Witnessing for Christ in Our Lives - Personal encounters with Jesus Christ

“The testimony is this: God has given us eternal life, and this life has its source in his Son.” (I John 5:11)

We present some of the testimonies in Christ to the world prayer meetings, with the consent of non-christian faithfuls who have had personal encounters with Jesus Christ and have converted into the catholic faith.
 

PARALYZED-AND HEALED BY THE LORD 2004
 
Ambulance took me to the Concord Hospital, and I was admitted. The neuro surgeon Doctor, Ianicus diagnosed a serious nerve damage, that needed a risky operation. The operation was set for Monday morning. 

We are Hindus, on Sunday night Br Terry Fernando and some members of the Christ to the world Prayer Group arrived at the hospital and asked me if I believed that Jesus could heal me. 

He brought with him the Holy Eucharist, and explained that Jesus is in the Holy Eucharist, and a touch of Jesus was all that was required with my belief. 

Jesus touched me, I cried and I believed. 

The next morning when the nurses came to prepare me for the operation I was walking. Doctors could not believe. Three days later I was discharged. 

My family and I, became Catholics. We believe in a God who is alive and keeps to His promises. 

 (Keshani Radhakrishnan, Eastwood, N.S.W, Australia)

26 YEARS OLD OVERSEAS STUDENT-CARDIAC ARREST
 
Our young nephew Mohan a Hindu, an overseas student had cardiac arrest while driving a car, and went into a coma and was hospitalized at the Hornsby Coronary Care unit, Hornsby Hospital. 

He was in a coma and some friends advised us to attend a Christ to the world Prayer Meeting in Hornsby that same evening. 

We are Hindus but now we believe in the Christian God.

Br Terry gave us an assurance that God died for all mankind including Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. 

If we believe there will be a miracle. We left at 8.30 with the assurance that Mohan will be out of his coma when we visit him tonight.

Sure enough we visited Mohan and found him sitting on his bed out of his coma. We praise the living God - Jesus Christ who saved our Mohan.

(Babani, Eastwood, N.S.W, Australia)

MY TWO KIDS HEALED - OF ECZEMA

We are Hindus. 

My twins had incurable eczema, doctors could not cure. We kept moving from house to house, avoiding dust problems. 

My twins both 3 years old, scratched their hands and legs, until they bled. Our doctor contacted Br Terry, and he told us that he will visit late about 9pm. 

My wife and I fasted the whole day, no water and no food. We believed, Lord Jesus was coming with Br Terry, and sister Marie. 

It was around 11pm that night, when they arrived. Br Terry Fernando assured me that Jesus will touch my children, and they will be healed. 

He explained what the Holy Eucharist is all about. We believed that Jesus touched our kids, and they were healed. Thank you Jesus. You are indeed our saviour and living God!

(Raju - Pendle Hill, N.S.W, Australia)

Asking the Lord for every single thing brings us into constant communication with him. The Lord will be delighted. So will we be.

     Let us remember that we can ask for more than concrete gifts. We are also urged to ask for guidance from the Lord. Many times we are quite willing to give our own effort to creating beautiful events or positive qualities in our lives, but we do not know how to do it. Sometimes we are already serving the Lord and others, but we need insight and direction to do it well.

      The first step in revitalizing our relationship with Jesus is to ask him for it. We tell the Lord that we want a revitalized relationship with him. Then we follow up by asking for everything else we need. Everything.

"Whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father" (John 14:12)

For more documented testimones 

please click here. Jesus is working powerfully and continues to work miracles. More to come....

The Power and Ministry of the Priesthood

My First Case of Deliverance

by Fr. Rufus Pereira

 

"God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good, and healing all who had fallen into the power of the devil" (Acts 10:38) 

 

It was in 1976 that I had my first case of Exorcism or Deliverance. 

We had just celebrated on 16th July, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patron of my parish of Mt. Carmel, Bandra, Mumbai. (It was also a very special day for me, since it was the anniversary of my having received the cassock or soutane, as a seminarian and cleric of the Diocesan Seminary of Bombay). As a souvenir of our Parish Feast, we had distributed to every parishioner a beautiful picture of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel as well as a Prayer to the Holy Spirit, so that the same Spirit that overshadowed Mary would now come down upon the parish, priests and people, as by a New Pentecost

