Miracle Video: Baby in stroller hit by train as mother watches

This is why we should pray to our Guardian Angel every day:

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"Premature baby pronounced dead, comes back to life after 5 hours in hospital freezer..."

Inspirational story of the day:

"A couple from Kafr Yasif in the Galilee received the shock of their lives Monday when the wife's miscarried 610-gram fetus, which had been declared dead five hours earlier, was found to be breathing.

The baby girl, born during the 23rd week of gestation, still has an uncertain future. Hospital spokesman Ziv Farber said that any premature infant of that weight and age had only a 10 percent chance for survival. But five years ago, he added, "we had a baby weighing only 580 grams, and she survived."

The 26-year-old mother and her husband have a five-year-old son at home. When she gave birth after going into premature labor at the hospital, the doctor on the scene pronounced it dead and it was taken to the morgue.

The father, Ali Majdub, told Channel 2 that his wife realized the child was alive after asking to see her dead daughter one last time.

"When we unwrapped the baby to see her, she realized it was moving. I began screaming and ran with it toward the doctors," he said.

She was then rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit, where doctors are fighting for her life.

"I was in shock," the mother told Channel 2 last night. "I thought I wasn't hearing it right when they said she was still alive."

Dr. Moshe Daniel, the hospital's deputy director, said that in his 35 years as a physician, he had "never heard of such a case. It was like a medical miracle." (Jerusalem Post)

Never give up on life!

update: as a sad post script, doctors failed to keep the child alive. The case has, however, inspired the hospital to revise how it determines death in young infants.

Wow: "Pope's tree flourishes while others wither"

Take with a grain of salt, or a mustard seed of faith:

In the Jubilee Year of 2000, Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land stopping at one point to bless an olive tree on the Mount of the Beatitudes. A forester with the Jewish National Fund reports that this tree is the only one producing olives this year.

"It is a miracle," Yossi Karni from the JNF, which maintains the plot, told local media.
During a visit to northern Israel, in March of 2000, the late Pontiff blessed an olive tree that was planted on the Mount of Beatitudes, which was previously called Mt. Eremos. According to tradition, Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount on this mountain, which is located near the Sea of Galilee.

Israel is currently facing what Uri Shani, Israel’s Water Authority director, called “the worst crisis in 80 years.” “Israel's major sources of drinking water, including the Sea of Galilee and the mountain aquifer, are below their ‘red lines,’ meaning they are not recommended to draw water,” he said at a news conference last month.

Karni explained that all the trees on the plot were treated equally, but the ones that did not receive the blessing have not given fruit this year.

"They get treated the same, watered the same," he said, adding that some trees had even started to wither, which he could not explain.

When he was asked what he would do with the olives, Karni told Israel's Channel 10 he might market their "holy oil." (CNA)

Looks like this tree is taking a lesson from a certain biblical fig tree.

"Twin survives several abortion attempts, refuses to die..."

An amazing tale out of the UK:

They say twins share a strong bond - but the one between Gabriel and Ieuan Jones was unbreakable.

When doctors found that Gabriel was weaker than his brother, with an enlarged heart, and believed he was going to die in the womb, his mother Rebecca Jones had to make a heartbreaking decision.

Doctors told her his death could cause his twin brother to die too before they were born, and that it would be better to end Gabriel's suffering sooner rather than later.

Mrs Jones decided to let doctors operate to terminate Gabriel's life.

Firstly they tried to sever his umbilical cord to cut off his blood supply, but the cord was too strong.

They then cut Mrs Jones's placenta in half so that when Gabriel died, it would not affect his twin brother.

But after the operation which was meant to end his life, tiny Gabriel had other ideas.
Although he weighed less than a pound, he put up such a fight for survival that doctors called him Rocky.

Astonishingly, he managed to carry on living in his mother's womb for another five weeks - until the babies were delivered by caesarean section.

Now he and Ieuan are back at home in Stoke - and are so close they are always holding each other's hand.

The reasoning given for trying to kill the weaker brother?

"It would be kinder to let him die in the womb with his brother by his side than to die alone after being born."

First of all, he wouldn't be alone. His family would be around him. His family would get to see him. His brother could still be at this side. How is it a kindness to cut off his umbilical cord in the womb?

At seven months, both boys are thriving at 15lbs and 12 1/2lbs respectively:

Mrs Jones said: "The boys are so healthy, they have huge appetites too. Ieuan is the noisy one, while Gabriel is always laughing, it's like he's just so happy to be here.
"There is such a strong bond between them.

"They are always holding hands and if one cries, the other reaches out to comfort him."

"Doctors tried to break their bond in the womb, but they just proved it couldn't be broken."

I would wish that mothers who are contemplating killing one of their twins for the good of the other to know about this story. Not to give them false hope, but to appreciate the dignity of a child who is all of 1lb. If a surviving infant can exhibit this kind of will to live, shouldn't every child be given the very best chance for life?

Perhaps doctors as well will see in this case a new medical procedure that might benefit other infants in this situation. And regardless, maybe they'll come to acknowledge the right of all children to as much life as can be reasonably provided them. The presumption is life, not death.

St. Gianna Beretta Molla's second miracle

Fr. Z presents the article he wrote (if you don't see it immediatly, scrolling down to the bottom).

I had the honor of attending St. Gianna Beretta Molla's canonization Mass with JP2 in May 2004.