"Come to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
"God's Love Love is more easily embraced by those hearts who have suffered a great deal. Following are but a few of the testimonies of such persons. If you, or anyone you know have suffered such similar pains, learn from real living experiences in, "The Mystical City of God." and "Marriage in the Kingdom." Meet the real you, God's Child in His Kingdom.
Testimonials of some persons who have been touched by the Holy Spirit, reading "Marriage in the Kingdom." There have been many such letters since 1997, however these are typical responses from persons who yearn to find God and live as His children once again. If you would like to praise God for what He has done or is doing for you, send us an email and we will add it to our list of testimonials
Alleluia † Testimonials † Alleluia
"Wow! Have I got something to tell you. First I love the web address you sent me. Second your message confirmed the message to the Holy Spirit to me! I had just finished and sent a message to someone else about the disease of sin and how it spreads. I realized I had been infected by this man, and received deliverance earlier today.
Through prayer and worship of God the principality of anger left. He was a prisoner in me anyway because my will and God's kept him from doing too much through me. Boy was that unpleasant, but such a joy to be free!
Praise God and his kingdom! Thank you for coming to my aid, for confirming what the Spirit taught, and now I will spend some time on this web page, I have much to learn!"
"It is good to trust in the Lord our God."
"Hello Raymond Florence,
“God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.''
I am a bit sheepish about e-mailing you after so long a time, but I have been so busy at work and at home since the ...... meetings in ....... that I have not been able to finish your book until recently. But felt that I must write to thank you and to tell you how greatly I enjoyed the book and was helped by much that is in it. Not only did I receive some personal insights, but as my little quotation above implies, I believe our God was truly working with us and that I did not receive the book by ''chance.''
Let me give you some details. A Christian couple who are very dear friends of my wife ....... and I, have been experiencing severe marital problems. She is a (job title professional) and he is a (job title professional). They have two small children, and the husband has stayed home to look after the family duties. She (a medical professional) has a lot of stress in her work of course, and that coupled with the other stresses we a11 face, neglecting their spiritual needs, and not paying attention to the needs of their relationship, has lead to a breakdown between the two of them.
They stopped communicating and their behavior toward each other became destructive. The relationships with their respective extended families have also become very strained. They have cried out to my wife and I for spiritual help, and after much prayer, we agreed to try to help them. Unfortunately, they live many hours drive from ......, so we arranged to meet with them somewhere in between this past week end.
To make a long story short, I am not really gifted or experienced in ''marriage counseling'' (they are both attending counseling sessions, which is good) or even providing spiritual guidance in such matters. So, I believe that the Lord saw to it that your book came into my hands at the meeting in ....... in anticipation of my need for something to help them.
It is so clear (the book) and has so many examples that they could relate to, I could use it in their particular circumstance. I felt that the table showing the difference between the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Man, and the Kingdom of Satan, was particularly illuminating to them because they had been trying to apply the techniques of the Kingdom of Man to their problems. The tomatoes and donuts (stories in the book) helped to. They could see themselves in your examples. I believe that they have been helped and, although it will not be easy or fast for them to get back to an open, honest and joy filled marriage, they are trying.
I am sure that as ...... and I try to help them along we will be referring to your book many many times. Again thank you, thank you. I will not take more of your time, but I would like you to know that since meeting you both, ...... and I think of you often in our prayers and conversation. I hope that your new book (Bless the Lord my soul) is progressing
I will keep in touch from time to time, and if ever I can be of help to you, please let me know.
Yours in Christ by the love and grace of God,"
"In the Lord I will be ever thankful, in the Lord I will rejoice."
"Dear Florence & Raymond,
Thanks for your kindness! One of the three books is in use already! One was given to a friend at .... college who has just become engaged; they both celebrate their faith readily & joyfully (Catholic & Protestant) so we anticipate they will read your book with interest and excitement.
Another copy was given to good friends enjoying an R.C.I.A. course (superb couple of Catholic & Protestant backgrounds); this copy is going to see good use!
And the third - well, we look forward to another occasion to put it to use, ...and then we hope to obtain more! Keep up your good work eh?
Sincerely,"
"Bless the Lord my soul, and bless His holy Name."
