Philadelphia - Lower Bucks County

Country: United States
State or province: Pennsylvania

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Nancy Hoyt
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• Street Evangelization at Frankford Hospital on Saturday, November 26, 2022

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• Campbell Park, Port Richmond, Philadelphia on Saturday, 21 May 2022

Cradle of Liberty – June 30, 2018

September 19, 2019

(NH) Yesterday was the feast of SS Peter and Paul and July 4th is quickly approaching. With this in mind, Deacon Mark and Nancy went to downtown Philadelphia for St. Paul Street Evangelization, thinking that the cradle of liberty, a block away from the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul, was the perfect place for street evangelization this day.

The day promised to reach 100 degF, so getting there straight after attending 8 am Mass in the ‘burbs was a good plan, with a few extra bottles of water on hand for people who might need them. Unbeknownst to our team, there was an immigration rally planned a block away. This brought even more people to the area and more opportunity to bear witness of our love for Christ and His Church in the public square.

A young man came by early on, his name was Jeffrey. He told us that he recently came to Philadelphia from Indiana where he felt he needed to leave “everything” behind. He is living in a shelter and is looking for work. At first when we asked Jeffrey if we could pray with him, he was a bit standoffish. After chatting a little while, Jeffrey spoke of how he did not like how there are so many religions out there and can’t it all be one? Deacon Mark quoted scripture where at the last supper Jesus asks the Father that they all be one as the Father is one with Him. With this word of God we wholeheartedly agreed with Jeffrey’s desire and he seemed pleased. Asking again if he would like to pray with us, Jeffrey agreed that everyone can use prayers and he as well. We prayed with him and asked God to help him rebuild his life and to grow closer to Him. He accepted a Resisting Happiness book which we told him was useful for guidance in making every decision every day and a rosary with pamphlet on how to pray it.

Several adult women with a little girl came up to us and one of the ladies told us that the little girl wanted to pray and that she needed to learn about the rosary. Crouching down to become the same height as the girl, Nancy asked her name. She proudly told us Sophia. She liked the red, white and blue rosary and wanted to wear it. We helped her put it around her neck and explained how these beads had to do with the lady on the sign holding baby Jesus and that her name was Mary and just like Sophia can ask her mommy to pray for someone, we can use the beads to ask Jesus’ mommy to pray for someone or even ourselves. We gave her a pamphlet on how to pray the rosary, which she gave to her mom to carry. After that, she asked for us to pray for her new baby sister, expected by her stepmom, and we happily obliged and prayed also the health, safety, faith and joy of Sophia and all present.

A young man came by, Terrence, and he had a great amount of body art and many gold chains, and beautiful sunglasses, and when he smiled he had gold on his teeth. He stopped when asked if he would like a crucifix. He said no, that he had plenty of those already, but when asked if he could use a prayer he said he could always use a prayer. We thanked God for the gift of our lives and we prayed for Terrence to have peace. We prayed about how we need God’s guidance to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Following prayer Terrence relayed that he actually was not from the area, that he was visiting from Orlando and upon waking that morning in his hotel room he did not want to get out of bed, and felt oh no not another day… He was very moved and told us that it was so strange that he came by us and that he stopped and talked with us and prayed with us and that now he felt so good about life this day and that he did want to share his love of Christ with the world. Praise be to God for His mercy and love are great!

Bruce, a homeless man, came by and looked familiar from another time doing SPSE. Nancy asked if they had met before, at a prayer station. Bruce said he did not remember but how nice it was for us to remember him 🙂 He had three rosaries around his neck and he spoke of how he once had a guardian angel medal that he wore on his wrist. He had lost his angel medal and he missed it and wondered whether we might have one. We were pleased to have the two sided angel medal, with the guardian angel on one side and St. Michael the archangel on the other. We asked him if he had ever heard the story about how Lucifer was the brightest angel and that when he did not want to do God’s will St. Michael cast him out of heaven and that this is why we ask for St. Michael the archangel to help us at moments of temptation. Bruce loved it! He asked for two more angel medals with prayer cards for his friends he was meeting at the library. Upon asking for prayer, he wanted us to pray for his toothache. We asked where it hurt and touched his cheek there and joined hands in prayer, calling on the Holy Spirit and asking for his tooth to be healed in Jesus’ name. Bruce told us that it was not hurting as much anymore, and we told him that God works signs and wonders even in this day and age, and that we prayed for his tooth to be completely healed. He asked if we thought there was something else he should do about this tooth. We recommended that Bruce rinse the tooth with very warm salt water several times, but go the hospital if it got really bad as a rotten tooth can affect organ function. We continue to pray in Jesus’ name may Bruce experience complete healing of his toothache.

Please keep the following people and their intentions in your own prayers:

For Chris to find employment and for his son Righteous who just graduated from high school.
For Jeffrey in rebuilding his life.
For Shirley to find a new job in customer service.
For Clarissa and Kyleen’s family, health, and faith, and for Aunt Sharon to be free of pain.
For Ed O’Donnell’s (attending immigration rally) family members who are in the last stages of life to be blessed with happy deaths. For the prostitutes he has met in ministry to be freed from their lifestyle and to turn to Christ.
For Ray’s healing of his tooth.
For Lee, an attendee of the immigration rally, and his fiance Juliette from Ghana to come together and marry.
For Sophia’s baby sister in her stepmom’s tummy and for the health, safety, faith, and joy of Sophia and her family.
For Bruce to find shelter, safety, and peace.
For Terrence to be blessed with peace and joy in the knowledge of the Lord at work in his life.
For Braunwynn starting her life as a math teacher, for blessing of self-confidence, faith, and joy in her vocation.
For Desi who works serving in homeless ministry, for joy, peace, hope and right judgement in his work, and for his mom Jeannette to have a complete healing and full recovery from her stomach cancer.
For Will and CJ to know the Lord’s will in their lives and to have courage, faith, and joy in following it.
For Jose’s right foot to be healed and for him to find shelter, hope, life, and peace.

We also pray for our country, that those in office look to do God’s will rather than their own and provide solutions that are charitable to all.