Signs, Wonders, and Miracles

 For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there', and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. The power of God is ever present to us. It is no less today than any time in history. It is often faith and trust that has diminished, and so, perhaps many miracles too. Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross was enough for the forgiveness of our sins. But through the power of the Cross, He also gave us the grace to "go and sin no more", to conquer evil, and the effects of original sin, which can include disease and illness. In other words, the grace is there to work miracles in our lives, God is still showing us that. But remember that a true conversion of heart is a greater miracle than any physical healing. Please keep that in mind as you read this testimony. For the past seven years, I have watched my friend suffer. I have heard her trying to stifle tears and groans while we were praying before the Blessed Sacrament in Church, and the shocks and pains from Trigeminal Neuralgia were over taking her. Still she came to Church to pray. I have received messages from her while she was at home. “Fran please pray for me. It is very bad today.” Even her descriptions of the pain were hard for me to take, so I could hardly imagine living it. All I could do was pray for her and be there to listen. Still she pressed on with life, doing everything she could, and offering herself and her pain to God. She often told me that it was for her family, but she offered it for my family too, and many other people. We know that Jesus uses all that we offer Him, but especially our suffering, because it is then that we are together with Him on the cross. I was not at the mission on Friday when she was healed, but saw her for the first time at the mission on Saturday morning. Her face looked different, that was the first thing I noticed! She was able to smile completely and she looked ten years younger! I was able to give her a real hug (before anything more than a gentle hug would hurt her), and we both cried tears of joy. As I write this it has been several days since her miracle, and I am still in awe at the goodness and power of Our God! There is so much more that I could say, but I want you to read her own words. She has been such an inspiration to me; showing me how to have faith and trust even through immense suffering. (The covering she speaks of below was a kind of scarf that she had to use over her face because even a small breeze blowing or a fan could send waves of shocking pain for a long time. And Father Manjackal is a missionary priest who bears the stigmata (wounds of Jesus) on the First Friday of every month, those days that are consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.)

