Miracles in a cave

Two earth-shaking incidents, 160 years and an ocean apart,  took place in a cave. Yes, a cave.

One happened in a cave in the tiny town of Lourdes, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared to a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette Soubirous. Inside that cave, a spring gushed forth that is believed to have brought about 70 miraculous cures recognized by the Catholic church. The Catholic News Agency reports that 7,000 incidents of healing have actually been reported, but only 70 have been declared by the Catholic church as “miracles.”

Pilgrims can drink or bathe in water flowing from that spring, which is inside a cave where a grotto with a statue of the Virgin Mary now stands.

The Grotto in the past.

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An ocean away, in predominantly Buddhist Thailand, a miracle took place inside a cave in Chiang Rai province where 12 boys aged 11 to 17 and their soccer coach were trapped by rampaging floodwaters from June 23 to July 10. The world got together and under the leadership of the Thais, the boys and their coach were extricated from the bowels of the cave in a daring, unprecedented rescue. A retired Thai Navy Seal died while supplying oxygen tanks to the ledge where the 13 were trapped. But though saddened by his death, the world rejoiced in the 13 lives saved. How did the boys survive 10 days without food, without light, without certainty of what tomorrow would bring? How did they chance upon the ledge that was their refuge from the menacing floods? How did the two British divers find them in the labyrinth? It was a miracle.

It shows that despite the twists and turns we encounter in this world, chased by floods and other dangers, there is often light at the end of the tunnel.

Yes, miracles do happen.

A photo of the Thai boys stranded for more than a week inside the cave in Chiang Rai. Photo from the Royal Thai Navy Facebook Page via AP

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I think every time a plane lands, a miracle takes place. How man and metal can fly across space and time, like a bird but higher, faster and longer than it, is boggling to someone like me who cannot even drive a car.

Each time I see a plane take off into the blue yonder, I am awed. Only the Almighty could have equipped man with the genius to fly, to conquer the world by just fastening his seatbelt and letting technology and human expertise take over.

I couldn’t help but connect a recent visit of a group of media men made to the Airbus Factory in Toulouse, France to a trip the same group made to Lourdes, a town in southwestern France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains that is known for many miracles. We were invited by Airbus and Philippine Airlines, which was picking up its first A350-900.

The Sanctuaires Notre-Dame de Lourdes, or the Domain, is a major Catholic pilgrimage site visited by millions (though the number of pilgrims has diminished in recent years).

Pilgrims and devotees visit the Basilica of the Our Lady of Rosary.

In the Sanctuary, the pilgrims visit the Grotto of Massabielle (Grotto of the Apparitions) where, in 1858, the Virgin Mary is reported to have appeared to a local woman named Bernadette Soubirous.

There is a row of faucets beside the grotto where the Virgin appeared to Bernadette, and further down from the faucets, the “baths.” The water that flows here is believed to bring about healing.

The 70th miracle was officially declared by Bishop Jacques Benoit-Gonin of Beauvais, France on Feb. 11 this year, the World Day of the Sick and the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. During Mass at the shrine’s basilica, Bishop Nicolas Brouwet of Lourdes announced the miracle.

According to the Catholic News Agency, the miraculous event involved a French nun, Sister Bernadette Moriau, who went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in 2008. She had been suffering from spinal complications and wheelchair-bound since 1980.

Bernadette Soubirous.

When Sister Moriau visited the Lourdes Shrine almost a decade ago, she said she “never asked for a miracle,” according to the Associated Press.

However, after attending a blessing for the sick at the shrine, something began to change.

 “Surprise. I could move,” the 70-year-old Moriau was quoted as saying, noting that she “instantaneously walked away” from her wheelchair, braces and pain medications.

Moriau’s case was brought to the attention of the International Medical Committee of Lourdes, which after extensive research concluded that Moriau’s healing could not be scientifically explained.

PAL’s Cielo Villaluna, the author and STAR Lifestyle editor Millet Mananquil.

After a healing is recognized by the Lourdes committee, the paperwork is then sent to the diocese of origin, where the local bishop has the final say. After the bishop’s blessing, a healing can then be officially recognized by the Church as a miracle, according to the news agency.

“A miraculous recovery must generally be a complete, spontaneous, and immediate healing from a documented medical condition,” it said.

The last official miracle attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes was declared in 2013.

I believe in miracles, everyday miracles, miracles that change the world, miracles that change the heart. By the way, the heart is also a cave, deep like a cave, throbbing with arteries like a cave. A source of miracles, a recipient of miracles.