ANF Mailbox - What are people saying?

What our public say

America Needs Fatima has definitely had a positive effect on my life. The Public Square Rosary Crusade, the various campaigns against blasphemy and the Saint Joseph Caravan for Traditional Marriage have inspired me to share, defend and love my Faith in a new way. On May 13, I will be making my Confirmation as an eighth grader in my parish. Could you please pray for me that I may become mature and courageous in my Catholic Faith? Thank you again for your wonderful example.

— M.O., Pennsauken, N.J.

On behalf of our 300 children and their families, please accept my heartfelt thanks to America Needs Fatima. Your very gracious donation of Miraculous Medals were blessed at our Living Rosary Prayer service and are now proudly worn by the members of our faith community. Thank you for helping us to share love and devotion for Our Blessed Mother. You are a blessing to us and will be remembered in our prayers.

— K.L., Whittier, Calif.

I prayed the 9-day novena, and pinned the medal on my sister-in-law’s gown at her hospital bed.

Only Our Blessed Mother knows the merits she gave her. After her sixth week of suffering, she was taken into heaven on October 8, very, very peacefully. Her younger daughter was in a Denver hospital awaiting a liver transplant, which Our Lady provided right on her birthday, October 17.

We are all getting back to normal, fighting our battle, and climbing each step with the Rosary.

— L.B. Cedar Crest, N.Mex.

I truly appreciate my 2004 Fatima Calendar. It was so beautiful I could not take my eyes off her. She’s so magnificently beautiful, and glowing like a diamond jewel. Thank you so much for sending it to me. It will be hung in a special place in my house where everyone will see it.

— P.B. Killeen, TX

Thank you so much for the precious gift of The Secret of the Rosary. Now I recite my Rosary with more devotion. It is hard, but with practice and prayer, I will do it better. I have many temptations when I recite the Rosary but I always fight it. May God bless you and protect you against the evil that wants to make everything difficult.

— M.C., Brockton, Mass.

I recently had the honor of a home visitation by our wonderful Mother and her kind and loving custodians. It was such a wonderful and happy occasion. Many of those present were family. There were about 50 including children. Many had not been to Mass or said the Rosary for many years and after our Mother’s visit they started going back to Mass and saying the Rosary.

I can’t thank you enough for bringing our Mother to my home. She was truly needed by all present.

— V. & A.M., Calif.

My husband was diagnosed last February with chronic myeloid leukemia, which was changing over to acute myeloid leukemia with blastemal cells, and the Philadelphia chromosome, which prolongs cellular division and is the last thing anybody with cancer should have. The doctors gave him a 10 percent chance of survival. He needed a bone marrow transplant and his sister was a perfect match. The day before he was diagnosed, I opened the Bible to pray for Keith and the message said for us to “endure what God has planned, for in the end there will be joy.”

I knew Keith was going to be cured, but I didn’t realize he would literally go through hell before it happened. The bone marrow didn’t take and the cancer came back with a vengeance! It traveled through the cerebral spinal fluid to his brain and attacked the right optic nerve, causing blindness in that eye.

After infections, intensive chemotherapy and several near-death experiences, the doctor told me to prepare for the worst. There was yet one last procedure that had about a 10 percent chance of success considering the type of leukemia he had. It was a T-cell infusion. His sister donated her white blood cells that were injected intravenously into Keith in the hope that the T cells would kill off the cancer cells and the Philadelphia chromosome as well.

This all happened right after Christmas, by which time you had sent me the Stories of Mary compact disc. I was alone one day and decided to listen to it while I was painting. It inspired me to talk sincerely to the Blessed Mother. She seemed to tell me to say the Rosary and the novena to the Miraculous Medal.

Keith and I said the Rosary together over the phone while he was in the hospital waiting for his sister’s cells to regenerate. On the ninth day, we said the Rosary together in the car on the way to his checkup. On that day, he took a blood test that would tell us the percentage of his cells to his sister’s cells, which happened on the final day of the novena. The results of that test came a day early. Keith received a phone call from his doctor. I heard him say, “I’m sitting down. OK . . . .” Then he put his hand to his mouth and yelled, “Are you kidding me?!” I thought, oh no, bad news.

I said to him, “What?” He looked at me with tears in his eyes and replied, “I’m 99 percent of my sister’s cells!” How we cried and hugged each other!

