Quote from: Hobbledehoy

Praised be the miraculous Infant of Prague that Rev. Fr. Ramolla's immigration case was resolved successfully!

I don't get this idea that a "miracle" occurred with the Fr. Ramolla. I have always understood that wherever there is a miracle, it is something considered naturally impossible. What is so impossible that occurred?

I don't think Hobbledehoy was saying what happened was a miracle, it was merely attributed to the miraculous Infant of Prague.

It is possible that he was, as many do, using the term loosely.  You could always contact Fr. Ramolla and ask him about it.

Ask him :)

You said you'd like to hear Hobble answer for Hobble, so...why not let Fr. Ramolla answer for Fr. Ramolla?  IOW, why are you asking us what another man meant?

I don't get this idea that a "miracle" occurred with the Fr. Ramolla. I have always understood that wherever there is a miracle, it is something considered naturally impossible. What is so impossible that occurred?

As SJB has clarified, I was merely attributing the successful resolution of Rev. Fr. Ramolla's immigration case to the intervention of the Miraculous Infant Jesus of Prague, which is (if memory serves aright) the correct title for the celebrated statue of the Divine Infant venerated in Prague.

I am well are that terms such as "miracle" are used quite too loosely in common speech, just as the word "faith," or "hope," or "charity."

However, what many fail to consider is the fact that no individual person upon the earth can do any good without the assistance of actual grace, which is inherently miraculous in itself as it is supernatural in the strict sense of the word. So the mere fact that you may recite devoutly the Angelical Salutation or invoke the Most Holy Name of Jesus, for example, is a far greater prodigy than conquering the entire round orb of the earth, or raising the dead to life: there are countless of souls who never attain to even this grace, and yet we have this grace by the mysterious designs of Divine Providence.

One ought always to be grateful for the graces and lights to which one attains, though through no merit of one's own but by the infinite and eternal charity of God and the infinite merits of Our Lord. We ought always to ascribe all good to God, even that good which is accessible by the use of man's natural faculties and powers. God does not owe it to Himself to give us anything but the reprobation we deserve in having insulted His divine majesty by original and actual sin. The fact that we can draw breath whilst we read these words is proof that we are preserved by the an ineffably clement God, in Whom "we live, and move, and are" (Acts ch. xvii., 28), for we have no right to existence and preservation, and much less to election to grace and glory and all its concomitant graces, something belonging to the infinitely superior order of the supernatural.

I am satisfied already that the answer will be, at the very least, the meaning of "miracle" in its secular usage. (I have decided it is not necessary to seek out and bother the priest.) That is to say, a wonder, a surprise, a rarity. For instance, if a baby crawls across a highway during rush hour unharmed, with no accidents caused, then I can see a newspaper saying it was a "miracle".

I think it's an abuse of the term when a Catholic priest says he prayed a devotion, and an answer to his prayer was "a miracle". It just doesn't fit to use a secular meaning when the subject matter is particularly religious. Catholics don't traditionally use "miracle" in regard to answered prayers unless what occurs is truly not natural and normally impossible.

Anyway, we have this priest who may get deported to his home country, but the gov't decides he can stay in the US. Why is this such a "wonder", "surprise" or "rarity" in his case? He fully expected to be deported??

Anyway, we have this priest who may get deported to his home country, but the gov't decides he can stay in the US. Why is this such a "wonder", "surprise" or "rarity" in his case? He fully expected to be deported??

At least Cekada said that he will be...

You may beg and you may differ until the cows come home and your panties are in a bunch.  That is your business.

If the only thing you can say about the article is in reference a word having been used in a way of which you disapprove, then you either did not read the article, or want to draw attention away from the evil deeds of Cekada by focussing disproportionately upon meaningless minutiae.