Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Oct 31, 2007 1:13:20 GMT -5
OUR LORD WORKS MIRACLES
By Eugenia Mischie Pantecan
It was summer and I decided to
take my mother out of the capital city
for a two month stay in a mountain village.
One of our family friends had relocated in a
country village for a quieter old age retreat
and I wanted to visit them.
I decided to take mother to that village
and we found a splendid, uninhabited house
that we could rent for a very convenient price.
The house was down on a slope that led to a
valley where a quick mountain river was nicely
“roaring and purring”.
From the small kitchen window we could see
the river and we could hear its sound:
if it was raining, the waters were quick
and deep and muddy, if it was a sunny day
we could here the sweet sound
and we could see the clear waters
flowing just beneath our eyes.
I got friends with the village people very soon;
I had to go to buy our daily bread.
The local shops were the place
where the villagers spotted us,
and they were curious to know
everything about my mother
and about me too.
Most of the times, going shopping took
a lot of time and my mother was worried:
the three shops were only a ten minutes
walk each and I wasn’t back for two hours!
I would stop in the shop, talking to people.
One shop would have the right bread,
another would have something else,
and often times I would visit the three of them
in the same course until everything we needed
had been bought and packed up to take home.
The village was in a valley at the foot of a mountain
that was one thousand meters high.
On a hill, in between the mountain peak
and the valley there was an orthodox monastery.
Monks. It took one hour walk to get there,
crossing the woods and the river.
The first time I climbed up there is a funny story.
It was noon, the sun was covered by clouds
and I took my mother for a walk;
I had my drawing paper and pencils
because I had spotted some splendid
horses on a green pasture and some geese.
I thought I would make use of my drawing talents
after a long time…
All of a sudden, staying on that splendid pasture,
It started raining heavily.
Mother went back to our friends’ house
that was closer than ours
and she waited for me there.
I decided to sit and watch the rain.
I had a funny idea: what if I concentrate
on the rain and make it stop
as quickly as it had started?
Some people can do such things, they say!
I was staring at the heavy rain curtain
and the rain wouldn’t fall on me!
Funny, very funny…then it stopped…
A man I knew was passing by…
I asked him about the monastery,
how far was it?
Only twenty minutes walk
on a pathway he indicated…
So…not too far, and I decided quickly
that I should try to find it.
The path took me up, on a hill,
then it took a turn and I was
in a thick secular wood.
Nobody was there for me
to ask about the way, so I decided
I should take the man’s words as true.
I went down, until I was in a valley
and I could see and hear the river.
Close by, I spotted a flock of ship
and a boy with two dark dogs: I was happy!
“Is this the way to the monastery”?
“Yes, you just cross the bridge and
climb for five minutes”, the boy told me.
“Are you sure, I was supposed to walk
for twenty minutes and It took me one hour to get here!”
“Yes, the monastery is up there…
ten minutes at the most,
if you stop for a breath of air…”
I crossed the bridge, I went up,
I went short of breath, I stopped
and yes, I soon came across the
greenest grass one could see.
It was the yard surrounding the monastery.
I took a tour, I visited the church,
I made inquires about the site,
and I realized that it was almost evening.
I had lost track of the time.
There was a payphone with a clock there,
and I could see how late it was…
Mother! She has no idea where I am.
I started running down to the village
and it must have taken me twenty minutes.
The twenty minutes!!!
Mother was very worried:
nobody could tell her were I was.
I told her it was the man who told me
it takes only twenty minutes
to the monastery,
ten minutes to visit,
another twenty minutes
to come back, well, one hour.
I thought it was just the
time she could spend having
a coffee with our friends…
It took me three hours instead!
Only my story is just about to begin.
On August 15th, there was a very important
religious celebration at the monastery;
I talked with the women in the village
to take me with them, early in the morning.
It was seven o’clock in the morning,
when I woke up. I had my morning coffee
and Mother told me she wasn’t feeling too well.
She felt dizzy and she could barely wake up from bed.
I decided I should take her blood pressure, just in case!
I got scared, very scared: 24/4 was something that
I never heard nor believed that could happen.
