“It Is Pleasant To Spend Time With Him”

By Mary Kerman

   It was 1994. I was at a Marian Conference at Notre Dame selling sweatshirts and t-shirts for the Bosnian refugees when I received the call, “Be at the airport by 8 a.m. in Indianapolis. Mary, we've been praying and the Holy Spirit wants you on this trip.”  It was midnight, the feast of Pentecost. I went up to my dorm room and panicked as to whether I should go. It was a long day and friends were in from Connecticut.  I had a responsibility to sell the goods for the people of Bosnia. I lay down on my bed and my roommate said she'd go take a shower so I could have some time to gather my thoughts. As I lay there, these words came to mind, “I will bring you home as swiftly as I brought the visionaries up Apparition Hill.” WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?! Well, I knew what that meant so I promptly made arrangements to leave for my home in Indianapolis! As I was leaving the Notre Dame parking lot at 2 a.m., the first song I heard on the radio went something  like this, “ OH! I'm leaving in the morning.” To an exhausted, frightened pilgrim THAT was a confirmation song!

   Later that morning I was dragging, but I was there at the airport. I could not pass up an opportunity like this just for a few more hours of sleep. Everything had fallen into place. Every last detail was taken care of and every responsibility facing me had been taken over by a smiling face who encouraged me to go!

THE PILGRIMAGE – Medjugorje

   The night of Eucharistic Adoration, I positioned myself directly in front of the monstrance. After witnessing so many devout pilgrims, I decided to kneel for the hour and offer it for the reparation of sins. No carpeting, no kneeler – just my determination and God's grace. Towards the end of that hour, I noticed what I thought to be a silhouette, a profile of Pope John Paul II. At first I thought, “Ah c'mon, you're imagining this, you're tired, you're forcing this...” But, honestly, I saw what I saw! I didn't have much of a devotion to John Paul II at the time, though after this experience, I dwelt upon the fact that he was getting older and that I might just pray about seeing him. I did make it through the hour, even though the church was packed!  I was given the grace!

1995 

   Pope John Paul II is coming to NY! Well, this was my opportunity. I grew up in Mt. Vernon, NY., maybe thirty minutes out of the city, where my parents would take us on rare occasion to a show on Broadway or my Aunt Betty would treat us to an Easter show at Radio City Music Hall. The highlight would always be a stop into St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5^th Avenue to light a candle. I prayed about whom to contact and was directed to write Cardinal John O'Connor. I wrote in detail about my conversion experience and I asked if it was possible for him to obtain for me a few tickets to the Papal Mass in Central Park. He did answer me. He promised me ONE ticket. Though I was thankful, I kept praying that God would supply two more tickets for my Jewish husband and five year old daughter. Both being from NY, I knew my prayers would be answered.      As the time approached, I received a phone call from a friend of a friend, “I hear you're looking for tickets for Central Park. Would you like four tickets?” WOULD I!!! Not only did I receive the four tickets, they were ten rows closer to the big stage. I was in heaven. So, there we were on the big day, October 7^th, the Feast of  Our Lady of the Rosary, in Central Park! It was surreal. The thought came to me as I watched the gifts being brought up during the Offertory of the Mass, “How were they so graced to be able to bring the gifts up?” I started praying that Rosary!

1998, THE YEAR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT –  January

   A deal in the local paper read, “Rome 5 Days, $448 per person r/t hotel included.” I phoned my sister immediately and said, “We've got to go to Rome. We have to receive the Pope's blessing now, or we're going to regret it!” She agreed. Once more, I wrote to Rome and detailed my conversion story and asked if we could meet the Holy Father and left it in God's hands.

