The devil gives you bad news. The Lord gives good news. Thus, don't accept the "evil report."

Don't be ruled by "bad" news.

Accept God's Grace.

No doctor or lawyer or professor -- not anyone -- knows what God does.

Case in point:

In 1958, Saint Padre Pio was terribly afflicted by bronchial pneumonia -- prostrated by it. It wouldn't leave, despite best efforts.

Early in May, they called his illness "pleurisy" and ordered absolute bed rest. Nothing worked.

"After May 5, he was confined to his room, unable to celebrate Mass or hear Confessions," recounts Bernard Ruffin in one of the very best books on this saint (Padre Pio: The True Story). "Three times during May, Pio's physicians drew more than a quart of bloody fluid from his pleural cavities without bringing relief. Padre Carmelo of Sessano, the guardian, summoned well-known specialists. After making various tests, they arrived at a grim diagnosis: 'pleural neoplasm with bloody exudations.' They recommended a terrible regimen of chemotherapy.

"With solemn faces, three doctors entered Pio's room and told him that he had cancer and had no more than a few months to live.

"To their shock, the sick man burst out laughing and told them they did not know what they were talking about"!

Pio refused chemotherapy but remained infirm. On August 5 of that year (the Feast of Our Lady of the Snows, and also thought by many to be her actual birthday), the famous international pilgrim statue from Fatima was brought by helicopter to that part of Italy and for several days the faithful prayed. It was also brought to the church at Pio's monastery -- where, despite his illness, Saint Pio was carried to the sanctuary and managed to kneel before the image and drape a golden rosary around it. Afterward, breathless and in pain, he was carried back to bed. But a miracle was about to occur.

Pio had not accepted the "evil report."

"When the statue was being conveyed away by helicopter, Pio murmured, 'Dear Mother, ever since you came to Italy, I have been immobilized by sickness. Now that you're leaving, aren't you going to say even a word to me?'" writes Ruffin.

And:

"In the twinkling of an eye, the padre felt 'a mysterious force' surge through his body.

"Immediately he shouted, 'I'm healed!' and leaped from his bed.

"Pio felt completely cured.

"Within two weeks he had resumed all his duties."

[resources: healing books and Padre Pio: The True Story]

[Note also: Michael Brown retreats: California]