+JMJ
Dear Parishioners,
As you are reading this, I should be en route to my ongoing education conference in Rome. Please pray for safe travel, and for learning from the conference. Given my return to Rome, and the fact that we celebrated the feast day of Mother (Saint) Teresa of Calcutta a couple weeks ago, I thought I'd tell you about a miracle that happened for me in connection with Mother Teresa's sisters when I was studying in Rome.
A handful of priests at the Casa Santa Maria (where the American priests lived in Rome) used to share a motorino (small Italian motorcycle) to get around to Mother's various houses in Rome to celebrate Masses for them, hear confessions, give conferences, etc. We were crazy for driving a motorino in Rome, but it was really the most efficient way to get around, and we were all super busy with our studies: there was never enough time for everything. Mass transportation (buses and trains) took a lot longer than the motorino.
One day a priest friend, Father Andrew, rode the motorino to the outskirts of Rome where Mother's contemplative Sisters were. On the way, he had an accident, downing the bike, sliding a very long distance on the pavement, and badly damaging one of his legs. He finished riding to the Sisters' house, but the bike was damaged. The windshield had been crushed. The sisters bandaged Father Andrew up and prayed over the bike, putting an image of the Sacred Heart in the glove box.
After Father Andrew returned to the Casa Santa Maria, I took the bike to a garage and got the windshield replaced. Since he was hurt, I took his place going to the novitiate house of the Sisters the next morning for 6am Mass. By the time I was done with the Sisters and was returning home, it was rush hour, and unfortunately, there was a light rain making the streets wet.
As I was turning onto a huge boulevard between St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major, I found myself in the midst of a lot of traffic. The whole pack of vehicles sort of had to turn all at once in a synchronized manner onto this boulevard. The other vehicles had me closed in. Then it happened: my tires both hit the stainless steel inlaid trolley track in the middle of the pavement. The tires slipped out from under me. I and the bike went down towards my right side, and I remember being certain I was going to get hurt very badly, or even killed, by the other vehicles. The traffic was that dense.
But I suddenly had what I can only describe as an “out-of-body-experience.” I felt like I was not quite fully physical for a moment…. And the next thing I knew: I was lying on my right side, still wrapped around the bike, with my right knee hurting a lot. But, I WAS ALIVE!! I dragged myself over to the curb. The traffic had disappeared. I was right in front of the Franciscan headquarters on Via Merulana – which just happened to be where the display of Mother's life was hosted in the days leading up to her beatification (which I had attended). I was convinced – and still am – that the prayer of the Sisters over the motorino, and Mother's intercession, and the Sacred Heart image had saved me. God had worked a little miracle through them to protect me in the midst of the accident.
Have a blessed week!
In cordibus Iesu, Mariae et Iosephus,
Father Poggemeyer