The Weight of Smut - porn

The Weight of Smut

Medjugorje - Miracle of the Sun - May 2010 (1)

MELISA'S EXPERIENCE IN MEDJUGORJE 2010



Fr. Jozo giving talk in Medjugorje, St. James church
on May 25, 1990 at 3:01 pm ,
 our video has USA time of 10:01 am



Saturday, August 28, 2010

SOURCE -My experience in Medjugorje

--by MELISA 2010

"To be able to give, you must have. Love to be true has to begin with God in prayer. If we pray, we will be able to love, and if we love, we will be able to serve."– Mother Teresa

The quest for God is what I was after all along...and yoga was a tool necessary to bring me along in that all important journey.

My time in Medjugorje was nothing short of miraculous in a very personal way, and extremely challenging spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. I can talk, blog, argue my point of view for the rest of my life, but what would be the point in doing that. There is something going on in Medjugorje for those who don't know and there is no resource that can give you an accurate picture of this very holy place on the Internet or even in the written word. There are several videos about Medjugorje, I would say the 20/20 piece on Medjugorje done in the 80's when it all started would be a good place to start to find out more information,

if you can find it.

I discovered in Medjugorje the courage to follow my heart in listening to the more beautiful and profound message of God and how God speaks to me. God speaks to different people in different ways and this is how Our Lady speaks to people in Medjugorje, in an inexplicable, deeply personal way! There are so many miracles I experienced myself and saw other people experience during my 3 month stay that would make absolutely no sense if I tried to express this in the written word. The message of Our Lady is to be lived, it is a message of conversion and that is what is happening to me even now, especially now that I am back home. The main message of Our Lady of Medjugorje for the past 29 years is simple but urgent call: Pray! This call from God to each and every person to pray is only heard and understood on a personal level if you are able to visit and experience Medjugorje yourself. There are no words to accurately describe the experience of Medjugorje!The following is Our lady's latest message to the world on August 25th:

“Dear children! With great joy, also today, I desire to call you anew: pray, pray, pray. May this time be a time of personal prayer for you. During the day, find a place where you will pray joyfully in a recollected way. I love you and bless you all. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

I have a desire to be sincere in my prayer To God, and in my relationship with God, and it so personal and new that I want to keep praying until I find that connection with God that the saints have. This is the message Our Lady wants to deliver to each person, this desire to reach God at all costs because this relationship IS EVERYTHING!!!Here is a short video of some highlights from my visit, the music is from the St. James parish music ministry:http://animoto.com/play/imKNb5MkMT3D5v1ImmKSUQ?autostart=true

"Flowers for Our Lady of the Rosary" QUILT

SOURCE LINK - Creative Longarm Quilting by Karen Marchetti: Judy's "Flowers for Our Lady of the Rosary":

"It all started with a class... a class that Judy signed up for. The class was for the 'Passion Flowers' quilt in the book Applique Outside..."

Cancer Research: Never Too Late for Plant-based Diet

Cancer Research: Never Too Late for Plant-based Diet  -  SOURCE  Hallelujah Acres

In an effort to emphasize taking personal action to defend against cancer in retirement years, the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is highlighting the fact that many cancers can be delayed or prevented through regular physical activity and a plant-based diet, even later in life.
Says AICR Nutritionist Alice Bender, MS, RD, “You can’t control your age, but you can control your cancer risk.”
The opening session of AICR’s annual research conference will address some intriguing new studies including:

• The latest findings from Michael Fenech, PhD, of CSIRO Food and Nutritional Sciences in Australia, on the effect of various nutrients on DNA stability and the prevention of DNA damage associated with both aging and cancer.
• New findings from Trygve Tollefsbol, PhD, DO of the University of Alabama, showing that substances in broccoli and green tea inhibit the action of cancer cells in a specific way that’s closely related to the aging process.
• New evidence from animal models presented by University of Texas aging expert Steven Austad, PhD, that, although preliminary, suggest calorie restriction (30 to 40 percent fewer calories without nutrient deficiencies) may play a role in helping cancer patients hasten recovery from surgery and lessen side effects of treatment.

The AICR’s “new” research findings, says Daniel Perry, President of the Alliance for Aging Research, show that older Americans have the ability to lower their cancer risk through simple lifestyle change.
Obviously, we at Hallelujah Acres consider it great news that the AICR is emphasizing diet (a plant-based diet at that!) as an effective self-protection measure against cancer. Let’s pray that people listen!
Read the whole story.
Visit the “Never Too Late” website.

DID ROSARY STOP HORRIFIC SERIAL KILLER?

DID ROSARY STOP HORRIFIC SERIAL KILLER?

"He had just murdered or fatally injured
all the other girls in a college sorority house,
and then entered her room --
but some unexplainable force made him stop,
drop his weapon, and flee.

"That particular girl had promised
her grandmother she would
pray the Rosary every night,
and when Ted Bundy entered her room,
she was still clutching
the Rosary beads in her hand."

BLIND GIRL MET JOHN PAUL

BLIND GIRL MET JOHN PAUL IN WAY THAT LED TO A WONDROUS LIFE AND THEN A MIRACULOUS DEATH

At a time when so many are down on the Church, it's interesting to see through the eyes of a young girl -- a blind girl who had mystical vision.

Let's back up and say this comes from a book by a medical doctor named Dr. John Lerma, who specializes at the Houston Medical Center Hospice in tending to patients as they near death.

Dr. Lerma has had tremendous experiences with these patients -- documenting the many who see angels or deceased loved ones and have glimpses of the eternal as they approach the threshold.

But what we'd like to focus on today is a different kind of supernatural experience that occurred when a ten-year-old girl named Sarah who had been blind since birth as a result of atrophic optic nerves was taken to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. This was an Easter Sunday nearly two decades ago.

"I marveled at the multitude of loving sounds that Bernini's dramatic design was exuding," recalled Sarah nineteen years later as she lay dying of cancer. "As I walked through the towering, ornate door of St. Peter's Basilica, I was drawn by an alluring vibration toward the chapel to my right.

"What I was allowed to hear was beyond awe.

"The vibrations and frequencies, now a part of my entire being, were the remnant echoing sounds of sadness replaced by utter joy and exuberant love from the statue where Jesus was heard to be lying on His mother's lap after being crucified. I knew I was now standing in front of Michelangelo's most honored statue, the 'Pieta.' Feeling some unfamiliar loving force take hold of my hand, I took hold of my mother's and followed with total faith. I told my mom not to worry and to trust me, as there was an angel leading us to our next spiritual experience."

The angel lead them to the front of the basilica, where a "gentle voice" told Sarah that "this is where God would like you to sit."

Sarah's mother thought it was all very cute -- but also impossible; and she readied to leave. It was reserved seating. It was a front pew! But Sarah persisted, and when a priest in charge of seating approached, he told them it was not only okay to remain where they were but that after Mass he would take them to meet John Paul II!

Mass began. It was "surreal."

"As the angelic sound of cardinals and priests walked past me," recalled Sarah, "I then heard a different, more glorious sound pass to my left. It was Pope John Paul II. Amazing warmth and healing power radiated from his hands as he blessed the crowd. Once again, I could make out sounds emanating from everything around the basilica -- both animate and inanimate, as if everything was glorifying God."

Throughout Mass Sarah sensed the sounds and colors from the relics and paintings and felt she could sense angels throughout the sacristy. Her angel held her hand and he sang praises to God.

After Mass, the priest, whose name was Father Delaney, took Sarah and her mother to a smaller room, which she said was "saturated with the most beautiful sounds and vibrations of desire and hope that were felt to be piercing my ears and soul," according to Dr. Lerma's splendid book, Learning from the Light.

