Everyday Intercessions
This is a story that came to us from a friend. She originally told us the story and was nice enough to write it for us and allowing us to share it with you.
Within a few days of returning from a Catholic conference where a topic of conversation was relics, a friend gave me my first relic as a gesture of thanks for something I had done. I did not know what to do with the relic and embarrassed myself by promptly dropping it on the ground. Feeling as though I committed some sort of sacrilege, I gently and reverently picked up the medal and stared at the face of Padre Pio. I had heard many stories of the miracles attributed to his prayers. I wore the relic daily around my neck and started to form an attachment to him.
Within a few months of receiving the relic, which I thought I would never part with, I gave my medal to a former co-worker, Anita. Anita and I had worked at St. Mary's Hospital together for several years. She had moved on to another job a few years earlier and I was surprised to see her at the hospital this particular Saturday in January.
She began telling us the devastating story of her 12 year old step son. A few days early, as the boy was getting on the bus in the morning, he somehow managed to swallow the top of a magic marker. Anita was summoned to school that morning because Samuel wasn't feeling well. They offered him food and drink to help move the cap down a little farther into his digestive system in the hopes of bringing him some relief. He then proceeded to finish his school day.
The next morning, Anita found her step son lying on the couch and he said he was having difficulty breathing. She immediately brought him to the emergencey room. The xrays showed the large marker cap clearly in her son's lung. The ER doctors tried to retrieve the cap with several invasive procedures but were unsuccessful. At this point Samuel was starting to run a fever, infection was starting to take root and the doctors opted for emergency surgery. One half of the infected lung containing the cap was removed. Samuel was then placed in the pediatric ICU. He had been there for a couple days and had not awoken. Anita said he was in a coma. Making it worse he had spiked a very high fever and with the infection he acquired, he seemed progressively worse.
Seeing the deep sorrow and desperation she was in, I took off my necklace with the relic of Padre Pio and offered it to her. Knowing she was not Catholic, I didn't know how she would respond. To my surprise she was genuinely grateful. She immediately pressed the relic to her heart and thanked me profusely. I was thinking at that moment how, when faced with devastating circumstances, people will grasp onto any hope offered.
She asked me what she should do with the relic. I told her that maybe she should place the relic on Samuel.s pillow and ask Padre Pio to pray to our Lord for her son. I then told her the little that I did know of Padre Pio and some of the miraculous stories I had heard. She was so grateful and quickly rushed upstairs to his room. I told her that I would pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament in our hospital chapel. Opening my prayer book in search for an appropriate prayer, I found a novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In very small print at the bottom was a note that said, "This prayer was often recited by Padre Pio." Perfect! I had never prayed this prayer before and I asked Padre Pio if he could somehow help me pray it.
The next morning, Sunday, I ran into Anita and her husband, Samuel's father, outside of the ER doors. When I asked how Samuel was doing she said, "Your not going to believe this. The very minute we put the relic on his pillow and asked for Padre Pio's prayers his fever went away." I responded with "Well you know, maybe the antibiotics finally started to work." Samuel's father responded with, " No, it was the prayer of Padre Pio." I immediately went to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and prayed, again asking Padre Pio to help me pray the novena and gave a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord for hearing our prayers.
A few days passed and I ran into Anita's sister, who also worked at St. Mary's. She proceeded to tell me an incredible story. She said that Samuel had finally come out of his coma and the first thing he asked was, "Is the priest coming back?" Anita asked the woman at the ICU desk who the priest was that had visited her son. The woman stated that a priest had not been in to see her son. Samuel then proceeded to tell Anita that a priest in a purple gown came to see him. He said the priest knelt at his bedside and said to him, "I am praying for you so that you will get well."
Knowing the Abbot in our town had a fondness for Padre Pio, I asked the Aunt if she thought it would be all right if the Abbott went to visit her nephew. She thought it would be a wonderful idea. The Abbott and a friend visited Samuel in the hospital that very day. After hearing Samuel's story of the priest in purple who came to visit him, the Abbott brought out a picture of Padre Pio and asked if he looked familiar. Samuel said, "Yes, that is the priest who came to see me, though he looked a little younger and not so gray".
Samuel was completely healed and left the hospital within a few days. Samuel told his story to a group of people at a healing mass a few months later.