Flora Cantábrica

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TERESA NEUMANN

 

DISEASES AND CURES BLIND, DEAF AND MUD

 

Her father returned from the war on March 9, 1918, and she already dreamed of going on a missionary mission, but God’s plans were different. The next day, March 10, a fire broke out in the adjoining farm and Teresa was among the first to go. She got on a bench and took the buckets full of water that people passed her and handed them over to the owner of the burned farm. Her effort was too great and at one point she fell and twisted her spine. Her second and third lumbar vertebrae slipped out of her place, crushing her central nerve cord, leading to progressive numbness, and she had to stay in bed. Healing attempts at Waldsassen hospital were unsuccessful

 

 

On March 17, 1919, she was also totally blind and, for periods, she was also totally deaf and mute due to purulent otitis. What made him suffer the most was being a burden to her family and not being able to fend for herself. She, who had always been the strongest, was now totally useless and with no possibility of cure according to the opinion of the doctors. It took a couple of years for her to understand her mission as her prayerful and suffering missionary, and to accept God’s plan. There were seven long years of total immobility in which she grew spiritually and in which she continually prayed to her great friend Teresita of the Child Jesus, asking for her beatification.

 

HEALING YOUR BLINDNESS AND ULCERS

 

On the day of the beatification of Sister Teresita de Lisieux or the baby Jesus, April 29, 1923, without her realizing the coincidence, she seemed to see someone touching her pillow in her dreams. She woke up and could see. She then she called with her cane, with a few knocks, from the second floor where she was. When her mother arrived, she gave him the great news. Her mother, a little incredulous, made her describe some flowers that were in her room and she was able to convince herself that it was true. The whole family was happy. But that was only one step. She was still paralyzed and in severe cramps. Her left leg retracted and, due to a muscular contraction, she was under the upper part of the right thigh

 

Teresa could only lie on her back, which caused ulcers on her back and legs. Her left foot drained for half a year. The doctor feared that she would have to amputate her foot (April 1925). Her mother was distraught and she constantly cried. Teresa, moved by the crying of her mother, asked for her to be cured and had her sister Zenzl placed a rose leaf that had touched the relics of Saint Therese at the beginning of May. When removing the bandage, she was able to verify that the rose leaf was fixed in the bandage with all the pus and that the wound was completely healed and in its place there was fresh skin. In a letter to her friend Miss Simson, a former Konnersreuth school teacher, Teresa explained the cure for her blindness: I spent Easter very ill. That state lasted until April 25. In the afternoon I received the holy sacraments of the dying… On April 29 I opened my eyes a little again, but I was really very exhausted. Suddenly when I opened my eyes I thought I was dreaming

 

Before my eyes, everything was clear and I called my mother. He came right away, thinking that I was worse. She could barely tell him my happiness and my joy. I said: «What beautiful white flowers!» … Imagine the joy of that Sunday. Saturday was all black and on Sunday everything looked clear and good. Many thanks to God and dear Teresita. A year before, Dr. Seidl told my aunt: «With your eyes all hope is lost and it would take a miracle to heal» … The day before, April 28, the doctor had said: «With you there is nothing to do» . But doctors cannot see the future. That is something that God has reserved solely for our good. I abandon myself to divine providence. The good Lord can do with me what he wants. If he wants to heal me, he is fine; if he leaves me suffering 50 more years in my bed, that’s fine for me too; if he takes the light out of my eyes again, that’s also his thing; if he lets me die, it would be my greatest joy. Sometimes I long for heaven, but perhaps I still have many steps to climb on my steep Via Crucis5.

