Blank Slate

The artist has the stark white canvas facing him or her.  The composer has a blank sheet of paper marked with bars and clefs and all of that stuff.  In this case the writer has a blank piece of screen paper and the pressure is on.

There are robotic voices that tell us which way to go using our GPS navigational system.  There is synthetic music created with computers.  There is a program for the computer that recognizes the human voice and produces keyboard copy from it.  But no one really understands the creative process whereby we end up with the Halleluia Chorus, or Water Lilies, or The Lord of the Rings.  Isn't it just amazing?

In each case the brain's creative energies created a masterpiece, and these works have stood the test of time and remain vibrant and recognized. 

We have physical places in our midst where the hand of God worked through a human being.  A bit like the creative process whereby a person is able to create great works, the miracles that happen mean that because a person, God is able to intervene here on earth.  It's a mystery.  How can we ever really understand?

One of those places is the Rhoda Wise house in Canton, Ohio.  Rhoda Wise led a very difficult life and her sufferings are documented on a website for us to read.  The website is www.rhodawise.com (My Story).  This woman had a huge tumor removed from her abdomen, and after that had an accident that resulted in an injury to her ankle.  Neither injury healed properly.  Her abdominal wound became so gross that I am sure that even at the hospital where she spent a good deal of time, the staff would have liked to avoid her.

As she lay suffering, Rhoda was doing a lot of thinking.  The year was 1939 and Rhoda Wise, a Protestant, decided to join the Catholic Church.  She felt drawn to it and especially to a very special saint, St. Theresa the Little Flower.  She was instructed about the church and was accepted into it on January 1, 1939.  By May, Rhoda was declared incurable and was sent home with what now diagnosed as cancer.  Her abdomen was an open wound and she was in so much pain that she prayed that God would take her.  Instead, Rhoda was healed of her abdominal cancer on June 28, 1939 after a visit from Jesus and St. Theresa.  This miracle left Rhoda with only one other problem -- the ankle which caused her intense pain.  On August 15, 1939, Rhoda Wise was visited by Jesus in her room and her ankle was also completely healed.  She went to Mercy Hospital without crutches and heard her first Mass.

Rhoda became an instrument of God in the lives of many people -- one of whom was Mother Angelica (Rita Rizzo) who at 19 years of age was taken to Rhoda's home and subsequently was healed of a painful condition that was called dropped stomach.  It's important that the person to whom the gift of healing is given is not confused with the actual healer -- God.  There is no power to heal without God being fully active and part of it. 

Check out the website I mentioned in the earlier paragraph.  The home of Rhoda Wise has become a place of worship with an outdoor grotto and a chapel.  The location is 2337 25th Street NE in Canton.  Rhoda died in 1948 but her daughter remained in the home and allowed visitors.  After her death in 1995, the home was made into a shrine.

We are surrounded by such interesting places -- Rhoda Wise's house being one of them -- and we tend to ignore them because they are relatively close by.  I think maybe I'd like to go there soon.  But meanwhile, check out the website.  Rhoda Wise was truly blessed by God.