This little girl saint is such a devoted pray-er. Ask her to pray for you, and she undoubtedly will. When you forget to pray, she will remember. When you're too tired to pray, she won't be. When your faith fumbles, hers won't.
She'll take a personal interest in your life and help keep you on the path to holiness. She won't do anything that is contrary to God's will, and I truly think that she always places herself right in front of the throne of God to worship Him and pray for our intentions.
Typical of the teenage girl that she is, she's passionate about what she believes in. She no doubt brings Our Lord immense joy because she was such a good servant of His during her life and continues to be now that she resides with Him in Heaven.
I wish all of us would keep better records of what we've asked for with St. Philomena's help. If we kept better records, we'd be able to appreciate more her intercession. But oh, how quickly we forget things! How fast we are to pass things off as coincides or later think of our prayer requests as silly and not as urgent as we once imagined!
Last night, I pulled out my handwritten novena book to St. Philomena. I had written it in July 2010. Since the 9-day novena which I prayed in July of that year, asking her to help open my eyes to recognize my husband, I truly haven't prayed a full novena to her since. I have done partial prayers, but never a 9-day novena. :-(But carefully placed between two of the little book's pages was a Post-It Note that I must have affixed there last Summer, and--based on the list of prayer requests I had on it--it was most likely written in July 2011.
I had begged St. Philomena that she would help Michael and I conceive a baby. I had prayed for my mother's skin to be healed of the horrible effects of a mysterious allergen that was causing her hands to peel, blister, and bleed for the previous several years. And I had other, more private things on that list, too -- including the intentions given to me by several friends.
Seeing that list again last night, I was able to let my jaw drop and be amazed at how many things from the list were now fulfilled! Here I am in my 9th month of pregnancy. Mom's hands have been 100% healed. And other major things on my list had been impressively mitigated or altogether expunged by God's generous mercy and love. He heard his little daughter, Philomena! And He responded!
Yesterday, I saw a woman who's friends with my mother-in-law. Her name is Judi, and she had another recent battle with cancer, and so--a few months ago when it began--I gave my mother-in-law a beautiful locket with a relic of St. Philomena to give to Judy.
Judy looked and said she felt FABULOUS yesterday. And she appreciated St. Philomena's intercession, she said. What could be more beautiful? Thank you, St. Philomena!
