From the time I was 21 until the time I was 35, I wasn’t practicing my faith. I had a reversion experience that brought me back to the Church.

My dad had just finished the book by Wayne Weible, Medjugorje: The Message. He said, “Have you heard what’s been going on over in Yugoslavia?”

I said, “Yeah, it’s horrible. The war that’s going on.”

He said, “No, actually, did you know that Our Blessed Mother has been appearing there?”

I had this reaction like Scooby-Doo from the cartoon, like “What?!” 

He gave me the book. Normally, takes me a while to go through a book. I’ll read maybe the first seven chapters and put it down and I won’t get back to it for a while. That book I devoured in about two days.

At that time, I had no intention of becoming a priest. I had just come back to the Church. I thought I was going to get married. The woman that I was dating at the time was the first person who really brought God into our relationship. I was intent on becoming a married man in the Church. 

The more I began reading the messages, the more it made sense to me that God was calling me to something a lot deeper. I read Medjugorje: The Message, Medjugorje: The Mission, The Letters of Medjugorje. 

It wasn’t until after I was ordained for a full year that I came to Medjugorje for the first time. 

I began living the messages of praying the Rosary, fasting, reading the scripture, going to confession, and going to Mass. The focus was all on God. 

A short time after this began to happen, my brother-in-law’s oldest brother died in a freak accident. It bothered me because he was somebody that I identified with. We were both about the same age, oldest in the family. He was married and had kids. He had a child on the way when he died.

It bothered me so much that I was in prayer asking, “Lord, why would you allow this to happen? Here’s a guy who was a good husband and father and gave so much to the community. He had so much to offer.”

It was like a voice said to me, “Well what do you have to offer?”

My first thought was, “Well…I asked you first.”

I was thinking, “I don’t want to become a priest.” My second thought was, “Wait. Why would I say that?” Because I had never thought of this before. Never in my life had I considered being a priest. 

For the next few weeks, that’s all I could think about. 

I remember going to a Mass and thinking, “Who do I talk to about this? I have these thoughts about becoming a priest, but I have no idea who to talk to.”

At the end of the Mass, the priest said, “By the way, if anyone is considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, please come see me after Mass.”

Obviously, I have to go respond. I went to the residency of the priests there and knocked on their door. That priest answered the door, and I said, “Hi. You had mentioned that if anyone is considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, please come see you.”

He said, “Oh, I didn’t know anybody was listening.” 

He put me in contact with the archdiocese of Los Angeles. It was a process of discerning over that next year. I was allowed in the following year. It was a nine year process of formation in the seminary, one year in internship. I was ordained at the age of 46. That was in 2005. 

I went to Medjugorje in 2006. I had no idea what to expect, but even the first visit I was like, “Man, my head is swimming! This is just amazing, all the things that are taking place.” It was fantastic. 

Every time I come here, I learn something new. Every time I talk to somebody about their experience, I’m hearing something new from them. There is something that is going to affect the way I perceive, not only my ministry, but myself and my relationship with my faith. 

I’ll hear confessions daily and hear what people are going through. Everyone is going through a conversion experience, some people very profoundly, some people it’s like they barely turned on the faucet so it’s dripping out a little bit at a time, but there are some people who are completely affected to the point where they’re like, “Let me give myself completely to God.”

People who have come over here not really understanding the faith, once they do allow themselves to be affected by the message, they do at least make an effort to change the way that they’re perceiving their faith or the way that they’re perceiving God or especially the way that they’re perceiving Our Blessed Mother.

In every part of my ministry as a priest, I see how important my connection to Our Blessed Mother is. It’s essential. If I’m going to be doing anything in the name of Jesus, as someone who is standing in the place of Christ in the sacramental life of the Church, then I have to make Her truly my mother. 

If Jesus trusted in Her completely and would do exactly what She’s asking Him to do, then I’ve got to do the same thing. 

I can’t say I’ve been perfect in that, but I see that if I’m going to do things right, especially for the Church that Christ founded, then I have to accept truly that She is my Mother, therefore I have to continue to ask for Her intercession.