My Life is a Miracle

25 The Healin he who gives himself totally to you may receive you totally.” I had never in my whole life been so visited like this by Christ, or gripped like this. How can I put it any better: in Lourdes, during the Eucharistic procession on July 4, 2008, at 5:00 pm, I had a direct experience of God. There’s nothing exceptional about it: I know other peo- ple experience a similar grace too, without fan- fare, in the oratory of their hearts. God is not violent. He speaks in a whisper, in silent words. He stamps you with a peace that no one else can give. Ah, that peace. Yes, what inner peace! The pilgrimage hadn’t yet come to an end and I was already transformed. My poor body was still in torment. But in the baths, in that icy wa- ter, I had been washed of something. In the fire of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, I had been burnished by the infinite love of God. In a split second, water and fire marked for me the start of a new life, one I couldn’t have imagined. But this new life got off to a bad start. It was already time to leave—to leave that paradise I had discovered in Lourdes perceptible only to the eyes and ears of the heart. To pack up my lit- tle suitcase and face the long trip home by train. Though no different outwardly, inwardly I was someone else.