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MEJ-ugorje, that’s the way Mikki our tour guide pronounced the name of his hometown.

I entitled this “And the End Times” because Mary says her visits to this village will bring to a conclusion her intervention to help us through this apocalyptic era.

My personal pilgrimage to Medjugorje began with my YouTube on the Holy Face of Jesus. I had spoken of the “Miracle in the Vatican” that occurred before a large crowd the Christmas octave of 1848. The face on the old faded linen venerated as Veronica’s Veil came alive. This sensational event was regarded as a confirmation of the revelations of the Holy Face that had been granted to a French Carmelite nun who had died in the odor of sanctity just a few months previous.

Sister StPierre, or Sister Saint Peter, had a brother who migrated to the United States in search of employment. One of his descendants, thus a great-niece of Sister Saint Peter, is presently living in the town of Atchison near Kansas City. Devotion to the Holy Face had been strong in her childhood, but in her efforts to hand it down to her teenagers, she was feeling called to write a new book for English readers which would present more accurately the importance of these revelations for our times.

Although she is well-educated, this busy mother of five had never published a book before and was feeling a need for encouragement to begin. From my website she knew I was residing in Wichita. Her husband urged her to accompany him to a convention in Newton, a town near Wichita. The hotel was packed so we ended up meeting in the newly restored, gorgeous old church of St. Mary where we spoke of the Holy Face for several hours.

Less then two weeks after that delightful encounter with the Holy Face lady, I received a call from a man who ran a blogsite promoting devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. He had also discovered me on YouTube and wanted to fly to Wichita to speak with me about this important devotion.

I suggested that he fly instead to Kansas City and that we all meet in Atchison. I had a new friend in Kansas City.

During my internet research on the approved apparitions of Our Lady of America, I received valuable information from a woman named Pamela Jackson. She had experienced a healing thru Mary at the apparition site in Rome City, Indiana. Pam said many times that if I ever came to Kansas City, I should stay at her home. When I explained my reason for travelling to Atchison, she asked to be included in the meeting, since she too, had a devotion to the Holy Face.

And thus it happened, the couple from Wisconsin, the couple from Atchison with their five teenagers, Pam and I myself, sat in a drawing room under antique pictures of Sr. Saint Peter and her relatives. I apologize that I didn’t take any pictures of this brief but life-bonding encounter. We all resolved to stay in touch, trusting that the Lord would direct our separate efforts to promote reparation to his wounded Face.

Two weeks later, on Christmas morning, the day when the Mother of God held her Divine Child for the first time, Len was in prayer and felt strongly that Mary was calling him to return to Medjugorje. Len had been once before, on the 100th anniversary of Fatima, and now he was supposed to invite as many of his friends and family as possible.

That very day at Medjugorje Mary gave a message that echoed what Len felt in prayer. December 25, 2018. “Dear children! I am carrying to you my Son Jesus who is the King of Peace. He gives you peace and may it not be only for you but to carry it to others in joy and humility.” If you ever meet Len, he’s at your service in you and humility. I had never even dreamed of going to Medjugorje.

I had followed Medjugorje from the beginning in 1981 when still a Carmelite novice. Word trickled into the cloister that six teenagers in far away Yugoslavia were seeing the Blessed Mother every day. I wasn’t much older than the children. I am usually very cautious about not-yet-approved apparitions, but it was just too much for these teenagers to invent. Moreover they endured draconian persecution from the Communists, and little enthusiasm from their fearful bishop who was probably intimated or threatened by the Communists.

My family sent me the popular book by Wayne Weible, a Lutheran who investigated the apparition as a curiosity for his small newspaper. He ended up going to the village numerous times and becoming a Catholic. No one can calculate how many people were inspired by Wayne’s book to travel to Medjugorje and see for themselves what was happening.

The number of pilgrims descending on this poor village became astronomical and soon a lay apostolate developed to televise events live from Medjugorje. MaryTV remains on location and is a highly respected and much appreciated website.