We thank the Blessed Mother so much and we thank Jesus for hearing her requests on Keith’s behalf!

Thank you so much for the Stories of Mary compact disc and for the novena to the Miraculous Medal! The hospital where Keith stayed heard about the miracle and the nurses are handing out the Miraculous Medals and praying the novena themselves!

Thank you for what you are doing. You may become weary from your work but your work is fruitful! I am so grateful for your fervor and for your love for the Lord and his Mother! You have brought us closer to our loving Lord and our Most Holy Mother.

God bless you a thousand times!

— N.E., Port Jefferson Station, N.Y

Believe or not, I received a total of 60 copies of Be Still and Know That I am God, and I distributed them among the people in my church. I see that now more people go to visit the Holy Sacrament!

— D.V.U., Miramar, Fla.

Your Crusade Magazine means a lot to us. The holy card of Our Lady of Fatima is indeed beautiful. I gave my card to a man who has severe congested heart problems. He has been away from the Church for many years and he has a soft spot for the Virgin Mary, so I figured the card would possibly help. Some of the people that I meet do not remember their prayers so the card is very helpful to them.

— J.O., Aguila, Ariz.

We want to express our sincere thanks to your organization for our blessed visit with Our Lady’s Pilgrim Statute yesterday and to compliment Joseph Ferrara on the tremendous and inspiring presentation. He is well grounded in his theology and knowledge, and was an excellent representative for your organization and Holy Mother’s cause.

— M.&E. H., Via e-mail

You all are to me the “Pearl of Great Price!” Perhaps I should substitute the word “Pearl” for “Diamond!” Your organization is multifaceted, with every facet giving honor and glory to God, Holy Mother Church, and encouraging and increasing greater devotion to Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Joseph. Thanks for your diligence, your devotion and this magnificent Web site that offers so much to think about, so much to discover and so much to pray for.

— V.L., Richmond, Va.

We are so grateful for the lovely pictures of Mary Immaculate! We distributed them to our 225 families and 316 children at our Living Rosary Celebration in October. You truly have blessed our families with your generosity.

— K.L., via email

I want to thank you for sending the picture of Our Lady of Good Counsel. As soon as I received it I framed it and placed it on the nightstand near my bed. May I share with you two pieces of good news that I attribute to Our Lady of Good Counsel?

Sometime in July, I was looking for a better job as a teacher, and I prayed daily to the Blessed Mother. During the last week of July, I walked into a school close to my house and inquired if they were hiring for the fall semester.

The assistant director said that I would have to call the next day and meet the director, which I did. The director hired me immediately with a salary that was far more than what I had expected. Now I am working there and thank the Mother of Good Counsel every day for it. The second good news concerns my nephew’s kidney transplant surgery on September 10, 2004.

The survival rate was one percent. He pulled through, and is now on the road to recovery. I had also sent my nephew a picture of the Mother of Good Counsel and asked him to pray.

— R.M., Long Beach, Calif.

I was thrilled and overjoyed when I was asked to have Our Lady of Fatima Statue visit our home in Batavia, N.Y. for two hours on Friday, November 5, 2004. It was a thrilling and spiritual experience for me, my friends and family. Everyone was so happy to be there and learn more about Our Lady.

Both Norman and Gabriel were helpful and very professional! I will always remember that awe-inspiring time with a deep feeling of contentment. I knew that I would be willing to “move mountains” to make sure that Our Lady could visit our home because she knew that I really wanted her there! And I would also be willing to welcome her back again into my home anytime!

— S.F., Batavia, N.Y.

I had worn the Miraculous Medal around my neck for many years, but after I took a trip to Ireland and fell in love with a beautiful little Gaelic gold cross, I started wearing that instead. I’d been wearing it for at least three years when something very interesting happened to me.

I was just about to throw away a letter from America Needs Fatima one day when something stopped me. For some unknown reason, I opened the envelope and the letter inside said, “Mrs. S., you need help or a grace.” Lo and behold, there was a Miraculous Medal and a nine-day novena inside the envelope. I thought, “Why is America Needs Fatima sending me a Miraculous Medal and a novena?”

