In my life as a Sister of St. Joseph, I have always felt an impulse to help people with their needs. At the beginning of my religious life, I worked as a teacher. In this mission, I always sought to evangelize through religion classes and focus on liturgical celebrations throughout the year.

In 1996, I left school and I dedicated myself to taking care of my sick sister. At that time I started to exercise what today we call Street Ministry, and offered to persons, particularly pregnant ladies or those with small children, a prayer for the children. Mothers were very happy. It is good to pray this prayer when the child is in the womb or is already born. You can do the same with adults. It is good to pray when the child or the person sleeps. Why? Because our unconscious never sleeps, and it works more easily when consciousness sleeps. The unconscious works with the material that we offer it. It does not choose or select. So it is important to always go to rest with positive messages, prayers that will inspire confidence in God. Never bring problems to bed and look for a solution. Otherwise, our unconscious works negatively when we go to our rest with negative thoughts.

I will tell you how our unconscious can change children or adults when we provide them quality material, by repeating positive messages and prayers that inspire confidence. I received a letter from a Chicago businessman who had read in my book, The Miracle of Mental Dynamics, the chapter titled, “How to feel good all the time.” It was in the year that his son, eight years old, was suffering from a very serious asthma, with paroxysmal crises requiring emergency treatment. One night the father sat beside the bed of his son and prayed aloud while the boy slept: “John, you are the son of God. See now the presence of God is in you. This is the presence of harmony, health, peace, joy, vitality, perfection. God breathed into you the breath of life. The spirit of God did this, and I know that the breath of the Almighty gave you life. You inhaled the peace of God and exhaled God's love. Father I thank thee because thou hast heard, and I know that you always hear. ” (John 11: 41 ff)

He prayed about an hour, repeating these great truths, knowing that they were penetrating the boy's subconscious. He felt that prayer was answered when he experienced an inner peace and had no desire to pray more. When the boy woke up in the morning, he said, “Father, I dreamed that an angel appeared to me and told me, John, you are healed.” The boy recovered fully. The conviction that the father had in the presence of God was communicated to his son and was acted upon by his subconscious, through the form of an angelic figure, who gave the boy certainty that he was healed. This is a power of the practice of the presence of God.

I use this and other messages to guide people I meet on the street or in other places, those who chat with me and tell me their problems. People are thrilled to receive this message or another. I have evidence that praying with conviction and perseverance produces results. This is one of the ways to accomplish my mission with people to promote justice, peace and love.

I thank God for having placed in my hands this way and others to carry out my mission simply and easily. People are very grateful and show a lot of confidence and affection. It seems to me that this is a way of bringing people together with God, with you and with others, remembering here our charism of communion.

Sister Maria do Carmo Giongo
Province of Lagoa Vermelha/Brazil