"You don't ask too much from God, you ask too little," Dr. Margarett Schlientz scolded her audience during a talk at the Thirst Conference in Bismarck, ND. She spoke with confidence, infusing her audience with the certainty of the Gospels and the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Schlientz knows of what she speaks. She has been involved in the deliverance ministry for many years and is the assistant director at the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University where she teaches and ministers to seminarians in an intensive ten-week spiritual renewal program each summer. The Jesus of the Bible is still the Jesus of today," she said. "He did miracles then and he will still do them for us today but we need to have faith and ask."
Schlientz explained that in Scripture, Jesus healed everyone who came to him. She pointed to the sacrament of Confession as a powerful means to open up a flood of healing graces. Then, she talked about the power of the Eucharist. Schlientz asked, "Do you really trust what God wants to do in your heart or is it automatic?" She explained that the Eucharist should be taken very seriously because it has the power of grace to transform everything in your life.
"You've got the richest father in the world, who is waiting to pour out graces," she said. Schlientz referred to Luke 11 where Jesus says, "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11-13).
"He is doing that in the Eucharist every time you receive it," Schlientz said. "Every time you have the opportunity to receive God in the Eucharist, don't negate it," she said. For those not going to Mass daily, Schlientz challenged them. "How late do you watch television? That's not going to get you to heaven; the Eucharist will."
Schlientz said that she believes that if we had greater faith and asked God, we would see far more healings. "God really wants to bring people to wholeness," she said. "Jesus is a physician of love with absolute power. His work of healing and salvation continues."
She strongly encouraged people to pray with faith and to evangelize by praying with and for others. "Every baptized Christian should be praying with people and those in the medical field should ask for the gift of healing," she said. "Pray for the gift of miracles. They are not dead. They are dormant because we don't ask enough." Schlientz explained that there are people in her prayer group that received the gift after asking. "The expression of Pentecost needs to live within our own prayer lives every day in our own experience," she said. She encouraged people to set aside time for God but to also pray throughout the day, using every opportunity such as being stuck in traffic.
Speaking to parents, Schlientz told them they have tremendous power. "I don't care what your kids have done, you lay them in the heart of Jesus every day. Do you realize how vulnerable God is to parents?"
The holy sacrament of matrimony holds the power of great graces according to her. "Hold each other every day and renew your marriage vows and ask the Lord to release the power he gave you in that sacrament," she said. "I renew my baptism every day whenever I put my hand in the holy water font, I say. 'Lord, renew the power of my baptism, explode the power of baptism in me and the power of confirmation."
Schlientz reminded the audience of the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus in Matthew 10. He heard Jesus walking by and shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, Have mercy on me."
Then Jesus called to him and asked, "What do you want of me?"
"It is the same question Jesus asks of us every day in the Eucharist," said Schlientz,-"What do you want of me?"
She advised everyone to "go for broke" and ask for everything God wants to give us and for every kind of healing that we need. Schlientz closed by sharing a story at her own church of a blind woman that was healed. "Ladies and gentlemen, that is not unusual," she said. "I could tell you a thousand stories like this."
"Jesus never gave anyone false expectations," she said. "He healed anyone who came to him and he continues to do so."
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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