Pray it Forward: Melanie Pritchard's Miraculous Recovery

By Mark Henry
8/2/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The prayers of the faithful included requests for the intercession of Pope John Paul II

It all started out 7:00 a.m. Wednesday morning when Melanie Pritchard texted my wife Tina telling her that she was going into labor and "asking for our prayers". Little did we know how much Melanie would soon need prayers and how a digital juggernaught of prayers would soon be unleashed to save the life of Melanie and her new born daughter, Gabriella Cecilia. Many asked specifically for the intercession of Pope John Paul II whose teachings inform Melanie's life and work.

Melanie Pritchard. Melanie's Catholic spirituality is steeped in the Culture of Life and thoroughly imbued with the teachings of Pope John Paul II. Her healing is inspiring thousands.

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PHOENIX, AZ (Catholic Online) - It all started out 7:00 a.m. Wednesday morning when Melanie Pritchard texted my wife Tina telling her that she was going into labor and "asking for prayers" After Tina and I returned from morning Mass, Melanie's friend Meghan called Tina in tears telling us that Melanie's heart stopped during delivery and she desperately needed our prayers.

During the frantic drive to the hospital, my wife was distraught. She loved Melanie like a younger sister. In Melanie's eyes, her greatest accomplishments are being a loyal wife to her husband Doug and dutiful mother to her son Brady. To the public, Melanie is a nationally known pro-life speaker and the founder of the Foundation for Life and Love, an educational organization that seeks to preserve and promote the dignity and sanctity of human life at all stages. Melanie is the former Education Director for Arizona Right To Life.

Melanie is much in demand as a vibrant speaker to youth and adult groups on pro-life issues, modesty and chastity. Melanie and her husband Doug teach marriage preparation classes for the Diocese of Phoenix using Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body writings. Melanie's Catholic spirituality is steeped in the Culture of Life and thoroughly imbued with the teachings of Pope John Paul II.

My wife first became acquainted with Melanie when Melanie graciously agreed to serve, without pay, as a virtues coordinator in a modesty and chastity apostolate my wife runs. Melanie is a mentor of countless young Catholic girls, a fabulous role model of motherhood, chastity and modestly and treasured by the pro-life community in Phoenix and beyond.

In the dreadfully long drive to the hospital, we felt helpless and wondered what could we possibly do for Melanie? Well, let's pray a decade of the Rosary. We also prayed to Pope John Paul II that he would intercede for a miraculous healing of Melanie, a prayer that we and countless others would invoke many times over the next 24 hours. After our drive time prayer, we still had quite a bit of time before reaching the hospital so we started calling everyone we knew, requesting their fervent prayers and to pass the word by email.

I called contacts I had in Catholic media, both new and traditional. Fortunately, I got through to close friends at Immaculate Heart Radio, St. Joseph Communications and other Catholic media outlets who faithfully responded and immediately started broadcasting prayer requests for Melanie on the radio, internet and other media. I am a contributing writer for Catholic Online and a member of the Catholic Online Writers Circle. The other members joined the cascade of prayer being offered for Melanie. Of course, Melanie's friends and family had already started prayer requests of their own and impassioned pleas for prayer made to many convents, monasteries and religious orders.

Very quickly news of Melanie's critical condition spread like a digital wildfire with "prayer for Melanie" requests now going "viral" online. The pray it forward juggernaught to save Melanie had begun in earnest with many specifically praying for Pope John Paul II's intercession to save the life of his loyal spiritual daughter, Melanie.

When we got to the hospital, the news was worse than we thought. Melanie had suffered an amniotic embolism and there was massive internal bleeding. Her heart had stopped again, twice, and they were rushing her into surgery again. There was a real likelihood of heart and kidney failure. I learned later that the medical condition Melanie was experiencing was usually fatal.

There was some good news, however, which was that Melanie and Doug's new born daughter Gabriella Cecilia was healthy after her emergency C-Section delivery. Additionally, Melanie's brother Larry, a renowned heart surgeon, was on the scene and keeping a keenly trained medical eye on everything.

Melanie somehow made it through the surgery but then suddenly she took a turn for the worse. Fr. John Muir, a childhood friend of Melanie and Doug, arrived at the hospital and administered the last rites to Melanie. Melanie's husband Doug was told that Melanie was slipping away and it was time to say his final goodbye to Melanie, the love of his life. Shortly thereafter, Melanie's parents and sisters also proceeded to Melanie's bedside to bid her goodbye.

