Maria

When she was nine, Maria was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was very deep in the brain, and in a sensitive area. They said that they would try to operate. Any further tests would be more dangerous than simply doing the surgery. They would not know whether it was operable until they conducted the surgery itself. Because they would need to enter the brain via the Visual Centre, she would be blind on the right visual field of both eyes; either the right top-hand quadrant or the entire right half of her vision. This would be permanent. But if the tumor was inoperable, there was no more they could do.

Two days before the operation, Padre Pio’s mitten was brought in for her.

The night before the operation, I could not sleep and so I went to the hospital. The Irish hospitals are very understanding and I was given a camp bed to rest in. I was told to tell her, ‘When you wake up you will be here in the hospital. You will have a headache. And if you find it hard to see, do not be frightened.’ When I went in the next morning, I saw her teddy bear by her bed, but I was very disturbed to see that that her stand-up crucifix was not there. ‘Who could have been so unfeeling as to take it away?’ I asked myself. But when I turned down the blanket I saw that she was asleep with her crucifix folded in her arms.

She was indeed blind on the entire right visual field, and in considerable pain. But when a friend (who also helped us by bringing us cooked dinners in the house) asked her, ‘Which do you prefer: the pink medicine [pain killer] of the injections?’ she replied, ‘Well, the pink medicine tastes horrible and the injection is soon over – and anyway, it is only pain!’ She told me later that she was offering up her entire illness for a Special Intention, but did not say what it was, and I did not ask.

One time soon after, I was praying the Five Sorrowful Mysteries with her. At the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery she removed the moist bandage on her eyes. I asked her, ‘Did you do that as an extra penance?’ ‘Yes,’ said she. ‘Well, under Obedience, don’t do that again!’ I said. ‘God wants you to recover.’

One afternoon when I visited – Sheila could not come often, having the other children to look after – Maria said, ‘The doctor was here today with all the other nurses and people looking neat and posh, and with all their books and special instruments… The doctor said, ‘Don’t you have a television in your ward, Maria?’ ‘I said, ‘No, I don’t like television’. He said, ‘So what do you do all day?’ I said, ‘Well, I do my colouring, and chat with my visitors, and I pray the Rosary.’ Then she gave her special impish smile and said, ‘I didn’t tell him: this month’s Special Intention for the Children’s Rosary Crusade is: ‘That the the curse of television be lifted from Irish homes!’

==

On Wednesday 10th January 2018 we got a call from the Nursing Home that it would be wise to come and be with her, as soon as practicable. I went over to the laundry where Ciarán works, straight across the road – and said to the foreman, ‘Can you tell Ciarán – his sister is dying.’ They went straight into action, sent him straight over and told him to stay as long as he needed.

[…]

The dear nurses had set up her table with a white cloth, her crucifix, and two candles. She was immobile, with a fixed stare into the pillow, and laboured breathing. But I think she was still aware of what was going on. She was lying with her crucifix under the blanket clasped to her breast, just as she had done during her first illness when she was nine years old. During the course of our visits she would gradually acquire a slight smile. I was mostly playing ‘Soul of My Saviour’ (Anima Christi) on the mouth organ, and the Ave Maria hymns on the whistle. They had been unable to bring her temperature down and she was not sustaining the oxygen level in the blood.

A friend was helping me with the driving back and forth. One of us was being allowed to sleep over in her room.

[…]

In the morning the nice nurses brought me a breakfast of tea & porridge & showed me where to have a shower. By about 10am her breathing became much quieter and shallower, and then each breath further apart. I texted the others to say it would be wise to come back up asap.

[…]

About 11.20 The breaths now became so far apart I knew it was perhaps only minutes before the last one – and just as I had decided this, my mobile phone rang. I nearly didn’t answer at this truly critical moment but I did, and it was N., whose family are very old friends and who had visited us in the Summer, but with whom we hadn’t been in contact since. She asked how was the family going. I said, ‘I’m by Sr Cecilia’s bedside. I don’t think she’ll outlive today.’ ‘Oh!’ she exclaimed. ‘I had no idea – I’ll get all the family together and pray the Rosary for her right now.’ She rang off. Sr Cecilia’s breaths were now very gentle and far apart, and within about five minutes there was another breath, and then no others. There was no dramatics, nothing to show it was the last. … I bent over and whispered, ‘Enjoy your holiday, Sister!’ … I texted , to say that she had stopped breathing. The rest of the family arrived about twenty minutes later. They were very sorry to have just missed her, but glad that Daddy was there to see her off.

The next day N. sent this text:

"Thank you for taking the call at such a difficult moment. It was so strange – I had been meaning to ring but suddenly yesterday morning the strangest sensation suddenly hit me: I should call the O’Farrells – What an incredible blessing for us to be allowed to share in Sister’s embrace with Heaven – Fr W and Fr L too! In fact Fr W, who saw the message first, had just started a Mass for her. We hope to get down for her Requiem Mass tomorrow."

So the Guardian Angels, St Cecilia, Sr Cecilia’s Spouse and His Mother saw to it that she was accompanied on her journey by a family Rosary and the Holy Mass.

+++

Several weeks after this I received a Friend Request from a middle-aged lady called Geraldine. She had a very terrible childhood in an orphanage and ‘Care Home’. She has given me permission to share her story.