The angel -- who identified himself as "Cherin" -- whispered that the Holy Father was coming.

"All the other children must have had their own angels, as my mother told me we all appeared to be standing up in unison and without a formal announcement from Father Delaney.

"Mesmerized as to why we stood up, I knew he was aware that there was something greater than him coordinating this most glorious occasion. At the moment our Holy Father walked in, I began to hear the sound of several angels singing on either side of me. Cherin told me I was hearing all the guardian angels singing in reverence of the Pope."

The pontiff, John Paul II, in the prime of his pontificate, greeted them -- then gently held Sarah and placed her head on his chest, over his heart, "and just loved me."

As tears flowed down her face, the Pope let one roll onto his finger.

"He then whispered into my ear, 'My child, this teardrop holds the faith needed to heal you in ways you cannot imagine. God has sent an angel to guard you and guide you as you prepare to glorify Him through a miraculous life.

"'You will help many come to believe in an all-loving God. Sarah, like you, I could be healed from my ailments, but we are being asked to view suffering for its strength and not its weaknesses. You see, Sarah, Jesus' Plan is to bring all souls back home, but He needs the empowering innocence of children and their willful suffering to engender His design. Pray for understanding and wisdom my child.'"

This she told to Dr. Lerma. "I guess you know the choice I made," she later recounted as a 29-year-old dying in that Houston hospice from cancer.

"When our Holy Father had finished talking to everyone, the spirited energy was almost palpable," she said.

"Simultaneously, I heard the angels singing the following words, 'Glory, glory Hallelujah. Glory, glory Hallelujah, Glory, glory, Hallelujah. His Truth keeps marching on." A moment later, John Paul II and Father Delaney were singing this too! We see the interaction with Heaven.

It was breast cancer that eventually caught up with Sarah. She had decided to suffer "joyfully" for those people "far from God." In the end, she was promised, there would be a gift for her.

When Sarah died, it was in the accompaniment of angels. She was graced too by words from the Blessed Mother, who identified herself to Sarah as "the woman you saw on the statue [Pieta] when you visited Rome."

Before Sarah succumbed, she was given a lifelong wish: sight! She was able to see her surroundings and write something for Dr. Lerma! It had been a promise from above. She told the physician about the incredible angels that were four to ten feet tall with long blond hair and blue or hazel eyes -- and flowing robes. She was able to describe what the doctor looked like and what he was wearing, even though she had never seen an earthly color before! "I wanted to tell you that Jesus was here the whole time you and I were talking about the angels," she said as she approached death. "He was sitting next to you and His energy was what gave us both total peace and comfort. The 'gift' was on the other side of the bed, and his name was John.

"Yes, John Paul II.

"He showed me my tears that were still on his fingers and palms from my visit to Rome. When he rubbed them on my eyes, I was able to see infinitely more. I was looking at the Kingdom of God. It was so worth it."

Medjugorje Conference, Notre Dame tells conversion stories of priests

Medjugorje Conference, pilgrimages influence diocesan priests, seminarians

By Diane Freeby
NOTRE DAME — Many priests within the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend say their own vocations have been strengthened by graces received in Medjugorje. A Vatican commission is studying the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina. At least two of the newest seminarians credit their experiences of the Blessed Mother in Medjugorje with helping them discern and prepare for the priesthood.
Seminarian Daniel Davis recently shared his story at the 22nd National Conference on Medjugorje, held in May at the University of Notre Dame. Parishioners of St. Therese in Fort Wayne, Davis and his family have attended the conference for many years, but 2008 was especially meaningful. It was at Mass during the conference that Davis says he discerned his call to the seminary. As an act of thanksgiving, Davis went to Medjugorje the following year and was accepted into the seminary a few months later.
“Medjugorje heightened my devotion to Our Lady, my devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist and prepared me for life in the seminary,” recalls Davis. “While I was there, Our Lady showed me many things. She definitely helped me to prepare for spiritual life in the seminary. It excited my desire to have a deep spiritual life.”
Another area man, Marian High School graduate Robert Garrow, will enter the seminary this month. He was also in Medjugorje last summer with a group including Father Daryl Rybicki, pastor of Corpus Christi Church in South Bend.
Father Rybicki, who devotes time every year to help at the Notre Dame conference, has been to Medjugorje several times, only after entering the priesthood. Father Rybicki says going to Medjugorje “reenergizes” him, especially after hearing confessions there, where lines are long and hearts and lives are often changed.
“The reality is, I think you come back having had that experience of seeing God at work in people’s lives,” shares Father Rybicki. “I think for a priest, that’s a refreshing kind of thing because it gives some credibility to the vocation and to the work of Christ and His Church.”
While people can come back to the sacraments anywhere, Father Rybicki says there is something special about what’s happening in Medjugorje.
“People obviously are experiencing some sort of change in their life,” says Father Rybicki. “When you see it happen in such great numbers, that to me is one of the fruits. Hopefully people can take that experience and take the messages and make them part of their life from that point forward.”
Father Rybicki was in charge of all liturgical elements for the conference weekend, including both Masses, the candlelight rosary procession to the grotto, the living rosary and Saturday evening’s Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction.

Fr. Mark Gurtner

Father Mark Gurtner, pastor of St. Anthony de Padua in South Bend and adjunct judicial vicar of the diocesan Marriage Tribunal, delivered a talk Saturday morning about the Holy Mass. He explained the different elements that go into every Eucharistic celebration.
Father Gurtner says the pilgrimage he made to Medjugorje as a teenager helped him learn to surrender his life completely to God. He talked about having his heart set on going to the University of Notre Dame and having his entire life wrapped up in that possibility. While he was in Medjugorje, his parents received the letter saying he was put on the Notre Dame waiting list. Father Gurtner said that might have devastated him, but upon hearing the news when he returned from Medjugorje, the 18-year-old instead had great peace. He attributes that to Our Lady’s presence. A few years later, at Indiana University, he felt the call to the priesthood and went on to be ordained, earning a canon law degree from Catholic University.
The three-day conference wrapped up with Mass on Pentecost Sunday. The celebrant, Father David Simonetti, was ordained five years ago to the day by Chicago’s Cardinal Francis E. George. Father Simonetti has been to Medjugorje three times and is the spiritual director of the Pope John Paul Eucharistic Adoration Association in Chicago. During Sunday’s Mass, Father Simonetti knelt before the statue of Our Lady and rededicated his vocation to Our Lady at Medjugorje, to whom he credits his priestly vocation.

Dan Davis

As a young seminarian, Davis says Medjugorje helps him remain focused on Jesus.
“Our Lady has many times emphasized that she is not the center of attention; Jesus is the center of attention,” says Davis. “The Eucharistic devotion there is so inspiring. It inspired me to have a great devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Honestly, without the Eucharist, Medjugorje would not exist.”

