The miracle that made a saint

I came across the story of the Belgian lady Marie-Paul Stevens on the internet yesterday.  She was the person whose cure was recognised by the Vatican as the miracle required for the canonisation of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity in 2016.  She made her profession as a Secular Carmelite in 2000, by which time she had become an invalid.  In 2002 she was accompanied by the president of her SC group to Flavignerot (successor to Dijon Carmel) to thank Elizabeth – to whom she had been devoted since adolescence – for accompanying her through her illness.  In 1997 she had been diagnosed with Sjögren’s Syndrome, a rare glandular disease.  Even though she suffered almost unbearable pain from her ailment, she did not go to visit Elizabeth in 2002 to pray for healing but to thank her for helping her to cope.  At Flavignerot she was resting in the car park after praying in the chapel and experienced a sudden healing.  Just a few months later she was well enough to walk 350 kilometres on a thanksgiving pilgrimage.  Almost as beautiful as the healing in my eyes is the sense of the precious character of this lady, her love for Elizabeth and her thankfulness in the midst of suffering.   Glory be to God!

Intercessions:

Brian Davis - cancer

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela), Agnes – cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Rosemarie – seriously ill

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

RIP Roswitha Watson OCDS (former President of St Therese Community, Oxford)

David - housebound