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__from the desk of Johnnette Benkovic:
Dear Hannah's Tears,
Let me share something personal with you.
I have a sense that Satan has been trying to impede and delay or even prevent this letter from getting to you. And I don't say that lightly.
I believe Satan doesn't want you to read this letter for three reasons:
- The main subject of this letter is how you and your loved ones can find spiritual healing – something all of us need in this fallen world. Satan doesn't want you to be spiritually healed because he doesn't want you drawing closer to Jesus Christ and he is out to spiritually destroy you.
- The Evil One doesn't want you to know that Our Blessed Mother helps us acquire the healing we need through her intercession and maternal beatitude because he despises her (Gen. 3:15).
- Satan doesn't want you to hear about an urgent problem I'm facing right now.
First, let me briefly tell you about the problem. I'm deeply concerned because donations are down to a slight trickle as we enter the long, hot summer months – the toughest time to raise funds.
To avert a financial crisis, I have no choice but to once again ask you to help us at this critical time.
God is doing amazing things through the outreach of Living His Life Abundantly® and Women of Grace®. We MUST do all we can to heal hearts, change lives, and save souls. The tenor of our times demands it. God wants to raise up glorious saints today who will lead the way to victory and triumph in Him. You and I have been called to do our part to make this happen, and we are partners in this awesome work of evangelization through this apostolate.
But let me get back to the main subject of this letter: spiritual healing.
Everyone needs spiritual healing because we've been wounded by our own sinful choices and by the sins of others against us. And there's also another category of wounds that often cause us great suffering: setbacks such as unemployment, business failure, or personal loss caused by a natural disaster.
Let me give you some examples of spiritual wounds which I discussed at the 2008 Holy Spirit Women's Retreat in New Orleans.
Many of the women participants were victims of Hurricane Katrina – one of the most shocking and devastating natural disasters to strike America in our lifetime. This disaster turned these women's lives upside down, causing deep spiritual wounds that, in some cases, shook their faith.
Fear, anxiety, foreboding, and a spirit of grief or loss hung over many of them.
I've never experienced a disaster like this and perhaps you haven't either. But I can tell you, for many of the victims the effects were deep and haunting. And the trauma was still present within them when I spoke to them some three years later.
But these women were open and receptive to the movement of God. And because of their docility of heart, He moved in a powerful way. Our Blessed Mother seemed to be profoundly present, and the talks I gave encouraged them to accept every spiritual blessing in the heavens (Eph. 1:3) she was offering them through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual healing: How to restore what the locusts have eaten
To offer a bright ray of hope for spiritual healing to each member of the audience, I mentioned a litany of spiritual wounds the Holy Spirit wants to heal. Woman after woman later attested to the fact that I had named a painful area of her own heart. Perhaps you may have one or more of these interior wounds:
- Being held captive because of something that happened in the past
- Having one's reputation destroyed for deeds we've committed or didn't commit
- Being the victim of malicious gossip
- The deep wound of being misunderstood
- The wound of sterilization or contraception
- The wound of abortion – and the inability to forgive one's self even after receiving sacramental forgiveness and absolution in the confessional
- The wound of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse as a child
- The wound of sexual sins as a teenager or young adult
- The wound of involvement in New Age/occult practices
- Years of bitterness, anger, and resentment – and the inability to forgive
- The wound of infertility
- The wound of abandonment
- The wound of disappointment or failure in marriage
- The wound of loneliness
- The wound of regret for a missed opportunity or a serious mistake
- Being victimized by crime
- Losing all of your possessions in a natural disaster
- The early and unexpected death of a loved one
When God shows us a sinful area where we're weak or an area of our heart that needs healing, we should praise Him for it because this illumination itself is a healing grace. It is also a signal grace because it means that the time has come to receive the healing we need.
That's why I want to send you the CDs from the 2008 Holy Spirit Women's Retreat in New Orleans. I want you and your loved ones to have the same kind of spiritual healing the women experienced at the retreat.
When you listen to the CDs from the retreat you'll also get many other spiritual insights and benefits, such as these:
- Undeniable evidence that you really are a miracle – not a product of blind evolution – and that God has always known you and wants to change your life
- How the Holy Spirit "zapped" me in 1981, changing my life forever – and what the Holy Spirit can do for you, too!
- How the dolors of Our Lady's heart open a way for us to experience hope, healing, and new life
Let me describe what I pray the Holy Spirit will do in your soul. Here in Florida we have pelicans that put on quite a show when they spot a fish and gracefully dive-bomb into the water to get it, causing hardly a ripple. Well, the Holy Spirit wants to dive-bomb into your soul, and when that happens, your life will never be the same.
