"Dear children! In this time of grace, pray with me for the good to win in you and around you. In a special way, little children, pray united with Jesus on His Way of the Cross. Into your prayers put this humanity which wanders without God and without His love. Be prayer, be light, and be witnesses to all those whom you meet, little children, so that the merciful God may have mercy toward you. Thank you for having responded to my call."
"Yes, I Will Carry This Cross"
By June Klins
Although most testimonies about Medjugorje touch
my heart, some do more than others. Fionnuala Prunty's
heartfelt witness on "Fruit of Medjugorje" (Episode #367) on
www.marytv.tv was one I knew I wanted to share with our
readers. I will not do it justice in this short space, so I hope
you will go to Mary TV and watch it in its entirety.
Fionnuala, who is from Ireland, began praying the Rosary
around the age of three. By about age six or seven, she was
praying at least five Rosaries a day! "Our Lady always
protected me. She went everywhere with me," she attested.
When Fionnuala was 16 years old, she and her 15 year-old
sister and 10 year-old brother were hit by a drunk driver two
days before Christmas. Her leg was all twisted and in two
halves. A priest anointed all of them before the ambulance
came. Her sister died on Christmas Day. Her brother had a
fractured skull, but went home after a week. Fionnuala spent
the following year in and out of hospitals. At one point, they
put a pin in her leg and it kept coming out, so they had to
remove it and, when they did, her leg bone
telescoped and she ended up with one leg
1 1/4 inch longer than the other. So she had
to wear a corrective shoe on the shorter leg
for balance.
Fionnuala always wanted to be a nurse, but
after completing her schooling and passing
the state exams, she was disappointed to find
that no hospital in Ireland would hire her
because of her leg. So she took a civil service
job, but did not like it. She was depressed and
missing her sister. One night, her cousin, a
priest, took her to a prayer meeting, and she
thought, "I've come home." She continued to
pray the Rosary every day. "Our Lady was
my special friend," she said.
Eventually, Fionnuala got married and
had a baby. She realized right away that
something was wrong with him because he
screamed all the time, turned blue, and wouldn't feed. She
took him to three doctors who all told her she was an overanxious
mother. When the baby was three months old, she
finally found a doctor who listened to her, and told her to
take him immediately to the Children's Hospital. The doctor
there told her the baby had congenital heart disease and
that he was going to die, but that they could give him some
medication to stabilize him and possibly do surgery.
St. James Church
Fionnuala said that after the baby was on the medication,
for the first time in his little life, he was able to smile. Sadly, he
did not survive the operation though. "I remember holding
him in my arms when he was dead and just thanking God
that I was the mother of such a beautiful baby boy. I knew
that Our Lady, the Blessed Mother, knew how I felt because
She had Her dead Son in Her arms as well."
The doctors told Fionnuala that she could have another
baby, that it was not genetic. So, a year later she had her
second son, and he was born exactly the same way. They
baptized him and then rushed him to the Children's Hospital.
They told her to take him home and they would do open
heart surgery in a few months to a year. At three months,
he had heart failure, so they rushed him to the hospital. He
was to have the operation on Spy (Holy) Wednesday. Every
prayer meeting in Ireland was praying for him. Fionnuala
got a call from a lady in Queensland who told her that every
prayer meeting in Queensland was praying for him as well.
Afterwards, the doctors told her that this was the best result
they had ever gotten in that hospital for that type of surgery!
The baby went home 10 days later. He is now 34 years old!
Someone had asked Fionnuala if these trials didn't cause
her to drink or take drugs. She replied, "The Rosary is my
valium; the Rosary is my alcohol… The Rosary always
calms me."
After this, the doctors told Fionnuala not to have any more
children, that all her children would be born like this. She
continued to pray three or four Rosaries a day, and a year
later she had her third son, and he was born healthy. The
doctors again warned her not to have any more children, but
she continued to pray. Two years later, she had a daughter,
who was also born healthy.
