After the World Youth Day in Portugal, thousands of people heard a voice message from Jimena, a 16-year-old Spanish girl who saw that she was almost completely blind (she had only 5 percent vision) and was taken by him. Already learning Braille, but he had many pray to Our Lady of the Snows for nine days, and in Portugal he declared that he could already see and read.
Jimena’s father provided data to The Pillar, a Catholic digital outlet. “The doctor told us that he had accommodation spasms, which is normal for a child of that age, even with between 2 and 4 diopters in each eye. The problem was her lack of control between 8 and 16 diopters. His vision gradually lost until only 5% remained,” the father explained.
“We searched for the best medical team in Spain who are specialists in this type of disease and are usually treated with atropine, a few drops in the eye to dilate the pupil and force the spasm to subside and eventually heal. The problem with his case was that the spasm was worse than usual Worse, a year and a half later, on high doses of drops every day, with absolutely no change,” he added.
The drops did not solve anything but gave him headaches and gastroenteritis, so they stopped the treatment. “We started trying other doctors we found online and were recommended by friends, but the common thread was: ‘This is nothing we’ve seen before’.”
considering the future
With the support of the Spanish Association of the Blind, Jimena has started reading and writing in Braille. A year ago, she had prepared a medical intervention to address her converging problems (“she couldn’t control her eyes, they moved from side to side, she was totally cross-eyed”), but she asked for many One prays to God to be virgin that night and this particular problem disappears the next day. They did not intervene.
But she was blind all the same, for a whole year. On mobile I only use audio. With his final year of high school looming and him having to learn to use a cane and a guide dog a year later, he began to think about his future.
“In July, we visited Our Lady of Carmen on a walk in a small town near Malaga, and she told me that she was inspired when she said the rosary, and she felt that Our Lady asked her to do novenes between July. 28 Day and August 5th,” the father explained.
But then Jimena hesitates because she doesn’t know of any Maria feast on August 5th. His father looked it up online: it was the Madonna of Snow. The father detailed that she, her parents and friends began to pray “in the firm belief that this day she will be healed”.
miracle after confession
Jimena attended the World Youth Day with a group of friends from the Opus Dei Youth Club. On August 5, he woke up as usual, “seeing something super blurry and fatal”. This is the last day of the novena. He went to confess. “He told us it was the best and deepest confession of his life,” his father detailed.
She went to mass with friends during New Years. «I was very nervous during Mass. After taking communion, I went to the pew and started crying a lot because it was the last day of novena and I wanted to be healed and I asked God a lot,” Jimena said in her testimony. «When I open my eyes, I can see clearly.
I saw the altar, the tabernacle, my friends were there, I could see them perfectly, they were two and a half years older than I remembered them, and then I looked at myself in the mirror. I too have changed a bit. “
Friends thought “she was laughing when she was actually crying because she saw their faces again two and a half years later, but she was impressed to see them change so much”, she said. explain. Father explained. The girl even showed that she could read. “I will call all my daughters Nevis,” he declared in an audio message heard by many.
Cardinal O’Meara spoke with Jimena and her family to hear their testimonies of the alleged miracle. “Let’s give thanks (to God), and then doctors will have to evaluate and determine if a cure is possible,” he said, though it’s unclear whether the church will formally investigate the case since the intercessor was a saint or blessed.
Note: Adapted from the article “5 Marian keys for the World Youth Festival in Lisbon: Miracles from Fatima to Jimena” by Pablo Ginés in the Foundation’s newsletter carifili
Published in Print Weekly observer No. 1467 of August 20, 2023