Another group of lay apostles felt called to print the messages and disseminate Mary’s messages, as cheaply as possible. Soon they took advantage of the internet as another tool to spread the word.

Look at their printing operation. I went there myself to see it and live with these families for a time. Caritas of Birmingham is located 20 miles southeast of Birmingham, Alabama in gorgeous country. It’s the largest Medjugorje center in the world promoting the events in all sort of venues. They run pilgrimages and have a center in Medjugorje itself.

You don’t even have to buy the books. You can read the messages online or download them free. They’ve developed software to facilitate word searches and date searches. That is a huge service because Mary has been giving messages every day since 1981. That’s nearly forty years times 365. You do the math.

I like to listen to the Caritas weekly program called “RadioWave.” They talk about the challenges of living a moral life today and how to bring the United States back to its Christian roots. Their mission is to promote the “inculturalization” of Mary’s messages into everyday life.

Naturally, these excellent Catholics have attracted the anger of Satan and the old serpent has employed every minion he can find to calumniate them and shut them down. Please don’t believe any of the fake news that you find on the internet maligning this community. They are not a cult. I investigated them carefully. I have seen some dysfunctional religious communities so I knew what to look for. Nobody was there by compulsion. Families had their own houses, well separated. The children were happy and well-adjusted, clearly blessed to grow up in that wholesome milieu. They play and work outdoors in a ranch environment and then come in to watch their parents run hi-tech equipment. It’s like a little village with its own little school. It’s truly idyllic. If every town in the USA could imitate this lifestyle, it would be the end of a culture dominated by drugs and suicides and broken families.

The third website I want to recommend is “Entering into the Mystery.” It’s a blog operated by a Wichita woman and has several thousand email and Facebook followers. Sign up and devotional thoughts and beautiful images will be sent straight to your inbox. Janet is artistic and has a degree in theology. She connects Mary’s messages to the day’s feast or some current event and she often supplies helpful links. Back in the heydey of Medjugorje, there was a MIR center in Wichita and many cities all over the USA. That generation has aged in forty years, and every new thing tends to lose momentum, but Medjugorje is making a big comeback right now, because Mary keeps telling us that this is her time.

A very exciting development happened recently. The official Vatican investigation offered the Holy Father a virtually unanimously favorable assessment so Archbishop Henryk Hoser was appointed as special apostolic visitor for the shrine at Medjugorje. In mid-July, with great fanfare and rejoicing, he officially took up residence. That places a papal umbrella over this shrine. Pilgrims arrive in the millions from more than 80 different countries. Archbishop Hoser is there to welcome them in the name of the Vatican. Medjugorje, in the diocese of Mostar, is the only city in the world which has two bishops who are equally mentioned in the canon of the Mass.

The messages probably won’t be approved until Our Lady’s appearances have reached their conclusion, but in the meantime, we are being encouraged by the Church to venerate Mary in this place, attend the Masses which are offered in many languages, and approach the sacrament of forgiveness in the many confessionals which, in the summer months are filled with a large number of priests.

I gave you an overview of the best websites because I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. Others have told the story of the apparitions so if Medjugorje is new to you, please consult those sources. What I offer at MarianNews is the mosaic perspective. What special piece does Medjugorje provide among Mary’s apparitions to the modern world?

The phenemenon of Medjugorje is enormous if we consider only its duration and the return to the faith of countless pilgrims. The main miracle, it could be argued, is that Mary could appear daily and deliver the same brief basic message of prayer and conversion without exactly repeating herself. These visionaries would have to be geniuses to compose several thousand messages, so similar in content, but always different. But Medjugorje was never among my personal priorities in Marian apparitions. The ten secrets were quite secret. The daily, rather benign public conversion messages didn’t have the depth of mystery to grab my attention as, for example, Amsterdam, Marienfried or Akita.

