I got the February 1986 Reader’s Digest. I would read it cover to cover at night when everyone was in bed. 

I turned the page, and my life changed in that moment. “A Village Sees the Light,” a story about Medjugorje. I stood up like, “Why isn’t anybody telling us about this?” I couldn’t believe it.

I was very timid. I didn’t like to talk around people I didn’t know. You could’t get me to do it. I’d have my daughter in my arms, and I would stand behind my mother and let her answer questions from people I didn’t know. 

I called my priest the next day, I called the office, and I said, “Can I meet with him? I need to talk to him about something?” It was very out of character for me to do that. 

I went that evening to see him. 24 hours had not gone by, and I showed him. I was like, “Father, look at this! Can you believe this?” He looked at me, and he laughed. He said, “We don’t believe in that stuff anymore.” 

I remember thinking, “Oh you poor thing,” because I knew he was wrong, and I knew this was right with every fiber of my being. 

Within six weeks, I was living in Louisville, Kentucky. We had been transferred. I didn’t know anyone there, but I knew that I had this desire. As soon as we got situated, I started going to daily Mass because this was fascinating to me. There was no internet. There were no cell phones. There was nothing that you could possibly do to find out about Medjugorje at that time. 

One night, I was locked in the church. I just went to make a visit, and the priest locked the doors and went on his way. I was just pouring out my love to the Lord. When you fall in love with somebody, you want to know everything about them. I wanted to know everything about Him, and I wanted Him to know everything about me. 

Then He spoke to me, interiorly, it was not audible, but it was very distinctly Him. I said, “Jesus, I love You,” and He said, “I’d like you to do something for me.”

It went right into my heart, and I said, “Anything, Lord.”

I’ll never forget His voice. Jesus said to me, “I want you to meet My mother.” When you’re falling in love with someone and they say this to you, you know your relationship is going into a whole new direction. It was so beautiful of Him, and I could never have come up with that. 

The next morning, I went to Mass. This fire had been lit in my heart. There was nothing that could suppress it. It was not going out. It was just going to grow. I go to Mass, I didn’t know anybody, and this little old lady comes up to me and says, “Honey, I know you don’t know me, but I feel like I need to give you this book.” It was the Medjugorje gray book. It was all the homilies and everything. 

The next day, I go and another person says, “I don’t know you, but I feel like you should have this.” Everybody is giving me all these books about Medjugorje, and I don’t know that I even knew how to pronounce it at that time.

Then I started realizing there are newsletters out there. I started reading anything and everything I could get, any book I could find. It all just came to me. It had to have been a miraculous thing. It was a time of grace. My heart was on fire. 

I couldn’t get enough Mass, enough Adoration, enough Rosary, enough scripture. The whole universe was opening up to me. My whole life had meaning and purpose, and everything was alive. I received an infusion of grace. 

I started telling people about it. Before you know it, they’re asking me to come to their homes and inviting people for these talks. Then parishes would invite me to come and give a talk on Medjugorje. 

Here is timid me. All of a sudden, my tongue had been loosed. “We cannot refrain from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” That’s Acts 4:19. I understood that. I had that flame in my heart and nothing could put it out.

I remember going to a priest at my parish, and I said, “Father, what is this?” I’m pointing to my chest. I thought he could see it. I thought it was just radiating out there everywhere. He looked at me funny and I thought, “He doesn’t know what I’m talking about.” What was this fire? It wouldn’t go away. 

I’ve come to realize, even then I knew, this wasn’t for me. It was for building up the Church and letting people know about Our Lady. God is opening Heaven and allowing Our Lady to come forth every night from Heaven. 

“I am the Queen of Peace. The King of Peace has sent me to help you.”

She came to help us. We need Her. 

I remember one time, a nun was talking about something going on in South America, and I said, “Oh I hear Our Lady is appearing there.” 

She turned on me and said, “I guess you think that’s what we need.”

I said, “Well apparently God does because He sent Her.” I was so free to speak. I had no timidity anymore. It was gone.