Posted on June 2, 2010, to: SOURCE -- TODAY'S CATHOLIC NEWS

Medjugorje and Richard Bingold

Bingold once owned nightclubs in the Fort Lauderdale area and was partners in a private-investigation company with former New York cop Eddie Egan (famous as the real-life detective behind the "French Connection").
Bingold lived in the fast lane. He was a heavy drinker (sometimes two quarts of hard liquor in a single day) and by his own admission a philanderer. In 1978 Bingold was involved in a horrific speedboat crash that crushed his face. It was during a stakeout. Trapped in the boat before he was rescued, he had a terrible realization. "I knew I was going to die, and I knew where I was going to go: to hell," he told us. "The accident chopped off twenty percent of my tongue and broke my shoulder, my left arm, my rib cage. My face was crushed in nine places. I knew where I was going and I just accepted it. There was no panic. I was just accepting it because I knew who I was. I was going to go right down to hell. It was a very weird feeling. I knew I just couldn't be saved in the condition I was in, the way my soul was. "

Miraculously, Bingold survived (albeit barely, requiring facial reconstruction), and years later, after another close call (this time when his car ran off a road), he cried out to the Virgin Mary for help. That was February 22, 1987, and he has never even desired a drink since that time. He dried out, but God was not yet through with him. In 1992 Richard, who is now 67, was getting up from a table when he felt like someone whacked him with a baseball bat. "I went down on the floor and rolled around in my anguish for a good hour," he says. "I raised myself near the dishwasher eventually and I couldn't even get up on my hands and knees. I saw my life go by, one thing after another -- my infidelities, sins of the flesh. That was number one. Then my treatment of my children and my untruthfulness to myself. That was huge -- never being honest with myself, never admitting being the man I was. My business dealings. Untruthfulness, untruthfulness, untruthfulness, to myself, to my Lord, to my family. And specific situations would pop into mind.

"It would just come to me, not like in a picture frame, but in complete detail so I couldn't deny it. It was one thing after another and I just heaved and heaved crying. It was unbelievable. What surprised me was seeing all of it in such completeness. Later on when I learned more about this enlightenment and things predicted to come, I couldn't help but think this was like a mini one to help me get back, to straighten out."

Some expect an event to come to the world that will cause everyone to have such an experience. Bingold went through a massive conversion, and visited the apparition site of Medjugorje many times. Just before a trip in 1995, on Holy Thursday, he says he experienced an apparition of the Lord. "He had a crimson robe with big bell sleeves and a white undergarment and little rose petals at the opening of the collar, but His face -- it looked like He had just been taken off the cross," says Bingold. "He was bloody and black and blue as you can imagine. And He had His arms out and He was looking up over the the ceiling and the ceiling was illuminated in gold. His eyes were like bloodshot and His Adam's apple was big and strong and in each hand He had a slit and through each opening in the hands was like a spray of gold mist coming through from behind. The rays were coming through the hands. He never said a word."
Bingold saw this with eyes wide open.
"He was there well over a minute," says Bingold. "I could see Him breathing. He was like totally exhausted, and His face was puffy at the cheekbones and bruised like He had been punched for hours. He had the crown of thorns."
Bingold says the miracles continue to this day. With the permission of two Bishops, he has a healing ministry and travels the world with a "pilgrim rosary" he fashioned from the stones on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje. 
SOURCE - St. Joseph Catholic Church, MA
___________________________________________________________________________

Who is Richard Bingold ?

Saturday 27 October 2007, by Fr. Philippe

Richard Bingold, Catholic lay evangelist, has travelled much from his home in Vermont, America, with his Rosary fashioned out of the stones of Apparition Hill, Medjugorje. The formation of the Rosary correlates to Our Lady’s call to conversion. Just like the stones needed grinding, so too the pilgrim must become like clay in the Potter’s Hand pliable to His touch, ready to be formed according to His plan. The centre stone of the Rosary, a large stone that resembles a human’s heart exuded the smell of roses when it was made. Richard was overwhelmed and then gave his Fiat to Our Lady. Richard took the Rosary back to Medjugorje once it was completed where Vicka, one of the visionaries presented it t Our Lady. It was approved as a pilgrim Rosary to travel the world for all to see and touch. Richard travels with the permission of two Bishops from the USA, who have approved his ministry.

Many thousands of people have been touched and healed through Our Lady’s intervention. In the last ten years Richard has prayed over some 90,000 people with the Pilgrim Rosary. Richard, when he travels, shares his testimony of his conversion, which describes his alcoholism, the effects of it on his five children and his conversion to the person he is today.

Richard has come to South Africa some fourteen times and will again be visiting South Africa in October and November. He visits South Africa annually. While on his first visit to SA, Richard was led to form a healing team. After discernment and witnessing the power of the Holy Spirit in Jacqueline Robinson, who sponsored his first trip to SA, he felt moved to include her prayerful intervention and form a team. They have no fear of laying hands on all they pray over. His desire is to see first hand the face of Aids and to do all he can do to assist this pandemic spiritually and financially. This is how he feels lead to expand his ministry. They have seen the hope that praying over the affected and infected has brought to souls so in need of human compassion. To see smiles come to the faces of those they pray over is reward enough.

SOURCE - St. Thomas Catholic Church, South Africa

OUR LADY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SUN

LOURDES MIRACLE OF JOHN TRAYNOR

THE STORY OF JOHN TRAYNOR
In some respects the story of John Traynor is similar to that of Gabriel Gargam. MIRACLE OF GABRIEL GARGAM Yet in many ways it is different. After their cures, the two men were brancardiers at Lourdes at the same time and may have discussed their cases with each other.

John Traynor was a native of Liverpool, England. His Irish mother died when he was quite young, but the faith which she instilled in her son remained with him the rest of his life. His injuries dated from World War I, when he was a soldier in the Naval Brigade of the Royal British Marines. He took part in the unsuccessful Antwerp expedition of October, 1914, and was hit in the head by shrapnel. He remained unconscious for five weeks. Later, in Egypt, he received a bullet wound in the leg. In the Dardanelles, he distinguished himself in battle but was finally brought down when he was sprayed with machine gun bullets while taking part in a bayonet charge. He was wounded in the head and chest, and one bullet went through his upper right arm and lodged under his collarbone.
As a result of these wounds, Traynor's right arm was paralyzed and the muscles atrophied. His legs were partially paralyzed, and he was epileptic. Sometimes he had as many as three fits a day. By 1916, Traynor had undergone four operations in an attempt to connect the severed muscles of this right arm. All four operations ended in failure. By this time he had been discharged from the service. He was given a one hundred percent pension because he was completely and permanently disabled. He spent much time in various hospitals as an epileptic patient. In April, 1920, his skull was operated on in an attempt to remove some of the shrapnel. This operation did not help his epilepsy, and it left a hole about an inch wide in his skull. The pulsating of his brain could be seen through this hole. A silver plate was inserted in order to shield the brain.
He lived on Grafton Street in Liverpool with his wife and children. He was utterly helpless. He had to be lifted from his bed to his wheelchair in the morning and back into bed at night. Arrangements had been made to have him admitted to the Mosley Hill Hospital for Incurables.

In July, 1923, Traynor heard that the Liverpool diocese was organizing a pilgrimage to Lourdes. He had always had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin and determined to join the pilgrimage. He took a gold sovereign which he had been saving for an emergency and used it as the first payment on a ticket. At first his wife was very much disturbed by the idea of her husband making such a difficult trip. His friends tried to talk him out of it. His doctor told him the trip would be suicide. The government ministry of pensions protested against the idea. One of the priests in charge of the pilgrimage begged him to cancel his booking. All of this was to no avail. Traynor had made up his mind, and there was no changing it. When his wife saw how much he wanted to make the trip, she decided to help him. In order to raise the money for the pilgrimage, the Traynors sold some of their furniture; Mrs. Traynor pawned some of her jewelry.
There was much excitement at the railroad station the day the pilgrimage was to leave. In addition to the noise and confusion that accompanies the departure of every large pilgrimage, there was the additional hubbub caused by the curious who had come to see Traynor. His trip had aroused much interest, and at the station a great number of people crowded about his wheel chair. Newspaper reporters and photographers were on hand to cover the event. As a result of all this, Traynor reached the station platform too late to get on the first train. The second train was crowded, and once more an attempt was made to talk him out of taking the trip. Traynor, however, said that he was determined to go if he had to ride in the coal tender.
The trip was extremely trying, and Traynor was very sick. Three times, during the journey across France, the directors of the pilgrimage wished to take him off the train and put him in a hospital. Each time there was no hospital where they stopped, and so they had to keep him on board. He was more dead than alive when he reached Lourdes on July 22 and was taken to the Asile. Two Protestant girls from Liverpool, who were serving as volunteer nurses in the Asile, recognized Traynor and offered to take care of him. He gladly accepted the offer. He had several hemorrhages during his six days there and a number of epileptic fits. So bad was his condition that one woman took it upon herself to write to his wife and tell her that there was no hope for him and that he would be buried in Lourdes.