When Fionnuala's daughter was a year old,
an acquaintance of her husband's offered her
a free ticket to Medjugorje. Since Fionnuala
couldn't afford to go there, she was happy to
accept the ticket. She knew it was going to be
hot there, so she bought a pair of sandals; but
since the trip was only a week or so away, she
did not have time to get the lift put on the one
for the shorter leg. She did not care, though,
because no one knew her there.
This was in 1991, and the war had started.
Fionnuala was very anxious about leaving
her young children. When she got there, she
thought to herself, "Is Our Lady really here? I'd
feel something if She is." But then she realized
she wasn't feeling anxious anymore! "I wasn't
worried and hadn't even thought about the
children. I had this peace I hadn't been used to
come over me." So, she decided to go to the church. It was
very crowded because, at the time, they did not have the
outside space, and all the parishioners went to the church
every night. The Rosary was being prayed when she got
there. She saw the visionaries go up into the choir loft for
their apparition, and when the bell rang to announce the
apparition, she just prayed, "Blessed Mother, I don't want
anything. I don't want to see the sun spinning in the sky. I
don't want to see miracles. You don't have to prove anything
to me. I know you're here, and I'm just so grateful to be
standing here." As she prayed that prayer, she got a burning
in her leg – "really hot heat." The heat was moving slowly
down her leg from the hip area. "It wasn't painful," she
explained, "just strong heat." She began to be frightened,
thinking something was wrong with her leg, so she rubbed
it trying to make it go away. She said it felt like hot needles
going into her leg.
When the apparition was over, and they let more people
in for Mass, Fionnuala decided to go upstairs to get a seat,
to see if it would help if she sat down. It didn't help the
burning, but she looked down and noticed that for the first
time in 18 years, her knees were together! Then she stretched
out her legs and saw that her feet were together perfectly!
She moved around trying to make her leg go back, and it
wouldn't.
After Mass, Fionnuala's friend found her and asked her
what was going on. She knew something was up. When
they got back to the house, Fionnuala stretched out on the
bed and asked her friend if her legs were the same length.
When she said, "Yes", Fionnuala asked her again. This was
her first day in Medjugorje. She had not even slept there yet!
The next day, Fionnuala ran into someone she knew
from home. He said he had seen her but did not think it
was her because she was walking perfectly. This was the
confirmation she needed!
When Fionnuala went back to Ireland, she went
to her doctor and told him what happened. He
measured her leg and questioned her over
and over. Eventually he said, "I'm a believer.
It's Divine Providence. I cannot explain it
any other way." That night, the doctor called
Fionnuala at home and asked her again to tell him
what happened. He was in awe.
Fionnuala began to give her testimony around Ireland
and in the houses where she stayed when she went back to
Medjugorje. She even met Fr. Slavko when he came to Ireland
for a conference, and she gave her testimony there.
"All of
God's purposes are
to the good. Although we
may not always understand this,
we can trust in it."
~St. Philip Neri, our patron
saint this year
Believe it or not, this is not the end of the story though.
When Fionnuala's daughter was about six, Fionnuala was in
another accident and hurt her neck. She had been working
with children with special needs at the time, but because
of her neck injury, she had to give it up. So, she prayed to
Our Lady and to Jesus. "I came to know Jesus. Mary
always leads you to Jesus. Jesus has become my hero!" She
received a grant and went to the university and got degrees
in Theology and Psychology, and went on to get a Masters
in Theology and Health Care Chaplaincy. She became a
chaplain at the hospital. "I think God always has another
plan," she beamed.
Then Fionnuala gave some updates on her children. Her
middle son developed epilepsy at age 14, but
is doing very well on medication. He is a
scientist at the University of Massachusetts.
Her daughter developed epilepsy at 17,
and she is now a social worker. And her
son who had the heart disease developed
epilepsy at 19, and is on medication for the
rest of his life. He may need a heart transplant
in the future. (Please keep all of them in your prayers.)
Fionnuala ended her testimony by saying, "I just pray,
and God takes care of everything. I feel that no matter what
cross you have to carry, just say to Jesus, 'Yes, I will carry
this cross.' I promise He will carry it for you."