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By Allison Ricciardi
In my practice as a psychotherapist, as well as in my own personal life, there are many truths that have become more and more evident. The first and most important is the truth that without grace, particularly sacramental grace, there is little that can be changed. All healing ultimately comes from God in His way. Prayer is indispensable in the healing process.
 Prayer, especially meditative prayer, can focus us away from our problems and onto God (our solution) and His power to heal and restore us. Praying the rosary is particularly effective. As we meditate on the important events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, we become aware of how these events relate to and impact us in our trials and sufferings. We can grasp the joyful mysteries of our own lives from which we often feel disconnected, gain strength in our sufferings and trials, and gain hope in the glory that awaits us as we work through the pain and sadness that has brought us to therapy in the first place. Prayer transports us, not just in theory, but reality into the presence of God, who surrounds and upholds us through our trials and triumphs in life.
But what about those who do not believe, or have trouble trusting in the reality of grace through prayer? What of those who are so hurt and broken that the very concept of a loving Lord, who is there and listening is too foreign for them to conceive and believe? Well, here is where the rubber meets the road. Here is where objective truth really shines in all its glory.
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By Maria Camejo
Recently I had a client in my office who after revealing a mortal sin to me felt she did not need to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. She felt relieved and had unburdened herself by sharing her actions with me. I explained that she needed to receive the Lords forgiveness and graces. She seemed baffled and did not understand why she would have to repeat all of it to someone she did not know. How sad for the one who was waiting to receive her confession is the one who knows her better than herself…Jesus Himself.
Catholic therapists are indeed valuable on the road to health, and depending on the emotional struggle they are sometimes indispensible. Sharing your experience with a trained professional is helpful. But the Sacrament of Reconciliation offers a particular encounter with God and with ourselves that cannot be duplicated elsewhere.
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“The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, temporal or especially spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves. We will sanctify ourselves. We will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls."
Sister Lucia (seer at Fatima) to Father Fuentes, 1957
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"For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare not for woe, plans to give you a future full of hope." - Jeremiah 29:11