HEART to HEART with Our Lady

photo taken Nov 30, 2014
Healing occurred on Jan 16, 2016

For the past three years, I've had the traveling image of Our Lady of Guadalupe during the week of Thanksgiving. In 2014 on the last morning, I took the image off the wall and placed it near the front window so I could look directly at her as I prayed. I decided to take a picture of the image. When I looked at the photo, I saw what looks like rays of light pouring out from her Immaculate Heart. What a blessing it was for me!  

A friend of mine (I'll call her "Rose") slipped and fell a couple months ago.  I called her in January to see how she was doing.  She said she had a lot of pain in her neck.  It was so bad that she hasn't been able to move.  She could barely lift up her head.

"Do you need anything?" I asked her.  So I made arrangements to visit her that evening.  I didn't tell her, but I was in the kitchen baking cookies at the moment.  After I was done, I went to the store and then headed over to her apartment.  

When I arrived, I received a warm welcome.  Rose put on water for tea.  We had the cookies along with "Scripture tea" (the teabags had various Scriptures on them) and we sat and talked.  Rose shared vivid stories about her life and her conversion.  We talked for a couple hours about our mutual faith.  I told her about my web sites and I read her the story "Naughty or Nice".  Then I showed her the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Rose gasped with surprise when she saw the picture.  She said that Our Lady was so beautiful.  

As I was leaving, Rose walked me to the door and said to me, "I don't feel any pain".  She said something about my bringing healing.  I thought to myself that she must have been distracted by having a visitor and it took her mind off her pain.  We hugged and I left.  

A couple weeks later, I called Rose again to check in on her and see how she was doing.  "I'm glad you called.  I wanted to talk to you," she said, with excitement in her voice.  "After you left that day, I was pain-free."  Afterward there was a little bit of discomfort on the right side, but she said now it's completely gone.   

"The moment I looked at the picture, I felt a tingle," she said, "and the beam of light seemed to be coming straight from her heart into my own heart".  She told me that she was healed at that moment.   

Rose said she has experienced healing before but not like this.  "You know of course how wonderfully He loved me when He renewed my health on the afternoon you shared the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe and she poured forth the ray of healing from her Immaculate Heart into my unworthy heart," Rose told me later.  "I will never forget the encounter of being heart to heart with our wonderful Mother!"   

But the story doesn't end there.  Rose had received a letter that her rent would no longer be subsidized by the state and in a few short weeks, she would have to pay the full price of the rental, or move out.  She told me that she was simply trusting God that it would all work out the way it's supposed to.  She remained positive and upbeat as she shared stories of her own generous heart in days gone by, giving her last $20 at a church.  "God always provided," she said, reminiscing about her life.

As the deadline drew nearer, Rose had to face the fact that she would have to move and so she checked into applying for food stamps to help with the budget.  

"Problems which seemed insurmountable seemed to threaten my health and living within my income, loomed in my daily thoughts," said Rose, "and challenged my deep conviction that God has a plan for my life and will make sure that I am in the right place at the right time to receive His Grace until He calls me home."   

"Then I checked my mail box and found a letter from the state that they would subsidize me for the next year.  I can just hear our Lord Jesus saying to me as He did to Peter when Peter walked on the water toward Jesus and began to sink when fear overtook him and Jesus said, 'Oh you of little faith, Why did you doubt?' 

Rose's faith and trust in the Lord is an inspiration to me... For the faith that is deeply embedded in her heart would not let the clouds of doubt overshadow her deeply held convictions that God is with us through all our trials, and He has us exactly where we need to be at each moment of our lives.  

Rose knew deep in her heart of hearts that God would provide, as He always did.

This has reminded me to accept my own crosses and affirmed what I knew in my heart, but I too, had allowed the dark rainclouds to momentarily blind me.  Because sometimes when things seem hopeless we question not God's goodness, but our own judgment and actions.  Did I do the right thing?  Did I follow the path God wants for me?  

Rudolf W. van der Goot Rose Garden
Colonial Park (Somerset, NJ)

Rose is grateful for the blessings which glorify our Heavenly Father.  She wants the world to know of the Father's love:  

"Our witness to the world is testimony to God's love and involvement with His creation; how He has so loved us," said Rose.  "Nothing diminishes that love.  He loves us the same -- yesterday, today and tomorrow.  Only we can put an umbrella between God and His blessings reaching into our lives.  God will not interfere with our free will.  However, when we repent and beg forgiveness in humility, God uses the 'umbrellas' as detours in our path of our pilgrimage to the eternal Promised Land. (Praise Him!)  When we share our good news to others, we glorify Him.  There are many ways to say 'thank you' to Him."