JOSHUA'S RECOVERY

May 1997

My grandson was only 6 days old, when he was admitted to hospital with suspected Meningitis Septicaemia.  I immediately phoned Mrs Gwen MacLaren, (now deceased), who promotes the Rosa Mystica apostolate in England, and she phoned other members of the apostolate, asking for their prayers for him.  I then went up to the hospital, taking with me both the Rosa Mystica statue, and Rosa Mystica holy water.

The doctors were all around Joshua , and he was all wired up. One of the doctors said he only had a 30% chance of survival.  Another worry was that there was a chance that with Meningitis Septicaemia, even if he survived, there was a danger of him losing limbs or being mentally impaired.

My son took some holy water and moistened Joshua's lips with it, and made the Sign of the Cross on his forehead.  He also made the Sign of the Cross with the statue of Rosa Mystica over him.

The next morning, Joshua was much better, although still wired up. The doctors were absolutely amazed that he had pulled through the night.    Rosa Mystica stayed with Joshua all the while he was in hospital.

Later, when his blood tests came back, they showed absolutely no trace of Meningitis Septicaemia, or any other infection.

Joshua's Recovery cont....

His blood was absolutely clear.  One of the doctors said "it was an act of God".

Obviously, he had to go back to hospital for check-ups, even up to 2 or 3 years old to make sure he had not suffered any after effects such as hearing difficulties etc, which can happen with Meningitis Septicaemia, but everything was fine.  There was nothing wrong with him.   Today Josh is a healthy strapping 18 year old, with absolutely no sign of the trouble he had at birth. 

ADDLINGTON FIRE

7th Dec 1997
 
Mary and her husband Danny went to bed. Their daughter and one of their grandchildren who were staying over were in the bedroom directly above the scene of the fire.  None of them heard anything and all slept through till about 7 am when Mary came down, went into the front room and discovered the devastation caused by the fire. But no fire.  Mary said the room was cold.  The fire had been extinguished without any of the family even knowing there had been a fire.   Everything was blackened (pictures of damage are attached).  The windows were melted and cracked, which in the normal course of things would have let oxygen in and escalated the fire, but that had not happened.  The fire had been contained in the front room and mysteriously had seemed to have put itself out. A few days previously, Mary had received into her house a pilgrim statue of Our Lady Rosa Mystica.  This was standing on the windowsill directly above the toy box.  It was blackened, but otherwise unharmed.  The prayer book sitting beside the statue was untouched, and is, in fact, still in use today.  The cause of the fire it was later discovered was an electrical toy which had been put back in a toy box and not switched off.  
 
Mary informed the council who sent an inspector and an insurance person round.  They examined the building for further damage to the rest of the house, but found none.  The inspector even examined the upper bedroom, stating that as there was little or no amount of insulation around the upstairs skirting boards, the fire should have caused damage to the upper bedroom, (where their daughter and grandchild had been sleeping), but the room was untouched. Smoke had not even come through the floor to endanger or do any damage to the bedroom or its occupants, which was something the Inspector could not explain. In addition, Mary also had at that time, two dogs, who were in the kitchen that night, Even they had not alerted the family, so they too, had also apparently been unaware of the fire.
 
The council inspector and the insurance man had no explanation for the case, however the insurance man stated in no uncertain terms in response to a query from the council inspector as to how the fire has come to be out, “That is the reason” pointing to Our Lady Rosa Mystica. “It is a miracle”
 
The case was featured in a Catholic newspaper at the time, and a copy of the article, in addition to the pictures is also attached to this history.

Lapsed Catholic returned to the faith – Liverpool

In 1992, my friend and I were going to Mass in Liverpool, and we had a statue of Our Lady Rosa Mystica with us.  Whilst on our way to the Church, we had to pass some houses, where a man was cleaning his windows, and saw us with the statue. He rushed after us and asked, "where did you get that statue, I want one just like that".   He said he had seen me walk by his house carrying Our Lady Rosa Mystica, and told me that when he looked at the statue he knew he had to get one.  So I gave him Mrs MacLaren's (the lady who promotes the Rosa Mystica devotion in England) phone number. He then left and I returned to Church.

He did phone Mrs MacLaren and ordered two statues. One for himself and one for his daughter.  He told Mrs MacLaren that he had been away from the Church for about 30 years, but he did want one of the statues.  As it happened we were due to have the Blessings¹ at Wigan soon after that, Mrs MacLaren told him to come and he could choose his own statues.  He not only came to the Blessings, but went to Confession and Mass.

¹Several Rosa Mystica statues are blessed periodicallys during a special service held at St Marys in Standishgate, Wigan, and from there are distributed throughout the world, to both the poor and to many churches. These blessings take place simultaneously with the blessings taking place at the shrine at Fontanelle, Italy.

SCOTTISH MIRACLE

My husband and I went to spend a short holiday in Scotland, taking Our Lady Rosa Mystica with us. On reaching the caravan we put Our Lady on the dining table.

