By Fr. Peter Joseph Towsley

Here is a story that will literally knock your socks off! This was written for a friend that was with me on pilgrimage to Rome. HERE YOU GO!!!!!

It was amazing to hear that you were in Rome at the tomb of St. John Paul II. My family and I have been thinking a lot about him lately. I will share this story with you because it’s another wonderful glimpse of how God works, of how the Communion of Saints functions, and how this world and the next are really united.

For the past month or so my mom has been waiting for a diagnosis; the doctor says it’s probably a malignant tumor. We are praying for a miracle if it’s not against God’s plan. Mom has always loved Saint John Paul II very deeply.

When the Holy Father Pope John Paul was already very ill, she had a dream that he was walking in a meadow amidst a crowd of people, like Jesus did in the Gospels. She didn’t see a chance to push through to him, so she decided to lie down in a rut in the ground and wait there until he passed by, and then to reach out and grab the hem of his cassock to attract his attention. She did as she planned except she grabbed him by one of his white socks instead, and pulled. He turned and spoke to her, saying, “Don’t worry, soon I will have lots of time, so we will be able to talk together a lot.”

Mom woke up. John Paul II died the very next day. Indeed, he now had all the time in the world and everybody could meet him and talk to him in prayer…

Mom goes to Mass every day and this week there was a religious sister sitting near her. After the Mass, she reached out and put something into mom’s hand: a rosary. She said, “It’s from the Pope,” and she left.

Yesterday she was there again, and after the Mass she said to mom, “Can you please come with me? I need to give you something.” Mom was very surprised (the sister was a complete stranger), but she went with her. The sister went into the house where she was staying and brought something out. It was a white piece of material cut off from a larger whole. She said, “I don’t know why, but I feel I should give you this.”

Now please hold on to your seat. Do you know what it was? The sister explained, “I used to work at the Vatican a long time ago. I knew John Paul II would be a saint one day. It was clear that he was already a saint. So I preserved everything that would be a relic in the future. I did the Holy Father’s sewing. This is a piece of his sock.”

Can. You. Believe. This!?!?!? Only our God loves us this much—to allow the saints to console us in such ways!!!

So now your prayer at the Holy Father’s tomb is another piece in this beautiful pattern of lives woven together across space and time.

Praise to God in the highest!

Originally appeared on a post by Fr. Peter Joseph Towley, Spiritual Director for Paradisus Dei.