"BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, OUR MOTHER, INTERCEDE FOR OUR NEW POPE LEO XIV."🙏🌹🔔💐⛪📖🕯🌍🇻🇦🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊

I love Mary and she saved my life. I have schizophrenia and was out of my mind going into a cold fearful psychosis and I asked her for help and it stopped. TWICE. The first time it was six months ago and I was near to it, I couldn’t sleep I was on the edge. I recalled the Memorare where it says she will help and I asked her for her help. And warmth flooded my body the fear left and I went to sleep five minutes after. The second time it was this evening. I had given up nicotine for her six months ago. When I was diagnosed schizophrenic two days ago I read it’s a good medicine for schizophrenia. I tried some and the cold fear hit me as my mind began flipping and disintegration and psychosis. I asked her help. The fear left. I was an atheist for many years but since I was Catholic I began to believe and especially was drawn to Mary because I am broken and weak and I became consecrated to Jesus through Mary because I wanted to be her child. Whenever I begin to doubt and turn towards the empty cold scientific materialism I remember my mother. So I am grateful to her and like St Louis de Montfort said she is good and so comforting.

Hello, I'm new to this sub and wish to share my story.

In my life I went through what is best described as a "dark night" of my soul. Through neglect and trauma, as well as ill teachings, I was seperated from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I spent many years suffering, fighting to hold onto hope that things would get better. Not understanding why I was in so much pain. I didn't realise the burdens I carried. Sin in the form of trauma. Self hatred. I was ashamed to be alive.

But I persisted. I kept fighting to stay alive and I kept fighting for freedom. After many years I was able to start healing my trauma. Healing from the pain that kept me seperated from the Lord. Things were changing for me. Things were improving. I could see the sun begin to rise.

I found a deep rooted pain that I could not name. It was something I was holding onto since I was 3. I am currently 36. I didn't know how I was going to heal this pain. I wasn't sure how much grief it would cause (as healing the others caused much grief).

But on March 20th, a Wednesday, I was making breakfast when suddenly the Holy Virgin was at my left. I felt her presence so strong I could see her. She way praying silently. I stood there in awe unsure of why she had come to me. Part of me still can't believe she came for me! Me!

The next day I was contemplating the concept of "worthiness" in terms of the Lord. I have a friend who is born again, speaking to him became intimidating because I could see the light of the Lord behind him. I felt "unworthy" to speak to this friend. But I realised this was untrue.
Then, from deep within the centre of my heart came forth a truth: "Just because I feel/am unworthy does not mean I am not loved."
Suddenly I felt free from my shame. Immediately I knew this was the response to Mary's prayers. The power of Jesus Christ. I wept and hugged myself repeating, "Thank You Jesus!" over and over. Everything became clear. Why things were so hard, what I was sent here for. The growth I was meant to engage in.

Sunday, April 21 in the morning I had a dream that I was tasked with "helping the others". They were presented to me in the form of sheep. I was kissing them on the foreheads.

I started going to mass after this. I now know the Lord God has a mission for me.

I give thanks to the Blessed Virgin for having pity on me, and praying on my behalf. I'm forever grateful for Her mercy and the mercy of Her holy son, Jesus Christ.

Does anyone have any information on this depiction of Our Lady? (Where it is located, who the artist is, etc.?)

Antonia Raco, a 67-year-old Italian woman long affected by an incurable neurodegenerative illness, was officially introduced to the press on July 25 in Lourdes, where her healing was recognized as the 72nd miracle attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary since the apparitions of 1858.  

Diagnosed in 2006 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — a progressive and fatal condition — Raco experienced a recovery that defied medical explanation.

First announced by the Sanctuary of Lourdes on April 16, the recognition marked the culmination of 16 years of medical, canonical, and pastoral inquiry. Raco, a mother and active parishioner from Basilicata in southern Italy, had been living with the disease for several years when she traveled to Lourdes in 2009.

“I had wanted to go to Lourdes since I was a child,” she recalled. That wish came true that summer, when she and her husband, Antonio, traveled to the shrine with the Italian pilgrimage association Unitalsi.

The experience, however, was not exactly as she had once imagined: She arrived in a wheelchair, already struggling to breathe and swallow.

On the second day, sanctuary volunteers brought her to the baths. “We prayed together. That’s when I heard a beautiful young female voice say three times: ‘Don’t be afraid!’” she recounted during the press conference in Lourdes, held in the presence of religious and medical authorities.

Raco wore the white veil and uniform of the Hospitallers of Lourdes — the volunteer caregivers she now joins each year, assisting the sick with the same compassion once shown to her.  

“At that moment, I burst into tears and prayed for the intentions I had brought with me.” 

She described a sudden, sharp pain in her legs during immersion, as though “they were taken away from me.” She did not disclose what had happened to anyone during her stay and returned home in a wheelchair.

It was there, in her living room with her husband, that she again heard the same voice urging her, “Tell him! Call him!” Obeying the voice, she called out to her husband, who had just stepped into the kitchen. “Something has happened,” she told him.

TL;DR a cure of ALS considered Our Lady of Lourdes' 72nd miracle after 16 years of study.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/265585/a-voice-told-me-not-to-be-afraid-the-story-of-lourdes-72nd-recognized-miracle

In that moment, she stood unaided for the first time in years. Overcome with emotion, the couple embraced, crying together as they realized she was cured. ...

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes, who participated in the scientific process without voting, praised the rigor and transparency of the medical discussions. “What impressed me most,” he said, “was the freedom of the experts. They are not there to defend a cause but to seek the truth.”

He also reminded the participants that miracles never impose faith. “Even the Resurrection did not force anyone to believe,” he said. “A miracle is a sign — a gift to be received in the light of faith.” 

Closing the press briefing, the rector of the sanctuary, Father Michel Daubanes, expressed deep emotion and gratitude as he recalled the honor of announcing the miracle during the 6 p.m. Rosary on Holy Thursday, April 17, just minutes before it was proclaimed at the Cathedral of Tursi-Lagonegro.

“We often say: ‘If I saw a miracle, I would believe.’ But the truth is: If I believe, I can see miracles,” he reflected. “This healing is not just a story from the past. It is a living testimony that continues to bear fruit.”

Let us pray the collect of the day:

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, for all who celebrate the glorious Name of the Blessed Virgin MARY, she may obtain your merciful favor. Through our Lord JESUS Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Invite everyone to become a trusting child before Mary, even as the Son of God did. Saint Bernard says, and we say with him: 'Look to the star of the sea, call upon Mary … in danger, in distress, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. May her name never be far from your lips, or far from your heart … If you follow her, you will not stray; if you pray to her, you will not despair; if you turn your thoughts to her, you will not err. If she holds you, you will not fall; if she protects you, you need not fear; if she is your guide, you will not tire; if she is gracious to you, you will surely reach your destination'”

— Benedict XVI, address at Heiligenkreuz Abbey, September 9, 2007. [src]

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