Dear Friend, what you are experiencing in your parish and in your diocese is sadly rife throughout the world. Even though it has been a few years since I last visited your diocese, I recall that I came home and prayed very hard for each of the priests I came across.

I must have read 'Warning from the Beyond' at least 20 years ago. So it is time that I re-read it. What I do recall is that I made several changes in my life as a result of reading it.

When things have got to the sorry state where from the pulpit you are not encouraged to commit to Sunday Mass each Sunday, where you are discouraged from frequent confession, where the pulpit is used to promote things other than Jesus, where it is hard to pray prior to Mass due to all the chatter and where those in various service roles at Mass couldn't pass the dress code to get into St Peter's Basilica in Rome – then the only remedy is prayer, and lots of it.

Nobody willingly gives up an error that makes them and those they speak to feel comfortable and feel like good people. Only the Holy Spirit can make that happen. Talking to them, pointing out the errors, giving excerpts from authoritative documents to read isn't going to make a single jot of difference until the Holy Spirit opens their hearts – and even then it might be many months and years before they are ready to hear these things.

So prayer is absolutely essential.

But there is a danger that an 'us and them' mentality creeps in, 'the goodies and the baddies'. If it does, it will undo all the good prayer work. 'There but for the grace of God go I'. View them as a brother or sister in Christ who is in deadly danger and who doesn't realise what a serious condition they are in.

Here's the fight back plan:

Remember we are not fighting against our sick brothers and sisters, but against the evil agents who made them sick.

Firstly we have to have our own house in order.
Daily prayer, regular self-denial, Sunday Mass, Daily Mass if possible, monthly Confession, daily reading from the Bible, and daily reading from the Church's Magisterium (catechism, papal documents, lives and writings of the Saints), regular prayer with others, significant regular giving to worthy causes, regular outreach evangelistically, regular service to those in need, regular quality time spent with spouse and family.

Then we pray.

Firstly at every Mass, after the Our Father and Lamb of God, when the time comes for the priest to receive Holy Communion - that's the best time to pray silently and fervently for the Holy Spirit to work powerfully in the priest's mind and heart. It also makes it easy to remember to do.

If there isn't a group that prays the rosary before or after daily Mass, start one. Our Lady's message to St Dominic was that with the Rosary every heresy can be conquered. Parishes that have regular recitation of the rosary in their churches and Mass centres have done much better at keeping the faith than parishes that don't have this.

When someone comes across your path and whispers that they are unhappy with what is going on, invite them to come and pray regularly with you. Keep any grumbles to an absolute minimum and keep the focus on prayer and upon Jesus who has the power to change any situation and any person's heart, mind, soul, spirit and body.

Be open to the Holy Spirit. Beg Him for the guidance, spiritual gifts and charismatic gifts that will make the necessary difference. Human wisdom, elbow grease and ingenuity are as nothingness and straw compared to what the Holy Spirit can do. Listen for His promptings, discern what is from Him, then gather your courage and act upon it.

Start using some of these prayers and novenas.
Particularly pray them for priests and bishops and anyone in authority, especially school principals, teachers, youth group leaders, catechists etc

33 Adorations of the Cross on Fridays (contains a promise to soften hard hearts)

30 consecutive daily Holy Communions (contains promise of eternal salvation for a person whom you can choose)

Novena of Holy Communions in honour of Jesus, King of All Nations (promises help of the angels for the person it is offered for)

The 365 day St Bridget novena in honour of the wounds of Jesus (contains among other promises, promises of eternal salvation for family members)

Will you see any immediate impact from these prayers? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but the timing of the answers to prayer is God's business. That He will keep His promises is certain, when He will keep them is up to Him.

Get into holy rhythms of life… Read up on the promises attached to the 9 First Fridays and 5 First Saturdays and make them the hinge of each month, and encourage others to do the same.

Message to an American mother of three, 'Apostolate of Holy Motherhood', March 15, 1987:
Christ Child: "I want all My children to practice the Nine First Fridays’ in reparation for sins and the Five First Saturday’s in honour of My Mother so that the tide of evil sweeping across the world will end in defeat. These two monthly devotions, if practiced faithfully by My followers, would alone win this battle, so great are their power in appeasement of divine justice and the eradication of sin and evil."

Then remember that God wants these sorry situations to change even more than we do.

Take heart and enter the battle.

Some of you may have been at a talk by Patti Gallagher Mansfield or watched one online. Quite frequently if the day has been long she will get everyone to stop, and to stand, and then invite the participants of the day to pray in tongues so as to refresh their spirits.

Interesting, yes?

There is scriptural back up for this idea. St Paul says (1 Cor 14:4) 'The one with the gift of tongues talks for his own benefit.' Other translations use the word edification, but the net result is the same, using this gift of God is good for us and beneficial.

Patti obviously understands this at a level that the rest of us don't. But don’t dismiss it. Recently I read a short tract about the gift of tongues written from a Protestant perspective, and it contained a story about a sick person who had been asking God to heal them for a long time. However it wasn't until that sick person prayed in tongues that the healing happened.

Interesting, yes?

It is something that surprises us, but it shouldn't. When we open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit in that way, our spirit aligns with the Holy Spirit and our spirits, our souls, our emotions and our bodies benefit.

