Authors: Lorna Byrne
I thanked him and invited him to have a cup of tea. As I made
the tea, Father Tom, Joe and the children started to take the food
out of the box. There was everything you could think of; there
was so much food, all of it home baked. I couldn't believe it. I
made the tea, and thanked God and the angels. As I handed
Father Tom a cup of tea and sliced up one of the delicious apple
tarts, I glanced at my children, seeing the light in their eyes. I
turned to Father Tom and asked, 'How did you know?'
Father Tom said he had just heard there were difficulties,
but he knew no more than that. I looked across the table at Joe;
he shook his head. I knew he didn't want to tell Father Tom
the extent of his sickness. 'Thank you for listening to your
angels,' I said, 'And thank your home economics class on our
behalf, for bringing this abundance to our home.'
On Christmas Eve, Father Tom arrived at our home with the
biggest turkey I have ever seen, as well as a wonderful ham.
Sitting at the fire that Christmas, Joe turned tome and said that
he was ashamed because he could not provide properly for me
and the children. I looked at him and said, 'It's not your fault
that you have been so sick over the years.' I tried to comfort
him. 'You didn't go out to get sick. It makes no sense to talk
that way.'
Joe had said this many times before, and it's something that
has been said to me frequently over the years by people who
are ill. Although it is through no fault of their own, they feel
ashamed; a nuisance and a burden to their families. Sometimes
I would say to Joe, 'Why are you so cross today?' and he would
say, 'I'm not cross with you or the children, I am cross with
myself for being ill, for not being able to look after you and the
children properly. I can do nothing.'
I smiled at Joe as we sat by the fire that Christmas and
reassured him. 'When you are feeling well, you work in the
garden until you nearly collapse and, when you can, you clean
the kitchen, which is great to find when I come home from the
shops. You do all you can do. Your children and I love you very
much.'
One evening I was feeling weighed down and burdened. I was
constantly in prayer, asking God for miracles to help people
who had asked me for help. It was late, the house was very
quiet, the children were sleeping and I was heading for bed,
leaving Joe drinking a cup of tea by the fire. I turned on the
lamp on the little dressing table by Joe's side of the bed and got
into bed. I sat with pillows behind me, my knees up and my
face in my hands, praying.
I don't know how long I was in prayer when I heard my
name being called. Standing there, on the other side of the bed,
beside the lamp, was Angel Michael. He was as radiant as ever,
but he looked different.
Angel Michael dresses in a way that fits with what he is
communicating – this way he helps me to understand his
messages more. This evening he looked like a prince. He
wore a golden crown and a robe of white and gold, which
was tied at the waist with a gold and black belt but
which was draped loosely over him and fell to above his
knees. In his hand he held a scroll. His hair was shoulder length
and flowed as if there were a gentle wind. As always,
his sapphire blue eyes were radiant and he had a smile of
Heaven. On his feet he wore thonged sandals which crisscrossed
up his legs, and on the top of each foot was a
golden crucifix. He shone with an incredibly bright light.
'Lorna, God hears all your prayers,' Michael said. 'Get a pen
and paper out of the drawer. I have a message for you: a prayer
from God.'
I did as Michael said, and as I sat up in the bed with the pen
and paper in my hand, Michael opened a scroll and read out
these words:
'Prayer of Thy Healing Angels,
That is carried from God by Michael, Thy Archangel.
Pour out, Thy Healing Angels,
Thy Heavenly Host upon me,
And upon those that I love,
Let me feel the beam of Thy
Healing Angels upon me,
The light of Your Healing Hands.
I will let Thy Healing begin,
Whatever way God grants it,
Amen.'
When Michael had finished reading the scroll, I asked him
to read it again, but a little more slowly as I was having
difficulty writing it down. I found the language a little strange.
It wasn't the sort of language I was used to, but this was how it
was given to me. The Angel Michael smiled at me then reached
out and touched my forehead with one of his fingers. 'Write
now, Lorna,' he said.
As the Angel Michael read the prayer from the scroll again,
I found I had no problem writing down every word of the
prayer. The words above are exactly the words I was given,
even if they don't sound quite right to us. Michael said, 'Give
this prayer to everyone who comes to see you. It has been
given to you by God.'
I thanked Michael and God on my own behalf, and on behalf
of all who would benefit from this prayer.
Michael bowed his head and disappeared.
