"Sunday, I usually come to church at 11:30. But this Sunday, I needed to come at 9:30. The cab didn't come for me," says Bridgewater. "A lady walked up to me just like that and said she was going to Mass in St. Mary's on the Eastern Shore."
She climbed into the back seat, something she hadn't been able to do for years. Rode all the way there and back and not a single shot of pain. Woke up the next morning and still no pain.
Cora Edwards, a day care teacher for St. Michael's School, prays after a children's Mass to honor the pope at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Silver Spring.
(Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)
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"It was a miracle. . . . I never sit at the back of a car. This car had two doors. I was able to climb in the back seat. I was able to go get the whole Mass and some. That was a blessing. I would have missed Mass on that day."
"Now that is a miracle," says her friend, Mary Ellen Monk. And Monk leans forward and says, see, a prayer has been answered.
Over in the corner of the church, near the golden basin of holy water, under the afternoon sun, there is the Book of the Dead. People hoping for miracles have written to John Paul II.
The book is opened to a page titled: "We all go down to the dust and weeping make our song. Alleluia."
Under which someone has written: "To you in heaven -- John Paul II God is with you -- Forever."
Under which is written: "John Paul II is with you forever and ever. 04.03.05 We Love you always."
Under which is written: "I know you are with the Lord. Because you are always taking care of all of us. You'll be our shepperd forever." And the page ends with a quote inscribed: "In dying. You destroyed our death." And "May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come to welcome you."
A dove is diving in the stained-glass window above, frozen in that window.
At the front of the church, during a Mass for St. Michael the Archangel Catholic School, the kindergartners are reciting the readings without stumbling over a single word. And you think: Such little children reading such big words -- isn't that a tiny miracle?
There sits Cora Edwards, the day care teacher at the school, wearing a white lace veil because she believes in the traditional rules of the church. She is kneeling and praying. "A miracle is a supernatural event that you don't have any explanation for," she says.
In the back of the church, Karen Segovia and Gabriela Salagado, both 12, say they know about miracles. "To me they are like things that don't usually happen," Karen says. "They always come from God. He loves us. Miracles are what He shows us in other people."
"I think miracles are when you have faith in God," Gabriela says. "He'll always be there, and if you need help, He'll help you."
