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A recent article on angels in ordinary life and also during Adoration elicited quite a response in the mail of personal testimonies.

A sample:

"I read from a group of messages given to a mystic that Jesus likes us to perform one act of kindness each day," wrote Diane McPartland of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. "So one day I said to Jesus that I would like to perform an act of kindness that day. During the day I completely forgot about this petition. But that same evening my husband and I were sitting on the sofa watching a program when there was a knock at the door. It had just grown dark, probably around 9 p.m., and to hear a knock on your door at night is somewhat unnerving.

"I opened the door and there was a young guy standing on our porch.

"I asked if I could help him. He said to me, 'Someone sent me to this house and said you would be able to help me out.' He was holding a parchment type of paper in his hand and I could see the first two numbers of my house address, which has four numbers, written in a beautiful calligraphy-type script. There was something striking about this young man's countenance. He was wearing jeans and a work shirt. He said he needed to take the train to such and such a station. He told me the exact amount he needed down to the change. So I said to him 'wait here one minute, went upstairs, and grabbed a $10-bill even though it wasn't the exact change he asked for.

"Returning, I said to the young man, 'Here, take this in case you need a little extra.' I told him where to go to get the train. He looked at me with a smile and thanked me. At that moment I knew he was an angel and I remembered my petition to Jesus that morning to do an act of kindness. A tremendous sense of peace flooded me and it felt as though I was walking on clouds because I had such an intense joy. I shut the door and then immediately opened it. In a flash he was gone, not even to be seen walking up the street. My husband asked me what the person wanted. So I just told him someone was asking for directions, and I could not stop giggling. Imagine the look on his face."
God Bless your ministry, Philly

Kate Callender of Sierra Vista, Arizona, recounts that:

"In October of 1997, my mother-in-law remarried. She lived in North Carolina; we lived in New Mexico. Money was very tight. My husband had a demanding job and could not get time from work. My mother-in-law's soon-to-be-husband sent plane tickets for me and my two toddlers, Madison aged two and Nick aged one. There being no direct flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, we had a flight and terminal change in Atlanta. On the way to the wedding, all went very smoothly. On the way back, the first leg of the trip, from Charlotte to Atlanta, was delayed. We arrived in Atlanta only twenty minutes before the next flight was due to take off.

"I was worried. I had no way to contact my husband, who would be waiting in El Paso to pick us up from this flight, and no money to pay for any type of delay such as change of flight fee, meals or hotel. As we came off the first flight, I looked at the connection board and my heart sank. We would need to take the train to another terminal. Eighteen minutes to go. We'd never make it. I took hold of my two-year-old daughter's hand, slung the tote (i.e. diaper bag) over my shoulder, picked up my one-year-old son, and moved as fast as my two-year-old, Madison, would go.

"A man came up, introduced himself as 'Dave,' and asked if he could carry my daughter so we could run faster. Still moving swiftly, I quickly explained that my daughter was frightened of men she did not know and would never allow herself to be picked up. At that very moment, she looked at him adoringly and reached her arms up and around his neck.

"I didn't question it! We ran and got on the train just before the doors closed and arrived at the gate just before they closed the flight. 'Dave' turned and said something that seemed logical at the time, but clearly could not have been. He said, 'Are you okay now? I have to go back, I left my computer open at the other terminal, I need to go back.' I thanked him and we boarded the flight.

"No sooner did we do that than the doors closed. As I finished buckling in the two babies and sat down to buckle my own belt, I noticed 'Dave' was in the seat ahead of us, resting his chin on his folded hands and smiling. 'You made it...have a safe trip.' I said thanks, then the little one tugged at me and I turned my head briefly to see what he wanted.

"When I looked back, 'Dave' had vanished.

"The plane immediately taxied for takeoff. After we took off, I scrutinized every passenger on that plane. 'Dave' was not there. On the flight I thought about this and came to the conclusion that it must have been an angel that came to our aid. Years later, I recounted the tale to an elderly priest, himself a mystic. He simply said, 'oh you've met Dave -- he's Madison's guardian angel."

Wrote Sean Alexander of Decatur, Alabama: "Over twenty years ago we were kayaking in a South Carolina tidal marsh with our young children. We started heading back but the outgoing tide was so strong that my wife with our daughter and our two boys in another kayak could not paddle upstream, so they headed for a nearby sandy shore. Our guide in his kayak and me in mine continued upstream toward where we had left the truck.

"I was really struggling because I was not in good shape like our guide, and a few times called out to him to rest a bit, but he kept going forward, and that was fair because if we paused we would just loose a good bit of progress quickly.

"By the time we got to the dock I was so exhausted I didn't have the energy to paddle the short distance to the ramp, so I let my kayak rest up against the dock -- when it immediately rolled like a barrel in the strong current and I found myself jammed up under the dock, underwater fighting against the strong current.

"I clawed my way as hard as I could and was able to reach the kayak at the edge of the dock, and stick my head out of water and got my arms up on the dock, but I couldn't pull myself up further because the out going tide was so strong, like someone pulling me down by my legs -- there was no way I could pull myself up onto that dock.

"I felt my strength, I guess adrenaline, drain from me completely at that point, and even with my arms laying flat and hard as I could on the dock I was slowly slipping back under.

"I turned to look for my guide and saw him with his kayak on his back walking up toward the truck.

"I had no strength left to make a sound greater than the noise of the tidal rush against the dock. Any movement of my arms to try to get out into the open water would just slip me under sooner. I remember the great sense of disappointment I felt that I was about to die.

"As I turned away from looking at my guide I saw a neatly dressed man offering his hand out to me -- red golf shirt, dress slacks and shoes, he looked like he had just stepped away from a yacht club, and I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up onto the dock.

"I thanked him and as I was on my knees catching my breath I saw our guide jogging down the dock toward me. I began explaining to him what had happened on the way to the truck and we drove down to pick up my wife and children.

"Because I was pretty cut up from clawing my way under barnacled covered wood, and one of our boys got cut up I guess on an oyster bed near where they landed, we went to a nearby clinic to get treated for infections. It wasn't until later on that I reflected on the incident with the man who helped me out; how it didn't make any sense. The dock was small with nothing on it and no one anywhere near as I had paddled up, and I didn't see him again after I started talking to my guide. He had literally come out of nowhere.

"I have thought about how this could be explained other than by Divine intervention; there was no one in the area as I approached the dock, and no one when I came up out of the water. It was a small dock in an isolated area and I could see everywhere.

Wrote one last viewer (we'll have more next week):

"About 21 years ago or so when I went to Adoration and looking at the Host, a mist formed and became bigger until it filled the whole altar and beyond. I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes and cleaned my lenses. Then I looked at the Host again and it happened again. But when I looked just a speck away from the Host everything became clear
again. So I tested this again and again and a mist forms every time I go to Adoration even to this day.

"I'm guessing this is God's blessing"

[previous article: Angels in our time? Yes, and they come during Adoration]