June 15, 2006 Dear Children of Medjugorje, Praised be Jesus and Mary! 1 – Fr. Don Calloway in Medjugorje Many know about the wonderful conversion of Don Calloway from delinquency to priesthood (see PS 1). He is now posted in Steubenville,

June 15, 2006

Dear Children of Medjugorje,

Praised be Jesus and Mary!

1 – Fr. Don Calloway in Medjugorje

Many know about the wonderful conversion of Don Calloway from delinquency to priesthood (see PS 1). He is now posted in Steubenville, as the vocations director for his community, Marians of the Immaculate Conception. At the beginning of June, Fr. Don was visiting Medjugorje. He answered a few of my questions:

Sr. Em: When you go on mission, how do you find the people of God today?

Fr. Don: Everywhere I see that the family is very much under attack and many people are indifferent to the Faith. I can’t even imagine what is happening in the heart of Our Lady, seeing the young generation growing up knowing almost nothing about the faith.

In my travelling and speaking, I assume that nobody knows anything about the faith. I start from the basics, lay the foundation and then build on that. So many of them are not getting this from their parish. Some of the convents I have been to are so New Age, feminist, ecological, more concerned with trees or whatever. It is unbelievable. I got kicked out of a Catholic High school in the Carribean because they were promoting contraception and I was preaching against it.

I think that in many ways the people who need the message of Medjugorje the most are the priests, because often the way that they are preaching is not communicating the solid stuff. The people are just like sheep without a shepherd. They don’t know where to go so they are going to anyone who is calling out to them. It is bad in the parishes, in the schools, the Catholic universities, in the diocese, in the chancelleries, etc. The smoke of Satan has crept in to so many areas.

SE: Do you mean that Our Lady failed in Medjugorje? After 25 years we should see the world be converted and be reconciled. Such was the plan she expressed from the very beginning. Has this plan failed?

FD: I think we have failed her; we have ignored her requests. She is saying ‘I need your prayers, I need your sacrifices.’ Fasting is an example. Yes, it is difficult, but it seems that we reject this part of the message. Then we have wars and all kinds of problems in the family, the diocese, convents, parishes, and still nobody is fasting, or so few. I think that the influence of the world is so strong that the sacrificial element of living the Gospel is too difficult for most people. We want instant. Everything has to be now.

I think we are failing Our Lady in a certain sense. I think that we are trying to come up with our own ways to make things better, but they are human ways. They are not ways of sacrifice. The Mother of the Prophets is ignored. The world hates prophets and tries to silence them. You can almost see Our Lady, the Mother of Prophets, crying. It is the same for the priests. When the priests want to preach the Gospel powerfully, almost immediately they are taken away from their parish and put out in the country where they have a parish of ten people. The persecution is great. The evil is strong. I think that Jesus and Mary are looking for victim souls. They want victim souls, people who continue the sacrifice of Christ for the world. There are so few people who offer themselves for this.

SE: Have you found places which give you hope for the future?

FD: Actually yes, within the belly of the beast so to speak. In the United States there is a new generation of priests coming ! They are zealous, they are on fire, many of them have had some kind of conversion experience. Most of them have struggled with something, but through John Paul II, through a World Youth Day, through a Marian apparition, they come back to the faith and live an intimate relationship with Jesus and Mary. Now the seminaries in the US are being filled up with these zealous men. There is a whole new generation coming in, what I call the John Paul II Generation. They were formed by that holy man and now they are going to be the ones who are taking the lead. I think Our Lady is secretly forming this army that the world can’t see, and if the world could see it they would hate it. At some point, they are going to be the ones to lead the charge for the battle.

SE: Father, your community is very involved in the Divine Mercy as revealed to Sr. Faustina. Can you explain how Medjugorje is connected with Divine Mercy ?

FD: Divine Mercy and the events of Medjugorje both really came upon the scene about the same time. You can think about Faustina whose work began in the 30s but was banned for many years. Only with the Pontificate of John Paul II did it become approved, and then it started strong and went everywhere. In the same way, at the beginning of the Pontificate of JP II, Medjugorje starts.

These realities are, in my opinion, the two crucial elements of the New Evangelization. You have to tell the people things that will shake them up. This takes a revelation, something out of the ordinary. Medjugorje and the Divine Mercy is the ‘one-two punch’ for the spiritual life today! That is basically what I tell people: The Rosary and the Chaplet of Mercy. God is offering us these things from heaven.

SE: The merciful Christ speaks of a time of mercy and the Queen of Peace speaks of a time of grace. These two words, mercy and grace, have the same root in Croatian!

FD: The Holy Spirit is definitely doing something through the New Evengelization. The whole world is ready to be re-evangelized. When you want to make something grow in the field, you put manure on it. Within the last fifty years that is what has happened in the Church: it has been stinky, it has been a mess. But when the new springtime comes it will be beautiful!

