Quotes from Akita: The Tears and Message of Mary (Part 4)

This is the forth and final part of our special series of excerpts from the definitive book on Akita. In this part, the miracles of Akita go under the scrutiny of faithless opposition, the miracles of the tears are captured by a camera crew and broadcast on television, the statue weeps for the last time, and Sister Agnes’ deafness is cured.

All unattributed excerpts are by the author, Fr. Teiji Yasuda.

Here are the links for part 1, part 2, and part 3.

A reputable theologian, whom Father Yasuda calls “the inquisitor”, throws the convent into confusion

Four days after the visit of Mr. and Mrs. Yama’uchi, this same priest (whom we shall call the inquisitor) came to preach a week’s retreat. Bishop Ito agreed with this because he had asked this priest to cooperate in that inquiry and he thought that his meeting with the community would facilitate the task.

As for me, I had been invited to go to speak at a church in Suzuka, of the prefecture of Miea, and I took advantage to do this during the time of the retreat.

Without a doubt by an effect of Divine Providence, Sister Agnes was called to the bedside of her dying mother in her native village and had to leave the convent the first day of the retreat. And thus the inquisitor had an open field to give free course to his verve for a whole week.

When I returned from the trip I was surprised by the leaden silence and the heavy atmosphere which reigned among the sisters. Several days passed and the following Sunday they came to find me in my office after breakfast. They began by explaining that the inquisitor had caused them to doubt everything. They had been obliged to agree that they had no argument to oppose his coherent and structured demonstration, according to which everything was a result of ectoplasmic powers of Sister Agnes who had to be a psychopath and, everything considered, there was no other solution than to take the side of the inquisitor.

For the moment a I protested vigorously “What idiocy!” but I soon realized that it was fruitless to try to deny a theory based on a third person report. I had to meet the inquisitor in person to understand his so convincing arguments.

As I reflect upon it, there was nothing surprising in the fact that the first conviction of the sisters was overcome before the large-worded interpretations of a theologian strong in Marian questions. It was a total impasse and I was deeply disturbed. Even the trees and the flowers of the Garden of Mary no longer brought joy to my heart. Everything seemed covered with a gray veil which seemed to block out any prospect of solution. I had doleful states of soul when I thought how fragile can be our human convictions.

So two days later I went to see the inquisitor in Tokyo with to superiors of the convent. We were received in the parlor of the Institute of Theology for an interview which lasted two hours.

The inquisitor gave us the explanations which follow, citing his detailed inquiry in which he sifted the intimate journal of sister Agnes.

His study revealed that since Sister Agnes was a psychopath from birth she had already manifested ectoplasmic powers before being converted to Christianity and that these powers had resurfaced after her conversion. The would which appeared on the hand of the statue, the blood which flowed, the phenomena of perspiration and lachrymation, all could be explained by this so called ectoplasm which she had, that is to say that she was able to transfer her own blood upon the hand of the statue, and the same with the tears. He had an air of certainty of what he said and cited as support the occult practices of certain Buddhist sects. When he was finished speaking, I said to myself that the object of my research would have to now bear on the question of knowing what precise relation of cause and effect existed between the so-called powers of the sister and the objective phenomena we witnessed on the statue. The theory of this renowned theologian satisfied me not at all.

Pgs 157-159

Bishop Ito is pressured to suppress the growing devotion to Our Lady of Akita

For his part, bearing the primary responsibility in the Church, Bishop Ito began to feel the urgency of concrete action and decided to ask the advice of the Apostolic Nuncio. The latter suggested that he ask the Archbishop of Tokyo for the creation of the commission of canonical inquiry without delay, so a commission was officially created, and the inquisitor, whose position was already well known was named president. On the order of the commission, Bishop Ito made an official declaration in the Catholic Journal, official press organ of the Japanese Church, forbidding all public manifestation of veneration towards the statue of the Virgin of Akita.

At the same time Sister Agnes was called by the inquisitor to answer to a long interrogation. It lasted an entire day during which she was forced to hear argument upon argument, undergoing a true brainwashing. The inquisitor had already explained, over and over to numerous personalities from different areas what he thought of Sister Agnes, calling her a “special psychopathic case” characterized by a disassociation, the visions which she said to have seen a guardian angel being only a manifestation of her double personality of which she herself was the dupe. And her spiritual director used her for writing articles in the media and accumulating benefices, which was an inadmissible sin.

