We had heard him on St Paddy’s Day, this Indian man with an Oxford accent, when he ended the Mass in Medjugorje with a special note to the Irish – in Irish. A man of many languages, he was to give a lecture on the Signs and Wonders of Medjugorje the following day. I thought little of it then, not because I was jaded but because I was so tired. We had traveled 19 hours by plane and 2 and one half hours by bus to get here and after a few days we still had not adjusted. We did not have time to adjust. We were kept busy by our guides who wished that we got our money’s worth, so much so that Vicki, Jeff and I would gladly have NOT gotten our money’s worth for an extra six hours of sleep.
But onward we went, following our Indian/British priest from mass to the lecture hall the following day. I had expected a series of miracles to be laid out for us, and then each put in its place as everyone did here: “It is not about the miracles but about the reality of Christ.” Of course. But more than one million people come here every year to this little town in the middle of nowhere for more reasons than to snuggle up to Church dogma. That might be wrong, but that is the way it is.
As it turned out – as it always turned out in Medjugorje – we got more than we bargained for. For one thing, our Indian priest was not only a man of many languages, but of many talents. He was a native of Singapore (Indian descent) and had served as an infantry man in the army there, which had led him to a permanently injured back. He had also become an MD in Britain, which perhaps accounted for his “posh” accent, as he himself put it (pure Oxford from what I know). But his greatest accomplishment had begun as no accomplishment at all: he had been chosen by the Virgin Mary to carry her message to the masses. It took many years, but he has accomplished and is accomplishing his task, so much so that now he is the full-time priest for English speakers at Medjugorje.
Part of that message is to practice the “five stones of Mejugorje.” Taken from the five stones of David to slay Goliath, here we are given these five stones to slay our own demons: prayer, Mass, Bible, fasting, and confession.
But we, or at least I, had come to the talk for the “Signs and Wonders.” In this he did not disappoint, although he continued to apologize for them and remind us again and again what it really was all about. And then he would please us all and go back to the miracles. They were hard to believe, but he is a priest, and he is not alone in seeing many of these wonders.
Here is the odd thing: three of the wonders – a spinning sun, rosaries turning to gold, and an overwhelming smell of roses – have been experienced by many, perhaps thousands. On our group hike up Cross Mountain, we all saw the sun encircled by a rainbow. I had seen this a few times before in my life, but it is extremely rare. Taking my cue from our leader, however, I dismissed this “sign” and continued looking elsewhere. Too bad: shortly afterward, several from our party saw the sun dance in the sky, covered with what looked like a communion host so that they could watch it without pain. Dang! And our priest, self-described with humorous deprecation as “the little brown dude,” had just recently experienced that overwhelming smell of roses.
But all that is nothing compared to the visions our little brown priest, Father Leon, had had more than 26 years before in 1991 when he was only 20 years old. It was then that he had been in the infantry and was on leave due to the back injury, visiting Mejugorje with about 20 other Singaporeans. There was only one other English speaker that he met there then, due to the eruption of war (which would soon engulf much of ex-Yugoslavia, culminating in the ethnic cleansing by the Serbs of the Bosniacs, or Bosnian Moslems), and so his group had the place practically to themselves. It was during this time that he and a friend decided to climb Cross Mountain at night, starting at about 4 AM, to be in time to catch the sunrise from the summit. While still near the base, both of them saw an orange-golden light shining from near the top where the cross was (and is). Curious, they climbed all the faster until, near the top, they were able to make out what that light was: a young women of profound grace and beauty floating in the sky by the cross. He described her as being “alive,” meaning she was no simple image projection. She looked at him and he felt indescribable love, causing him to break out in tears. Neither he nor his friend spoke, but both proceeded to rush up the mountain to the cross. When they got there, Mary, as they believed she was, had moved to Apparition Hill, where she had first appeared to the 6 children visionaries in 1981 – still glowing and still alive and beautiful.
