An inspirational story about the death of an Opus Dei Priest, 'Father Mike', of head and neck cancer in the USA and his refusal of pain relief in his death to offer his sufferings to the Lord. The very heights of heroic sanctity. https://spiritdaily.org/blog/afterlife/a-priests-amazing-death A Priest’s Amazing Death February 13, 2024 by sd He was quite some man — Father Mike. We’ve written about him before. That’s the only way he’s identified by a hospice physician, Dr. John Lerma, a stickler for privacy who at the time was at M. D. Anderson Medical Center — the biggest medical center on the planet — in Houston, tending to the dying priest. In a way hard to convey with words, Father Mike suffered. He did so willingly, fully — even by demand. He was seventy-eight at the time and had severe neck and head cancer. He was even missing an eye from it. Yet he would allow absolutely no pain medications. Once the president of a Catholic university, he was always in good spirits, recalled Dr. Lerma, despite the wrenching pain. “Father Mike instructed me on Opus Dei’s beliefs with regard to pain and suffering,” wrote Dr. Lerma, himself a Catholic (though one who currently accepts multiple beliefs). “He agreed that these acts of suffering would help countless souls around the world, including our hospice patients. He insisted that I trust the spiritual process.” When they first met, said the physician, this unique patient “made it enormously clear that his desire was to feel his pain in its most raw form. That was tough for a palliative-care physician to accept. As a pain specialist, it was an “inconceivable request.” Yet the doctor honored it — and listened to the joy in the selfless priest’s wisdom. Though he admitted that the pain was “unbearable” (or nearly), he insisted he felt nothing but adulation and joy for God. His pain was converted to joy. Angels were visibly present, he related — bedecked in “fierce white.” He also imparted that wisdom. For example, he warned that too much focus on the negative aspects of the world and local news affects the soul in a dark way and “puts us in a position to develop fear and judgment of others.” This, admonished the priest, compounds the negativity of a circumstance and “deeply hurts God.” The angels said they were working on many projects to increase optimism on earth. Yes, we must know where darkness is. Yes, we must resist it. Yes, Christ Himself spoke about it and pointed it out. When we see it, we must pray about it. But not obsess over it. He also spoke, did Father Mike, of love, as so many dying do. A particularly poignant comment: “Random acts of kindness,” said Father Mike, “can actually stop wars from occurring, and just one unconditional act of love can change the entire world.” Have you ever considered doing that? Do you practice this at every opportunity? It turns everyday life into that much more of a glorious adventure. It’s a domino effect: There’s that interconnectedness we don’t appreciate with the eyes of the earth. He also told the doctor that technology without God could destroy us. Technology could be a great good, said Father Mike — if those in control of it were close to Jesus. (More on this in the future.) Part of the priest’s suffering, he explained, was to prevent devastation. The keys to life: prayer, knowledge, and self-sacrifice, along with collective love and joy. If this dying man, this holy priest, could be joyful, cannot we? He was suffering in a way that made those who saw him actually cringe, and yet what was the end? After slipping into a coma, without the pain medication and severely short of breath, Father Mike nonetheless had what the doctor described as “an incredible glow and peace about him.” Despite a racing heart (more than a hundred thirty beats a minute!), the priest wore a large smile. The day he died, Dr. Lerma was at a clinic across the way when he noticed a pitch-black storm approaching and soon unleashing gale-force winds and hail. The darkest cloud was over the part of the hospital where Father Mike was. As the storm grew worse, he received a page that the priest had died. That was only the beginning of the end, so to speak. For when the doctor got to the hospice unit, the lights were flickering on and off but there was “an incredible sense of peace in the midst of the chaos.” The secretary and nurse had seen a “bright light” shining from the priest’s room, they told the physician — so bright they thought the lights were coming back on. “They had rushed me there to experience an inconceivable event,” he said. “Every time the lights turned on and off, little feathers fell from the ceiling, drifting down as if they were snowflakes. One fell in the hand of a nurse and disappeared. As soon as they fell, they disappeared. Father Mike’s call-light was going off and on. We all had goosebumps.” The secretary and nurse also related that they had seen a bright sphere float out of his body, circle the bed, and then soar away. Less than a minute later, the lights came back on. When Dr. Lerma saw him, the priest still wore that striking smile, and his palms were open. “Peaceful — blissful almost.” Quite a way to go! And to cap it off, when priests and nuns from his university arrived later, the dean said that something similar — an electrical disturbance — had occurred in their offices. Father Mike’s punctuation marks. His goodbye. The dean went on to say that a few feathers were found on the floor there, too, and that Father Mike had collected feathers his whole life, from around the world. He’d kept them in a jar. After the incident, when the dean checked Father Mike’s office, he noticed that all the feathers from the jar were gone.
'Random acts of kindness,” said Father Mike, “can actually stop wars from occurring, and just one unconditional act of love can change the entire world.”' I was feeling a little under the weather a few months back. Literally under the weather as it was drizzling rain non stop, a dull grey day when I met a very young school girl who gave me the most warm dazzling smile. Such a small thing but it lit up my day. It changed everything. Travelling by train in Instanbul on three separate occasions people got up on very crowded trains to offer me their seats, something that has never happened to be in Ireland, ever. On one occasion it was a little girl too. I notice these random acts of kindness especially when driving. People stopping right of the blue to let other people out. They don't have to do this but they do. It's so touching. I must try and remamber to bring money with me when out walking so I can give some to poor people on the streets this Lent. Alms giving is a big Lenten thing.
