Woman dies and gets to view the world with God's Glasses

This woman died from abusing diet drugs. Her testimony is really wonderful as it shows just how much GOD loves each and everyone of us.  During her time with GOD she got to see her life both through her eyes and then through GOD"S.  When she views her life through GOD'S eyes she finds that GOD has a very different view of what is important. 

She saw that GOD gives everyone unique gifts. These gifts are to be used to help one another grow and become closer to GOD. 

 Also, she got to experience what GOD'S was feeling when on the last day the Earth will be judged by fire.   She saw the Earth covered in fire and she saw millions of Souls escaping the flames.  She was so excited to see that so many Souls will be saved on judgement day.    

She also saw that on the day of judgement Billions will refuse the love of GOD, and chose of their own free will, to burn with the enemy.  It was then that she saw GOD weep for the billions who REFUSE the open arms of Almighty GOD.

I pray for Divine Mercy for every single Soul alive today that they may receive the eternal love of Almighty GOD!

From a Skeptic to a Believer

Michael H. Brown of Spirit Daily writes....

 In May of 1988, when I first went to Medjugorje, the famed apparition site, I was furious. The first morning there, I was convinced it was a case of mass hysteria.

As a journalist I was geared to observe circumstances, and what I saw concerned me greatly. 

It seemed like a classic case of suggestion: One person would point to Cross Mountain (Mount Krizevac) and say she saw the Cross spinning and those she mentioned it to would then see the same.

 

When I looked, it was just a Cross up there on this rise behind the church, doing nothing.

I was angry that I had come all this way and it was a bust and I would have to spend the better part of a week in this rather remote hamlet in Bosnia-Hercegovina without English newspapers and so much as television.

It was not that I didn't believe. My conversion had come years before, starting in the early 1980s in Manhattan. I was a freelance magazine writer and author (and former newsman), who "saw the Light" while working on a book about organized crime.

Attacked by the devil, I had sought refuge at a nearby church, and about instantly became a daily communicant at Our Lady of Good Counsel on East 90th Street near my apartment. Immediately, I was committed to the Rosary. 

Thus, I believed in visions and had seen and felt things for myself and in fact initially had no intention of going to Medjugorje because I didn't feel I needed it. I believed. I was already fasting. I felt the Holy Spirit.

Instead, I sent my mother to the apparition site, which I first read about in People Magazine and later learned more about it in a book by Father Rene Laurentin; in a widely circulated newsletter; and through home-made videos a priest gave me. Just touching and reading these items gave me a sense of the Holy Spirit. I had never felt anything quite so strong come from a book, save for Scripture (which I read daily). My mother went with a group from Niagara County at the same time that I traveled to Israel on business (visiting the holy sites but doing secular research into paleoanthropology).

I had no intention of expanding my travel plans but my mother and everyone with her were so blown away (my brother ended up at Medjugorje as well) that I resolved to go there myself.

I had never seen such a strong reaction.

And in subsequent months, and then years, time after time, testimony after testimony, it would be the same: the vast majority who went there would not only come back believers, but "converts" in the sense that spiritual blinders were lifted and they went to daily Mass (not just Sunday) and they never approached life again in quite the same fashion.

I had never seen anything near the strength of those conversions, and if those are not fruits -- fasting, daily Rosary, love of God, Mass -- I am not sure what is. Like many others, my brother ended up in the seminary. I can only compare it to other places where I have felt the Power of God in a special fashion: at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem; in the grotto of Lourdes; in the chapel at Fatima; at Turin where the Shroud is. I have had other major experiences everywhere from Knock to Guadalupe. I ended up visiting more than thirty sites of reputed apparition.

For me, Medjugorje was set apart in the size, the awesome power, and the fact that the apparition was ongoing.

Initially skeptical, it didn't take long for the Spirit to begin exploding.

After listening to a seer named Vicka I had begun to see incredible sights. There was a large moon as I looked across to the church from a balcony one evening, and peering up, the lunar orb suddenly seemed to part into two orbs. 

In one was the profile of a bearded man. In the other was the profile of a veiled female. A woman in our group from Detroit saw the same thing -- "the Blessed Mother," she blurted (without knowing what I was seeing).

The next day when we visited a priest who was there at the start of the apparitions, and who laid his hands on us, I noted that two statues at the front of the altar were of a bearded man with a crow (Benedict, Elijah?) and the veiled Virgin Mary.

Crossing a vineyard at the time of the evening apparition, I looked up and saw the sun suddenly behave in a way that was totally different from anything in my previous experience. I had seen sunsets in Hawaii. I had seen them in Colorado. I had seen them in California. I had seen them in Tanzania -- hard to beat those. I had seen them in New Zealand.

But this was totally different.

The sun spun and moved and threw bands of colors in an impossible wide aura and also around the mountain range below.

They were purples and pinks and blue and orange and a melding of colors not of this earth, at least not in my experience.

When I dashed up to a couple walking in front of me to ask if they were seeing the same thing, it turned out to be the famous Miami football coach Don Shula and his wife (who was equally excited).

Stars moved in the night sky. At one point, a dozen of us took turns watching a star as it continuously and indisputably split into three smaller stars (blue, red, and white), then went back to a single one.

We watched that for fifteen minutes (with binoculars).

I could go on. I was spoken to. On other visits, I saw more remarkable things. I saw a cross of light stream down from the sun and touch a field in front of me. I saw more sun miracles. I saw a huge dove-like light rise from between the towers of the church (observing it from various angles for more than ten minutes on the feast of the Assumption). Most importantly, I saw dramatic conversions -- and felt a peace unlike any I had ever encountered (such that "peace" meant something wholly different from my first visit onward).

