St. Charbel’s „Signature”

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St. Charbel’s „Signature”

Author: Testimony,
"Love One Another!" 39/2017
Testimonies

I agreed to surrender Pawel to God, if He really wanted to take him home. I started to think about the funeral and planning everything.

St. Charbel’s „Signature”

On the eve of the Feast of Divine Mercy in 2015 my wife and I attended a retreat with our Neo-catechumenal community. The children stayed home with a baby-sitter. During the retreat on Saturday I heard a phrase from the catechist which turned out to be very meaningful for me: “If you had the spirit of Jesus Christ, and something difficult happened in your life – you lost your job, you were robbed, etc. – you would walk away from it saying »Praise you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for bringing something new into my life«”. With these words we left for the break after the catechesis. At that point, my daughter Ania called and began to chaotically explain that our son Pawel wasn’t breathing. We rushed to the car. On the way, we found out what had happened. As it turned out, Pawel was playing on a pile of sand outside the house, digging tunnels in it. When Ania called the younger children in for dinner, everybody came except Pawel. He had stayed behind all caught up in his game. Leaving the “sandlot” he fell backwards into one of the tunnels. In a moment, the tunnel collapsed and the sand covered him so that only his feet barely protruded. Worried, Ania started looking for the boy. She walked around the sand pile several times looking for Pawel, and then checked at the neighbors’ and at grandmother’s house. Everyone was already at dinner, but Pawel still wasn’t there. After some time, Ania noticed the feet of a boy poking out of the sand. She immediately started to call for help. A neighbor who was working nearby, and who usually had a noisy machine running, was taking a break at exactly that moment, and came running quickly when he heard the screams. Together with Ania they started pulling Pawel out of the sand. About 17 minutes had passed before they found him and pulled him out. Only then did the neighbor begin to perform artificial respiration. Unfortunately, there was no response…

The ambulance arrived. The doctors connected him to a respirator, and took him to Poznan by helicopter. I remember that before they took off, the doctor suggested that we say good-bye to our son. In the hospital everyone confirmed that he was in critical condition. They didn’t give the slightest chance for his recovery. After a week they tried to ween him off the respirator, but Pawel didn’t manage to breathe on his own.

Also important for me was what the Lord God was doing with us at this time, and especially with me. Specifically, while Pawel was still in the intensive care unit of the hospital we were attending intensive spiritual therapy at Maciek and Gosia’s – the host couple at the house where I was staying with my wife. The first day we went to mass, although I admit I didn’t want to go. I told Maciek that my son was dying, and he told me: “So, what’s it to you, why are you worried? After all, Jesus is risen!”. He repeated this a few times later. It really irritated me. I was having a serious problem and he’s preaching a sermon at me! The situation revealed all of my faithlessness. At the same time many people were praying for Pawel: his whole school, our community, along with the communities in Poznan, Kalisz, and Lodz. When I got up in the morning, I could feel how the prayers of these people lifted me up. I was beginning to learn faith.

At that time Fr. Lukasz, who was responsible for the Kalisz community, determined that we should choose one saint who should intercede for Pawel. We decided that this had to be St. Charbel.

We prayed frequently at Pawel’s bedside with the hope that God would restore his health. We talked to him, read to him, did everything as though he were conscious. We could only stay at the hospital until 8 p.m. The day before Fr. Lukasz’s visit to Poznan I had a serious argument with the doctor who was treating my son. She said that if he ever comes out of it, he’d be a complete vegetable. This made me very upset. Appalled by what I was hearing, I went to gripe about it to Maciek. I told him about the whole incident expecting sympathy, but he took me aside, saying: “Listen, Przemek, if she tells you that he’s dying, that’s what’s going to happen. You have to show the family that you believe, and that this is a blessing from God for your family. Pull yourself together”. I remember that the night after this conversation was a time of a great struggle with God. I felt like Abraham who faced the decision to surrender his only son to God by offering him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah (Gen. 22). However, by morning I was at peace. I agreed to surrender Pawel to God, if He really wanted to take him home. I started to think about the funeral and planning everything.

The whole time he kept repeating: “Dad, he’s there!”, pointing in the direction of the wall. He saw St. Charbel

Normally we could get in to see Pawel at 1 p.m., but that day the doctor called us around 9 asking us to come to the hospital. I was convinced that it was finally the end. Meanwhile, Fr. Lukasz had come with oil of St. Charbel and anointed my son. After an hour Pawel woke up. The whole time he kept repeating: “Dad, he’s there!”, pointing in the direction of the wall. He saw St. Charbel. The medical tests showed that Pawel was healthy! Praise God! Thanks to the intercessions of St. Charbel, God chose to restore him to us again.

Today Pawel is 11 years old and is a normal child. The only sign that stayed with him through the whole event is the mysterious scar on the back of his head which looks as though someone performed surgery there. Sometimes I think that this is just St. Charbel leaving his “signature”.

Przemek

Source: https://loamagazine.org/archive/2017/2017-39/st-charbels-signature

The article was published with the permission from "Love One Another!" in April 2021.