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  Many hundreds give witness to gifts of conversion. Testimonies of spiritual healing involving Christina Gallahger and her mission are recorded at Our Lady Queen of Peace House of Prayer Achill, in Ireland. Just some of testimonies of those who have given withness are detailed on this website. Fr Gerard McGinnity PhD spiritual director of Christina Gallagher. |
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Saved from a life of drugs and the gift of conversion to the full practice of the Catholic faith" by Gerard Browne, Co Dubin, Ireland "While I was in Our Lady’s House, I felt inclined to pray and did spend some time alone in Our Lady’s chapel. I felt very happy and peaceful and close to Our Blessed Mother. So the week-end passed and we returned home and I put on a Matrix Medal, and I say this because had I not done so, I might not be here today to tell any kind of story, let alone this one." |
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The following testimony of conversion was sent to Ireland’s Eye by a young Dublin Man, who said that he wanted to make a return in thanksgiving for “all I have received from our Blessed Mother, Queen of Peace.” His testimony went on: “During the winter of 2000, I went to Our Lady Queen of Peace House of Prayer, with my dad and uncle, for the sole reason of getting out of Dublin for the weekend, because it had become a monotony of getting drunk, taking drugs and everything else that goes hand in hand with this type of lifestyle. While I was in Our Lady’s House, I felt inclined to pray and did spend some time alone in Our Lady’s chapel. I felt very happy and peaceful and close to Our Blessed Mother. So the week-end passed and we returned home and I put on a Matrix Medal, and I say this because had I not done so, I might not be here today to tell any kind of story, let alone this one. When we went home, all returned to ‘normal’ and I went back to college and work and the friends with whom I had spent the best part of my teenage years, and embraced again our usual habit of going out each week-end, with the sole purpose of getting drunk and so full of Ecstasy and whatever else, we hadn’t a care in the world, which is the case, I know with nearly all my brothers and sisters, the youth of the world. If there are any young people reading this, I ask them to pay close attention, and how quickly our carefree world can be brought to a sudden and deadly end, with all friends, money, popularity and reputations worthless. In hindsight I can clearly see that it wasn’t long after returning from the House of Prayer and putting on the Matrix medal, that things began to take a turn-about. My friends began to get colder towards me and each other. I could see that the abuse of the drugs we were taking was starting to have strange effects on some of them. One in particular, who used to be friendly towards me, now found it hard to be with on my own, because he was so prone to mood swings. Smashing mobile phones against the walls just because they didn’t work fast enough, but it was alright, he would buy a new one out of the €1300 he could have at times from selling hash. Yet this friend didn’t work, so to avoid suspicion, he would borrow money from his parents, so he could go out at weekends. I doubt if his parents took home half of this weekly. Really, we were the most selfish people, happy only when we had a drink in one hand and who knows what else in the other. It was usually something illegal anyway. Well, God and Our Lady were not going to put up with it any longer, and they made an example of me. One Sunday evening, drinking in a pub with a relative, a fight broke out, and innocent as I was in this case, I still got drawn into it, and was so badly beaten, when I went to my college tutor a week later to explain my absence, and why I could not go back, he could not recognise me as his student, although he ranked me top of the class shortly before and we were on familiar terms. When I went to see my friends, there was no sympathy to be found. One even refused to smoke the same cigarette as me on the grounds that he might catch something, which was strange. It was right about then that I started to feel choked. Has nobody any sympathy to offer me, does nobody care what I’ve just been through? So it was, thank God and Our Lady that they do not think this way, or my soul would have been lost, a long time ago. In time, the physical wounds healed and I returned to the normal weekend habits. However, my weekdays were spent differently. Instead of going to college I would walk a little beyond to the Pro Cathedral and spend the day there, at first doing nothing, then as time went by I began talking to Jesus or rather blaming and accusing Him of being at fault for the way my life had turned out. I still do it now from time to time, but less often. Eventually I went to confession and was able to receive Holy Communion. You see I may have been bad, but I never forgot what had been drilled into me when I was younger, proof that although I showed little interest then, I had it to use when the time came. Parents should remember this and not be afraid to teach their children the Faith, on the grounds that, they’re not listening or it’s not doing them any good. Let God decide the time for it’s use and He will do what is necessary, but without a foundation, there can be no building. Anyway, time went by in this way for some months. I would spend my weekdays in the Pro Cathedral, my weekends getting drunk and slipping in and out of stages of doing what my friends were doing, taking Ecstasy, going to nightclubs and dance venues, places when I look back, were living hells on earth. Some of these venues take in up to 2,000 people and how the majority leave alive is beyond me. But in my case, something had to give and the time for this was drawing near. As I looked around, I began to see the falsity of this life I had embraced for so long. I decided the time had come to put an end to it. I knew it would not be easy, but God can do anything. He can put doors for opening where there were no doors before and this is something every young person should know. God knows how often they come close to death and think nothing of it, going on as if it was a once-off. They may be a little more careful in the future but that does not guarantee anything, as you’ll see in my case. It was Holy Week. I owed €100 for an ounce of marijuana that I had got on tick. I had €80, the other €20 was owed to me by a college friend. I had to travel all the way into