By now, legions of prayers were storming heaven from Melanie's bedside, from the local community and throughout the country as well. Prayer vigils were organized at a number of Phoenix parishes and all the way across the country at a Theology of the Body conference in Philadelphia they took a break to pray for Melanie's healing.

Inspirational stories of personal faith conversions of those hearing and reading about Melanie's faithful fight for life ...

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1 - 10 of 33 Comments

Angela Catalano
2 years ago
I had a similar birthing situation in August of 1967-
I had just turned 43! (a time when is was shocking for a 42 year old was pregnant!)
All I can remember is saying"I'm too old" I passed out and woke up 3 days later!
My Uterous tore and the amniotic fluid got into my system--tthis occured
just as my son's head appeared--both of us were "Catotonic"!
I was hemorraging and received 11 pints of blood, the Doctorshad to perform
an hysterectomy--
I was told that many people in the town of Rockford, Ill and relatives and friends
were on their knees for me!!

It's remarkable how a Birth of a Child affects so many people.

Nautreally I'm Pro Life and do what I can to help the cause!!

My Son will celebrate his 44th on Aug. 8 and I will be 87 on the 5th Feast of Our Lady of Snows!

I'm joining in on Praying for Pope John Paul the 2nd!
!
Mary John Victoria
2 years ago
Heavenly Father, I ask You in the name of Jesus, and through the Blood of Your Divine Son Jesus, to rebuke Satan for taking captive that which belongs to You.I ask Jesus to place His Crown of thorns around (mazzoni 7/31/2010 M 7/31/2010
miguel 7/31/2010 kbv 7/31/2010
Jim 7/31/2010
Sophia 7/31/2010
JPB 7/31/2010
James 7/31/2010
james 7/31/2010
james 7/31/2010
Marsha 7/31/2010
denise 7/31/2010
A.D. 7/31/2010
Michael 7/31/2010
OMID 7/31/2010
C. 7/31/2010
Cat 7/31/2010
Brenda 7/31/2010
Yolanda 7/31/2010
tom 7/31/2010
tom 7/31/2010
VICKIE NOEL 7/31/2010
rosemary dovile 7/31/2010
Jess 7/31/2010
eve 7/31/2010
sherri 7/31/2010
GERRYRAE 7/31/2010
michelle 7/31/2010
Deb 7/31/2010
Vikki 7/31/2010
Ray 7/31/2010
sanju 7/31/2010
Robert 7/31/2010
dayna 7/31/2010
Linda 7/31/2010
Jennifer 7/31/2010
Charles 7/31/2010
GC 7/31/2010
austin 7/31/2010
Stacie 7/31/2010
Deandra 7/31/2010
Cris 7/31/2010
beth 7/31/2010
brenda 7/31/2010
sonia 7/31/2010
victoria 7/31/2010
Chinyere 7/31/2010
Clement 7/31/2010
) so that those with wrong influences will lose interest and depart.Mary Mother of Jesus, place your mantle of love around, (mazzoni 7/31/2010 M 7/31/2010
miguel 7/31/2010 kbv 7/31/2010
Jim 7/31/2010
Sophia 7/31/2010
JPB 7/31/2010
James 7/31/2010
james 7/31/2010
james 7/31/2010
Marsha 7/31/2010
denise 7/31/2010
A.D. 7/31/2010
Michael 7/31/2010
OMID 7/31/2010
C. 7/31/2010
Cat 7/31/2010
Brenda 7/31/2010
Yolanda 7/31/2010
tom 7/31/2010
tom 7/31/2010
VICKIE NOEL 7/31/2010
rosemary dovile 7/31/2010
Jess 7/31/2010
eve 7/31/2010
sherri 7/31/2010
GERRYRAE 7/31/2010
michelle 7/31/2010
Deb 7/31/2010
Vikki 7/31/2010
Ray 7/31/2010
sanju 7/31/2010
Robert 7/31/2010
dayna 7/31/2010
Linda 7/31/2010
Jennifer 7/31/2010
Charles 7/31/2010
GC 7/31/2010
austin 7/31/2010
Stacie 7/31/2010
Deandra 7/31/2010
Cris 7/31/2010
beth 7/31/2010
brenda 7/31/2010
sonia 7/31/2010
victoria 7/31/2010
Chinyere 7/31/2010
Clement 7/31/2010
.)Amen.St. Michael, protect us. I know these people Jesus follow the 10 commandments, and go to confession for all their sins, and receive the Body and Blood you freely gave up for us Oh Blessed Word of God Creator made flesh for us whom carry out our trust, faith, and battle for you and your children.
John
2 years ago
I know Melanie (and her mother Sherry) from AZRTL. She is a wonderful young woman and committed Christian defender of innocent life, so I am deeply thankful for her miraculous recovery, for which we all prayed. Although (to say the least) I am not even an amateur thelogian myself (just a very imperfect, reluctantly non-conformist Catholic), I also want to comment on Joel's objection to the claim that if "nothing happens without God's will," then He must be considered responsible not only for such expressions of love and mercy as Melanie has experienced, but also for the Holocaust, the Haiti eathquake, etc. From my perspective, this question of human suffering and the unfairness of life, going back to JOB and beyond, must never be dismissed, and Joel, whether he is a believer himself or not, is right to raise it once again. Perhaps, it is better to characterize events as only occurring if God PERMITS them, rather than attributing horrors to His desired will. (I believe this is consistent with Jesus's explanation about no bird dying without the Father's knowledge, how every hair on our heads is counted, etc. And indeed, it seems downright blasphemous to attribute instances of satanic evil to an all-good supreme being.) And while the standard, unchallengable arguments for WHY tragedy is allowed to occur, namely human free will (which must permit the capacity for choosing sin or even monstrous evil), as well as the necessity for reliable physical laws (which inevitably result in pain and death), certainly explain a lot, nevertheless I confess that I have always found these inadequate as to the presence of SO MUCH human suffering and evil. And to either attribute these to God's will, or to wrongly dismiss them as either irrelevant or trivial, is not (IMHO) truthful and therefore is not Christian. So even though it is emotionally unsatisfying to admit this, I have personally found the only useful response to this eternal conundrum to accept that we just don't know why (to cite the most extreme example) God permitted a Hitler to attain the power to, in effect, murder up to 40 million people.

