Back some years ago I was working in a home of a lovely couple in their late 70’s. He was a barber his entire life after getting out of the service, and she was a wonderful homemaker who raised her beautiful family. She at the time was worried that her home would not be completed before Easter. I assured her there was no problem. During that time, there were no cell phones so I needed to answer a page that I received. They had one phone in their house located in the kitchen to use. So, I asked to use her phone she said of course. So, I called my wife and I must have answered a question about birthday plans, she heard the conversation. I hung up and just said thank you for the use of her phone she was in another room. She apparently pulled my brother B asside when he walked by the room and Bob told her yes my bithday was tomorrow. The next day as we were working , they called me into the kitchen and had a italian rum cake from a bakery with candles lit and sang Happy Birthday to me with my brother joining in.. Now, is that a God moment or what ?
God bless the Maraglia’s they were angels on Earth. Salt of the Earth.
For them , in their memory.
Etta James
I know they are dancing to this right now in Heaven
I would like to remember someone wonderful that graced my presence years ago. A wonderful client that touched my heart.
I will start with Mrs. Genese
I had a client around 30 years ago that hired my brother B and I to do some decorating in her home. She had to have been around 90 at the time. She was an adorable old Italian women wearing her little cotten flower dress with a small lace apron over it. She had one leg shorter than the other, so one shoe was taller than the other. My brother and I were working and she appeared and said to come in to the kitchen. She had very broken english. We walked in and she said sit down. On the table was fine china cups with coffee and homemade biscotti. She would not take no for an answer. It was a moment that I will never forget. She stood there with her hands clasped and smiling. She was relishing the moment of us enjoying her service and delicious cookies. That was one of lesson that we learned early on in life by my parents. It was instilled in us how valuable our seniors are and should never be forgotten. I guarantee you that she did not feel 90 either she was maintaing her home like she probably had been doing for 50 or 60 years at that point. God is good. Amen.
God Bless Her lovely Soul.
In memory of Mrs. Genese A song from her generation.
This is a very true account and as you will see it contains more that one Miracle.
On a very rainy evening complete with lightening back at the end of April 2012, My wife came home late afternoon after work and it was not raining to badly at that time she asked me, would you like to go down to adoration at the chapel/church today? Adoration for a Roman Catholic is when the Holy consecrated Eucharist is put into a monstrance to hold it and protect it. The monstrance is then placed on the alter of the church or chapel, my parish has both. It allows us to sit in the presence of our Lord. The priest or deacon will normally handle it. We as congregants would not touch it, I certainly do not feel worthy to.
This is a picture of a monstrance, in the center of monstrance the Priest or Roman Catholic Deacon would place the consercrated Euchrist in the center it is protected by glass.
In our Roman Cathoilic tradition and faith in adoration we believe that Christ is present with us, and he is.. It is a beautiful gift to us as believers.
The chapel is very relaxing and generally you can hear a pin drop, a very, very peaceful place.
Fr. Leo Clifford The Blessed Sacrament
Very well done.
Well, my response to my wife was, I don’t know. I was in the midst of treatment , I was tired, did not care about food etc. My wife was trying to get me to eat something . She is a very good cook but nothing appealed to me. By this time the whole family was sitting there with their appetites waiting and my wife said we have a gift certificate that was given to us for the 99 restaurant. But, I said that I did not feel like going out. They do pick up orders as well she said 🙂 So, she asked my daughter to go pick up the food and she said sure. Next, I took about 20 minutes staring at the menu again looking for something that would possibly appeal to me. Finally, I selected the country chicken with brocolli and garlic mashed potatos 🙂 My daughter drove over to pick it up I was sitting here waiting to strap the feed bag on . LOL It arrived home here and One bite later, it was someone’s left overs. lol.,My poor wife. You see, the meds for my cancer treatments made everything taste like 100% salt to me. Don’t worry, I survived and lived to eat another day:) That dinner now tastes good once again too, so way to go 99! and yeah, no more meds!