I heard of a case in Paris, France a few years back of an atheist writer who refused pain medication right on through until his death. He said the reason why he did so was that death was the final great adventure and he wanted to experience it to the full. I admired his zest for life and and courage in this. Although I found it a little startling, I kind of thought the old saying, 'There are no atheists in foxholes', was true that atheists tended to turn to God when dying. But this is not so. Our Lady said at one apparition that some people,even after death, while standing before God Himself still refuse to admit He exists. Amazing. Sometimes I think Athiesm is itself a kind of Faith, a kind of religion.
We can only pray for people who can not grasp the reality of who we are, and Who created us, and for what purpose. If a soul standing before Almighty God can still be in denial of Him, it makes more sense that NOT everyone will be converted at the Illumination of conscience or otherwise called The Warning. Most Merciful Jesus, please cover the whole human race with Your most precious Blood, that You may purify, cleanse, heal and restore every soul on the planet and make them more pleasing in the Sight of dear God our Heavenly Father. Amen
Did anyone watch the video with Doctor John Campbell and John Watts, the man from Scotland who is left injured by the clot shot. His story moved me to tears, and he who was not a believer said as he gave up on life and was ready to die, he called out and asked if You exist God and help my heart to recover, I will spend the rest of my life telling everyone. He then went on Amazon and bought a crucifix which he wears to this day. Within days he got a phone call from a woman who told him God had told her to phone him and give him the contact number for a doctor who could help him. The most extraordinary testimony of finding dear God I have heard in a long time. Highly recommend everyone watching it.
I like what Jesus says in Scripture that He would rather we burn hot or cold. But that the lukewarm He would spit out of His mouth. I suppose we could take believers as burning hot. Maybe atheists could be cold, at least they care enough to think about things. I suppose the very,very worst thing to be is to not even to care whether there is a God or a life hereafter. That is being lukewarm, not to care one way or the other. When I was a very small child the Brothers in school asked us to pretend we where in a long railway journey in a carriage with a stranger who happened to be an atheist and to try and give arguments for our belief. It was a fun exercise. St Peter says we should be ready in season and out of season to give reasons for our beliefs. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15 All my life I have been waiting for that mysterious atheist stranger on that train. But not yet...
That, at the end of the day is the only reason anyone winds up in hell. They refuse God's Mercy. The unforgiveable sin. The sin against the Holy Spirit. Yet people do it all the time. That is why Hell is full of people screaming in the flames. For all Eternity.
Poor man. Poor, poor man. I only watched a little and then switched off it was so horrific the state he was left in.
Byron, don't be afraid. When the time comes for you to face the inevitable, God has the grace stored in His pocket ready to give you. He is renowned for not dishing out graces before they are required. Just ask and you will receive, but not in advance. We have to trust and believe, and God never lets us down. Peace.
My son in law, who has been an agnostic for years, is going to become a Catholic. I have prayed so hard for him. Now he listens to my thoughts of God and doesn't give me a funny expression.
I remember reading somewhere that God uses more energy in converting someone that He did in making the whole Universe. The worst thing these days is not that people don;t believe in God or doubt His existence, the worst thing is rather that many, many people don't care about it one way or another at all. Some people call St Therese of Liseaux the Patron Saint of the Atheists because when she was dying she struggled so much with thoughts against Faith. So strange when she was brought up in such a very,very Catholic family, a nest of saints. I think God permitted her to be tempted like this for the conversion of others. She was allowed to carry their struggle for them. Its the easiest thing in the World to believe when everyone else believes. My parents and grandparents generation all had Faith, it was in the very air they breathed. I remember when my mother was dying of cancer asking her if her struggle made her Faith difficult. She looked at me as though I were mad, 'It would be mad not to believe in God!', she said. But our generation is so different. We do have to struggle and ask questions constantly. \One thing I notice recently about the devil when he tempts me against Faith he doesn't use big complicated arguments. He just keeps saying over and over and over again, 'It's nonsense, it's a fairy tale, its nonsense it's a fairy tale'. My response is to simply state I believe. I notice so much recently that when we start to say the rosary we say, 'Oh Lord thou will open my lips and my tongue will announce they praise' and, 'Incline to my aid oh Lord!' We can't even say a simple rosary unless God gives us help to do so. Then we move right on to say the Creed , a Declaration of Faith. As indeed we do at the Mass. These prayers are the ground on which we stand. I find myself more and more thinking of these words as I say them and meaning them. 'I believe'. I mean them because I have to put the effort in to believe, I can't like my parents and grand parents take them for granted. I love watching these African singing the Creed, it is so clear that they do believe. Oh Lord I believe, Lord increase my Faith!
But if we have to struggle with Faith it makes it all the more worthwhile. It is not something we have can simply take for granted, we have to work for it through prayer, through deep prayer to keep it. Another thing is our Faith may very well result in persecution. It's easy enough to believe in the good times when everything is going well, not so easy when things turn dark and sad. I often think the Agony in the Garden is a Mystery about Faith and staying strong, even in the bad times.
