Over a hundred years ago our lady appeared to a young lady for the first time in 1858. Her name was Bernadette and her story is that one day she went to the riverside to collect wood with two other young girls. The two girls went across the water and started crying because the water was really cold. She asked the two girls if they could help her across so that she wouldn’t have to take her shoes of but they would not help her, so she went in front of grotto to take her shoes off. As she was taking her shoes of she heard some noises coming from the grotto, so she looked up and there was a lady dressed in a white dress with a blue sash and a yellow rose on each foot- the same colour as the chain on her rosary. The vision made the sign of the cross. Her hand started to shake, so she went through the rosary at the same time as the vision. When Bernadette finished the vision disappeared. She asked the girls if they had seen anything but they hadn’t. They told her that she shouldn’t go there again, but on Sunday she felt pushed to go again. Bernadette took a bottle of holy water to throw at the vision, as she threw it, the vision smiled and bowed her head. She said the rosary again and the vision disappeared. The third time, the vision asked her to go for two weeks to see her. She told Bernadette to tell the priests to have a chapel built there and then told her to drink from a spring. She showed her the spring and she drank from it. After that she appeared several times, and told her to pray for the conversion of sinners. When Bernadette asked who she was she told her she was the Immaculate Conception. She told Bernadette three secrets, which she wasn’t to tell anyone.
So this is the story of Lourdes.
HCPT- Handicapped children’s pilgrimage Trust is a catholic trust which parents raise money to send their children, and people to go to this pilgrimage that goes to Lourdes. One week each year thousands of people gather together in Lourdes to pray. They do not only have to pray, they sign songs at mass with instrument making it more fun for the children, they also have parties and they try to make it a fun week out to make the children feel special and to give them strength. There are many volunteers needed to help take care of the many children that have come to Lourdes, over 1500 children go to Lourdes, so they need as many volunteers as they can get. One year 200 nurses, 56 doctors and over 150 priests went to take place with the children.
A few miracles have occurred at Lourdes and one man said “don’t go in search of miracles, a cure may not be given, but may be given strength to cope”.
Healing can be spiritual, emotional or physical.
There is a man called Stephen Turoff and he is a psychic surgeon. He is not a trained doctor but he believes that he can heal people. We watched a video in our religious education class about nowadays-psychic healers. The video was called “Days of healing- Everyman”. Stephen, the psychic doctor says that he uses the energy flowing through him to heal. He offers hope and does contact healing. In the video he cuts them and moves their organs, and he operates his patient without anaesthetics. You can hear him cutting the skin and then pulling something out but after the patient said that she did feel the cutting, and something pulled out but it did not hurt, it just felt a little uncomfortable. I do not know if I believe in this, it is a little strange that he can do an operation without anaesthetics; maybe he paid that woman to act and lye for this programme in the video, so that he gains more customers and wins more money. There was another man who used a pendulum to see how much energy grass has, and he also made medicine with his pendulum. I think he doesn’t know what he is talking about but I believe the pendulum is real as they sell pendulums at some shops and I believe they work in many ways. He may not know how to use the pendulum but many people know how to use them. Some people will just try all they can to get better if they have a deadly disease, I do not blame them because I would do the same and also many other people except Christians as they would believe that God has chosen that it is their time to go to heaven with him. They would pray so that they could die without too much pain and to give them strength.
What is dowsing?
Many people are sceptical about dowsing, until they try it for themselves. It is an ancient art that is presently regaining its rightful place in society.
A description of 'dowsing', or 'divining' as it is otherwise called, is 'The art and skill of locating something by using sensory means, other than the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.'
Most people have heard of Water Divining and assume that this is all there is to dowsing.
Visitors to the meetings of the West Wales Dowsers Society constantly say the same thing - "I didn't know that there was so much to dowsing."
Dowsing does indeed cover the finding of water, but is also used in archaeological and building work; in the finding of lost objects and people; in agriculture in soil and plant compatibility, soil analysis and plant health; in the remedying of geopathic and electro-magnetic stress; in map dowsing; as an aid in overcoming ill-health in both humans and animals; and in the detection of earth energies and in assisting the healing of the planet.
The specific interests of members of the West Wales Dowsers Society cover this entire spectrum of dowsing.
Details of their meetings can be found on our events page, and further information may be obtained from Celia Cheswick on 01269 597046.