I quickly looked at the calendar to see if there were nine days before my scheduled surgery. At first, I thought there weren’t, but I went back to look at the calendar again and realized that Saturday and Sunday were in one box. There were indeed nine days and I could say the novena until the day of my operation. I was speechless. It was as if Our Lady stepped in and said, “I’m not going to let you go through this alone. I’m with you.” My God, what a comfort! I was so grateful to you and your organization for sending me that letter and medal that I immediately put on the Miraculous Medal.

To make a long story short, three days after the operation, the doctor told me I was cured of my medical condition. I felt like a little girl when I screamed, “Our Lady did it! Our Lady did it!”
I’m almost crying as I write this and, of course, I will never take off my Miraculous Medal. In fact, the doctor allowed me to keep it on during my operation.

Thank you for letting me tell you what Our Lady did for me!

— C. S., Los Angeles, Calif.

For the past two to three weeks, I have had this feeling I needed to say the Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. So I went to get it and could not find it anywhere. Finally, in my mind I asked the Lord, “Have I offended you that you are hiding from me?” As I went downstairs my husband was at the bottom of the stairs with our mail. I sat down right away to open the mail and there was His most glorious picture and His Novena. The tears came because I knew in my heart His answer!

— R.C., Spring Branch, Tex.

Thanks for sending me the very beautiful and spiritually enriching 2006 Fatima Calendar. It took my breath away when I opened the envelope and beheld it. Indeed America needs Fatima more than ever before because the spiritual battle is intensifying. Whatever happens in America affects greatly the cultural life in the rest of the world, including my native country, Nigeria.

Thanks for stirring in us a greater and deeper desire to pray to Our Lady of Fatima.

— J.P., Hyattsville, Md

One of your representatives called our house two days before my son was to head to Iraq for a year. I asked him to pray for my son. He told me to send my son a Miraculous Medal. I did but it wasn’t going to get to my son before he left since he was leaving at 2 a.m. and the medal was to arrive at 3 p.m. that day.

I was sad because I really wanted my son to have this medal. My son called me around 4 p.m. saying his plane was delayed because of mechanical problems and that he got the medal. He is now in Iraq. God bless all of you and a special thanks to your representative who called us.

— R.M., Manahawkin, N.J.

Rene and I want to thank you so very much for coming into our home with our lovely Lady of Fatima. We know that Our Lady will bless us in many ways and we are so thankful to her. You will never know how happy I was when you told me that I could keep her overnight, for not a moment was lost in spending time in prayer with her.

May Our Lady bless you for her call to you. Your program is wonderful and you present it very well. I think she loves you very much. You will always be in our prayers. Continue your good works.

— C.C., Biddeford, Maine

Thank you for your copy of Rejecting The Da Vinci Code. Is there no end to all of these horrendous attacks? And now DePaul University is showing “V——- Monologues.” I have done as you requested and mailed the protest card. What is the president of DePaul thinking of? Where is his bishop?

It appears this college needs a good housecleaning with brand-new leadership and staff put in place. Thank you for all you do. You try so hard, but certainly not in vain. Don’t lose courage and be of good heart. Our Blessed Mother will not let you down. Stay steady and on course. You know she will triumph!

— J.S., Lawrence, Mass.

I’m just writing you to say thank you for the Sacred Heart badges. I handed several of them out and now all the guys who go to church with me want them. Is there any chance that you can possibly send 15 of them? I would really appreciate it. I personally have mine hooked on my dog tags.

— Private A.D., U.S. Army Reserve Fort Knox, Ky.

I just read your article in Crusade on spreading the Sacred Heart badge. Upon reading about Our Lord’s request to Claire Ferchaud to encourage all to carry on them an image of His Sacred Heart, my dear recently deceased sister sent Sacred Heart badges to the British soldiers in Iraq. She received a very nice letter from a Catholic army chaplain saying that the soldiers were most grateful and were wearing the badges, trusting in Our Lord for their protection. Maybe you could send some to the American soldiers?

— Anonymous

Regarding your other article on protest against blasphemy, we took the example of our American fellow Catholics and did likewise here. We phoned and wrote to theaters, and arranged groups to protest The Da Vinci Code. We also succeeded in having a blasphemous cartoon removed from a major media’s web site the day after it appeared. Protest does work! We Catholics must defend our Blessed Savior, His Holy Mother and our Holy Church. We too must loudly proclaim Christ our King!

— E.S., Liverpool, England