Retreat to the Sisters of St. Ann of Providence

A few days later, I went to a town in Central India, called Secunderabad, to give a charismatic retreat to the Sisters of St. Ann of Providence. I had hardly retired to my room for a much-needed rest, after the solemn Mass and festive lunch on the last day of the retreat, 26th of July, the Feast of St. Anne, when, to my annoyance, there was a knock at my door. The Provincial, the Superior and the Novice Mistress, apologised for disturbing me but they said that two women, blood sisters, of a well known Catholic family in the parish, wanted me to come and pray over the son of one of them who was hospitalised in the mental asylum in the city. For, after hearing my talk on healing at the outreach the previous evening, they felt very strongly that the young man was not mentally sick but possessed

I just laughed quietly to my self, since I could not accept that in these modern times people could get possessed, and said that I would not be able to come with them to pray over the young man, but that they should pray by themselves. They went on, however, insisting that the many physical sicknesses and emotional disturbances tormenting their families were due to the affliction of a popular demon goddess, whose high priests their pagan ancestors had been, and that in spite of attending daily Mass and saying the daily family Rosary they were not getting any better.

I did not believe then that such demons really existed. 

In fact when I received the minor order of exorcist at the Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide, in Rome, I took it very lightly, not foreseeing that this would turn out to become for me a major disorder in my life, so to say. Moreover, I must admit, I was even somewhat irritated with the Sisters and the family for disturbing my siesta. So I just told them to keep on praying even more. As the last resort they pleaded, "But can't you pray for us now." I retorted that I would, hopefully, pray for them later by myself.  

But just then it seemed as if the Lord was speaking to me, "Rufus, these people have come asking you as a priest to pray for them now. You pray for them NOW." 

 Well, I was somewhat annoyed with the Lord. Anyway I did pray, rather reluctantly and casually, I am sorry to say, and softly, that Jesus would free this family from that demon — again if he existed.

The reaction was instantaneous and most unexpected. The shorter woman, the pious one, who had been narrating to me all their woes while continuously fingering her rosary beads, was hurled to the ground with great force, and — for the first time in my life, I came face to face with the evil one. 

I hid behind the nuns, as it screamed obscenities at me and shouted at me to return to Bombay — in English, which she did not know, and tried to spring on to me and throttle me. I did not know what to do — since I was not trained in the seminary for such unexpected hazards. I just felt powerless to do anything at all. I had no courage to ask it to come out of the woman — I presumed by now that it was the devil himself or herself. The 20 young novices did come to my rescue as they poured bottles of holy water onto the woman — but to no avail.

Suddenly I felt a reassuring anointing of the Holy Spirit, empowering the grace of my priesthood, and guiding me to pray softly but confidently in tongues, the doorway, I had been told, to the charisms of knowledge and power. I realised later that I had been unwittingly duplicating the experience of St. Paul, "The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness, for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words" (Rom 8:26). There was an equally instant transformation in the woman, from a devilish face of hate and claw like hands, to an angelic countenance of gentleness and hands lifted up in praise of God — even though she was still flat on her back on the floor. She was now so weak and lifeless, but peaceful and joyful, that the family had to take her home in a vehicle.

A week later I was once again in Secunderabad for a retreat to priests. As I was praying for the general public one by one at a healing service on 4th of August, the feast of St. John Mary Vianney, the patron of priests in the pastoral ministry, victorious in his daily conflict with the Evil One, suddenly there stood in front of me the same two women, that had come for prayers in St. Ann's Convent the week before, and their families. On noticing them, I said to myself, "Oh, not again!" and spoke rather curtly, "But, I have already prayed for you." They said that they had come this time not to ask but to thank God for the great deliverance and healing that they, even as a joint family, had experienced.

The daughter of the woman, that had been oppressed and was now freed, related how their father had left the family when they were very small, and they had blamed their mother for his desertion, since she was just impossible to get on with. But ever since that day of liberation she had become a totally different woman — so gentle and caring, and then they knew that the family break up had not really been her fault. They added that their mother had lost complete vision of one eye and had only 50% vision in the other, due to a thorn poke. But ever since that day she had recovered complete vision in both her eyes. The nuns also confirmed that the whole family had become thereafter a healthy and happy family.

This was my first case of deliverance, and it was a case that ended so quickly and completely — only with the authority of Jesus and by the power of his Holy Spirit (and, I believe, through the intercession of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and of St. Anne), and like St. John Mary Vianney, not through my intelligence, knowledge, experience, training or special gift. There was a time when I myself was afraid of evil spirits, even though I was not sure if they existed, till I realised right from this first case that they are more afraid of the power of our Baptism and especially of the power of the Priesthood, just as the seventy-two could say triumphantly, "Lord, even the devils submit to us when we use your name" (Lk 10:17).

