The excerpts from Julia Kim’s Testimony  
on January 3, 2015

The Blessed Mother’s request
“Tell people about the life you (Julia) led
and about your family that you have taken care of”

Praise Jesus! Praise the Blessed Mother! Today is a first ‘First Saturday’ of New Year of 2015. Let us open our hearts to Jesus and the Blessed Mother, that we may receive greater graces, so that I hope all of you may be happy throughout the year.

I encourage you that we must stay awake spiritually at all time because we don’t know when God will take our lives since a lot of things keep happening all around the world.

On January 1st, when I prayed the rosary with the pilgrims, I went into a state of ecstasy. The Blessed Mother said: “look at this world!” Then she showed me the world. Numerous murders were being committed, and this world is already filled with extreme disorder that no words can describe. I am not just referring to murders with stabbing knives and shooting guns. Rather, numerous people are killing with their mouths by judging and slandering one another. Moreover, a large number of our clergy and religious are blaspheming God, thus committing a deadly sacrilege in this world that is beyond description. God the Father, Who had been looking at all these was trembling with anger and, at that moment, the cup of wrath, lifted high, was shaking and spilled little by little on the world triggering fire to start and inflame at various places. I certainly saw that in the vision.

I saw lots of plane crashes happened with the majority of the passengers perished these days. There was one air crash where a woman who never missed a pilgrimage to Naju survived from the accident. Our Lord and the Blessed Mother will save us even when we are situated in an extremely dangerous crisis if we entirely trust and follow them. However, let us not be unwatchful and complacent but keep our souls clean and well prepared because no one knows when God will take our souls. In that context, we have to empty our minds and love one another. At the same time, there are pride, strong personality, and bad habit that may be lurking inside our mind. We must pull those out by the roots. It is difficult to just pull out. If we constantly offer ‘Turning our daily lives into Prayer’ which Jesus taught us in Naju, while pulling out those egoistic and abhorrent attitudes, our souls will be beautiful even before we realize it. Offering ‘Turning our lives into Prayer’ at every moment of our lives means a life with constant spiritual awakeners. This is why the Blessed Mother is crying out loud to it. This is because few people know how to offer the prayer.

I didn’t know this prayer when I was young. However, since I was a child, I thought ‘I have to lead my life well.’ so that I put everything in order. That was how my relatives noticed when they exclaimed: “Ah! Hong Seon (Julia) was here!” when they saw how organized the house was whenever they came back home. I am not telling you this to brag about my goodness, but the Blessed Mother requested me to “Tell people about the life you (Julia) led and about your family that you have taken care of”. I got married to Julio who is the eldest son of eight brothers and sisters. I rejected men who wanted to marry me if he didn’t have father regardless of how great a dowry they offered me.

I wanted to receive the paternal love from my father-in-law, but…

I lost my father when I was young. So as replacement, I wanted to be loved by my father-in-law at least, because to me, it looked similarly good as in the case of my elder uncle who took good care of his terribly wicked daughter-in-law. So even though my aunt and relatives were against it and dissuaded of getting married, asking me: “Are you insane?” But I finally got married and in consequence, both my father-in-law and my mother-in-law kept ignoring me continuously.

I moved into my in-laws’ house because my father-in-law became paralyzed from waist down because of stroke. The number of people in my in-laws’ family was 16 including a grandmother-in-law who aged over 90; two sons of my uncle-in-law who were going to the university, and the son of the friend of my uncle-in-law. But I took care of them and even my sick father-in-law including with caring for the baby who piggybacked on me. I did all this on my own without any help. Think about this. I drew water with a bucket dozens of times a day for our 16 family members because we didn’t have any water pipe linked to my in-laws’ house. I used to wash and wipe everywhere at home with mops that were always whiter than the dishcloth of our neighbors according to others’ saying. I cleaned the house always in the middle of the night after I finished my work. Then I went to my grandmother-in-law and gave her a massage. Even though everyone told me that I would regret if I marry the eldest son of the large family, I was so happy to practice love despite my tiredness.