The unique and unbelievable miracles folks report can and do fill volumes. See below for a note I just received.

Do I believe in Medjugorje?

I once wrote for publishers like Random House, and Simon and Schuster, for Harper and Row. I have published articles in everything from Reader's Digest and USA Today Magazine (when it was Family Weekly) to The Atlantic and Saturday Review and Discover and The New York Times Sunday Magazine.  For a while, I was a contributing editor to Science Digest. You get the picture. I am supposed to be skeptical. I had to leave that. I know how those folks feel. I know how negatively even many intellectuals in the Church feel.

But the sun miracles? Millions have seen them. Thousands have filmed them. Many have seen images in it. When I discussed the phenomena with a ocular expert at Columbia University, he could not explain what I described nor how retinas were not burned staring at it (although there have been several scattered cases, out of those millions).

Rosaries that turn gold? Hundreds of thousands of cases. 

I had this happen myself. So did former Treasury Secretary William Simon (who had his tested by a jeweler who confirmed it).

Photographs? 

I can't tell you how many photos I have been sent of inexplicable images at Medjugorje, including one in which the word CHRIST appeared in the sky! There are more miraculous photos from Medjugorje than all shrines and alleged sites combined and multiplied.

Exuding statues? 

 

I touched the mysterious liquid as it flowed from that bronze corpus of Jesus behind the church. I called bronze experts. So far, there is no earthly explanation.

The messages? I spoke to a former U.S. ambassador to Europe, Alfred H. Kingon, who was himself so taken with Medjugorje (despite the fact that he was non-Catholic) that he personally took a synopsis of the messages to both Ronald Reagan (who tried to call seer Marija Pavlovic) and Mikhail Gorbachev (just before that leader turned around the U.S.S.R.).

He believes it had a profound effect.

 

Angels? 

So many, many encounters. On a later trip, two of my nephews encountered one. I get constant such reports!

Healings? 

These have been so numerous that to look for a comparison one has to go to Lourdes.

The Church?

There are fantastic misunderstandings. For some reason, folks can't seem to grasp the idea that while the local bishop, who is in conflict with the Franciscans running the local parish, has rejected Medjugorje, the Vatican, for the first time, removed the power from that diocese to rule on the apparitions. (Usually, such discernment rests with the bishop.)

Who has greater authority -- a bishop or the Vatican?

I have personally spoken to bishops who discussed Medjugorje with John Paul II and who told me he believed it was true without qualification. Personal letters reveal that he even had a devotion to it. 

If the Church ever does rule against Medjugorje, we will strive to be the first to report it.

And whatever my own experiences, and beliefs, I will never report upon it in such a positive way -- as an authentic apparition -- again. Let me say that right up front. I don't have any idea how the Church will rule in the end. I know only that for the time being such judgment has been suspended.

I ended up going there seven times. God-willing, I am going, soon, again. And to be honest, I can't wait. It is like going home. A friend of ours, Bozica Bartulica, has been there seventy times. I have always felt it is somehow located between earth and Heaven.

There is just something very different that touches this whole place.

Pastor Lee Jong Rak is a True Disciple of JESUS CHRIST

When an alarm goes off at Pastor Lee Jong Rak’s home in Seoul, South Korea, it means another baby has been abandoned for him to look after.

The children are left in his purpose built baby box by desperate mothers, who feel they are no longer able to look after the youngsters themselves.

 There are so many sad stories of young women wanting to escape the stigma of having children out of wedlock, and the heartwarming work of Pastor Lee in caring for them.

Up to 18 babies are abandoned each month in the box attached to his house, to be looked after by Pastor Lee and his team of volunteers until more permanent arrangements can be made.
Pastor Lee  has a very challenging job made all the more difficult by those who want to judge from the side lines while doing NOTHING.  The south Korean government in all it's wisdom has passed new laws demanding unwed mothers register these unwanted children.  The South Korean government is also making it more difficult for adoptive parents seeking children.  To make matters even worse some are critical of Pastor Lee for taking in abandoned unwanted children.   The only other option for these poor unwed mothers is an option to grim to speak of. 



GLORY to JESUS CHRIST for HIS servants who are faithful in both the big and small things.

Tough Times Make Strong Saints

A.J. Jones grew up with an abusive alcoholic father who made her childhood one of fear and loathing.  Because of her fathers alcohol addition A.J. and his physical and emotional abuse towards her and her mother A.J. came to hate her father.  Her father had a serious accident which left him on death's doorstep.  In the hospital A.J.'s father begged A.J. for one last chance.  In her anger she refused, but when the Doctor stopped her and told her that her father would most likely die that night, A.J. gave him one more chance.  

The one more chance, the one where A.J. opened her damaged heart to her earthly father, was met years later by her father's suicide.  This led A.J. to the deepest darkest part of her life, it was there with a pill bottle in her hand, getting ready to end her own life that A.J. met Almighty GOD.  

It was there on her knees sobbing in tears that A.J. would know that there is a GOD and HE loves all of us with an unmatchable love that will never abandon us!

Man is saved by a Miracle and Becomes a Priest

There’s no “moderate’ in Rick Wendell’s approach to life. Whether on the hockey rink, ski slopes, hunting fields training his Labrador-retriever dogs, the seat of a motorcycle or behind a wheel of a car, Wendell pushes himself to the limit.