They returned to their hotel in silence, Leon then directing himself to the church. Once there, he heard a distinct voice in his head (here, Fr Leon tells us that voices in the head are either from God, the Devil, or the Imagination. He cannot confirm any of these, but instead has to rely on the message), which he thought to be the Virgin’s. She vividly told him all of his sins - all of them - for all of his life, not to humiliate, but to correct. It was, he said, cathartic. Then he asked her who she was, and she replied, “I am the Mother of God, and the mother to you all. Tell everyone that I am their mother.” Then Leon was overwhelmed by a wave of intense, wonderful love, in which he felt that he was the only one in the world and that he was adored and worthy of this adoration. Then he felt that this was true for all of us, each and every one.
This, said Fr Leon, was why he was telling us his story. He said he did not want to tell the story; that, in fact, the Mother had told him that one day he would regret this (her) visit, and deny it as well, which he did while in medical school to avoid being laughed at. But he had to tell us her message, because he had promised this to the Mother and in the end, this he could not deny.
He would not say if this vision, and later conversation, are what had called him to the priesthood. But he did say that he got one bit of prophesy from her: She told him that one day, in a time of great confusion, Catholics would deny a sign from Christ that should have been obvious. He said that this denial felt horrible and that the world would suffer for it, and he asked the Virgin for one thing: that his parents would die before this “awful” event. He added then that his parents were still alive, but barely, hinting that this awful thing might happen soon. She also told him that he would never see her again until at his death – given that he was “good,” as Fr Leon put it.
Believe it or not, but why would you not? Especially given that several other ordinary people have seen Mary there – as well as the visionaries, many of whom still see her weekly or monthly. But would we want our own vision? My answer is “yes and no:” yes, because we all need such miracles to take us from the sterile world we have made from this miracle of being; and “no” because all who see her are then given an enormous task, or an enormous suffering. It is, as the priest might say, the way of the cross – that great things are given at great price.
But the greatest thing, the best part of the message, is that she, the Mother of God, loves us absolutely and perfectly, and is with us always. It is up to us to cleanse ourselves so that we might be brought into the presence of God, but she is there to help and to guide as well as is possible, given our own state of grace, or lack of it. But she is there. She is for you – and only for you – just as she is for all of us, each and every one of us the most perfect and beloved child in God’s creation.
But onward we went, following our Indian/British priest from mass to the lecture hall the following day. I had expected a series of miracles to be laid out for us, and then each put in its place as everyone did here: “It is not about the miracles but about the reality of Christ.” Of course. But more than one million people come here every year to this little town in the middle of nowhere for more reasons than to snuggle up to Church dogma. That might be wrong, but that is the way it is.
As it turned out – as it always turned out in Medjugorje – we got more than we bargained for. For one thing, our Indian priest was not only a man of many languages, but of many talents. He was a native of Singapore (Indian descent) and had served as an infantry man in the army there, which had led him to a permanently injured back. He had also become an MD in Britain, which perhaps accounted for his “posh” accent, as he himself put it (pure Oxford from what I know). But his greatest accomplishment had begun as no accomplishment at all: he had been chosen by the Virgin Mary to carry her message to the masses. It took many years, but he has accomplished and is accomplishing his task, so much so that now he is the full-time priest for English speakers at Medjugorje.
Part of that message is to practice the “five stones of Mejugorje.” Taken from the five stones of David to slay Goliath, here we are given these five stones to slay our own demons: prayer, Mass, Bible, fasting, and confession.
But we, or at least I, had come to the talk for the “Signs and Wonders.” In this he did not disappoint, although he continued to apologize for them and remind us again and again what it really was all about. And then he would please us all and go back to the miracles. They were hard to believe, but he is a priest, and he is not alone in seeing many of these wonders.
