Strains of organ music

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. Phil McCord wasn't looking for a miracle.

For one thing, he wasn't much of a praying man. Not like his Baptist preacher father or the Catholic nuns he saw every day as he managed the buildings for the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods near here.

But McCord's fear of a surgeon's knife cutting away the cornea of his impaired right eye led him to God, and to what some believe was a miraculous healing.

McCord's story began in 2001, as he made his way down a long hallway adjacent to the sisters' Church of the Immaculate Conception. He'd been pulled along the path by the melodic sounds of a pipe organ echoing through the church.

He stepped into the ornate sanctuary and settled into a pew. High above his head, McCord could see a nearly century-old fresco of Christ ascending into heaven. On another fresco above the altar, angels were visiting the Virgin Mary. Bathed in the sounds of the organ and the images of icons, McCord decided to ask God to help him overcome his fear with a silent prayer." I try to do things for myself," he said. "But that's not going to happen this time. I'm not going to be able to do this. Can you help me deal with this problem? Can you give me some strength?" McCord felt ashamed of what had humbled him.

But since his recent cataract removal, his right eye had swollen dramatically. His vision was reduced to formless shadows and globs of light. Doctors told him he needed a cornea transplant. But the thought of having his cornea cut out and a cadaver's put in its place made him queasy.He was looking for help -- wherever he could find it.

You there, Blessed Mother? For some reason, McCord thought of the Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin, the little Frenchwoman who had founded the congregation of sisters there 160 years earlier. She didn't have her own fresco, but her spiritual heirs worshipped here every day. McCord wondered whether she might be looking in, and whether she could put in a good word for him with the "big guy." This is your house, Mother Theodore," he prayed, silently, "and I am your servant."

The rest of the article is well worth reading. It give some more details on Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin and the events surrounding the first miracle and the investigation surround McCord's restoration of vision.