FIRST OF THREE MEDIATRIX ARTICLES.
Julie witnessed a shower of rose petals in the Carmelite church in Lipa City, picked up two and inserted them in her prayer book. Later, to her surprise, there were religious images etched on the petals. She brought them to Chicago, where the petals eventually healed a nun with cancer of the bladder. Praise the Lord who heals through his mother.
eastwind journals
‘True Tales’ Series – Volume 43
November 11, 2023 – Archives tr423
By Bernie V. Lopez, eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com
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Author’s note. This story is based on the book Mary Mediatrix of All Grace, by the late Rene C. de Jesus, published circa December 2015, now out of circulation.
Mrs. Julie Hughes-Sikora, born of American father and Filipino mother from Ormoc Leyte, migrated to the US in 1941. In 1948, she returned for a visit to the Philippines. Curious about the many stories about miraculous “shower of rose petals” in Lipa, Batangas, she went on a pilgrimage.
During a Sunday mass, a strong wind suddenly encircled the pilgrims. A shower of rose petals from the sky followed. Julie picked up two petals, fresh, light red in color, and almost translucent. Returning to Manila, she examined the petals and found nothing unusual about them. She inserted them in the pages of her prayer book. She discovered later that one of her petals had the image of the Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace and the other of Our Lady of Sorrows.
She promised the Blessed Mother that when she returned to the US, she would promote Marian devotion through the petals and a two-foot Mediatrix statue given by the Carmelite Sisters.
In the summer of 1950, she spoke to the high school students of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Chicago. The President of the Catholic Women’s League forbade her to talk of the apparitions and the rose petals. Knowing that her petals were not a hoax, she knelt in tears and said, “Blessed Mother, please help me. You must convince the people that this is a rose petal from heaven.”
Her prayer was answered immediately. A Felician sister borrowed her petals for her sick co-sister, Sr. Mary Angela, who was dying from cancer of the bladder. In fact, she had her coffin made. She recounted that a smiling Lady in white came out of the rose petal and floated in a cloud. She fainted from the extreme pain of the cancer. When she woke up, her surgery scars were gone, and she was completely healed.
Her urologist, Dr. Dooley, a non-Catholic, was shocked to discover that she was instantly cancer-free. He gave a copy of her medical records to her as evidence of a miracle. Sr. Mary Angela lived for another twelve years. The news of her miraculous healing spread like wildfire across the world, silencing the many “doubting Thomas’”.
Many years later, Julie returned to Lipa to return the rose petals to the Carmelite sisters who regarded them as Marian relics. Julie signed an affidavit of her testimony at the sala of Judge Harriet Demetriou on October 5, 1999.
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