The Prayers of Father Solanus Casey Helped to Cure My Father and Father-In-Law

Although I never knew Father Solanus Casey personally, I feel like he has touched my life in two very special ways.  Both my father and my father-in-law (who sadly is no longer with us) had experienced the special blessings of our loving God at the hands of Father Solanus on two very remote occasions (my father and my father-in-law had never met and did not know each other).

   

Allow me to begin with my father’s story.  In 1928, as a child at the mere age of two, Ralph (my dad) had contracted a severe case of appendicitis.  So horrific was it that the appendix had burst in several places.  Gangrene had set in which in turn resulted in peritonitis (an inflammation of the peritoneum, the thin tissue that lines the inner wall of the abdomen and covers most of the abdominal organs).  Keep in mind this was 1928.  The medical field was not nearly as advanced as it is now.  So severe was his condition that two doctor’s would not so much as attempt to operate.  One doctor told my grandmother not to hold onto too much hope; the situation was grim.  The doctor told her that he could “clean him up” as best he could to try and relieve the pain, but dad’s outlook was bad.  Heart-broken, my grandmother met with Father Solanus on a couple of occasions to ask his for his prayers.  Father Solanus and my grandmother prayed and he gently and kindly assured her not to worry; all would be well... 

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Buddy Michaels

Opened to Just the Right Bible Verse – God’s Forgiveness of our Wrongs

Sometimes when I sit down in a soft chair to settle my world by reading the Bible, I say a quick prayer to the Lord like, “Tell me what I need to hear, Lord”, and open to a page at random.  Today I closed my eyes and thumbed open to Zechariah 1:12-16.  It reads,

Then the angel of the LORD replied, “LORD of hosts, how long will you be without mercy for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah that have felt your anger these seventy years?”

To the angel who spoke with me, the LORD replied favorably, with comforting words.
The angel who spoke with me then said to me, Proclaim: Thus says the LORD of hosts:
I am jealous for Jerusalem
and for Zion intensely jealous.
I am consumed with anger
toward the complacent nations;
When I was only a little angry,
they compounded the disaster.
Therefore, thus says the LORD:
I return to Jerusalem in mercy;
my house will be rebuilt there
and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.

The first thing that struck me upon reading this was that it seemed to be the precise sequel in the movie to the prequel from last week’s Sunday reading at church.   How likely is that?  I opened at random!

On March 18, 2012, the official reading of the church was 2 Chron 36:14-16, 19-23.  It’s long, so I’ll summarize.

It was the story of God’s reason for imposing The Exile on Israel and Judah.  God reminded his people of all their hundreds of years of disobeying, despite God sending several prophets to lead them towards God...



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It was like there was an orchestra conductor in the sky

In the first blog post of March 13,  I mentioned that I’d write two stories about real-life coincidences that indicate to me the love of Jesus in the days before my Mom's death, because someone was provided exactly what they needed in a surprise way.  This is the second of those stories.

It was on the day that, looking back, was the first day of my Mom’s one-week-long dying process.  Things started happening very quickly and very unexpectedly. People normally describe a day like that as a day when ‘All hell broke loose’.  But above it all, it became clear to me that also on that same day, ‘All heaven broke loose’.   

 
It was Monday, Feb. 27, 2012.  My Mom had revealed to us a week earlier, when she could no longer hide it, that she had developed breast cancer about nine months earlier, and wanted no doctor’s involvement.

I was at work. At a pre-agreed time (11:20am), I called my Mom to see if she was OK.  No answer.  She told me not to worry if that were to happen, since she may be in the bathroom, and to call back in an hour.  So I did.  No answer.  I started cancelling my afternoon appointments and called a third time to tell her on the answering machine I’d be there in 30 minutes. That 30 minute drive started out a mental maelstrom for me, imagining my mother crumpled at the bottom of her stairs, bleeding from a horrible fall, and other unpleasant possibilities.

I began to pray out loud to Jesus, saying, “Lord, help me be able to handle what I find.”...

 

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Find Jesus in the Lasagna

No, this is not another tacky silly story about how somebody found a silhouette of the Lord on a burnt piece of toast.   No pictures in the lasagna.  Rather, two people I love thought of lasagna at the same well-timed moment, and it made us all think we were receiving ‘help from above’.

In the previous blog post,  I mentioned that I’d write two stories about real-life coincidences that indicate to me the love of Jesus in the days before my Mom's death, because someone was provided exactly what they needed in a surprise way.  This is one of those stories. 

Background:  at the time of this story, my mother was declining in health rapidly due to breast cancer.  My brother-in-law was in the hospital in a touch-and-go situation requiring daily attention from my wife and her sisters.  And my middle daughter Monica was getting less attention than she normally gets when she comes home from college for a several-day break.

So my wife Mary, stressed to the hilt but still mindful of the needs of her children, said to Monica, “Sweetheart; I haven’t given you much attention recently.  I’d like to do something nice for you. 

...


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My Mom died 10 days ago. Why do I love God more?

On March 3, my mother died.  It rocked me. This woman who raised me from an infant; who poured herself into the care and formation of her four children… was no longer on this world.  We each need a mother.  I no longer had mine.

For many days prior to her passing and many days after her passing, I found myself overwhelmed by the quickly rising waters of sadness.  On three occasions, I broke down while other people were present.  Once it was in the middle of church. (I think it embarrassed my wife, who simultaneously put her arm on  me to show her support). 

I could keep the sadness at bay a number of ways:  By working to increase her comfort in her final days; by working to arrange the funeral with my siblings immediately after she passed; by working on cleaning the decades of accumulated flotsam out of her house while all of us were still in town; by eating more; by sleeping when I couldn’t get mental relief; by trying to have some laughs with friends about nonsense.  But none of these controlled the sadness for long.  Before long it found a new way in.

Why in the middle of this sadness do I find I’m closer to God?  Isn’t my belief in God grounded in the idea that he will remove all sadness, and will replace it with a mindless sickeningly sweet joy?  No. I’ve gotten to know Him now for a few decades, and I know Him better with each passing year and with each passing difficulty and success...

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