"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. 

Pray to Saint Adam

For the past two years since my brother's death, my dad has been collecting stories from people who said that they asked Adam to watch over them, or prayed to him, or said that he came to them in a dream and told them that he had helped them in a difficult or trying situation. At the time of Adam's death there was a strong belief amongst friends and family that Adam's work in heaven would be greater than it would have been here on earth.

Shortly after Adam's death a very holy man, a monk, told my parents that he was sure Adam was a Saint and they should start handing out to people relics, and tell people to ask for miracles through Adam. My parents have taken this very seriously. Sure enough, little by little people have come to my parents telling them stories of how they believe Adam has helped them. This is without my parents telling people to pray to Adam, or to report stories. The stories are a little more than coincidence.

If you are in need of spiritual guidance, a miracle, heavenly intervention, I encourage you to ask for help through Adam. If you receive the help you need, please contact me, so that it can be recorded. No prayer goes unanswered, no prayer is wasted. The grace is always there.

The Power of Divinity

I think many Americans share my experience of hearing the same New Testament stories over and over. We have heard them so many times that we start to lose the sense of what miraculous events these are. They have become well-known fairy tales, tales of magic, tales of a very good and noble man. However, if the New Testament does not make you quiver, shutter, tremble, feel humble, enlighten you every time you read it, then it might be prudent to ask how TRUE do you think they are?

Yesterday I read this passage:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. (John 9:1-7 ESV)

As horrible as it is to admit, I found this passage very mundane, but why? I have never seen such a miracle, but I am sure that this is an act that the Lord, Creator, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, could perform.

One thing is that I have read this one and heard it many times. Someone comes to Jesus with a problem. He teaches them all a lesson and then solves their problem. Oftentimes it is in an unexpected way, a humble way, or he uses divine powers. Ooo, that’s some magic trick, Jesus. (I’m going to be struck down right now. Keep going maybe I will redeem myself.)

Another thing, even when I was a child, I thought it illogical that this man’s malady would be caused by sin. I would hate to think that if I had cancer, or woke up blind that the cause was my sins, or someone else’s. Where did those people get that? I would think that we would all be crippled in many ways if we shared the sins of our fathers and were crippled each time we sinned personally.

Oh, how wrong I am to initially think very little of this passage. I especially thought very little of it because, plain and simple, I have heard it before—I was desensitized to its meaning. I saw this passage on www.byzcath.org and it was followed by this teaching:

St. Ambrose of Milan teaches that the blind man touched by Jesus received more then just his sight. In one instant we see both the power of his divinity and the strength of his holiness. As the divine light, he touched this man and enlightened him. As priest, by an action symbolizing baptism he wrought in him his work of redemption. The only reason for his mixing clay with the saliva and smearing it on the eyes of the blind man was to remind you that he who restored the man to health by anointing his eyes with clay is the very one who fashioned the first man out of clay, and that this clay that is our flesh can receive the light of eternal life through the sacrament of baptism.

Blow me away, St. Ambrose! This short passage was so rich I probably could not handle it. How could I have forgotten that this is not a silly fairy tale, or a mundane act from a man that can cure anyone He touches? No, this was pure Act, pure Good, pure Truth, an act of Divinity being imparted on a man who, sin or no sin, suffered in this world of exile, in which we are not yet saved from sin.

Constantly, Jesus Christ redeems us sinners. He redeemed this man and reminded us of many other things (1) We are created by Him (it can be so easy to forget that in the workings of daily life) (2) We can receive eternal life (3) We must live a sacramental life passed down to us from Christ himself through his own ministry, which was given to the Apostles. Lastly, we are redeemed daily through the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Amen.