Traynor managed to bathe in the water from the grotto nine times, and he attended all the ceremonies to which the sick are taken. It was only by sheer force of will that he was able to do this. Not only were his own infirmities a serious obstacle but the brancardiers and others in attendance were reluctant to take him out for fear he would die on the way. Once he had an epileptic fit as he was going to the piscines. When he recovered, the brancardiers turned his chair to take him back to the Asile. He protested, but they insisted. They were forced to give in when he seized the wheel with his good hand and would not let the chair budge until it went in the direction of the baths.
On the afternoon of July 25 when he was in the bath, his paralyzed legs became suddenly agitated. He tried to get to his feet, but the brancardiers prevented him. They dressed him, put him back in his wheel chair, and hurried him to Rosary Square for the Blessing of the Sick. Most of the other sick were already lined up. He was the third last on the outside as one faces the church.

Let us hear in Traynor's own words what happened after that. This is the story as he told it to Father Patrick O'Connor.
"The procession came winding its way back, as usual, to the church and at the end walked the Archbishop of Rheims, carrying the Blessed Sacrament. He blessed the two ahead of me, came to me, made the Sign of the Cross with the monstrance and moved on to the next. He had just passed by, when I realized that a great change had taken place in me. My right arm, which had been dead since 1915, was violently agitated. I burst its bandages and blessed myself – for the first time in years.
"I had no sudden pain that I can recall and certainly had no vision. I simply realized that something momentous had happened. I attempted to rise from my stretcher, but the brancardiers were watching me. I suppose I had a bad name for my obstinacy. They held me down, and a doctor or a nurse gave me a hypo. Apparently they thought that I was hysterical and about to create a scene. Immediately after the final Benediction, they rushed me back to the Asile. I told them that I could walk and proved it by taking seven steps. I was very tired and in pain. They put me back in bed and gave me another hypo after a while.
"They had me in a small ward on the ground floor. As I was such a troublesome case, they stationed brancardiers in relays to watch me and keep me from doing anything foolish. Late that night, they placed a brancardier on guard outside the door of the ward. There were two other sick men in the room, including one who was blind.
"The effect of the hypos began to wear off during the night, but I had no full realization that I was cured. I was awake for most of the night. No lights were on.
"The chimes of the big Basilica rang the hours and half hours as usual through the night, playing the air of the Lourdes Ave Maria. Early in the morning, I heard them ringing, and it seemed to me that I fell asleep at the beginning of the Ave. It could have been a matter of only a few seconds, but at the last stroke I opened my eyes and jumped out of bed. First, I knelt on the floor to finish the rosary I had been saying. Then I dashed for the door, pushed aside the two brancardiers and ran out into the passage and the open air. Previously, I had been watching the brancardiers and planning to evade them. I may say here that I had not walked since 1915, and my weight was down to 112 pounds.
"Dr. Marley was outside the door. When he saw the man over whom he had been watching during the pilgrimage, and whose death he had expected, push two brancardiers aside and run out of the ward, he fell back in amazement. Out in the open now, I ran toward the Grotto, which is about two or three hundred yards from the Aisle. This stretch of ground was graveled then, not paved, and I was barefoot. I ran the whole way to the grotto without getting the least mark or cut on my bare feet. The brancardiers were running after me, but they could not catch up with me. When they reached the grotto, there I was on my knees, still in my night clothes, praying to our Lady and thanking her. All I knew was that I should thank her and the grotto was the place to do it. The brancardiers stood back, afraid to touch me."
A strange feature of Traynor's case was that he did not completely realize what had happened to him. He knew that a great favor had been bestowed upon him and that he should be thankful, but he had no idea of the magnitude of the favor. He was completely dazed. It did not seem strange to him that he was walking, and he could not figure out why everyone was staring at him. He did not remember how gravely ill he had been for many years.
A crowd of people gathered about Traynor while he was praying at the grotto. After about twenty minutes, he arose from his knees, surprised and rather annoyed by the audience he had attracted. The people fell back to allow him to pass. At the crowned statute of our Lady, he stopped and knelt again. His mother had taught him that he should always make some sacrifice when he wished to venerate the Virgin. He had no money to give. The few shillings he had left after buying a railroad ticket, he had spent to buy rosaries and medals for his wife and children. He therefore made the only sacrifice he could think of: he promised our Lady that he would give up cigarettes.
The news of his cure had spread rapidly, and a great crowd was waiting at the Asile. Traynor could not understand what they were doing there. He went in and got dressed. Then he went into the washroom. A number of men were there ahead of him.
"Good morning, gentlemen!" said Traynor cheerily.
But there was no answer. The men just looked at him; they were too overcome to speak.
Traynor was puzzled. Why was everyone acting so strangely this morning?
When he got back to his ward, a priest who was visiting at Lourdes came in and said, "Is there anyone who can serve Mass?"
"Yes, I can," Traynor volunteered.
The priest who knew nothing yet about the cure accepted the offer, and Traynor served Mass in the chapel of the Asile. It did not seem a bit out of the ordinary to be doing so.
In the dining room of the Asile where Traynor went to eat his breakfast, the other patients stared at him in amazement. Later when he strolled outdoors, the crowd that had gathered there made a rush at him. Surprised and disconcerted he made a quick retreat into the enclosure.
A Mr. Cunningham, who was also on the pilgrimage, came to talk to him. The visitor spoke casually, but it was evident that he was making a great effort to control his excitement.
"Good morning, John. Are you feeling all right?"
"Yes, Mr. Cunningham, quite all right. Are you feeling all right?" Then he came to the matter that was puzzling him. "What are all those people doing outside?"
"They're there, Jack, because they are glad to see you.
"Well, it's nice of them, and I'm glad to see them, but I wish they'd leave me alone."
Mr. Cunningham told him that one of the priests of the pilgrimage – the one who had opposed his coming – wished to see him. There was much difficulty getting through the crowd, but they finally got to the hotel where the priest was waiting. The priest asked him if he was all right. All this solicitude was most bewildering.
"Yes, I'm quite well," Traynor answered, "and I hope you feel well, too."
The priest broke down and began to cry.
Traynor traveled home in a first-class compartment despite all his protests. As they were going across France, Archbishop Keating of Liverpool came into his compartment. Traynor knelt to receive his blessing. The Archbishop bade him rise.
"John, I think I should be getting your blessing," he said.
Traynor did not know what the Archbishop meant.
The Archbishop led him over to the bed, and they both sat down. Looking at Traynor closely, His Excellency said, "John, do you realize how ill you have been and that you have been miraculously cured by the Blessed Virgin?"
"Suddenly," Traynor later told Father O'Connor, "everything came back to me, the memory of my years of illness and the sufferings of the journey to Lourdes and how ill I had been in Lourdes itself. I began to cry, and the Archbishop began to cry, and we both sat there, crying like two children. After a little talk with him, I felt composed. Now I realized fully what had happened."