His full-steam ahead approach nearly sidelined him permanently the summer before college, when he crashed his motorcycle, putting him in a Minnesota emergency room, followed by an immediate trip to the operating room where he underwent eight hours of surgery. His helmet saved his life, believes Wendell, whose left wrist contains a ragged scar — a reminder of his brush with death.

“People started saying to me, ‘God’s saving you for something special,’” said Wendell in an interview with your Catholic Herald.

He suspects the “something special” will occur on Saturday, May 20 when he and four other men will be ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

For Wendell, 46, being ordained in the cathedral is a homecoming. On Valentine’s Day 1960, he was baptized in the same church, the parish where his parents, Thomas and Patricia Wendell, were married.

Coming back to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is also a homecoming for Wendell, who spent his high school years living in Afton in the Superior Diocese, later moved to Utah, Colorado, North Dakota and even Cozumel, Mexico. But the spiritual journey he traveled to return to the Catholic Church involved even more mileage.

Wendell described his early family life as centered around the Catholic faith. Thomas and Patricia took their three sons to Mass weekly, always sitting in the same front row pew — even if they arrived late, much to the chagrin of young Rick. The three boys were altar servers and a close relative, Fr. Frank Kamp, is a Divine Word Missionary priest. Wendell attended parochial schools, including Hill-Murray High School, a private college preparatory school located in Maplewood, a suburb of St. Paul, Minn.

Sometime after high school, however, Wendell’s Catholic faith became less important to him.

He earned a bachelor of science degree (pre-med/biology) from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, but after working for a short time in a hospital emergency room to “build his resume,” Wendell abruptly quit and headed west for the ski slopes, becoming a ski instructor.

Looking back, Wendell recalled the party-filled years as a time in his life when he was searching for truth, “and no one seemed to know what truth was.”

“I didn’t doubt there was a God,” he said of his thoughts at the time. “God just didn’t seem to be relevant to me. By this time, I was not attending Mass anymore,” he added.

Wendell was also doing construction, eventually moving back to Minnesota and starting his own company, Briar Oaks Builders.

By society’s standards he was living the good life, he said. At age 27, he had 15 employees, was building golf course homes, and had all the trappings of success.

“I was living the life. I had a big boat, multiple cars, all kinds of toys,” said Wendell, adding he dated a lot, with no intention of marrying.

But at age 29, he met a woman who changed his mind about marriage. He became engaged, and said, like the rest of his life, “If you’re going to do something, do it large.” The couple arranged to have their wedding at St. Paul Cathedral in St. Paul, had booked the local country club for the reception, had purchased the bride’s dress and had even taken the pre-marriage classes required by the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

On a Friday afternoon in early summer, however, Wendell, 30, while working on a landscaping project at his home, cut himself in the neck — a cut that required stitches.

The stitches were inserted without incident, but as he and his mother were leaving the hospital, Wendell had a reaction to the anesthetic and went into cardiac arrest.

Medical personnel tried to revive him, even shocking him with the paddles, but seemingly to no avail. At one point, doctors told his mother and his fiancée he likely wouldn’t make it. When his father came to see him in the hospital, he was told to put down the flowers and card he was bringing his son and instead say his good-byes.

Wendell said he knows he was unconscious during this period, but he has vivid memories of the experience. He remembers seeing light, an intense, pure light unlike anything he had ever experienced. While the voices around him begged him to cling to life, Wendell remembers wanting to go to the light.

“I don’t (just) believe in God; I know there’s a God,” said Wendell as he looks back on the experience. “I never knew I could be loved like that,” he said describing the feeling he received from being in the light. “I know there is a God; God is and God is everywhere. I understood eternity for the first time.”

Doctors were able to revive Wendell, who admitted he is unable to prove the experience he said he had with the light.

“I can’t prove it, except I am a well-documented medical miracle,” he said, adding, “Everything about my life (following the experience) is different.”

While Wendell made a physical recovery from the cardiac arrest, emotionally, he struggled.

“I left the hospital and I’m in the same skin as before, but everything is different,” he said, describing his feelings. “I did not know what to do. I wanted to go home (to the light); I knew I did not want to be here. I lost my fear of death,” explained Wendell, saying on his worst days, he even thought about walking in front of a bus to achieve his goal of eternal life.

Instead, one day, he wandered into the empty cathedral, the same cathedral where he was to be married in several months. He picked up a piece of paper from the ground and found on it instructions for praying a novena, something he had never done.

Wendell began praying the novena, which was to be done in a church, but one evening after work, he couldn’t find an open church in which to pray. He approached a convent he knew in Hudson and asked to use their chapel.

The sisters welcomed him and in time, he began praying the rosary regularly with them.

About this time, Wendell also learned about Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, site of alleged Marian apparitions. He was further intrigued with Medjugorje when he called a high school friend, who had become a travel agent, to ask her help in planning his honeymoon. The friend said she had just returned from Medjugorje.

Instead of booking a honeymoon trip, Wendell found himself planning a trip to Europe and to Medjugorje for himself and his 62-year-old mother. He noted, at the time he wasn’t sure how to pay for the trip, but days later, opened his mailbox and found an unexpected refund from his insurance company for $3,800.

The trip to Medjugorje was life-changing, noted Wendell, and included hours of confession to a priest from Ireland. While there, Wendell said he felt the first stirrings of his call to priesthood.

“My response, ‘I am the worst sinner in the world,’” he recalled. He also remembers thinking he loved his fiancée, they had names chosen for their unborn children. “You must be thinking of someone else,” he said he told God.

Sometime after returning from his trip, however, he and his fiancée mutually called off the engagement. Wendell kept pushing away the thought of priesthood, even trying to escape it by relocating to Cozumel, Mexico. He eventually turned his energies to a non-profit organization he founded, Covenant Ministries, to sponsor Catholic events.

