Adelia Bernard's Autobiography
Adelia Bernard's autobiography
The story of the late Adelia Bernard, founder and inspiration of One Heart, is told in her autobiography, One Heart: For the love of Christ's Church, published in 2012. An ebook, Kindle version of the book was published on 11 February 2016, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is available for purchase and download from Amazon websites.
Adelia was a refugee from Italy whose family settled in Victoria, Australia in 1950. She married Norman in 1953 and had three children. Adelia worked in a number of areas including politics, education, refugee and migrant support and social development. By 1979, Adelia was ready to run for a seat in the Australia Senate of the Federal Parliament as an independent member.
But God had other plans for Adelia. In that year, a number of inexplicable events occurred to her, until she received a visitation from the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Blessed Mother said to her that she was being prepared for her mission to go to Thailand to help the Church in the forthcoming crisis.
With trust in God, Adelia raised funds for the refugees and traveled alone to Thailand to deliver these funds to the Church. And so began more than a decade of working with the Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees (COERR) in Thailand, in refugee camps along the border between Thailand and Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. It was a journey that would take her all over the world to raise funds for shelter, food, clothes and education for millions of refugees. On her journey, Adelia would meet popes, kings, world leaders, future saints and countless helpless individuals in dire need.
But like other ministries specially orchestrated by God, hers was not just a ministry of healing. Alongside her humanitarian works was a mission of teaching and grace for the wider Church. Over a period of thirty years, through the Blessed Mother and Adelia, God conveyed to the Church and the world a series of messages, reminding us of the truths of our Catholic faith and its relevance and application to the modern world.
Adelia was a refugee from Italy whose family settled in Victoria, Australia in 1950. She married Norman in 1953 and had three children. Adelia worked in a number of areas including politics, education, refugee and migrant support and social development. By 1979, Adelia was ready to run for a seat in the Australia Senate of the Federal Parliament as an independent member.
But God had other plans for Adelia. In that year, a number of inexplicable events occurred to her, until she received a visitation from the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Blessed Mother said to her that she was being prepared for her mission to go to Thailand to help the Church in the forthcoming crisis.
With trust in God, Adelia raised funds for the refugees and traveled alone to Thailand to deliver these funds to the Church. And so began more than a decade of working with the Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees (COERR) in Thailand, in refugee camps along the border between Thailand and Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. It was a journey that would take her all over the world to raise funds for shelter, food, clothes and education for millions of refugees. On her journey, Adelia would meet popes, kings, world leaders, future saints and countless helpless individuals in dire need.
But like other ministries specially orchestrated by God, hers was not just a ministry of healing. Alongside her humanitarian works was a mission of teaching and grace for the wider Church. Over a period of thirty years, through the Blessed Mother and Adelia, God conveyed to the Church and the world a series of messages, reminding us of the truths of our Catholic faith and its relevance and application to the modern world.