It is sad that today many of our people in their many and diverse needs go either to unquestionable spiritists or to questionable neo-pentecostal healers. Fortunately the Catholic Charismatic Renewal has been helping in this spiritual warfare through a renewed ministry of deliverance, activated by the emergence and manifestation of this specific charism of the Holy Spirit, when the priest, or layperson exercising this ministry under ecclesial authority, prays for a person that is presumably under demonic influence.

This is because, in preparation for Vatican Council II, Pope John XXIII had led the Church in a prayer, "O Holy Spirit ... Renew thy wonders in this our day as by a new Pentecost." That prayer has been answered in an incredible manner, by a revival and profusion of charisms, which, as the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church states, "are useful for the renewal and expansion of the Church." This is what Pope John Paul II meant, when in 1983 he called for a New Evangelization, new in zeal, in methods and in expressions. This is what he had in mind, in looking forward with glorious expectation to the New Millennium becoming "a great springtime for Christianity" (RM 86).

From Hindu to Carmelite Nun: 'I pray and suffer for the world'

The testimony of an Indian Carmelite Nun, a convert from Hinduism who now offers her life and sufferings for the world, in Jesus Christ her Savior.

By Sr Mary Joseph Krishnan

source
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/From-Hindu-to-Carmelite:-I-pray-and-suffer-for-the-world,-including-Orissa-13816.html

Radha Krishnan, a Hindu Brahman who was my teacher of English and social studies in the 1970's, has converted to Catholicism and is now a Discalced Carmelite. Every day, she offers her life and her sufferings "for the world."

Radha Krishnan is the fourth daughter of a devout Hindu family in the Brahmin caste of the "Iyengar." She has an older sister and three brothers, all of them Hindu. When she taught at the Canossa convent in Mahim (Mumbai) from 1971-1972, everyone loved her because she was young, attractive, friendly. She was the envy of all the girls because she had beautiful black hair, very long, arranged in braids.

Over two years of teaching, in contact with the Canossian sisters, Radha felt a strong, constant calling to give her life to Jesus. After her conversion, she joined the Canossian sisters, but there as well she felt the call to live her communion with the Lord more deeply.

I met my former teacher a few days ago. She is no longer called Radha, but Sister Mary Joseph, and for more than 30 years has been living in the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Mumbai, in Andheri East.

Sister Mary Joseph radiates joy in every one of her words and actions; her joy makes her so luminous that she seems much younger than her 61 years. Here I transcribe the things that she told me. NC.

At the age of 24, after my degrees in the arts and also in education, I joined Canossa Convent as a teacher teaching English and social studies. At the convent run by the Canossa Daughters of Charity, I came in close contact with the religious nuns, at an age when most of my friends were getting married. I felt an urgent and incessant calling to a meeting with Jesus, my love for Jesus began growing and I felt a deep desire to know him, love him and serve him. I enjoyed my teaching these young teenage girls, but this calling to be with Jesus never faded. I ran away from home and I was baptized Radha Maria Krishnan, and joined the Cannosia order.

My family was completely shattered, I had brought shame and embarrassment on the family, my parents had to suffer humiliation from my relatives, being from a very traditional and high caste Brahmin Iyengar family, and now converting to Christianity was a very big blow to our family pride. My parents suffered, my elder sister was already married but she too had to bear the taunts and torments of our well meaning relatives. Her mother was a very religious person, whose morning began at dawn performing religious rituals and whose afternoons were spent reading sacred Hindu scripture.

But Jesus never fails his beloved, over the years my parents, especially my mother, were completely at peace with my vocation as a Christian and as a Carmelite nun. Both my parents have died, but completely at peace with me and my Christian vocation. My brothers and sister too, and their children are very happy and reconciled to my Christian vocation, now they are at peace, also my relatives too are now reconciled not only to my being a Catholic nun, but also the family is united in reconciliation. Occasionally they come to the monastery with their own children - this is a matter of immense joy for me. My Spouse (Jesus) takes care also of my affectivity. All of them are still Hindu.

After joining the Canossa convent, I was sent for further studies to obtain a master’s degree. However, academic studies left me with very little time for prayer - this left me unfulfilled, I felt restless, I had a deep desire to devote my day and night to being with Jesus, praying, meditating, sharing, doing everything, even living for Jesus - and all of this left a yearning within me. Then my calling to the cloistered life was discerned, I joined the cloistered in May of 1977, and these 31 years have been the happiest and most joyful years of my life.

Once, during recreation, I made a special request to be permitted to read the newspaper (as we do not have any outside source of daily news - like TV , radio or other media) and this was granted to me, So now, my superior and I read the daily newspaper and I am living and praying in the present reality.

