Our Journey of Miracles

Presented by Jean Lowrie-Chin

at Stella Maris Men’s Fellowship Annual Couples Breakfast

Saturday 28 June 2014

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Sisters and Brothers in Christ:

What a privilege it is to address this inspiring gathering!  I believe that Stella Maris has the most balanced ratio of men and women among our Catholic congregations – it is of course because you have consciously kept the fellowship going through events such as these, and through your mega-fundraising Family Day which is a model for fund and fun … raising.

We are here today by God’s mercy and I am blessed to speak about this Journey of Miracles on which we are all pilgrims.

Physician and author Deepak Chopra tells us that “the human body consists of approximately one hundred trillion cells, about one thousand cells for every bright star in the Milky Way.”

He explains that, “all of the cells of your body start from just one cell. That one cell replicates and replicates, and somewhere along the line the cells differentiate.… Scientists still have no idea how that one cell ends up dividing into so many different kinds of cells, which then are able to organize themselves into a stomach, a brain, skin, teeth, and all the other highly specialized parts of the body.”

“In order to wiggle my toes,” he says, “first I have the thought that I'd like to do so. The thought activates my brain cortex, which then sends a nerve impulse down through the spinal cord into my legs and moves my toes. That in itself is miraculous. Where did the thought come from? Before the thought, there was no energy, but as soon as I had the thought and the intention to wiggle my toes, it created a controlled electromagnetic storm in my brain, which transferred down the nerve, and caused it to discharge a certain chemical. Then my toes wiggled. That's a very linear, mechanical, and local phenomenon - except for that very first part, the thought that started it all. … But no one can show through experiment where the thought came from. The thought cannot be seen, but without it, we would be paralyzed. No thought, no toe-wiggling. Somehow your awareness becomes information and energy. Where does that happen?

The answer is that the thought originates in the virtual domain. …”

Chopra describes this as a miracle … “The miracle of the human body”, which is the title of his world famous bestseller.

And so King David says of the creation of the human in Psalm 139:14

^“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.”

From our very beginning, we are living, breathing miracles – made in God’s image to be his Ambassadors – there is no higher calling – no knighthood, no OJ can equal this. Our path is lit by God’s blessings.  Many times we do not discern these blessings because - you see … your timing is not God’s timing … and God’s timing is always perfect.

Our children - Anita and Noel

Let me share two episodes in my life.  After four years of marriage, I yearned for a baby – I suffered from this pesky condition called endometriosis – there was quite a bit of media around it earlier this year.  I suggested to Hubie that we adopt, but his reaction was very negative.  In the 11^th year, I made the bold step of going to the Adoption Board to register without Hubie’s knowledge.  It was towards the end of November 1984 and I said to the lady in charge that I wanted a baby by Christmas.  She threw back her head and laughed loudly – “No my dear,” she said, “This could take years!” 

Well the very next day I heard via an intern friend that there was a two-week-old baby at the Newborn Special Care Unit at UWI and I went up to see her with a friend – she was very tiny and looked at me unsmilingly as I fussed over her. 

At dinnertime I carefully said to Hubie: “I found a baby”.  He looked at me incredulously and reminded me that he had no interest in adopting. I begged him just to go with me to see her - if he still felt the same way, I would respect his wishes.

The next morning as we drove to UWI, Hubie grumbled all the way – “I don’t know why I am even going,” he said.  Recalling how serious and tiny the baby was, I admitted to him, “She’s really not much to look at” … and added “but we’re all she has.” 

We donned caps and gowns and entered the unit.  The nurse went for the six-pound bundle, and to my surprise put the baby in Hubie’s arms.  That little tyke who was so serious with me, looked into Hubie’s face, and gave him the most amazing smile! 

“But this baby is beautiful!” exclaimed Hubie and then he looked at me and said: “This is our daughter.”  Yes my Stella Maris family, I had witnessed that phenomenon called “Love at first sight.”

The following weeks while we waited for permission to take her home, there was only one father virtually patrolling the ward each night, lulling his baby to sleep on his shoulder – that father was Hubie.