"Dear Deacon Raymond
What a blessing to come across your web site this afternoon! Nothing is coincidence in the Father's Plan. Thanks God for you and your ministry. I look forward in the future to share with you more about our Blessed Mother who is very dear to my heart and soul.
Today, I only have time to say hi and to offer one correction: I found '"it's" is being used as possessive form for ''it'' where correct usage calls for ''its''. That's all for now.
Magnificat anima mea Dominum!"
"Sing a new song to the Lord, sing His praises at all times."
"Hello,
By accident I found this site. I was in Church this morning and out of the blue I felt the urge to call up City of God on the web. After not finding what I was looking for, I decided to search for Mystical City of God. And behold, I found this site.
You see, next to the Bible I feel that I was so blessed to have come across Mystical City of God. I have the four volume set. I try to tell everyone to read it. I love it so much that I buy by the case the excerpt on the passion of our Lord. This excerpt is what I read first then it led me to the four set volume. When I read about His passion, I just sobbed. We are truly an ungrateful lot! I feel that it is truly a gift from God so that we can imitate our blessed Mother better. Besides, She leads us to Jesus.
I type in amazement at finding this site. I will pray upon this, you see I have tried to get other people to read this so that we could get a study group. To me this is finding the pearl in the field. Deo Gratias!!!
Are you a Catholic priest? Are you the author of this project? I have learned so much from these books. Everyone thinks I am nuts because I believe in these books. But in my heart I know they are true.
Do you have many people who participate? Does anyone live in ........ ....? What a blessed day this is to find this site. I really have to go because I have much to do before I go to work.
God bless you for your work, abundantly."
"Jesus your light is shining within us,
let my heart always welcome your love."
Dear Raymond,
I find that I have inadequate words to express how wonderful a gift that our heavenly Father has given to you! This writing is heavenly. It is so rich that I am overjoyed in reading it. Truly the Holy Spirit is with you and you received Divine inspiration. What a gem! I have learned already! I look so forward in reading everything In fact I stayed up rather late to read.
I praise you Father for always leading me to what I need to hear. You are a good Father and I thank you for your servant Raymond who so lovingly shares. For me the paragraph below is so profound and is everything in a nut shell. It is so beautifully and simply said.
''HOWEVER, there is an answer. It is a marriage where two persons in love, live with their dear Lord as God's children, in their Father's home, and nourish themselves with the Word of God, and receive the help of the Holy Spirit, and are enlightened and strengthened by the sacraments and receive counsel from their Mother Mary and give praise and glory to God in all things."
This is a book of gold! I just kept saying over and over Lord, Oh my! Lord, Oh my! Lord, Oh my! This is just a wonderful blessing to read and ponder over. I do have some questions but I will wait until I reread. Thank you for sharing. Thank you Holy Spirit for the Divine inspiration that day in church to look up City of God on the web.
In Union with the Two Hearts,
God Bless.
"Christ has come bringing peace, bringing joy to every heart."
"Hi, I found your book on the internet and I am reading your book from the internet. I just finished reading Chapter 13 (Holy Spirit Counsellor and Companion). I would like to ask you to pray for me and my family and here is why.
(The writer than goes into a very detailed account of his stormy marriage. He sees his family being destroyed and asks for prayers.) He asks me to not to divulge ANYTHING where the details of his marriage and family life is concerned, but he now has "Marriage in the Kingdom" as his guide." Sometimes it isn't possible to get spiritual direction from our Pastor, too few priests and too many marital situations. "Marriage in the Kingdom" tries to fill in this void.)
Father,I love You!
“Wow!
This is a really good book! I'm redoing a web site "..........." and I am putting a link to your book. Is that OK with you?
This book is going to help me out a lot! I am married with .... Children. I'm just happy after reading 4 chapters of your book; and I used to walk with Jesus, imperfectly of course. But sin has slowly crept into my life (or rather a separation from God), and my senses have been dulled by it, by the constant barrage of information, by duties of the world, etc. (I'll presume by your book you know as much as I do what I am saying.) Not saying prayers, hiding from God, making confessions that are somewhat ungenuine yet, still trying, when I used to be so close.
About a year ago I walked into an adoration chapel and heard the words rather sternly, "What do you want with me?" I try to think that this was from the Tempter (and it might have been) but I think that it wasn't. So, I have lost sight of the "person" of God and sort of followed the "object" of God. Same with people.