   Once in Rome, we journeyed over to the North American College to pick up our tickets the day before. We scrambled to get there. Time was not on our side and this city was so new to us! As Sister handed us our tickets, she said, “I had to seat you there with the sick, I hope that's ok.” I had no idea what was to follow. We waited the next morning in line for two hours to enter into the Pope Paul VI auditorium. When I handed our tickets to the usher, he asked us to follow him. We did. All the way up front, past the seats facing the stage, through the railing, right at the bottom of the steps that were leading up to the Papal chair set up for the Pope. There we were…thrilled! God heard my deepest prayer. After the audience, we were escorted to the foot of the Pope. I graciously genuflected and took his hand. I placed it on my cheek for several moments, then reverently kissed his hand. GRACED!

1999, THE YEAR OF JESUS CHRIST

   Our family vacation Pilgrimage a Roma! My husband wrote the Vatican and told of his conversion story from Judaism. He entered the church the year before with my second grader when she received the sacrament of Eucharist. He asked the official if we could attend a Papal Mass. After he told me this, I actually thought, “Wow, that's a little much, don't you think?” On February 11^th, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, two days before we were to depart  Rome, we got word, “Be at the Bronze doors at 6 a.m. to attend the private Papal Mass with Pope John Paul II in his private chapel.” After the Mass, Pope John Paul II greeted the pilgrims individually. When he came to our little family, my daughter, then nine, brought him a small Winnie the Pooh doll. It was close to Valentine's Day and when we made it clear to the Holy Father that this was for him, he took the doll placed it on the silver platter, gave us a BIG smile and pulled Katey towards himself and kissed her little forehead. It was a joy-filled, charming moment for all of us. The Pope even gave my husband a special blessing when he learned he was a Jewish convert. GRACED!!

2000, THE YEAR OF THE FATHER – Jubilee Year

    Once again while planning a trip to Rome, I pleaded with a Monsignor friend I had acquainted to possibly make arrangements with his contact at the Vatican for my sister to attend a Papal Mass. She had done so much for me and for so many in need. I was praying that the opportunity would open up for her as it did for me.  It was an act of boldness because I wasn't sure if I had overstepped my boundaries. He gave me a contact for HER to attend the Mass! It was a miracle! At the last moment, the Sister in Rome invited ME to come along as well because there had been a cancellation!!  I knelt at the feet of Pope John Paul II that day with tears streaming from my eyes. He traced the sign of the cross on my forehead and I floated back to my spot incapable of sensing my physical being. GRACED!!

2005, January

   The prodding of the Holy Spirit encouraged me to contact my husband at his workplace that morning. I wrote in an email, “How would you feel about your wife exchanging her work for some time at a monastery with the Sisters in Trastevere in Rome?” Almost instantly he responded, “Go for it!”

    After settling in at the monastery, I went out for lunch.  A priest from the U.S. entered right after I sat down. He sat a table away from me. As I nodded a greeting, he spoke these words, “The Pope is dying.” In shock, I replied, “Dying, Father? I mean dying, dying?”  He suggested it would be a matter of days and most likely soon.

   How can I express the feelings that struck me at that moment? I had always prayed to be in Rome at that time and here I was...called by God.

   One week later, on April 8^th, I was receiving Holy Communion at Pope John Paul's funeral. I stood not too far behind the seated priests in the piazza. Miracle after miracle, grace upon  grace…doors opened for me to not only be there, but to attend and receive the Eucharist at his Mass.

   I have always visited Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament...always. Even if I could only stop in to say, “I love you”…and leave. How many hours? Who can say?  All I know is that time didn't matter – there is no time there with Him. I do believe my visits have given me such a deep and meaningful relationship with my God, that nothing was too big to grant His child.

   “It is pleasant to spend time with him, to lie close to his breast like the Beloved Disciple (cf. Jn 13:25) and to feel the infinite love present in his heart.” ~ Pope John Paul II

2011

    I picked out of June Klins' grab bag of saints, the saint to whom I would pray and ask for guidance this year. Guess who I picked?

   I will be attending the Beatification of our beloved Pope John Paul II this May 1^st. “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened…”

   “Don't be afraid!! The HOLY SPIRIT IS WITH YOU!!!”  Pope John Paul II, pray for us.