Wendell also began sharing his faith story with groups of people and eventually went to the Diocese of Bismarck with the intention of pursuing priesthood.

On a subsequent trip to Medjugorje, he met a man he described as “a great, big behemoth of a man. He had big tattoos on his arm and I remember thinking to myself, what’s this guy doing here?” The man was Michael Lightner, now associate pastor at St. Francis Borgia Parish, Cedarburg.

Sometime after that first meeting, Wendell was startled when Lighnter walked into a meeting he was having with the bishop in North Dakota.

The friendship between the two men grew and in 2003 they decided together to return to their home state — Fr. Lightner is from Green Bay — to pursue priesthood for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

As he approaches priesthood, Wendell said he believes he has been given a supernatural gift of faith that he hopes to share with anyone who will listen.

“I’m betting my whole life that the Catholic Church is the church of Jesus Christ. I’m betting my economic future, my reproductive future, my whole life that this is the truth; he is the Way of Life,” said Wendell.

He said he is looking forward to being with people at different phases of their life, and he expects his varied experiences will help him connect with his parishioners.

As a priest, Wendell hopes he can bring others to know the love he’s found in the Catholic Church and through Jesus.

Audio Interview of Rick Wendell http://radiomaria.us/whatnextgod/2013/11/20/november-20-2013-the-incredible-story-of-fr-rick-wendell-the-party-man-who-died-and-became-a-devoted-catholic-priest/

GOD'S Love for a Fisherman

 
Stoian Iankov is a man of the sea – a proud fisherman for over 40 years. His story begins in his homeland of Communist Bulgaria.

“When I was a kid, my dad started taking me fishing. And he took me fishing one Sunday, and that’s when it all started. We caught more fish than anyone else around us, and I was on fire for fishing. Later on, I finished the 8th grade and getting ready to go to middle school, to learn a trade, I noticed that the only people that could leave the country were the fisherman. They were the only ones who could leave the country. I wanted to go to fishing school, so that’s what I did in 1972.”

Stoian went to a military sponsored fishing school. He learned his craft well, but he was also taught something else.  

“You’re in an environment where you are constantly brainwashed to believe in that system of Communism/Socialism, and Atheism and Evolution. You have to understand there is no personal freedom in Communism and Socialism. Everything is controlled by the government, and you did what the government told you to.”


He completed the four-year program, and Stoian’s first assignment was aboard the first Bulgarian vessel to trawl off the northwest coast of the United States. But Stoian had other plans.

“Everyone’s dream, at that time, was to defect and live in the United States, in a country so powerful and so advanced. We all knew how advanced the United States was, but we didn’t know how much.”

While their boat was docked in Portland, Stoian and two other crewmen left the boat. A guard stopped them on the gangplank.

“His job was to make sure no one came on the vessel, or left. But once every hour he has to go around the ship and check everything. He said, ‘Where are you guys going?’ We said, ‘We’re defecting.’ He said, ‘No, you’re not.’ And we said, ‘Why not?’ Basically, he didn’t want to be a witness, so he said, ‘Every hour I have to go around the ship, so when I disappear out of view, just go ahead and leave.’”

It was that simple. Stoian was free. He got a job right away as a crewman on a local trawler. As the years went by, he worked his way up to part owner of a trawler, making routine trips to Alaska. He soon met Angelique and they married in 1986. She was a Christian, but Stoian wasn’t.

“He was this big, tough, ornery, Alaskan fisherman,” says Angelique. “‘Get out of my way, I’m coming through, and I don’t care.’” 


“My wife had tried to talk to me about God and Jesus, but I rejected it, because of my background,” says Stoian. “And just striving to be the best at what I was doing.”

“He’d get really angry when I’d mention God, or try to talk about God. So after a while, I just stopped,” says Angelique.

Decades of hard work took their toll on Stoian, and he developed excruciating sciatica in his back and leg.

“He was in a lot of pain,” remembers Angelique, “and it had increased to the point where he was immobile. And Stoian had been in this recliner sleeping and laying, sitting for at least a week and a half.”
As the pain got worse, Stoian watched more television. One day, Angelique had an idea.

“She took the channel changer away from me, and you guys know what that means when the man doesn’t have the channel changer. And, she put a tape in.”

“My mother had sent us this video,” adds Angelique, “and of course it was these incredible stories of miracles, healings, and people being saved.”

“At the end of the tape when Pat Robertson started talking about this man that sitting in a chair with excruciating pain, it was basically describing me exactly down to the last detail,” says Stoian. “It was me, and that’s what got my attention. And then at the end when he said ‘In the name of Jesus, you are healed, get up and walk’ it really got my attention.”

“And I looked at him, and I said, ‘What are you waiting for? Stand up.’ And he stood up.”
“When I got up off the chair and I started walking around, and I was shaking my leg, there was no pain. There was zero pain.” says Stoian. “I knew right then there was a God. I started believing in God right then, and right there.”

“When you feel the power of God coming over you, it’s like no other feeling,” says Angelique. “You know God is there.”

“Ever since that day, my back has been pain free,” says Stoian. “There is no pain.” 

Stoian became a Christian that day. He and Angelique joined a church, and were baptized together.
“That was a key turning point in our lives, that healing because we both experienced that at the exact same moment,” says Angelique. “God began to work and move in our lives from that point, and He kept on.”

Stoian’s journey as a fisherman started over 40 years ago, and he’s still going strong today. He has his own boat and crew, and continues to fish in Alaska when he’s not working from his home office.