Len had mentioned his Christmas grace to me right away. If he something about inviting me to join the pilgrimage I didn’t take it seriously. The idea seemed vague in his mind, and totally surreal in my mind. That kind of trip was not in my budget. But I had not yet come to know Len. When he gets an inspiration in prayer, there is no going back. He had planned from the beginning to pay my way. If he had seemed initially uncertain, it was only that he wasn’t sure how many pilgrims could join us and whether he could find a package tour or if he needed to hire a private tour guide. Sometime in January he explained that in prayer it was clear to him that we had to be there on the feast of Mary’s Annunciation. He told me to block out that week on my calendar.

Alas, I had just committed our Theotokans to hosting a day of recollection every Saturday in Lent. Our apostolate was just getting off the ground. This was more important to me right now than Medjugorje. But there is a saying that nobody goes to Medjugorje unless they are called. I had not sought to go there. Obviously, I was being called. And it was very exciting to think that I would be there on the most important feast of the Order, the day when Mary became the Mother of God. Melanie said that the Sisters receive the habit on that feast. At that time, in January, two women were helping me work out the details of the habit which Melanie saw in vision. Was it a sign that Mary would obtain a bishop to begin the Order soon?

To my immense delight, Len wanted reparation to the Holy Face to be the center of our pilgrimage. Our prayers together, and our time away from our busy schedules, the challenges of a long journey with passports and several flight changes — every sacrifice, great or small, would be offered in atonement for the sins and scandal of the clerical sex abuse, and for conversion and healing of the Church.

Len invited about forty persons, and I invited even more, but two months wasn’t enough notice for most working people who have to schedule vacation time. We ended up with fourteen persons from seven states. All but one of us knew Len, but few of us knew each other. All believed in Medjugorje. None of us were looking for signs and wonders. None of us felt a need for the testimony of the seers. We all just wanted to pray, pray, pray. Spending time with these wonderful Catholics was the first and greatest grace of my pilgrimage.

We flew into Mostar then took a two hour busride. My first impression was the barrenness of this place. This country was made up of rocks and clay. I saw no cattle and only a few scrawny goats. If beasts could hardly survive, how did this land suppport human beings?

When I got off the bus, it was worse. More rocks than soil. It was early spring. Summer foliage might help to hide the barrenness. Even the fruit trees which were in blossom everywhere were rather pathetic and scrawny.

The photographer, who Len hired, didn’t even take close-up pictures of the vineyards because they were too ugly to look at, just bare trunks and clay dirt. I’m sure in the summer the landscape has some charm, but arable land and rich soil is obviously scarce. The hardest working farmer could never get rich.

In fact, in the 1930s crop failure and famine were lurking at the door. Pope Pius XI offered special indulgences and urged parishes to build a cross to commemorate the Holy Year of 1933. The pastor obtained a relic of the true cross and the villagers set to work. Almost fifty years later, Italian pilgrims heard about the apparitions of Mary on a hill. They saw the cross and heaed for the wrong hill.

This mountain became the scene of many solar miracles and also some Marian apparitions. Thanks to Fr. Slavko it forms a routine part of the pilgrim itinerary. I was spared the arduous climb because someone sought me out that morning for some spiritual direction.

Fr. Slavko climbed the mountain every morning, and in the afternoon he climbed apparition hill to lead pilgrims in prayer. During the night his typewriter was busy pecking out books and prayerbooks to spread Mary’s messages. Father’s zeal was multi-faceted. He prayed and fasted for guidance on how to help the war orphans. A man from Austria purchased land, but it was impossibly rocky. Father prevailed on the peace-keeping French military to use their men and equipment to buldoze the rocks and level the area to build housing, which still today servers many persons in distress.