Questions and Answers with Mirjana

The following is an excerpt from a question and answer session given by Mirjana in Medjugorje on October 3, 2009. We thank www.medjugorje,ws for this interview.

Q: Do you always see Her or sometimes just hear Her voice?

M: On the second of every month, I have normal apparition. I can hear Her and I can see Her.

Q: Has your husband ever doubted your word?

M: He would not remain alive if he doubted (laughter). My husband comes from a Catholic family; he’s Fr.  Slavko’s nephew. The two of us grew up together. We know each other from birth. He said when the apparitions started, “As soon as they told me that you are involved, I believed immediately,” because we know each other from birth. I was a good girl ! (laughter). Let me give you an example. In Sarajevo we Catholic children would secretly go to the catechism. It would always be one mother who would take four or five of us. I was about six years old. My mum told me, “If someone along the way stops you and asks where you are going, tell them that you are going to have an ice-cream or something else.” And one particular day, my teacher who was communist, was walking by and she asked me, “Where have you been?” I was supposed to lie to her. I looked at her and said, “ I truly have no idea where I have been. “ (laughter) I couldn’t say I was shopping or buying an ice-cream or something, so the best way was to say I didn’t know.

Q: What did Our Lady mean when She said this is a time of grace?

M: Isn’t this a great grace – this immense love of God to send us His mother for so many years, to understand and to take the right path?  Doesn’t that show how much God loves us?

Q: What lesson are we supposed to learn from fasting?

M: Again, I can just tell you my own personal opinion. When I’m fasting, I’m proving to myself that I am the boss of my own body, and that I can do for God anything I want – that nothing can stop me. And with this fasting, I’m showing to God that with this little, I am ready to do even more, if that is what He desires. Through fasting, my prayer is stronger. I feel closer to Him. Again, that’s just my own personal feelings.

Q: Is it like a suffering for Mary to come on the earth, for us not to be converted?

M: It’s not painful. She is mother. You are young; most likely you are not married? (questioner replies ‘no‘) Once you have your own children, no matter what they do, you will run after them and try to help them because that is mother – same as with Our Lady.

Q: What can you do to help people who live different lifestyles to change their lives?

M: I would just pray for them. I put them in God’s hands and I pray for them because I feel sorry for them, because they simply go against nature, and nature was created by God, so that it means you go against God. Mirjana said in English, “Everything what you are doing with your heart will help. It’s important that you doing with your heart.” It’s beautiful that you are worried for them so much. That means that you love your neighbor and I’m glad that there is no judgment in your words, only love. And that is what Our Lady desires from us, not to judge but to love them and to pray for them.

Q: Did Our Lady ever share with you about what is the more terrible sin?

M: She didn’t talk with me what is greater or lesser sin, but only what we should do to avoid sin. And She didn’t tell me about which sin is more or less. What comes to my mind right now, for me personally, the greatest sin is not to have love towards your neighbor. Because when you have love for your neighbor, you will not kill, you will not steal, you will not deceive. You will not do anything bad because you will have love within you. That is what I personally think.

Mirjana’s Message of March 18, 2011

On Holy Thursday we celebrate the Institution of the priesthood, so we would like to share the following reflection. We hope it will give you a deeper appreciation for the priesthood and inspire you to pray for priests, as Our Lady asks.