And all the symptoms of sin in your book I have, most anyway. I'm bolstered by my education in philosophy and reading lots of good religious books but I haven't really had a desire for them lately. I would appreciate some good advice (I guess your book) and I started out by saying I love your book and I hope it will be the catalyst for a better life for me and my family.
Still in a fog but the sun is shining,
P. S. If you live in Ottawa and have a copy of the book 1'd love to come over, meet you, and buy two copies.”
"Sing out my soul, my heart rejoices in the Lord."
"Dear Raymond,
Having found your book on the net, I feel a compulsion to tell you how much it has meant to me as well as other recent happenings.
I am xx years old, happily married with x children aged x and x. Although I was brought up a Catholic, for many years I had become so focussed on material things, and with the pressures of work, I had forgotten about God, our Lady, how to pray, and even though I went to Mass each Sunday, it was more out of habit than anything else.
I had become extremely bad tempered, didn't listen to anyone in my family, didn't hear their cries for help. I could so easily have had affairs, I committed many impure acts of mind and against my own body, and my life was a mess even though I could never admit this to myself. I was too preoccupied with my concerns to pay any
attention to my daughter who was having a terrible time at school.
My daughter became depressed, left school without taking my exams. She was very withdrawn and said I didn't care about her. This crises started to bring me to my senses. I started to deal with her problems, and the anguish of my wife.
More recently, I had a ''call'' to go to the ...... ..... at a church in
........ This is a series of gatherings for people of all churches to discuss and broaden their faith. I heard about the ..... ..... at Church in ......... It is an interdenominational meeting where anyone can attend. You have a meal, then watch a video by an ........ minister called ..... ......., who has the incredible gift of preaching and healing, who created about xx hour videos on the essentials of the Christian Faith. The video was followed by discussion groups.
We also read psalms, sing hymns. There I met 2 people who helped me release some of the burdens through healing, and both had the gift of tongues. One of these people, ...... ...., seemed to know I needed help, and we spent a lot of time in discussion. She is a lovely person, but unfortunately for me she was suddenly sent to another convent in ......... ... miles away. However, she took the trouble to come to our house to carry out the ceremony of enthronement of Mary Immaculate Queen of the Universe. She said that we would soon notice the difference Mary would make to our lives. She stayed for diner, and then we showed her the internet, which she had never seen. We found one religious site, a convent in .......
That gave us the idea, after she left, to explore religious sites on the internet. Straight away we found your site, and started reading your book. Your experiences, and some of the prayers were very inspiring and we started to print more and more chapters, until we had printed the whole book! Now, I include some of your prayers, for example the lovely prayer to Our Lady at the end of Chapter 14, during our ''Evening Rendezvous'' with our Mary, Immaculate Queen.
Your book made such an impression on us that we have explored more and more on the net, finding material such as Simon de Montfort on the history and practice of saying the Rosary. I now have started to say the Rosary for the first time since childhood, and I try very hard to say it well, it is not easy! However, every now and then I feel the joy of the Holy Spirit, just when I don't expect it!
I also went to confession for the first time in years and it was very
humiliating at the time- but I feel a great joy now that I know I am
receiving the body and blood of Jesus at Mass, in a state of grace for the first time in years.
What is even better, is that I can feel the effect all this is having
on all the members of my family. Today, my daughter announced she was coming to church with us - the first time for quite a while. I am praying that she develops her faith, something that I have neglected to help her with for many years. I don't think my son will come back though, but I may be wrong! I think I have said enough for now.
I am truly grateful for the impact you have had on our lives. Yours gratefully, "
"We adore You Jesus Christ
and we bless Your Holy Name."
“My dearest brother Raymond,
Thanks so much for the WONDERFUL gift of marriage in the Kingdom. You have and continue to blow me away... can't put it down. As I write this note to you my eyes are beginning to fill with tears... where have I been all these years?
I ask that both you and Florence pray that the Holy Spirit gently moves ...... to BROWSE through it.
Much love to Florence also.
Now I can truly say, IN His Peace and Love,
Your little brother,”
"Raise a song of gladness, peoples of the earth."