For more than 2,000 years, people have been healed by calling on the name of Jesus; crutches and wheelchairs left along the road, and at sites of worship;

For 2,000 years, the laying on of hands, casting out harmful spirits, restoring life; and there have been countless interventions, visitations, apparitions, visions, in dreams and in contemplation, of Jesus, Mary, the Saints, and Angels;

Two thousand years of miracles, two thousand years, and still we don’t believe!…

See ‘Frank Martin’s miraculous journey to a new life’, that’s on youtube, for just one modern example.

Some infinitesimal part of all this Divine Activity is spoken about, and written about, and remembered- but most of it goes on out of sight; it is not revealed to the world, it is not recounted, it is too personal, too precious to people, and not to be shared as though if it were something common;

This is the universal activity of the holy spirit; and it goes beyond anything we could ever say about it, though we try to capture it in creative ways, exultant, uplifting, inspired by that working in us, and in those around us;

it overflows these forms, these simple expressions, and the grand testimonies of faith and devotion;

this same life, everywhere, revealing, healing, restoring us to sanity and wholeness;

real, profound miracles, no less astonishing than seeing someone walk on water, or vanish;

the almost always unspoken, changing lives completely

this divine life is what is called on in times of the most pressing need, in times of doubt, and in times of celebration, in times of transition;

we can be sure that we remember and recount is only the smallest part of what is taking place, now, today;

we remember and tell about only the smallest part of what has helped in the past, in innumerable ways and places;

Negating this then, denying these agencies, dismissing all intuition of this as superstition, or as fable, or analogy only is an incalculable loss; it is a flat, affectless, materialistic, impoverished view, a black hole;

all at once, it is denying the universal divine activity that takes place every day, everywhere, though all world religions, and independent of these;

it is all at once denying the efficacy of prayer, of sacred words, mantra, ritual, holy places and people and objects;

it is such a diminished view, an arrogant, hostile, narrowing view; impotent, despairing, futile, with very little of real meaning and purpose, direction and resources;

oh, but then to go on to dissuade others with such a view is an immense tragedy- it is much worse than burning countless temples and churches and libraries to the ground, because it attacks the very root of all of these- which is people’s faith and devotion;

these instead should be encouraged, fostered, and increased as much as possible, especially now;

and this is where real knowledge enters into it –

What blocks our knowing?,

and what helps it unfold?

We can sense the Activity of Jesus, Mary, and the Saints as Universal Activity, going well beyond what is done in any one Tradition, and with one Holy Name;

This at once affirms all truths people have found and made use of in their lives and families and communities;

it affirms the divine activity in other Traditions and beyond them;

layperson and religious, hermit, monk and nun, saint and every devoted person all draw from this same source;

this same One Divine Life manifests in countless ways;

We get to see only the smallest part, but the whole of it is intuited by us; it is celebrated, affirmed, and passed down to each generation to draw from as needed;

It has ever been so, and will always be so.