Little Bobby’s Letters To God

Little Bobby came into the kitchen where his mother was making dinner. His birthday was coming up and he thought this was a good time to tell his mother what he wanted. “Mom, I want a bike for my birthday.” Little Bobby was a bit of a troublemaker. He had gotten into trouble at school and at home.

Bobby’s mother asked him if he thought he deserved to get a bike for his birthday. Little Bobby, of course thought he did. Bobby’s mother wanted Bobby to reflect on his behavior over the last year. “Go to your room, Bobby, and think about how you have behaved this year. Then write a letter to God and tell him why you deserve a bike for your birthday.”

Little Bobby stomped up the steps to his room and sat down to write God a letter.

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Letter 1
Dear God,
I have been a very good boy this year and I would like a bike for my birthday.
I want a red one.
Your friend,
Bobby

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Bobby knew that this wasn’t true. He had not been a very good boy this year,
So he tore up the letter and started over.
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Letter 2
Dear God,
This is your friend Bobby. I have been a good boy this year and I would like
A red bike for my birthday. Thank you.

Your friend,
Bobby
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Bobby knew that this wasn’t true either. So, he tore up the letter and started again.
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Letter 3
Dear God,
I have been an OK boy this year. I still would really like a bike for my birthday.

Bobby
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Bobby knew he could not send this letter to God either. So, Bobby wrote a fourth letter.
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Letter 4
God,
I know I haven’t been a good boy this year. I am very sorry.
I will be a good boy if you just send me a bike for my birthday.
Please! Thank you,

Bobby
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Bobby knew, even if it was true, this letter was not going to get him a bike. Now, Bobby was very upset. He went downstairs and told his mom that he wanted to go to church. Bobby’s mother thought her plan had worked, as Bobby looked very sad. Just be home in time for dinner, Bobby’s mother told him.

Bobby walked down the street to the church on the corner. Little Bobby went into the church and up to the altar. He looked around to see if anyone was there. Bobby bent down and picked up a statue of the Mary.

He slipped the statue under his shirt and ran out of the church, down the street, into the house, and up to his room. He shut the door to his room and sat down with a piece of paper and a pen. Bobby began to write his letter to God.
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Letter 5
God,
I’VE KIDNAPPED YOUR MAMA. IF YOU WANT TO SEE HER AGAIN, SEND THE BIKE!!!!!!

Will God Forgive My Grave Sins?

Have you ever committed a grave sin? Are you doubting whether God will forgive your grave sins? Are you in doubts and have not done a confession for a long time, or not believing in confession?

I would like to share something that helped me to give importance to confession and changed my life to see things differently, trusting the Lord who is always there waiting for our call to guide us.

The Story of God’s Forgiveness

Once there was a wealthy young man, God-fearing in nature who got married to a beautiful young lady. Both were very happy but the woman even though she was provided with everything the world could give was not happy. The man being a good person gave everything to make her happy but still she would always be disturbed and unhappy. He showed her to the best doctors, councillors, took her to different exotic places around the world but nothing could change her.

One fine day, there was a preacher who had come to their parish to give a retreat and this man took his wife for blessing and counselling. The only thing that the wife said was she has committed a great sin in the past before marriage for which she had confess and that she is sure even after confession it cannot be forgiven. Understanding her concern the father told the lady to come along with him for a walk by the river side that evening.

While walking on the banks of the river the preacher took this opportunity to tell her to pretend that they are talking to God and confessing their sins to God. And as a penance God is asking them to pick up a stone equivalent to the size of their sin and to throw the stone in the sea. The preacher takes a small stone to the size of his sin and throws it in the water asking the lady what she saw in the water. She replied that there was a noise with a small splash and the stone slowly sank in the river.

Now was the turn of the lady to do the same and the preacher said; knowing her sin he will help her carry a big stone that she chooses to throw. Picking up the huge stone they did the same as the preacher had done, threw the stone in the sea. Once again the preacher questioned the lady asking her to describe what she saw. This time also her answer was the same but it made a very big noise with a huge splash of water so big that they were wet and the stone went into the sea sinking slowly with calmness coming to the river once again.

