Let me tell you a story. This is an incident which occurred on this day some 950 years ago, during the night of 23-24 August, in a year some time between 1060-1065. The setting is the cathedral church at Canterbury, and our eyewitness is a little boy, who was singing in the choir alongside other boys and the adult monks.
A young girl came to the city of Canterbury, a maiden devoted to God by the grace of prayer. From her birth this poor girl had never seen the light of this world, but she was always seeking eagerly after the light of eternity.
It happened that the feast was being celebrated of St Bartholomew the Apostle and of St Audoen, the confessor of Christ, both of whose relics, along with those of many other saints, lie within the church of the Saviour at Canterbury. The girl asked the custodians of the church if she might have permission to keep vigil that night, which they readily granted her because of her devout way of life. She placed herself in the church near to the tomb of the blessed father Dunstan, and all night she kept vigil and prayed.
This is like a miracle that happened in our church. A few years ago our pastor was preaching on prayer and healing and in connection with his sermon read the following passage of Scripture:
[blockquote]Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and good news is preached to the poor. (Matthew 11:4-5) [/blockquote]
At the moment he read “the deaf hear,” an elderly woman member of the congregation who had been largely deaf for many years felt her ears pop and her hearing was restored completely. Ironically, our pastor prior to that was somewhat skeptical of miraculous healing, but that incident and several others at about the same time completely changed his opinion. We have regular healing services now on Sunday evenings every couple of months and have had a number of people healed, although it is difficult to know why God heals some people and not others.
Beautiful and inspiring – thanks for posting this!