Pgs 159-160

Sister Agnes recounts her meeting with “the inquisitor”

When I arrived, accompanied by my brother and sister, he (the inquisitor) welcomed us with open arms and a warm smile. We were very moved by his paternal kindness. He had a very nice breakfast prepared for us.

Then we found ourselves alone, face to face, and I had to listen to the development of his arguments from morning until 5 o’clock in the afternoon, without the time to breathe.

I saw coming the moment when I was going to be squarely labeled mentally ill, but this word was not pronounced a single time. It was when he declared that I had ectoplasmic powers that I began seriously to be disturbed. To question as to what he meant by that, he explained at length that that came from the subconscious, and so on and that all the mysterious phenomena were due to my subconscious action.

‘Then that comes from the devil? In these conditions, I pray you to drive them from me.’ ‘It is not the devil. There is no fault on your part because it is subconscious.’

‘But I cannot be a victim of this monstrosity. And since you say that I abuse very many people in this way, it is a frightening thing. I beg you, free me from these powers.’

‘In any event it is not you who are at fault. One can say that the responsibility falls on your superior who took this story of the angel seriously from the beginning and that let this snowball. The words of the angel, it is you who recount them to yourself.’ He exhorted me to pay no more attention to these apparitions.

However, the guardian angel appeared to me during the Mass at 11 o’clock which followed although I did not expect her there. I hastily closed my eyes not to pay attention but I immediately heard her voice which said, ‘Do not fear,‘ and from that I had a feeling of indescribable peace.

At the beginning of the afternoon interview, I explained that the angel had come again and he told me that this was altogether normal because that could not stop all of the sudden since the time I had had these visions, but that everything would soon return to order because he was there to direct me… and the sermon began in the same style…

The thing which upset me the most in what he said, even supposing that I was not at fault, was that I was abusing a great number of people. At the end, I felt myself completely battered down and my sister, advised by telephone, came to get me with a taxi. In the taxi I was asking myself if I would come out of this alive, emptied as I was of all energy.

I did not want even to look at the dinner which my sister had prepared for me with such solicitude and taking my head in my hands, my face resting on the table, I jumped when I felt a strange sensation on my fingers. My hear had literally stood up on my head, without doubt because of fear; it was completely stiffened by grease and sweat as though someone had planted stiff needles which my fingers could not penetrate.

After a frightened instant, I took hold of myself suddenly as if waking from a sleep. ‘What are you about? And you imagine that you have the faith? Nothing happens without permission of God, and does not He know it all? Is it not to be the victim of oneself, tormenting the soul like that?’ This light suddenly freed me and I almost felt like laughing because the situation was truly funny. When I lifted up my hands again in the midst of a laugh we with tears, my hair had regained its suppleness.

The next day, thanks to the good care of Bishop Ito, I was hospitalized for a complete examination of my physical and psychic state. I stretched out on the bed at the end of my strength. For three days the doctors kept going and coming, and I was unable either to eat or to raise myself. Three weeks later, two Sisters took me to a thermal station for a period of convalescence.

When I returned to the convent after having regained my strength, I found there an ambiance completely different from what it had before. From this day on I had the impression of living, walking on needles. When I think of it now I wonder how I ever survived alive. At the moment of hospitalization, I was in a state of extreme moral and physical exhaustion. I said to myself more than once that I would indeed by happier of the good God would call me to Himself at once!’

Sister Agnes / 160-162

Father Yasuda recounts the situation for Sister Agnes at the convent

At the convent, the superior and the other sisters treated her kindly, but she knew too well that her credibility was reduced to nothing and she was considered with doubt in all she did. She confided to me later that she clung with all her strength to the words that I whispered to her, “Christ on the Cross was rejected and abandoned by all.” Thus for her began long days of trial and moral solitude in the midst of general misunderstanding.

Pg 162

The commission studying the events of Akita decides not to recognize, Bishop Ito begins a new commission

Now the phenomena of the tears had stopped completely from the moment when the commission of inquiry was begun. And I concluded at that time that they were definitely terminated.

Two years later, this commission decided not to recognize the supernatural character of the events. But no details were given to us on the content of the study. Bishop Ito commanded that we submit to the conclusions of the commission without discussion after they were published. One of the sisters asked if it was necessary to obey even when conscience opposed. He had confirmed, “In a case like this, it is important to obey.”

