Posted on 02/14/2003 10:28:31 AM PST by Siobhan
"When the atom bomb destroyed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945," notes a website, "it somehow spared a building only eight blocks away from ground zero. In it were living eight Jesuits who were unharmed by the blast, heat, and radiation. Some 200 scientists have examined the priests, trying to determine why they were unhurt. Speaking on American TV, the German Jesuit Father Hubert Schiffer gave the answer: 'In that house, the Rosary was prayed every day. In that house we were living the message of Fatima,' he said."
Actually, it was even more dramatic than that. Let's hear Father Schiffer's own words:
"Suddenly, a terrific explosion filled the air with one bursting thunder stroke. An invisible force lifted me from the chair, hurled me through the air, shook me, battered me, whirled me 'round and 'round like a leaf in a gust of autumn wind."
The next thing the priest remembered, he was laying on the ground. "He looked around and there was nothing," notes another website, "in any direction: the railroad station and buildings in all directions were leveled to the ground. The only physical harm to himself was that he could feel a few pieces of glass in the back of his neck. As far as he could tell, there was nothing else physically wrong with himself. Many thousands were killed or maimed by the explosion. After the conquest of the Americans, their army doctors and scientists explained to him that his body would begin to deteriorate because of the radiation. Many of the Japanese people had blisters and sores from the radiation.
To the doctors amazement, Fr. Schiffer's body contained no radiation or ill-effects from the bomb. Fr. Schiffer attributes this to devotion to the Blessed Mother, and his daily Fatima Rosary. He feels that he received a protective shield from the Blessed Mother which protected him from all radiation and ill-effects."
Note how this ties into the third secret of Fatima -- which showed the Blessed Mother halting a scorching flame that was about to sear the earth.
It appears, noted one scientist, Dr. Stephen Rinehart, that the Jesuits (at one kilometer from the geometric epicenter), had greater than 90 percent probability of being outside the atomic bomb’s “plasma,” since it was an airburst. But they were on the “hairy edge.”
Depending on the actual height of detonation, the Jesuits must have had the edge of the fireball literally outside their windows. Assuming they were just outside of the plasma, their residence should still have been utterly destroyed (temperatures more than 2000 Fahrenheit) and tremendous air blast pressures.
This coincides with the bombing of Nagasaki where St. Maximilian Kolbe had established a Franciscan Friary that was also unharmed because of special protection from the Blessed Mother, as the Brothers too prayed the daily Rosary and also had no effects from the bomb.
When we invoke Mary, she is empowered; she gains holy luminosity (note her luminous silhouette in the photo of the nuclear mushroom, top left of cloud, below, and also Christ Crucified in the stem). Thus, in our own time, when there is fear about everything from bioterrorism to a radiological bomb, let us remember that with the Rosary, with prayer from the heart, we have supernatural protection. And we have guidance. God will tell us what we need and where we need to go. He guides us through our heroic Pope.
Yes, we follow governmental instructions; yes, we buy food staples and water and have cash on hand, if, in prayer, we feel vulnerable.
But we do so in harmony with the Holy Spirit and with the Rosary -- which has special powers in our times and keeps us from both paranoia and actual danger.
The power of the Rosary can work miracles!
I don't mean to sound skeptical....
but, well,... I am.
Can you produce some evidence of this miraculous event?
I am as Catholic as the Pope, and would like to believe this article... please help me to believe.
Lloyd
There are miraculous issues related to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both were locations of the ministry of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe. Nagasaki had been the ancient site of the Great Martyrdom of Japanese Catholics where so many had been crucified. Even after the persecution drove the Catholic Church underground without priests or bishops, Nagasaki and environs remained the center of Christianity albeit hidden from view.
Ground Zero in Nagasaki was the Roman Catholic cathedral in the heart of the largest Catholic center in Japan, the Urakami valley.
Madonna of Nagasaki: The Story
I still recall being astounded by one Catholic survivor of Nagasaki who said she was glad that the Cathedral and the Catholic neighborhoods were the ones destroyed because they, the Catholic Christians, were all prepared to meet God but their non-Christian fellow countrymen were not.
Regarding Father Hubert and the Jesuits, I have heard of this miracle all my life, and perhaps when we were in Asia during part of my childhood I was exposed to more of these stories of miracles from Japan to China to Vietnam (Our Lady of Lavang, pray for us.) than those of you who grew up in the United States. I will search for some other sources for you than just Michael's article above. If you do not hear from me, please freepmail me to jog my memory.
All of this translates for me into Daily Mass and daily family Rosary. I am also very convinced of the power and graces associated with the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy.
I found this website Here are a few more details than what I previously did not know (another community in Nagasaki spared).
Somewhere I have a little booklet from the Blue Army that tells it essentially like on the website.
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