What a beautiful conversion story Kathy..and wonderful crafted too. I dearly do love good writing. I must read more about Lubbock. Here is my one: http://www.mirmedjugorje.org/testimony_details.php?tid=203
Oh Kathy! We need to talk! I was at Lubbock also! I just read most of your blog. I can't believe how much we have in common...especially the never ending voice of our Lord saying to me in Adoration..."Be kind, be gentle.." I trained in Pastoral Care years ago and spent 80% of my time in geriatrics. I LOVED it! I took care of my father for 3.5 years at my home as he had Alzeimers. I finally could not do it anymore, but it was the best time of my life and my family thinks so too.
Jimmyiz, You're one step ahead of me! The only time I thought I saw the miracle of the sun, I burned a hole in my retina! Fortunately, Jesus had mercy on me and provided a true miracle by healing my eye three days later. As Kathy k suggests, taking just one step forward in faith would be an important expression of thanks! In this way, you build a relationship with God! And since the Lord can never be outdone in generosity, you'll get the better end of the deal in this ongoing interaction! Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!
Thanks Mario. Wow!!! You actually burned a hole in your retina? How long were you staring at the sun to make that happen and how did you know you burned it? What effects did it show? When I kept looking at the sun yesterday in wondering if I was actually seeing a miracle, I kept worrying I was going to burn my retina so I would keep looking away every 30 seconds to a minute or so. I even spent part of the rest of the day worried that I did cause some damage.
This worldwide Eucharistic adoration following Mary's month and the Pope's consecration of his papacy to our Lady of Fatima brings to mind the prophecy of Don Bosco and the two pillars. Signs of the times indeed
http://oracionesydevocionescatolicas.com/united.htm I don't know much about these purported messages, so please let me know of any problems with them. Related to Kathy's post are the following messages: "Little One, it is time that you take care of the faithful and holy rest which we have congregated around your houses-homes, Churches, and places or communities of prayer. Unity, Little One, will now be very important. Don’t leave not even one alone of those who have congregated around Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, be lost. It’s not that we are going to stop looking for the lost sheep, that will never happen, but we must protect the ones who are Saved because if you don’t unite, the Evil one will attack you with toughness and will scatter the ones that are saved now." "My Children, My Beloved, My small Faithful and Always Holy Rest: You must be UNITED and watch over each other because it is time that the Wicked one will try to decimate (*) the sheep of the Lord. Can you understand it? It’s time in which you should unite and look after each member of your families and fence-off the places where you meet to pray and take care of the ones who go to your parishes and Churches."
It does indeed View attachment 1115 Padraig started a thread on Don Bosco's dream http://motheofgod.com/threads/saint-john-boscos-prophetic-dream-about-the-church.1223
Padraig; What a powerful conversion story! We should start a club for Mary's delinquents - the ones she had to grab by the scruff of our necks! I have such respect for those who have never seen, and yet believe. And it gives me the shivers, as a member of the "scruff of the neck" club, to think of this scripture: "...Much will be asked of the man to whom much has been given; more will be expected of him, because he was entrusted with more." (Luke 12:48) Found a nice summary of the Lubbock visitation: http://www.spiritdaily.org/lubbock.htm I would love to know about all the fruit that has come from that day. Well, in heaven...
Thank you Phillip! This resonates with what I was trying to express. I sense a shift of focus to protecting the flock. Of course, we desire that none would be lost. But it's time to circle the wagons around our own, especially the weak, the tepid, the priests and consecrated religious.
Yes, we need to talk! I'd love to hear about your experience in Lubbock. And I'm always eager to learn from wise women.
Love, love, love your conversion story!! How beautiful! Dodie sounds like a very precious soul! I'm so glad you found your calling in life and Mary will use you in this role to help bring forth the triumph of her immaculate heart. Hallelujah!!! My conversion story is not nearly as dramatic. Actually it's been slow and somewhat painful. I was re-awakened to my catholic faith via Medjugorje. I first read about Medjurorje in 1999 and went there in about 2003. I tried to incorporate the 5 stones of Medj into my life (prayer, fasting, eucharist, etc.) but was not very good at it (i.e. spurts of lots of rosary's for maybe a few months straight...then nothing for 2 months, etc.). It has been through a heavy cross (long term unemployment) that my faith has grown. So, I believe Medj lit a small fire in my heart, but the cross was gasoline poured onto it to finally get a good fire going. It all culminated with my consecration to Mary (with other members of this forum) this past May 13th. Now living this consecration is really the 5 stones of Medj and lots of daily talk with Our Lady to offer up my day, to continue to "weed" the garden of my life, and stay focused on God's will and not my will (I try to die to myself in one small aspect each day). That's been my journey!