 

HEALING YOUR IMMOBILITY

 

On May 17, 1925 Teresa began to scream and everyone came to see. She was ecstatic and, suddenly, she sat up without anyone’s help, being able to walk. She told Father Naber that she had seen a wonderful light from which a voice asked her if she wanted to heal. She replied that everything that comes from the good Lord is fine and that He knew what was best for her. Her voice asked him again: Would you be happy if you could get up and walk today? She said: “I am glad of everything that comes from the good Lord. Everything makes me happy: the flowers, the birds and even a new suffering. What makes me most happy is my dear Salvador ”. Her voice explained: “Today you can experience a little joy. You can get up. Take the test, I’ll help you ”6. The same voice said to her: My sister, the beginnings of your apostolate are marked by the seal of the cross. The Lord treats you as a privileged person, for he prefers to reaffirm his reign in souls by suffering rather than by brilliant preaching. This I have written before. Father Naber searched and found that these words were from Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, who was addressing them to her spiritual brother, Father Roulland on May 9, 1897.

 

Saint Therese was the one who healed her again on that day, May 17, 1925, which was the same day as her canonization. On June 11, her parents took her, after seven years, to church. It was the day of Corpus Christi, the great feast of the Eucharist. Half the people had gathered in the square to see her arm in arm with her father, for her legs were still a little weak. On September 30, the anniversary of the death of Saint Therese, she was in bed, reciting the litanies in honor of the saint, when she appeared again in a wonderful light and her friendly voice told her that she could walk. without help. The next day, she went to church alone.

 

n a letter she wrote to a former classmate from Oberschönenfeld on June 16, 1925, Teresa tells her: The main pain, that of the spine, has completely disappeared. The bad part, thank goodness, is completely fine, the cartilage is fine straight. I’m going to tell you. On May 17, the day of the canonization of Saint Teresa, I was completely alone in my room doing the month of May and praying the rosary. Suddenly, everything became clear and beautifully luminous in front of me. At first I got scared and let out two screams that they heard and came to see me. But when they went up, I no longer saw or heard my dear parents. Seeing that light, a very sweet voice immediately began to speak, asking me if I wanted to be cured. I said: “For me everything is fine, living and dying, being healthy or being sick; whatever the good Lord would like to do with me is fine with me. Then the voice said to me: – Would you like to fend for yourself? – I always have joy in everything. – The Lord is pleased that you are so devoted. Now you too can experience a little joy. But you will still have to suffer long and long. I am always by your side and I will continue to help you. No doctor can help you. Now you can sit down, try it, I will help you … Then the voice told me about the suffering and said: «I have written this before.» Later my confessor recognized that the phrase was from Saint Therese, as he found it in her writings.

 

PURULENT APPENDICITIS CURE

 

The days of All Saints and All the Dead, November 1 and 2, 1925, he spent in church, gaining indulgences for the souls in purgatory. He got cold and had to go to bed. He had a high fever. Dr. Seidl diagnosed on November 13 that he had appendicitis with a risk of perforation and ordered his immediate admission to the Waldsassen hospital for surgery. He went ahead to prepare things for the operation while her father looked for a car to take her comfortably on a stretcher.

 

 

  Her mother wept for her and Teresa, moved, prayed to Saint Therese and had a relic of hers placed on the part of her that was hurting her. And again the light appeared to her and her friendly voice said to her: Your full surrender and joy in suffering makes us happy. And for the world to know that there is a superior intervention  now you have no need to be operated. Get up and go to church right away to thank God

 

 

Immediately, she felt cured and dressed to go to church to give thanks as the voice had told her. The next day she went with Father Naber to the Waldsassen hospital to be seen by Dr. Seidl, who could not understand the facts, confirming, as she had informed him, that the pus had been evacuated during the night by the natural route of the intestine. About this healing she wrote to a Carmelite father in late 1925 or early 1926: In November I had severe abdominal pain for a few days. On November 13 they got worse and they called the doctor, who said that they had to operate in a hurry and that the next morning it would be too late.