Catechism on the Priesthood

 By St. John Vianney

    My children, we have come to the Sacrament of  [Holy] Orders. It is a Sacrament which seems to relate to no one among you, and which yet relates to everyone. This Sacrament raises man up to God. What is a priest?   A man who holds the place of God – a man who is invested with all the powers of God. "Go," said Our Lord to the priest; "as My Father sent Me, I send you. All power has been given Me in Heaven and on earth. Go then, teach all nations… He who listens to you, listens to Me; he who despises you despises Me."  When the priest remits sins, he does not say, "God pardons you"; he says, "I absolve you." At the Consecration, he does not say, "This is the Body of Our Lord;"  he says, "This is My Body. "

   Saint Bernard tells us that everything has come to us through Mary; and we may also say that everything has come to us through the priest; yes, all happiness, all graces, all heavenly gifts. If we had not the Sacrament of  [Holy] Orders, we should not have Our Lord. Who placed Him there, in that tabernacle? It was the priest. Who was it that received your soul, on its entrance into life? The priest. Who nourishes it, to give it strength to make its pilgrimage? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, by washing that soul, for the last time, in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest –  always the priest. And if that soul comes to the point of death, who will raise it up, who will restore it to calmness and peace? Again the priest. You cannot recall one single blessing from God without finding, side by side with this recollection, the image of the priest.

   Go to confession to the Blessed Virgin, or to an angel; will they absolve you? No. Will they give you the Body and Blood of Our Lord? No. The Holy Virgin cannot make her Divine Son descend into the Host. You might have two hundred angels there, but they could not absolve you. A priest, however simple he may be, can do it; he can say to you, "Go in peace; I pardon you." Oh, how great is a priest! The priest will not understand the greatness of his office till he is in Heaven. If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love. The other benefits of God would be of no avail to us without the priest. What would be the use of a house full of gold, if you had nobody to open you the door! The priest has the key of the heavenly treasures; it is he who opens the door; he is the steward of the good God, the distributor of His wealth. Without the priest, the Death and Passion of Our Lord would be of no avail. Look at the heathens: what has it availed them that Our Lord has died? Alas! They can have no share in the blessings of Redemption, while they have no priests to apply His Blood to their souls!

   The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you. After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish twenty years without priests; they will worship beasts. If the missionary Father and I were to go away, you would say, "What can we do in this church? There is no Mass; Our Lord is no longer there; we may as well pray at home."  When people wish to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the priest, because where there is no longer any priest, there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any sacrifice, there is no religion.

   When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you going?" you might answer, "I am going to feed my soul." If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that golden door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is kept." "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table?" "The priest." "And what is the Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord." O God! O God!  How Thou hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread, the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world. . . . Someone said, "Does St. Philomena, then, obey the Cure of Ars?" Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him.

   If I were to meet a priest and an angel, I should salute the priest before I saluted the angel. The latter is the friend of God; but the priest holds His place. St. Teresa kissed the ground where a priest had passed. When you see a priest, you should say, "There is he who made me a child of God and opened Heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned, who gives nourishment to my soul."  At the sight of a church tower, you may say, "What is there in that place?" "The Body of Our Lord."  "Why is He there?" "Because a priest has been there, and has said Holy Mass."

   What joy did the Apostles feel after the Resurrection of Our Lord, at seeing the Master whom they had loved so much! The priest must feel the same joy, at seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands. Great value is attached to objects which have been laid in the drinking cup of the Blessed Virgin and of the Child Jesus, at Loretto. But the fingers of the priest, that have touched the adorable Flesh of Jesus Christ, that have been plunged into the chalice which contained His Blood, into the pyx where His Body has lain, are they not still more precious? The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus. When you see the priest, think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  

"A priest must die from apostolic hard work; there is no other death worthy of a priest."  ~ St. Leopold Mandic

Joy

By June Klins

    According to the concordance of the messages, Our Lady has used the word "joy” or some form of it, 194  times. Obviously, Our Lady wants us to be joyful. One time, after my pastor talked about joy in his homily, he welcomed new families to our parish. One little boy, who came up with his family, had a very grim face.  Father chided him, "Didn't you listen to my homily?" The little boy said, "No" and continued to scowl. I thought to myself, "How many of us are like that little boy?"  We continue to be absorbed in our problems, and do not let the Joy of the Lord shine through us. If we are not joyful, who will want to be like us?
   Earlier that morning, when I turned on the radio, I caught the end of a wonderful sermon. I quickly jotted down some notes. The minister spoke about joy as a way of escaping temptation. He said that it is important to be around people who are strong. He said, for example, if you are an alcoholic and you want to stop drinking, you should not hang around with other alcoholics. He said that is why it is important to belong to a prayer group. "Iron strengthens iron."