From the very first time I had seen Michael, in the bedroom
in Old Kilmainham all those years ago, I had known he was
different; that he was a very powerful force, more powerful
than most other angels. When I was about fourteen, he had
told me that he was an Archangel, but that I wasn't to reveal it
to anyone. It was only on this night, when he gave me the
prayer from God to share and he told me to write: 'That is
carried from God by Michael, Thy Archangel', that I knew I
could talk about him in this way.
Sometimes when Michael the Archangel appears he gleams
like the sun, almost as if he were standing in the centre of the
sun. At these moments he can almost blind me with light and
I have to ask him to dim it. His brightness, his resemblance to
the light of the sun shows that, like the sun, Michael is a
powerful force beyond our comprehension and that, like the
sun he is giving our planet life itself.
Michael has told me that archangels are like generals among
the angels: they have power over angels and souls, and all
angels obey them. They send angels to all parts of the universe
to do God's will and carry His messages.
There are many archangels, many more than are traditionally
spoken of, and Michael is one of the most powerful. As
Michael is the Archangel of the Sun, Gabriel is the Archangel
of the Moon. All archangels are in union with each other: the
angels surround God as He sits on His throne and are a very
powerful force, defending the Heavens and keeping in line the
ongoing process of creation.
The next day I told Joe that Michael the Archangel had given
me a prayer from God. He started to write it out on sheets of
paper so that I could give it to people who came looking for
help. Later a friend offered to have printed copies made for me.
To this day, I still give that prayer to everyone who asks for my
help and many people have told me that the 'healing angels'
have helped in response to the prayer.
All angels do healing work, but there is a particular group of
angels called 'Healing Angels' which are called in by guardian
angels when healing is required. There are literally millions of
Healing Angels; in all shapes, sizes and forms, and God is
pouring Healing Angels on the world all the time. All we have
to do is ask for their help.
We must always remember that the healing will happen in
the way that God knows is best for us. Sometimes we may not
recognise that healing has occurred as it may not have been the
healing we asked for – it may be emotional or spiritual healing,
rather than physical. We need to watch out for healing and
recognise when it has been granted. Often healing can seem
small, perhaps somebody who has been depressed for a long
time smiles or laughs; maybe someone who was in a lot of
physical distress feels a lot better, or maybe a mother who has
been stressed out and unable to cope suddenly feels happiness
and joy.
Sometimes these Healing Angels will communicate through
children. A child may turn around and say something that is
significant to its mother or another adult, something that helps
them to understand why things are the way they are, and how
to make them better.
One morning, the following summer, a mother and
daughter came to see me. The daughter, Sophie, who was in
her early twenties, had constant pain in her arm and through
her body, arising from a car accident. The doctors had done all
they could but were unable to do any more. She had been
suffering from this pain for several years, and her mother was
very worried about Sophie and her condition. Sophie insisted
on her mother seeing me first and she sat reading a magazine
in the little hall while I saw her mother.
I was about half an hour with her mother, and at the end I
prayed over her, blessed her and asked the Healing Angels for
healing in every part of her life. I also gave her the Prayer of the
Healing Angels. I walked out with the mother to join her
daughter in the hall and straight away I knew that angels had
been there. It was much brighter and warmer, and the air was
whirling around with what I call the breeze of the Healing
Angels. I smiled, knowing what had happened.
Sophie was fast asleep on the chair. Her mother gently woke
her and she looked at us in a dazed way. Then Sophie suddenly
smiled and said, 'I haven't any pain any more. It's gone. All the
pain is gone!'
Sophie stood up while she was talking and was moving her
body around more freely, bending her arms and legs, checking
all the pain was gone. She was like a child dancing up and
down. She was laughing at the sheer delight of having a body
that was pain-free.
'I feel fantastic, Lorna. I had a dream you put me asleep and
while I was asleep loads of angels surrounded me and touched
me. They healed me.'
I brought her into my little room for a blessing and to thank
God and the angels for healing her. I hadn't even given her the
prayer and already the Healing Angels had gone to work.
Sometimes people say tome that they believe I have a special
connection to God and the angels, and if they ask me to ask for
something, it will be granted. Sometimes it frightens me that
people have so much faith in me. I am afraid that God won't
always grant them the healing they are asking for, if it's not
meant to be. I know God always provides some healing, but
sometimes people don't recognise it as it's not what they had
envisaged.
I might get a call from a mother or father, who had
previously brought their child to see me, asking me to pray as
they were having surgery that day. They tell me that they bless
the child every day in the hospital with the healing prayer, or
that the child says the prayer itself. One child I know kept the
prayer under his pillow all the time he was in hospital. I also
get calls thanking me and the angels, saying that healing was
granted.
