----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vinny Samarco" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "The Electronic Church" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 8:48 AM
Subject: Re: I request your prayers


> Angel,
> Sorry I didn't respond sooner, I have just read this.
> I'll be praying. Remember, our God is the God of the impossible.  This is 
> not the time for you to be pondering the cause of your son's mis-behavior, 
> ratherit is the time to continually call on the Lord, throw yourself upon 
> his mercy until he brings the solution.
>    The enemy of our soul would have you in doubt and condemnation, but the 
> Lord tells us to give thanks in all things.  Obviously this doesn' make 
> sense to the natural mind.  The scripture that comes to mind is the 
> following from Philippians 3-13 through 16.
>    Brethren, I count not myself to have aprehended; but this one thing I 
> do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto 
> those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of 
> the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be 
> perfect be thus minded; and if in any thing you be otherwise minded, God 
> shall reveal even this unto you.
>    Vinny
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Angel" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 1:45 AM
> Subject: I request your prayers
>
>
> I would like to ask your prayers.  My son is 16 years old.  He no longer 
> wants to go to mass, and he hangs around with the wrong crowd.  I had to 
> appear with him Monday before a court officer because he was caught 
> smoking, he is under age, and with a counterfeit controlled substance.  He 
> had to produce his report card from school.  I didn't receive his last 
> report card due to a mix up.  I asked the secretary for another.  She sent 
> it home.  It was the best report card he ever had.  I promised him money 
> if he brought his grades up, formerly they were pretty bad.  I was so 
> proud.  We presented it to the court officer and he was amazed as he 
> didn't see good cards often. I was going to tell the officer how bad he 
> had been, but, with that good card I thought perhaps he was turning 
> himself around and there was no real need to do this.  The same day his 
> teacher phoned and said he was performing badly and he was in danger of 
> failing.  I couldn't understand this given his good report card.  I even 
> thought he might have counterfeited it.  I couldn't figure how this could 
> be done as he didn't know the address of the school or the proper spelling 
> of the teacher or the principal's names.  I went to school today to 
> determine why they both were saying he wasn't doing well.  The upshot was: 
> He used my scanner to copy and change his grades.  I was so disappointed, 
> and felt so foolish.  Here I was trying to defend a boy who was so 
> obviously a fraud.  He lies so much I can't really trust anything he says, 
> but as St. Paul says "love believes all things" I guess.  It is just that 
> I know his potential and I know if he really tried he could do as well as 
> his phony grades indicated.  Just last week he stopped seeing a few of his 
> bad friends and I thought he was turning himself around but, he still 
> insists his report card was the one given him by the school, and the 
> confusion was the fault of the schools.  I keep thinking I must have 
> failed somewhere.  People keep telling me I haven't and his bad behavior 
> isn't somehow my fault, but, I still think if I somehow did something 
> differently he would improve.  If you ask him he will blame me for all he 
> does.  He uses me as an excuse.  I even do that.  I really need prayers.