Keeping the experiment in mind the preacher compared the woman sin saying even though both of them had different stone to the size of their sins once thrown into the seas both could not be seen and that after the stones sank they brought calmness once again.

Nature of God’s Forgiveness

The is what the preacher made the women understand that once we confess our sins to God they are surely forgiven, no matter how big or dangerous they may be, never to be seen again. Just as the east and the west cannot meet each other, the same way God also forgives our sins never to look back at them again.

Once the woman understood this formula and changed the way she was thinking, there was great rejoicing and happiness in her married life and she was able to love her husband like never before. We need to guard our spoken word to receive only by saying what we desire to have which is acceptable and pleasing to God.

So my friends, please remember: However grave your sins maybe, the infinite kindness and love of our Lord will erase even your gravest sins forever, once you confess your sins truly and wholeheartedly to God.

- – - written by Tome de Souza

Give Yourself Entirely To Christ

Story: Carry The Entire Jigsaw To God

It was December and Christmas was round the corner. Alvin was very excited because just a couple of days after Christmas he would celebrate his birthday. He was sure of getting at least one gift from his mother. It was Christmas Eve and the festivities began. Alvin got a new dress, a Christmas crib and some Christmas gifts from his Christmas friends but, the elusive birthday gift which he was looking forward to was still a couple of days away.

Finally the D-day arrived and Alvin waited with bated breath trying to guess what his mother would give him this time. Would it be one of those boring cars, nay! not again, may be another soft toy he thought or would it be another story book? The suspense was getting to be unbearable. Finally his mother planted a kiss on his cheek after wishing him and handed over the birthday gift. Alvin could wait no longer; he hurried into his bedroom and quickly unwrapped the gift.

He was amused to find that his mother had given him something totally different this time – it was a jigsaw puzzle. Alvin was supposed to piece the jigsaw together. Try hard as he did, he could not piece the jigsaw together and he spent most of the day running to his mother with the different pieces. Each time he ran to his mother, his mother sent him back and made him bring the entire jigsaw to her so that she could explain it to him and let him try his hand on it once more.

Our life is a wonderful yet complicated jigsaw pieced together very intricately by Jesus and the various pieces are our health, family, relationships, possessions, career, ministries etc. What we try to do when faced with a problem in any of these areas is that we try to pull out that particular piece from the entire jigsaw and take it to God instead of carrying the whole jigsaw to him. To make our life wholesome God wants us to surrender our entire life to him.

Story: Give Complete Ownership To Jesus

A man built a double storied mansion and Jesus came one day and knocked at the door to the entrance of his mansion. The man opened the door for Jesus and welcomed him. He showed him around and before long gave him the best room in the 2nd storey for stay and said “please stay here with me”. The man now felt secure with Jesus having taken possession of his favourite room in the 2nd storey.

Before long he heard another knock and went to open the door. Even before he could open the door properly, he felt somebody sneaking in. He was totally disturbed when he realized that it was Satan who had sneaked in. Satan made a mess of every other room in the building except the one in which Jesus stayed. All the while our man thought that Jesus would come to his aid but when Jesus did not turn up, the man, unable to stand the commotion went to Jesus and sought his help. The moment Satan saw Jesus coming out of the room he ran away. The man asked Jesus “why did you not come to my help?”Pointing to the room in which he stayed Jesus said, “Son you gave me only this room to stay, how do you expect me to interfere with what is happening in the other rooms.”

The man realized his mistake and promptly gave Jesus the whole of the 2nd storey to use. The next morning he heard a knock on the door. Thinking that it might be Jesus calling him he ventured to open the door. Even before he could open the door wide Satan sneaked in and started playing havoc in the rooms on the ground floor. The man tried his best to rid Satan but could not. After a while he lost his patience and stormed upstairs. Everything was calm and quite upstairs.

