Posted on 02/19/2010 6:37:39 AM PST by marshmallow
Diminutive, shy and with little education, Alfred Bessette of Quebec hardly seemed destined to become the Canadian province's first Catholic saint.
But he reputedly had the gift of healing, which he sometimes exercised by the laying on of hands, and sometimes did not need to.
The faithful say he could simply say in his gruff voice, "leave your crutches and walk" to cure a crippled person.
In the nave of Montreal's imposing St Joseph's Oratory, dozens of canes are testimony to the cures attributed to Bessette, later to become Brother Andre.
The sanctuary was built using the gifts of thousands of pilgrims attracted by Brother Andre's charisma.
However his path was strewn with obstacles.
Born in 1845 in Mont-Saint-Gregoire of Iberville, 40 kilometres (25 miles) to the east of Montreal, he was orphaned at the age of 12.
His father, a woodworker, was killed by a falling tree while his mother succumbed to tuberculosis three years later, leaving him in the care of an aunt.
Andre did odd jobs, including two years in textile mills in the United States before he returned to Quebec.
Deeply religious, he applied to join the congregation of Sainte Croix in the village of Cote des Neiges, today a neighborhood of Montreal, but the order initially refused him because he was of poor health.
Finally accepted, he became Brother Andre in 1870.
Because he could barely read or write, Brother Andre was assigned as a porter at the order's College of Notre Dame, manning the door, scrubbing the floor and working in the garden.
He slept very little and lived only on bread dipped in milk.
"Our superiors put me at the door, and I remained there for 40 years," he said later without regrets.
Brother Andre urged the sick to pray to Saint Joseph...........
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I was an alter boy and when I spoke of our trip that fall our priests asked for copies of the pictures we took.
The following week these pictures had been blown up and were posted in the back of the church. The sermons spoke of faith and hope displayed by the results pictured in the back.
Our church is becoming cancer-free. We attribute this to Jesus Christ. . . by His stripes we were healed. The gift of healing comes through the Holy Spirit.
God performs the miracle, but the favor is obtained through the prayers of St. Joseph.
God doesn't need to otain favor from anyone. Can the pot tell the potter what to do?
Jesus submitted Himself to the authority of His parents. "And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them" -Luke 2:51
Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.
The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand.
You've got it backwards.
We seek God's favor through the intercessory prayers of others.
Can the pot tell the potter what to do?
No.
It's called petitioning. Prayer.
We pray to God and we ask others to pray to God on our behalf.
Sigh...............
How many times do we tell the Protestants that God performs the miracles?
We ask the saints in prayer to intercede for us in heaven. Better to have a door and window in a house than only one window — my lame example this morning.
Brother Andre, pray for us that we might be healed. We can walk, but we are murdering our own children.
I remember back in 1990 when I went to Montreal, I had the opportunity to visit Mount Saint Joseph’s. It is a HUGH shrine and you have to use the esscelater to get around. Seen the original shrine with all those crutches.
It does not surprise me. This is all based on the scripture passage about Jesus being the only intercessor between God and man.
God performs the miracles.
We stand in faith on the reliability of the Holy Scriptures.
We pray through the Holy Spirt, (the Counselor, Who speaks in groans we cannot understand) in the name of Jesus Christ, by Whose stripes we were healed.
Jesus is interceding on our behalf before the Father 24/7.
God promises to make all things good for those who love the Lord, according to His purpose for us.
Do you mean: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh to the Father, except through me. John 14:6
But also did not the Apostle Paul there is only “one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus?”
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