A Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience
A Close Encounter of a Heavenly Kind
Padre Pio: The Mystery of the Stigmata
Acknowledgments
Everything happens for a reason and nothing is without purpose. Although I had no plans to write this book, here I am today writing these heartfelt words of acknowledgment to all of you. When I first heard Toni DiBernardo's story about how a divine intervention rid her body of pancreatic cancer, I was hard at work on another book with no intention of stopping. But her story eventually led me on a quest to find other divine encounters or what I call divine visits. The rest, as they say, is history.
Toni and I met when I was writing my book Visits from Heaven about evidential afterlife communication. We got to know each other, and I am proud to now count her among my friends. Her story touched my heart more than words could ever express. For not only was it an affirmation of just how powerful prayer is, but it also proved to me that God and heaven are always within our reach.
Poet James Russell Lowell once said, “All God's angels come to us disguised.” I must disagree here because while some angels do come to us in disguise, others do not. As you will see in this book, some most certainly make their presence known to us.
Toni helped me find stories about divine and angelic encounters for this book. For this, I will forever be grateful. Thank you, Toni, for your love and support. You are an angel here on earth.
I would also like to acknowledge all the wonderful contributors. Obviously, without them, there would be no book. Thank you all so much. Your stories of divine love will change lives by helping others realize that they have access to the angelic and divine realm at all times.
Some time ago, a contributor to my book Visits from Heaven put me in touch with Cassie McQuagge of A.R.E. Press in order for me to obtain reprint permission. I felt an instant connection to Cassie and knew in my heart that I was meant to go with A.R.E. This book is my fourth title with them, and I am extremely grateful for their continued faith in me.
Thank you to my editor, Stephanie Pope. Her support, expertise, and friendship have been invaluable to me. To Jennie Taylor Martin, Alison Ray, and the rest of the A.R.E. crew, thank you for believing in me. I would especially like to thank A.R.E.'s CEO and Executive Director Kevin Todeschi for his support. I am extremely humbled and honored that he wrote the Foreword for this book. Thank you, Kevin.
Over the years I have gained the support of so many experts in the field. For this I am very grateful. Thank you, John L. Turner, MD, for writing the Preface. I am so deeply touched by your kind words.
I cannot end this without first acknowledging my family and friends. I am very blessed to have so many earth angels in my life. To my mother and father, I love you. To my brother Michael and sister Virginia, thank you for continuing to look after your little sister. In memory of my Godmother Lucy, thank you for paying me a special divine visit and letting me know that you are still around.
To my beautiful daughters, Erica Ann and Lia Josephine, I thank God for you every day. To John, my wonderful husband, only God and his angels could have brought together a love like ours. I love you so much.
Lastly, I want to acknowledge my friends, both old and new. Thank you for knowing me and loving me anyway. I am so blessed. Without you, my life would not be complete.
 | Foreword |
Perhaps more than anything else, the most compelling premise presented in Josie Varga's Divine Visits is the fact that God in spirit can and does impact things physical. To be sure, there are times when the demands of life numb us to the ever-present reality of the Divine, but God never leaves us. It is only our awareness and consciousness that have erred and shifted in perception. The variety of ways in which people have encountered divine messengers, helpers, guides, mentors, and supporters should give us all hope in our own lives and an understanding that spirit cares and is very much cognizant of each and every one of us. We are not alone; we are never alone.
What may be surprising to a number of readers is the frequency with which divine visits occur in people's everyday lives. Whether it is Carolyn's story of her face-to-face encounter with a guardian angel during a blizzard or Lisa's experience with the consciousness of the Other Side during a heightened meditation or Uva, who was in reality an angel in disguise that assisted a family in need, these stories paint the image of a divine world very much concerned with the affairs of humankind.
The regularity of this phenomenon of divine visits resulted in my own book God in Real Life: Personal Encounters with the Divine a number of years ago as people from every imaginable walk of life and religious (and non-religious) background sought me out with a story that frequently began, “You are never going to believe what I am about to tell you…” But the truth is there are countless stories of how this phenomenon can and does happen and numerous examples of how even the most skeptical can't help but believe after having divine visitors of their own.
Collected here are stories that hold true to the biblical claim that oftentimes individuals who have encountered (the Bible uses the phrase “entertained”) strangers have entertained angels unaware. (Hebrews 13:2) This same assertion was echoed by famed psychic Edgar Cayce when he told individuals to become aware of how they treated one another: “…be ye mindful in every association and manner when ye entertain strangers, for often ye entertain angels unawares. (520-3)” In this wonderful volume there are a startling number of divine visits collected for easy reflection and contemplation. This fact caused me to wonder—as Cayce suggested—just how many divine visits forever remain unrecognized. In our own lives, how often have we entertained angels