Miracles Also Occur To Anglicans

(Editor's note: This was sent to St. Margaret's as an e-mail)

I'm Jim Spohn. I was a Parishioner of St. Margaret's some 18 years ago, and still receive the "St. Margaret's" news.

I believe in miracles! Unfortunately, the Episcopal Church puts very little emphasis on the Sacrament of Unction in conjunction with the Eucharist; otherwise, the Altar rail would be jammed during midweek with recipients to receive both Sacraments. (Church isn't just for Sunday's).

Anyway, I awoke one morning, my right eye was blurred, as most of us experience, we rub our eyes to clear the sleep from our eyes. Well, this didn't happen to me, it remained blurred. I couldn't see, I only had vision in my left eye. I made an appointment immediately with the ophthalmologist. The diagnosis was a hole and crack had developed in the Macula, directly in the center which caused me to lose 80% of my sight. This usually occurs on the periphery of the Macula, with little or no vision loss.

I went through two and a half hours of surgery with no guarantee that it could restore any vision. However, my sight was restored to 40/40 with some distortion and the surgeons were very pleased.

Now, previous to my scheduled surgery, I received Unction and the Eucharist several times to prepare myself for any outcome, which I continued after post-surgery. My eye sight was improving, and finally it was restored to 20/20 with absolutely no distortion. The surgeons were amazed and they themselves did not strike out the possibility of divine intervention, because they were aware of their own limited abilities from previous and similar surgery procedures, but this was a complete recovery.

The Retina Associates and Tampa Memorial Hospital here in Tampa, are on Par with the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. I know I had the best the Southeast had to offer.

Since then, I have had an unpleasant experience with cancer, and once again received Unction and the Eucharist and am now in remission. I thank God for the help of today's medical procedures which are all miracles in themselves.

Take advantage of these Sacraments and have faith. Ask the help of Mary, Mother of God to also intercede for you, after all, we pray to the "Saints" in the prayer book at every Mass.

Jim Spohn (St. Matthew's Anglican Church -- in Riverview, Fla.)

Thank you, Jim, for sharing your story with us.