Of Miracles and Bad Shepherds

It's looking like the site of Noah's ark really has been found. Will the skeptics mock? Often when I read an article about evidence for biblical events and miracles I think of this quote:

“For those who believe in God no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe in God no explanation is possible.”

The quote is often attributed to Franz Werfel who wrote Song of Bernadette, because the film included a similar quote in the introduction. It does not appear in the historical novel, however, although Werfel's powerful testimony to the Lourdes miracles proclaims it without words. 

When Protestants Tell Us How To Be Catholic

  A Hundred Million Miracles - just go to Medjugorje and get one

We've all had experiences of non-Catholics telling us what Catholics believe. This happened to me (again) a few nights ago when an old friend from back in our race horse days called to ask what I thought of the reversal of Roe vs Wade. 

She's a cradle Episcopalian and goes to an Episcopal church that just got a new pastor. My friend said, "...and he's got a husband!" I said, "Oh. So he's a sodomite." She never skipped a beat, saying, "Yes, but I'll never - never, mind you - leave my church." In the next breath she suggested I "go get a miracle from the apparition". 

Look for Miracles this Holiday Season. Remember, the word comes "holiday" comes from Holy Day!

Christmas is the season of miracles. But what makes a miracle? Fr. John Hardon used to say that the most important miracles weren't those of healing, but those of the heart. Think of the change in someone, a hardened sinner, who in a moment of light is instantly converted. Think of the prisoner St. Therese of Liseaux was praying for who embraced the crucifix held by a priest as he mounted the scaffold of his execution. Think of the abortionist, Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of the murder-monster NARAL, who became a champion of life and Abby Johnson who, as the youngest Planned Parenthood director in the country, walked away never to return after seeing the little victim on a sonogram. Miracles are everywhere if we open our eyes to see them. What miracles are happening in your life this Advent and Christmas?

Do You Believe in Miracles?

This is the true picture of priests -- not what gets all the publicity. Priests are angels of mercy.

Fulton Sheen's Cause for Beatification Moves Forward

And isn't it appropriate that this champion of life's miracle involved a stillborn infant (born September 2010) who showed no signs of life coming back after 61 minutes during which time the parents were pleading for the baby through the intercession of Cardinal Sheen.

Three and a half years later the little one shows no ill effects from the ordeal. Read the press release here and pray that his cause advances quickly.

Cardinal Sheen spoke often about the world approaching midnight  -- a terrible disaster. I heard him speak of the clock nearing 12:00 near the end of his life, but it was a constant theme. In fact, in 1943, he gave a talk called The Approach of Midnight. It was a prophetic talk. Listen to it, especially his description of the decline of education and see our own culture with its Common Core, its gay-straight alliance clubs, its Planned Parenthood style promiscuous sex education. He saw it all coming and continues to warn us. Cardinal Sheen, please intercede for our poor country, especially the young who are so scandalized by false education that force-feeds pleasant lies. Here's just a portion of Cardinal Sheen's address:

Pope Francis and the Eucharistic Miracle

Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Over the millenia the Church has documented many Eucharistic miracles. But the one described below is particularly significant because our current Holy Father Pope Francis oversaw the investigation himself. This miracle converted the cardiologist who examined the heart tissue and made the report. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us. O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine. 

Pope Francis A Witness To A Eucharistic Miracle!

[reprinted from The Catholic Eternal Truth blog]

The Miracle in Moore, Oklahoma

Whenever a natural disaster strikes, the God haters come out of the woodwork blaspheming Him for not intervening and saving everyone or chalking it up as one more proof that He doesn't exist. The tornado in Moore, OK is no exception. On one atheist's blog, vitriolic comments blaming God were legion. But the reality is, Moore proves the power of God, because despite the tragedy and the devastating material loss the outcome is a miracle. The 1.3-mile wide tornado swept through the town leveling 13,000 homes, but the death toll as of yesterday was 24! That is nothing short of a miracle. 

