Pete's Testimony

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KATHOLOS
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PETE'S STORY
Out of the Darkness, into the Light
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Early Years
I was born in Vancouver, BC, Canada on September
28, 1962. I am the youngest of five children
Allan, Don, Lorraine, David (R.I.P. 1987) and me.
My earliest memories are of feeling a lot of
love, warmth and excitement. As time went on I
recall a number of tense times when my older
siblings would fight. I was quite shy as a young
boy.
I was baptized into the Catholic faith in St.
Jude's Church in Vancouver as an infant. As a
young child, I recall taking the baby Jesus out
of his crib from our Nativity scene, holding him
in my hands and kissing him. I loved Jesus with a
simple, pure love that I learned from my parents.
My mother used to kneel down to pray with me
every night.
I attended St. Francis de Sales elementary school
in Burnaby. I enjoyed going to the school masses
and singing songs with all the other children. I
grew up to love adventure!
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I remember when I was in elementary school,
probably around grade 5 or so, watching a video
on the life of Padre Pio, the famous
stigmatistpriest from Italy, who, like St.
Francis of Assisi, bore the wounds of Christ on
his hands, feet and side for over 50 years. I
remember this video really having a powerful
impression on me and made me think of being in
God's service when I grew up.
Soon, however, my passion for rock and roll
completely overshadowed any spiritual goals, as
this was the time of Beatlemania, the Rolling
Stones, etc. While in school, I learned how to
play the electric guitar and dreamed of
becoming a rock star. I was greatly influenced by
my brother David, in his choice of music and long
hair. Black Sabbath, Vol IV was the first album I
ever bought and I listened to it all the time and
knew it by heart.
I even brought it one day to "show and tell"
along with my stereo and cranked up Ozzy and the
boys, much to the horror of my elementary school
teacher! (Other kids were bringing "nice" things
like dolls, toys, etc.)... I also won the
"longest hair for a boy" in school as well, which
I was very proud of!
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Sold on Satan
In grade seven, I gave my soul to Satan. I was
fully aware of what I was doing. I figured that
since I enjoyed doing bad things, I might as well
join the devil's team. I began to take an
interest in the occult using tarot cards, a
ouija board and a mask of Satan. I painted my
walls dark red and my ceiling black I posted a
picture of Satan with horns, a pitchfork and a
wicked grimace.
High School and Beyond
When I entered St. Thomas More High School, I
played with a band. Those were the days of wild
weekend parties and lots of drinking. Once,
arriving home from a wild party, I looked in the
mirror and my face was bloodied, my hair a mess
and my clothing filthy. Instantly, I thought
about the sufferings of Jesus, even though I was
not in a loving relationship with him at the time.
My older brother David was a huge influence on my
musical tastes he introduced me to Led Zeppelin
and the rest was history. I had a poster of
Robert Plant on my wall and grew my hair long
like his, dressed like him, sang like him, etc.
and then got into Black Sabbath in a huge way as
well as Alice Cooper. Kiss was the first rock
concert I ever went to.
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I was blown away by the sound, the lights, the
special effects, the real fire explosions (you
could feel the heat hundreds of feet away), the
stage blood, the breathing fire by Gene Simmons,
etc. and I was hooked! All I wanted to do was do
what they were doing be a rock star and totally
rock the world!
At the time I did believe in God and went to
Catholic mass every week, but really didn't care
at all about religion and I never prayed. I was
just taking up space in church. Sometimes I
bugged the people there by making noise, talking
and even throwing pieces of paper over the
balcony to try to land them on people's heads
below! I must admit, that was a lot of fun!
Some of my friends used to sniff gas but I never
got into that because I thought it was a stupid
thing to do. For Halloween, however, I did put
gas into a glass spray can that used to have hair
spray in it, and went around with a lighter
shooting 5-foot flames around Burnaby, which was
a potentially deadly thing to do! Fortunately, I
didn't blow up or set myself on fire.
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I quit Catholic school because the principal was
bugging me about my long hair and most of my
friends had left for public school because there
were girls there, and there was none at STM. I
had a real knack of mimicking our teachers to a
STM. My friends laughed their heads off at my
impressions of our teachers.
I was kicked out of school for a day because I
refused to cut my hair I just put it up in
curlers to trick them into thinking it was short,
but it rained out and it went long again and the
principal got mad at me and sent me home! So, I
went to Burnaby South High School for grade 12. I
joined the progressive rock band Tom Foolery. We
were a trio, very much like Rush, and our
drummer, Phil Haslip, was amazing and could play
like no other drummer I had met before.
