The Story of Miracles, Blessings, and a Possible Future Saint as Told at a Faith-Based University

One of the regular themes of the Mirror of Justice is the distinct value of religiously-affiliated higher education, most particularly in the law school environment.  The following story does not involve legal education but does illustrate the small miracles and serendipitous (read: divine) encounters of people of faith that we see again and again in faith-based educational settings.  God’s ways may be mysterious, so it is hardly surprising that we are more likely to perceive those ways at a faith-based school where we are open to those mysteries.

My daughter Katie is a sophomore at Notre Dame.  Football Saturdays, of course, are a legendary part of the Notre Dame experience.  When the Fighting Irish play at home, a host of visitors come to campus.  On the Saturday of a recent home football game (we won’t say anything more about the game itself — it suffices to say it was a game in the second half of the season), my daughter was walking to the stadium with her two roommates, Jackie and Maddy.  They happened upon a tailgate party hosted by a young couple to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  Intrigued by this tailgate with a purpose, because Jackie has cystic fibrosis, the group of three Notre Dame sophomores stopped to talk with the hosts.

They learned that the couple running the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation — one a graduate of Notre Dame and the other of St. Mary’s — had been blessed only three weeks earlier with the birth of a daughter, Nora.  But Nora was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and soon was in critical condition as her bowel accidentally had been perforated. Jackie told the parents that, like their little new daughter, she too had the condition, presenting to them an in-the-flesh example of a successful young woman at a leading national university who was joyfully overcoming cystic fibrosis.  The smiles grew larger all around, even as the tears began to flow.  Truly Providence had brought these five people together, blessing both the three Notre Dame students and Nora’s parents. 

But the Notre Dame bond ran still deeper, as another spiritual stage had been set.  The mother of the new-born with cystic fibrosis mentioned that, when her little daughter was going into surgery with little chance of survival, she had invoked the help of an American candidate for beatification, Father Solanus Casey and had asked his followers around the world the join in prayer for Nora.  Venerable Solanus (or Barney) Casey, who had been a beloved priest in Detroit with a heart for the sick, lived from 1870 to 1957. Indeed, the mother emphasized she had been careful to invoke the help only of Solanus Casey and had asked recipients of her email message to do the same.

Displaying the photograph proof, Nora’s mother had touched a Father Casey relic to the baby’s cheek and then watched the baby’s face transform from an expression of pain to one of bliss.  Little Nora survived and continues to slowly recover, contrary to the expectations and beyond the explanations of her physicians.  (Support for the family by generous donors is most appreciated:  here.)  Nora’s mother is submitting the evidence of this miracle to the Vatican in support of Father Casey’s cause. 

As this small group of students and Nora’s parents celebrated God’s grace together, Nora’s parents were amazed to find how well informed my daughter Katie was about subject of beautification in general and about leading American candidates in particular.  As a freshman seminar last year, Katie had studied American saints and conducted research on the cause of American candidates for beatification or canonization.  As Katie has told her seminar professor, Kathleen Sprows Cummings, having been able to study the subject in that class allowed Katie to share more fully in that beautiful moment with Nora’s parents on the Notre Dame campus months later.  This meeting ended with the parents showing Katie, Jackie, Maddy, and Mikey pictures of Nora smiling (and, yes, as a further miracle, she was able to smile even at such a young age) while holding the relic of Blessed Father Casey.  Keep Nora and her parents in her prayers and continue to seek the intercession of Father Casey.

God of course moves in the lives and experiences of those who rely on Him while attending non-religious schools, and the power of the divine breaks through any attempted line of separation.  God meets us wherever we are faithful.  But through the spiritual environment created, the deliberate development of a faith-based curriculum, and the faithful intentionality of event-planning, religiously-affiliated schools are uniquely open to the movement of God.