One very stange thing that I told my Dr. R was my wife was so desperate to get me to eat that she stopped one evening and bought Chinese Food for dinner, a mixture of stuff and came home and said, I have a surprise for you! I said no thanks,( She calls me a brat for good reason) So funny! The smell made my stomach feel a little sick after a while she coaxed me into the kitchen and made me a plate. I ate the whole thing, with lots of mustard sauce. My food was so spicy and it hot! Not usually my choice in foods but as I told my Dr on more than one occasion that It was so hot that my whole head was tingling and nose ran. But the sensation did not scare or bother me. The salt in the food did not bother me either. It was like I was drawn to it and loved the food.Very Strange. Everyone is always telling me some foods are healing by their natural properties which, I do believe. God created a masterpiece in nature and we added chemicals etc. The doctor kind of chucked but I said, I know it sounds weird but I think that it acted in aiding my body to fight the cancer, I may be wrong. But twice over a lengthy period of time I felt compelled to announce this to my doctor. So who knows? Here is the information on the hot mustard sauce, I guess you can decide if it has any medicinal purposes on your own.
The following is off the web.
What makes hot mustard hot? Readers frequently ask this question. I can understand their confusion. After all, the recipe for hot mustard is quite simple: dry mustard, cold water, perhaps some rice wine. What is it about this seemingly simple preparation that gives China’s most popular table condiment its strong bite?
The answer lies in the chemical properties of mustard seeds. Mustard seeds come from the mustard plant, a member of the cabbage family. They contain two sulphur compounds, myrosin and sinigrin, as well as an enzyme, myrosinase. When the seeds are broken and water is added, the enzyme breaks down the sulphur compounds. The result is the sharp tasting oil that gives mustard its pungency, and helps explain why the name mustard comes from the Latin words mustum (much) and ardens (burning).
So anyway, back to that night, it was now thundering and pouring out. It was around 8:00 at night and the phone rang. It was my friend from NY the deacon once again checking out how everything in Danny’s world was going. 🙂
We spoke, I hung up and said, I want to go to the chapel. My wife said Dan, it is so late it was about 8:15 p.m. I said I have to go, she oh, alright. Remember my wife left for work at 6 am in the morning and was still serving me. She started down the stairs she in front of me carrying my walker, and heard the rain outside and said , Dan, this is crazy. It is pouring buckets and thundering out there. I responded I need to go again. So she relented, sighing. Down we drove to the church in horizontal rain. We pulled up in the handicapped spot, there were plenty of cars in the church lot. My wife said, lets wait until it slows down a bit. And, I just said J take the umbrella for yourself I don’t care about the rain as I got out of the car. She came around the car and got my walker out of the rear of the car and was covering me with her umbrella. She is an amazing wife, I said no, cover youself honey, I am fine, it is healing rain, I love it. So we crossed the parking lot through huge puddles of water. When we stepped into the chapel there were a lot of people there for Adoration,to our Lord. They were reciteing the Rosary etc. Just resting in the Lord. very Beautiful.
People saw us come in and it was like the parting of the sea, a very beautiful gesture, a couple of the older parishoners got up to give myself and my wife two rocking chairs next to one another towards the back of the chapel and took seats elsewhere in the chapel.
You see Miracle # 1 of this account was set to take place. I did not know why I had to go in that moment to the Chapel , or why my wife had brought it up that day but, God did.
So, my wife and I were sitting in our rocking chairs, I was focusing on the body of Christ exposed on the alter in the monstrance. It was so peaceful. My eyes were closed listening for God and I heard the word Holy. I remember being at such peace. I opened my eyes and heard Holy once again. My head turned slightly to the right looking ahead of me and there was a person sitting off to the right of me about I guess 4-5 feet away. Again, I received the word Holy. I began to pray and was trying to figure out the words to a prayer that I felt I should say and suddenly my wife without a word passed me a prayer card she had and had been useing herself and It was the prayer that I was silently attempting to think of and recall. 1 card after another the same story, came from her hand. It was breathe taking for me to see my wife praying these prayers on the these prayer cards and passing them to me. She had no idea what she was doing in conjunction with Heaven. She looked to me and saw that something was happening my face I am sure was in awh. I just leaned to my wifes ear and said unbelievable. God uses us all to help one another and my wife is by far my greatest God given gift. We were there at the church and it was now 10 pm the church bells were sounding and the rain was pounding the roof of the chapel. I tapped my wife on the knee as said are you ready ? She said yes, So, I stood up and my wife passed me my walker. As I began, to move the man that God had told be was Holy popped out of the rocker in front of me and now was face to face with me. My wife and I knew F. from an Arise meeting at my church and he is a very nice person. This was our exact exchange while standing in the chapel.