“If someone who was born and raised in a communist country, and being brainwashed in evolution theory, which has no legs to stand on – if someone like that can come to this country and be saved, and become a believer in God, and a follower of Jesus, then there is hope for everyone else,” says Stoian.

 “Because I rejected God all my life, until God got a hold of me and told me that He can do all kinds of things for me. All I have to do is ask Him. And that’s all it takes, for you to ask God and He will come into your heart. And He will change your life, and you will never be the same.”

Rhoda Wise---Heros of the Faith #5

Rhoda Wise was born on February 22, 1888 and was the sixth child of Eli and Anna Greer (nee Anna Poulson). They eventually had eight children, five boys and three girls. She was born in Cadiz, Ohio, however when she was two they moved to Wheeling, West Virginia. Her father Eli worked in the family trade of bricklaying. Her mother was very patriotic and became involved with the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization which supported the veterans of the Civil War, even serving as a state and a national president for a time.
Her parents were staunchly Protestant and Rhoda grew up in the First Christian Church. There was a definite anti-Catholic bias in the family and among their friends. Rhoda often heard unkind remarks about Catholics and the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, she did have a few Catholic friends.
Incidentally, when she was sixteen, Rhoda had a small encounter with Catholicism. While she was in Wheeling Hospital for an appendicitis operation, she received a visit from a Catholic Sister who gave her a St. Benedict medal. Rhoda explained to Sister that because of her parents dislike for the Catholic Church she would never be allowed to wear it, so Sister put the small medal in Rhoda's locket. Deeply touched by the Sisters kindness, Rhoda kept that hidden medal for the rest of her life.
  
Rhoda developed a very large ovarian cyst. The cyst was so large in fact, there wasn't a doctor in Canton willing to attempt its removal. Rhoda eventually found a doctor in Wheeling who would perform the surgery, but even he was not sure if she would live through it. She survived, but the cyst and the surgery negatively affected her gall bladder, which soon needed to be removed, and then later another surgery was needed for an obstruction in the bowel, which had become painfully impacted.
In December of 1936, she accidentally stepped into a sewer drain, which severely damaged her right leg, causing an infection and turning her foot inward. Thus began a long series of hospital visits, necessitating many leg casts in an effort to repair the damaged leg. Additionally, it was discovered that the earlier incision in her abdomen had reopened, causing a severe infection surrounding the incision. This would soon become a major problem. But for now, because of her damaged leg, she was mainly confined to bed from this point on, and returned every few months to the hospital for either a new cast or another operation in an effort to straighten the leg or to be fitted a new cast.

Her First Mystical Vision

It was at this this time that she was given the first of many visions. One day while she was confined to bed, Rhoda called George and Anna Mae into her room and said, "George, do you see Our Lord in the window? He is dressed as a shepherd and holding a lamb. George, Our Lord is handing you the lamb. Please take it"

George walked away muttering under his breath. Anna Mae just stood there; she didn't see a thing. Then Rhoda said to Anna Mae, "Our Lord is handing you the lamb. Please, take the lamb." Anna Mae still saw nothing but held out her arms in a gesture to receive the lamb. Her mother smiled and turned her head toward the window. No doubt George walked away thinking his wife was headed for a breakdown, but Anna Mae was left with an entirely different impression, and in her later years recounted this incident often and with great emotion. At the time, however, no one paid any further attention to it.

Her Conversion to the Catholic Church

Rhoda's sufferings grew worse by the day, but the nursing sisters at Mercy Hospital were a great consolation for her in the midst of it. She spent so much time at the hospital that she knew most of them by name. Dressed in their long white habits and veils, the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine looked like angels of mercy to her. She became especially close to one named Sister Clement. Sister Clement was greatly devoted to Saint Therese of Lisieux, and she gave Rhoda a little shrine to St. Therese, “the Little Flower”, enclosed in a glass ball, and she told Rhoda a little about her.

Rhoda didn't pay much attention, but kept the shrine at her bedside. Sister Clement also gave her a prayer to Jesus and the Little Flower which Rhoda said only because she thought so much of Sister. When Sister Clement explained that St. Therese could help her in many ways, Rhoda told Sister flat out she didn't believe it, even laughed at the idea -but it didn't harm their friendship in the least.

Rhoda dearly loved the Sisters who took care of her at Mercy. In September, Rhoda was attracted to the crucifix on one of the Sister's rosary. When Sister came over to her bed Rhoda took the crucifix and held it in her hands. Heat radiated from the crucifix as she held it. "Sister, will you teach me how to pray the rosary?" Rhoda asked. The Sister initially said no, as perhaps she had heard about Rhoda's reaction to St Therese. But Rhoda kept asking, and Sister eventually taught her. This Sister also gave Rhoda her first rosary, prayer book, and Sacred Heart Badge. From that time on, Rhoda prayed a rosary for the nursing Sisters every morning and night.

 As Rhoda continued to pray the rosary, she began to have questions about the Catholic faith. When they came to mind she would write them down and ask Sister Clement the next time she saw her. One time Sister Clement explained about nine days of prayer called novenas that could be made to Jesus, Our Lady, or the saints for a special intention. She suggested a novena to St Therese- the Little Flower, but Rhoda wasn't yet ready for that.

As month progressed and she remained in the hospital, Rhoda's spirits fell. As each day passed, she was getting worse, not better. In early December, Sister Clement found Rhoda crying and when she asked what was wrong, Rhoda answered, "Sister, can we make that novena to the Little Flower now?" They began the Novena to St Therese that night. And, from that night on, Rhoda grew closer and closer to the Little Flower and prayed to her constantly. She was in such discomfort that often she could not sleep and would spend her days and much of her nights in prayer.

