Healings arising from Mother Mary visitations, apparitions, and prayers have been reported for centuries. Sixty-seven miracle healings from Lourdes have been studied, investigated, and validated by the Lourdes Medical Bureau and the Catholic Church. Researchers believe that there are at least 5,000 that haven't yet been validated, but are nonetheless credible. The Lourdes Medical Bureau substantiates the person's diagnosis and the cure, and calls it an "inexplicable healing" when a miracle is the only explanation for the person's return to wellness.
Many of the healings described in this chapter came in people's darkest hour, when they were on their knees needing help. I've found that this complete surrender often precedes a miracle healing. Our surrender isn't an egoic requirement of heaven. Rather, it means we're getting out of the way so that heaven can intervene.
BETTY MCWILLIAM'S PRAYER ANSWERED
For example, after Betty McWilliam was diagnosed with breast cancer, she quickly had two surgeries, and then her oncologist started her on a course of radical chemotherapy. Her body couldn't handle the harsh drugs, and she was hospitalized on many occasions following each treatment.
She had never felt sick with the cancer, but the treatments were debilitating to her body. She was given an infusion of four drugs, which took five to seven hours to complete, every three weeks. Within a few days of treatment, she would get extremely sick-similar to, but much worse than, food poisoning (which she had experienced many years earlier).
Betty wasn't at all afraid to leave the planet and go to her Lord, but when she asked if it was her time to go, she got the message: Not yet. After each treatment, she would feel herself moving out into her auric field. She would become weaker and weaker, and start floating above her body. She simply didn't know how to stay here and survive the treatments, so she prayed to Mother Mary, Jesus, and Archangel Raphael (the angel of healing) each day-and sometimes many times a day.
Then, after her third treatment, she couldn't keep any food down and kept passing out. Her husband took her to the hospital one more time. She no longer cared what happened to her body, as she was too weak and exhausted to carry on. Her oncologist determined that she had a bleeding ulcer and sent her to another hospital for emergency surgery. She phoned her sons to tell them what was happening so they wouldn't worry, but by the time she was registered at the other hospital, they had arrived to help her husband keep vigil.
During the night, Betty looked over at her sons' faces and saw the pain and fear in their eyes. She saw the same thing on her exhausted husband's face. How could she get through this for them, she wondered?
Again, she prayed to Mother Mary to help her. As she lay there, she could feel two gentle hands holding her face. She looked up to see which of her sons it was, because the hands were too small to be her husband's. Instead, she saw Mother Mary, wearing her white veil, smiling down at her. Betty then knew that the Blessed Mother would take care of her until she had her surgery the next day, and that all would be well.
She continued to pray to Mother Mary to guide her doctors in any further treatments. When she went back to her oncologist a week later, he decided that he would take her off three of the four drugs because her body was just too sensitive to continue the harsh chemo treatments. Her prayers had been answered. She stayed on the one remaining drug until June of that year, and her doctor told her in July that she was cancer free. She always knew that she no longer had cancer, but it took Mother Mary to convince the doctors to phase out the treatments.
Betty continues to ask Mother Mary to care for her sons, grandchildren, and daughters-in-law, who will soon be giving her two more grandchildren. She and her husband know that they are very blessed to have such a loving family, and she is certain that Mother Mary helped her stay here on Earth to give those children the love they need to flourish in this world. Each of them has a special gift to offer to humankind, and Betty is sure that Mother Mary will guide them, as she guides and continues to help her.
TINA FERRRO'S VISION OF MOTHER MARY
The absolute faith that Betty held, plus her fervent prayers, allowed room for divine intervention. All of heaven respects our free will and won't intrude upon our choices, awaiting our invitation to intervene, and then our surrender to divine will.
Like Betty, a woman named Tina Ferraro received divine guidance that it wasn't her time to go yet, despite her doctors' grim prognoses. Tina had a dream with Mother Mary that involved a statue coming to life, something I mentioned earlier as a common theme among Mary visitations. I believe that these visitations and dreams gave both Betty and Tina the courage and strength to fight for their lives.
Back in early 2005, Tina, who was 33 at the time, woke up in the early hours of the morning with a vision of Mother Mary and Jesus. She often saw Jesus in her dreams, and he would watch over her, smile at her, and talk to her. He was like a best friend, and it felt very comfortable.
This time, he stood in the background behind Mother Mary while she spoke. It was the first time Tina had ever seen her. She remembers sitting on the edge of her bed smiling back at the Blessed Mother, who was beaming the whole time. Tina really couldn't remember the entire conversation, but she was left with the feeling that she would have a big battle ahead, but all would be well.
About a month later, Tina was diagnosed with a rare lung condition and was told that without a double lung transplant, she would have maybe six months to live. She recalls that when the doctors gave her the diagnosis, she confidently told them that she wasn't going anywhere, and that it would be okay. Of course, they thought she was crazy and in denial.
But five years passed, and Mother Mary, in the form of a statue, appeared to Tina once more in a dream. But when Tina looked at her, Mary moved-that is, the statue came to life.
Tina fell to her knees and prayed, and as it happened, that day she ended up in the hospital due to her condition, which had weakened her heart. The doctors tried a drug that she really didn't want to take after reading about its many bad side effects, and as a result, Tina almost lost the fight for her life.
But she survived, so she realized that there were bigger plans than she could ever imagine in store for her.
Tina now believes that her two visions of Mother Mary occurred to let her know that she is being watched over her, and she finds great comfort in that knowledge. She also knows that the Blessed Mother will appear to her again in her dreams whenever she needs her assistance.
THE MIRACLE HELAING OF PATRICIA'S AUNT'S
I join Tina in believing that visions and dreams of Mother Mary are her way of letting us know that she's right here, next to all of us, as a lovingly watchful parent. Sometimes, a person doesn't even need a spiritual vision of Mother Mary to effect a healing. In this next story, a picture was enough to elicit a miracle:
Patricia Acosta Ruiz grew up as a Catholic and has always had a connection with Mother Mary, who was a very nurturing energy in her life. Once, when she was 12 years old, her aunt Maureen (from her father's side) was very ill in the hospital. Everyone gathered around her and assumed she was "at death's door." She had cancer of the lungs, was having great difficulty breathing, and was in the ICU. Patricia had in her possession a very old and tattered picture of "Our Lady of Perpetual Succor," and felt intuitively that she had to give it to her aunt and somehow place it under her pillow so that she could be helped by Mother Mary.
Patricia's uncle Robert was a self-proclaimed atheist, but being very emotional and sad about his wife, he told Patricia that he would try anything to help his wife. Following his niece's instructions, he took the card and placed it under Maureen's pillow. Within days, she started getting better, and the cancer went into remission. She lived another two years.
Her uncle told Patricia how grateful he was, and that he was convinced that it was Mother Mary who had helped his wife. He said it was truly the first bit of proof for him that God actually exists.
Excerpt from the book Mary, Queen of Angels by Doreen Virtue. It is published by Hay House (Available May 15, 2012) and available at all bookstores or online. Join Doreen will be a featured speaker in the "Angels and the Afterlife" events at WA Convention Center on Sep 22, 2012.
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