Posted on 09/07/2003 5:03:54 PM PDT by NYer
Church probes Lourdes cure
An almost totally paralysed 60-year-old Italian woman has been instantly cured of her illness in Lourdes this week.
And as the amazing and moving story of Giulia Mongelli Tofani emerged, she has announced that she is totally convinced that a prayer to the Blessed Lady was the reason for her incredible recovery. 'I am overjoyed, most happy, Our Lady of Lourdes has cured me,' said Giulia, who prior to her visit was almost completely helpless and had to be spoon fed by her family. 'When I came to Lourdes I was full of anguish, now I feel like a cricket,' she said. 'I can walk up and down. I climb the stairs, I go up and down now and never stop. I laugh and joke.'
Giulia is convinced a miracle has occurred and top Vatican official Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar-general of Rome Diocese who led her party to Lourdes, backed this view when he publicly thanked God and Our Lady for 'the gift received by Giulia' on the final evening of her visit. The woman had been a bartender in Rome for 35 years before contracting a rare viral infection that left her paralysed some years ago.
Her condition gradually worsened and two years ago only prolonged treatment in the intensive care unit of a Rome clinic kept her alive. Until last week, she showed no sign at all of improvement, but now she can walk and move freely, and as she arrived back in Italy, she told her amazing story.
Giulia said that one evening she was sat watching the candlelight at the grotto of Our Lady in Lourdes, though she was so ill she was not even able to hold a candle in her hand. As she gazed at the statue of Our Lady, she prayed for her seriously ill husband but said she also felt very much alone, and told Our Lady 'I cannot go on'. Giulia said she suddenly felt free from the burden she carried and she heard an inner voice telling her to 'Walk! Walk!'
'I walked up the ramp, but then I stopped and marvelled that I had done it,' she said. But then the voice again urged her 'Walk! Walk!' She did, and then called her friends over to tell them 'I can walk' before bursting into tears and weeping uncontrollably for some time. 'I asked to hold a candle,' she said. 'Then I went to the grotto of Our Lady to thank her. I went back four or five times.'
As news of Giulia's recovery spread among excited pilgrims, her parish priest Don Canio then accompanied her to the medical bureau at Lourdes, where she was subjected to a three hour examination. The bureau are currently studying her case. Though Guilia and her friends are convinced as to what has taken place, it is commonly accepted that the Church is very slow to recognise miracles, even at Lourdes.
Of the millions of pilgrims who have visited Lourdes in the last 145 years, only around 7,000 cases of alleged cures have been examined in depth, and of these just 66 have been officially recognised by the Church as miracles. <
What a nice idea to have Lourdes water transformed into holy water! May it be the vehicle of multiple blessings for you.
That's interesting. It's also so very subjective. There is no way you can ever be sure of the source of these private things, even if it lines up on every point with your belief system.
Whatever you were allowed to glimpse, perhaps the point wasn't to be able to put it into words. Maybe you were infused with a deep something that would put you at peace about it, like everything will make sense in the end but not now as we see things.
If you were meant to be able to explain it, surely it could have been presented in such a way that it could be expressed in human terms, at least partly so like St. Paul experienced.
Of course, there could be other explanations. I've wrestled with some of these things myself and try to block all that sort of thing out.
I had an experience where the sniper would be caught in two days. It didn't seem possible at the time but that's the way it turned out. I even thought about "recording" it somewhere on the net, but opted against it. Pride enters the picture sometimes. I haven't been able to totally conquer my pride. If there are secrets to be shared, that's probably why I haven't been gifted with more. The temptation to pride could ruin everything. Yet life has kept me humble but pride still rears its ugly head. But that could be my puny attempt at yet again trying to make sense out of something that doesn't make sense.
Exactly. This is the same reason satainists sneak away with the Host to use in black masses after given communion-in-the-hand. We can tell who we are by who attacks us, Our Lord and Our Lady.
...and keep a supply of the waters of the spring which were made into holy water by a traditional priest on site.
My daughter was given about a quart of Lourdes water as a gift after her first communion with which our traditional priest blessed our new house.
BTTT of February 11, 2007!
Thanks Salvation! V's wife
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