Someone suggested to Traynor that he telegraph his wife. Instead of telling her that he had been completely cured he merely said, "Am better – Jack." His wife was very much pleased to receive this message. She had been very much upset when the woman in the pilgrimage had told her that he was dying. But she was not prepared for the glorious news that was to come! She was the only one who was not, for the story had been in the Liverpool papers. Since she had not happened to see the story, those about her decided not to tell her. They thought it would be nicer to surprise her.
It seemed that all Liverpool was at the station to greet the cured man upon his return. When Mrs. Traynor reached the platform, she told who she was and asked to be allowed through the crowd.
"Well," said the official in charge, "all I can say is that Mr. Traynor must be a Mohammedan, because there are seventy or eighty Mrs. Traynors on the platform now."
In an attempt to save Traynor from being crushed by the crowd which was growing every minute, the railway company stopped the train before it got to the station. The Archbishop walked toward the crowd. He asked the people to restrain their enthusiasm when they saw Traynor and to disperse peacefully after they had had a look at him. They promised that they would do so.
Despite this promise there was a stampede when Traynor appeared on the platform. The police had to clear a passage for him to pass through.
The joy of Traynor's family upon his return and their deep gratitude to Our Lady of Lourdes could never be put into words. The cured man went into the coal and hauling business and had no trouble lifting 200-pound sacks of coal. He went back to Lourdes every summer to act as a brancardier. He died on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1943. The cause of his death was in no way related to the wounds which had been cured at Lourdes.
The two non-Catholic girls who looked after Traynor at Lourdes came into the Church as a result of the cure. Their family followed their example, and so did the Anglican minister of the church they had been attending. A great number of conversions in Liverpool resulted from the miracle.
Although the cure took place in 1923, the Medical Bureau waited till 1926 to issue its report. Traynor was examined again, and it was found that his cure was permanent. "His right arm which was like a skeleton has recovered all its muscles. The hole near his temple has completely disappeared. He had a certificate from Dr. McConnell of Liverpool attesting that he had not had an epileptic attack since 1923. . . .
"It is known that when the important nerves have been severed, if their regeneration has not been effected (after the most successful operations this would take at least a year) they contract rapidly and become dried up as it were, and certain parts mortify and disappear. In Mr. Traynor's case, for the cure of his paralyzed arm, new parts had to be created and seamed together. All these things were done simultaneously and instantaneously. At the same time occurred the instant repair of the brain injuries as is proved by the sudden and definite disappearance of the paralysis of both legs and of the epileptic attacks. Finally, a third work was effected which closed the orifice in the brain box. It is a real resurrection which the beneficiary attributes to the power of God and the merciful intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes. The mode of production of this prodigious cure is absolutely outside and beyond the forces of nature."
As is usual in such cures, John Traynor retained souvenirs of his former afflictions. The right hand did not hang quite normally, and the right forearm was a little less thick than the left. A slight depression was the only trace that was left of the hole in the skull.
If John Traynor and Gabriel Gargam ever discussed their cases and compared notes while both were serving as brancardiers, they must have been amused by one point. Gargam succeeded in having his pension from the railway company discontinued. The British War Pension Ministry, however, insisted upon paying Traynor's pension till the end of his life. They had examined him thoroughly and found him incurable. They did not care what the Lourdes Medical Bureau said or what any of the doctors who examined Traynor after his return from Lourdes reported. It did not matter that he was engaged in the most strenuous kind of work. They had pronounced him incurable, and incurable he was. This decision was never revoked.

The gift of miracles has never ceased to show its presence in the Catholic Church. "If you would not believe Me" said Our Lord to the Jews, "believe the works I do."

*********GO TO MEDJUGORJE ASAP

PRAYER LIFE OF THE MYSTIC, HEART TO HEART



man in prayer

 St Francis explains that the intense prayer life of the mystic;
prayer is called mystical because its conversation is altogether secret.  In it nothing is spoken between God and the soul except from heart-to-heart, by a communication incommunicable to any others but those who make it. . . (Love of God, Book VI, chpt. 1.)
It is here that we now turn in our discourse on the mystical life: that of the intense prayer life that the mystic leads on his way to union with God.
The Ways of Prayer
We now enter the first realm of the mystical life: that of the ways of prayer. Fittingly enough, for prayer is really the beginning of the road towards perfection; it is the way that every mystic and/or victim-stigmatist travels. The reason for this is that a deeper spirituality is necessary in order to know God's will, to love Him and to be receptive to the graces that He is prepared to give us. If God is the Source of our gifts, then prayer is the channel from which all grace grows and is nurtured. All grace comes through Our Blessed Mother, she is the channel.  In the life of the mystic, prayer is particularly important for spiritual growth, for it is through prayer that one communicates with God and hears the soft whispers of His voice. Prayer is the door through which one enters into the mystical state. It is also the door to the active and the contemplative life, and in fact, to any state of life whereby one earnestly seeks a closer relationship with God. It is here that the mystic begins, and it will be here that we will start our mystical journey.
Prayer means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Therefore, like in any discussion on the meaning of mysticism, we will explore many thoughts on this theme from a variety of sources, with the intention of gaining some perspective of what prayer and spirituality are all about.
The most common definition for prayer was given by St. John Damascene (c. 675- c.749), a holy Doctor of the Church. He described prayer as the "elevation of the soul to God." Others from the early Church have expressed the same feeling in slightly different ways. Here are a few samplings of what these saints have believed:
Prayer is a conversation with God. . . (Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, 7, 2nd century.)

When prayer is poured forth, sins are covered. . . . (St. Ambrose, Delnterpel. Job, 2, 8, 4th century.)

He causes his prayers to be of more avail to himself, who offers them also for others. . . . (Pope St. Gregory I, Morals, 35, 21, 6th century.)

All the virtues assist the soul to attain to a burning love of God, but, above all, pure prayer. By means of it the soul escapes completely from the midst of creatures, carried to God, as it were, on wings. . . . (St. Maximus the Confessor, Centuries on Charity, 1, 2, 7th century.)