He was talking at a whisper being in the chapel but when its quiet everyone hears everything crystal clear. Plus I have a voice like a fog horn it is a strong voice. Lol There are times that when I am in the confessional Father has to quiet my voice a little bit, I think the old ladies outside the confessional were dropping like flies. lol Sorry, I could not help myself. 🙂
I am sure God wanted everyone in the chapel to witness his presence in that moment through us. You know psalm #139, He new we all would be here in this moment by his will. Amen.
F said,
Dan, I felt called by God a few weeks ago to get this medallion. I have been in prayer on my knee’s asking for Gods guidance he said, this is for you. It is the face of Christ.He put it over my neck and gave my wife the papers that came with it. I said no F, I cannot accept this. And, In that very moment my wife and F can attest that the Holy Spirit took over and out of my mouth came, thank you F, you will get it back when Dan is healed. With that he hugged me prayed a prayer for healing over me, hugged my wife and we said God Bless You. We still marvel at this event. That is a Miracle in itself.
When the Holy Spirit speaks whether verbally or through writing He speaks declarations to us and there is authority to it, there is a sted fast resolve to get it right for God. The Holy Spirit through us gives life to God’s words to one another. Through testimony and witnessing. Everyone of us does it if we are in Christ Jesus. THe Holy Spirit is not wishy washy. He brings only good and only the truth. It is very simple.
At this time I was in my 6 week radiation schedule, it ended around 6-16-2012. So this event that I will detail took place at around the end of May /the beginning of June. I went into the radiation room as I did so many times for treatment they swiped my card and loaded my radation therapy program into the computer like they did everyday. I always took off my cross and anything medal for my wife and brothers to hold before treatment. it was always done without fail.
The attendants rolled me in my wheelchair up to the treatment bed and I got on with their assistance . They were a wonderful group of people.They made me comfortable and strapped my body down to prevent my body from moving accidently. They snapped the mask that was made to tarket the cancer for treatment to the table tightly,so again, I could not move my head by accident. They exited the chamber and said as they did okay Dan , see you in a few. I thanked them all as usual. The machines started in an auto sequence with my treatment. This machine was just doing a ballet around my head the full circumference shooting radiation into the center of my brain to get this in operable brain tumor. Suddenly, I said awh OOOOOOO, to myself. I realiized that the cross was around my neck still as was the face of Christ Medal. It sounds crazy but I stayed calm and in prayer, I knew God had it. No matter what ! I still feel that way ! I did not create the universe, he did. Meanwhile, my wife was outside the vault with my brother and said S, did you get Dannys cross? S said no. They jumped up and ran to the desk to inform them. They said do not worry, his radiation is above the neck so its okay.
Meanwhile back in the Vault as I call it, The treatment only took a few moments and I had my prayers down to the second, I was praying fast and with such fervor, for everyone that needed prayers, giving my stored graces in Heaven to God for others who may need them etc. Thats what I was called to do then and I am still a prayer warrior for God that is my current. job and responsibility.
Well back to the the night before for a second. sorry, I was praying for hours and was finally going to bed.I had shut off the light and was getting out of my chair. I noticed this folded white paper. I thought ,what is this? I opened it up and it was the paperwork given by F in the chapel to my wife, the night that I was given the face of Christ medal. I turned the light back on and sat down. It is from the Holy Face society. I read about what it means it origin and and the protection it gives the wearer. They medals wear extremely popular during World War Two.