My hours of prayer are spent praying for the current events and trends of modern society.

I suffer and pray, my calling today is: "Vicariously suffering for the world."

I enter deeply into the suffering with my prayer, my prayer for the persecuted Church, the moral and ethical issues in the world, the attacks against life, the youth, the snares of temptations for the youth like drugs, pornography and such evils that exist, the breaking up of the family and also marriage, these are my deepest sufferings and prayer.

Orissa is close to my heart, as is every other instance where the basic human right of religious freedom is attempted to be snuffed out and snatched away. But the history of the Church is persecution strengthens faith.

India today is experiencing self-defence of religion. And we Christians need to live our lives in a way that will attract others.

I have great hope for India, and God has always intervened in the history of humankind and this will be fulfilled for our beloved India too. We have to make a radical change in our life. Live the Gospel in a radical way- love for God and love for our neighbour.

Love for Jesus conquers all.

Related Reading

Read also amazing testimony of a Hindu Pandit who became a catholic

http://christtotheworld.blogspot.com/2010/03/hindu-pandit-encounters-jesus-to-become.html

Catholic International Youth Convention - Power 2010

5th International Youth Conference

For the fifth consecutive year at Divine Retreat Centre, Muringoor, Kerala the International Youth Conference and the International Couples Retreat will be held with the blessings of the Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil.

6 day celebration of the faith begins

on Sunday, 25 July at 10 am and ends on Friday, 30 July at 1 pm

Youth from across the nations shall gather to experience the faith, the grand mystery of the Church and the person of JESUS. Indeed as the theme of this year’s Conference declares, “They shall see His face” (Rev. 22:4).

The retreat will be led by
Fr. Augustine Vallooran, VC, the Director of the Divine Retreat Centre.
Sessions will be led by world renowned Catholic spiritual leaders.



The Rapping Friar from Bronx, NY, Fr. Stan Fortuna cffr, is coming again to lead the youth to rap and live for Jesus!

Bishop Christopher Prowse, the Bishop of Sale from Australia and known much as the Bishop for the youth,

The singing Bishop Valerian D’Souza of Poona,

Jude Antoine from Malaysia,

Lalit Perera of Risen Lord Community-Sri Lanka,

Fritz Mascarenhas, Director of ICPE-India and

Colin Calmiano, Director of Spread Your Wings-India are among the preachers.


MUSIC
Gospel music bands include Divine’s Music ministry,
the singing couple Glen and Teresa and their band the Messengers of Jesus,
FAITH from Goa,
the Risen Lord Community music ministry among others.


These will be days of great celebration with

vibrant praise and deep worship sessions, 

powerful talks drawing out the rich promises of the Scriptures, 

tangible healing experience 

daily hours of Eucharistic adoration and Holy Mass. 

inspiring testimonies, 

colourful choreography presentations from youth witnesses

God is real. He is there for you and me. Come experience Him in the sacraments, the Word, the vibrant praise and deep worship.

Come be a part of POWER 2010.  

REGISTER NOW: http://www.divineyouth.org/power_2010.htm

Testimonies Power 2009

Meirium D. Leonard from Sri Lanka said,
"During the inner healing session, God called out my name and gave me a wonderful message. I am so happy about it. I was so sad about all the problems in my life and I didn’t feel loved by God. But now I know I’m so precious to Jesus."

Warren from Canada said,
"It was just awesome! Every experience I had was just amazing, but the one thing that always stood out for me was when I was praising and thanking God I felt a sense of peace and I felt so light and that I could do anything. I actually felt the presence of God moving and filling each and every one of us. I could see that God was happy when he looked down upon all the thousands of us just praising and thanking Him with all our hearts. I felt like God was always going to be part of my life and that He would never leave me under any circumstances. Coming to India for this retreat will probably be the best decision I will make in my life, and I thank God for still being part of me every day and making me feel Him through everything that I do. "


Pahell Nisar from Pakistan said,
"My many problems the Lord has solved and He has revealed his plans for me."


Chris Leonard Bernard from Bangalo said,
"Had a marvelous experience. I had a personal encounter with Jesus. I have experienced God’s love and mercy. This retreat has given me a burning passion to work for our God and proclaim His Word."
 

Hindu family converts - son enters seminary to be a catholic priest

Finally I found the Saviour -  by Geetha Satyan

Mine was a Hindu family. But we got baptized and today we follow the Christian faith. It has been 19 years since our family accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and from then we have been living with Jesus.

Mt 4:16 says, The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.

