Personal Miracles

[MaryBeth_Mac]

20 years ago when my husband and I married we were unable to conceive a child after 4 years of trying. I had a test where the Dr. shoots dye through the tubes to see if they are functioning. I had one closed and one only partially open. Plus I don’t ovulate normally. The odds were not good. Still, we became pg and had a son. Then we had a daughter. Praise God! I tried for 2 more years to have more children with out effect; so we did the same test because the Dr. said sometimes pregnancy can compress the tubes even further. Surprisingly, both tube were wide open!!! Huh?! The Dr. could not explain that result in any manner. God is good; but it doesn’t end there…

7 years later we had given up hope of any more children. But it was the desire of our hearts. We had been through a long spiritual struggle and were deeply committed to God and His Church. I attended a peace conference with the visionaries of Medjugorie, and during the Rosary I “heard” the “information” that I was going to have a baby. I was angry (yes! angry) first because I did not want my hopes to be dashed yet again. A month later I became sick and realized that it could be true. But I was terrified to take a test. I kept hearing the word, “trust”. So I got the test and took it at a friends house! It was positive!!! I had conceived this baby 3 days prior or 3 days after that conference. We now have a precious 4 year old, named in honor of Our Lady, who is the joy of our family!!!

 

[Santa_Cruz]

This is my miracle story.
I was separated from the Church for 46 years. When I was a young child I loved the church and looked forward to going to church. A very fond memory is my mother teaching me the rosary and telling me the story of the Lady of Fatima.
As I entered my teens I started to drift from the church and after I joined the Army I stopped going altogether. I believe I went to church once when I was in the Army in Germany. I didn’t like it and never went back.

After my discharge I settled in California. I got to thinking about the church and one day I visited a priest and had a talk with him and told him I was thinking of joining a Protestant Church. I don’t really recall the conversation but I do remembering that he sort of waved me off. That started a journey for me in trying to find God in all the wrong places. I joined different Baptist Churches, the Seven-Day Adventist, the U.U. Church and different odd ball churches. Nothing clicked so to speak.

During all this time I would pray the Hail Mary and Our Fathers and the Glory Be. I would pray these prayers whenever I was walking or driving long distances to keep me company. I would sometimes try to pray The Apostles Creed and when I couldn’t remember the word’s I would smile to myself and start over with the Hail Mary’s.

A little over a Year ago my Sister-in-Law e-mailed me to inform me that she and my brother had found a family bible that I had bought my mother when I was in the Army and did I want it. Well, of course. When I got the bible a few weeks later I discovered that it was a Family Rosary Commemorative Edition of the Catholic Bible.

That same week I was on-line and for some reason I thought it would be fun to try and find a Portuguese National Holiday that I could celebrate. I’m Portuguese but have little knowledge of my heritage. I came upon Fatima and thought…Oh how neat I remember that story. That page had a link to The Fatima Crusader. Well, I was up all night reading about The Lady of Fatima and the three Seers. That morning I was on my knees praying to God and the next day I made an appointment to talk with a local Priest and he heard my first confession in 46 years, the following Sunday I received Holy Communion. I’m back, and God Willing I’m home. That is my miracle story.

 

[thistle]

I know my story does not compare to the other posters and its not about any physical miracle but nonetheless it was meaningful to me so I thought I would share it with you. It happened in the recent past few months. I had not been to Confession for more than five years and was living in a real state of mortal sin and getting deeper into despair. I wanted to get out of this despair and knew that God had not abandoned me but it was I who had abandoned him. I couldn’t remember the last time I had even prayed. I just didn’t know how to come home. After going to bed one night I was awakened early in the morning and the Divine Mercy prayer was repeating in my head. I couldn’t get back to sleep. I had no idea what was happening as I hadn’t prayed the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy for more than 10 years and couldn’t remember the words when I was awake but I checked the words that kept repeating in my head with the Divine Mercy booklet and they were the same. This happened for nearly a week and was not getting much sleep. I told my wife. She said EWTN has the Divine Mercy on at 3pm every day so she told me to get a Rosary (which I had not touched for years) and pray the Divine Mercy. After the first time I felt something different in me and to my pleasant surprise I got a full night’s sleep (and no more waking up since). After the second day of the Divine Mercy, I looked at my Rosary and realised I had not prayed the Rosary for years so why not also start now. I did. After a short time of praying both the Divine Mercy and the Rosary every day I took the step to have a face to face Confession. No more despair. I am happy to be “back home”.
I believe God spoke to me in my despair through his Divine Mercy and brought me back to life with Christ and Mary. I try now to promote both the Divine Mercy and the Rosary prayers.

 

[Promotor_Fidei]

Thank God for the miracles recorded here.

I am still cured. I am catching up on things, and am employed now… where I could not work or even hope to converse before. Thanksgiving holiday has passed, but does anyone else have a miracle in their lives to be thankful of?

 

[DianJo]

Rosalinda:

I just happened to locate a DVD with the story of the young priest whose witness changed the life of my cousin’s brother-in-law. His name is Donald Calloway, “No Turning Back: Confessions of a Catholic Priest” is available at the following website.
catholicvideo.visionvideo.com/cv/home.asp?l=item&i=27410

WOW! When I read that post about the priest, I wondered if that was the priest that I met just last year. The story sounded so familiar!
His name is Donald Calloway!!! I have his conversion story on tape. He ended up speaking at our parish because of some airline flight and scheduling snaffoos! What a conversion story and what an inspirational speaker! I wonder how many conversions he’s been responsible for!!!