However, it would seem that Bishop Ito was very troubled by the negative conclusion of the commission and he was not able to decide to make a public declaration on the subject. Instated, some months later he went personally to Rome to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. There he exposed all the facts and asked the advice of authorized persons. He was given the following advice: “If you are not convinced by the conclusions of this commission, you must form another yourself and begin the study from the beginning.

As we have already seen, the intimate journal of Sister Agnes had been photocopied and used by the inquisitor as a unique piece of the dossier with the intention of denying everything. And the judgement was pronounced without any member of the said commission, outside of the inquisitor, ever having put foot in the convent, and to better know the dispositions and spirit of the members. To base such an important decision solely on the intimate journal without finding the need to come and find out for oneself is indeed a curious way of fulfilling such a grave responsibility.

When the second commission was created on the initiative of the Bishop, the result of the first was known by all. For my part, the more I studied what had happened, the more evident to me it was that the events were supernatural.

Pgs 165-166

The tears begin again

At the beginning of July, we were visited by 32 children from the prefecture of the Wakayama, accompanied by Mr. And Mrs. Y, directors of a private school. These youths of elementary school and of college had not been baptized and I was wondering what we could do that might leave with them a good memory of the long trip that they had made to Akita.

To celebrate the second anniversary of the Garden and at the same time to thank Saint Joseph to whom it owed its existence, I had the idea of a procession in the Garden of this to Mr. and Mrs. Y. and to the sisters and all agreed. Such a manifestation might appear childish at first sight, but any act of faith implies a childish candor and this one seemed to me quite proper for the young people.

Thus on the evening of the 26th of July, the day of their arrival, we processed around the Garden several times, the boys at the head with the statue of Saint Joseph on their shoulders as though preparing for the blessing which was to take place some days later. The adults followed with candles, singing hymns between decades of the Rosary. It was a very beautiful procession.

After the procession, which lasted about an hour, we brought the statue of Saint Joseph back into the room to be placed next to the statue of Mary. And hardly had the sacristy sister put on the light than she exclaimed: “The statue of the Virgin weeps again!”

At first I thought she was joking, but she signaled for me to come while I was still at the doorway. It was true, streams of completely fresh tears were visible from the chin down to the neckpiece. Evidently it was a question of the very same phenomenon of weeping which had stopped two years earlier and which had been repeated ten times.

At the announcement of the news, more than 50 persons, including the children, gathered in the little room. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. H, donors of the statue of Saint Joseph. They had come especially that day to participate in the candlelight procession. By the end of the second decade of the Rosary, the tears were completely dried.

Pgs 167-168

Father Yasuda comments on the demise of the theory of “ectoplasm”

From the beginning of the phenomenon of the tears on the 4th of January, 1975, until the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on the 15th of September, 1981, the statue has cried 101 times. A little later Bishop Ito had gone to the inquisitor to ask him what explanation he would give to the fact the the statue wept even when Sister Agnes was far from the convent. He obtained an answer, which to say the least, is surprising: “It is because another sister near the statue also possesses ectoplasmic faculties!”

I spoke above of the reaction of M.H. and his wife and of the children [text not included in these excerpts]. For my par it was with renewed emotion that I saw the phenomenon of lachrymation again. Over and against the wisdom of humans who obstinately deny, God continues His work in Sovereign liberty. At least this is what I had felt in my interior conscience. And in fact, as to fill the void of those two years and two months, the statue of Our Lady now began to weep when She wished, as She wished. The thesis of tears caused by ectoplasm, accentuated by the announcement of the inquisitor that these mysterious events would soon cease, fell apart like a house of cards.

The value of a simple faith was taught to us here once again, One feels a necessity of reviving in our contemporary world, without seeking to minimize its sense, the teaching of Jesus, “If you have the faith as great as a mustard seed, you will say to that mountain to throw itself into the sea, and it will throw itself into the sea.” Each time that I saw the brown cheeks of the statue become wet as those of a living person I could not fail to invoke Mary at the foot of the Cross by Her agonizing Son.

Pg 170

A TV camera crew captures and broadcasts the miraculous tears

Towards the end of the year I received a telephone call which to say the least was surprising. It was M. Y., director of a television station. He said that he had received a bizarre telephone call from an anonymous person advising him above all not to speak of the “Tears of the Virgin of Akita.” M. T. had never heard speak of the tears and this brief exchange piqued his curiosity. He had called M. Yama’uchi of the Catholic Graph to ask for more details. After that he wanted to come in person to learn about it and requested an interview. I was not very happy about furnishing information to the media, but since he said he wanted to know the truth I could not refuse.