“Lord, how could Satan come in this time with you upstairs” quizzed the man. Jesus smiled and answered “Son you only surrendered the rooms upstairs to me. You put me in charge of the rooms upstairs and look there is absolutely no problem here. As for the rooms downstairs, I have already told you that I never interfere in anything that is not surrendered to me.” Saying this Jesus put his arms around the person and walked downstairs. Seeing Jesus coming Satan fled the scene. The man now realized what Jesus wanted him to do and promptly gave Jesus the keys to the entire building.

Early next morning he heard a knock at the door. This time though, even before he could answer the door, Jesus answered the door. As usual it was Satan. The man leaned against the door of his bedroom as he overheard Satan saying “Sorry, I didn’t expect you here. How did the OWNERSHIP of this building change?” Jesus answered “The building is my property now it has been surrendered to me; I am in charge, so better get going”. The man was never troubled again by Satan.

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In 1 Peter 5:6-7 St. Peter the apostle says “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you. Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.” Very often we behave like the man who surrendered one room at a time to Jesus only to find problems in the others. However we never think twice before entrusting our life to total strangers.

In our anxiety to reach the office on time, we are prepared to trust the bus or taxi driver, a total stranger with our life. We are sure that he will take us to our destination safe and sound where as the fact is that being a human he is equally likely to commit a mistake and get us involved in an accident. On the other hand we have Christ who is so sure of everything he speaks and does, and will never get us into any trouble, but, we are hesitant to trust him. What an irony.

Each time you partake of the Holy Mass, offer yourself up to Jesus at the consecration of the bread and wine and listen to him in the person of the priest acknowledging your surrender with the words “This is MY BODY”. You have given yourself up to Christ and Christ has now acknowledged your body symbolizing your life as his own. What has taken place here is a change in ownership. Your body is no longer yours but Christ’s.

What happens a few minutes after the consecration confirms this truth. Your body (read your life with all its problems) has now been accepted and transfigured by Christ into his own body. Just believe that this is the body you receive in communion and you will feel sense and see a world of difference in your day and all that you do that day.

- – - written by Lajan Miranda

The Hail Mary of A Protestant

This is the beautiful incident of a protestant drawing much strength from the prayer of Hail Mary, unknowingly.

A little six-year-old Protestant boy had often heard his Catholic companion reciting the prayer ‘Hail Mary.’ He liked it so much that he copied it, memorized it and would recite it every day. ‘Look, Mummy, what a beautiful prayer,’ he said to his mother one day.

‘Never again say it,’ answered the mother.’ it is a superstitious prayer of catholics who adore idols and think Mary a goddess. After all, she is a woman like any other. Come on, take this Bible and read it. It contains everything that we are bound to do and have to do.’ From that day on the little boy discontinued his daily ‘Hail Mary’ and gave himself more time to reading the Bible instead.

One day, while reading the Gospel, he came across the passage about the Annunciation of the Angel to Our Lady. Full of joy, the little boy ran to his mother and said: ‘Mummy, I have found the ‘Hail Mary’ in the Bible which says: ‘Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women. ‘Why do you call it a superstitious prayer?’

On another occasion he found that beautiful Salutation of St. Elizabeth to The Virgin Mary and the wonderful canticle. MAGNIFICAT in which Mary foretold that ‘the generations would call her blessed.’ He said no more about it to his mother but started to recite the ‘Hail Mary’ every day as before. He felt pleasure in addressing those charming words to the Mother of Jesus, our Savior.

When he was fourteen, he one day heard a discussion on Our Lady among the members of his family. Every one said that Mary was a common woman like any other woman. The boy, after listening to their erroneous reasoning, could not bear it any longer, and full of indignation, he interrupted them, saying:

‘Mary is not like any other children of Adam, stained with sin. No! The Angel called her FULL OF GRACE AND BLESSED AMONGST WOMEN. Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ and consequently Mother of God. There is no higher dignity to which a creature can be raised. The Gospel says that the generations will proclaim her blessed and you are trying to despise her and look down on her. Your spirit is not the Spirit Of the Gospel or of the Bible which you proclaim to be the foundation of the Christian religion.’

