God is a God of the supernatural. I call Him "the Lord of Miracles." Call Him "God of the Miraculous." Wouldn't it be nice to put that title on a new church?

And we should -- because no miracle occurs without His power and we best approach Him by meeting standards that open the door to His wonders.

When we always act in the knowledge that God is watching, it brings the soul into intimate contact with Our Lord and the more intimate the contact, the more miracles. Period.

Grace multiplies. "God is greater than our hearts and knows everything," says 1 John 3:11-21. "If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God."

Confidence equals faith and it is faith (with love) that works the miracle.

I have seen testimonies of virtually every kind of wonder. Many are those who have beaten "incurable" cancer, who have come back from the clinically "dead," who have recovered from financial and emotional calamities.

God can and does restore anything.

"Thanks for that story," wrote one woman on an account we had recently of inexplicably high lamb births in one area. "It reminds me of Genesis 30 and 31, especially 31:4-13. God saw the plight of Jacob, and in His justice, restored the lost wages in lambs. This story is very personal to me when seven years ago my husband, much like Jacob, had 'lambs restored to him,' even though the employer would have had him leave with nothing. Seven years later, just two weeks ago, my husband again is in the same kind of situation, and you reminded me again of this story.  We give thanks to God that He is with us, because sinful human nature is the same as it was in Jacob's time.

Men fall into sin because they lose sight of His Presence and such causes a life that is non-miraculous.

Instead of miracles, there will be accidents. There will be misfortunes. No matter the material wealth, we will not be happy. "The cause of all evil," said St. Teresa, "lies in the fact that we do not think of the Presence of God, but imagine Him far away from us."

This is emphasized in a powerful book by St. Alphonsus Liguori called The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation.

"By the thought of God's ever vigilant eye upon them, the saints have had strength to resist and overcome all the attacks of the evil one," noted the saint. "It was this thought that gave the chaste Susanna courage to spurn the wicked advances of the men who tried to seduce her and even threatened her with death. 'It is better for me,' she said, 'to fall into your hands without doing evil, than to sin in the sight of the Lord [Daniel 13:23]."

And so it is: To live the miraculous life we have to be close to God; each time we sin we distance ourselves.

Love. Faith. Humility. These bring us close. These also protect us from evil. When we are tempted to the impure -- when we are tempted to gossip, or to something such as greed or lust -- we must pray to the Blessed Mother and she will blunt such desires.

Live your life as if a multitude are watching and watch the transformation! For indeed there is a multitude -- of angels! -- observing.

There was the wicked woman who dared to tempt St. Ephrem to sin. The saint replied that if she wished to sin, she would have to go with him into the public square. "But," she inquired, "how is it possible to commit sin in the presence of so many people?"

"And how is it possible," rejoined Ephrem, "to commit sin in the Presence of God, Who sees us everywhere?"

Keep that in mind and you will sin far less, in thought or word.

The key is in holiness, persevering, living fully, and persisting no matter what the trial or temptation. If you are living in the Presence of God, you are not only striving to keep yourself pure, but also in a state of thanksgiving and Adoration.

That unlocks grace.

Adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and this teaches us how we must always think and feel and serves as a portal to the "God of Miracles," Who is drawn to our purity.

[Soon after, by the way, the "wicked lady," following a bit more contemplation on God's Presence, entered a convent.]

01/5/06