Four persons from this television station arrived on the 6th of December, led by Mr. Yama’uchi. They were two days later than originally expected, bringing us closer to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. As we shall see it proved to be a providential delay.

The 6th fell on Thursday evening before the First Friday of the month which is always preceded in our convent by a night of adoration with sisters taking turns before the Blessed Sacrament.

The statue of Our Lady was still in the parlor, next to the chapel, because the second board of inquiry was at work and the matter would still be under ecclesiastical examination until that commission had made its decision one way or the other, after which the Bishop would make a pronouncement.

The technicians had brought their material and setup a camera before the statue, regulating it in such a way that it would snap a picture every six seconds. And although it was in a room separate from the chapel, the noise of the automatic camera release resounded in the silence of the night. So I decided to postpone the adoration to the following night. Besides, now the night adoration would be a preparation for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception the day following. So to say the camera monopolized the statue until the beginning of Mass the following morning, implacably repeating the same operation hour after hour but it photographed nothing unusual.

The next day, December 7th, we were requisitioned for an interview and then a tour of the garden etc., and our visitors thus used up our time until evening. As night fell, they rested their tired bodies and we began the night adoration which had been transferred form the day before. On the 8th of December, a little after midnight, more precisely at ten minutes after, the telephone rang in my room. The statue had been discovered in tears. I at once called Mr. Yama’uchi and his technicians who were sleeping on the first floor and making sure that they had understood me, I ran to the convent. I had hardly arrived at the statue before the technicians, who had followed close behind, bombarded the statue with their cameras and photographic apparatus. I had to admire the promptitude and dexterity of these picture specialists. Some later said the the first pictures were spoiled because their hands trembled.

As usual, we recited the Rosary with the pilgrims present and with our own eyes saw the end of the lachrymation.

In the morning the camera men asked to remain another day, regretting not having placed the camera the previous evening as they had on the day they arrived. They wanted to try a second time. It was a legitimate request and I had no objection. So the camera was replaced on the evening of the 8th of December about 8 o’clock and the lapse set to snap at regular intervals.

It was past 11 o’clock when one of the sisters, kneeling before the statue after a final visit to the Blessed Sacrament, discovered the tears again. Later, the film taken that evening was shown on television throughout all of Japan in a course of a program which proposed to answer the question, ‘lie or reality?’

Today this videotape is shown all over the world, and we show it to the pilgrims who come to the convent, if they desire to see it, and thus as we were nearing the very end of this prolonged miracle, it was prolonged in such a way that many, many thousands all over the world have also become witnesses.

One can only render thanks to the Providence which awaited the Feast of the Immaculate Conception to manifest this prodigy in such a way that it is preserved for the sight of many.

Pg 172-174

Bishop Ito concludes the second commission, the statue of Mary weeps for the hundredth time

On September 12th, 1981, the second commission of inquiry, formed at the request of Bishop Ito, held its last session. At the time of the meeting which took place in May, Bishop Ito read a provisional report, written in his own hand, in which he asked for recognition of the facts. No members of the commission were openly opposed, but all decision was put off for the last meeting. In the interval, Bishop Ito received a letter from the Holy See advised him to be careful. This warning had certainly been inspired by the negative conclusion of the first commission.

When the second commission was concluded, four members voted in favor of recognizing the events as super-natural, and three did not. Despite the favorable majority, Bishop Ito preferred to abstain from any official declaration authenticating the supernatuarality of the events in order to remain faithful to the attitude of prudence counseled by Rome.

On the morning of this same day, the statue of the Virgin wept for the one hundredth time.

The sisters telephoned to Niigata in order that the members of the commission might be informed before the meeting. The response was, “We cannot consider the tears of the statue as a determining sign or miracle. The supernaturality of the facts can only be recognized if more important miracles take place.”

There had been one hundred lachrymations and that was still not enough. The more weak the faith, the more one requires spectacular signs. However, it is impossible to recognize the supernatural nature of a fact, whatever it be, without the light of faith. The numerous miracles operated by Christ were denied purely and simply by those of the Jews who were incredulous by their disposition of spirit. It is therefore not surprising that a hundred lachrymations of the statue of the Mother of Christ did not yet suffice in order that one judge it enough.