I recall Colin Sutton (may he rest in peace) often inviting people to pray in tongues for 10 minutes every day for a month and to compare their lives before and after. Take his challenge, and compare your well-being levels before and after. At minimum, the things that currently send you into an emotional pit won't nearly have as much effect on you.

If we believe that God only gives good gifts, then we shouldn't be surprised when this much maligned gift actually has far reaching impact.

What do we fight against most? Discouragement, tiredness, anxiety, monotony, feelings of abandonment by God? This charismatic gift of God is an effective weapon against these attacks. Use it regularly. Use it daily.

As Damien Stayne says "We have to pray to move beyond the idea that the charisms are an optional extra, like having a sunroof in your car or tinted windows. Charisms are as essential as the steering wheel and the accelerator. There is no work of God, so spiritual work of God among the people of God that is not a charismatic act. Without the charisms, the mission of the Church is over".

Take the situation of a group of people with strong prayer lives. They gather for prayer each week. Just about all of them have been baptised in the Holy Spirit, and yet none of the charisms are being overtly used. They are praying with holy hearts. Of course God is listening to them. But they are still largely in control, and the options for God moving in and through them are very limited, as limited as a group of bricklayers trying to build a wall with both hands tied behind their backs.

The charisms of God are good; they are beneficial,
they are necessary.
Let them out, let them flow, allow God to take control.
Only then will we see more than we could ever ask for or imagine happen.

This is a rough transcript of a talk given by Lalith Perera from the Community of the Risen Lord on Sunday 19 February 2017 at Seven Hills, NSW, as part of a weekend conference marking the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

(Ed. I am revisiting this talk because some recent prophetic words here and here may make more sense in the light of this talk.)

God is looking for a person to host His presence, to carry Him to the world.

Often we ask, 'If God is love, why is this happening; why isn't that happening?'

God very much wants to be involved – but He needs someone to take Him to that place. If not, then the natural law takes over.

Matthew 9: 27-31. Jesus heals the two blind men. Jesus says, 'Do you believe I can do this?' They reply, 'We do'. Jesus tells them, 'Let it be done to you according to your faith.'

Moses hosted the presence of God. Mary hosted the presence of God. Jesus Himself, obviously, hosted the presence of God. Peter after Pentecost hosted the presence of God.

Moses hosted the presence of God so much that his face glowed and he had to wear a veil Exodus 34:29-35. When Mary visited Elizabeth, she didn't have to say a word, the presence of God in her touched her cousin. Acts 5:15 says that people brought out their sick hoping that the shadow of St Peter might fall on them and heal them, such was the presence of God that he carried.

We are called to host His presence.

If you are grateful for all that Jesus has done, but yet feel dissatisfied and have a desire for more. If your prayer is, 'Lord, I want more', then know that this restlessness is a gift of the Spirit.

If He could use Peter and the Apostles, He can use you and me.

Divine and human partnerships are God's preferred way of doing things.

Isaiah 57.15 'I live in a high and holy place, but I am also with the contrite and humbled spirit, to give the humbled spirit new life, to revive contrite hearts.'

This is the formula for hosting the presence of God.

God is in the revival business and He wants to do it through the contrite and lowly.

Three keys to hosting His presence:
•A heart of repentance; a contrite heart.
•Lowliness: an inner space within to hold Jesus: people not full of themselves.
•A life of praise and worship – to shift the clouds.

We are more prone to see other's faults and not our own (Matthew 7:3, Jesus compares this to the beam in our eyes and the splinter in someone else's eye.)

Go to confession. It is a lifetime journey to repentance. Even after Baptism in the Spirit, we change slowly. It is so easy to judge others – this is a trap. St Francis of Assisi spent a whole night in repentance. The Holy Spirit shines His light into the dark places of our hearts not to condemn or destroy, but to draw us closer to Himself.

When we are reconciled with God, there is a space within that we can fill with the Eucharist, the presence of Jesus, and space for the Word to rest in our hearts. I want Him to live inside me. I want to be sitting at the feet of Jesus. Every so often take a whole day, and spend that day with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

A life of praise and worship is what we need to keep Him with us when we leave our time of prayer, when we leave the Mass. There is a cloud of unknowing, a covering keeping us from seeing God. Many of us are living as atheists who say they believe. The test? How much do you love God after a sleepless night?

Break the cloud above you with the gift of praise – not communal praise but personal praise. Without the power of God we are powerless in all we do. So double your prayer time, and use half of it for praise. Keep praising until worship happens and the cloud of God's glory comes over you. When that happens, everything becomes crystal clear and simple.

In 2004 we were on a 2 day retreat with 75 people. During the morning praise we were given a scripture passage to pray with. As we did, the presence of God descended on that place. Many were weeping under that anointing, with lots of repentance. At that time one of the retreatants was given the lyrics and melody of a song:

Help me climb higher, higher on Your mountain
Hold me as I rise, rise beyond my being
As I feel Your presence surround me
Lord I come to worship on my knees.

Take me from my footprints to Your journey
Take me from my heartache to Your will
Take me from my feelings to Your presence
Take me to the clouds so I may see.

(Ed. This isn't all of the song, just the part I was able to write down.)

God, He is ready to touch anybody anytime.
It is He who will do the work.

At another time we had a village retreat for about 100 people. A special stillness came over us. Then an unusual word of knowledge was given about a bent leg. It was responded to by a mother of a girl who had been in a dreadful accident. The girl was prayed with and her leg was completely healed and restored.