Fr. Slavko had mastered several languages. Then Koreans began arriving and he wanted to make them feel welcome, so he was learning Korean when the Lord took him to his reward. This Franciscan died in the year 2000 but in 2019 he was still very much alive in the veneration of the people. An Irish pilgrim eagerly offered to lead me to the priest’s grave. He really inspired me. Fr. Slavko, pray for us and obtain for us your apostolic energy!

I had read, many people told me that they experienced such a wonderful sense of peace when they come to Medjugorge that they want to return again and again. I wasn’t feeling this way. The church was ugly. The countryside was ugly. The buildings were ugly, as one would expect in an ex-communist country. The roads were poor and the people were poor. You couldn’t walk anywhere without running into villagers trying to sell handmade items for embarrassingly low prices.

Why didn’t I feel the same sense of wanting to stay here forever? I began to ask random English speaking pilgrims why they loved Medjugorje and why they returned. Some had even rented apartments to remain for weeks or months at a time. I received a more satisfactory explanation. “Because,” they said, “I go into church and people are praying, really praying. The church is always full. I don’t experience that at home. I don’t feel like I have others to pray with back home.”

The full church was an understatement. The evening devotions were from 5pm-8pm, and some nights there was adoration so people remained into the night. I went into the church the first two evenings and after that I preferred to sit outdoors in the cold and watch Mass on the big screens rather than be crammed and jammed. The first night we couldn’t even find standing room in the aisles. We stood in the vestibule where we couldn’t see anything. People came very early to get a seat. Many came every night, week after week, year after year. No one was offering them any incentives. Far from it.

I began to reflect on what these good laypeople were telling me. As a religious, I attended daily Mass. chanted the Divine Office seven times a day and prayed the rosary with people who wanted to pray. Religious don’t normally pray alone or in an empty church. I didn’t have to travel half way across the world to find people to pray with. I was spoiled. My cup was flowing over. These people had no wine. Their dioceses were dry. Liturgies were banal and minimal. This barren, ugly village of Medjugorje was, for them, an oasis, in a spirtually barren and ugly world.

However, my friends in the the vibrant Wichita diocese which has an adoration chapel in nearly every parish—manned 24/7/365 by the laity—told me that they kept returning to Medjugorje because Mary keeps returning there. Well, I couldn’t argue with that reason either! It is right to honor the Queen’s appearance!

Before I leave the subject of the ugliness of this church, I have to say it really did disturb me. The church was clean and cared for, unlike many of the beautiful churches I saw in France, but I couldn’t understand how millions of pilgrims couldn’t have enriched this place of worship to make it more worthy of God. At the final Q&A session with Mirjana I asked if there were any plans to decorate the apse. She lit up and said that Archbishop Hoser has a long list of plans and if he only accomplishes half of them it will be marvelous. In that sentence I recognized the pain of the villagers. The ugly church was not their desire. Renovations had been inhibitted for years by a Communist government, and then undoubtedly by church authorities who were of an iconoclast mindset. Enough said.

I had read blogs that the village is totally different than in the early days of the apparition, that it’s been greatly enlarged and has many shops. Well, it happened to Lourdes and to Fatima. Pilgrims always want to buy devotional objects and souvenirs. Somebody is going to make a profit. But the shops I entered were very humble.

The guide who welcomed us at the airport was a native of Medjugorje and as we drove toward the village he boasted that Medjugorje is the Beverly Hills of the peninsula. What! All the buildings looked like boxes. Look closely at this photo. You are looking at the front of the buildings. I walked past them for several days before I realized that I was walking in the street and not a back alley. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Beverly Hills in the Republic of Herzogivina! Medjugorje is not a ponzi scheme to make money.

This photo gives us an idea of the village as it must have been in the early days when most homes were made of rocks, a tile roof and clay for mortar. After enough weather, the clay washes away and the whole edifice starts to collapse. These building have to be replaced every number of years.

Naturally, when homes began to collapse, and there was money coming in from visitors, families built sturdier houses and added a story or two as a pansion to give accomodation to the ever-increasing number of pilgrims. Just because some of the visionaries also operate a pansion to serve the pilgrims, I assure you, they are not getting rich. Mirjana was one of the cooks in our pansion.