 

[DianJo]

I guess while we’re on the subject - I do have what I call a miracle:

I was raised Catholic most of my life. I was baptized Catholic when I was 7 - Catholic father, Protestant mother who converted. Attended Catholic school and was very active in the youth ministry through school. Attended Mass at least twice a week and was religious about going to Confession before Mass.

When I graduated and went to college - I fell off completely with going to Mass and everything having to with God. I just drifted away completely. I continued like this for years and was getting involved with people I shouldn’t have been involved with and doing things I shouldn’t have been doing. My philosophy was: as long as it did hurt anyone else and it felt good, then it was okay! I wasn’t a bad person and I felt like I was a compassionate person but that was about it. I realize now, that if something had happened to me then, I would not be living in eternity with God! shudder!!!

I married when I was 26 years old and 2 years later had a baby - a beautiful baby boy. I didn’t realize how much a human being could love another with such absolute, unconditional love until I held my little boy in my arms - it was overwhelming! But…there was a problem. His heart was deformed, seriously. He was taken from me the next day by my husband and sister-in-law (both medical people) and brought to New Orleans. The doctor told my husband that he didn’t expect my son to live through the night. My husband said it was like someone ripped open his stomach and laid all his guts on the table - vivid, huh?! He would need surgery, possibly a transplant! As it turned out, we were able to put off the surgery. The longer we waited, the better it would be.

We held off with doctor appts. every 2 weeks, then once a month, then once every 2 months until finally when he was 2 years old, he had reconsructive heart surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His surgery was a success and on Jan. 28 he will turn 19 years old and will be half way through his freshman year at college! We are not completely out of the woods yet. We will be returning to UAB in Dec. for some testing. A transplant is still not out of the question but for now, he is so normal it’s painful sometimes and I thank God everyday for that!

Now, the miracle is that I believe that God used this little life to bring me home! When his condition was discovered, the only thing I knew to do was to say the Rosary - only I couldn’t remember the mysteries and all the prayers. I didn’t know what else to do and I had nowhere else to turn! I prayed it as best I could. Then, I began to attend Mass again. Then, a friend sponsored me into Cursillo - WOW! What a weekend!

I honestly believe that God used my son - he turned something bad into something good. I am now committed to teaching my son as well as other teens about their Catholic faith hoping that they don’t take the path I took, that they will know enough about their faith to stay home rather than go looking for something that’s not there in places and people that will only lead them futher away from the truth.

I went from a complacent, cafeteria, non-practicing, do-it-if-it-feels-good Catholic to an on fire, committed, orthodox, involved, practicing and teaching Catholic because of my little angel - Adam! (only, in this case, Adam means life - at least to me!).

I pray that God will heal him and keep him healthy. That he will allow him to live a long, happy and full life. I pray that that will be God’s Will. Because of Adam, I now have life, Now, I asked God to give him life in return.

 

[Nance]

padraig:

In 1981, when I was 26 years old, I was captured by the British Army and thrown into Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast, in the North of Ireland. At the time I was extremely bitter and full of hate, not believing in God at all and very angry at the Catholic Church, which I considered to be pro-British.

But the years of rage and violence during the ‘Troubles’ had taken their toll on me and I was increasingly suicidal. The only thing that stopped me from killing myself at once was the knowledge that it would bring great pain to my family.

One night, as I entered my cell, I found a newspaper photo of Padre Pio, bearing his stigmata, lying on the floor. I don’t know how it got there as neither myself or my cell-mate were believers.

Anyway, as I looked at the marks of the Passion on Padre Pio’s hands, I thought, “The old fool did it with a screwdriver!” But I wondered how he had never gotten blood poisoning and been caught cheating over such a long life.

That night as I was going to sleep, I said in despair, “Padre Pio, go to God, ask Him to prove to me He really exists in the space of one ‘Hail Mary,’ for if He doesn’t, I will know for certain that He does not exist and I can go ahead and kill myself.”

As soon as I said ‘Hail Mary,’ my eyes flooded with tears in rivers, for there, standing at the end of the bed in great glory, was the Mother of God herself. Extraordinary holiness, and beauty, and majesty, and motherliness and love and kindness: indescribable!!

She said, “Now you believe.”
I could only nod and say, “Yes, I believe.”
Then she said, “Faith without love is vain. You must forgive; do you forgive?”

Then I saw before me picture-forms of all whom I had hated, while Mary’s voice gently kept asking me, “Do you forgive, do you forgive, do you forgive, …” as each one passed before me.

She then said, “Now is there anyone, anyone at all, to whom you bear hate?”
There was no one; I forgave them all; it was as though the weight of the universe was lifted from my soul.

For the first time, Mary smiled, “Now you have faith and now you have loved; now you must pray, for prayer is the food of faith. Pray, pray the Rosary,” and she held a set of beads towards me.

But I was embarrassed and said, “I am sorry I have forgotten how to say them.”
Then Mary said with great firmness, “I myself will teach you!”
And she was gone.

Well anyway I cannot tell the joy I felt; it was as though I was reborn. I found it hard to say the rosary at first, but then I came to love it. Eventually, I ended up saying it all the time; the way Mary taught it was not at all as we prayed it as a child. It was slow and thoughtful.

Well, when I left prison I entered a Cistercian Monastery for three and a half years. But I will never forget that night in prison.

WOW!