 

 

My parents were very scared, especially my mother, who lamented thinking that she was too weak to endure an operation and that she could die at strange hands. That was very hard for my mother… By order of the doctor, my father found a car in which she could lie down. The doctor telephoned the Waldsassen sisters to prepare everything necessary for the operation. Everything was ready for the game. When the doctor came out, I said to the parish priest: “I think if I should tell Saint Teresa, who would surely help me, but I don’t know if I should do it and if it is okay in the eyes of the good Lord; not for me, but for my mother ”. He told me that he could do it. ,,,,,,, Then they put the relic of the saint that I always wear around my neck on the painful part and we invoke Saint Therese. Suddenly, I found myself in the same state as on May 17th. I saw again the same light, a right hand and the beloved voice that told me: “I am glad for your complete dedication and your joy in suffering. For the world to know that there is a superior intervention, you do not need to operate now, but immediately you must praise and thank the Lord

 

 

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The light disappeared and I sat on the bed after convincing myself that I was cured. I got dressed and the priest opened the church after telling him that Saint Therese wanted me to go to church right away. We went together. I felt completely fine. At night a lot of pus came out through the intestine. On Saturday the parish priest accompanied me to the doctor, who was surprised when he examined me and found no trace of the disease

 

 

THE SCORES

 

 

On the night of Thursday through Friday, March 4-5, 1926, Teresa saw Christ kneel in the Garden of Olives and heard him pray. Jesus stared at her and at that moment she felt such intense pain in the region of her heart that she believed she was dying. At the same time, warm blood flowed from that area and continued to flow until noon on Friday. She had felt as if a pointed sword had pierced her heart

 

 

On the night of Maundy Thursday to Good Friday, from April 1 to 2 of that year 1926, she relived her Passion from the Garden of Olives until the death of Jesus on the cross. That day the sores on the hands and feet appeared for the first time, but on the outside. Her parents saw them and were scared, calling Father Naber, who was also impressed. On Easter day, Teresa was beaming with happiness, seeing the risen Jesus

 

On April 15, 1927, the sores were also visible on the inside of the hands and feet. The doctors tried with all possible means to try to cure them, but it was all to no avail. The more Dr. Seidl put ointments and bandages on her, the more pain she felt and her hands and feet swelled; so they ended up leaving her alone, because, without healing, the sores did not swell or suppurate. To avoid the curiosity of the people, he put on mittens or half gloves to hide the sores that were square in shape. These sores persisted on her until the end of her life and could be seen on her deathbed

 

Throughout 1927 he received the crown of thorns sores around his forehead on different occasions. During Lent 1928 he received the sore on his right back. On March 29, 1929, she received the flagellation sores for the first time, which were reproduced every year. To these wounds must be added the tears of blood that he shed in the ecstasies of Fridays; especially Lent. Medical examinations could not recognize any good cause for these blood tears, as there was no erosion in his eyes.

 

 

To see his sores, many doctors and ecclesiastics came to his house. Some came to believe that they were the product of hysteria. In 1928, Father Agostino Gemelli, a Franciscan, came to visit her as the Pope’s envoy.

 

 

Pius XI. He was a professor and rector of the Catholic University of Milan. His report was positive: I have carried out my investigations with great care and declare most firmly that there is no trace of hysteria and that these conditions cannot be scientifically explained in a natural way.

 

Father Naber himself had to face some negative posts. On one occasion he wrote an open letter to Dr. Joseph Eberle, editor of the Vienna magazine Schönere Zukunft, responding to a published article, in which it was said that it was all pure hysteria. Father Naber wrote: Without doubting a single moment I would be willing to give my life for the veracity of the extraordinary phenomena of Teresa Neumann as I have observed it and especially for the absence of food1

 

 

Teresa lived the pains of the Passion some 700 times in her life. Many Fridays thousands of people paraded before her bed. Some Good Friday, up to 10,000 people came. They went from 10 to 10 and only for a minute or two to see her in ecstasy. After the Second World War, many American soldiers, even non-Catholics, came to see her and many were converted.