   The minister said that you should do something each day to strengthen your spirit. If you listen to music, listen to something uplifting instead of music whose lyrics bring you down. He said to laugh, and let the Joy of the Lord come
from your spirit. He said to be strong against temptation, keep your joy level up, because it is easier for people who are sad to give in to temptation. That really hit me, because that may be one of the reasons why Our Lady wants us to
be joyful – to resist temptation easier..

A Prayer Cloth Testimony from Hawaii

   Last year was the most stressful for me and my husband Allen.  On May 24^th, Allen had a heart attack. During the operation, his heart stopped.  To save his brain, his body was “frozen.”  After “unfrozen,” he was in a coma and put on machinery.  Plus, he had pneumonia.  Doctors said there was almost no chance of survival. The priest gave him Last Rites.

   Looking at his lifeless body, enwound in tubes like a cobweb, swollen unrecognizably, colored with yellowish purple spots, I was at the most darkest despair.  I was praying, whispering, “O God, take at least a few days from my life and give it to him.  O, holy Mother of God, You are my last hope!”  I was praying and praying and pressing to his forehead the prayer cloth you sent me.

   And lo, on the third day, the MIRACLE happened!  Slowly, slowly, my husband opened his yet lifeless and discolored eyes. But from this moment, I knew that the Lord brought my husband again to life. From then, each day, life – drop by drop –  returned to his body.  Little by little, he learned anew how to talk, how to eat, how to walk, etc. 

   It is hard to believe that a person in such a condition and at age 90 years could return to life on his own.    

On August 28, 2010, we celebrated Allen’s 91^st birthday! I am happy seeing him smiling, walking, reading, watching football, etc. I give thanks to the Lord for His immeasurable grace and mercy.  And I thank Him for every beautiful new day given to us.  I am grateful so much for the prayer cloth.

The Tragedy of Japan

By Sr. Emmanuel

   We are all shocked by the images and the reports coming from Japan. Far from adding to the commentaries already published, I would rather recall the ways that the Gospa has given us, which are the most efficient ways to avoid natural disasters. The Mother of God and Mother of the Creator tells us: “Only by prayer and fasting could you stop wars, prevent wars... “ But we frequently forget the end of this message: “…and suspend natural laws.”

   It seems indeed that the earth cries out in front of the darkness that covers our humanity, which wants to walk without God. But recently, didn’t Our Lady tell us that She is not losing hope? Didn’t She speak to us about a “new time”, of a “time of peace that Her Heart impatiently awaits?” We can soften and shorten the time of trials.

   I met many people who have begun to fast according to Her directives, but have stopped on the way, seized by weariness before the battle or for any other reason. No, we need to persevere! The stakes are too high! Too many brothers and sister who do not know God are in need of our consecration and faithfulness! Our Lady has more messages to give us, and She tells us today [3/18/11] “ I will show you what I expect of each one of you, what I expect of my apostles”.  Let's cling to Her, because She is able to show each one us his specific role during this time of trials. She counts on us so much!

   Concretely, we can do a lot in order to help the victims of this catastrophe. For those who have died, we can have at least one Mass celebrated for the eternal rest of their soul. This is a great act of charity towards our neighbor. For the survivors, those who have lost everything, those who are wounded and those who are afraid of being hit by its consequences, we can pray and fast with all our heart. We can also send them our Guardian Angels to help them and comfort them through their way of the cross. This will be for them a great support, coming directly from Heaven, for human help has its own limitations.

                                                                    Children of Medjugorje, www.childrenofmedjugorje.com (March15, 2011 report)