WHY CERTAIN SOULS LOSE OUT ON A MIRACLE

I am very much enjoying my study of the life of Brother Andre of Montreal, the little religious brother who was so tiny he looked like a penguin, and whose tiny stature belied his enormous intercessory powers and the grand miracles he worked which he always, always attributed purely to St Joseph's intercession. I believe Brother Andre is teaching me how to love St Joseph and revere his influence before the Throne of God. But when I read about Brother Andre's life, I am also being taught much about why (and why not) prayer is answered, in particular prayers for a miracle. 

One year alone, in the life of Brother Andre, there were 435 cures reported (perhaps not the full number which may have been higher, but the reported number).  During his life, however, Brother Andre gave some succinct but very revealing insights as to why a person may lose out on a miracle. The following may guide your prayer life, as it is guiding mine. 

On lack of hope and trust in the Lord...

As his fame grew, Brother Andre made trips outside of his native Canada and during a trip to New York, he visited a woman in a hospital who had phlebitis, that unsightly condition where a vein is inflamed. The lady sat in her bed and she was entirely indifferent to Brother Andre's presence. She had no faith in the Lord to grant her a miraculous healing, but had she had faith, she would have been completely cured. When Brother Andre hovered by her bed, she failed to co-operate in the grace that was available for her healing. After he visited her, Andre lamented, "I wasted my time at that visit I am afraid. There must be faith on the patient's side as well as on mine you see."

On a number of other occasions, Brother Andre was known to exclaim a little angrily about the souls who lacked faith and yet demanded he heal them, "They say, "Cure me, cure me". They complain of half-granted cures. They don't seem to understand when I tell them they are not heard because they have no confidence in God. They command to be cured as if I were a doctor. I tell such people: "If God owes you something then go and ask Him for it."

This goes to show that the faith of a person who seeks a miracle is not redundant; even if someone approaches one as heroically saintly as Brother Andre and asks him to intercede, they will not be heard unless they have faith in God. This puts the onus on the soul to ask first for the gift of faith. 

This has me asking myself, as you may be asking yourself, if I need pray more for a greater gift of faith before I pray for big favors. Then I will offer the powerful novena to St Andre Bessette.

When it was not the will of God...

On many, many other occasions it was not the person's lack of faith, but simply that it was not the will of God.  When a priest who lived with Brother Andre pressed him as to why some souls did not receive cures, Andre explained, "It is according to the will of God. When it is not good for their salvation, the Good God lets me see that is it not His will. I do not want to go against him."

On bad intentions...

A young woman crept into the monastery of the Holy Cross Congregation. She carried in her soul a selfish desire. She and her 4 siblings had been orphaned, and her eldest brother was their guardian. But her brother wanted his own family, and had decided to marry. His sister, however, was bitter, and so she stole into the Oratory and told Father Dion of her displeasure that her brother was going to marry. Father Dion referred her to Brother Andre. When she was face-to-face with Brother Andre, she told him nothing of the nature of her intentions, but just asked him, to pray. 

"But for what?" he enquired of her.

"Just for my intentions."

"But your intentions are not good. Your brother doesn't need to lose his whole future for your sake. It is perfectly all right for him to get married if he wishes to," instructed Brother Andre, and then he informed her as to what her intention ought to be, "Better pray for something for yourself - say for a good conscience. I will pray with you for that." 

It is worth underscoring that at no point had anyone told Brother Andre of the girl's situation, but he was mystically enlightened as to her state of life and her ungenerous intention. 

On good disposition...

The fashions of the roaring twenties left poor Brother Andre scandalized. Once a woman came to see him who he thought was wearing a swimming costume, and he pointed out to her that she looked like she was in a bathing suit. Perhaps the woman was wearing a short flapper sheath. Soon after Andre was visited by another woman, even more scantily clad, and he asked her if she had forgotten to wear a dress in her great haste to get to see him. Apart from his mild derision of their lack of decent clothes, Brother Andre revealed something about how their lack of respectful clothes was impeding the flow of grace. He told the more immodestly dressed woman that she needed to "put on a dress first" before she could ask for her prayer to be answered, let alone hope for a miracle. Tis interesting that Brother Andre did not dignify their items of clothing with the word, "dress". It is a revealing insight that someone needs to have the right disposition and be respectful in coming to see a celibate monk by not wearing risqué clothes. 

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Books that informed this post were C. Bernard Ruffin's The Life of Brother Andre and Katherine en Burton's Brother Andre of Mount Royal. 

The picture of the stained glass window that accompanies this post was taken by EcceKevin.