And the people of Moore, a working class city where "churches outnumber bars", are already rebuilding. As one local resident said, “In California you have earthquakes, in New York, you have hurricanes. Everywhere you’ve got something. We just choose this over everything else. It’s a good place to live. It’s home.” As one Facebook user said in a video he posted showing his home before and after the tornado, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." Many who spoke to the media after the tornado attributed their survival to God.

One elderly woman describing what happened expressed her sorrow that her little dog was under the rubble. Just at that moment he popped his head out from the ruins. Her tearful response as they were reunited was to say she thought God had only answered one prayer, that she be all right, but he answered both prayers. Her other was for her little dog. It was a touching scene.

Stories are coming in all over about the heroes of Moore: about teachers who shielded their students with their bodies and a nurse who wheeled a mom and her newborn baby down to the hospital cafeteria where they protected the infant between them as they hugged and prayed.

And then there are the stories from those on the ground helping in the aftermath. Mercy Chefs arrived a day after the storm with hot meals. Steve Elliott of Grassfire joined them to help describing his experiences:

Yet the most amazing thing of all that I saw yesterday was not the storm's wrath but the unwavering resiliency and hope in the hearts of the people of this community. 

One man was standing over the ruins of his mother-in-law's house when I asked him if that was his house. "No, this is my mother-in-law's house," he told me. Then he pointed to the left and said, "My house is by that white truck." 

I looked in the direction he pointed. There was no house by the white truck. It had been leveled by the storm. He then told me he had come back to get his employee badge out of his destroyed truck so he could go back to work.

And that's what the people of Moore are doing. Getting to work to clean up and rebuild. They are the salt of the earth. So join in praying for these courageous folks. They illustrate what's really important -- not the stuff we own, but the stuff we're made of!

You can do something practical by helping Mercy Chefs feed folks while they clean up.  To feed the hungry is the first corporal work of mercy. And of course pray for all the families impacted. May God give them courage and peace as they put their lives and homes back together.

Holy Ground in New Mexico

Check out the website. 

Miracles Still Happen!

Ferndale-area boy's recovery from flesh-eating bacteria linked to Blessed Kateri's sainthood

Newborn Survives after a week-long burial in the rubble

Miracles in Jacmel, Haiti

I remember reading about Mother Teresa once showing an emaciated infant rescued from a dumpster to a reporter and saying with joy, "Look, there's life in her." Praise God for the rescue and survival of little Elizabeth and for the medical workers there on the scene enabling such joyful miracle stories.

More about possible miracle attributed to intercession of Pope Pius XII

Details of possible Pius XII miracle emerge

Miracles for an Unbelieving World

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick. What an appropriate combination. Our Lady appeared to a young girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in the little village of Lourdes France in 1858. During the 18 apparitions the Blessed Mother left a spring that had miraculous properties. The first approved miracle occurred on March 1, 1858 while the apparitions continued when Catherine Latapie, nine months pregnant, walked about five miles from the neighboring village of Loubajac to bathe her paralyzed arm in the spring. She was immediately healed and gave birth to a son later that day. Thirty-five miracles would be documented over the next few years before the Church announced in 1862 that Bernadette's apparitions were authentic. Miracles continue to occur at Lourdes astounding medical science. For two amazing stories click here.

While physical cures may be the most dramatic, spiritual miracles of conversion and the strengthening of faith are far more important. Fr. John Hardon, S.J. confirmed that on a retreat I attended when he shared some personal experiences of witnessing physical miracles. He then stressed that miracles of the soul were of a higher nature and more valuable. I thought of that when I read an account about a family who had a daughter with cerebral palsy. They came to Lourdes every year, not asking for a cure, but asking for the strength to live another year with cheerfulness and courage. Suffering is part of the human condition; suffering well is a miracle of grace.

For more about Bernadette and the story of Lourdes take a virtual pilgrimageand meet this humble and beautiful saint whose body remains incorrupt after 150 years.