Most of the action at Medjugorje takes place here, on Apparition Hill.

Our Lady has appeared many times on this hill. A rusty cross was erected to mark the place where Ivan would come to pray. The villagers wanted to paint it but paint was very hard to get in a Communist regime. Finally, someone had a permit to paint a porch and had little leftover to donate. The color happened to be blue.

Len had imprudently invited my friend Pam to join us on the pilgrimage. He was evidently unaware of her litany of serious health problems and equally unaware of her devotion to Mary. She made many calls to line up oxygen and a wheelchair for all the stages of her airline flight, and at the pansion. Who would carry her oxygen and help her? I drove to KC to fly out with her as her personal companion, leaving my van with her husband.

I was looking forward to the day when I would climb Apparition Hill, making the stations of the Cross. Mikki would lead us. We were set up with radios so we could hear him if we became separated. We pushed Pam several blocks and parked her at the bottom of the hill where she could listen.

I was placing one foot in front of the other, anxious not to break an ankle when I looked back to see Pam, with her severe curvature of the spine, leaning on her cane and climbing the rocks. I was so annoyed. She was being insane. We were doing all we could to climb the hill ourselves. If she fell, how could we carry her down?

I was so angry that I didn’t offer to carry her backpack. I put myself some distance from her and tried to stifle my emotions. When, at last, we made it to the Third Station, it dawned on our group, all at once, almost collectively, that Pam was with us. This was impossible! It was a miracle! I ran to grab her red bag. The rest of the climb was very exciting precisely because Pam was with us.

Pam was utterly unprepared for the surprise at the top of the hill, a large statue of Mary with Korean engravings. Mikki explained that this was a gift from Korean pilgrims. How did they get it up here? Did they drop it with a helicopter? Pam began to weep tears of joy. Unable to bear children, she and her husband had adopted two from Korea. Pam never used her wheelchair during the rest of the trip. Our Lady didn’t straighten her back.

There was no permanant healing. Pam returned home, content to offer her prayers and sufferings in reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus for the sins of the clergy.

Our Lady’s initial apparitions were on the edge of a path which is now a paved street and a bus stop. But after the third apparition ended it was about 7:00 in the evening. The children were starting home through a crowd of onlookers, when Marija felt herself mysteriously pushed to the side of the trail. She alone saw the Virgin here. Our Lady was crying and there was a bare wooden cross behind her. Marija said the Virgin was very sad.

“It was an overwhelming experience,” said Marija. “I saw the Madonna weeping, and the sight drove me to commit myself totally to her request. She had come to inspire all of us to search for peace-peace in our own hearts, peace within our families, peace in the world.”

Frame 54 Video clip

I have a youtube clip. At the very end of it Mirjana is talking about how Mary appears always serious, never laughing, not crying,but very serious and even sad when she talks about sinners.

“OK, last question”

“You said that when Mary appears she is very beautiful. Does She laugh and joke at all?”

“No, She’s not Italian! (haha) No, our Lady does not joke. If She speaks about Jesus, She smiles, but it’s only a smile. If She speaks about us, She is always sad. There is no joking or laughing with her. Smile or sorrow. What I see the most on her face is determination or decisiveness. Like when we mothers decide: I WILL help my child, whether my child wants it or not, but I will help my child .That is the way I interpret our Lady’s expression on her face. And the pain on her face, that is very painful.

Because I still . . . on what suffer . . . because . . . the suffering on our Lady’s face, every muscle on her face is . . . suffering when She is talking about unbelivers it really breaks her heart, because She knows what will happen to those children if they do not listen. Because as a Mother, She is suffering. But this suffering is very painful.

At LaSalette, Mary wept during the entire apparition. The children said the tears fell without interruption. From what I understood, at Medjugorje Mary wept only once, and it was the third day. Why was she weeping so early, and before the girl, Marija, who bore her name?