Green tree - September/October, 1998
Design and Graphics © , January 1999
Here is an article that I have found about dowsing, here is one way that tell you what dowsing is, there are many ways and theories of what dowsing really does, but there are many ways of using a pendulum to do many kinds of Dowsing.
There was Priest in Rome who had a stigma; people believed that it was a sign from God. Padre Pio died around thirty years ago; here is an article that I found about padre Pio:
World: Europe
Wounds, odours and miracles
Capuchin monks were among those who gathered for the beatification
For Padre Pio, the events that set him on the path to sainthood began in September 1918.
"After I had celebrated Mass, I yielded to a drowsiness similar to a sweet sleep," he wrote later to his spiritual advisor.
While in this drowsy state, the 31-year-old Capuchin monk saw a "mysterious person" whose "hands, feet and side were dripping blood".
"The sight terrified me and what I felt at that moment is indescribable," Padre Pio wrote.
"I thought I should die and really should have died if the Lord had not intervened and strengthened my heart which was about to burst out of my chest.
"The vision disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were dripping blood.
"Imagine the agony I experienced and continue to experience almost every day. The heart wound bleeds continually, especially from Thursday evening until Saturday."
Embarrassment
Perhaps understandably, Padre Pio found the wounds "embarrassing", and prayed for the visible marks to be removed.
But he did not ask for relief from the pain of the wounds, he wrote, "since I wish to be inebriated with pain".
He believed that the wounds, which stayed with him 50 years, gave him the strength to fend off attacks by the devil.
Padre Pio wrote that one night, "that wretch did nothing but beat me continually".
"He presented to my mind many diabolical suggestions, thoughts of despair, distrust in God. But praise be to Jesus, for I defended myself by saying to him repeatedly: 'your wounds are my merit'. "
'Special child'
Padre Pio's devotees say that from his childhood in an Italian peasant family, it was evident that Francesco Forgione - as he was originally called - was a special child of God.
But it was the gift of the stigmata that began to attract attention to the padre, which grew into a cult following as more miracles came to be associated with him.
He was said to emit an odour of sanctity, similar to that of roses or violets.
Prophecy and miraculous cures were also attributed to him during his lifetime.
'Wounds disappeared'
Followers of the padre say that all evidence of the wounds disappeared several days before his death in 1968.
A lifelong devotee of the Virgin Mary - he is said to have recited the rosary 35 times a day - Padre Pio died repeating the words "Jesus - Mary" over and over again.
Many regard him as a saint already - especially in Italy - and his monastery in southern Italy receives over seven million visitors a year.
Rosaries and holy water dishes with the padre's image can be purchased over the Internet.
Back in the fold
Past pontiffs have been suspicious of Padre Pio and his miraculous wounds. The Vatican even bugged the padre's confessional and opened his mail. He was also banned from saying Mass for many years.
But the present Pope, who travelled from Poland to visit Padre Pio in 1947, has accepted him back into the church's fold and honoured him with the title "The Venerable".
But beatification - an honour that usually leads eventually to sainthood - requires evidence that the candidate has been responsible for working miracles.
For followers of Padre Pio, the good news came in 1991, when a woman who had been hospitalised for a burst lymph vessel made a rapid recovery after praying for the padre's intervention.
After investigating the case at length, the Vatican declared the cure to be authentic and "extraordinary" - evidence enough to put Padre Pio on the path to sainthood.
This is extra ordinary, an actual stigma. It is a miracle how the marks disappeared three days before he died; maybe it was a sign of God.
People believe in God so miracles occur because of their faith. Places like Lourdes also help people with their faith, as it is the place of God, the home of God and for prayer. That is why people go there, because they have faith that maybe one day God will heal them, maybe in time. Also the Sacrament of the Sick and the Dying help the people as faith is needed to guide him or her, to have strength and courage, this is why God pardons his children, so that they are pure from sins.
People like the psychic surgeon might be faking that they can heal but someone should not have doubts of something until they have proof, sometimes faith is strong enough to make you believe, such as people believe in the miracles that Jesus made, even with out proof, as they have faith in God and they know that they do not need proof to believe. Miracles can still occur today, even if people do not believe, maybe someday they will believe because a miracle might occur to them. The story of Padre Pio is real as they have evidence; it is a miracle of today.
