His Holiness Pope Francis has told of a miracle he witnessed when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, during a general audience, the inexplicable healing of a little girl after her father had spent the night at the shrine of Our Lady of Lujan, in prayer and "fighting" for the daughter. The weekly appointment returned to the open air, in the courtyard of San Damaso, and with the faithful: "I am happy", the Pope told them, "it is not nice to talk in front of nothing, in a room".

"Fighting in prayer and often prayer is a fight," said Jorge Mario Bergoglio, continuing a cycle of catechesis dedicated to prayer. "I remember something that I experienced closely, when I was in the other diocese: There was a marriage that had a 9-year-old daughter with a disease that the doctors didn't know what it was and in the end the doctor said to the mother: "Madam, call your husband." The husband was at work, they were workers, they worked every day, and (the doctor) said to his father: "The child doesn't spend the night, it's an infection, we can't do anything". That man perhaps did not go to Mass every Sunday but he had great faith: He went out crying, left his wife there with the child in the hospital, took the train and walked the 70 km distance to the basilica of Our Lady of Lujan, the Patroness of Argentina, and there, the basilica was already closed, it was almost 10:00pm. He clung to the gratings of the basilica and all night praying to Our Lady, fighting for the health of his daughter: this - the Pontiff remarked - it's not a fantasy, I saw it, I lived it. Fighting, that man there. Finally, at 6:00am, the church opened, he went in to greet the Madonna and returned home. All night was in combat. When he arrived he looked for his wife, he did not find her, and he thought: she is gone, no, Our Lady cannot do this to me... then he finds her, smiling: "I don't know what happened, the doctors say that she has changed like this and now is healed ". 

That man struggling with prayer had the grace of Our Lady, Our Lady listened to her. And this - the Pope said - I saw it myself: prayer works miracles, because prayer goes to the center of God's tenderness, who wants us as a father, and when he does not give us grace, there will be another that we will see in history. But always the fight is in prayer. Sometimes we ask for a grace but we do it without wanting, without fighting: so serious things are not asked. Prayer is a fight and the Lord is always with us”.