This is the Novena to Jesus through St Therese that Rhoda and Sr. Clement would pray together:
"O beautiful Rose of Carmel, Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus, deign according to
your promise to descend from Heaven to visit those who implore you. Pour down upon us in profusion those Celestial Graces that are symbolized by the shower of roses that Jesus, your Spouse, had put at your disposal.
Your power is great with his Heart. He can only listen and hear your prayer. I have recourse to you then, O Saint Therese of the Child Jesus; assist me in this need. Speak for me to Jesus and to Mary and obtain for me the grace to live a holy life and die a happy death. Amen"

And now, Rhoda’s thoughts were centered on becoming Catholic. The Protestant patients in her ward tried to discourage her from continuing the Catholic practices that were absorbing her time and attention. Some of them even sent their ministers over to dissuade her. But her heart and will were steadfast.

 Sister Clement told Rhoda that she needed to talk to a priest to become a Catholic, and she immediately knew which one she wanted to talk to, although she did not know his name. She had seen him visiting other patients in her ward. When she described him, they told her he was Monsignor Habig of St. Peter's Church.
The nurses called Monsignor Habig and he quickly responded. He questioned Rhoda regarding her faith, her reasons for converting, and her family. Satisfied with her answers, he asked if she was willing to take some instruction on the Catholic faith. Rhoda responded yes. Because she was so ill, Monsignor Habig gave her a small catechism and instructed her himself during the seven days between Christmas and New Years.
On January 1, 1939, Rhoda Wise was brought into the Catholic Church. She received her First Holy Communion on January 2, the anniversary of the Little Flower's birth. The new year also brought Rhoda another abdominal surgery on January 4. It would be her last. The surgeon could not close her abdomen properly because there was no longer enough tissue there to hold together and suture. It was to be her last surgery. She was left with an open hole in her abdomen.
By January 10, her bowel was protruding through the hole, and on February 8, secretions from the bowel began to drain out and burn her skin. There was no salve available at that time strong enough to protect her skin or to ease the burning. Eventually, all the skin on her abdomen was burnt raw from this drainage. Through all of this, Rhoda and Sister Clement kept their novena to the Little Flower every evening. And soon St. Therese the “Little Flower” would play a remarkable and unexpected role in her life.
To give her some hope, the doctor told Rhoda he would operate again, but her repeatedly put it off from day to day. He called the family aside and told them she had cancer. No one mentioned "cancer" directly to Rhoda, however. As day followed day and nothing more was being done, Rhoda asked if she could go home. She was told she would not be going home for a very long time.
On February 12th her doctor walked in.

"Rhoda, are you making out your will?" "No, I am starting a diary. Doctor, when are you going to operate on me?"
"I'm not going to operate, Rhoda. I'm afraid I have done all I can do." "Are you saying I'm not going to get well? Am I going to die?"
"Rhoda, I've done all that can be done. You may live a long time yet, or just a little while. I have no way of knowing. All I know for certain is that I've done as much as I can. I'm sorry."
Although it was a blow, Rhoda took the news well. She had suffered for so long that she understandably did not care to live longer.

Her diary gives us and idea of her thoughts during this time:

February 19, 1939: "Last night my incision bled quite a bit and scared me. I seem to have a feeling I may get better. Probably St.Therese is hearing Sister Clement's and my prayers. I have started a novena of my rosary that I may get well. My rosary has meant everything to me since the first day I received it from Sister. Little did I dream then there would be such a change in my life .... "

February 23: " ... A lot of who I thought were my best friends I have lost because of my religion. Then this trouble of my own and all the other things I have to trouble me just seems too much. They say suffering and trouble only bring us nearer to God and I know I am close to Him, but I want to be closer still."

February 24: "Today is cold and like winter. My stomach hurts me quite a bit and I am all nervous. A woman down the hall is screaming awful because she does not want to die. Why does one fear death so much -unless they have not lived right and served Him must be the reason. I don't seem to be afraid because when we think of all He promises us over there and we are living close to Him as we can, there is nothing to fear. 

As far as I am concerned if I must go, I wish it would be soon so I don't have to lie here and be a burden to anyone. It has to be His Will, not ours be done, and I must be content and do as He wills. I try to be brave, but sometimes I cannot ... George has forgotten me today, but I don't let it get to me anymore than I can help .... "
February 25: " ... I am saying my rosary, and how I love my rosary .... "
February 28: "I had Communion this morning and it is wonderful to be able to receive it. .. Little Flower, help Sister Clement in all her work. Teach me to pray the way I should. Sister Clement doesn't realize how hard I am praying to you and she is the one who taught me how .... "
By March, Rhoda's suffering was intense. Her bowel drained constantly and required frequent changes of dressing. The odor, the mess -it does not take much imagination to understand why Rhoda was not a favorite patient among the nurses. Still, Sister Clement was a faithful friend and kept the evening novena to the Little Flower with Rhoda as often as possible. Sister even went out of her way to take Rhoda to the Chapel to show and teach her the Stations of the Cross.
March 1, 1939: "It sure came in like a lion, and how. I don't feel so good and the poor nurses are having to do my dressings so much and they are awful. I am having an awful time. 0 God, hear my prayer and if I cannot get well, please don't let me have to be here long like this. I know it is Thy Will not ours be done, and oh, may it be I don't have to be like this very long .... "

March 8: "…I am so miserable. I don't know what to do "

March 10: " I am so mean. I just cannot help it. I had company but I wished they would go home. I just wonder how long I must be like this. Msgr. Habig says God must love me a lot to make me suffer the way I do .... "

March 11: "…I was anointed tonight and Sister Clement was here with Msgr. Habig ....

