Sister Briege McKenna and Her Miracle Story

Sister Briege McKenna, OSC, a sister of St. Clare, has a miracle
story to tell us - her own personal experience of being healed
by the Holy Spirit. She relates this story in her book,
"Miracles Do Happen".

Already a sister of St. Clare, she started to suffer from
rheumatoid arthritis in 1965. A doctor prescribed cortisone for
her, but the pain she experienced did not subside. The pain she
suffered from arthritis, almost confined her to a wheelchair, and
the cortisone she took resulted in lapses of memory - a side
effect of the medication. With this deterioration in her
physical health, it also took a toll on her spiritual life.
For some time, she doubted even her faith in Christ. But, she
did not give up. She made a step to seek the Lord in her life.
She attended her first prayer meeting in the charismatic
movement.

In the process of her search for a more radical commitment to
Jesus, and also for her overall well-being, in December of 1970,
she attended an ecumenical retreat in Orlando. She listened to
talks on the power of prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit.
In that prayer meeting of December 9, 1970, she prayed intently,
"Jesus, please help me." And without expecting it, at that
moment, she felt a healing power going through her whole being.
And like the apostle Thomas, she exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!"
Since that day, she never had arthritis and was completely free
of the pain it gave. Through the charismatic renewal, Sister
Briege Mckenna experienced the release of the Holy Spirit. She
both experienced physical and spiritual healing.

Since being healed of her crippling arthritis, Sister Briege
responded to God's call to undertake a healing ministry all over
the world - from huge rallies in Latin America and retreats in
Korea, to missions in the United States of America and in Europe.
She had even visited the Philippines on May 12, 2002, together
with Fr. Kevin Scallon, CM. We were able to witness her
testimony of faith as she and Fr. Kevin conducted a whole day
seminar on "The Christian Family: A Call to Wholeness". They
spoke also of the need for healing in the family - a network of
primary relationships that also needs healing from woundedness
and brokenness.

In our modern day and age, when we are often more inclined to
trust only in the treatment of doctors, we sometimes forget the
power of prayer and the power of the Holy spirit. The late
Holy Father, John Paul II, beatified and canonized so many
blesseds and saints during his pontificate. And a criteria for
each beatification and each canonization is an authenticated
miracle - one that doctors and scientists testify that it is
truly an act of God. When the miracle that is performed by
a candidate to beatification or canonization has been proved
as authentic, then the Church approves the miracle and the
blessed is beatified or the saint is canonized. John Paul II
beatified and canonized more than 1,000 of these holy
intercessors for the Church. In the more than 25 years of
papal leadership which John Paul II had fulfilled, there are
now in the records of the Church, these authenticated miracles.
So it is not only Sister Briege McKenna who can attest to the
truth and reality that miracles still do happen. It is the very
witness and testimony of all who were healed (asking the
intercession of the candidates to beatification or canonization),
and by their faith in God's power to do the impossible, that
even today, "Miracles Do Happen".

Source of this blog post: "Miracles Do Happen: Sister Briege
McKenna Knows That God Can Do the Impossible", by Briege
Mckenna, OSC, with Henry Libersat