Christmas Miracles (9 page)

Around 5 p.m. the phone rang. On days she wasn't working, Cindy says she screens calls, as they would normally be clients calling to schedule appointments, but this time she picked up the phone right away. “Hi Cindy” said the unidentified voice. It took a few seconds before Cindy recognized the voice as that of a sweet massage therapist she knew that specialized in Tai massage. “Have you ever heard of Padre Pio?” she asked. Cindy acknowledged that she had visited Padre Pio's church when she was traveling in Italy.

Padre Pio, born into a hard-working farming family in southern Italy in 1887, entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at the age of fifteen and was ordained a priest in 1910. In 1918, the five wounds of Christ's crucifixion appeared on his body, and continued to do so until his death in 1968, making him the first stigmatized priest in the history of the Church. His entire life was marked by long, arduous prayer, continual austerity, and ineffable suffering, both physical and mental as observed by those who knew him. Hundreds of thousands of devotees flock to his place of entombment in the crypt of Our Lady of Grace Church and claim spiritual and physical healings by the grace of his saintly suffering. Last year the claim of 7 million pilgrims visiting Padre Pio's mountaintop sanctuary was second only to the number of visitors to the Marian sanctuary of Lourdes, France. Padre Pio was only recently beatified as a saint by Pope John Paul II.

Even though Cindy had visited the holy site it was interesting to hear of the other woman's experience. The therapist, whose name was Nancy, continued to talk about Padre Pio. Known for his compassion and healing, it was also reported that he bilocated or was in two places at one time, the woman said. It is documented that during the Second World War, the U.S. Army air force was going to accidentally bomb an area that was occupied by allies, unbeknown to them. The fighter pilots reported seeing a monk appearing in midair, right in front of their plane, motioning for them to turn back. The fighter pilots were so frightened by the sight that they did turn back, and the impending bombing massacre was averted!

Cindy said, “She then asked me if I had heard about the healing miracles that happened around a glove that had belonged to Padre Pio.”

Cindy had not, so the woman on the phone offered to put another woman who was there with her on the phone to explain. “The woman had a very sweet and calming voice and turned out to be a local television personality, but wishes to remain anonymous, so we refer to her as our ‘Christmas angel,' ” Cindy continued.

She told of a priest who used to be a custodian of Padre Pio's in Italy, but returned to his former parish in Brooklyn, New York, following Padre Pio's death. The priest had been given two of the gloves that Padre Pio wore on his hands to keep the blood from the Stigmata wounds from dripping on the floor. The gloves are considered sacred objects and are known for their healing properties. There were many stories of how parishioners of this Brooklyn church had miraculous healings by the gloves, which are said to give off an uncannily beautiful rose scent. The scent is always present, although emanating stronger at times, and weaker at others.

The priest kept one glove for himself and gave the other one to his sister, who felt it should be made available to all to benefit from. His sister felt that the parking-lot attendant of the church, who knew everyone in the parish, would be the best guardian for disseminating the healing power of the glove. The glove is kept in a box with a piece of a sheet that came from Padre Pio's bed, a book in which people write to Padre Pio, and one of those double-image pictures of Padre Pio that changes as you tilt it from side to side. Continuing, she interrupted herself with a little laugh and an aside, saying the parking-lot booth used to be a shrine to Frank Sinatra, until Padre Pio's box arrived. Now it is shared—Frank Sinatra and Padre Pio!

Telling of a long waiting list for the glove, the woman on the other end of the phone said that her name came up for Christmas Eve, so she felt there was no better way she could spend her own Christmas other than to share it with whoever was in need. She had the glove for two entire days, so it was still in her possession and the English massage therapist friend had mentioned Dave's cancer, wondering if he might want to touch the glove.

Dave was not feeling up to making the trip to Brooklyn, so this wonderful woman offered to come to see them.

“Now to tell you where we live, it is known as Windy Hill,” Cindy said. “Our place used to be a cross country ski resort on top of a high hill that is often buffeted with lake-effect snow, and we were having a very bad blizzard that day. Since it was Christmas Day, the landlord was out of town, so the driveway had not been plowed. We were literally snowed in, yet she offered to come to us!”

At the woman's insistence, Cindy gave her directions and over an hour and a half later, via cell phone guidance, she arrived covered with snow and bearing a canvas tote.

“We sat in our living room and she pulled out a wooden box with a little picture of Padre Pio on the top,” Cindy said. “She gently opened it and took out the picture that was in the box, then a little book, then very gently brought out the glove. At first I was surprised. It was a little tiny brown glove with no fingers in it. It looked like a glove you would see on a homeless person. The funny thing to me was that it was so simple. You would think it would be ornate or at least a little bigger! Padre Pio was a large man. I remembered seeing his slippers when I saw his monk cell in Italy. They were so big!”

The little brown glove had a simple metal cross gently sown onto the top side. Later, when Cindy turned it over, she saw that someone had sown a tiny piece of cloth with a little x in the place that must have been where the hand wound from the stigmata was.

“The amazing thing to us was the aroma that came from it. Anyone who smelled this rose scent could tell you that it is like no other rose smell you had ever smelled,” Cindy continued. “You couldn't create it even with the best of oils or perfume!”

Dave and Cindy described the sheet from Padre Pio's bed as having the same scent, as well. It was kept in a little plastic bag, but the glove itself was not in any container, other than the box. Dave put the glove in his hand and Cindy said you could actually see the calm come over him.