Another thing, I would like to say right now as the Holy Spirit is guiding me. A number of years ago, I had an employee a wonderful worker, and a christian man and a good family man. For some reason he would come against me from time to time and say you know, you do not have to wear a cross. I said, I know that T but I am conforted by it . It is a reminder of what God and Jesus did for me. That was it. he would badger me from time to time. I will say this, no peice of medal, wood etc has magic powers. What they serve as is a reminder for the wearer of an event that happened a sacrafice beyond our true comprehension. The face of Christ that I was wearing for instance that was given to me was prayed with to God, was given to me in the chapel for a reason I might add, I then prayed with it and it found its way around my neck and was there for my radiation treatment, it had never happen before that metal was ever in that room with me. It is the prayers of that beautiful man F, my prayers and the faith that God gave me that the following account could ever be possible in my life.
The next Miracle….
I was getting ready to complete my treatment, the medal was around my neck I knew the machines by the way they were moving that I was almost done( the machines mades like a robot sound as it spins turns and swivels around my head. It was always amazing to listen to.( relaxing ) God inspired so much through the Holy Spirit to some very beautiful scientists. So, I was wrapping up my prayers to Heaven, as God as my witness, All of a sudden in my head I heard Face Of Christ Protect Me. And, There was a huge flash so bright with my eyes shut and mask on that my head lit up inside I just remember white light I said thats not good to myself. The staff came back and said okay Dan your all set, I did not say one word to them getting off the table , I just said thank you and God bless you as I always did. You see I was seeing my radiology oncolgist next. God had me in such a peaceful place. He was in charge! No hesteria it was like breathing , no big deal. So, I came out and my wife said Dan, you have your medals on, I said, I know. She said , we got so nervous and told the secretary and she said no worry they are below the neck. We had always been instructed to remove them and I had. We rolled out of the radiology suite and started down to the doctors appointment my wife said Dan are you all right? Your face is all red. I said yah, the machine screwed up and I can’t see out of my left eye. My wife and brother were like what !? I said its okay, my left eye was a very soothing white whirlpool type of vision. I said I will talk to the Dr. We waited in the waiting room my wife fed me a yogurt because I have 1 hand to use, so it made it easier for me. she was calm considering the circumstances but not thrilled obviously. Meanwhile,I was sitting and facing the television and eating the yogurt and I said hey to my wife, somethings happening with my eye, it seems to be clearing. She said really? I said yes. My brother S went up to the desk and said my brother Dan has an appointment with the Dr. The secretary said, let me check and and my brother said he does, it was canceled yesterday on him so they changed it to today instead. She responded oh yes, we will bring you in to the office shortly. We were brought into the room and by that time my eye was back to normal. The Dr. A came in with his head assistant they were both awesome.My wife, brother and myself were there and the doctor asked me how I was and the Holy Spirit spoke directly to him, Dan was just blinded in his radiation treatment, he looked shocked, his mouth literally fell open, they both did as a matter of fact. The doctor panned over in disbelief at what he was hearing to my brother and my wife and they said it is true. Again, their eyes were fiiled with concern and were watery, I said that I can see now I would say that it was about 25 minutes before it cleared from when the machine malfunctioned.
They excused themselves and ran out of the room right away.I was sure they went to the radiology lab to check the machine and the event that had occurred. I will continue this tomorrow.
Just a quick post on this one, Life as we all know is challenging. Lets please pray for those people young and old who are discouraged and are suffering from depresson, loneliness and are showing signs of fatigue. They may need a helping hand over a bump in life etc. Churches have healing ministers who can help.They also generally offer counseling in some cases. If they do have it available they know where to find help. It seems to be a trend with people just giving up. And we are hearing about these tragidies not just for the people down the street by people who are higly acclaimed. It crosses all barriers into every segment of society. Every life is precious.
We are all eachothers keepers so we need to try and be viligent in watching our loved one, friends and neighbors to make sure they are all okay and to give hope. We are Love in action through Jesus Christ. Amen.
I was talking to my brother tonight and told him how uncomfortable I am with all of the I’s in my blog.
As I have stated before I am not a career writer, I don’t have that kind of finesse. This blog is Gods Victory that we all share and is being put pen to paper which so many people said that I needed to do. I am personally grateful to be here in this moment to write this account, but at times with the use of all of the I’s as I said to my brother, it feels very gratatuitous and anyone who know me knows that I cannot stand that stuff. I am not computer savy and did not even know what a blog was until a couple of days before my first post.