She sent this:

My daughter is [a senior lecturer at one of the top universities] and I am very proud of her – beautiful and amazing – and I gave birth to her. We don't have much contact but she is out there and I am her proud birth mom in the background. But tears of joy at this beautiful lady [photo]

MOF: She's a stunner, Geraldine

R: Yes she is a beautiful lady and I have put her before me and I am glad

MOF: Did she come from your experience you described on your wall?

R: Yes her conception was a reality check I was pregnant and alone and rejected and Jesus also was defenceless and I felt His deep love and blessings upon me and years later I hope to hear from her… she has her own family and is doing well. I met her in 2001.

I am very sad and lonely.

MOF: I have a prayer list of those I remember every day with a Memoráre & a prayer to S. Michael, and I will put you on the list from today. 'This too shall pass', dear Geraldine. One of the greatest and yet most consoling mysteries of the Faith is that God reserves His greatest trials for his strongest and most generous souls, and great trials are a sign of His special love: a love of 'predilection'. You do so well to offer all this for the outcome of the referendum - and for the healing of the world. You are playing a significant part in the work of Salvation, and a suffering member of the Mystical (but real) Body of Christ.

R: … It is comforting to know as I am in such emotional pain and hurt deeply.

I am broken down inside and my pastor made me promise I won't kill myself but it is hard going

MOF: I have asked my daughter, Sr Cecilia Pia of the Five Wounds, to take you under her care. She offered herself to her Spouse as a Victim Soul to make reparation for the lukewarm and indifferent.

R: Thank you so much Micheal My emotions and feelings and thoughts are not clear as I draw closer to Friday [Abortion Referendum Day] I become more distressed. [She feels it very deeply when abortion activists call for abortion in the case of rape, and this was a main platform of their camaign]

MOF: Sr's condition steadily deteriorated until she was completely paralysed, but she still bowed her head at the Name of Jesus when we prayed by her bedside. She finally went to meet her Spouse last January. In the last months the medical staff were bewildered because she was released from all pain - which shouldn't have happened. As soon as she was gone to God, several people felt her immediate help from Heaven, including one of her sisters, a nun in the same Order. I have commended you to her. Her brother said that, when he saw her laid out, all trace of pain and disability was gone and he felt that her real work had only just begun.

THURS 10:08I feel so privileged Micheal and she was very close to Jesus and a great person and I am going to offer it up to the Lord and ask him to help me now carry me through it and guide me in his greater plan ... but it gets so unbearable Micheal and I fall down exhausted and bewildered and I endure the betrayal the insults … I'm abnormal, a nobody... who do I think I am? A child of God is who I am and I know he suffered for my sins and I am weak and I run away from it and cry and return and I now I can't return I feel I’m being treated as a doormat a skibby no voice no needs met I am so vulnerable and the referendum has weighed heavily on my shoulders it has thrown me into disarray and I am all in high adrenaline afraid of my own shadow if it were you what would you do in my shoes? It's hard to offer it up always I'm 57 near 58 in September a long way now for me

Later that day she sent this message –

THURS 13:24 Micheal I am feeling much lighter and a Holy Trinity presence over me Sr. Cecilia is healing me I can't explain it just bright dazzling array all around me

FRI 03:58 Micheal I awoke crying out and I feel a presence of love and peace and song running through me and “I will never let anyone harm you my child” and I am crying but I feel healing taking place

Later that day: Oh Micheal your Sr. Cecilia has poured down so much love to me I awoke and saw a beautiful face of a nun and it was not a face I knew and it was in the distance and when I tried to touch her she was gone and it must have been your daughter... he drew us together for healing and to show me my faith has sustained me saved me

I am in the chapel now and I am by the tabernacle and I am praying to her and Jesus to hear my cry out of darkness and into his care and protection ... I will remain strong and courageous and in touch and I will pray to Sr. Cecilia every morning and night from here on in love Geraldine

[I sent her a photo of Sr Cecilia]

And it was her I saw white veil and smile and her hands outstretched for me and I reached out to touch her and she was gone and grace and peace and love poured into my whole being and I went to chapel and up to the tabernacle and I can feel love

A lady who was crying on the bus yesterday was not Irish but I placed in her hand my crucifix and gave her cards for domestic violence and the Samaritans and 20 euro and when we got to Cork she was first off the bus and I am very slow moving as both my knees are very painful so the bus was empty when I was last to leave and my suitcase was so far back in the luggage department and I couldn't reach it and the young lady who was so upset appeared from the back of the bus and got it out for me. She had no English, but showed me her phone and pointed to mine and I put in my number and she handed me her name and number – I couldn't pronounce it – and we hugged one another for a long time. She kissed my face and was gone.

I had my phone off this morning at my church service and as soon as I put it on a girl named Clara rang thanking me for saving her sister as she had left a note on her pillow saying she was going to be gone as she was being bullied very badly.

Her mother found it and could not get through as she had it off. But she came back home and told them that a beautiful Irish lady with such sad eyes reached out and gave her a holy cross and and helpline numbers and 20 euro and Peace came upon her and she went home to them asking forgiveness and kept talking about me and my kindness. And although I had no clue of her nationality, I gave her such love and blessings and hope. Her sister rang me and invited me to their home as her mother and father want to thank me and hug me I was so emotional Micheal and your kindness and compassion and connection to your daughter Sr.Cecilia have done this through me and I have been blown away that I saved this lovely young lady

I was crippled with chronic arthritis in the left knee and starting on the right knee. But after going to the church and the tabernacle there is no pain and I am walking straight now. A miracle has been given to me.