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After graduating, I went on the road with a rock
band named Roxcity. We were loud, heavy and loved
to party. Once, after a gig, I watched a TV movie
about the life of Jesus. It caused me to think
about my spiritual life briefly. God was planting
a seed.
I quit Roxcity while on the road, as I was
getting worn out with the wild lifestyle. I
joined another couple of musicians, to form
Tyranny. The name aptly describes what life was
like in the band.
In that band, though, I did start writing songs
and lyrics that were expressing a searching for
meaning, like "Questions in My Mind" "What makes
the stars shine and the earth spin? What makes a
man think he is real?" I shut the band down after
doing only one live show with them, because I was
restless and unhappy and I began to search for a
purpose in my life.
One day, an unusual thought came to me "I am a
Catholic." I realized that I had not lived as a
Christian should and I felt guilty. I continued
to search for something to make my life
meaningful. I slowly began to believe God must
have something to do with these feelings.
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Prodigal Son Gets Tired of the Pig Sty!
One day in May, 1982 I was mowing our front lawn.
At one point, I sensed a strong presence -- the
presence of Jesus. I stopped the mower, and
listened interiorly. An image of Jesus knocking
at a door appeared in my mind, and I heard Jesus
saying to me "Peter, I am what you have been
searching for. Open your heart to me and I will
give you peace and a new life." I explained to
the Lord that I was like the prodigal son but
that if he wanted me to, I would open my heart to
him. So I prayed, giving my life to Jesus,
accepting him as Lord and Saviour, and expressing
sorrow for all my sins.
As soon as this prayer was finished, I felt a
great weight lifted off me the power of the Holy
Spirit filled me with joy, peace and love. I
finished the lawn, and went inside. My mother
noticed a change in me, and I said something to
her about Jesus. Shortly after, I went to
Confession. I was welcomed by the priest, who
heard all my sins. He encouraged me by saying
that, even though I had not paid much attention
to Jesus all these years, the Lord had never
abandoned me. I felt such a spiritual burden
being taken away. I walked out of that church
feeling like a new man.
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From that point on, I wanted to please God. I
began to participate actively in Sunday Mass, and
eventually began attending daily Mass. I loved to
pray after Mass, having just received Jesus in
Communion. My life was transformed in ways I
could hardly believe. I was filled with a joy I
had never known before, and a burning desire to
share Jesus with everyone. I had a deep hunger
for God, and loved to begin the day with quiet
prayer, reading the Bible and the lives of the
saints.
I read about the life of St. Clare and how she
had all of her beautiful long blonde hair cut off
when she decided to follow the way of life that
St. Francis of Assisi had embraced, so I took a
pair of scissors and cut off all my long hair. I
stuck it in a glass box, thinking, at the time,
that if I ever became a canonized saint it would
be a neat relic, because I saw that they had a
box of some of St. Clare's hair! It was a real
hack job but it did the trick I made the change
I felt like a new man both interiorly and
exteriorly.
For me, my long hair had been a kind of symbol of
my dreams of rock star fame. The new short hair
was a symbol of giving myself to Christ and
rejecting the lure of sin and the world. I walked
around Burnaby to see what it felt like to have
short hair (I had long hair constantly since
about grade 5!)
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I helped to start a youth group in my parish with
friends. Since that time I was involved in many
kinds of ministries in the church and travelled
on pilgrimages to Israel, Rome, Assisi, England,
Medjugorje, Mexico, USA and across Canada. I
released several Christian albums and have made
three Christian music videos. I wrote a book on
spiritual warfare called "Spiritual Weapons"
which is available on this site for free as an
e-book. Many more things could be shared but this
is the main part of my testimony how Jesus
reached out to me back in 1982 and transformed my
life forever.
Today, many years later, I am still following
Jesus and am now married to my wonderful wife
Cyndie. Together we started the Missionaries of
Merciful Love, a group that is dedicated to
living and spreading the merciful love of Jesus
in the world. In 2004 I started the band Myztery,
which is now a recording band in our studio while
we tour with our new music ministry
songofthelamb.net .
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Thank you for taking the time to read my
testimony of how Jesus changed my life. Open your
heart to Him, ask Him to cleanse you of yours
sins, give your past, present and future to Him.
Trust in Him and ask God the Father to reveal His
perfect will for your life. Be baptized by water
and the Holy Spirit. Attend church every Sunday
and receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in holy
communion at every mass. Read the Word of God,
especialy the Gospel according to John. No matter
what darkness you have been in or may be in now,
the light of Jesus is greater and more powerful!
God loves you! God is merciful! Trust
in Him!
Pete Mason
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Finding of the Cross Chapel in Jerusalem
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