In Exodus 19 God told Moses to prepare the people for the third day. God came down from the mountain with miraculous signs and the people proclaimed that they would do whatever the Lord tells them, but soon they sinned with Golden Calf. In the Gospel of John, on the third day Mary asked Jesus to perform his first sign, changing water to wine and tells the servants to “do whatever the Lord tells them. But soon his own people, including the sovereign pontiff, Caiphas, called for his death.

At Medjugorje millions of people have witnessed miraculous signs, but at the beginning, already on the third day, She was hinting that conversion would not be sufficiently deep and lasting to spare the world from judgment.

Soon She proceeds to deliver ten secrets which all concern chastisement. One is a sign rather than a chastisement, but She said that the sign would be too late for many.

Where else do we here about ten chastisements? Yes, the ten plagues in Exodus.

And where does Jesus talk about the Exodus. At his Transfiguration St. Luke said He spoke with Moses about his coming Exodus. Jesus would be the sacrificed lamb, crossing over to blaze the way to an eternal promised Land

And where next in the Bible do we hear the number ten and plagues and chastisements. Yes, the Book of the Apocalypse. St. John foresaw that at some future time the church would be one with the slain Lamb, persecuted, harassed, with many martyrs, and this would blaze the trail to a new earth which would be transformed into a promised land in which God is loved and obeyed.

Medjugorje is a sign of coming apocalyptic chastisements. And Medjugorje is a sign of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, and a new Pentecost Day in which the millions of people in different languages confess their sin of having failed to recognize the Messiah in their daily lives.

The children were young when Mary said the secrets would unfold in their lifetimes. Now the visionaries have children of their own. Len told me to prepare some talks because at Medjugorje I could take advantage of the videographer that he was hiring. How strange, I knew that the public appearance of the Antichrist was imminent. Ten years previously, in the cloister, I had received clear insights on the prophecy of Daniel which indicated the year to expect the Antichrist, but I had hesitated to share that knowledge because many think it means the end of the world.

As I prepared the talk I was going over my notes and came across the stigmatist Fr. Zlatko Sudac (shoo-dock). With a bit of internet research I discovered he was leading a pilgrimage that would overlap a day with our pilgrimage. Would I see him? Would I learn anything about him?

I made some inquiries in the village. He was held to be a devout priest. But what was I to think about a diocesan priest who insists on dressing in white, like a future pope? And what was I to think about a musician-priest who lets himself be depicted as walking on water and in the company of a scantily clad woman?

But evidently Zlatko Sudac is not he Antichrist. At Medjugorje, twice during the pilgrimage and once immediately afterward, three separate people told me to expect a man who from the Middle East, possibly a Moslem and possibly a world leader of the EU or UN. I was told that both coasts of the United States would be severely chastised. The implication was weather but more could be involved. I was told that the center swath from Canada to Mexico would bear the burden of the wrath of the Antichrist in our nation, because this is where he would find the most Christians.

I was told that the earthquake in the Indian Ocean that caused the tsunami of 2004 tilted the earth enough to begin very gradually moving the direction of the poles, and this will disrupt agricultural production. Even this winter, thousands of cattle perished in the central midwest because farmers had no shelters built because they had never heard of such low temperatures. At the same time the cold temperatures caused a massive fruit crop failure in the southeastern USA. And the melting snow flooded millions of acres of grainfields. I was told that the weather would get worse.

One of the witnesses to the imminent appearance of the Antichrist was only indirectly present at Medjugorje. At the daily English Mass I noted the presence of pilgrims from Ireland. In the USA Christina Gallagher is a controversial figure. On the one hand, not one of her prophecies had failed to come true, but lately she had closed a House of Prayer in Kansas in an abrupt manner that did not seem Christian. What did the Irish think of their countrywoman?