wow Jimmy!! Embrace the grace my brother!! Be careful what you pray for I guess Okay, another thing we have in common Jimmy is I've always wanted that knock you over conversion experience! I'd be so envious of people seeing the sun spin, or a miraculous check in the mail that paid for a trip to Medj, or people who say once they started praying the rosary Mary took over their lives and everything just turned around. Then I'd whine and moan to God why this was not happening to me!! I did this for years and years. But I guess God reaches us and works on us in the way best for us. It's hard to accept sometimes, especially since what has brought me closer to God has been a cross, but apparently it is the best way to reach a stubborn soul like mine. But one thing I am starting to believe is that Our Lady will turn my life around. Since the consecration...well actually, since I started the consecration process of reading True Devotion to Mary before the consecration 33-day period...my life has been turning around very, slowly. When you give Our Lady permission to take over your life and steer you quickly and directly toward her son...well, she takes you up on it!! It's not always easy, as the weeds of your life are suddenly exposed...but you become aware of what she wants you to address in your life and provides the grace to do it. So, I am not nearly as envious of people who say that since they started praying the rosary their lives turned around...as this is now happening to me, but it was not until I made the consecration.
My saying this will probably frustrate some people but since writing about my experience I started to research this sun miracle stuff. Here is one article the I read...http://www.marcocorvaglia.com/medju...alse-miracles-of-the-sun-and-more-part-1.html and an excerpt from that article: The testimony of father René Laurentin is also useful and above suspicion: he has been, for at least fifteen years, the most famous defender of Medjugorje in the world. He reports that an official, a friend of his, explained to him that being able to gaze at the sun at certain times and seeing it as opalescent, is entirely physiological. And he once demonstrated it to him in Bretagne. Here is the account by Laurentin: - It 's a natural phenomenon, he said, and I will show it to you. One evening he came to Malestroit in Bretagne, at the hour when the sun is still shining just before sunset (the most propitious time), and said: - Look at the sun! - I cannot, it hurts my eyes .... But my interlocutor insisted, and he was sure of himself. I therefore fixed my eyes on the still dazzling sun. The splendor ceased instantly. The disc became gray-white, surrounded by a ring of intense radiating light. An ocular reaction. [René Laurentin, La Vergine appare a Medjugorje?, Queriniana, Brescia, 1991, p. 158] Now I just wonder if it was nothing more than a natural occurrence. It did happen like others have said, but this article seems to say that this is something typical that can happen given the right conditions. So I really don't know what to think. I know...I am a hard case. That article has kind of lessened my view of the miraculous, especially at a place like Medjugorje. Leave it to me to have this happen and turn it into something bad...haha
Thanks for sharing your story - each journey is unique, like each one of us. Isn't it amazing what an awesome mother we have? And we know what to do, then don't do it! I made my consecration shortly after my conversion 25 years ago, and thought, "That's that." But I didn't really live it. When I did it hard-core, with the 33 day consecration with St. Louis de Montfort, in January of 2012, it really "took". Giving her everything is so powerful - the grace from every Mass, every rosary, every sacrifice goes directly to her, and is distributed where she knows it needs to go. Now that I'm older and wiser, it comforts me to know that it all goes into her hands, not a drop lost, and multiplied beyond imaging. I've been such a grace-waster. (Can't be trusted with grace any more than I can be trusted with money!) Since my "real" consecration", I've seen clearly that she, like the Lord, will not be out-done in generosity. She has cleared away "weeds" that I've struggled with for years. I love your exercise of "dying to self" in little ways each day. That's a wonderful way to frame it.
You're thinking too hard, Jimmy! Here's a trick - every time you notice doubts rolling around that busy mind of yours, flip it into a prayer. Doubting prayers are fine - the Lord loves to hear from us. (Also, this is spiritual judo - it will turn you into a warrior!)
I was in Lubbock also on the feast of the Assumption in 1988! I was able to view the sun and I tested it for a long time. You knew it was miraculous because when you looked away there was no after image. Now I did see pink for several hours later but was fine the next day. Everyone I went with saw the sun miracle except one granny. This was right about the time I first learned of Medjugorje, what a blessing. See our paths have already crossed! God Bless!
Interesting Bernadette. I did see an after image of some sort. I mean everything looked darker kind of until my eyes adjusted. I did see that same pink for hours later like you. It was gone by next day also.
Wow! So great to "meet" you again. I remember thinking, while I watched the sun spinning, "This isn't possible! I've got to be frying my corneas!" An old lady told us earlier in the day, "The sun's going to spin," and I thought she was an outpatient from a mental hospital. OK - I found this picture from the feast of the assumption / Lubbock, 1988. Look at the girl in the white gown and hood. On close inspection, I can't see her shadow, and I can't see her feet. She's so tall! So that's the beautiful girl who gave me the money! (She gave other people envelopes with money as well. From the stories I heard, they were people who had spent their own money to get other people there.)
