We have put the words “Prayer Favors” in quotes because only the Church can officially determine and approve of Tom’s Intercessory Powers.
Many people have prayed to Tom for his intercession. If you are one of those people, please go to the CONTACT menu option and let us know about any favors you might have received through your prayers to Tom. Or just email them to: [email protected]
Below are a few of the stories we have received so far.
1. A priest, on his way to a sick call for a dying man at the hospital, received a phone call telling him about Tom’s death that day. The priest had attempted to give the last rights and sacraments to the dying man at the hospital several times prior, but he stubbornly refused them. The man’s wife, knowing he was on his deathbed with a brain tumor, asked the priest to attempt giving the last rights one more time. Again, the man refused.
The priest left the room and prayed to Tom. The priest said: “Tom, prove to me you’re in heaven. Open this man’s mind and heart. Don’t let him die without the last rights. Then the priest walked back into the room and miraculously the man said: “Father… You bring the oils today?” The priest said that he did, and the man said: “I think I’m ready.” The man received the last rights and lived for another 2 ½ years as a weekly communicant, eventually dying of something other than a brain tumor.
2. On the day of Tom’s funeral, a seminarian had just come back from Mexico because he contracted a rare parasite and was very sick. After waiting almost 2 hours while winding around the lines at the church, the seminarian knelt beside Tom’s coffin. As he stood up, he felt “something’, and his intestinal pains were gone. He never had any more issues with them again.
3. The day Tom died, one of his sons cut off a lock of his hair and gave it to his mother. Mary Ellen kept that lock of hair in a locket around her neck. One day near Christmas time, while making bows at the church, Mary Ellen looked over at one of her friends who was looking just terrible. Mary Ellen asked the friend if she was having another miscarriage. The friend said that she thought she was. Mary Ellen took her locket, with some of Tom’s hair inside, and blessed her friend with it. The next day Mary Ellen’s friend came back from the doctor’s office to show her a sonogram picture of her baby that was still intact and doing fine.
4. Early one October morning in 2009, Eileen received a call from her dear friend Jean. She asked Eileen to pray for her nephew Michael who was dying of cancer. Jean was on her way to her sister-in-law’s house to say her last goodbye to Michael and ask him one more time to be baptized before he passed away. At 24 years old, Michael had been fighting his cancer and it had gone into remission. However, it now returned much more aggressively. His aunt Jean was both a devout Catholic and a nurse who was increasingly concerned about his aggressive cancer. Michael’s condition was now terminal. Jean was also concerned about him and his mother being adamant about not wanting Michael to be baptized.
Eileen suggested that they should both pray to their recently deceased friend, Tom Vander Woude, asking him to intercede for Michael’s baptism. Jean stopped by Eileen’s house on the way to Michael’s home to pick up a small relic of Tom’s clothing. Eileen had taped some threads from a pair of Tom’s jeans onto one of Tom’s Funeral Mass cards and they both prayed to Tom. They knew they had Tom praying with them and interceding for their intentions of Michael’s change of heart regarding his baptism. They even prayed together as Jean drove up to Michael’s house. Jean put the cell phone on speaker, and they prayed together, with Eileen praying from her home. They prayed the Rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet, interspersed with spontaneous prayers. All the while, begging Tom to intercede for Michael’s conversion and ultimately his baptism.
As God would have it, Jean arrived at Michael’s home that Friday afternoon at the Hour of Mercy. Apparently, from his room, Michael had heard Jean’s arrival and that she was consoling his mother. Jean was handed a note. A piece of paper with only one very shakily written word on the note – BAPTIZE.
Michael desired baptism, his death was imminent, and there was no priest available. Jean, being distressed, called Eileen and had her read the exact words from the catechism to her so that she wouldn’t make any mistakes. Jean said that after Michael’s baptism, a profound peace surrounded him and could be felt throughout his room. Michael surprised everyone by living one more day before passing into Eternal Life as a Baptized Person of God.
Both Jean and Eileen strongly believe that Michael’s sins were washed away in baptism that Friday, during the Hour of Mercy, due to Tom Vander Woude’s intercession.
5. Pete’s sister called to tell him that Tom Vander Woude had died. Pete didn’t initially think of the heroism and holiness of Tom’s act. His only thought was “what a terrible way to die”.
Pete’s farmhouse has a picture window that looks out toward a small tree that had dead branches at the top. That day he was praying, looking out the window, and asked for a sign that Tom was in heaven. The sign he asked for was for a blue jay – Tom had graduated from Creighton and their mascot was the blue
jay.
Pete had never seen a blue jay on the farm, and he wasn’t even specifically praying to see a living blue jay – just some sort of blue jay sign – maybe a picture of a blue jay or something, and not even immediately.
Very shortly after Pete finished the prayer, there was a big wind that blew, and a whole flock of blue jays appeared and landed in the tree. The blue jays stayed only a few seconds and flew off in that wild wind.
Pete could hardly believe what he had just seen. So strange – even without the prayer – but so amazing after having made the prayer.
6. From Kathleen:
On the day of Thomas Vander Woude’s funeral, I left my car keys on the seat of my pew. I went back to get them, and they were gone. I began to search pew by pew and afterwards the entire church, even the Infant / Children Rooms.
I searched the Chapel where Mrs. Vander Woude was receiving prayers and condolences from the parishioners. I asked about my keys at the office several times during the course of my two-hour search.
I had no way home. My husband was at home in a wheelchair and my daughter, my only child, no longer lived with us.
I began to cry. It was my only key to the car. I searched and searched again. I searched in the bathrooms, hallways, and vestibule. The music director saw me in distress and offered to help search.
I prayerfully asked Mr. Thomas Vander Woude, whom I knew had been a living Saint, if he would help me. I was in great distress. Almost immediately afterward, while I was walking by the line waiting to enter the Chapel, a large (and very tall) man took a step out of line and asked me if I was looking for my keys. I said: “Yes”, and he proceeded to tell me where I could find them. He said to look in the first row of pews in the second section on the right side of church. I had been sitting in the back. The church was packed and overflowing everywhere for Mr. Vander Woude’s funeral mass, so it was the only seating available. The tall, large man said: “Look inside the compartment used for mass books.”
I did as the man directed and I found my keys there. It was all very strange. “How did this man know I was looking for my keys?” “Why were they left in a concealed spot knowing someone had left them?” “Why weren’t they taken to church office.”
I was very grateful to God and to Mr. Vander Woude, whom I knew had interceded for me.
I told Mary Ellen Vander Woude this story shortly after it happened. I’m sure she remembers me saying: “I knew he was a Saint. That is why I asked him for help.” Personally, I will never forget that day.