Friday, December 22, 2006

Miracle: Once I was Blind...Now I can See


Mother Theodore Guerin - Sisters of Providence

I found this story on one of the news sites "Blind man now sees 20-20 --is is a miracle?"

It's a short video on a gentleman named Phil Mccord from Valparaiso, Indiana. Phil was legally blind with 2800 vision in one eye and 21,000 vision in the other. 2200 is what's excepted as legally blind.

Phil had already under gone surgery to correct one of his eyes, but the other one could only be corrected with very risky surgery. Surgery that, if it failed could leave him totally blind in that eye.

Then, Phil, a Baptist by faith, almost strolled past the Church of the Immaculate Conception on that January morning in 2001. He heard organ music echo in the hallway. It sounded peaceful. It sounded joyous. It sounded like a reason to go inside. He sat in a pew near the altar, not exactly to pray but to have an informal chat with God.
"God, you've probably heard about my eye problems," McCord said. "Of course, you have. You're God. Well, anyway . . ."


Phil offered up a prayer to Mother Theodore Guerin who was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI this past Sunday

"If you have God's ear," Phil McCord told her in 2001, "I would appreciate it."

"When he looked in a mirror the day after his church chats, to see if he needed a shave, he had a hard time explaining what he saw.
The chronic droopiness and redness in his right eye was gone, the swelling, too.
"That's odd," he thought.
He told his wife, Debbie, a nurse. She asked: Can you see out of it any better?
Not completely, he replied.
Then, it isn't restored, she said.
Wishful thinking, he figured.
'I BEG YOUR PARDON?'
But he went back to his doctor, the one who'd scheduled the cornea transplant. The doctor looked into McCord's eye and said, "Hmmm."
McCord asked: "Hmmm, what?"
Your eye is better, the doctor told him. You don't need surgery.
"I beg your pardon?" McCord replied.
The doctor asked what specialist McCord had visited and what he'd done to help his eye.
"I said a prayer," McCord told him.
Well, the doctor said, whatever you did worked."


Miracles; for some, no explanation is possible, for other's none is necessary.

As for Phil, his life and faith are deeper and more fulfilling. Cured as a Baptist, he has chosen to convert to Catholicism.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous2:30 AM

    Dear sirs,
    here are a few photos in a diaporama from Etables-sur-mer (Britanny - France).
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmdaoudal/tags/mereguerin/show/
    They represent the birth place of "Mère Théodore".
    This is rebuilt and improved by the local catholic community.
    Sincerly
    Jean Michel

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