Three years later we decided to adopt a second child and got a call from a social worker friend about a four-week baby boy. He was at the Primrose Children’s Home, a horrible place that was condemned a couple of years later – we couldn’t wait to get him home. 

However we got a worried phone call from the doctor who had done his check-up … the fontanelle - that soft part at the top of the skull – was still quite wide.  She was worried that he would develop hydrocephalus, and suggested that we get him tested before we made our decision.

On our way to Mass the Sunday after, we decided we would ask God to make our decision for us.  What a morning that was! The first hymn – the very first hymn was ‘Come down Lord’.  You know the words:

“Come down Lord my son is ill

Wracked with fever the livelong day

He is life to me if you will

Drive death away, drive death away.”

As we sang, we looked at each other significantly!

Then came the Gospel … it was an account of the Baptism of Jesus! As we heard the words: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” Hubie and I looked at each other and started laughing. God had spoken directly to us! The folks sitting near us wondered what in the Gospel could we have found so funny.

The next morning we called the doctor and told her of our decision: this was indeed our beloved son – we would get him tested just to determine if he needed medical attention.  We drove to Dr Freddy Clarke’s office on Ripon Road. As I cradled Noel, Dr Clarke carefully moved his ultrasound device over his head, looking thoughtfully at the screen.  We were frozen with tension.  Then Dr Clarke looked at us and said, “Not a thing is wrong with the boy! Healthy Boy!”  I held Noel so tightly that the Doctor said “Watch it now! Don’t squeeze him to death!”

Today Anita and Noel have completed higher education and are hard workers in our businesses. They have given us so much joy and deeper reasons for living – we cannot imagine life without them … here are two lines from a poem I wrote:

“So yes, I bless those nameless ladies

Through whom the good Lord sent my babies.”

I am sure you all have beautiful stories of God’s miraculous Grace in your lives – God does not breathe life into us and leave us on our own – but in our frail humanity, we sometimes become so distracted that we separate ourselves from God’s love.

No wonder that the celebration of Mass begins with the “Lord have mercy”.  As we sit in our pews, it is like the devil himself starts his wily game of distraction.  Our minds wander off to things past and future, to the fashions around us and Father’s rather ragged sandals. We sometimes do not focus on the fact that there in front of us is the unfolding of God’s divine miracle – The Eucharist! 

When I taught first Communion class, I asked the children why they thought the Altar Server rang the bell when Father lifted up the host – one little boy said, “To wake us up!” Well, he probably got that right!

An amazing miracle concerning the Holy Eucharist took place in the town of Lanciano in Italy in the 8^th century. A Monk who doubted the authenticity of the Sacrament saw the host transform into flesh, and the wine to blood.  There is modern scientific evidence that the flesh and blood are human and that the blood type matches that on the Shroud of Turin that was used to wrap Christ’s body after his crucifixion.  To this day, pilgrims visit the town to venerate these Holy Relics.  Please Google and read the wonderful accounts of both the Eucharistic Miracle at Lanciano and the Shroud of Turin.

The Eucharist has been very special to Hubie and me.  We met in church, but we drifted away from regular worship during those rocky early years of our marriage.  With the arrival of our children, we resolved to make worship and prayer an important part of our lives.  That Kiss of Peace can be a healer – how many of us arrive at Mass a bit vexed with each other, and then cool off at that moment at Mass?

One of the most moving miracles concerning our Lord and Saviour was related to me by a devout Hindu living right here in Jamaica.  He was the late Professor Ajai Mansingh, father of popular orthopaedic surgeon Dr Akshai Mansingh. Prof Mansingh said he had met Rev Ashley Smith a few weeks before the incident – at that time, they broached the possibility of forming of a Multi-Faith Prayer Group.  |

One day, Prof Mansingh was sitting on his verandah at College  Common, assisting two of his UWI students with their assignment, when, he related: "Suddenly I saw a golden aura that I identified as Jesus Christ, and I went towards Him to receive Him."