So deep was the impression which the boy’s talk had made that his mother many times cried out sorrowfully: ‘Oh my God! I fear that this son of mine will one day join the Catholic religion, the religion of Popes!’ And indeed, not very long afterwards, having made a serious study of both Protestantism and Catholicism, the boy found the latter to be the only true religion and embraced it and became one of its most ardent apostles.

Some time after his conversion, he met his married sister who rebuked him and said indignantly: ‘You little know how much I love my children. Should any one of them desire to become a Catholic, I would sooner pierce his heart with a dagger than allow him to embrace the religion of the Popes!’

Her anger and temper were as furious as those of St. Paul before his conversion. However, she would change her ways, just as St. Paul did on his way to Damascus. It so happened that one of her sons fell dangerously ill and the doctors gave up hope of recovery. Her brother then approached her affectionately, saying:

‘My dear sister, you naturally wish to have your child cured. Very well, then, do what I ask you to do. Follow me, let us pray one ‘Hail Mary’ and promise God that, if your son recovers his health, you would seriously study the Catholic doctrine, and should you come to the conclusion that Catholicism is the only true religion, you would embrace it no matter what the sacrifices may be.’

His sister was somewhat reluctant at the beginning but as she wished for her son’s recovery. She accepted her brother’s proposal and recited the ‘Hail Mary’ together with him. The next day her son was completely cured! The mother fulfilled her promise and she studied the Catholic doctrine. After long preparation she received Baptism together with her family, thanking her brother for being an apostle to her.

The story was related during a sermon given by the Rev. Father Tuckwell. ‘Brethren, he went on and said, ‘The boy who became a Catholic and converted his sister to Catholicism dedicated his whole life to the service of God. He is the priest who is speaking to you now! What I am I owe to Our Lady.

You, too, my dear brethren, be entirely dedicated also to Our Lady and never let a day pass without saying the beautiful prayer, ‘Hail Mary’, and your Rosary. Ask her to enlighten the minds of Protestants who are separated from the true Church of Christ founded on the Rock (Peter) and ‘against whom the gates of hell shall never prevail.’

The Healing Power of Confession

I was surprised to see this couple, the leaders of a large prayer group in the Archdiocese of Bombay, who had been knocking at my door early that morning at the retreat house in Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai. On my blank refusal to leave my 200 retreatants and accompany them to the hospital, they began to plead their case.

Their son Joseph was sick and had been undergoing medical treatment at home. But after two weeks of medication he was not getting any better. Their family doctor finally acknowledged that he could do nothing more. He was not even able to diagnose the precise nature of his sickness, which baffled him. He recommended him to be admitted to this renowned hospital, where he would be under the care of the topmost specialists of the city. But here too, after he had gone through every diagnostic testing and been administered all kinds of medicine for a further two weeks, those eminent doctors owned up that they too could do nothing more. They too were unable to diagnose the young man’s illness and hence did not know how to treat him.

After coming to know all this, Joseph felt so disheartened and dejected that he told his parents, “I must see Fr. Rufus today.” I made it clear to them, when they approached me, that I could not absent myself from the retreat even for a short time. But they kept coming back again and again, saying that their son would not take no for an answer, and pleading that I come to the hospital – however late the hour.

I finally consented to come at the end of the day’s program, at about 10.30 pm. Seeing him in the ICU (intensive care unit) surrounded by all those sophisticated medical apparatus, I deduced that he must be very, very sick, and that is why he had called for me. But when I asked him, “What do you want? Why did you call me?” he answered to my great astonishment, “I want to make my confession!”