Dave explained what he felt as he held the glove in his hand: “At first, I just sensed a type of love similar to what I feel when I touch my near-death experience. When I touched the glove I was feeling with my heart and not my mind. I could feel my heart opening up and feeling that light and love. I could feel both Spirit and human emotion because it was a vast amount of unconditional love. It was like going back into the light a little bit, not all the way. In order to come back from a near death you have to accept that light back. And I have been having trouble keeping my heart open and working with my light and love because of the physical fatigue and drug induced emotions. But as I stroked the glove it felt like some of the barriers were just melting away and the light in my heart was just able to open and shine as bright as ever. Well, I could just say that my spirit was singing. Spirit gets in this joyous frame of not mind—but Spirit. When Spirit is joyous, it feels like a song in your heart and it interacts with your human emotions. It just brings tears to my eyes. It gets you a little choked up. You can feel it emanate throughout your entire body. It isn't just your heart that expands, it expands through the entire body—physically, I could feel it!”

The fact that Dave could “feel” the glove was the first hint of the miracle. Dave sat there stroking the glove as their new friend and Christmas angel told the story of the glove in more detail and described how she happened to end up with it. Dave had permanent nerve damage in the hand that could now “feel” the glove. He had not had any sensation in it for over six months!

The woman described how Padre Pio was said to bring so much compassion and insight into his parish confessional that it seemed to aid people in knowing just exactly what it was they needed to confess and release.

“The funny thing was, that it felt to me, like a little confession of my own—as I held the glove,” Dave said. He found himself talking about his near-death experience, the cancer, and what it was like having it.

“As she was telling about Padre Pio's confessionals from the heart, I felt compelled to confess feelings that had welled up within me, but that I hadn't realized were there,” Dave explained.

Cindy said when Dave handed the glove to her, she could immediately feel energy coming from the center of it. She felt an indescribable peace. As she handed the glove back to Dave, she took out the piece of sheet from the little bag and was amazed by the rose scent that came from it.

As Dave continued to share his feelings, the scent of roses grew stronger and stronger until the entire room was filled with the powerful rose scent and with a pervading sense of peace and love.

After tea and cookies, the Christmas angel was on the phone calling the next person with whom she was about to share the glove, telling them that she was on her way.

Later that night in bed, Dave told Cindy he could still smell the potent smell of roses. Cindy no longer smelled them until she reached over and touched Dave's hand. Then suddenly through the physical connection with him, the scent became vivid to her, as well. Cindy said she promptly fell asleep and “missed out” on the rest of Dave's miracle.

Dave said the rose scent, still strong, seemed to envelop and maintain him in this peaceful, blissful state. He drifted off to sleep, in a more relaxed state than he could remember in a very long time.

Then, he said, at 2 a.m. he was awakened to the smell of roses. That scent had become even stronger. It was everywhere and so overwhelming that he started to cry.

“I could feel my heart fully open, and I could feel my light and my spirit shining as bright as in my near-death experience. So, I got up and meditated and just enjoyed taking that energy in,” Dave said.

It was as though Dave had a spiraling of energy that brought together the elements of his life into a clearer focus and design—of a ministry helping others to know of and to experience this state of grace. Somehow, his near-death experience seemed like the groundwork, the background, to a tapestry woven in anticipation of a Christmas miracle that continues to add golden threads of wonder to the mystery cloth of life itself. Holding the glove of Padre Pio reconnected Dave with the inner peace and love he had touched in his near-death experience, that had been blotted out by pain and medication, troubles and worries.

“Spirit indicated this was to be my future path— working with others who are suffering with a terminal illness. I know it is time to communicate what I have experienced and learned, and now I am using it to cope with my own terminal illness. I am to begin to share it in a more public way,” Dave said.

Cindy and Dave are hopeful and prayerful that Dave will be completely healed. Dave said he believes that we all have obstacles and experiences that we must overcome and learn from so that we can evolve and grow.

“God hasn't abandoned us when things seem tough. It is necessary to see the positive and negative in all I've experienced in order to grow. God's light and love is a part of each of us and we don't have to go searching for it. We just need to open up to it,” Dave said.

Even if Dave is not completely healed, Cindy and Dave feel his cancer has brought about a situation that is allowing both of them to come back to their spiritual center. That, in itself, is a wonderful gift.

When Dave went to his oncologist for the first checkup since just before Christmas, his X rays showed a miracle truly had taken place on the physical level as well. Dave's tumor had become stabilized. It was no longer growing.

“We recognize our Christmas miracle as a sign that miracles do happen and that people like our Christmas angel are around to bring miracles to us and everyone else on a daily basis,” Cindy said. “We are reminded that Angels don't always have wings—sometimes they appear in a snow-covered coat and scarf!”

Padre Pio said, “Love is the first ingredient in the relief of suffering.” It is clear that Padre Pio's love is continuing to touch many lives.

As an epilogue, Cindy said that in talking with their Christmas angel on the phone recently, the woman shared how deeply she herself had been touched by simply being the “courier of the glove.” In addition, she learned of two more Christmas miracles with the glove after it left the Bennetts' home:

When the Christmas angel arrived at the home of the next recipient, the friend who had the tumor was unable to be present. So they called her on the phone, and while holding the glove, they all prayed for healing. In utter amazement, when the woman with the tumor went to the doctor, he declared the tumor was gone! The doctor had no way of explaining this miraculous disappearance, but the woman herself knew . . . Padre Pio's glove had healed again!

The other healing that day was that of a woman who suffered greatly with double vision. After holding the glove, she was immediately blessed with no more double vision! She was so overjoyed she was afraid to tell anybody, Cindy said, for fear the problem would return. As of now, it has not, so she has been telling everybody!