Statement of Deacon Norm and Louise Levesque

A door or portal appeared and opened on the following vision:

I was standing in a large open room. I saw rows of tables, one side of which were seated men and women all dressed alike in what appeared to be prison outfits. Across from them were seated men and women wearing military uniforms. They were pounding their fists on the table and yelling at the terrified prisoners.

Suddenly, I was dressed in a prison outfit seated at one of the tables nearest the wall. In front of me sat one of the military interrogators glaring at me. I looked away from him at the wall, which had become a sheet of glass with a glass door at the far end. Outside, I saw a large plaza with people dressed in prison outfits trying to run away from soldiers with guns, machetes and whips. The entire plaza was stained with the blood of fallen prisoners. It was a scene of carnage worse than any nightmare because it was so real.

Then I saw him, our ancient enemy (the Devil). He was standing in the back of a jeep orchestrating the blood bath. No prisoner could run away from him or hide from him. When the jeep he was riding on moved into full view, he turned and looked directly at me. I can only describe his appearance as a caricature of a human full of hate and contempt; but, his eyes revealed his true nature they were not only black, darker than any black you can imagine, darker than any black hole in space and that is what they resembled two black holes of death. The Devil is death.

When I turned away from looking directly into the face of our Ancient Enemy, I saw a bright golden globe. At first it was just a tiny dot but then it began to grow and as it grew I could see that it was composed of strands of living gold. I call it living gold because each strand appeared to be moving independently with a life of its own. Within the globe I saw shifting forms; the final and most distinct form was that of a covered carriage. Then the carriage door opened and a lady’s hand was extended beckoning the suffering prisoners to come to her. Those who accepted her invitation were ushered into the carriage. The carriage door was closed and the globe of living gold began to shrink until it was completely out of sight. Those prisoners who ignored her invitation because they depended on their own wits to find places to hide from the soldiers were all found and lost their lives.

What I saw in the Devil’s eyes was so chilling that I felt my life breath leaving me. How can I describe pure hate – hate of everything good, hate of all creation, hate of God? But then I heard the still-small voice deep in my heart telling me to look up. And that’s when I saw the tiny dot of gold growing until it filled all the space. I then realized that each strand of gold was a prayer and Mother Mary was God’s answer – only pure love can defeat evil. At that moment I felt such peace and joy that the only thing I could think of as coming close is the peace and joy an infant feels in the arms of its mother.

While Norm experienced his first vision, the doctors and I were not aware what Norm was experiencing. The fright and revulsion he felt were making his physical body react. His fever soared to 40C and his heart rate was so elevated that they had to use a defibrillator to try to steady his heart rate to ensure he did not experience heart failure. After the third try, they were successful. However, his fever did not recede. The doctors told me he had a severe blood infection and unless they were able to control it, he would die. When they were not successful at bringing down the fever, and by then he had been in a coma and intubated (medical procedure where a doctor puts a tube down your throat and into your windpipe to make it easier to breath) for two weeks, I was told that the most humane thing to do was to take him off the machines and let him die peacefully. This I was not ready to do. So, I stood up to the doctors and told them I would not agree and they must keep trying.

In my despair, I turned to our pastor and he came and anointed Norm. The Sisters from the Queenship of Mary also came and prayed for him as did other priests. Miraculously, a few days later, the fever left and all was back to normal. Now the problem was he still could not breathe on his own and since he had been intubated for the maximum time allowed, they had to take him to surgery and perform a tracheostomy to help him breathe. Again, there were no guarantees that he would survive the surgery. I decided it was worth the risk and signed the document absolving the doctors of responsibility if he did not survive. However, I did not sign the “Do Not Resuscitate” form in case they needed to take action during the surgery. Well, when he returned from surgery, they mentioned how well it had gone and he had hardly bled. They were surprised. I kept telling them the power of prayer is not to be dismissed.

A door or portal appeared and opened on the following vision:

I found myself in the center of this particular vision. I was completely naked in the middle of a bleak desert scene – no vegetation, no living creatures, just burning sand as far as I could see and the sun relentlessly beating down on me. Then I heard the mocking voice of our ancient enemy saying to me, “Just curse God and die and then it will be all over”. But I couldn’t or wouldn’t say it. Then in my head I heard a chorus of demons gleefully laughing at me as I felt my life slowly ebbing.

At that point I heard the still-small voice deep within my heart: “Stop listening to the Devil and just turn around.” Upon doing so I saw the same bright golden globe composed of strands of living gold all moving independently with a life of its own. But this time the lady was standing in front of the golden globe in full view. She was wearing a golden dress that outshined the golden globe. She at first didn’t say anything but just extended her right hand to me beaconing me to get up and go to her.

I understood that I must go back and convince others that the Devil is real and that he lurks within hearts that hold hurts and pains that cannot be dispelled without divine assistance. Our ancient enemy wants these hurts and pains to fester in our hearts so he can nurture them and fill our hearts with the spiritual cancer of anger and hate. A heart filled with anger and hate is like a bleak desert without life. Only the voice of the Devil can be heard mocking us, “Just curse God and die”.

We must realize that we need divine assistance. We must ask God to send his Holy Spirit with the simple prayer, “Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart with the fire of your love – I surrender my heart to you knowing that you will make it a holy temple.”

Again Norm’s fever spiked. This time it hit 42C and they told me his body would not be able to sustain such a high fever. At this point even I was ready to accept that Norm was not going to survive this coma and I was going to be faced with some serious decisions. First thing I was told was they were going to do a blood culture to determine what type of infection had invaded Norm’s system. This was done first thing in the morning and the results would be available 48 hours later. I agreed to wait until the blood culture results came in before making any decisions. I truly believed that I would have to turn to palliative care and turn off the machines. That’s how bad it was.

Again, I turned to our pastor for help. He dropped everything to be at Norm’s side and anoint him again. This time, even he believed Norm was at the end of his life. We even discussed funeral arrangements.

Later that night, one of the doctors told me that there was one final thing they could try. There was a special drug they could give him but since it was so strong, I would have to sign a release form for them to use it and they would have to get permission from some special doctor to use it. They had to justify why they wanted to use it. I agreed to try it as at the point we were at, what difference would it make. Permission was granted and the drug was administered.

The next day, the fever was still high but it had come down by 2 degrees. We attributed that to the ice packing they had been keeping him in for the past 24 hours. Finally the blood culture results came in and to everyone’s surprise, there was never any infection in his system. Although the doctors tried to tell me it was due to the antibiotics administered and I reminded them that it was not possible as the blood culture was done in the morning and the drug administered at night. They were again not able to explain what happened and again my answer was the power of prayer.

Exactly four days later, Norm was to come out of the coma.

It is interesting to note that all the recollections listed above took place on a Sunday.

God put Norm through a terrible spiritual ordeal but he reached him in a way that I still cannot understand. Norm has always been a high strung person and easily depressed. Now he is calm and doesn’t give up. He has always been a person of deep faith, but now his faith has really grown and his trust in God is even stronger.