Clearly, there is no one standard definition of prayer, as the above examples show. Prayer is many things to different people. One reason is each individual is unique and special, and God treats him or her as such. Because He communicates His will for each one differently, we are going to have a wide diversity of ways in which the life of the spirit is manifested in our faith experience. Each of us has different needs and unusual gifts; we all relate to God in our own special way. Yet one thing all spiritual people have in common is this: a desire for the love of God. Some feel this desire more intensely than others, and they travel on to a higher, deeper spirituality that encounters meditation, contemplation and for some, the mystical life.
Now that we have a general understanding of the importance of prayer in our faith experience, we will look at the four types of prayer that all are familiar with: adoration, thanksgiving, petition and contrition. All ways are important and each has its place. The ordinary person is most likely to petition when he or she prays, wanting something from God that they do not possess. Giving thanks to the Lord is probably the second most common intention in prayer, especially for those who follow the ordinary way. Because we are focusing on the prayer life of the mystic, we must keep in mind that the perception of and the experiences in their prayer life are not necessarily the same as what the ordinary person perceives or experiences. For these holy ones, prayer usually centers around the life of love and of suffering. For the victim, to love is to suffer, and to suffer is to love. All love is ultimately directed to God, Who is the supreme Love of their lives.
Being advanced and matured in the ways of the spirit, these humble souls seek first to love God with all their hearts and souls in the form of adoration (Lk 10:27); secondly, they love their neighbor as themselves (Mt 19:19) and, including themselves, they plead for forgiveness of past sin, begging the Lord to show them His mercy so that none might ever perish (contrition), but instead have eternal life (Jn 3:16). These two types of prayer are selfless and most charitable, for they are only concerned with love and with sacrifice: a sacrifice of the heart, for God and for man.
It is the passion of love that propels the mystic forward; love is the catalyst that moves the soul and carries it to the heights of the interior life. There, in the deepest recesses of the soul, one is consumed by the all-embracing Love that is God. It is here that the Lord gives us His peace (Jn 14:27), and it is here that He nourishes the soul with the living waters of life (Jn 4:14). "Love is the life of the soul" (St. Francis de Sales), the source of its being: "What do you possess if you possess not God?" (St. Augustine).
It is through prayer that one seeks the Beloved, much as the bride seeks after the groom. In mystical language, the bride is the pure and spotless lamb, whereas the Groom is Jesus Christ, Lord and Shepherd of the soul. In this mystical language of love, it is the kiss of love that each mystic seeks, longing to possess and to be possessed by the fire of divine love. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90), a victim soul, once said these moving words: "Our heart is made for God. Woe, then, if it be satisfied with less than God, or if it allow itself to burn with any other fire than that of His pure love!"
Most of all, as we have seen in the above examples, the prayers of contrition and adoration adhere to the Gospel message that Jesus gives: love your God, love your neighbor. This is not to say that the prayers of petition and thanksgiving are less important. God forbid! They are every bit as important when used for the proper intentions. The danger most beginners fall into is praying in a way that becomes too self-centered, too self-serving.  It is with petition that this is especially troublesome, although it can be found in thanksgiving as well  if we choose to thank God for only those things that are beneficial to us, we become victims of self-deception.  We must also give thanks for the blessings that others have been given, as well as the trials and tribulations that come from the hand of God.
from the book , THEY BORE THE WOUNDS OF CHRIST by Michael Freze, S.F.O.

FLOWERS FOR OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY



"Flowers for Our Lady of the Rosary"
My Hand Appliqued Quilt



MEDJUGORJE IS THE BETHLEHEM OF OUR GENERATION

MEDJUGORJE IS THE BETHLEHEM OF OUR GENERATION
Daniel Ange, a Charismatic
After completing a three-day prayer course in Split, the French Charismatic Daniel Ange came to Medjugorje accompanied by Fr. Josip
Marcelic. He stayed for one day only. We took the opportunity to speak with him. Although our readers know him as a great friend of Medjugorje, we asked him to tell us
something about himself: I am a child of God. I completed my novitiate with the Benedictines when I was 17 years old. I also spent 13 years in Rwanda as a missionary in a monastic community. When I returned from Rwanda, I completed my studies in Switzerland. I spent eight years as a recluse, an eremite, in the French Alps. After that, about 15 years ago, I started a school of prayer and evangelization. I have already been to 43 countries and opened schoors of prayer and evangelization.
How long does that school last, who enrolls in it and what does it consist of?The course lasts one year and young people, who take one year off work or study, take part in this program. Many stay for a second year, but that is always their decision.
You are now coming from Split?
Yes, l led a prayer course in Split that lasted three days. It was beautiful. It was especially beautiful and symbolic that the course was held on a territory that belongs to the army. I speak about the basic themes of Christian life and Gospel values, and I particularly emphasize the theme -saving life and protecting love. Those subjects I consider important, given that today it is precisely life that is jeopardized.
What exactly is it that jeopardizes life and love today that they need to be saved and protected?
Life is attacked from all sides. I claim that even the war that is going on now in your close proximity is nothing else but a visible expression of that awful war that is invisibly going on against the child in a mother's womb. The child has nothing to defend itself with. It is completely vulnerable. It is senseless to speak about a new world without violence and war, as all hopes and desires for peace remain unattainable for as long as this primary war against life lasts and this awful violence and injustice is inflicted on the unborn life. All human rights crumble when they deny the right to life to the unborn child. The Church is the only place left in which life is defended unconditionally. The right to abort in the west is nothing more than self-destruction; in other words, it is a battle between Lucifer, the murderer of humans, and God who creates life.
We are nearing the year 2000. That is the celebration of the incarnation. Satan has just become furious and enraged against life. The century that has been the bloodiest of all up to now is coming to an end. Satan has risen so ferociously against life, because the celebration of the incarnation is nearing, when God Himself became man and took on life as a human being with the same conditions of life. This is Satan's revenge because he could not kill Jesus in Bethlehem.
That means that Satan has his supporters?
Of course. The entire culture today is rightfully called the culture of death. There is, therefore, a general cooperation in the destruction of life. After approving abortion, comes the acceptance of euthanasia, the legal killing of the old and the sick. It can be sensed everywhere that life is completely despised, and thus the value of life is measured by an economic calculation; that means: is it worth the price to live or not? That is the new totalitarian way. There are more and more people, who are destroying their own lives, there are more and more young people, who do not wish to live, who have no joy in their lives because, in their mind, there is the conviction that life makes no sense. There are more and more children born after abortions. Therefore, they were conceived where death slaughtered life. It is probable that the fact that a life was extinguished earlier leaves consequences on those who are born. Children are born wounded. The woman is wounded. Mary comes to heal all those wounds.
You call every war a visible effect of an internal war against life?
As a child, I personally experienced war in France. I was in Lebanon, in Rwanda, and I see what is now happening in your country. I think that it is important to constantly emphasize the immortality of man and that death does not have the final word. For us, death means entering into eternal life and we are immortal. Even our body will once be glorified like the body of Mary. The Assumption of Mary is a very important message. It tells us about the confirmation of life and its victory over death. I like the Croatian people. In Split, I have experienced it again, and I am convinced that you Croatians are a devout people. Traveling all over the world, I have seen how many young people who came to Medjugorje were deeply touched by the faith of your people. As a people, you have suffered a lot, but you have remained loyal to the Church. All the wars and all the persecutions have made you stronger in your faith. Faith will save you. You will be healed by the faith.
In this world full of violence, wars, injustices, abortions and euthanasia, do you see signs of hope?
Absolutely. I meet people everywhere, especially young people, who get up and defend life, who discover the value of life and fight against abortions, who do not accept euthanasia, injustice and wars. Today's pope has become a great fighter for life.  I have met many Orthodox priests, Jewish teachers and Muslim leaders, who have said that they completely accept and support the pope's efforts to save life even though they are not Catholic, because he defends mankind from mankind.
This is your third visit to Medjugorje, but this time you are here very briefly?
I regret that I cannot come here more often. I follow everything that is happening. I have met people everywhere, who have received great graces and who have changed their lives.
We heard that you spoke about Medjugorje in Split and that you do so wherever you go?
That is true. This is Bethlehem for our generation. This is a place where many are truly born again. Many come here imperiled and wounded, and Mary is the Mother of Life. She gave birth to God. Many young people come here as orphans, and Mary is proclaimed as the Mother who bestows saintly life, life according to the Holy Spirit. This is a prophetical call. I know Kibeho in Rwanda very well. I was a member of the theological committee. In Rwanda also, there was a terrible war as you had here. These wars happened in places where Mary appeared and called for peace like the slaughter of innocent children in Bethlehem. Satan comes to kill where the Mother of Life is doing Her work. Therefore, Mary is here also as a nurse for our wounded generation. Jesus is the healer and Mary is the one who gives the medicine and tends to the wounds of the soul. That is especially evident here in confession. I call confession the godly surgery, and Mary is the one who gently leads us and prepares us for the procedure. Besides that, Mary visits our world and, in this way, She prepares the path for the Lord who comes and prepares many who do the same thing. I think that young people, who -after a pilgrimage to Medjugorje -dedicate one year to our school of prayer and evangelism, then become predecessors of the Lord like John the Baptist. They are getting ready to protect love.  Where love is not protected, life loses its meaning. We now need to do everything to accept this actualization, , the secret of God, who has taken our body upon Himself. The year 2000 is, in fact, the actualization of the incarnation, and not only some memory. The celebration that we are preparing for is like liturgy, like a Mass. What happened on Holy Thursday and Good Friday is renewed during the Mass in a real way. The same happens in the celebration of the year 2000, the celebration of the incarnation. What happened in the arms of Mary and with the , strength of the Holy Spirit will be repeated in our time.
In your seminars, you pray mostly for the healing of innerwounds?
Yes, we are all very wounded by the various events in our  lives, especially during childhood, youth, growing up and during  the war, as now. The Lord Himself wants to heal those wounds, our hearts and our agonies. He wants us to reconcile and to  forgive, even in the situations that are difficult.  And, at the end, we can say the healing prayer, which Daniel Ange intended for the listeners of the Catholic Radio during his stay in Split, which was transmitted by the radio station Mir in Medjugorje: Lord Jesus, I entrust to You all who listen to this radio. You know the heart of each one of them. Please, extend Your healing hand over everyone and heal every inner wound of each person,every pain and every agony. Give them love and the intervention of Mother Mary and spill the Holy Spirit on all. Heal their every tension, their every fear and give them assurance and immortality; eternal life and resurrection in the Heavenly Kingdom. Let them be assured that Your Mother; the Queen of Heaven, loves the Croatian people. Amen.