March 15: "Today my incision is worse than ever. I really don't know what to do. They have to do my dressings so much they are making me dizzy. It seems they could do something for that burning. . . They do my dressing about every half hour .... "

March 25: "…I feel tonight as if even God has forgotten me. I just cannot bear anymore. I know I am going to be in terrible misery if I go home and do not have someone to do my dressings all the time. I know I cannot get the care I need for it takes money to do that and there isn't any ... Oh God, I wonder what the outcome will be. You have never failed me yet, dear Jesus, and I know you won't now. When the clouds were darkest and I was in despair you always showed me a way out, so I'll just trust you to take me out of this .... "

In April her intense suffering continued, mixed with deep faith and prayer.

April 20: "…I am praying so hard to St. Therese and she is going to help me. She seems so close to me. I am not laughing now, Little Flower, but trusting and praying I may be helped. I could look at your beautiful picture all day. All I do is look at your picture and whisper a prayer for help. I know you are listening to me. Won't you please help me?"
April 21: " ... How I love my rosary! I repeat it many times a day .... "
On April 28th her Doctor told her that after a thorough research amongst his colleagues both near and abroad, there was nothing that could be done for her and that he was sending her home to die.
In her diary on May 16 she writes: “…It is awful to be like this. God, if I am not to get well, let me die right now. Each day I wish there would be no tomorrow. I did not think it possible for anyone to suffer so much. This drainage about sets me crazy. If I could go to sleep for just one night it would be heaven for me. Little Flower and Jesus, I am praying so hard for you to make me well, and if that is not to be, let me die at once. These dressings are terrible. No one wants to do them. I can hardly do them anymore either."

May 22, 1939: " ... My stomach is so raw from that irritation. I don't know what to do. God, how much longer must I suffer like this? Little Flower, why won't you hear me? I cannot pray any harder than I am. Please hear me."

May 27, 1939: " ... All I want to do is cry. I just don't seem to be able to stop. Oh Little Flower, I will never stop praying for you to help me. You suffered so much when you were on earth, and do you think I am a baby and cannot take it?. ... "
On this day, May 27th, it truly seemed the end had come. But who could have ever guessed the extraordinary ending?


 Her Miraculous Cure

May 28, 1939: "What is last night or early this morning going to mean in my life? Some people say I was dreaming and some say I was delirious. I was neither. I was wide awake and saw Jesus sitting right by my bed . . . I tried to make George get up and he said I was dreaming or seeing things in my sleep. He (Jesus) was gloriously beautiful. 

I never saw a picture as beautiful as He is. His robe was beautiful. It was gold with every color in it. I just wanted to touch it and see what it was like. I could see the marks on his forehead where the Crown of Thorns had pierced His brow. Just as I tried to touch His robe He said He would return in thirty-one days. As I tried to touch Him He vanished. 

 I would not let George have any rest until He got up and brought me the clock. It was 2:50AM. I told George all about what I saw, and he said I must have been dreaming. The next morning I told him again. He still would not believe it. It was no dream. He says he heard me talking and thought I was talking in my sleep. My bedroom was as light as it could be from Him. 

When I saw Jesus by my bed I really thought my time had come, but I was not one bit afraid. I said, 'Have you come for me?' and He said, 'No, your time has not come yet.' He said He would return in thirty-one days. I am wondering if He will. If He says He will, I am sure that He will. Everyone I told said I was dreaming, but I know that I was not and saw Him as plain as I see anyone.

 I cannot seem to explain it. It is so wonderful to me. I don't care what anyone else says. They cannot tell me I did not see Jesus and talk to Him. I wish Sister Clement was here so I could tell her about it."

May 29, 1939: "I am still no better and all I can think of is what I saw. I wonder if He means He is coming in thirty-one days for me. I hope He does, but I wonder how I am ever going to suffer that much longer .... "
Rhoda passed out shortly after this last diary entry and lapsed in and out of con¬sciousness for the next two weeks. She awoke in Mercy Hospital where she had been admitted on June 9th and treated for a bowel impaction. She stayed in the hospital for a few days and then was sent back home, suffering all the while. And then came the 33rd day from Jesus’ first appearance.

 June 28, 1939: "I guess everyone will say I am dreaming again or seeing things. What happened to me was done by no dream. I saw Jesus again last night standing in my bedroom door. While I looked at Him, He said, 'Here I am as I said.' St. Therese, the Little Flower, was right by Him. She came to my bedside. She wanted the cover off me. I pushed it off She wanted the dressings off so I pushed them off. She put her hand on my stomach and said, 'You doubted me before. You have been tried in the fire and not found wanting. Faith cures all things.' She walked back to Jesus and when I looked at Him He said, 'I will come again. There is work yet to be done.' They vanished. I looked at my stomach. I was entirely healed. Not one drop of anything had even run on my stomach. That awful irritation and everything was gone. What my feelings were I can never tell…."

