.  Love pierced the heart of Mary so that the thoughts of other hearts could be revealed (see Luke 2:35).  So if your heart is being pierced, know that you are empowered and intercede as never before.  Ask God to use your pain power, that suffering power in union with the heart of Mary and the pierced heart of Jesus.  The results will be phenomenal. 

The first time I realized this was when I came home from the cloister.  A doctor and his wife had given me a hermitage to live in as well as a darling little kitten.  I became very close to this little kitten.  In the meantime, I was involved in a lot of prayer ministry, intercession, and teaching.  Once while I was praying on a prayer team, a person came to us because she had a headache.  She looked like she was dying.  I thought to myself, "I hope she doesn't come to our prayer team when Father's not here because she looks awfully sick."  But sure enough, she came for prayer ministry the one day that Father wasn't there.  I thought, "Well, a headache shouldn't be too hard to get healing for."  You see, I was still thinking that we have something to do with it.  So we just asked the Lord, "Please heal her headache."  All of a sudden, she jumped up, right out of the chair, and her face looked so surprised.  Her eyes were open, and she said, "It's gone!"  I said, "That's wonderful.  How long have you had this headache?"  She said, "Five years."  She had really been suffering.

She had another illness somewhere in her spine.  When she had had a spinal tap, something had happened in her spine, and the doctors were not able to heal it.  So she went off to some very well-known doctors in Massachusetts to have more tests.  While she was out there, my kitten got killed.  That brought tremendous heart pain for me.  I was very bonded with this little kitten.  The phone rang that afternoon.  It was my friend who had this spinal problem.  I said, "Did the doctors find out what was wrong?"  She said, "No, but God healed me about an hour ago.  I'm totally healed.  I'm pain free."  She said, "I think I could fly home without the airplane."  So I knew then that when we're in pain ourselves, God will use our pain, in union with His pain, to heal the pain of others.  Intercession works in this tremendous power. 

So whenever you have heart pain, no matter what it is or what caused it, God will honor that pain.  So use your pain.  Pain has power for an intercessor.          A priest once told us that he thought the greatest sorrow really wasn't pain, but it was wasted pain. 

Excerpt from "Power of Intercessory Prayer," Drexel, PA, and "Intercession," Picayune, MS, 2002.