Book on Mary turns runaway youngster immersed in drugs and crime into a priest

Visions of Jesus ^ | February 2004

[NYer]

Fr. Don Calloway is now the Vocations Director for the Marian priests that spread the Divine Mercy message. This past Sunday, he was interviewed by EWTN. He said their vocations are booming - 12 seminarians and 7 on their way into the seminary.

God bless Fr. Don and the continued expansion of the Divine Mercy message.

[Salvation]

**Rock bottom indeed! Now a 31-year-old priest who serves as assistant rector at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Father Calloway had been a runaway youngster who was immersed in everything from drug abuse to theft.**

A lot of people are praying for him now as well as, I bet, did then.

[Salvation]

Another conversion story! This one is so dramatic! (Not that others aren’t.)

[Pyro7480]

The Queen of Peace Visits Medjugorje

Why does Spirit Daily continue to spread the devotion to this "apparition"? It is miraculous that this priest, with God's grace and the intercession of the saints, was able to turn his life around. But I don't think it "authenticates" Medjugorje.

[Salvation]

**What is the most important thing parents can do?

“The best thing that a kid can see in the parents is for a man, a father, on his knees,” says Father Calloway. “That is strength. When a man is on his knees, that is stability. When a kid sees that, it’s a confessional statement. It speaks volumes. And when they see a mom and dad being kind and loving to one another, that’s also important — showing kindness to each other.” **

Wise words!

[fatima]

:)Keep it up Father.

[aruanan]

“The best thing that a kid can see in the parents is for a man, a father, on his knees,” says Father Calloway. “That is strength. When a man is on his knees, that is stability. When a kid sees that, it’s a confessional statement. It speaks volumes. And when they see a mom and dad being kind and loving to one another, that’s also important — showing kindness to each other.”

I know a woman who has 5 kids from 5 different guys. She said to one friend that she couldn't imagine how horrible it would be to be forced by marriage to stay with one man her whole life. With her a man's shelf life is about 3 years, then she starts looking for someone else to impregnate her. The 4 boys have lost father after father and have said that no one knows how horrible it is to lose one yet again. Yet the mother will declaim about how she has no man and has to be "mother/father" to the kids. She talks about how she has kept them all together and nothing would separate them from her; they would all be together in jail or in the morgue. She wakes them up with a slap and a curse. They eat if she's happened to have cooked. For her the kids are called "good" to the degree they don't bother her or cause her trouble and "bad" to the degree they do. She still holds it against two of them that they cried almost incessantly as infants. And she doesn't seem to be able to understand why they would rather be with any of their previous fathers than with her. To her that seems like ingratitude. After all, as she loudly yells at them any time she wants to silence any question or observation, she is "the one who borned them".

[NYer]

“The best thing that a kid can see in the parents is for a man, a father, on his knees,” says Father Calloway. “That is strength. When a man is on his knees, that is stability. When a kid sees that, it’s a confessional statement. It speaks volumes. And when they see a mom and dad being kind and loving to one another, that’s also important — showing kindness to each other.”

This works doubly well in grandparents :-)

[NYer]

Ping!

[Salvation]

What a sad story. The children, undoubtedly, have gone through the phases of grief each time.

Denial
Bargaining
Depression
Anger
Acceptance

and finally moving on.

Let’s just pray that when they move on they do not repeat their Mother’s behavior.

It would do well for her to be on her knees. Perhaps these children could set an example for HER!!!

[annalex]

50 Days of Easter 2008 Celebration ping, dedicated to converts to the Catholic faith. If you want to be on the list but are not on it already, or if you are on it but do not want to be, let me know either publicly or privately.

Happy Easter. Christ is risen!

Alex.

---

Previously posted conversion stories:

Anti-Catholicism, Hypocrisy and Double Standards
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part I: Darkness
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part II: Doubts
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part III: Tradition and Church
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part IV: Crucifix and Altar
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part V: The Catholics and the Pope
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part VI: The Biblical Reality
His Open Arms Welcomed Me
Catholic Conversion Stories & Resources
My Personal Conversion Story
My (Imminent) Reception into the Roman Catholic Church
Catholics Come Home
My Journey of Faith
LOGIC AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF PROTESTANTISM
"What is Truth?" An Examination of Sola Scriptura
"Have you not read?" The Authority behind Biblical Interpretation
The Crisis of Authority in the Reformation

[aruanan]

There are no such clearly defined stages in a case like this. But what it does do is to teach them that as men they are to be used and tossed aside. It also makes them fearful of loving because of the certainty that it’s all going to end in a way outside their control. And as they look out across their socio-economic group, they see the same behavior of the other mothers who treat their kids in the same way. I know that the older two have said that on their 18th birthday they’re not even going to stick around for the cake—not that their mom’s ever gotten them a cake for their birthday. Of the more than 20 families that I know, there is an actual father living at home in only 3 of them (and these fathers have one or two other women on the side).

[Zionist Conspirator]

I have no idea why you've put me on a ping list, but please take me off.

Thank you.

[annalex]

why you've put me on a ping list

Because for the first several threads I was seeding the ping list with whoever responded, and you did. You are off now.

[sitetest]

Dear annalex,

Please add me to your ping list for this purpose.

Thanks,

sitetest

[bt_dooftlook]

I can highly recommend a movie “The Song Of Bernadette” (1943) about the peasant girl Bernadette’s visitation by Our Lady Of Lourdes.

Also, the book “The Incorruptibles” about saints whose bodies remain, without decomposition, through the ages (this is the case with Bernadette).

Lastly, Pope Benedict has been welcoming of the renewal of the Latin mass; if you can find a service in your area, it is a profoundly moving and contemplative rite.

[bt_dooftlook]

I can highly recommend a movie “The Song Of Bernadette” (1943) about the peasant girl Bernadette’s visitation by Our Lady Of Lourdes.

Also, the book “The Incorruptibles” about saints whose bodies remain, without decomposition, through the ages (this is the case with Bernadette).

Lastly, Pope Benedict has been welcoming of the renewal of the Latin mass; if you can find a service in your area, it is a profoundly moving and contemplative rite.

[Campion]

If this guy started from the same place and ended up an evangelical Protestant, you'd call it a "great testimony" and the "work of the Holy Spirit".

But because he ended up a Catholic priest, you think it's the result of a book and a psychological disorder.

That's just really sad.