Professor Mansingh said he felt blessed with cosmic bliss. His students saw him faint and stop breathing – when he came around, they were holding him and crying because they thought that he had died. He said it was an unimaginable experience – in his words: "I could see nothing but unity in the world … One Source, one unity, pure divine bliss, not man-made".

He went immediately to his phone to call Rev Ashley Smith.  Rev Smith told him that only minutes before he had felt a deep urge to visit Prof Mansingh, and was just heading to his car to visit! It was immediately after that experience that he got together with Rev. Smith, and started the Interfaith Group, which is now convened by Dr Martin Schade, a former Jesuit priest who lectures at UTECH.

The last story I will relate is from an article in the most recent St George’s College Toronto chapter magazine. STGC graduate Dr Herbert Ho Ping Kong, who has been celebrated as one of the most talented diagnosticians in Canada was asked “Do you believe in miracles?”

“Yes, I do, but I think they are rare,” he answered. “I had this patient, probably 70-75, he had a number of chronic conditions, he was dying, we couldn’t do too much for him, he had pneumonia. I had the family come in, everyone was tearful, saying, ‘Doctor, what can we do?’

I said, “You can pray for him.” I just did this (clasped my hands in prayer) for about two minutes. Anyway, he must have seen this, he got up and went home the same night. He had had a stroke before, chronic lung disease. This was the closest I had come to what was unexpected. I’m not sure I would call it a miracle. But having a disease that cures itself, we know this happens. Sure, we don’t control everything. Occasionally, people who have cancer, get better, without us doing anything.”

The great Dr HPK is himself a miracle – so probably they are not as rare as he thinks.  His razor-sharp analytical mind is a miracle of logic and recall – those thoughts have only one origin as Chopra reminds us – they are from God.

And so, when we saw that goal last Sunday from Lionel Messi – swift with just the right amount of curl to dodge the keeper before finding the net, we may as well be shouting “miracle!” instead of “goal!”

As we watch with fascination unexpected flashes of brilliance from young players, the huge stadiums which the media told us may not have met deadline, we get a glimpse of the miraculous workings of the human family.  The planners, builders, coaches and players are the co-creators with God, of this ‘greatest show on earth’.

To be God’s co-creator, this miracle partner, we are called to hold and sustain an unshakeable faith in the goodness of this God that we worship, as difficult as it may be for our frail, human circumstances. 

This faith requires constant prayer – God is everywhere so we can pray anywhere!

Some of us may be familiar with Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.  It is really an allegory of the soul’s journey, though the storms of life. At sea, he kills a blessed albatross which is hung around his neck.  The dead bird is his guilt that prevents him from seeing the beauty of God’s works around him:

“For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky

Lay dead like a load on my weary eye,

And the dead were at my feet.”

After days of anguish, he emerges from the depths to see finally, beauty around him:

“O happy living things! no tongue

Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gushed from my heart,

And I blessed them unaware:

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,

And I blessed them unaware.

The self-same moment I could pray;

And from my neck so free

The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea.”

That spring of Love that gushed from his heart was of course God in our maker’s purest form: the form of LOVE. No equation, no formula can explain how God equals LOVE but we know that “those who abide in love, abide in God and God in them”. 

There is now scientific proof that the more we hug our loved ones, the healthier we are.  The arms of loving husbands and wives are the arms of God encircling, healing, lifting. What a perspective for a happy, holy marriage – those hugs, that laughter, that sharing are God’s miraculous provision for us.

    As we seek out God’s miracles, we find them readily in the smiles and hugs of children and grandchildren, in friends who make us laugh and in trees that burst into blossoms to gladden our eyes and fruit to nourish our bodies.

    It is said that it is not happiness that makes us thankful, but thankfulness that makes us happy.  Let us give thanks for this journey of miracles with God as our guide.  Sisters and Brothers, embrace your husbands and wives - they are God’s love actualized to hold your hands on this miraculous journey called life.

    Thank you to the Men’s Fellowship for honouring me with their invitation to share with you my Stella Maris family.  Let us keep each other in love and prayer on this, our journey of miracles. May God bless you all!

28 June 2014