One Sunday morning, I had just got back from Mass with the
children, when a knock came at the door. When I opened the
door, I was surprised to see an elderly lady standing there. She
said she was very sorry for calling to see me on a Sunday; she
was in tears and my heart went out to her and I invited her in.
She was quite elderly and unwell; she was dying and had a fear
of dying in pain. She was asking for a miracle from God. I
prayed over her, blessed her and gave her the healing prayer.
She left feeling much happier. About six weeks later, she called
unexpectedly again. She apologised and said she would only
keep me a minute.
'God has worked a miracle,' she said, 'I was sitting on the
sofa in my kitchen, feeling very unwell, when all of a sudden I
felt a great stillness and peace within the room. I looked up and
standing in the middle of the room was an angel. It was all
dressed in white and seemed to be hovering; the angel shone
like a brilliant light and smiled at me. The next minute the
angel was gone.'
That was enough for her; she had experienced her miracle.
By letting her see that angel, God had given her the gift of
peace of mind, and removed her fear of dying. She said she
knew she was going to die of her disease but until then she was
going to live her life to the full; she was going to enjoy life and
let her family know how much she loved them. 'I know now
there is a place called Heaven, Lorna, because I have seen an
angel. I am no longer afraid to die,' she said, 'I know that an
angel will be there for me. When my time comes, that angel
will take my soul and just leave behind this wrinkly old body
that's no good to anybody, not even me. So I'm not afraid to die
– and that's a miracle!' I remember smiling a lot at the way she
said this.
She laughed; she had no fear and the wonderful thing was
that she was, in a sense, looking forward to the day when the
angel would come to take her soul, when her physical body
would die.
'Wouldn't it be lovely,' she said, 'if, some day, when the time
comes, I could come back as an angel myself to take the souls
of my family that I love so much to Heaven.'
The elderly lady was shining like a light herself and had a
beautiful smile on her face. We said a prayer together and she
left. I never saw her again.
One thing we must always remember is that the angels that
God sends us from the heavens can really help us if we allow
them to; if we open our hearts and allow the angels to come
into our lives. We should not be afraid; there is no reason to
be. We feel afraid because we don't understand angels; we feel
afraid because we don't understand God. Always remember
that an angel will never harm you; no angel has ever harmed
me and I can assure you that no angel will ever harm you.
One Sunday, when Megan was about two years old, we were in
the Dublin Mountains, near the Sally Gap.We were away from
the road in a deserted area that looked quite flat and grassy,
with the odd small, scattered rock. As we started to descend
the gentle slope,more rocks appeared and then, further on, the
rocks got bigger and the slope became very steep – more like a
cliff with some trees growing out of it. From the edge of the
steep decline we could see a beautiful lake. The lake was in
between the mountains, with a big house on the shore and we
could see deer grazing on the mountain on the far side.
After walking down the slope a little, I sat on a rock and Joe
and Ruth took Megan down a little further. I watched them
walking hand-in-hand with Megan in the middle. I lay back
onto the rock and closed my eyes for a few minutes, soaking
up the sun. Even though it was chilly, I could feel the heat of
the sun, and the rocks felt warm. After a little while I heard Joe,
Ruth and Megan coming back up and I opened my eyes and sat
up. I looked towards the path but they were still out of sight.
As they got closer, I could see Megan in the middle with Joe on
the right and Ruth on the left lifting her and swinging her in
the air. Megan was laughing her heart out, having great fun,
skipping and jumping with the help of her dad and her big
sister.
What happened next filled me with exuberance and delight:
Megan's guardian angel appeared, skipping behind Megan. She
appeared to skip right through her and danced along about
three feet ahead of her. Megan's guardian angel looked like a
young girl, with brown eyes as big as saucers. She was so bright
and beautiful; her feet were bare and, of course, did not touch
the ground. She looked about eight, with long, dark, plaited
hair braided with an orange, red and green thong. There was a
red feather in her hair and in the middle of her forehead she
had a light in the shape of a star. For a brief moment I thought
I saw wings. She wore a light gold-coloured sleeveless tunic of
no particular shape. Megan's guardian angel was radiant; her
movements were graceful, like a feather.
Then this beautiful guardian angel skipped back into
Megan's body and disappeared. No one else had noticed her
presence, and they continued walking up the path towards me.