Again and again I was met with silence and a curt: “You don’t need Christina.” But then one gentleman pulled me away and we spent several hours over the next couple of days. He told me many things that explained her behavior, and assured me that she will be vindicated and I can be confident that she is a genuine prophetess. I’ll do a YouTube on her as soon as I find time.

The imminence of the end times kept rising in my heart during my stay in Medjugorje. The videographer found a 90 minute slot to record my talk and now I had the courage to give it. Most of our group stayed to listen. Brian, my longterm YouTube fan affirmed that it was the driest talk I had ever given, totally different in style. But he couldn’t think of another way to present the material since it was necessary to take the Bible and discuss passage in Daniel verse by verse.

So there I was in Medjugorje, standing before a camera in a pansion built over the expact spot where Mary had appeared many times, and I was talking about the imminent appearance of the Antichrist. I was told to stand in a spot where the lighting was good. I looked up to see a picture of Pope St. John Paul smiling down at me. But when I viewed the video, the good pope was not visible. Instead, as I spoke of the imminent appearance of the Antichrist, the pictures of two disturbing prelates with were behind me, Bergoglio and Schonborne. I’ll leave it at that.

Thenceforth our group seemed to bond even closer. We were more diligent to set aside time together for prayers of reparation to the Holy Face.

I saw other signs of the end times Medjugorge.

1) The scourge of Islam, the scourge of Socialism, scourge of a fratricidal war and the scouge of poverty. Mikki grew up and was anxious for us to know about the political history of the place.

Slavs arrived in 7th c. as pagans, by 8th c. they were Christians 9th c. Croatian King Branimir. Mir means peace and was typical of royal names. The king signed a document promising never to attack a neighbor or disrespect his boundaries, and never to separate from the Pope. The Ottomans arrived in the 15th and ruled into the 19th c. These Moslems destroyed all crosses and churches. It became dangerous to openly profess Faith in Christ. Some Catholics converted to avoid trouble. He didn’t get into politics but he wanted us to know that Russia will always side with the Serbs. So Medjugorje knows the heavy hand of Islam by long experience.

Secondly, Mikki wanted us to know that we in the west must understand that Socialism is always anti-God, and basically no different from Communism. After WW2 Tito ruled over the six republics of “Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia”. In his first two months, between May and June of 1945 600 priests were killed. By eliminating the shepherds the socialists felt they could more easily manipulated the people.

Thirdly, he wanted us to see for ourselves that socialism always leads to poverty. Our Lady told Fr. Gobbi that the Catholics of the United would have their wealth reduced in atonement for their sins. Let’s get used to it and accept the punishment gracefully.

Fourthly, and many others have pointed this out. Mary has said that Medjugorje and Rwanda are signs for the whole world. These were Christian or Catholic people killing other people because of long-standing pride and unforgiveness. Mary said we must pray deeply, forgive deeply to have the gift of peace. Otherwise, a brutal unimaginable war is ahead of us on a global scale.

Mirjana gave me a hint of how the Catholics around Medjugorje after ten years of Mary’s apparitions could still be caught up in such a horrible war. I asked her to give us some advice on how to evangelize the Moslems. She said that the Moslems in her area weren’t militant about their religion. They didn’t wear the burka but dressed as everybody else. They ate pork. On holidays her Moslem friends came to her house and she went to their house and partook of their cultural traditions. In other words, religion was not a life for the Catholics, the Orthodox or the Moslem, but just a custom. God won’t protect that.

And I would like to make another observation, referring to what I said about Medjugorje being a sign of the New Jerusalem. The Church of St. James is iconic. It is the only Catholic Church of the village. In fact it serves five villages. Many of her apparitions took place in one of the towers of the church. Archbishop Hoser will set about beautifying it. But I want to point out that it was built after the Vatican Council. The altar was never against the wall. The Church never knew the Tridentine Latin liturgy. I think that’s a sign that the true spirit of the Council will eventually prevail. I plan to do a separate YouTube on the Latin rite and why it was right for it to be updated.