 

BILOCATION

 

Father Naber writes on December 14, 1930: Last week I was in Berlin on an urgent matter. Teresa has followed my mass in Berlin twice. Of this she has spoken to me immediately after my return … She has correctly spoken of the dimensions of the church and especially of her altar. She has told me how I, at first, could not open the tabernacle and that the acolyte had to give me some instructions. And that the second time a priest had helped me to mass.

 

 

Father Naber writes on December 14, 1930: Last week I was in Berlin on an urgent matter. Teresa has followed my mass in Berlin twice. Of this she has spoken to me immediately after my return … She has correctly spoken of the dimensions of the church and especially of her altar. She has told me how I, at first, could not open the tabernacle and that the acolyte had to give me some instructions. And that the second time a priest had helped me to mass.

 

The second mass, which Teresa attended, as there was no acolyte, the parish priest of Saint Ansgar actually helped me12.

 

On April 19, 1931, Father Naber himself wrote: Today, Sunday, Teresa informed me by letter from Eichstät that she had attended the parish mass (in Konnersreuth) that I celebrated at 9 o’clock with a sermon, telling me that she had seen everything and who has participated and who has also listened to the sermon and then told me about it. Since the moment of communion she has been photographed repeatedly13

 

INEDIA

 

It is the gift of God by which a person can live for years without eating or drinking, feeding only on daily communion. And the amazing thing is that this person, as in the case of Teresa Neumann, can normally do the toughest jobs around the house or in the fields without getting tired, as if she were well fed. She didn’t even have the feeling of hunger or thirst.

 

 

Since Christmas 1926, Teresa refused to eat any food. She was only given a few drops of water to receive communion every day. Since September 1927, she did not even drink those drops of water; and until the end of her life, for 35 years, she maintained herself with the sole nourishment of daily communion, thus confirming the word of Jesus: My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink (Jn 6:55) . The living and real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is the power that feeds the body and soul.

 

To verify the authenticity of her inedia, the Bishop of Regensburg established a Commission made up of doctors and four religious nurses who took turns two by two for fifteen days, never to leave her alone. The control of her was in her own house from July 14 to July 28, 1927. When she entered, she weighed 55 kilos and, when leaving her, too.

She only received communion every day. On the 15th, Friday, that she relived the Passion of Christ, she lost four kilos and weighed 51. The following Friday she weighed 52.5 kilos. Where did she regain her normal weight of 55 kilos, that she remained normal throughout her life, if she did not take any food and also lost a lot of blood on Friday of each week when reliving the Passion? The nursing sisters who monitored her wrote her testimony, assuring under oath that at no time during the 15 days of surveillance had she taken any food or drink.

 

He was her great friend, who advised her frequently about the people who came to visit her and what she should do and how she should do it. She also told him things about the people who visited her. She saw him as a luminous man to the right of people. She assured that, on occasions, he would act as her and would go in her place and with her figure to different places to comfort and help other people. He also helped her in her struggles against the devil

 

Father Naber writes in his «Diary»: On May 24, 1931 (Pentecost Sunday) Teresa felt bad and her angel helped her into bed. Other times it had happened that Teresa, in severe pain, had fallen out of bed, remaining on the floor without strength, and that she finally found herself back in bed without anyone having come and without her being able to help herself. When Teresa spent some time in the rectory in 1927, one night she descended a flight of the stairs, but her weakness forced her to stay there. No one came, nor could she get up herself, but she suddenly found herself in bed again. In such cases, she said during her ecstasy, it was her guardian angel who helped her48.

 

Visions

 

One of the most important supernatural manifestations in Teresa’s life was the visions. During the experience of the Passion on Fridays, she attended the entire Passion process from the Garden of Olives to the moment of Jesus’ death. She not only saw how people dressed or what the houses or landscapes of Palestine were like. She felt the heat, the cold and the smells of the environment. She also heard the characters speak in her original language: Aramaic. For this reason, Father Wutz, a famous orientalist and a close friend of Teresa, was able to recognize many words spoken by Jesus as authentic, even in the way of pronouncing them