The Casino

The Lord had put it on my heart to go to the Casino.  I wondered why I had to actually go to the Casino, so I asked Him, "Lord, why do I have to go?  I can pray for them in front of the Blessed Sacrament!"  

The answer was silence. 

So, in obedience, I filled up my car and went to the Horseshoe Casino. 

I always take what I consider the "big gun" on these missions, which means the blue Our Lady of Fatima Rosary that my husband bought for me before he died.  When I walked in from the parking garage, I had it constantly before me, praying it publicly.  I made it to the Casino and walked through the doorway to where the slot machines where.  

I immediately felt the weight of the sins of the people in the Casino, it was hard to bear, I only wanted out of there.  (I don't know peoples sins per se, just the 'weight' of them, I don't know how else to describe it.)  This isn't a parlor trick, God wastes nothing, and I know if I am given 'information' there is a reason why I know what I know.  Many times I have been places and received nothing, but when God does show me the heart or the sin then it is up to me what to do about it.  Be mindful, no one can do anything for God.  He doesn't need me or my prayer.  So what I am given is for my salvation in that I can purify my heart by showing love for my neighbor by offering my tears and supplications to God for them.  With each act of love I express in this way, my heart is becoming more purified so that I, and hopefully my brethren I pray for, can attain heaven. 

With the pain I was in, I didn't want to stay there.  I went outside, and just outside the door to the casino is a little love seat in front of the stairs.  I thought of sitting there, but then realized I wanted to get as far away from the casino as possible.   I had seen some chairs in the next hallway, I was determined to go out there and sit.  The Lord spoke to me, "No, sit there." (the  love seat).  In obedience, I sat in the love seat and continued praying my Rosary, publicly.  The people going up and down the stairs could see me clearly.  

{Interesting note:  If you pray your Rosary in public, the Catholics are easily determined from the non-Catholics by how they look at the Rosary.  Protestants will look curiously at the Rosary as if it is something they may have seen before, but the Catholic will look at the Rosary and immediately avert his eyes, especially if he or she is where she maybe shouldn't be!}

A young man passed by me and seeing the black Rosary I wear around my neck said, "Nice Rosary!"  and then went into the Casino.  I got up and immediately went after him, because whenever anyone comments on the Rosary I am wearing, I know that is one I am to speak to.  I caught up with him in the center of the Casino.

I took off the black Rosary from my neck and handing it to him, I said, "This is for you."  He looked surprised and then we began to talk, I asked him if he was a Catholic.  He said, he used to be, but didn't go to Mass anymore, he said it was, "Just easier not to."  He then began to speak ill of the Church.  I reminded him gently of the beauty of the Church and what God has given us in the Sacraments and the Holy Mass.  We sat down at a Blackjack table that wasn't being used and I began to tell him my story,  how the Rosary brought me into the Church and about the Real Presence of the Eucharist.   I explained to him what I saw in a dream, of the Holy Eucharist hanging in the air, bright like the sun, with the symbol for the Alpha on the left side and the symbol for the Omega on the right side and how I heard a male voice say, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."  

After about 30 minutes of talking with him he was saying, "I believe you."  

We were about to leave each other and I asked him one last question.  "Tom, I want you to ask God why He sent me to you today."  

He went his way and I was left standing there in the center of the Casino.  I slowly began to look around at all the people around me gambling with all the bells and noise from all the machines.  

As I stood there, it hit me....of all these people, and I was sent to only one.  

As I began to leave the Casino, I was drained and exhausted.  If I was this tired from just feeling the weight of sin, how much more did Jesus hurt going to homes of  the sinners and the tax collectors, and He KNEW their sin...I don't know people's sin, only the depth of it at times. 

As I got in my car to leave, it hit me, "Ok God, now I get it!  This is what Jesus did!  He didn't pray at the Synagogue all the time, He went out to the sinners."  

Then something else hit me.  If I had disobeyed God and sat where I wanted to sit, I would have never seen Tom. 

We must be willing to be courageous and go to where the most lost are and bring them to the Father.  Be brave, you have more protection from God than you know. 

I have a feeling there will be more "excursions".  Please pray for me. 

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(Oh, and just for a lark, take your Rosary and pray it in public, like a Walmart or somewhere else and see what happens! )