"Miracles Are For Unbelievers"

One of our home school lessons today was about Angels.  I was looking for a way to bring a little liveliness to our lesson today.  So I went to You Tube to see if there were any good children's cartoons about Angels.  I found a video that I felt like brought awareness to my son and daughter.  It was engaging.  So I thought I would share it with you.  

After the video was complete I asked the kids to close their eyes and pray to their Guardian Angel and then just be quiet and listen.  I prayed too.  My son plastered himself to my side closed his eyes and trembled.  After a bit of silence, I asked Kristiana if she prayed and I asked her if her Guardian Angel told her his name.  She said, "Yes."  And I told her to use that name whenever she wished to  talk to him.  I asked Alex if he prayed and he said, "No."  I asked him why and he said he was too afraid.  Have you ever notice how in the Bible the Angels tell people to not be afraid?  I assume this is because meeting an Angel is frightening.  Perhaps, Alex has a better awareness of the Angels among us than I thought.  So I told him I would pray for him.  I asked him to close his eyes again and I put my arms around him because he was still afraid.  I prayed aloud and after a few moments of silence, I asked him again if his Angel told him his name.  He said, "Yes." I told him to use that name when he prays. 

Then I said that I had a picture of an Angel.  I showed them the picture below.  

When I was seventeen some friends and I made a pilgrimage from Wyoming to Lubbock, Texas.  We were going to celebrate the feast of the Assumption with a friend at a place where Mary was said to have appeared.  Supposedly there is an Angel seen there frequently.  Many healings and miracles have occurred there at the fountain where Mary appeared.  Each year, people gather there on the feast and pray.  Many priests come to hear confessions and many Masses occur.  We prayed all day on that feast of the Assumption. We also heard people's stories and saw photographs with strange images.  For instance, a woman showed us a polaroid of a statue of the Blessed Mother in the church.  The statue in the church was a typical statue of Mary standing on a serpent and she was looking down toward the earth.  But, in the polaroid her hands were clasped in prayer and she was looking upward.  Her image in the picture had changed from reality.  

We went to confession and then when the day was almost through we were going to go to Mass.  But before we went into the church we had a stranger snap a picture of us in front of the fountain.  The next day my friend had the pictures developed at a one hour photo place.  He saw this picture and wondered if it were an Angel.  None of us professed to know.  My friend had a personal meeting with the lady who first experienced the apparitions, before he could ask her about the photo she said to him, "You want to ask me about a photograph.  Yes, it is an Angel."  It is said that Angels talk to her.  This confirmed our picture for my friend.  He said that it was a miracle.  But, miracles are not for everyone.  Miracles are for unbelievers.  I immediately professed that I had strength of faith and therefore it was not for me.  I did not need such a sign.  As I grow in wisdom, I recognize that it was a sign and a miracle for me as much as it is for anyone who experiences it.

My friends and I decided to guard our little miracle, because we did not wish others to damage it's integrity.  It would be easy to say it was the glare of the sun.  But, you would have to have been there to know it is not the sun.  The rays from the iridescent image fall straight down next to me.  They are at the wrong angle to be from the sun, which was lower on the horizon as it was evening.  Have you ever seen the sun glare like this in a photo before?  I have not doubted it since I saw it.  But if this is not an Angel, it reminds me of an Angel and of a day spent in prayer, and the good faith can do in one's life; that gives me hope and inspiration to carry on.