Do you think that you have sufferings from family members or associates?
The saint whose feast is celebrated today, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, was favored with visions of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in her childhood, and he believed this to have been a normal experience that any child might have. Even as a child, therefore, this favored child of Our Lord's was blessed with tremendous sufferings from a pair of domineering paternal aunts, who persecuted her and her mother after her father's death. This early childhood suffering, which was accompanied by a physical affliction that left her bedridden for four years, was just a preparation for the suffering that Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque endured to spread public devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus at the specific request of Our Lord Himself.
The hearts of men had grown cold because of Jansenism when Our Lord revealed the secrets of His Most Sacred Heart to Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque in the Visitation Convent in Paray le Monial, France, between December of 1673 and June of 1685. We cannot let our own love for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus grow cold in our hearts. We must forgive as we are forgiven, and we must remember the high price of infidelity that France paid for the refusal of King Louis XIV to consecrate the whole of France, and not just Paris, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (as is related in an appendix to this article).
This is being posted late on Tuesday, October 17, 2017, because the visit I made to a cardiologist yesterday, Monday, October 16, 2017, the Feast of Saint Hedwig, revealed that I am, despite the pronouncment of the young physician who saw me briefly in an emergency room on Friday evening, October 13, 2017, the Feast of Saint Edward the Confessor and the one hundredth anniversary of Our Lady's final apparition to Jacinta and Francisco Marto and Lucia dos Santos in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal, suffering from a few heart abnormalities that might require what is called an "oblation" to stabilize my beat, which has this nagging tendency to, say, stop, and then proceed. In other words, it is, as the cadiologist described it to be, an "electrical issue."
Given the history of coronary disease on my father's side of the family, which includes my late father's multiple heart problems (his brother had a pacemaker for the last twenty years of his life, I believe), various other tests will be run on November 3, 2017.
The most significant finding, which the physician on Friday night either missed or did not have the experience to recognize as life-threatening, is that my blood potassium level remains critically low. The cardiologist explained that this could cause sudden death, which is why he prescribed a super-duper dose of postassium chloride to be taken daily to overcome the deficiency. So much for "your numbers look great," which is what the young emergency room physician said in a brief visit before discharging me from five and one-half hours of waiting without any information.
The blood potassium deficiency, therefore, remains the reason that I am always so very fatigued. As a physician-friend of ours said, it is nothing other than the working of Our Lady's graces that I have been able to continue functioning at all.
I ask the readers of this site for their prayers and ask also for your patience with me as I try to complete articles, which take much longer now than in the past.
Moreover, I do intend to spend time putting out anthologies of the articles on this site as the heart problems, which are called "abnormalities" by the cardiologist, are a reminder that the Master cometh like a thief in the night but that it is still nevertheless a working of His ineffable mercy to be warned that He may come sooner rather than later! Deo gratias.
Now, all of this having been noted, we will be employing naturopathic means to deal with the coronary problems, following in a particular way the recommendations of the late Maria Treben in her book Health Through God's Pharmacy With Medicinal Herbs. A source to purchase some of the herbs listed in the book can be found at Maria Treben's Authentic Swedish Bitters. You will not be disappointed with Maria Treben's book.
Obviously, and all non-tax-deductible financial gifts will help us a lot at this time. Thank you.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, an intimate of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and a faithful client of Our Lady through her Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.