Here is the odd thing: three of the wonders – a spinning sun, rosaries turning to gold, and an overwhelming smell of roses – have been experienced by many, perhaps thousands. On our group hike up Cross Mountain, we all saw the sun encircled by a rainbow. I had seen this a few times before in my life, but it is extremely rare. Taking my cue from our leader, however, I dismissed this “sign” and continued looking elsewhere. Too bad: shortly afterward, several from our party saw the sun dance in the sky, covered with what looked like a communion host so that they could watch it without pain. Dang! And our priest, self-described with humorous deprecation as “the little brown dude,” had just recently experienced that overwhelming smell of roses.
But all that is nothing compared to the visions our little brown priest, Father Leon, had had more than 26 years before in 1991 when he was only 20 years old. It was then that he had been in the infantry and was on leave due to the back injury, visiting Mejugorje with about 20 other Singaporeans. There was only one other English speaker that he met there then, due to the eruption of war (which would soon engulf much of ex-Yugoslavia, culminating in the ethnic cleansing by the Serbs of the Bosniacs, or Bosnian Moslems), and so his group had the place practically to themselves. It was during this time that he and a friend decided to climb Cross Mountain at night, starting at about 4 AM, to be in time to catch the sunrise from the summit. While still near the base, both of them saw an orange-golden light shining from near the top where the cross was (and is). Curious, they climbed all the faster until, near the top, they were able to make out what that light was: a young women of profound grace and beauty floating in the sky by the cross. He described her as being “alive,” meaning she was no simple image projection. She looked at him and he felt indescribable love, causing him to break out in tears. Neither he nor his friend spoke, but both proceeded to rush up the mountain to the cross. When they got there, Mary, as they believed she was, had moved to Apparition Hill, where she had first appeared to the 6 children visionaries in 1981 – still glowing and still alive and beautiful.
They returned to their hotel in silence, Leon then directing himself to the church. Once there, he heard a distinct voice in his head (here, Fr Leon tells us that voices in the head are either from God, the Devil, or the Imagination. He cannot confirm any of these, but instead has to rely on the message), which he thought to be the Virgin’s. She vividly told him all of his sins - all of them - for all of his life, not to humiliate, but to correct. It was, he said, cathartic. Then he asked her who she was, and she replied, “I am the Mother of God, and the mother to you all. Tell everyone that I am their mother.” Then Leon was overwhelmed by a wave of intense, wonderful love, in which he felt that he was the only one in the world and that he was adored and worthy of this adoration. Then he felt that this was true for all of us, each and every one.
This, said Fr Leon, was why he was telling us his story. He said he did not want to tell the story; that, in fact, the Mother had told him that one day he would regret this (her) visit, and deny it as well, which he did while in medical school to avoid being laughed at. But he had to tell us her message, because he had promised this to the Mother and in the end, this he could not deny.
He would not say if this vision, and later conversation, are what had called him to the priesthood. But he did say that he got one bit of prophesy from her: She told him that one day, in a time of great confusion, Catholics would deny a sign from Christ that should have been obvious. He said that this denial felt horrible and that the world would suffer for it, and he asked the Virgin for one thing: that his parents would die before this “awful” event. He added then that his parents were still alive, but barely, hinting that this awful thing might happen soon. She also told him that he would never see her again until at his death – given that he was “good,” as Fr Leon put it.
Believe it or not, but why would you not? Especially given that several other ordinary people have seen Mary there – as well as the visionaries, many of whom still see her weekly or monthly. But would we want our own vision? My answer is “yes and no:” yes, because we all need such miracles to take us from the sterile world we have made from this miracle of being; and “no” because all who see her are then given an enormous task, or an enormous suffering. It is, as the priest might say, the way of the cross – that great things are given at great price.
But the greatest thing, the best part of the message, is that she, the Mother of God, loves us absolutely and perfectly, and is with us always. It is up to us to cleanse ourselves so that we might be brought into the presence of God, but she is there to help and to guide as well as is possible, given our own state of grace, or lack of it. But she is there. She is for you – and only for you – just as she is for all of us, each and every one of us the most perfect and beloved child in God’s creation.
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