On our return from attending Benediction on the Sunday, we saw a man having difficulty with the ironing facilities offered at the campsite, and my husband offered to help him, and the man was chatting to me. He was nice and polite and apologised for troubling us, explaining that his son had died a few days before, and he was therefore, not himself. I said I was very sorry, and that if he needed anything we would try to help.
Later that evening, a knock came on the door of our caravan, and on answering it, I found the same man standing there, with some chocolate and six eggs in his hand. He explained these were in thanks for the help we had given him earlier. Realising that he probably needed to talk, we invited him in, and we began chatting. In the course of the evening, he told us that he had been a successful businessman and had had all trappings of wealth, but he had lost everything, his business' even his wife, and he was now living in a caravan on the site. However, he said, when his son died, this was the last straw. He then asked if we had prayed for him since we had met him. I told him that I had offered him up to the Lord, I knew that he was in need of prayer". He then went on to say, "I am going to tell you something now, I planned to commit suicide tonight, I was just getting everything sorted, doing the ironing and leaving everything in good order, nothing unfinished. I was going to throw myself into the Loch tonight, but here I am talking to two complete strangers". I answered "Well the Lord knew, we didn't, but the Lord knew what you were planning". We carried on chatting. He was upset and kept crying, saying he had done some terrible things. I assured him that the Lord knew and the Lord understands and forgives. He said "No, the things I have done are too bad, too bad, He can't forgive what I've done". He wouldn't believe them.

However, all the time he was talking to us, he kept looking at the statue of Our Lady Rosa Mystica on the dining table. He said, “you are Catholics, I presume, because of the statue.

We continued talking, but all of a sudden, he glanced over to Our Lady Rosa Mystica, turned away and rubbed his eyes, and I knew instantly that something had happened. I asked "What's the matter"? to which he replied "No, no, you'd think I was stupid" I assured him we would not. He then said "She spoke to me," to which I replied "what did She say?" “She said "Come to Me". I answered him, saying, "There you go, you wouldn't believe us, will you believe the Mother of Jesus?" "Yes" he said. He then asked if we could teach him the Rosary. We had only got as far as the first Joyful mystery, when he fell to his knees, and crying and sobbing, he moved towards Our Lady’s statue, saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry", all the while not looking at the face of the statue, but above it. He was then filled with such joy, and love, that he had never experience in his whole life.

The next morning, there was a letter put through the letterbox from him saying the he had been unable to sleep, he was so full of love and joy, which was unbelievable in a man who, a few short hours previously, was so distraught that he had been intent on taking his own life. One thing is certain, on that night, Our Lady Rosa Mystica saved his life, but also brought about a great conversation of heart.

ROSA MYSTICA HOME FOR BLIND AND DEAF CHILDREN

This account is taken from a transcript from the website of St Mary and St John's Parish in Wigan.

In 1993, a parishioner from St Mary & St Johns parish in Wigan, England was travelling alone in India.  She had been there several times before and had been moved by the poverty of the people and the work of Mother Teresa.

On this occasion she was transporting a precious Rosa Mystica statue which had been donated by Mrs Gwen MacLaren, the National Promoter for the Rosa Mystica devotion in England, and over £1000, in cash, donated by various people and a charity in Wigan.  This was destined for Indian charities.

Late one night, and while she was nearing her destination, she was caught up in a very bad monsoon storm.  As it was getting dark, and her way was blocked at a river bridge, she decided take up an offer from a kindly Hindu rickshaw owner.  Seeing a light in the distance, they made for it.  To her surprise, she found it to be a Catholic church having a novena service.  She then discovered that the priest had been battling on bravely trying to give a home to several deaf and blind boys.

It turned out that he had spent four years working amongst the poor, and he was currently renting a hut in order to house the children.  Village women kindly looked after them while the priest was absent, but there was no State help given and there did not seem to be any long-term solution to the problem.  They welcomed her warmly and were overjoyed with the statue she carried, thinking it was for them.  She told Mrs MacLaren later that she did not have the heart to say it was destined for another parish, so she left the statue with them.  How was it that this lady, carrying aid from Wigan, and the statue of Our Lady Rosa Mystica, which was destined elsewhere, found herself in this remote Indian village just at the right time?

Several days later, after she had given it careful thought, she returned to the parish and with the cash she was carrying, they agreed to open a bank account to be used for the welfare of the children. 

After further cash had been donated from Wigan, the priest suggested that a home be built for the children.  This was agreed, the home was built, and within one year this lady returned to India for the official opening of the Rosa Mystica home for children.  A controlling committee was formed and the necessary staff engaged.

Since then the financial support has continued from Wigan, generated by social functions, private donations and sponsored events.    Our Lady looks after her children, wherever they are.

PS Sadly this lady is now deceased.

OUR LADY'S HELP DURING TSUNAMI IN SRI LANKA

Mrs Gwen MacLaren (now deceased) was in charge of promoting the Rosa Mystica devotion in England and she has a friend who also has a devotion to Our Lady Rosa Mystica and who used to transport statues for Mrs MacLaren before making her permanent home in Sri Lanka.

This lady now has a beachfront home, and the story she told Mrs MacLaren was that on Boxing Day 2004, she and her family had returned from Mass, and although the children usually went swimming before breakfast, on this occasion, for some reason, she told them to wait till later. 

As she was making the breakfast, she saw the Sri Lankan fishermen desperately trying to pull their boats inland and noticed that the sea had drawn right back leaving a long expanse of beach exposed.  Unsure of what was happening, but disturbed, none-the less, she took her statue of Our Lady Rosa Mystica and put her in the window directly facing the sea.  Then everyone rushed outside to help the fishermen drag their boats behind her house.

The Tsunami hit the coastline, and devastated the area, however, even though houses and a hotel to the side and back were either damaged or destroyed, her house was left untouched and the fishermen's boats were also saved. 

The end result of this is that she now has Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike all demanding that she take Our Lady Rosa Mystica out to them every night, and they all congregate in her back yard to pray the Rosary.