As I heard Billy Graham say once, we don't know why God allows Satan to exist. But we also can feel and experience His presence and love as expressed through such beautiful people as Melanie and her family, and celebrate His mercy in sparing her and her baby Gabriella's lives. To me, this is the difference between an open mind and an open heart....
Sylvia Colasacco
2 years ago
Thanks be to God for this Miracle. There is so much suffering in the world and no one that is praying here is necessarily ignorant of that. I am so grateful to God for this miracle that is available for so many to witness.
To Joel,
Even the doctors can't explain Melanie's miraculous recovery. No one is ignoring or discounting their role in all of this.

And, much of the things that go wrong in the world are because God gave us the gift of free will. I too am upset about the injustices and suffering that goes on around the world and especially to the poor. These happen because of the imperfect nature of man.

But this story has nothing to do with what's going on in Haiti or anywhere else. This is one woman who almost died but didn't. She is a witness to the power of prayer and to faith in God. I'm catholic but I think God hears all our prayers. He loves all of us and we are all His children whether we believe in Him or not. So lets rejoice in that even with all that is wrong in the world God showed us a miracle that reminds us of His presence and His love for us.

God Bless.
Margaret Duggins
2 years ago
Oh, the power of prayer! A miracle indeed! God bless the entire families.
Mary Beth
2 years ago
Oh....Let us give THANKS!
ldc
2 years ago
God allowed this Miracle, guiding everyone involved the doctors, the staff & the people praying, many had not prayed in a long time, He touched everyone's life, that's another miracle in itself....let us now do the same work together to defend the Life of the Unborn, we cannot have Peace until then...God's most precious Gift to us all. I do not have all the answers, but I do have the Faith and I daily pray for His guidance, it is not easy but we cannot make it w/o Him, He shows us the way and the answer, some time during our live journey ...only He knows,
I thank God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the same God that all others speak to, for there is only one Creator...the One that gives us Life & the Moral Laws at conception in our Souls, He gives us the free will, the One that keeps giving us time to figure it out in this journey Home. God Bless Melanie and her family and everyone that has written a thoughtful gratitude of thanks to God and the doctors and nurses, and everyone in prayer and those we do not know, only He knows them. Thank you Lord!
sam
2 years ago
The miracle here is having access to healthcare that most people do not have access to, and a brother who was able to pull strings. Thank god for the real miracle in life, those who fight for equal healthcare for all.
Denton
2 years ago
There is no doubt we witnessed a miracle this week. To quote Matt Maher..."You called and you shouted, Broke through my deafness, Now I'm breathing in and breathing out, I'm alive again."

May this miracle we've witnessed open the hearts of many.
Laurel
2 years ago
A beautiful young lady with a strong spirit! Truly a gift to the world, that she inspired so many to come together in prayer. Blessings to Melanie, baby, and family! Laurel

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