Sickness of my husband
It was my husbands illness that caused my family and me get salvation by embracing the Christian faith. He had such a severe stomach ache that it was not possible for him even to stand straight. Whatever he ate he would vomit in less than ten minutes. He even lost his hunger. He could not go for his job or look after his family because of his ill health. We went to many doctors and different treatments were tried. But his disease was not diagnosed and the medicines given to him could be of little use to him. Each day the sickness grew worse. A lot of money was needed for the treatment. We sold whatever we had and borrowed extensively from different people. But nothing was helping him. Finally we took him to Sri Chithira Hospital in Trivandrum. All kinds of tests were run on him by specialists, but even then a proper diagnosis of the disease was not forthcoming.

Doctors gave up
The doctors finally gave up, telling us that they could not diagnose the disease and we could take him elsewhere or home. We were now in serious distress. Extreme poverty stared us in the face. Our hope of a cure for the sick man also evaporated. In this circumstances, we thought the best way open for us is to seek solace in the hands of death. We decided that all of us would die together.

Discovering Jesus as personal saviour and God
At this most desperate moment of our lives, a good Samaritan happened to come to our house. She told me about the prayer services in Potta Ashram. She assured me that Jesus was still alive and sincere prayers would bring forth positive results and my husband would be cured and all our trials and tribulations would come to an end. She repeatedly told me about a God waiting to help me and save me. Because of her friendly persuasion, my husband let me go to Potta as a last straw to clutch at.

Attending retreat at Divine Retreat Centre, India
When I came to the yard of Potta, I saw there a kind of novel prayer to which I was not accustomed. When I saw the way people prayed I started thinking, My God, why are so many people afflicted with the same kind of mental disorder? Are these the saved people? What are these people doing?


Jesus speaks to me
As I was thinking like this, a male voice with authority fell in my ears, Daughter, havent you come here to pray? Pray. I sat down at the back of the Church. Then I heard another voice, Daughter, call me at the earliest! I am only waiting to hear your call. As if in a trance, both my hands went up in supplication and my tongue began to speak, Jesus, you are the God still living. I have come here with that faith. On this earth there is nobody to love me except my husband. I have nobody to love except him. He is now suffering from some serious, undiagnosed disease. I wont go away from here unless you cure him. I felt as if someone had held my hand from above.


Miracle
As I was immersed in heartfelt prayers, I felt Jesus was touching my husband at Vadakkanchery. In fact at that particular time, my husband had gone to his work place. He had done so because he was certain of his impending death and before he died he wanted to entrust some important matters to his close associates there. As I was immersed in prayers here, my husband, in his work place, felt sudden hunger. He returned home quickly to have some food. But there was nothing at home, not even a handful of rice. There was nobody at home, too. He straightaway went to the neighbours house and requested for some rice gruel. The food was not ready there. So they gave him a measure of broken rice. He brought this rice home and boiled it and consumed the entire gruel without leaving a drop. When I reached home at 6 oclock in the evening, miracle of miracles!

Husband totally healed
I found my husband fully healed. The living Jesus had done a miracle. Praise the Lord! I read in 1 Jn 3:15: All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. This verse made me upset. But the prayer to the Holy Spirit in the little book called The Message of Salvation gave me back the peace of my mind. Through constant prayers and meditations I became aware of my shortcomings and sins. I was born into a reasonably rich family. Apart from my parents, I had two younger brothers. But unfortunately when we were still small, my father left home leaving my mother and us to fend for ourselves. Our life then was one of misery and pain. Because our father was the reason for all our suffering, I had developed some kind of hatred for him. I could not overcome this feeling of vengeance.


Sincere Repentance
But when I turned to Jesus because of the illness of my husband, he showed me how gross my own sins were. I sincerely repented of my inequities. Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Mt 6:33). From the time I believed in this verse, Jesus came to my rescue when I faced any crisis. My husband received visa to go abroad. We had no male issue and soon we were blessed with a baby boy.


Baptized in Catholic faith
The good Lord chose us to be his followers and live his ways. In 1989, we started living like Christians and in the year 2000, we were baptized. My husband is employed in a reputable firm in Dubai. We have three children. Our eldest daughter is married into a good Catholic family. Our second daughter is still a student.


Only son enters seminary to be a catholic priest
Our only son is a seminarian. For the last 10 years, I have been helping with the spiritual services at Potta and other Retreat Centres. Because of the prayers of many, my family and I continue to be staunch believers.

Praise the Lord!

- Testimony by 

Geetha Satyan,
Pudukulangara House, RS Vadakkanchery,
PO Thrissur, Kerala, India


Read other amazing testimonies of Muslims accepting Jesus as son of God - click here