Saint Andre Bessette, The Miracle Worker

January 6, 2012
Saint Andre Bessette


Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children! Also today, I call you to prayer. Little children, prayer works miracles. When you are tired and sick and you do not know the meaning of your life, take the Rosary and pray; pray until prayer becomes for you a joyful meeting with your Savior. I am with you, little children, and I intercede and pray for you. Thank you for having responded to my call." April 25, 2001

On this beautiful feast day of Saint André Bessette I want to share a couple of the thousands of miracles he worked through the intercession of St. Joseph. It is good to hear about miracles once in a while, as they build our faith and strengthen our hope. Saint André Bessette did many, many miracles. He was always sick himself, he was poor and weak and simple, but he knew one things, that God loves His people, and that St. Joseph is a foster father for all of us. With this faith, the saint brought healing to thousands.

These healings are recounted in a biography of Saint André by Brother Andre Marie:

As the school's doorkeeper, Frère André saluted and bid farewell to the many guests who came to the college. Having a keen interest in their spiritual welfare and a sympathetic ear for their problems, the little doorman could often tell who was in need of his prayers or counsel. One day he noticed on the face of a guest - the father of a boarding student - a preoccupied, strained expression. When Brother André learned that the man was worried about his sick wife, he told him, "But she is not so sick as you think. At this very moment she became better." The man was quite cynical, for he knew that his wife had been ill for many years. Yet upon arriving home, his wife greeted him at the door, perfectly healthy, in good spirits, and inquiring about the couple's children. The man later learned, upon speaking with his wife's nurse, that she had asked to be taken out of bed exactly when Brother André pronounced the words, "At this very moment, she became better."
....On another occasion, when the porter was in the infirmary, he saw a student sick in bed. He told the boy, who had been ordered to rest by the school doctor, to get up. "You're not sick, you lazy bones! Go and play with the others." This the boy did, in perfect health and good cheer. The story of the incident soon spread around the college. Teachers, the doctor, students and parents alike marveled at the miracles wrought by the confident prayer of the young brother.

...The piety that he had toward the Patron of the Universal Church was simple and childlike too: "When you invoke Saint Joseph, you don't have to speak much. You know your Father in heaven knows what you need; well, so does His friend Saint Joseph." "Tell him, 'If you were in my place, Saint Joseph, what would you do? Well, pray for this in my behalf.'" To the people who came to him with their troubles - and thousands did - the friend of Saint Joseph recommended the use of sacramentals, like Saint Joseph's oil or a Saint Joseph medal. Most of all, he recommended persevering and confident prayer, usually prescribing a novena to his powerful benefactor.

...A typical example of the favors wrought through the intercession of Saint Joseph is this one: A girl at a convent school not far from Quebec was severely injured when another child struck her in the right eye with an oar. The doctors tried to save the eye, but paralysis of the optic nerve set in, causing the girl to lose her sight. The sisters at the school had heard of the cures at the Oratory and procured a medal of Saint Joseph which had been blessed there. They decided to make a novena. For nine days, all the Sisters and students received Holy Communion and prayed to the foster-father of Jesus, applying the medal to the child's eye. There was no progress at all during the course of the novena, but they remained confident. On the ninth day, after everyone had received Holy Communion, the child opened her eye to see the chapel's statue of Blessed Joseph. Before the cure, the seriousness and permanence of the damage had been verified in writing by two competent ophthalmologists. Later, these two declared that the eye was perfectly cured, with no trace of injury. Neither could explain the cure.

http://catholicism.org/br-andre.html Saint André Bessette: Montreal's Miracle Worker by Brother André Marie - October 25th, 2004)

Aren't these miracles amazing!! I want to share one more miracle, one that Denis and I experienced through Saint André. In 2010 we were facing an impossibility. The building in Medjugorje that would house Mary TV's studios, was unfinished, and being damaged by the weather. We had run out of funds and could do no more work on it. We were stuck. And so Denis began praying to the then "Blessed" André for a miracle. We knew he was to be canonized on October 17, 2010. And so we were asking him to finish the building as a gift for Our Lady on his great day. We prayed and prayed. No money came, and so we thought there was no answer to our prayer. But at Christmas of that year we got an email from our friend, Leo, congratulating us because the building was being worked on. We had no idea what he was talking about. We soon found out that the building was indeed being worked on, in fact it was being finished outside and in. We discovered that the co-owner of the Mary TV building had been able to borrow the money to finish the exterior and his portion of the inside. Our prayers had been answered, but in a way we could never have imagined. The building is now being used by our partner to house pilgrims, and our studios are slowly being finished. Thank you, Saint André!

Today, we want to thank Saint André, and ask him for yet another miracle. We are at a crossroads with Mary TV. We have many opportunities this year to stream Our Lady's apparitions, and to begin our work in Medjugorje in earnest. We need St. Joseph to provide for Mary TV so that we can broadcast Our Lady and her school to the world. Please join us in submitting this request to St. André Bessette. He came through for us in 2010, and we feel sure he will not fail us now!

Thank you, Saint André, for teaching us how to have simple faith and humble love for Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Help us to continue on this road to heaven. Pray for us!

Saint Andre died on January 6, 1937. His  buriel had to be postponed for several days until the last of more than three million people were able to pass by his bier and pay him homage.


In Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Cathy Nolan
http://www.marytv.tv/MaryTV/