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLE - DAVID PARKES - 1989

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLE 1989 - DAVID PARKES - FULL STORY

David Parkes is not just another Irish singer. He's a man with a purpose.
Thirteen years ago, David Parkes stared death in the face. The victim of severe Crohn's Disease, he had undergone ten major bowel operations and the medical team working on his case had made it clear there was nothing more they could do for him.
Born in Dublin, the son of a successful band leader and trumpet player, and himself the winner of the National Talent Contest, David Parkes was intent instead on becoming a professional soccer player. With a voice described by one critic as "too good to be confined to these shores", David prepared for a move to America.
Out of work for months, David not only faced a hopeless future, but severe financial problems. The huge respect he commanded in Irish show business was, providentially, the means by which today David Parkes is well and healthy. A benefit night was organized attended by all the big show band names. David briefly sang and it was expected to be his last public appearance. Weighing 110 lbs, in constant pain and suffering he prepared to die.
Not overly interested in religion an invitation was issued to David and his wife, Anne to visit Medjugorje where alleged apparitions of the Blessed Virgin were reportedly taking place. David agreed to go see the country where he had spent his honeymoon in, considering it his last vacation.
Whilst in Medjugorje David very reluctantly attended a healing Mass being conducted by the renowned healing Priest, Fr. Peter Rookey. Literally, having to be pushed forward to receive the blessing he found himself within three seconds lying on the ground. There he remained for 20 minutes, waking up to find Senator Donie Cassidy looking down upon him. Within two days of the blessings David Parkes had begun to feel much better with far less physical symptoms. On his return to Ireland he showed no further symptoms of Crohn's disease and 13 years later he continues to be free of this deadly disease.
In November 1992 David released his first album in the United States "Let Me Live". The recording of this beautiful pro-life song was the fulfilment of a promise he had made while in Medjugorje in gratitude to God for the great healing, which had occurred.
David has sung to audiences of up to 30,000 people live when Mother Teresa requested he sing for her historic visit to Knock and he has been a guest on "Songs of Praise" the weekly BBC programme with viewers of up to 88 million worldwide.
Today, David's story is known internationally. His ministry has taken him throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Southeast Asia. David has become one of the most sought after speakers, and in particular, Master of Ceremonies, for Marian Conferences and retreats throughout North America. David has made guest appearances on EWTN, and has sung on the BBC weekly series "Songs of Praise", which was seen by over 88 million viewers worldwide.
At the present time, David Parkes is working in Medjugorje as Pilgrimage Director for Marian Pilgrimages which is based in Dublin, Ireland. David has been in Medjugorje since the last week of March, with the exception of the month of May when he travelled to North America to honor previously booked engagements in Toronto, and at Notre Dame in Indiana.
His duties in Medjugorje are varied. He is responsible for all aspects of the pilgrimage experience, including the general well being of the pilgrims and overseeing the spiritual programme. The pilgrimage season runs until November.
VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH DAVID PARKES

MEDJUGORJE TESTIMONY OF GORAN

GORAN

A schizophrenic, homeless drug addict calls out to
Mary, beginning an ascent from the streets to the life
of a happy, healthy family man.

Sometimes stories of hope are what one needs to keep going, to keep, believing, to keep striving in the face of incredible odds, pain, suffering, and opposition. Goran’s story is one such true tale. It reminds us that no person, no situation is beyond hope, for when we call out to Mary to intercede for us, anything is possible. Here’s how Goran’s story begins . . .

I woke up again. Who knows how long I’d been unconscious. This time I’d downed a bunch of pills, a bottle of vodka, and a shot of heroin; but trying to kill myself never seemed to work.

Shivering, I crawled across the floor of the derelict, windowless building I’d wandered into and pulled a sheet of plastic over my dying body. I just wanted to rest. Unable to sleep for months, I only traveled in and out of nightmares.

It was the middle of winter. I was thirty years old. I had no one and nothing, not even food. As I lay on the floor, staring at the wall, I felt utterly alone—despised. Perhaps this was just another nightmare . . . but the bitter cold that cut into my bones told me otherwise. I felt dead, but I was still alive.

For the first time since I was a child, I began to cry. I tried to pray but I couldn’t remember how. I never really learned, and I hadn’t ever really tried. What were the words? Through my tears, and from the depths of my soul, I began to call out to the Mother of God . . .

This story in its entirety is told in the book Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Conversion through Mary’s Intercession.

ALSO VISIT AUTHORS BLOG MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES - CHRISTINE WATKINS

ANNE HENDERSON HEALED IN MEDJUGORJE - DECEMBER 9, 1995

Healed in Medjugorje---
Seven weeks before we left, I knew I was going to Medjugorje so I started praying for a spiritual healing. I prayed to be made an empty vessel, cleansed of all my earthly attachments, to be filled with the love of Jesus and Mary, so I'd be able to know how to love and serve them first in my life. I also prayed for a physical healing, to be able to stand straight.
Since I was a young girl, I was very round-shouldered and I've worn a back brace since high school. It has given me a lot of pain on both sides of my neck and I still didn't stand straight. With age, I became more stooped, although I still wore some sort of back support.

I went to the doctor about two years ago, at the age of 50, to see if there was anything that could be done to make me stand straight. He said I was too old and my bones too set. I should just try to stand straight on my own.

