Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Thomas Shibler's amazing grace: the power of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction...

I must confess that yesterday I was pretty sad about Thomas Shibler's turn for the worse.  He was not responding to pain treatment and had developed pneumonia.

I was so sad that I made a promise to Our Lady that if Thomas  recovered, I would walk a 15 mile pilgrimage in thanksgiving to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus located nearby in McSherrystown, PA.

Well, I just received a call from Michael Shibler, Thomas' father, with an update on his situation.

Mr. Shibler said that a friend of the family, Bruce McAndrews, had offered to bring a priest to give Thomas the sacrament of Extreme Unction.  The priest had kindly agreed to be ready to leave for the hospital at 10am.  But for some reason, there was a misunderstanding, and at 10am, the priest was not home.  It took three hours to find him.

To make a long story short, the priest and Mr. McAndrews reached the hospital where Thomas was at 2PM.  And Thomas received Extreme Unction in the traditional form, in Latin, read from an old 1930 missal. 

Mr. Shibler and his wife, Michelle, stayed with Thomas for another hour, but left him to run errands at 3:30pm.

If they only would have stayed another hour, what they would have seen!

Well, o me of little faith.  At 4:30pm, the nurses saw that Thomas was starting to move.

They asked him to open and close his eyes.  He did. They asked him to open and close his hands.  He did.  They asked him to close his eyes if he understood them.  He did.

Amazing... the power of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction!

Thank you for praying for Thomas and please keep it up. 

He's still a long way from health, but a great turning point has happened and I wanted to tell you about it so you can offer prayers and sacrifices in thanksgiving and be confirmed in your faith of the power of Holy Mother Church, the Catholic Church, the One and Only true Church of God.

I will continue to keep you posted!

1 comment:

  1. Ummmm, you did not mention if you'd picked up a new pair of walking shoes yet?!?

    Great faith-filled story!

    Net
    Cathlete.net

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