I want to send you the retreat CDs to help remove any obstacle between your soul and the Holy Spirit. FEAR is the obstacle. FEAR is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. TRUST is the answer. (True Resolve Under Severe Testing.)
Make no mistake. The Holy Spirit wants to give you interior consolation and comfort.
Acclaimed DVD set has helped thousands
Engaging the healing process is essential to your spiritual life and absolutely necessary to experience the abundant life of Jesus Christ and share it with others. That's why I also want to tell you about two of our most acclaimed programs featuring psychotherapist Suzanne Baars and psychiatrist Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons.
These two experts provide hope even for the most serious emotional afflictions, traumas or trials.
Have you ever experienced a time when things seemed dim and grim, out of control or painful? Has the thought ever crossed your mind, "Will anything ever change or will times like these remain forever?" In moments like this, we may be tempted to despair.
In Part 1 of this acclaimed two-part series from The Abundant Life, Suzanne and Dr. Rick talk about what is going on in the human person when emotions like these rise up. They tell us when they are appropriate and when they are not. And they provide insight that helps us know if the emotion is simply a passing mood or if it is a signal that something greater is happening within us. Finally, they tell us what we can do to establish equilibrium, joy and peace.
In Part 2, Suzanne and Dr. Rick identify certain disorders that can cause internal distress and produce perceptions and emotions that distort and mislead. They talk about social anxiety, depression, bi-polar, ADD, OCD, passive-aggressive behavior, anger and rage. They give us insight into how these disorders present themselves and how we can determine if we or someone we love is experiencing them. They also tell us what we can do about it.
This two-part series has helped thousands of people and has given them the courage to begin again by placing their hope and confidence in God's love. That's why I want you to have it. It offers hope and guidance even in the midst of the most serious challenges.
Let me give you CDs from one of the finest retreats I've ever helped present. You'll want these talks for your loved ones, too. They could transform your life and the lives of those you love.
For your tax-deductible gift of $35 or more I'll gladly send you the CD of my talk about being zapped by the Holy Spirit – the experience that changed my life. Would a gift of $35 or more be possible?
For your tax-deductible gift of $60 or more, I'll gladly send you ALL FOUR of my CDs from the spiritual healing retreat. Could you consider making a gift of $60 or more?
For your tax-deductible gift of $100 or more, it would be my pleasure and my joy to send you ALL FOUR of my CDs from the New Orleans retreat plus the acclaimed two-part DVD series on hope and healing. It is only available as a gift for your donation. I am praying you will consider making a gift of $100 or more.
I want you to know about the power of God's love and how He wants to bring you the fullness of life through His Son, Jesus Christ. And I want you to know about the powerful intercession and maternal beatitude of the Blessed Mother.
Will you help me solve the problem I face?
Prudence dictates that I send you this critical letter to try to solve the problem of dwindling funds in order to make it through these difficult summer months and avert a full-blown financial crisis in the near future.
Your prayers and your gift will help me solve our summer financial challenge. Your support will also help save more souls and change more lives. And your gift will help me produce the next ten programs of The Abundant Life. In addition, your gift will help keep our other outreaches going full throttle:
- Live radio: Women of Grace®
- Women of Grace® regional conferences and retreats
- Additional curricula for women through Women of Grace®
- The Abundant Life television show on EWTN
- Our worldwide Internet outreach
- Worldwide distribution of life-changing educational materials: books, CDs, DVDs, etc.
Because of the difficulty of raising funds during the summer months, I'm praying you'll donate more than the suggested minimum amounts if possible. Could you consider making a sacrifice of $250, $500, $1,000, or even more? Your gift will help thousands of people experience new life in Jesus Christ.
Please join me in praying that the Lord will inspire friends like you to support us with prayers and gifts during the financially tough summer months. Please send your sacrificial gift right away. God provides for our needs through friends like you. Won't you please join hands with me in this life-transforming work?
I treasure your prayers and assure you of my prayers for you as I pray for our benefactors every day. May the abundant life of Jesus Christ be yours.
P.S. Please pray about my request and follow what the Lord leads you to do. The enemies of the Culture of Life hope you'll set this letter aside and forget about it. Please don't do that. Please join me in prayer and, if possible, send your gift today because the summer is a tough time to raise funds. I'll be watching the mail for your response. Click here and make an on-line donation. If you do not want to donate online, you can also call in your gift to 1-800-558-5452 or mail it to us at Living His Life Abundantly, PO Box 239, Oldsmar FL 34677-3019.
