CCAirwaves

Messages from Heaven- Finding Hope

• The Catholic Cemeteries Association

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In this episode, we journey down a path of hope, the very cornerstone of our faith. These messages from Heaven will remind you that even in the midst of suffering, we find hope in the most unexpected of places. Come along on this deeply moving journey with us, and may it remind you, as it did for us, that even in loss, love and hope persist.


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Paige Muttillo:

Hello everyone and welcome back to CC Airwaves. My name is Paige Muttillo and I'm here with my co-host, Joel Hansel.

Joel Hansel:

How are you doing Paige?

Paige Muttillo:

I'm doing really good. How are you?

Joel Hansel:

Not too bad.

Paige Muttillo:

So today we are continuing the series of messages from heaven, but the theme for this episode is hope, and I thought that would be a really great theme because it is actually one of our values for the Catholic Cemetery's association.

Joel Hansel:

Right. Our slogan is faith, hope and remembrance, so hope fits perfectly into that.

Paige Muttillo:

Exactly, And so I took this from our website and it says even in the heart of deep sorrow, we understand and remember the hope of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. This cornerstone of our faith reminds us all that death is not the end but the start of a new beginning, And I thought that would be a great way to start that episode, kind of tell you guys all a little bit about our values and what we believe. And I guess I will start us off with our first story.

Joel Hansel:

Sounds good.

Paige Muttillo:

Which was submitted by Marie H. My husband and I were overjoyed when we found out that I was pregnant After years of unsuccessful attempts. The news came as a relief. However, the joy soon turned into a nightmare when I suffered a miscarriage in my second trimester. The loss was profound, a wound so deep that no words could ever heal it. It felt like the grief clung to our house like a fog. For a long time I couldn't bear to bring myself to visit my baby's grave. The mere thought of standing there acknowledging my baby's departure from the world was too painful. My husband was extremely understanding during this time. He didn't push me. Instead he visited the cemetery alone.

Paige Muttillo:

About a year after the heartbreaking incident, i decided to visit my baby's final resting place. My husband offered to accompany me, but I declined because I needed to go by myself. I drove in silence. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I arrived at the cemetery. When I walked up to the grave, i was shocked to find a small, beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers. I looked around expecting to find my husband, but no one was there. I called but he said he hadn't visited the cemetery since last month.

Paige Muttillo:

I disconnected the call and fell to my knees, gently tracing the tiny engraving on the stone beloved angel, i felt a warmth in my heart that I hadn't felt since I was pregnant. It was as if God was telling me that it was okay, that my baby was okay and surrounded by love. The flowers were my sign from heaven that my baby was being taken care of, even if I wasn't able to do it myself. After that, i started to visit the grave regularly, each time finding a fresh bouquet. To this day, i don't know who brings them. We are God's messengers and I believe that he sent one to remind me that, even in the face of a heartbreaking loss, love and hope persist.

Joel Hansel:

Very nice.

Paige Muttillo:

I think that is a beautiful story and I can't help but agree with Marie H. We are God's messengers, and sometimes he does send us out to show us those messages that he wants us to spread.

Joel Hansel:

I think the story also illustrates, as we've heard many times on our episodes, how couples grieve differently. We also have talked about how there's really no timeline to grieve. It took Marie a year to actually visit the grave. There was a sign there for her and there's somebody out there that visits graves and leaves fresh bouquets those resting there. So that is a beautiful, beautiful story.

Paige Muttillo:

And, if anything, it's a reminder that there is God in the world.

Joel Hansel:

Our second story was submitted by Ethan Kaye. He writes My best friend, sam, died last summer. When it happened, i couldn't help but feel hopeless. We were supposed to be going to college together in the fall. It wasn't fair. The summer months went by fast and it was time to leave for school. I wasn't ready, though. We made these plans together. How was I going to do this without him?

Joel Hansel:

I decided to go on a hike the day before I left, just to clear my mind. I drove about 45 minutes away to a hiking trail that Sam and I always wanted to visit. Halfway through my hike, i started to pray. I asked God to send me a sign. I didn't know what I needed, but I knew I needed him. After I finished the hike, i made my way back to the parking lot.

Joel Hansel:

As I approached the entrance of the trail, i saw a familiar face. It was Sam's dad. I jogged over to him and he was shocked to see me. We hadn't seen each other since the funeral. I asked him why he was there and he said he wanted to feel close to Sam again and he remembered Sam mentioning this trail. He asked if I wanted to join him for a hike to catch up and I said yes. We shared how much we both missed Sam, and I started to tell him how I wasn't sure I could leave for college the next day. When he asked why, i told him that I couldn't do it without Sam.

