I glad I didn't write about what I wanted to write about when I wanted to write about it.
I wanted to write and tell you all about the amazing miracle angel sighting that took place very near where I grew up and was reported on the same channel I sat in front of to watch Ed Sullivan as a child.
Don't you love a good angel/miracle story? I sure do. This is one of the best ones because it meets all the criteria of a bona fide miracle: instantaneous and unexplained. Plus, for this one, there were tons of witnesses and no pictures. The no pictures part was the best part.
Here is what happened. My favorite part of the story was that more than 80 photographs of the scene were taken and no priest appeared in even one of them, even though everyone at the scene saw and heard him. Not to mention the girl lived.
I meant to write about this all yesterday, I was so tickled with it.
And then yesterday.
Oh well.
A lot of people would still claim this was a miracle, that the priest worked a miracle. Maybe some day when he's dead and in Heaven we'll think of this as a miracle on earth. But our standards for miracles are very strict. Instantaneous and unexplained. And this has been explained. So that's that.
Although...no one expected Katie to live. And there was that thing about the equipment not working.
Now my favorite part of the story is the one where (before the priest was identified) the mystery priest was none other than St. John Vianney, as the whole thing happened on his feast day and the person who wrote up the story had an artist's rendering of the mystery priest and a portrait of St. John Vianney so we could all see the amazing resemblance.
I failed to see any resemblance whatsoever, let alone an amazing one. Even more amusing, Father Dowling looks nothing like the artist's rendering. At all.
Still, we are buoyed at the story of a priest bringing peace to a suffering accident victim and to the paramedics and police who were serving her. Angels don't always come from Heaven.
Remember that. Because the next angel might be you.
Hello Sister, I'm not sure if I submitted my question properly or in the right place some days ago so I thought I'd give it another go. I recently obtained some salt blessed as a sacramental by a priest, and I want to know how it should be used. I can't imagine putting it in a salt shaker on the table, but I've read that some people do that. Is that proper? Or do you have other suggestions for how I might use the salt respectfully? Thanks! A faithful reader
Thanks for being a faithful reader! Don't put your salt in a salt shaker on the table. You can do that with it, but you might get it confused with the table salt. Or maybe you could get something like this.
Given that people put their blessed salt in sandwich bags and mint tins and candy boxes, the problem isn't with the salt shaker, it's only with not realizing you're putting blessed salt on your hamburger.
It's actually okay to put blessed salt on your hamburger, by the way. As long as you know you're doing it.
So what's the deal with blessed salt? Is it like having magic beans and a voodoo doll? No. The salt has no power. Remember when Jesus put mud in a blind man's eye? Did the mud heal that guy? No. Jesus did. The salt is the same way. Once it's blessed it brings with the power of Jesus through your faith in Him.
Or think of it this way: does the American flag have power? No. Yes. It has power only through your belief in the country for which it stands. And thank goodness the Pledge of Alliance is stated with good grammar.
So what can you do with your salt?
Drive out the those neighbors with the yard full of pit bulls who blast heavy metal all day, for one. Yes! I've heard several stories of people who sprinkled blessed salt all around their property, or down the common area of their apartment building, across their own threshold and wherever else they could think to sprinkle it, and next thing they knew the horrifying neighbors were gone.
Ward off the devil.
You can sprinkle it around the house to prevent burglary.
Put a few grains in what you eat or drink for good physical health and/or spiritual health.
You can use it in your car for safety. You could sprinkle it out the car window at a dangerous intersection.
You can use it to break bad habits, too.
Don't worry about a blessed salt mess. Your not supposed to dump salt all over, like you would with boric acid to get rid of fleas. You just use a few grains everywhere. That way, by the time you vacuum, you won't have to worry about sucking up a lot of blessed salt in your vacuum cleaner bags and how you're going to dispose of the bag now that it's become a blessed object.