I was taken aback at first by this unusual request, since I had assumed that he had wanted me to come and pray over him for healing. Then I grew somewhat infuriated that he had dragged me all the way from the retreat in Bandra, instead of arranging for a priest in the parish where the hospital was situated to come and hear his routine confession. But on second thoughts, I cooled down and said to myself, “Perhaps, that is what he wants, and more important, what he needs.” And when he made his confession – it was a sincere and thorough confession of his whole life – I knew then that that was what he needed and therefore wanted.

My son, your sins are forgiven

I was about to leave his ICU private room, when there suddenly flashed into my mind the Gospel narrative of the healing of the paralyzed man. Whenever I refer to this Gospel incident during a retreat, I make it a point to ask the participants, “What did Jesus first say to the paralyzed man?” The unanimous answer I receive everywhere is, “Your sins are forgiven!” To their disappointment and chagrin, I tell them that this answer is equally wrong! I repeat the question, and with bated breath they wait for my answer to my own question, “The first thing that Jesus told this sick helpless creature was, ‘MY SON’.” And after a pause, I resume and tell them, “Then only did Jesus continue saying, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ (Mk 2:1-12).

For even though Jesus knew that this man was burdened by sin and needed the experience of God’s forgiveness, he also knew that he was oppressed by in a way the greater burden of guilt and needed also the assurance of God’s forgiving love. For God has sent Jesus to save the world, and NOT to condemn it (Jn 3:17). Jesus has indeed come not just to forgive our sins, but to free us from sin’s greatest consequence, the burden of guilt.

The miraculous healing power of Confession

It was therefore without the previous hesitation and with a new assurance that I returned to the sickbed. Looking up to heaven I prayed, “Lord, after you told the paralyzed man, ‘My son, your sins are forgiven’, you did not stop there; but you continued and said, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and go home’. Lord, you are the same: yesterday, today and forever. And so, in imitation of you, I am not going to stop after telling this modern paralytic, in your name and in the name of your church, ‘Your sins are forgiven’. I am going to continue and do what you did 2000 years ago, knowing fully well that what happened then will likewise happen now.”

I then looked down at the sick man and said, “Now that God has forgiven you your sins, I would like to pray for your physical healing too.”

It was his turn now to stare at me in surprise. He had not asked me to pray for healing before. Nor did he ask me to do so even now. It was I who took the initiative and made the suggestion. And after praying for some time, with his sister Jenny, a youth leader of the charismatic renewal in Bombay, I was so sure that what happened in the Gospel story then would happen even now, that I had the nerve to tell him, “Now move”. Before that he could not move his body, because of the intense pain. Now he moved. “Sit up”, I said. He sat up in his bed. “Get out of your bed.” He got out. “Bend over.” He bent over. “Walk about.” He walked about. Only I did not tell him, as Jesus did, “Take up your bed and go home.” For that was not his bed. And the next day he was discharged from the hospital.

How much more are we in the sight of God, our Father, his beloved sons and daughters first and only then sinners – and forgiven sinners at that. Jesus has indeed come not just to forgive our sins, but to free us from sin’s greatest consequence, the burden of guilt.

Joseph’s Testimony

About a year later, I happened to recognize Joseph as a participant of the retreat that I was giving at Vinayalaya Retreat House, Andheri, Mumbai. When at the end of my first day’s talk on God’s initiative of forgiving love and man’s response of repentance, I retold the above incident, I remarked in passing that the young man whose testimony I had related was present here for this retreat, and that if he wished to confirm or change, add to or subtract from what I had said, – he was free to do so.

He got up at once, came on to the platform and facing the audience who looked at him with a sort of wonder, said only one sentence: “When I honestly repented and humbly confessed my sins to God and the Church, with the full assurance of God’s forgiving love in the Sacrament of Confession, I knew deep within myself that I was already even physically healed. – Even now I feel that there was really no need of Father having prayed over me for a physical healing”.

It is therefore through our repentance that we open ourselves to God’s forgiveness, that brings with it the experience of the warm embrace of the Father crying out with out joy, ‘My son, my daughter, was dead and is now alive.

- – - written by Fr. Rufus Pereira

Confession Explained Video

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