the city centre to get it. I had already promised God and Our Lady that if they would please help me to pay back this money, I would give up everything to follow them. I had owed this money for a long time and was beginning to fear for my safety. I went into town and while I was waiting for the friend to arrive. I went to the Pro Cathedral. Strangely enough, the time I arranged to meet him was 3 O’clock and this was Good Friday. When I got the money, I didn’t hang around and was so happy I started to walk home, visiting every church I passed, thanking God and Our Blessed Mother. I mush have promised them all sorts of things because they had been so good to me. When home, I went straight to the person to whom I owed the money. I was afraid and must have prayed to God to help me in this case too, but the person didn’t seem to mind and I was very much taken by this, so when they asked me to go to a house party with them, I was easily convinced. From this point onward, everything that I did should have been my last; the last time I travelled in a car, the last time I saw my home town, the last time I saw anything outside the house we were about to enter. I swore I would only have a few cans, but that was just another lie. So, the inevitable happened, I took four Ecstasy tablets in such a short space of time that I began to overdose – a friend in need is a friend indeed, as the saying goes. Well, I was obviously no friend of this group of people because, instead of helping me they began to say things that are not worthy of ink and paper. The heart of the matter was that I was ruining the party and all I could say within myself was “Dear God, help me, I’m dying”. It was no lie. I made my way to the kitchen and collapsed onto the table. Everyone left the kitchen. As I lay there, I think what hurt most was that I had come so close, so close to returning to a better life in Jesus and Mary. Then I could feel my body and brain begin to shut down. I would slip in and out of coma, beginning to think I was somewhere else and everything was alright. I was at work, I was just having a quiet drink with workmates, but dying? How could this be? How could this be happening to me? All alone, collapsed over a kitchen table, miles from home and I felt that very shortly my life was about to come to an end. “My God, I am sorry I have wasted the life you have given me. You gave me everything. You were even willing to take me back after all the evil I have done over the years. But now, through my own fault, I am about to die outside of Your grace. Alone and without a friend in the world. If only my parents were here they could help me, but I am getting the reward for abusing them too over the years. They will have to hear from a total stranger that they will never see their son again and what have they ever done to deserve such sorrow entering their lives”. I deserved this end and yet, if God was willing, I would ask for mercy again and so, I began to pray, holding my Matrix Medal against my chest. I prayed and prayed and prayed. Dear God, let me see the sun rise again. I used to wonder why people who were dying always wanted to see the sun rise and I can honestly say I know why. Nothing symbolises life as well as the beginning of a new day. So this was my prayer. I looked out of the glass doors the whole night long, praying to Our Lady, Blessed Michael, St Joseph and the others. As the hours passed, I began to feel that I was being heard. I began to see “brother sun” rise again and I knew God was with me. I know it wasn’t over yet, that I would have to travel home with the people in the other room. I used to call them friends, but from now on my friends would be in heaven, the best friends a person could have. When it came time to go, no-one spoke to me. In fact, no-one even told me they were going. I just saw people going to the car, so I went and got in myself. While in the car, I was aware that there was dispute in the house about whether or not I should be beaten up for what I had done. Although I was afraid, I didn’t mind too much, as God had given me another chance and I knew I was going to live, because Jesus, Our Lady and all heaven had made it so and all the friends in this world could not have brought that about. Only God in His great love and mercy did it for me. I could go on, but this is enough to meet the purpose for which I am writing this testimony. There were many more miracles of grace to accompany these others and I want now to give all thanksgiving, praise and honour to those to whom it is due, namely Our Lady Queen of Peace in her House of Prayer, and her dear daughter, Christina Gallagher, without whom we would not have the House of Prayer or the Matrix Medal. If we only knew the gift God has given us, if only the people of Ireland and the world would go to the House of Prayer to see for themselves. How their hearts would be changed by Our Blessed Mother. We say to ourselves “Oh if only Padre Pio were alive today, we’d climb canyons just to meet him once” and yet, we don’t see the gift we have been given in Christina and the House of Prayer. What a loss to those of us who, through sloth and foolishness refuse to go and witness for ourselves this gift of God to the world. Even then, if the adult population of Ireland deem themselves too wise to be taken in by such a thing as a House of Prayer where Our Lady has promised to be present day and night praying for her children, well then I hope at least the youth of the country will respond to their Heavenly Mother’s invitation. To all they young people who read this, I say, go and see for yourselves what Our Lady is offering you for nothing. All she asks is that you will visit her House of Prayer and in return, she will give you a gift of solace, together with an abundant outpouring of graces and blessings. Immerse yourselves at her feet in prayer and she will lead you to a holiness that you never imagined possible. What is more, it is not so much what you will do, but what She will do for you. Please answer her invitation. I have walked the streets of Garabandal, knelt and kissed the largest True Relic of the Cross in the world, gone on my knees down Fatima Square, but nowhere in the world have I experienced grace as it is given in the House of Prayer on Achill Island. Thank you and God Bless. www.christinagallagher.org and the Houses of Prayer in Texas, Minnesota, Florida, Kansas US and Mexico Fr Gerard McGinnity, parish priest of Knockbridge Co Louth, is the spiritual director of Christina Gallagher. |
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