In the beginning the inquisitor, leader of the opposition, had himself declared, “One or two tears do not suffice. They can be evoked by ectoplasmic faculties of someone. When the quantity will be sufficiently abundant in order that such faculties cannot be invoked, in that condition it would be convenient to believe that that comes from Heaven.” However, even when the statue had wept abundantly (it happened that the tears accumulated in the folds of the garment and fell even down to the globe), those who did not wish to believe did not. The fact that a person believes or doesn’t believe in the supernatural, does not relate to the disposition of the person to believe or not to believe in Divine intervention in our world. In other terms, acceptance comes by faith alone.

A little later the guardian angel said to Sister Agnes, “They ask a miracle greater than the tears; there will be no more.”

Pgs 176-177

The statue weeps for the one hundred and first time, the number’s meaning is revealed by the angel

On the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, September 15th, 1981, the statue again shed tears about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Sixty five persons were present: a groups of parishioners of Akita, visitors from more distant regions and some sisters of the motherhouse of the Institute. The quantity of tears was moderate. Nevertheless the witnesses were very moved by the fact that it happened exactly on the day of the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. From the words of the angel I didn’t have the slightest doubt that these would be the last tears shed by Our Lady at Yuzawadai. It was the one hundred and first time that She wept. It is not a round figure aside from the words of the angel, there was nothing to cause us to think that it was the end of the lachrymations.

Two weeks later, the 28th of September, Sister Agnes suddenly felt the presence of the angel at her side during the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. She did not see the angel in person but a Bible appeared open before her eyes and she was invited to read a passage. It was a large Bible, very beautiful and surrounded with a celestial light. When Sister Agnes could recognize the references (Genesis 3:15), the voice of the angel was heard explaining in sort of a preamble that the passage had relationship with the tears of Mary, then continued:

There is a meaning to the figure one hundred and one. This signifies that sin came into the world by a woman and it is also by a woman that salvation came to the world. The zero between the two signifies the Eternal God who is from all eternity until eternity. The first one represents Eve and the last the Virgin Mary.” Then sister was again invited to reread the verse, and the angel left. At the same time the vision of the Bible disappeared.

After adoration Sister Agnes came at once to my office. She recounted the apparition and asked me to read verse 15 of chapter 3 of Genesis. She asked me to verify the passage before she herself would open a Bible. So I took out the modern Japanese translation by Father Barbaro and found the following passage: “I will place enmities between thee and the woman, between thy seed and hers. She will crush they head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”

Then she repeated to me the explanation of the angel concerning the meaning of the number 101… of the one hundred and one times that Our Lady’s statue wept miraculously. At the moment I was not especially surprised. However, as the days passed I realized with growing emotion that the tears would flow no more and that the profound meaning had been elucidated by a passage from Scripture.

Pgs 178-179

Father Yasuda reflects on the Scriptural meaning of Genesis 3:15

In verse 15 of the chapter in question, the sovereign God the Absolute Being, make the prophetic announcements to Satan of the combat which will oppose him to the Virgin Mary throughout the ages. It is evident that the Seed of the Woman means Jesus comes into the world through Her and all those who will believe in Him. The Mystical Body of Christ is the community of believers of all generations of whom He is the Head. It is the union with the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, that the Virgin has received from the Eternal Father the mission of fighting against Satan and his cohorts until the end of the world.

Pg 179

The angel tells Sister Agnes that her hearing will soon be cured

The angel had said that “People ask a miracle greater than the tears; there will be no more.” And soon afterwards the statue wept for the last time. But of course we knew that there was to be another miracle, one which had been announced over and over which would certainly be big enough to satisfy the commission: Sister Agnes, whose deafness had been declared incurable, was going to be absolutely and finally cured.

On the Feast of the Annunciation, a most important Feast for the Handmaids, Sister Agnes came to see me after the adoration and to say that the angel had appeared again. In substance this is what was said:

“Your deafness causes you to suffer doesn’t it? The moment of the promised cure approaches. By the intersession of the Holy and Immaculate Virgin, exactly as the last time, before Him who is truly present in the Eucharist, your ears will be definitely cured in order that the work of the Most High may be accomplished. There will still be many sufferings and obstacles coming from outside. You have nothing to fear. In bearing them and offering them, you will be protected. Offer up and pray well. Transmit what I have told you to him who directs you and ask him for counsel and prayer.”

As for me, I never doubted the complete healing would come one day because the angel had said shortly before the first cure that it would be provisional, because God still wished this offering for sometime… I nevertheless was very impressed by the announcement of this prediction. It was impossible to foretell the date of the healing with so little detail. Nevertheless I told sister not to speak of it to anyone and to continue her normal activities.

