TRUE MIRACLE STORIES

Mary Communicates through the Children

In each case, Mary communicated with children rather than with adults. Many of the adults in Beauraing had faith, yet responded to the apparitions with doubt and . Even though the children were initially startled, they showed enthusiasm for learning from the apparition experience. The children's positive, openhearted attitudes may have been why Mary chose to send her messages through the children.

The crowd of people who witnessed the children's experiences with Mary grew larger each time Mary visited. By the time of the final apparition, more than 30,000 people gathered to see and hear the children communicate with Mary.

Most of the apparitions took place in the convent's garden near the grotto and tree. Mary seemed to on the tree's branches or on the grotto's rocks when she appeared -- usually making the transition from one dimension to another with a bright flash of light and an explosive sound.

When Mary appeared, the children would fall to their knees in unison, and although they fell suddenly and sharply, somehow they were never in the process. The children, who often prepared for Mary's visits , also sounded different after the moment each apparition began. Their became significantly louder and higher-pitched, as if they were in tune with a specific communication frequency with Mary. During the apparitions, they seemed to be in ecstatic trances, as other visionaries of Marian apparitions have been (such as the children or Garbandal, Spain in the 1960s). Various doctors examined the children repeatedly during their trances, trying to see if they could distract them by various means (including pricking them with sharp objects and placing burning matches on their skin), yet the children were unharmed and unaware of anything except the apparitions.