So, at rest, my mother’s heart beat was 4.
Four heart beats, almost stop.
24, it was far too high.
I am not a medical person,
but as far as I know, 24 is huge, and 4,
never thought one can survive with that!!!
I took a very quick decision:
I told my mom that she has high blood pressure, 19!!!
I told her to take her pills and not move from the bed.
Her highest until that time was 17!
I wanted to scare her, but not so much,
so I said “19” and that was an alarm for her!
In the meanwhile I was thinking
if I should go to the monastery,
or choose to stay with mom.
I saw her taking her pills with a glass of water,
and she lay back quietly in the bed…
I will go to the monastery, I thought,
maybe my prayers for her health would help.
I met the women from the village
and we took the path up to the monastery.
I was very quiet and all the way up,
I was praying for Mother’s recovery.
In the church, I prayed God to be with me
and to help my mother out of that terrible danger.
I could think of nothing else!
The church sermon lasted two hours,
our way back, almost an hour.
I was afraid of what could have happened to Mom.
I found her in the kitchen,
cooking something for lunch.
She was feeling pretty well.
I measured her blood pressure: 16/7!
She was cheerful. I thanked God for his help!!!
I could not but think that only my prayers
and God’s will and power
made my mother feel well again!
It was Friday. Another miracle happened that day:
Unexpectedly, my brother and my sister-in-law
came to visit us for the weekend.
They wanted to make it a surprise,
and they had not made a phone call first!
That morning my brother had felt
like coming to visit us and he took
a sudden decision to do so!
Needless to say that I told him
about the danger our mother
had experienced that morning and
I told him to take mother to the doctor.
Mother accepted to go to the capital city
for the week-end and visit her doctor on Monday.
My brother took her to an emergency hospital
for 24 hours and the doctors put her on a treatment
for heart diseases that implied pills and
repeated heart health monitoring.
While she was doing that,
I took part in the religious celebration
at the monastery, praying for mother’s good health.
Mother came back to me early Tuesday,
with her bag full of fruit and vegetables,
cheerful and well: God is great!
(C) EUGENIA PANTECAN
By Eugenia Mischie Pantecan
It was summer and I decided to
take my mother out of the capital city
for a two month stay in a mountain village.
One of our family friends had relocated in a
country village for a quieter old age retreat
and I wanted to visit them.
I decided to take mother to that village
and we found a splendid, uninhabited house
that we could rent for a very convenient price.
The house was down on a slope that led to a
valley where a quick mountain river was nicely
“roaring and purring”.
From the small kitchen window we could see
the river and we could hear its sound:
if it was raining, the waters were quick
and deep and muddy, if it was a sunny day
we could here the sweet sound
and we could see the clear waters
flowing just beneath our eyes.
I got friends with the village people very soon;
I had to go to buy our daily bread.
The local shops were the place
where the villagers spotted us,
and they were curious to know
everything about my mother
and about me too.
Most of the times, going shopping took
a lot of time and my mother was worried:
the three shops were only a ten minutes
walk each and I wasn’t back for two hours!
I would stop in the shop, talking to people.
One shop would have the right bread,
another would have something else,
and often times I would visit the three of them
in the same course until everything we needed
had been bought and packed up to take home.
The village was in a valley at the foot of a mountain
that was one thousand meters high.
On a hill, in between the mountain peak
and the valley there was an orthodox monastery.
Monks. It took one hour walk to get there,
crossing the woods and the river.
The first time I climbed up there is a funny story.
It was noon, the sun was covered by clouds
and I took my mother for a walk;
I had my drawing paper and pencils
because I had spotted some splendid
horses on a green pasture and some geese.
I thought I would make use of my drawing talents
after a long time…
All of a sudden, staying on that splendid pasture,
It started raining heavily.
Mother went back to our friends’ house
that was closer than ours
and she waited for me there.
I decided to sit and watch the rain.
I had a funny idea: what if I concentrate
on the rain and make it stop
as quickly as it had started?
Some people can do such things, they say!
I was staring at the heavy rain curtain
and the rain wouldn’t fall on me!
