Cardinal Cushing is Pleased
(Circa 1993)
In the summer of 1993 my mother visited me in Rowley, MA from Seminole, FL where she had moved after her retirement from Pratt and Whitney Aircraft in Southington, Ct. By that time, my mother had encountered Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit and her spiritual gifts began to reemerge.
As a young girl, when visiting a home, my mother would on occasion see a spirit present and when shown pictures of prior owners she could identify the spirit she had seen. To her own mother (my grandmother) and others, this meant to them that this soul needed and was seeking prayer and they would then pray for the soul seen by my mother.
[Note: While many debate or even deny the existence of purgatorial suffering and the need for prayer for such souls, my own later personal experience would validate its reality.]
That was it. The angels who are present to the sanctuary of every church (a belief of local piety) had abandoned the sanctuary. To my mother, this was an ominous sign and an indication of God’s displeasure with the priest, the parish, or both. After that disclosure, I just kept her statement on my heart not knowing how to respond to it.
After my mother left Rowley and returned back to her home to Florida, I was visited by a couple of brothers with whom I often prayed. I took this occasion to tell them what my mother had said about the angels leaving the sanctuary. These men (neither of whom were Catholic) then said: “Let’s go and pray them back in!”
I was amazed, but as I had a key to the church hall we drove to the church and went into the downstairs hall area of the church to pray. After a short time of prayer, we decided to go upstairs to the church proper to pray there. As it was a very dark night, I turned on the stairs hallway lights and began to lead the way up to the church. As I am doing so half way up I audibly and clearly hear: “Cardinal Cushing is pleased!” Incredulous, I turn around and reported what I heard to these brothers, and we continue up and enter the church.
Once in the church, I keep the church unlit as I did not believe it was proper to turn on the lights without permission. We continue to pray, and then we move forward to the altar area to pray having the sense that the Holy Spirit was pressing us to do so.
Events then become very solemn and we continue to pray out loud from in front of the altar asking God to return his angels. It is then when one brother states that he has just seen two streaks of bright light enter the altar area to the left and right of the alter and the other brother makes a similar report of some kind. All of this is very intense and solemn and eventually we retreat to the back of the church, return to the basement, and make our way back to my home.
I later learn that Cardinal Cushing was the priest who consecrated Saint Mary’s upon its completion. He died on November 2, 1970, but in 1993, upon our appearance to pray for a parish church which he had consecrated many years before, he blessed our willingness to so with words of encouragement.
What an absolutely amazing God we have!
Richard James Cushing was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Boston from 1944 to 1970 and was made a cardinal in 1958. Cushing's main role was as fundraiser and builder of new churches, schools, and institutions.
On the first Sunday of my mother's visit visit I drove her to an early Mass at Saint Mary’s in Rowley and attended with her. After leaving Mass and when driving home I looked over and noticed that she had tears in her eyes. When I asked why she was crying she said: “I saw the angels leave the sanctuary during Mass.”
