What are Miracles?

There are many differing views on what is a miracle, from a sudden and unexpected healing to a vision or inner locution but the truth is that there are many miracles given to us every day, mostly unrecognized.

Bread of Heaven - Manna for This Generation is more than one miracle. It is a Gift of visions, hearing, speech, healing and words written by moving the hand independently of the owner of that hand, or of reading the words written in gold letters before the eyes.

I hear people discuss miracles, often in disbelief. So much proof is asked for and miracles are often brushed aside by man's lack of understanding. Is it that we don't want to believe in the power and love of the healing Hands of God? Are we afraid to admit that we do not have all the answers nor ever will have unless they are given to us from above?

I have discovered through the last twelve years that incidences in our lives that we take for granted are often Divine Gifts. Have we been sick and then recovered 'normally'? Do we take seriously the claims of the scientists that our bodies are made to self-heal or do we admit that every sickness from which we recover IS a miraculous healing? Our food growing in the fields is another miracle, as is the rain falling on earth to provide our water. The whole of creation is a continuous miracle and there is no element of it left to chance. It is all carefully arranged for our benefit.

It is true we see things we do not like, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, but these are a natural part of our earth, a living planet.

The most discussed type of miracle is that of bodily healing, especially when it occurs at a shrine like Lourdes but we overlook the many other ways in which we are healed every day. The sick who make the pilgrimage to Lourdes often go home as sick as at the beginning, or so it seems. Their physical condition may not change but other Gifts are granted to them. The Gift of endurance and consolation of heart, the knowledge that Our Lord and Our Lady are watching over them and protecting them, hearing their prayers and guiding them throughout their lives, for only God knows what will be best for us and that is what He gives each one.

Miracles are not meant to be startling 'events', they are meant to be, and are, Divine Gifts of love to help us in our lives. There is mostly no startling occurrence, just a very quiet 'kiss' on our cheek that will assist us through the bad times and bring us back into the Light of Truth if we have lost our way. How many times has a problem been solved for us? How many people have stopped arguing with us and become friends? On a larger and political scale, the Wall between East and West was brought down not by Russia and the Western nations, but by a true miracle of Divine Love.

Man still feels that God is far away from him. This is not the case. It is man who has lost his way, man who has put his faith entirely in the works of his own hands and closed his eyes, mind and heart to the Great Gifts of Divinity. To this world science is God, money is God, all else is make-believe. How far from the truth that is.

God is closer than people think and Divine Love and Mercy is not like a shop that locks its doors, closes its shutters and goes away for the weekend. Never for one moment of our lives are we alone, nor will we be. We each have an angel guardian watching over us from cradle to grave. Heaven does not close its doors to us at any time, nor does Divine Mercy turn away from those in need of help. Satan would have people believe that God is fiction, that Divine Promises are daydreams, that miracles never happen but that is completely untrue.

Every moment we are watched over with an indescribable love. That same love heals us when we are sick, helps us when we are depressed and worried, calls out to us to pray when we are lonely, unhappy, far from God Our Father. The still small voice of conscience is that same voice of Love. In small things, finding something we lost, remembering to do something important, meeting someone who can help us, miracles are given, unseen and taken for granted as everyday occurrences. These things do not happen by chance. Our lives are guided by miracles all the time yet we do not see them as such.

Why then is there so much trouble and evil in our world? Satan is ferocious, leading people far away from God and from His Love and Mercy. Satan hates God and His greatest pleasure is to cause immense suffering to The Most holy Sacred Heart of Our Lord by leading His children to perdition, by killing them in body and spirit. He laughs at our troubles and insistently calls people to acts of revenge and hatred, knowing that if they do so they imperil their own souls and cause grief to Our Lord. He makes his war continuously yet we are helped to disregard him and to turn to Our Lord and to Our Lady for protection.

Look at your own life and see all the times when things 'just happened' to turn out right after all. That too is a miracle of Love. We are given free will to decide what to make of our lives but when we are faced with choices we are always assisted. When things are black there is Light given, we can understand what is the best thing to do. 

Never for one moment believe that you are alone for each moment you are being cared for by a love so great you can barely imagine it. It is a far greater love than that of a mother  for her child. It is the same holy and Pure Love which gives everything without charge to the most undeserving of us, the Source of all Love who gave His own Life to save our souls.

Places like Knock, Lourdes, Fatima, Medjujorje, Akita, Garabandal are famous for the special Gifts given by Our Lady. In our present time when we are faced with such evil and apostasy we are being called to prayer by Our loving Father and Mother.  

Throughout time there have been many saints who have been sent to help the world to return to Divine Love and to repent their sins as we must do today. Most notable in the last century is Saint Faustina who brought the works of Divine Mercy to our attention and Saint Pio of Pietrelcina who quietly bore the Wounds of Christ for half a century. These are very special Gifts of Love, and they are heralds of the new age we will soon enter when Our Lord Returns in Glory as King of Peace to restore us and make us all into the holy children He wishes us to be, worthy of His Most holy Name

The Gift of holy Church with the beauty of its Sacraments is the finest of all Gifts, for here we are in the True Presence of Our Lord at the Sacrifice of holy Mass. From Baptism until the day we leave this earth we are helped and taught by holy people who have been Divinely called in Our Lord's service, people who give their lives willingly and with love to help the children whom God loves. They need our daily prayers.

I hope that I have helped to explain the wonderful care and love that Almighty God showers upon each one of His children, for God has no favourites. We are all equal in His sight, and all are very dearly loved.

All we are asked to do is to accept that Divine Love and to return to daily prayer, attend Mass, Adoration and Confession and to read the holy bible everyday. Penance in the form of fasting is also requested, each Wednesday and Friday. These requests are for our own sakes for in bringing us back into the safety of His Love, the Good Shepherd is protecting us for all eternity.

Our Lord's Most holy Sacred heart is broken by the evil in our world. He has no wish to lose even one of His children. By returning to Our most loving Father we may help to assuage that pain, and by offering our lives in His service.

May we say every day  'Abba, Father, Thy Will be done'.