SE: Our Lady is gathering a people willing to be dedicated to her, just like the Lord, Who changed the world with twelve men. This He can do again ! Fruitfulness does not depend upon numbers but on holiness. Then there is hope.

FD: Exactly! As the vocations director for our community (MIC), I see that we are getting good vocations. They are part of the new generation. They want orthodoxy, they want faithfulness, they are open to Medjugorje, because they have seen the fruit. God is at work, we just have to wait and trust.

2 – All the Gifts are at Hand

It is true that today’s world is seeking peace but does not know where to find peace! Now, having Divine Peace, the Shalom, means to be complete, to be filled. Is there anything that we are missing ?

Well, let me share here some luminous words that Jesus gave to Marthe Robin, the French mystic who lived the Passion for 50 years, until her death in 1981. Jesus revealed to her that for each year, each nation, each soul in this world, He had placed in the huge garden of the Church a complete treasury of His infinite merits, in order to meet all needs. Through these gifts, we have everything necessary to take care of all issues, to attend to all miseries, to satisfy all souls, and to provide for all atonement. If things are dark, it is because we neglect the given graces, we refuse them, we sometimes even look down on them, and reject them. Then we find ourselves as if the graces had never been given.

Marthe was emphasizing that these graces are given in overabundance. Remember the Wedding at Cana where, after the miracle of Jesus, the quantity of good wine far exceeded the needs! There is such an overabundance of these graces that, if we accepted them, there would be enough to raise up all peoples, to sanctify all men even those who have fallen the lowest, and to free all souls from Purgatory.

Seeing the gifts of God offered in vain, Marthe could also see the serious responsibility of the Church Militant with its carelessness and numerous betrayals. Jesus made her understand that this is why He has allowed the enemies of the Church to oppress her. (This is just like what happened to the people of Israel when they were not faithful to the true God!) Marthe offered herself to make atonement; she prayed day and night, and joined her sufferings to those of Christ.

Our Mother’s comings to Medjugorje constitute a great part of the gifts offered by God to our generation. I can’t help asking two questions:

-What would the world be like today if we had accepted and lived the messages?!

-What will the world be like if, on this very day, each one of us decides to begin or resume walking on the way to holiness, guided by the hand of Mary ?

3 – The 25th Anniversary is Approching!

Today, start the novena for the Anniversary, from June 16 – 24. What an amount of graces are in store ! Thank you for the letters that many of you have already sent to the Gospa (see report of May 15) and also for the Masses celebrated everywhere for her intentions. In Medjugorje we go to pray on Podbrdo everyday during the novena, and we will carry you up with us.

You will find a beautiful novena here: www.medjugorje.org/anniversarynovena.htm

4 – Mirjana Tells Us

On June 2, the visionary Mirjana Soldo received her monthly apparition at the Cenacle. She said that the Gospa did not give any classic message. She blessed all the people present and our religious articles. Her face was serious when she emphasized again the importance of the priest’s blessing:

“Remember, children of mine, that it is my Son blessing you. Do not accept it so lightly.”

Mirjana added that the Gospa talked to her about things that are to happen and also said to her:

“There is no way without my Son. Do not think that you will have peace and joy if you do not have Him in the first place.”

Mirjana stated, “I can’t say that the Gospa was sad or joyful. She was preoccupied, her face showed loving care. “

Happy Anniversary, dearest Gospa! May this day of grace be for you a cause of joy,and for us, a day of your Visitation!

Sr. Emmanuel +

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PS 1 –

Marians of the ImmaculateConception

Eden Hill

Stockbridge, MA 01262

Phone: (413) 298-3931

Fax: (413) 298-0207

Father Donald Calloway’s Incredible Testimony is available on CD, DVD and VHS through www.childrenofmedjugorje.com as well as through www.marytv.tv.

PS 2 – The French version of Sr. Emmanuel’s new book, The Hidden Child of Medjugorje, will be published next month by Editions des Beatitudes, www.editions-beatitudes.fr. The Italian version will be available on June 25 at Shalom Editrice, Ancona, Italy, www.editriceshalom.it.

The translations into English, Spanish, Portuguese, Flemish, Croatian, German, Polish versions are progressing. In order to allow the American copy to be available sooner, Sr. Emmanuel is seeking an experienced bilingual translator who can translate from the French version.

PS 3 – The visionary, Ivan, finished building a prayer room in his garden in Medjugorje. We know that he allows priests to come and attend his daily apparitions preceded by the prayer of the Rosary.

PS 4 – At the beginning of this month, our sending out of the message from Mirjana’s apparition was an exception. From now on, the messages of the 2nd day will be, as usual, in the monthly report and on our website : www.childrenofmedjugorje.com.