Funny, very funny…then it stopped…
A man I knew was passing by…
I asked him about the monastery,
how far was it?
Only twenty minutes walk
on a pathway he indicated…
So…not too far, and I decided quickly
that I should try to find it.
The path took me up, on a hill,
then it took a turn and I was
in a thick secular wood.
Nobody was there for me
to ask about the way, so I decided
I should take the man’s words as true.
I went down, until I was in a valley
and I could see and hear the river.
Close by, I spotted a flock of ship
and a boy with two dark dogs: I was happy!
“Is this the way to the monastery”?
“Yes, you just cross the bridge and
climb for five minutes”, the boy told me.
“Are you sure, I was supposed to walk
for twenty minutes and It took me one hour to get here!”
“Yes, the monastery is up there…
ten minutes at the most,
if you stop for a breath of air…”
I crossed the bridge, I went up,
I went short of breath, I stopped
and yes, I soon came across the
greenest grass one could see.
It was the yard surrounding the monastery.
I took a tour, I visited the church,
I made inquires about the site,
and I realized that it was almost evening.
I had lost track of the time.
There was a payphone with a clock there,
and I could see how late it was…
Mother! She has no idea where I am.
I started running down to the village
and it must have taken me twenty minutes.
The twenty minutes!!!
Mother was very worried:
nobody could tell her were I was.
I told her it was the man who told me
it takes only twenty minutes
to the monastery,
ten minutes to visit,
another twenty minutes
to come back, well, one hour.
I thought it was just the
time she could spend having
a coffee with our friends…
It took me three hours instead!
Only my story is just about to begin.
On August 15th, there was a very important
religious celebration at the monastery;
I talked with the women in the village
to take me with them, early in the morning.
It was seven o’clock in the morning,
when I woke up. I had my morning coffee
and Mother told me she wasn’t feeling too well.
She felt dizzy and she could barely wake up from bed.
I decided I should take her blood pressure, just in case!
I got scared, very scared: 24/4 was something that
I never heard nor believed that could happen.
So, at rest, my mother’s heart beat was 4.
Four heart beats, almost stop.
24, it was far too high.
I am not a medical person,
but as far as I know, 24 is huge, and 4,
never thought one can survive with that!!!
I took a very quick decision:
I told my mom that she has high blood pressure, 19!!!
I told her to take her pills and not move from the bed.
Her highest until that time was 17!
I wanted to scare her, but not so much,
so I said “19” and that was an alarm for her!
In the meanwhile I was thinking
if I should go to the monastery,
or choose to stay with mom.
I saw her taking her pills with a glass of water,
and she lay back quietly in the bed…
I will go to the monastery, I thought,
maybe my prayers for her health would help.
I met the women from the village
and we took the path up to the monastery.
I was very quiet and all the way up,
I was praying for Mother’s recovery.
In the church, I prayed God to be with me
and to help my mother out of that terrible danger.
I could think of nothing else!
The church sermon lasted two hours,
our way back, almost an hour.
I was afraid of what could have happened to Mom.
I found her in the kitchen,
cooking something for lunch.
She was feeling pretty well.
I measured her blood pressure: 16/7!
She was cheerful. I thanked God for his help!!!
I could not but think that only my prayers
and God’s will and power
made my mother feel well again!
It was Friday. Another miracle happened that day:
Unexpectedly, my brother and my sister-in-law
came to visit us for the weekend.
They wanted to make it a surprise,
and they had not made a phone call first!
That morning my brother had felt
like coming to visit us and he took
a sudden decision to do so!
Needless to say that I told him
about the danger our mother
had experienced that morning and
I told him to take mother to the doctor.
Mother accepted to go to the capital city
for the week-end and visit her doctor on Monday.
My brother took her to an emergency hospital
for 24 hours and the doctors put her on a treatment
for heart diseases that implied pills and
repeated heart health monitoring.
While she was doing that,
I took part in the religious celebration
at the monastery, praying for mother’s good health.
Mother came back to me early Tuesday,
with her bag full of fruit and vegetables,
cheerful and well: God is great!
(C) EUGENIA PANTECAN