Among the reported healings administered by Father John Rae during his recent visit to Perth, The Record has received a number of accounts. Here is one of them from Bernadette:
“For the last 27 years, I have suffered one way or other with diseased sinuses and asthma.
If not chronic allergies, rhinitis, sinusitis or asthma, it was acute infections and pain.
I am sensitive to a lot of medications.
I have endured numerous hospital stays for pain relief, chronic secondary complications, courses of intravenous antibiotics, hyperbaric medicine and 22 sinus operations.
One of the surgical procedures was radical; my skull bone had to be cut so access to the sinuses was possible; this was the beginning of 18 years of constant pain.
Three years after this surgery I was diagnosed with a condition called dysgammaglobulinemia.
The treatment for this was every three weeks going into hospital for the day, for an intravenous infusion. I had this treatment for 13 and a half years before the decision was made to cease it.
This treatment was not a cure, it was to try and manage the condition. I still suffered acute attacks of sinusitis and never understood the cause.
I had heard about Fr John Rea and felt very blessed to be able to attend his Women Healing Rally while in Perth in August 2011.
I received a blessing from Fr John and sat down to pray, when my forehead started to grow warm and tingle.
That night I awoke at 3.25am and felt enclosed in a warm, peaceful cocoon – it was the best sensation I have ever felt.
The next morning I awoke with no pain. As the day went on, people kept commenting on “how good I looked and asking what I had done”.
As the days went on it was becoming more difficult to adjust and claim this new life.
After 18 years, in constant pain, to be suddenly pain free.
Five days after my healing I was at Mass and for no reason my eyes just started to shed tears and my nose was running.
I had no control so in the end just let the tears flow and my nose run.
Part of me was so scared that this was all too good to be true and the pain was going to return.
Dear friends prayed with and over me and since then I have embraced my new life.
I have always had great faith and believed that God would not let me suffer all my life.
I would often tell people, “Life is not that cruel, for me to be this sick in my younger years, I know I am going to grow old and get healthy”. How this was going to happen I never knew, I just lived in hope.”