Joel Hansel:

He stopped in the middle of the trail and turned to me. He put his hand on my shoulder and said that I wouldn't be doing this without him. Sam would always be with me And he would be with me whenever I. Wherever I went, i felt a gush of wind and it was almost as if Sam was right there trying to prove his father's point. We kept walking, but I couldn't get his words out of my head. After we finished the hike, we hugged and went our separate ways. I left for school the following morning. I'm grateful that I ran into Sam's dad that day. I needed the reminder that I will always have a connection with Sam and that he will always be there. God sent him to me to give me hope, and it was exactly what I needed to move forward.

Paige Muttillo:

My first thought after hearing that story is he must have been so tired after doing that hike twice. That's all I could think. Oh my goodness again. But in all seriousness, i really enjoyed that story And when I was telling our intern, jack, about it I kind of explained, gave him a little synopsis of the story and he goes wow, what a coincidence that Sam's dad was there when Ethan was there. And I told him I said you know, there are no coincidences with God.

Joel Hansel:

I think the thing that struck me about this story is it almost seems as if Sam put his dad and Ethan at that location at the same time, so that they would run into each other, so that they could talk, share, reminisce, help each other, have some healing And, in Ethan's case, some encouragement to go to school and realize that he's not really doing this on his own.

Paige Muttillo:

Yeah.

Joel Hansel:

That you know he's all.

Paige Muttillo:

Sam's always going to be a part of Ethan's life, So And you know, i wonder if there was a healing aspect of it for Sam's father running into Sam's best friend, and I wonder if there was something there as well where he needed to see Ethan And maybe it was just as healing for both of them.

Joel Hansel:

Well, i would think, when you have two individuals spending some time walking a path and talking about somebody that they knew and loved and cared about, The loss of someone special And they're sharing the stories that there's a tremendous amount of healing that takes place there. So I'm glad that Ethan did run into Sam's dad, that they had that time together.

Paige Muttillo:

So and I think it brings up the point from the last story that I made, which was that we are God's messengers and Sometimes we're sent to someone to give them a message. And Sam's father was sent to Ethan to make sure that he went off to school because Sam wouldn't have wanted him to stay behind and Spent his whole life inside a shell sure.

Paige Muttillo:

And our last story was submitted by Louise Fisher. You have probably heard her name on this podcast multiple times, as she was a guest on the inspiring stories of healing and hope and She had previously submitted a story on an episode of messages from heaven. But she emailed me a couple weeks ago And she requested that I give her a call because she had received a message from heaven while she was at one of our cemeteries, so I just wanted to share it. When I called her, she told me that on their way to the cemetery She took her grandkids to Target. I love Target, that's just a side note.

Paige Muttillo:

They were walking around looking at things and one of the younger ones brought her a book, a picture book. She had never seen it before. She almost didn't buy it, but the youngest child was so Persistent that she decided okay, i am going to buy this book. So they buy everything they need. They go to the cemetery, they lay out a blanket, they're sitting down, they're having a lovely time, they're just spending time in the cemetery with the children at the grave and she begins reading the book to them and In the book she picked a random page, started from there, because it's a picture book and has different chapters, and one of them was Basically an exact mirror of what they were doing.

Paige Muttillo:

So the two characters are sitting down in front of the grave with a blanket and One character asks you know, where where do people go after they pass away? And the one says that they go to a better place, but that they will always be there and they'll always be watching over you. And Louis thought that was a beautiful message And it really gave her hope, especially in the sense that the youngest child picked out this book at a random store, random time. She flipped to a random page and it just happened to be that if she had flipped 50 pages earlier, she wouldn't have seen that story and it wouldn't have mirrored exactly what they were doing in that moment. So it reminded her that her son is always watching over her.

Joel Hansel:

That's a beautiful story too. Um, definitely you could chalk it up to coincidence, but it's really not a coincidence. it There was purpose and meaning behind everything, when you really look in at the story From a distance and you're looking in at it It wasn't an accident that that book was chosen. It wasn't an accident that Louise opened up to that page and it wasn't an accident that on that page They were doing the exact same thing that Louise and her grandchildren were doing.

Paige Muttillo:

I wish that I could show The audience the pictures that Louise sent me of the book, but unfortunately this is a podcast So I am unable to link the photos. Well, that is all that we have for you guys today. Thank you so much for listening to the latest episode of CC Airwaves. You can follow us on social media And if you have received any messages from heaven, you can send it to us on there, or you can email us at podcast at CLECEMorg. We will see you next Thursday for a new episode.

Joel Hansel:

Until then, take care everyone.