A Matter of Faith, A Memoir of my Spiritual Journey to the Marian Apparitions in Europe

By Kathleen Hoctor-Bieler

Have you ever wondered about reality? Do you believe that you are able to perceive everything that exists here in this limited human dimension? Do you question life or just listen to and assume everyone else has the answers? If so, my book will shake you up, as it did me! I could not even write of these events until about 2 and a half years after they happened. This journey changed me and encouraged me to take a tremendous leap of faith.

I am claiming nothing based on science, however I KNOW that what I experienced in St. Bernadette's home in Lourdes, France was real! The cover of this, my newest book, A Matter Of Faith, attests to, in my opinion, the fact that we humans don't always see the reality of what is there. Actually, many of us will NOT even consider it. We will close our minds to even the possibility of such things! Affirming and holding to the quote of Stuart Chase...When confronted with such things as these, Believers will say no evidence is necessary, just as Non- Believers will state that No amount of evidence is possible!

Why not allow yourself to decide, after reading the memoir of my journey in my newest book, A Matter Of Faith: A Memoir of my Spiritual Journey to the Marian Apparitions in Europe?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kathleen Hoctor-Bieler
• Release date: Apr 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311238504

Kathleen Hoctor-Bieler

I was born and raised in Philadelphia. Pa. I went to Abp. Ryan H.S. for girls. I attended Bucks County Community College, then transferred to Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla., where I graduated in 1975 with a degree in Psychology. Later on I went to Univ. of South Fla. on a scholarship, where I studied for a Masters Degree in Counseling. I have spent over 30 years counseling in many different venues, mostly with women on the fringe of society. I have worked at the Balto. Cty. Womens Detention Ctr.,where I ran the correctional drug program for female inmates. I next supervised the Harford County, Md., Intensive Outpt. Drug Program. Before working in the Women's prisons in Baltimore, I counseled the drug addicted, homeless population in Baltimore. I was appointed to the Harford County, Md. Advisory Board for Mental Health and Addictions, by the County Executive. I currently work on a part time basis for a Women's Domestic Violence Shelter in Delaware. Much of the fodder for my poetry comes from these life experiences and are geared toward tragic societal issues, with an attempt to keep an overall hopeful attitude in this broken world. I have always enjoyed writing about my life experiences and the people I have met along the journey, which at times have been raw and emotional. Through my poetry, I have tried to share some of those experiences with you, my readers. I hope you enjoy my work and in some small way can feel my heart coming through it....

Book preview

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A Matter of Faith

A Memoir of my Spiritual Journey to the Marian Apparitions in Europe

All rights reserved. © Kathleen Hoctor-Bieler 2015

Published by:

Spider Book Publishing

Fort Myers, Florida

SpiderBooksPublishing.com

(239) 693-DRAW

Printed in the United States

ISBN: 978-1-942728-04-7 (print)

ISBN: 978-1-942728-05-4 (digital)

Cover Design by Jennifer Grivens

Interior Design by Jennifer FitzGerald

No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information regarding permission, write to Spider Books Publishing, Attention Permissions, 2968 Ribbon Ct, Ft Myers, FL 33905 All cover designs within this book are copyrighted by Mother Spider Designs and the author of each book.

** To My Blessed Mother **

Contents

Preface

CHAPTER I

The Shrine of the Miracle of the Host

Santorum, Portugal

CHAPTER II

FATIMA

The 3 Secrets of Fatima

FATIMA (The Path)

CHAPTER III

Lourdes/ The Grotto and the Baths

The Baths

CHAPTER IV

Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes:

The Early Years

THE CACHOT...THE APPARITION

Chapter V

The Final Days of St. Bernadette, Nevers, France

CHAPTER VI

Journey to St. Therese: Lisieux, France

Chapter VII

Final Thoughts

About the Author

Preface

God is with us always. He is constantly trying to communicate with us. He loves us as no other can and wants us to feel His presence through every venue. He desires for us to love Him back, by having faith in Him. Faith affirms our love for Him.

In this book, I will attempt to honestly convey the different ways I believe God was trying to communicate with me during this journey. In the following pages, I will endeavor to describe the best I can the ‘supernatural’ elements of my spiritual experiences.

However, sometimes there are no words in the human language that are capable or appropriate to convey such things as these. It would be an understatement to say it changed my life. How so? One of the major ways was by increasing my faith in God. In this world we live in today, that is no small feat!

The goal was to see as many Marian apparition sites as I could in a 10-day time constraint. Some of these include ‘Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; the ‘Shrine of the Most Holy Miracle’ in Santorum, Portugal; St. Bernadette’s vision of the Blessed Mother in Lourdes, France, (including her home, the Cachot in Lourdes, France); and on to Lisieux and Carmel, France to visit St. Therese of the Little Flower.

There were several other unusual occurrences that transpired while there, however this memoir will hold only to the above. These alone should attest to the overall theme of this manuscript, which is the importance of having Faith in one’s life.

My journey took me to Portugal, Spain and France. It was from 09/26/12 to 10/06/12. Ten days to explore, experience, and question the presence of God around me, in an incredibly surreal way. Here, I am writing a book about that experience almost 3 yrs. later.

What took me so long? There are a few answers to that question.

First, it is an arduous task to take on, and from the onset I realized I would have to spend many hours alone, dedicated to the book. Next, it took me about a year till I was ready to share my experiences. I spent months trying to make some sense of it all. What did it all mean? Why me? And what was the message that I was supposed to get? I also imagined that by sharing my experiences, it could very well set me up as being a religious quack. So I had to come to terms with all of this before I set out.

Considering these things alone, I put it on the back burner, so to speak, and tried to get on with my life. Then there was the internal gnawing