While driving through another Swiss village, our tour guide pointed to a monastery on a hill in the distance. She said that her group used to visit that building years ago, but had ceased visiting it. In a moment of elation she interjected, “The only time I have ever seen a miracle in my life was in that monastery years ago.” And she continued to explain…

She said that while a monk was explaining the history of the hospice to her group of travelers standing in the sanctuary, one of the women went into painful contortions. She, the tour guide, became very alarmed as this woman struggled and strained and could barely contain herself. The suffering lasted about 5 minutes, then ceased. The woman became a picture of peace and calm.

After the talk, the tour guide rushed over and asked her what the matter was. The woman cried and said, “I can see!” Sixty years of age at the time, she explained that since she was a little child, she was blind in one eye. During the past few minutes, she said, that without warning, she was struck with severe pain in that blind eye. After intense struggle, the pain ceased and she could see. She was exuberant.

Her ability to see color was also restored. She started pointing to the different colors on people’s clothes and the flowers and the paintings, colors she hadn’t been able to see for almost 6 decades.

Alarmed and unsure about what she was hearing, the tour guide insisted the woman accompany her to a local doctor and get checked out. She obliged, and the doctor said the woman was fine, and could not believe she had been blind in one eye.

The restored woman returned home to Australia, and reports came back later to the tour guide that the healing was permanent.

The tour guide chuckled and said, “So, the next year when I returned to the monastery, I told the monk about the healing that had happened in his sanctuary, and he responded, “Garbage! Nothing like that ever happens here.” He refused to believe anyone had a healing as described there in his church home. The tour guide found the monk’s response contradictory and hard to believe, but nonetheless, said she was telling the story the way it happened.

After hearing the story, I asked myself, “Are we all ready and willing to accept miracles of healing at anytime? Or are we like the doubting monk who wasn’t even open to the possibility?”

Some of the views along the way…