Another devotion took hold of our group from two directions, namely the Flame of Love, from the approved revelations of Mary to Elizabeth Kindelmann. A Canadian in our group was a national director and on our closing night a United States Flame of Love convention arrived for a stay in Medjugorje and it was arranged that several of their leaders would join us during our farewell dinner. One sat down next to me and proceeded to speak of the end times. It was yet another verification that Mary is preparing us to get ready.

The pilgrimage was over. At 2 am we had to rise and depart in the dark. We said our good-byes at Mostar as we would be taking different flights back to America. Len promised to arrange a weekly teleconference so that we could continue praying together in reparation to the Holy Face.

Pam and I would be together all the way to Kansas City. She was treated badly on two European airlines, even denied her oxygen for one short flight, but she was filled with peace.

Already, the lambs were beginning to be sacrificed. Brian collapsed at the airport in Munich. He lingered in a coma and then God called him home on Easter Wednesday. This was a personal blow for me since he had become a dear friend.

Brian, like my father, was a Protestant convert. Brian, like me, had many Protestant relatives and friends. Brian, like me, loved them and prayed with them.

Brian, like me, was excited about everything. He was an experienced editor and kept insisting that I delay no longer about collecting my Apparition transcripts and publishing them in a book. He offered to edit the talks to make them flow as chapters. And now he was gone. But he was interceding for me.

During the flight I typed my hand-written notes into my laptop and reflected that Brian was the only person in the group to have seen a solar miracle. Pam’s miracle was beautiful but temporary. What grace was I coming back with from my journey? New friends. Mary had told Fr. Gobbi that she would connect her people when the times arrived.

We arrived in KC at midnight. In the morning Pam’s husband drove us to Mass where they ran into friends. We ended up going to breakfast with people who told me of a visionary in Missouri. I got into my 1999 Van and got on the highway. I would take a route to Wichita that would let me visit my uncle in southwest Missouri. I stopped for gas. When I turned on the ignition light a full panel of warning lights went on. My uncle is a mechanic. He put the van on his four post lift and the diagnosis was dire.

The next day I took it to my Wichita mechanic. He said the van was beyond repair. I could drive it short distances but it was leaking three kinds of fluid. A great calm descended on me. I was not supposed to try to figure out how to get a vehicle. Mary would take care of it. Within 72 hours my brother-in-law handed me the keys to 2006 Kia. He and my sister had been talking together about rotating our their oldest family car and they decided to do it that weekend. I regard this as my first post-Medjugorje miracle. Another would follow.

I needed a bishop and was looking toward the bishop of Salina. He is a man of prayer, devoted to Mary. He mounted a statue of Mary in the crook of his staff. A man in my parish died. His son was a priest in the diocese of Salina. The pastor announced that the bishop of Salina was coming to preside at the funeral and everyone was invited. The pastor would try to find a few minutes to speak of the Order to the bishop on my behalf. The coffin was carried in the rain to the cemetery adjacent to the church. We stood with our umbrellas around the tent. After the service everyone dispersed. The bishop emerged from the tent without an umbrella. I was the only one nearby. So there we were, conversing about the Order under my umbrella.

I am giving this conference in the Midwest and telling the listeners that the central swath of the United States will be ground zero for persecution from the AntiChrist.

Look at this weather map. It shows the central swath as the windiest part of the nation. At Medjugorje, Mary had a word to say about that

February 15, 1984

“The wind is my sign. When the wind blows, know that I am with you. You have learned that the Cross represents Christ; it is a sign of Him. I am with you in the wind. Do not be afraid.”

Why the wind? She is the spouse of the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. Let us blow wherever the Spirit sends us.

Thank you for listening to my reflections of Medjugorje. I hope you are inspired to read her messages and perhaps even to go there.

God bless you!