I cared for my father-in-law with all my heart and had a feeling that he may convalesce from his illness by partaking some medicine from the oriental medical clinic in the east. But now that I come to think of it, the Lord let me know it even though I didn’t know about Him at that time. After I got a permit from my mother-in-law, I brought my father-in-law to the oriental medical clinic that the Lord showed me and let him go through acupuncture treatment as well. But when I decocted medical herbs carefully and gave it to my father-in-law saying: “Please have it”, he shouted at me, “Get out!” Then I succumbed and answered: “Yes, father.” He totally recovered in after 6 months.

I am offering up such sincerity and love for all of you now. If anybody who feels that you are suffering from stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, be healed totally! At that time, I all by myself, set the table separately and cleared the table for my father-in-law, mother-in-law, brothers and sisters-in-law and grandmother-in-law. But I have never told to my husband Julio “I had suffered such a hard time at the time.”

At the time, I made “Sung-nyung” (Korean scorched-rice water) very well. When I cooked this gently on low heat and said to my father-in-law, “Please have this”, he shouted at me “Just put it there and get out!” And after his Alzheimer’s disease was nearly healed, when I arranged his shoes well for his going on a visit, he yelled at me “Put it there and stay out of my sight!” but again, I succumbed and answered, “Yes, father!” and brought his walking stick to him quickly but he shouted to me “Put it there and stay out of my sight!” Yet, I followed him to the entrance gate and said: “father, have a pleasant time” then he said: “Don’t do that, just stay out of my sight!” Even though I always received harsh and cold rejoinders, I kept on doing all these for my father-in-law. I think that the Lord allowed all these adversities happened to me even though I did not know Him at the time.

We can be happy if we are not greedy too much.

But we should keep on emptying ourselves and practicing such love because we are the people who know the Lord. My father-in-law lived 3 years more after he got totally healed from his partial paralysis but he always gave me cold receptions and looked down on me. One day, when I visited the family-in-law with all my children, he talked with us through the evening. Because I felt that he accepted me as his family member, my heart was melted from the disgrace I suffered for several years.

On that day, he passed away. I could not forget the happy moment when he smiled at me for the last time. Everyone, we should feel loved. We can be happy if we just think that somebody treated me nicely and don’t become greedy. When we don’t feel loved, we become dissatisfied and unhappy.

The Lord led and trained me to turning my life into prayers so that I can make everything neat and tidy even when I didn’t know the Lord. Then, how can we practice turning our life into prayers? We should offer up our everyday lives graciously without missing anything. When the procession of the offering up of flowers and candles was completed while ago, I felt that my skirt was stepped on continuously. I looked back and found that it got entangled into Julio’s shoes. We and even the people who looked at this should not miss and pray, “Jesus! Please stamp my ego down so that it cannot lift its’ head up.” Even though we step down our ego, it can become alive, and wriggling when we are off our guard.

What do you do when you wake up in the morning? I have kept on carrying and using the Holy Water since I was a catechumen. When you wake up in the morning, sprinkle Holy Water right away to start your day. Sprinkle Holy Water whenever you ride in the car or make the sign of the cross. You know how powerful the Holy Water of Naju is, don’t you? Long ago, one woman from Busan who was possessed by Satan came to Naju on June 30^th, the anniversary of Our Lady’s weeping Tears. She came because she failed in anything that she tried repelling Satan. Fr. Jerry Orbos from the Philippines and some priests from other countries visited the Blessed Mother's House that day.

They sprinkled the Holy Water and tried to exorcise the devil from the woman. It did not work. So I instantly hand over the Holy Water of Naju to the priests. It was not until the day that I realized that tremendous Spiritual power of the Holy Water of Naju. When the priests sprinkled the Holy Water of Naju onto the lady, the big devil was exorcised, saying in excruciating pain: "OH, IT'S HOT!"

