I always feel bad asking for signs from God. It’s not usually a good idea, because God desires our confidence in him. However, he also understands our human weakness. He knows that even when he reveals things to us, our minds sometimes are too small to really comprehend which direction he’s pointing us in. And so God does give us the grace of miracles many times. Nevertheless, most times we don’t even take the time to realize that they are miracles. Sometimes we pass them off as coincidences, too stubborn to accept that God is offering his help to us in our time of need.
Several miracles have happened that I can recall, two of which are noteworthy here.
I love all the Saints very much. St. Francis is my patron Saint, and he holds a special place in my heart of course. However, while I was searching the web for Saints I came across one that looked a lot like my daughter, and her incredible, beautiful, innocent look just pierced me. St. Gemma Galgani – what an wonderful Saint. I was drawn to her, and she spoke to me through her eyes. Now, there is website dedicated to her (www.stgemmagalgani.com), operated by Glenn Dallaire who is such a nice person. I reached out to Mr. Dallaire in regards to acquiring a relic of St. Gemma, the first relic I ever sought. He gave me some advice on how I might write a letter to the postulate for her cause. I wrote the letter in early March of 2015. In an age when we can send and receive emails and text messages instantaneously, to send letters via traditional “snail-mail” takes a lot of patience. But it also is a lot more rewarding to receive something physical that you can touch – almost as if those letters themselves are relics – even sacramental in nature. I sent the letter with high expectations, yet with a sense of peace that either way at least I was trying. I didn’t necessarily have a sense of urgency for a response. Like a fishing line cast into the lake, I set my pole and was content to wait. Now – if you know anything at all about St. Gemma, this is one of the few Saints to have received the Stigmata (the wounds of Christ). She was a victim for sinners, offering her own suffering united to Christ for the salvation of souls. St. Gemma was particularly devoted to Good Friday, and in fact it was every Friday that she herself bore the wounds of Christ. Her Stigmata was particular to Fridays. So it was no small miracle when, behold, a package from the Passionists in Rome arrived in my mail on none other than Good Friday – only a few weeks after having written. It was a 1st Class Relic of St. Gemma. Of all the days! The package wasn’t sent express, it wasn’t guaranteed. So there was no way for them on their end to coordinate it arriving exactly on Good Friday. And the fact that St. Gemma was Passionist at heart, dedicated to Good Friday and the Passion of our Lord. There really is no other explanation, other than to admit that Our Lord willed this to be so. I’m forever grateful for this consolation – a hint by our Lord that this Museum, this mission, is something he desires.
The other miracle that stands out to me on this journey is the All Saints name. As previously mentioned, it was Ms. Cox who had recommended the name to me. It’s worth mentioning here that in my first call with her, she told me to “build my museum brick by brick, just like St. Francis”. This was before she knew that my Patron Saint was St. Francis – so this was already a wink by God that he was present in this situation. But I took her advice to heart. A few days later on my way to work, as was my custom, I stopped by Our Lady of Peace to pray before the Blessed Sacrament about this. As I knelt in prayer, a holy card caught my eye in the pew in front of me. It was very early in the morning, and hardly anyone was there. So I picked up the holy card. It was a prayer card provided by All Saints Church – a church I had never heard of before. Coincidence… I think not. I knew at that point that God had answered my question. And All Saints Museum was official.