The Power of Prayer Offered with Christ’s Suffering

St. Therese of the Child Jesus never left the monastery until she died. But she was proclaimed patroness of missionaries together with St. Francis Xavier. Why? Because the missionaries asked her to pray that God would answer their many material needs. She prayed and together with her prayers she offered her pains and sufferings with the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. All their needs were answered because Christ’s suffering has power to heal according to St. Peter and St. Paul: “By his wounds you were healed” ( 1 Ptr. 2:24); “I rejoice in my sufferings because they complete Christ’s suffering for his body the Church” (Col. 1:24).

In a visit to the Mercy Community Hospital in Iligan City sometime in 1995, the Mercy Sister asked me to see a dying patient from Cotabato. He could hardly breathe. To make the story short, after praying with him and before blessing him, I told him the story of St. Therese and the missionaries. Then I asked him, to offer his pains for me and the priests of Davao and other sick people who were in need, that like St. Therese that would be his mission, even if brief, before he goes to heaven, as the doctors had given up on him.

Three hours later he was completely healed! The doctors confirmed the healing.