Rhoda tried to tell George the next morning what had happened, but he wouldn't listen, so she let him go off to work without showing him anything. She tried to reach Msgr. Habig, but he was out of town. She couldn't reach Sister Clement either, so she wrote her a letter describing everything that had happened. Rhoda told Sister she wanted to jump out of bed but her foot wouldn't let her. She hadn't thought about asking St. Therese to cure her foot, but the instantaneous cure of her abdomen was an absolute miracle which filled her heart and soul with unimaginable joy!
She kept the incredible secret for two days until she could tell Monsignor Habig, however soon the remarkable story was out, and no one could believe their eyes. The horrible abdomen wound will all its accompanying bowel leakage was completely healed. Out of thanksgiving to God, Rhoda happily repeated her story over and over again to everyone who asked.
Her diary entry that night stated:
June 30, 1939: " .. .I was lying here writing to Sister Clement when who should come in but Monsignor Habig. I told him at once what had happened and he seemed as happy about it as I am. He took my letter over to Sister Clement and she (and Sister Florence) came right out. They were very happy over this. I feel my knowing Sister Clement had a lot to do with this. If I had not known Sister Clement, I probably would not know about the Little Flower. It's as much a mystery to me as anyone.

 "In fact, many things are a mystery to me. My turning to the Catholic faith and everything connected with it. One thing I know -I have had many worries and troubles but through it all I have trusted and had faith that I might get well. Of course, I never dreamed that I would get well in this way that I have. All I can say is that when I thought there was no help and I was at the end, Jesus saved me, and I feel sure that the Little Flower asked Him too. No one who has not been through what I have would ever know the misery and pain I was in. 

For six months I laid here in a wet mess all the time and that irritation was more than I could stand. I never missed praying every day. Every time I saw my doctor I would ask him if I was going to get well. He always told me no."Everyone around me says they will never doubt God again. I never have. I knew He would do what He thought best. He did, and I will devote my whole life to working for Him in any way He wants to use me."
July 1, 1939: " ... So many people came today. Many praised God and cried for joy over what has happened ....And thus began her apostolate of leading souls to God.

The Miraculous Cure of Her Leg –The Second Miracle

Aug. 10, 1939: " ... Tomorrow I go in the hospital again. God, may this be the last cast, and if it is Thy Will, may my foot be straight and may I walk." 

The cast they applied to Rhoda's foot was to be on until November 10. Rhoda's doctor told her there would be a person ready who would fit her with a brace as soon as the cast came off, and that she would be wearing the brace for the rest of her life. He and everyone else was about to see for a second time that Jesus and St Therese had other plans.
Aug. 15, 1939:[Feast of the Assumption on the Blessed Virgin Mary] "Oh, what a day! I was so happy to begin with because the Little Flower came to me and cured my foot. I was sitting up in bed and crying because my foot hurt me so much. The Little Flower came and said, 'That is a little thing. Stand up and walk.' I stood right on my feet and the cast broke and I stepped right out of it. She said, 'Go to church now' .... "

Another miracle! Who can imagine the joy of Rhoda, her family and all who knew her! George nearly fainted when he walked into the room and saw her standing on her own, the cast shattered all over the floor. Needless to say this second miracle drew a flood of persons wanting to see and talk to the woman of the miracle. Her apostolate of leading souls to God was now well underway.


  The Third Miracle –The Conversion of Souls

Later in the month of August another extraodinary miracle occurred in the Wise home, and though it received no attention whatsoever, Rhoda considered it the greatest miracle Our Lord worked for her--Her husband George stopped drinking “cold turkey”. He had come home one night and went to bed only to find Our Lord standing in front of him. George didn't want to see Jesus, so he turned over. Our Lord was there too. Every way George turned, Jesus was there. When Geroge told Rhoda this extraordinary story, she immediately called Monsignor Habig who came to speak to George.

"Well, did He say anything to you, George?" Monsignor asked.
"No, He didn't have to," was George's reply and all he had to say about the subject.

On August 21, George, his brother, sister-in-law, and Rhoda joined Monsignor Habig for instructions in the Catholic Faith at St. Peter's. Before the year was out George would receive Holy Communion beside his wife. In another year, Anna Mae would join them. Six others from both George and Rhoda's families converted as well. And then there were the countless souls who thronged to her house each day to see and speak with “the woman who was miraculously cured.” God alone knows how many souls returned to Him after witnessing His love and mercy revealed in the life of Rhoda.



The Crown of Thorns and the Stigmata

On Good Friday, April 3, 1942 Rhoda was given the Crown of Thorns and her forehead bles for the first time. Every Friday afterwards, the red marks on her forehead opened, and she would bled from 12:00 noon to 3:00pm. Blood would also come forth from her eyes. On June 2, 1942 Jesus appeared to her in a vision and told her “..to save souls, one must suffer.” Her apostolate was now clearly that of a victim soul.

On the first Friday of November, wounds appeared on her feet. On this day, blood issued from her forehead, her eyes and also from the wound in her left foot. The outward manifestation of the bleeding stigmata would contine and later in 1944 she began also to have the stigmata in her hands.

Her Holy Death

After a heroic life of sacrifice and suffering for the conversion of souls, Rhoda Wise went to be with God at 10:55pm on July 7, 1948. At her funeral eulogy her longtime spirtual director and friend Monsignor Habig said to the 14,000 people who had come to say good bye to their beloved spiritual friend:

“…Rhoda Wise was a holy soul. Few knew her as well as I and I can testify that Our Savior filled her heart with a great love for God so that she was willing to endure the greatest suffering for His sake.
"I submit my poor judgement to that of the Church, but it is my personal conviction that all she stated about the many apparitions of Our Lord and the Little Flower are true and that she was highly favored by Our Lord.”
"The true vocation of Mrs. Wise was to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart and Little Flower and her personal sufferings were associated with Our Lord in atoning for the sins of the world. It is through prayer and penance that the world will be saved and that is up to each one of us…..”