Woman, you have great faith! Your wish will come to pass. Matthew 15:28Cheryle~ “God in His Mercy and Love for me has healed me completely.  NO MORE COVERING, NO MORE PAIN.  Friends, I tell you this that you do not lose hope that Our Lord is a merciful and loving God.  I went to a Church mission this week on a First Friday.  March 6, 2020 will be ever engrained into my mind and heart.  Father James Manjackal and Doctor Richard Laundaro are speakers, and God used Doctor Richard to pray over me.  Everyone was around the priest with the stigmata, and people were just falling and being slain with the Holy Spirit. But, I was praying and praying, and then I finally said to Jesus, ‘I am ready, heal me if this is Your desire and not mine’.  Mind you, I have asked for healing many times, but my heart wasn’t ready, and I wanted to be healed when God was ready to heal me because I needed to not go back to who I was, but move forward to who Jesus wants me to be.  This road lasted seven years.  The reason why I cover is because I have trigeminal neuralgia, sometimes called the suicide disease because the pain is so debilitating that people would prefer to kill themselves than to endure it, but thank God, I knew better.  I knew that I have a Merciful, loving God that who loves me and that if this is what He has called me to be, I will do it.  Of course, I wasn’t always that cooperative.  Like all of us, I fought it, I tried every drug, every diet, every exercise, every prayer that I ever learned about healing and even brain surgery for eight hours and a very rough recovery only to have complete numbness in my left face and permanent double vision in my left eye.  This surgery only lasted for a pain relief of a year and then it came back with a vengeance.  I avoided everything and everyone that could hurt me, the wind was an excruciating pain for me.  Also, at the same time, I had occipital neuralgia which was a pain in the nerves on the surface of the head.  This pain was also so debilitating that I would just sit in a dark room in so much pain.  I then had surgery on the right and left side of my head which caused a numbness in my head so that I could hardly feel the pillow behind me on the right hand side and the left I can’t at all.  On the left, my head felt like a rock but that surgery relieved the pain on that side, but my head still feels like a rock today.  I have some more feeling on the right side, but not the left.  Anyway, through this journey of sickness, I also had the opportunity to grow closer to Jesus, to really discover His wounds to have compassion and love for everything that Jesus went through.  I was especially drawn to His emotional suffering, the suffering of abandonment, misunderstanding, humiliation, indifference, and the list goes on.  In a way, I could see my little passion enfolding within the Lord’s big passion and I was drawn to it because I didn’t do this willingly as we all don’t want to hold on to our crosses, but He WANTED to do this for LOVE, for LOVE OF THE FATHER AND FOR LOVE OF US.  BECAUSE HE KNEW THAT THE FATHER LOVED US SO.   I wanted to show this in capitalization because if you ponder on this for a long period of time, You can put your wounds, on His.  You can trust Him, He loves you. He can heal you!!” After being healed Cheryle adds: “I am like a child discovering what she can do and not taking anything for granted:   Brushing my teeth without pain.  Brushing my hair.  Taking a normal shower without pain.  Singing.  Dancing.  Standing in the wind and letting the breeze just blow around me.  Standing in the rain.  Carrying my grandchildren more. Vacuuming the floor.  Washing my floor. Driving in the car without pain.  I could only drive an hour at the most without having to pull over due to the constant bouncing in the car.  I can shop at any store now because I don’t have to think about where the air is coming from and how to avoid it.  I don’t have to ride in a very hot car with no air conditioning on. I can go visit out of state relatives that I have not seen in 4 years, all pain free.  I have stopped taking my medication that I have taken for 7 years which has made my gait normal and not unsteady since I fell six times when on it.  My eyesight is clearing up even though I still have double vision, the blurriness due to the medication has cleared.  I could carry heavy groceries when before I had to have several light weight bags.  I move faster and am able to move my head back and forth without dizziness or pain.  I don’t have to wear a coat anymore unless it is cold.  I don’t have to shield myself when someone walks past me due to the air they produce.  I can go to any restaurant that I want without having to worry about whether they have fans blowing or not.  Of course, the wearing of a cover was very humiliating since everyone stared at me.  I can see how easily that I can get spoiled so I will have to be careful with my new freedom.   I am sure that I will continue to discover more that I can do and just praise the Lord for His mercy on his little child.” I asked Cheryle two other questions: What do you want people to know about suffering? And the healing power of the Holy Spirit? “Suffering stripped me of self and my selfish wants and desires.  Suddenly the small things that we all take for granted caused pain to me and I learned to be thankful for whatever I was able to do and to do it with a smile and love for others.  Through suffering, you can feel the pain of those around you suffering and you want to help them, to pray for them or just show some type of love for them because you understand their pain.  Suffering attached me to the suffering Christ on the cross.  I couldn’t imagine what love that He has for us to be able to endure His cross but His cross brought comfort to my cross and I offered it to Him to be used as He wished and somehow that thought process brought joy to my life and widened my heart to love others even more.  I know that this suffering has prepared me for whatever God’s will for me in the future is because I am not the same person.  I am a humbled person to see the love of the Lord being poured out into me will forever keep me small.  The healing power of the Holy Spirit transforms hearts to be open to receive the graces that God wants to give . Also, forgiveness for others and oneself is important and will stop your spiritual growth if you do not forgive and hold grudges.  How can we do that when Jesus tells us to forgive seventy times seven times and we recite forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us in the Our Father prayer, but do we really take those words seriously.  The forgiveness of ourselves is the hardest one because for some reason we think that we should have done everything perfect and should have never made a mistake which is such an unreal expectation for a child of God.  Children get messy and have to go back to the Father to clean them but the Father does it lovingly knowing full well that the child will come back messy again.”

"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:23 Friends, the power of God is always the same, and miracles still happen today! They really do! But the best way for us to be open to miracles and all the grace and blessings that the Lord wishes to give us is for our souls to be in sanctifying grace. When our souls are darkened by sin, until we repent and ask forgiveness from God, grace cannot flow into and through us like a river as God intends. In fact, we can shut God out of our souls completely.  If you are Catholic, you know that you need the Sacrament of Reconciliation that Jesus gave to the Apostles, and so the Church.

If you forgive the faults of others, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours. If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you. Matthew 6:14 And if you are not Catholic, you can search your heart sincerely, and ask God for His pardon for all of your sins. But everyone must first do what Jesus commands us, that is to forgive first, and that means everyone with whom you may have anger, bitterness, or hard feelings, even your enemies. Remember the healing of your soul is more important than any physical healing, and all of heaven rejoices when just one person repents. Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:7 Sluggish indeed is this people’s heart. They have scarcely heard with their ears, they have firmly closed their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back to me, and I should heal them. Matthew 13:15