While speaking to my brother tonight we spoke about a topic that is very real that we all deal with whether it is a illness or a death. The people , sometimes the ones you would think of when something happens to be there for you , run for the hills and never look back at you (or so it feels) like you did something wrong.
This happened to us years ago when we lost our son Brad Michael. Again, we were younger and so were those individuals. We were really young kids back then by todays standard. So, we just figured they were not our friends.
I am older now and, I am getting a little wiser as I go 🙂
When cancer came barreling down the road a few of my friends just plain disappereared from our lives. It has taken a long while for me to work through my feelings on this issue. Through a lot of prayer, assistance from my family including my conversation tonight with my older brother, I have come to understand what I knew anyway, that I had done nothing wrong. It is funny how our minds will deceive us sometimes.(devil) Everyone as I have written in my blog before is a summ of all of our life experiences and shapes who we are as people. So, some people aren’t able to cope with certain life experiences especially if it includes death or the possibility of losing a friend.Some people look at me and let’s face it say, God this couldbe me ! It scares them.Some people have felt death so close to them before that they just cannot bare it again.They could not deal with another loss. I don’t judge that. I am also so glad that I now have an understanding of that situation. Life is a healing experience in so many ways. Everyday, if you choose can be a day of getting your thoughts in a place where you are stronger and healthier. Prayer plays an essential roll in that process for me. With prayer comes peace, understanding,wisdom and healing from God.
Another very important thing that I really need to say is how many people who are too numerous to count ran to our sides in that moment and are still with us today, so we count them as our friends and blessings in our lives today too. God has been extremely good to us. Amen.
In closing on this issue, I am putting this behind me and for any of us that have had this experience, like my brother said what would Jesus do? How right he is! I will say that I for one still love them all very much, and pray for them thats what friends do 🙂
Friends Michael W. Smith
Casting Crowns Prayer for a friend. Just beautiful
There are a lot of annonited songs if we listen. we are all Spirit Driven so that would certainly make since. I have many songs that I would put into that catagory asside from Catholic music and christain music. Some songs fall into a more mainstream setting. God is trying to connect with us all. He will use music from childrens music, symphony’s, jazz,blues,rock whatever to touch our hearts. Heck, someday we will hopefully be singing and praising God in Heaven . 🙂
God gives the gift of writing to these special songs and lyrics for the culture to have, as a gift. And, as an awakening. He blessed people to write them and with the ability to preform them with their beautiful voices. They are God’s blessing through the Holy Spirit. These songs may be in a movie, on the radio, or something. The words I feel are of love for all of us. They have a double meaning where God is right there. Below are a few examples that I have felt my Spirit respond to at different cross roads in my life, we all have these moments and connections. 🙂 There are many more songs like these too. 🙂 They help to lift us and heal us during our days here.
Thats how my next account begins. Dan as you are part of the experimental study with Saha or the actual name Veronistat we would like you to visit our Oncology Phychiatrist. I said all right. Never been to one but, if I had to go, then God wanted this appointment to take place. Plus the study info will help others out too.
So, we booked an appt with Dr. V for Dana F. the assistant came to get me and the Riley clan all went into this large office. 🙂
The doctor was quite lovely, she turned in her chair and smiled very softly, her hand grasped her glasses and said something like Oh, is it okay for them to be here with you and I said they are always with me. like the bible my witnesses and smiled, she said, I see. And she wrote something down on the clipboard. I will not pretend to know what 🙂
She looked a little puzzled like what is this? She began to ask are you depressed? I said no, I feel great, Gods got it. Again, a puzzled look was on her face she was looking at my families faces and they were like this is his natural state.( Thanks be to God) Dr V nodded at them. She bagan a series of cognative tests and I completed them and one highlight was when she gave me a list of items from different catagories and said remember these words. A while later I was asked okay Dan can you give me the list of words that I gave you to remember? Well, I began the list the best that I could and word after word came out she finally said there is one more word do you know what it is ? Very pleasently. I sat there and said, out loud , God ,what is that last word? I sat there and the word daisy came into my head. The Dr. Just looked at me and I said oh, he just said Daisy. She honestly looked shocked. That was the word. My family and I laughed and marveled at God’s being in every moment. That was the end of Session One.
