I should have figured I would be attacked ….again… I was all excited… getting ready for another retreat, actually The Steubenville East Conference … when I went down… literally. I work at a camp for high functioning autistic children (Love my job!) and on the last day of the first week, after the field trip, one of the students was hot and aggravated and kept running away from us. The third time I jumped over a planter and took off at a sprint… halfway across the school parking lot I felt a pull and a pain in the back of my leg (pulled muscle) and I went down … but not just down… I had such a good momentum going I tumbled (must have been gracefully [ yeah right!] and my guardian angel must have protected me because I did not have too many scrapes). Off to the emergency room with me… and on bed rest to heal. Oh and I missed a week of work!
I am pretty healthy, almost never get sick, I have never broken anything… so there I was …booo….out of commission! Grumble grumble grumble …in massive pain… I could not put my leg down straight (or I would scream like a girl in a horror movie). A lot of ice packs, rest and meds (which gave me migraines, nausea and oh joy~ constipation!) … but my leg was still hurting. I feared the worst… that I would be too injured to go as a chaperone to The Steubenville East Conference at URI. It hurt to just drag my butt across the house to the bathroom on crutches… how was I going to get around a conference and BE a chaperone? I emailed one of the Life Teen directors and told her my plight…
A couple hours later I got a phone call from my priest (he was going to the conference too) … what’s going on?! This is spiritual warfare! He told me he was coming over to bless me with holy oil and hear my confession … okay! and he did. He gave me the holy oil and told me to put it on my leg every day. And he told me I had to have FAITH that it would work. Oh I did.
Also emails were sent out to all my friends the prayer warriors… to pray for healing in my leg… pray that I could go to the conference…
So they next day, Wednesday, 2 days before the Conference, I was able to put my leg down and walk without crutches. Now remember ~ the day before I could not straighten out my leg without screaming in pain… and the next day I was walking (with a little pain and I was limping a bit). Praise be the Lord alleluia! WOOT!
So yes I did go to the Conference and YES it was amazing!!! Fr. Leo is hilarious! Imagine~ a priest who is a martial artist, can sing, break dance and cook (he beat Booby Flay! oh snap!)… and rock out carrying a 20 lb Monstrance all over the Ryan Center (up and down stairs) for over an hour… with the biggest GRIN on his face! The man is amazing… Also Steve Angrisano and Mark Hart were hilarious and gave intense wonderful talks. Josh Blakesley’s band rocked out the most amazing praise and worship songs… I had the “gift of tears” many times during that weekend! And my leg? Well, thank God they had “security” on golf carts who would transport me from the dining hall to the Ryan Center (which was an experience in itself! O.o holding on for dear life as 20 year old volunteers drove like crazy “high on Jesus” Christians across URI! AAAHHH! WEEEEE O.o )… yeah it was a great weekend!
So yeah … Monday …coming down off my Jesus high… of course the first day back to work was horrible… not because of my leg… that was fine! Several of our kids were “trying” to say the least… yeah the devil does that… attacks before and after. But… ya know by the end of the day I felt a peace. I went to my doctor’s appointment and my blood pressure was 106 over 60. The doctor discussed my quick recovery and I talked about my job. He then said, without looking up at me, (about my work with my students), “You are a blessing.” …Wow.
Me? A blessing? hm.
Well… I feel blessed. I am blessed with a wonderful supportive family, with a wonderful parish, with wonderful priests, with wonderful prayer warrior friends, …with a wonderful church … Yes… truly blessed.
I love being Catholic.
Precious Fool 