I received a physical healing on December 9, 1995, in St. James Church in Medjugorje, at the 6:00 p.m. Mass. It started at the back of my neck and went down to the tip of my spine. The only way I can describe it is it was like a chair with kinks, or links, in it. The healing went from one link to the other, being straightened out. Then I felt a real firm jolt on one side of my back, then on the other. After that, my whole body was in alignment. I felt no more pain and now I can stand perfectly straight.
At first, I wasn't sure what was happening but I knew I felt different. We were at the end of our pilgrimage and I thought maybe I was just overwhelmed and imagining things. So I didn't say anything that night. When I went to bed, however, and laid flat on my back, my whole back was touching the mattress. I just started praying and praising Jesus and Mary. I didn't sleep all night. When I got dressed in the morning, my clothes felt different on my body. So I asked my roommate, "Do I look different?" I kept saying, "I feel different." I pointed out all the areas that felt different and she wasn't sure at first. She kept running her hand over my shoulder blades and she said, "You're not round-shouldered anymore; these are your shoulder blades." We praised Jesus and Mary and said the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary in thanksgiving.
- Ann Henderson, LaGrange, Maine  -- 
MEDJUGORJE MAGAZINE -

 

LOURDES MIRACLE - GABRIEL GARGAM, The Corpse That Walked

FROM THE BOOK   --  HEALING FIRE OF CHRIST BY PAUL GLYNN

IN MY OWN STRUGGLE to believe in Christ and the Church and even in "the good God" when I was in
my early twenties, I was especially impressed by a Lourdes miracle cure written up at length in a number of books, including The Hand of God, by Martin Scott, S.J., and After Bernadette, by Don Sharkey. I still have the notes I made at the time, a half century ago!

Gabriel Gargam, a postal clerk in his thirties, was sorting mail on the Bordeaux-to-Paris express, December 17, 1899. About midnight it slowed to a halt around a sloping bend near Angouleme. Then there was a
horrific crash as another train, traveling at least fifty rnilers per hour, smashed into it. A fellow mail sorter was killed instantly. Gabriel Gargam was found at 7 A.M. the next morning lying unconscious in the thick snow. They rushed him to Angouleme City Hospital, where doctors worked desperately to save his life. Twenty
months later he was still in that hospital, paralyzed from the waist down, weighing only seventy-seven pounds, unable to eat. He could take nourishment only with difficulty through an esophageal tube. Gangrene was invading his sensationless feet.
The family had rejected the Orleans Railroad offer of an annual pension of 3,000 francs a year. In the ensuing court case, Dr. Decrassac, head of the Angouleme Hospital, issued a detailed medical statement: Gabriel Gargam was a cripple for life and a physical wreck, unable to do anything, requiring constant nursing care-"hardly susceptible of improvement; more likely to terminate fatally". The court ordered the company to pay Gargam the then-huge sum of 660,000 francs, plus 6,000 francs yearly. Orleans Railroad went to the
appellate court but lost. The original damages were upheld.
Gabriel's condition worsened, and he was told he must have a spinal operation or he would die. He
refused.and asked his family to take him home, which they did. Gabriel had not been to church for eight years and declared he was an unbeliever. His mother doubled her prayers for this son whom the doctors said would soon be dead. She begged him to let her take him to Lourdes. Soon, in the last week of August, the French national pilgrimage would take place. He refused point-blank. She persisted. His father urged him, too. The hospital contacted him again, begging him to have the operation before it was too late. Maybe just to shut them all up, Gabriel agreed to go to Lourdes. They got him to the station on a stretcher, where he
fainted. The authorities urged his mother to take him home. She refused. When Gabriel awoke, a priest gave him the sacrament of reconciliation and a tiny piece of Holy Communion. Gabriel showed little faith.
The train pulled into Lourdes at 7 A.M., August 20, 1901. Gabriel was sick and in pain and refrained from demanding an end to the whole business only for his devoted mother's sake. She, a nurse and a family friend walked beside him as stretcher bearers carried him to the Grotto, where Mass was said and he received a tiny particle of Host. Suddenly, he said, he knew God was real and loving. He began to pray with all his heart, laid his life at our Lady's feet and was filled with happiness. Said Gabriel, "It was the greatest moment of my life."
At 2 P.M. he was carried to the baths. His skeletal frame was lowered into the cold spring water, and the shock seemed too great. Gabriel lost consciousness. Outside, the distraught mother felt his lifeless face: It was cold. "He's gone", she murmured. Quite some time had elapsed when the sorrowing group,accompanied by the brancardiers carrying Gabriel's stretcher, headed back to the hospital. On the way they came across the procession of the Blessed Sacrament and stopped.
The bishop carrying the monstrance saw them, paused and blessed Gabriel, who was lying with a cloth over his apparently lifeless face. Gabriel stirred and gripped the sides of the stretcher with hands so thin they
looked like claws. He struggled to rise. "Help me, I can walk, I feel I. can walk." His mother sobbed out, "Hear him, Blessed Virgin, hear him! He has not spoken out loud for twenty months! " People helped him to his feet, and he took his first steps. The colorless face, the wasted body and the long nightshirt that looked like a shroud made him appear like a corpse walking. A crowd from the procession surged around him excitedly. He was taken back to the hospital and his mother and nurse were stunned to see another phenomenon often witnessed at Lourdes-a person who has not eaten normally for a long time has a hearty meal with no ill consequences. Gabriel calmly polished off soup, oysters, chicken and a bunch of grapes! After he had eaten, streams of visitors came, and he patiently told and retold his story.

When Gabriel reported to the Medical Bureau the next morning, he wore a new suit he had just bought and walked without difficulty. The word had got around. More than sixty doctors and a number of journalists were there-some remembered the newspaper reports of the court case that pitted the skeleton of a man dying in Angouleme Hospital against an apparently unfeeling, avaricious railroad company. People had cheered when the railroad lost both cases. Dr. Boissarie was there when Gabriel reported to the doctors. Dr. Boissarie was to work at Lourdes for thirty years, was second president of the Medical Bureau and published The Medical History of Lourdes in 1901-in which he challenged :Emile Zola and Professor Jean Charcot (who claimed Lourdes "miracles" were through autosuggestion) to explain Gabriel Gargam 's cure.
Dr. Boissarie describes Gabriel's eerie appearance. He "looked like a specter". There were sixty-three doctors present for the thorough medical examination. Among other phenomena Dr. Boissarie commented on was the absence of leg muscles after twenty months of total paralysis of both legs and no solid food. "Gentlemen;' Dr. Boissarie remarked, "we must first certify that from a medical point of view M. Gargam cannot walk because he has no muscles." Gabriel again stood up and walked in front of them without difficulty.
One doctor argued over the precise medical description of what was healed. Another replied, "What's the point of naming the malady. ...The organism was destroyed. Now, without a period of convalescence, the man stands erect!" The doctors' examination took two hours. That was August 21, 1901.
Gabriel returned home. People had read about his cure in the papers and waited at stations along the way to see him. For the next fifty years he went annually to Lourdes, doing the heavy lifting work of a stretcher bearer. When the writer Georges Bartrim was collecting material for his book on Lourdes, he sent an urgent message. He was in Lourdes, had little time and wished to interview Gabriel that morning. A fellow brancardier found Gabriel working in the baths. Gabriel replied he was too busy with the sick to meet then. Bartrim would have to wait until evening---the sick have first priority.
They are the important ones at Lourdes.
Gabriel married a woman who shared his faith and love for Lourdes. She accompanied him each year when he took a vacation from his business to go on pilgrimage. He served as a brancardier and she as a "handmaid", one of the volunteer women who wait on sick pilgrims. Gabriel Gargam went to Lourdes on pilgrimage for the last time in August 1952, fifty- one years after his miracle. He died the next March, in his
eighties. I saw a touching photo of him taken in 1951 at Lourdes. He was walking in the Blessed Sacrament procession, quite erect despite his eighty-plus years, wearing the leather shoulder straps that are the badge of a brancardier. On his face was the serenity of a man who had met great tragedy and within it met God-and spent the next half century in compassionate service to the sick.