She asked to see me again so I said sure. Gods knows the reason. The next Session Two, meeting with Dr. V was close up to me chair to chair and she asked me more questions a whole lot.. Her eyes were on me like a hawk trying to access where I am at and why. She was very kind, professional and was really working to see that my needs may be met and to measure the effect of the brain cancer on my body and thinking process. She was wonderful and one of these days If I bump into her again, I will be sure to thank her for her wonderful devotion to her patients including me. I just witnessed God and his glory to Dr V. and told her that God loves US all the same. She had watery eyes at times during my witness and I felt her humanity. God Bless her as well. That was my last visit and again God was showing her that he is right here in the moment and always will be.
For All Of Our Doctors, May God Direct Their Hands, minds,and medicines through the Holy Spirit to help all of us that suffer in any way with a medical or mental illness of any sort to be healed. Amen !
Hello, I have been out of treatment with cancer meds and radiation for for well over 1 year
This was my regimen back in that day. I hope it helps. I am currently on the lisinorpil 20-25mg, it is considered low dose for water and to make sure my bp stays as good as it is. , also I am still useing the omerprazole 20 mg tablet to coat my stomach. Thats it.
Daniel R-Medication Schedule-5/8/2012 TIME MEDICINE MG # OF TABLETS/CAPSULES DAYS 6:00 AM SAHA (Vorinostat) 300MG 3 Capsules 1X/Day (MONDAY-FRIDAY ONLY!) (clinical trial) With Food 7:00 AM *Zofran (Ondansetron) 8MG 1 Capsule up to 3X/Day (Everyday)No Food (prevents nausea/vomiting) (Every 8 hrs/No More Than 3 within 24 hrs!) 8:00 AM Temodar (Temozolomide) 165MG= 3 Capsules Together 1X/Day (Everyday)No Food Until 1hr Later (chemo drug) (1)140MG+(1)20MG+(1)5MG)=165MG MUST TAKE WITH WATER 9:00 AM – ALLOWED TO EAT FOOD NOW 9:00 AM Decadron (Dexamethasone) 2MG 2 Capsules 2X/Day (Daily Total 4MG) (Everyday) Kino Omeprazole 20MG 1 Capsule 1X/Day (Everyday) (prevents heartburrn) Mepron (Atovaquone) 1500MG 2 Sachets 1X/Day (10ML) (Everyday)Must Take With Food (prevents pneumonia) Lisinopril 20-25MG 1 Tablet 1X/Day (Everyday) (for blood pressure)
Radiation is 12:30PM on 5/8/2012 Radiation is 1:15PM on 5/9/2012 Radiation is 10:15AM starting 5/10/2012-6/18/2012 3:00 PM Decadron (Dexamethasone) 2MG 2 Capsules 2X/Day (Daily Total 4MG) (Everyday) Bed Time: Simvastatin 10MG 1 Tablet 1X/Day (Everyday) (for cholesterol) Zolpidem (Ambien) 5MG 1 to 2 Tablets 1X/Day (Everyday-As Needed) (for anxiety/insomnia) (Can Take a 2nd Tablet if He Wakes Up During the Night) Take As Needed: Colace 100MG 1 Tablet (Everyday-As Needed) (for constipation) Senekot Up to 2 Tablets 1X/Day (Everyday-As Needed) (for constipation) *Zofran (Ondansetron) 8MG He can take up to 2 more doses of Zofran (prevents nausea/vomiting) daily (no more than 24MG in a 24hour period/ every 8 hrs.) if he develops nausea 8 oz Water/Day……Total of 6 (8oz) Fluids/Day Including Water No Antioxidents/No High Dose Vitamin C
Please note I was fortunate to never need drugs to help me for depression and never received any psychotropic drugs. Because of my clinincal trial study I needed to see a oncology phychologist during my treatment and it was actually fun and I will write on this topic soon.
Lets kick Cancer in the back end, pray, believe !!!!!!!!!!!! God can do everything ! Faith.
Just Danny Speaks 