If we are willing to be grateful, there is a lot to be grateful.

When you meet with an accident, if you complain like this; "Worse luck! Why did Jesus and Mother Mary allow this accident although they said they will protect us even when we are faced with extremely dangerous crises!" then the devil will make us deprived of the grace we have received from the Lord and the Blessed Mother. Instead of complaining, we should say: "It could have been more serious accident than this. But, thank God for protecting me from a bigger accident!" How different it would be!

When you have a headache, don't say "I have to go to the Blessed Mother's Mountain, but why am I in such a pains of headache like this?" but offer up graciously, by praying: "O, Jesus! I offer up this pain for the Lord and the Blessed Mother and for the healing of my family members!" Then it becomes turning our daily lives into prayers. When you say, however, "Oh, I can't go to the Naju shrine because of this damn headache!" then Devil will be most happy!

Because many people complain even about small pains like headaches, bruises and scratches, the devils are laying traps to make our hearts insensitive and deprive us of the graces which will be bestowed by the Lord and the Blessed Mother. Even if we got a severe bruise, we should say: "My bones could have been broken, but I only got a bruise. Thank You Lord! Thank You, Blessed Mother!" by living a life of unending gratitude. If your left hand is broken, you could say: "Thank You Jesus! My right hand is not broken!" but if your right hand is also broken, Thank You Jesus! My legs are not broken, so I can walk!" Then, there are a lot to be grateful among us.

Dear children of God! Do not be selfish by saving gratitude and love all for yourselves! Love is sweet, but is as bitter as a gall. Why? It's because we should embrace other people's faults with love. If your husband or your wife cheated on you, it would be difficult to love him or her, but Love should embrace those faults and we should therefore love. Then, our love will be echoed back. Though we could not receive the love during our lifetime, we will receive thousands of millions of love from God surely. Believe it!

Now that we ring in the New Year, let us leave behind our bad memories and forgive all. And we have to turn our daily lives into prayers at all time. When I pluck white hair out from my helper, that person will stop me from doing it because I am suffering, but while I am turning my daily lives into prayers, I am doing it, praying "Lord! Please pluck out discoloration of our souls completely and fill where it is plucked out and empty with the Holy Spirit." After that, I thank the Lord. "Thank You Jesus! You took out that many evil habits from our souls!"

Turning our daily lives into prayers is different from Oratio Jaculatoria which is offered up some times (Turning our daily lives into prayers is offered up at every moment, for example, when waking up from bed, brushing teeth, washing, cleaning, putting on cloth, walking...Refer to the site: http://www.najumary.or.kr/English) We often forgot and missed to turn our daily lives into prayers.

For example, when you have some meat stuck in your teeth after a meal in the restaurant, you use a toothpick to remove the leftover from your teeth. At that time you can pray "Jesus! Please remove our bad habits and unnecessary things (not only mine, but others') from our souls." by doing this, you can offer up everything. In addition, we can pray each time whenever we remember something of the past that we forgot to turn it into a prayer.

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one to enter Heaven. Nevertheless, by turning our daily lives into prayers, we can pray at every moment when we lay down on the bed, get up in the morning, exercise...etc. Thus, if we cannot practice turning our daily lives into prayers, we should realize that we are not awake spiritually. If we try our best to practice turning our daily lives into prayers without neglecting or passing by anything regardless of how trivial it may appear to be, we can enjoy the eternal happiness in Heaven.

Although the Blessed Mother has been repeating the same words again and again "Do not excuse yourself, do not justify your fault, do not tell a lie", if we persistently excuse ourselves, to justify our faults, and keep telling lies, can we ever go to Heaven? Rather, we will lose our treasures that we have been accumulating in Heaven. That's why we have to preliminarily correct them (excuses, justifications and lies). Now that we celebrate a hoped-for and long-awaited new year, let us break our bad habits and come close to Jesus and Mama Mary in our renewed selves. Amen!