After the World Youth Day held in Portugal, thousands of people listened to the voice message of Jimena, a 16-year-old Spanish girl whose eyesight had decreased to almost total blindness (she had 5% vision) and had already learned Braille, but made many nine days pray to the Virgin of the Snows, and in Portugal declared that he could already see and read.
Jimena’s father provided the data to Catholic digital publication The Pillar. “The doctors told us that he had accommodation spasm, which is normal for children of this age, even if it is 2 to 4 diopters per eye. The problem is that she lacked control between 8 and 16 diopters. He gradually lost his sight until only 5% remained,” the father explained.
“We were looking for the best medical team we could get in Spain, specialists in this type of disease, which is usually treated with atropine: a few drops that are placed in the eye and dilate the pupil to make the spasm subside and eventually heal. The problem in his case was that the spasm was stronger than usual, and after a year and a half, with a high daily dose of drops, absolutely nothing had changed,” he added.
The drops did not help, headaches and gastroenteritis began, and the treatment was stopped. “We started going to other doctors we found online and were recommended by a friend, but the common denominator was, ‘This is something we haven’t seen before.
given the future
Jimena has already begun to read and write in Braille with the support of the Association of the Blind in Spain. A year ago, she prepared for a medical intervention to solve her convergence problem (“she couldn’t control her eyes, they moved from one side to the other, and she had a complete squint”), but she asked many to pray That night Virgin, and the next day the problem was gone. They didn’t interfere.
But she was still blind, and so it was for a whole year. From the mobile used only audio. Seeing his senior year of high school approaching, and realizing that in a year he would have to learn how to use a cane and a guide dog, he began to think about his future.
“In July we walked to visit Virgen del Carmen in a small town near Malaga and she told me that she had inspiration while praying the Rosary that she felt that the Virgin was asking her to perform a novena between July 28th and August 5th” , the father explained.
But then Jimena hesitated, because she did not know a single Marian holiday on August 5th. His father searched the Internet: it was the Maiden of the Snow. She, her parents and friends began to pray “with the conviction that on that very day she would be healed,” the father details.
Miracle after confession
Jimena visited WYD with a group of friends from the youth club Opus Dei. On August 5, as usual, he woke up “seeing the overblurred, the fatal.” It was the last day of the novena. He went to confession. “He told us this is the best and most profound confession in his life,” his father details.
She went to Mass with her friends in the middle of WYD. “At Mass, I was very nervous. After communion, I went to the bench, began to cry a lot, because it was the last day of the novena and I wanted to be cured, and I asked God for a lot, ”Ximena said in her testimony. “When I opened my eyes, I saw beautifully.
I saw the altar, the tabernacle, my friends were there, and I saw them perfectly, that they were two and a half years older than I remembered them, and then I looked at myself in the mirror. I’ve changed a little too.”
The friends thought that “she was laughing, but it was that she was crying because she saw their faces two and a half years later, but she saw them so changed that she was impressed by the look on them,” she said. father explained. The girl even showed that she can read. “I will name all my daughters Nieves,” he said in his audio message, which many have heard.
Cardinal Omella spoke to Jimena and her family to hear their testimony of the supposed miracle. “Let’s thank (God) period, then the doctors will have to evaluate and say if it can be cured or not,” he said, though it’s not clear if the Church is going to hold a formal investigation into the case. from the moment of intercession of a candidate for saints or blessed.
NOTE. Adapted from an article by Pablo Gines, “5 Marian Keys to WYD in Lisbon: From Fatima to the Miracle of Jimena” in the Foundation Newsletter. Kari Filia
Published in a weekly print edition Observer dated August 20, 2023 No. 1467
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