Soon it was the month of May, the month consecrate to Mary. More than a month had passed since the announcement of the angel. On the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, the first of May, Sister Agnes received a message from the angel during adoration:

“Your ears will be definitely cured during this month consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They will be cured as the last time by Him who is really present in the Eucharist. Those who will believe in this sigh will receive many graces. There will be those who oppose, but you have nothing to fear.”

Pgs 180-181

Sister Agnes is cured on Pentecost, before the Vigil of the Feast of the Visitation

If the cure was going to take place during the month of Mary, I told myself that it would certainly be a Sunday. And if it was going to happen during the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, it would surely be during the ceremony of Benediction which happens on Sunday. The month of May had five Sundays. The first of May being a Saturday, the next day was the first Sunday of the month. That seemed nevertheless too soon. Certainly nothing permitted me to guess that it would be one Sunday rather than another. When I think back on it now, the last Sunday was Pentecost and furthermore the Vigil of the Feast of the Visitation, and seemed the most apt day for the realization of the promise made by the angel.

Whatever the case, one Sunday succeeded the other in the expectation of the prodigy and it was soon the Sunday of Pentecost. The hour of Benediction approached. That day there were fewer visitors than usual. The only person from outside were Mr. and Mrs. Okuhara who had taken care of the scientific analysis of the liquids taken form the statue (truly there could not be more appropriate witnesses.)

After more than an hour of adoration I took the monstrance of the Blessed Sacrament, blessed the assemblage then the bell sounded: at that precise moment the ears of Sister Agnes opened as the preceding time. When we had finished the divine praises I heard her speak to me as before, “I have just received the grace of healing. I ask that one recite the Magnificat in thanksgiving.” Restraining my emotion with difficulty (“It was therefore true!”) I replaced the Host in the tabernacle and turning towards the assemblage I revealed publicly for the first time the content of the two prediction made by the angel sometime before, and announced that they had been realized at that moment. The hymn was sung with unusual force, sobs mixing with the voices, so great was the feeling of thanksgiving which overflowed from the heart of each.

The following morning, Sister Agnes presented herself to the eye and ear service of the Red Cross Hospital with which she was now acquainted for a long time. A detailed examination of the state of her ears showed that they had been totally cured. The doctors who seemed very impressed rose with a solemn air, and the nurses did the same, and bowed before her as he presented, “All my felicitations.”

Some days later Bishop Ito went in person to ask for a certificate of “miraculous cure.” And despite the fact that the doctors of this and another hospital had declared Sister Agnes incurable before, the certificate was refused, because apparently it is not permitted to inscribe the term miraculous” in a medical certificate these days.

Pgs 181-182

Father Yasuda offers his reflection on the meaning of Sister Agnes’ deafness and its cure

Once again I would like the reader to consider the silence into which Sister Agnes was suddenly plunged from the beginning of the 16th of March 1973, cut off from all exterior sound and which was a purification and an interior preparation for the messages she was to receive from Our Lady.

In the beginning of the Gospel of Saint Luke, the angel predicts to the priest of the Temple, Zachary, the coming birth of a child. To authenticate the promise, he predicts to him that he will be deaf and dumb until the accomplishment of that which appeared impossible.

Guided by her angel, Sister Agnes bore the trial of deafness well and received the unexpected grace of hearing words pronounced by Our Mother of Heaven. (This shows in passing that infirmity of the ears is no hindrance to receiving voices from the other World.)

The infirmity of the old Zachary was cured at the birth of John the Baptist and his mouth poured forth in torrents of praise for the Lord. The humiliation of the trial gave way to an immense thanksgiving for the gift received, giving way to unmixed joy.

The total deafness of Sister Agnes considered by all as a great cross, because it had been declared incurable, was cured in conformity to the prediction of the angel. And it is important to note that this complete cure took place after Bishop Ito had sent to the Holy See in Rome a dossier concerning all the events which had taken place up to this time.

Today the hearing of Sister Agnes is completely normal and one can even say that sometimes she has a “finer” ear than her companions.

The more one meditates on all these events which transformed the life of the convent of Yuzawadai, the working of Divine Providence appears ever more evident.

One cannot fail to glorify the Lord for such great blessings.

Pgs 182-183

This concludes WQPH’s special edition of our Book Club series of posts focused on this prophetic and miraculous book, Akita: The Tears and Message of Mary.

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