December 14, 2014

One Hour that Changed So Much

In her late teenage years, Maria, stopped going to Mass. This continued for many years. Friends brought her back to Mass, but she always did so with negative emotions. Then, in June, 1982, a critical moment arrived.

Her mother-in-law was dying of cancer and doctors gave her but one week to live. She was a kind and loving person, but did not believe in anything beyond this world. As many in the family were saying prayers for her, Maria decided to go before the Blessed Sacrament and offer a holy hour. She was distraught that her mother-in-law was going to die “without knowing she had a savior.” In her desperation, Maria offered God her life for that of her mother-in-law. It was a dramatic submittal that she did not fully appreciate at the time.

It was during this hour that Maria felt a peace come over her that she found impossible to describe. She had never felt anything like it before.

Her mother-in-law would walk out of the hospital, to the amazement of her doctors. Before she later died, she was reciting the Lord’s Prayer daily with nuns at St. Columbus Hospice, in Edinburgh.

Also, shortly after Maria’s holy hour experience, her whole family was converted. Maria herself acquired a passionate regard to repentence and prayer. She also says that graces continue in the lives of her family to this day.

She traces it all to one hour before the Real Presence.

Adapted from Proctor, Sister Patricia, O.S.C., 201 Inspirational Stories of the Eucharist, (Spokane, Washington, Francisan Monastery of Saint Clare, 2004) p. 297.

(Additional Note: the substance of the story recounted yesterday is described in the well-known Christmas Carol, “Good King Wenceslaus.”)

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