Our Lady Will “Show” You

One of the first priests that the founder considered to help spiritually manage the mission had been on several pilgrimages to Medjugorje with BVM Caritas in 1988. Though a friendship had started between the priest and the founder, and the priest was a strong believer in Medjugorje, he was tragically killed in early 1989, much to everyone’s shock…

In the same time period, during the apparitions in his home in 1988 and 1989, the founder and his family became very close friends to Fr. Larry, a 40-year-old Franciscan priest. Fr. Larry was young, energetic, deeply devoted to Our Lady and seemed the perfect fit for Caritas. He was enthusiastic about Caritas, its mission and working with the founder. The bishop of the Birmingham Diocese at the time, Bishop Raymond Boland, had given permission for Caritas to have a priest move on the site. With that assurance, Fr. Larry was also given permission from his provincial to accept the position.…

One day in late 1989 or early 1990, after being in the Field for hours hearing Confessions, he became chilled and came down with a severe cold. Though healthy and robust at the age of 40, the cold developed into pneumonia. He was admitted to the hospital for 2 ½ weeks with no visitors allowed.… Fr. Larry told a Friend of Medjugorje that Our Lady appeared to him in a dream and said to him that She was going to take him soon. He would not be leaving the hospital. A Friend of Medjugorje, seeing Fr. Larry in the hospital bed, cheerful and with energy, didn’t believe it. Fr. Larry was too healthy and seemed ready to be released. But as a Friend of Medjugorje was leaving, Fr. Larry said, “Remember what I’ve told you.” A little more than a week later, a Friend of Medjugorje’s mother called and said Fr. Larry had died.

A year later, in 1991, a Friend of Medjugorje met an older retired priest, Fr. Donovan, from New Mexico, who was deeply impressed with what was being birthed at Caritas through the direction of a Friend of Medjugorje following Our Lady’s inspirations. In their conversations with each other, they were like kindred spirits and a Friend of Medjugorje felt that he had again found another priest who could step into Caritas and be the spiritual head. He offered Fr. Donovan the position to take over guidance of Caritas and the priest said that he only had to get permission from his provincial, but since he had never been denied any request and his provincial was pro-Medjugorje, it would not be a problem because he was free from any other responsibilities; there was nothing standing in the way… They both placed everything in the Will of God for Caritas, for the Community and for their futures asking in prayer that the Will of God speak through the provincial. The founder and Fr. Donovan were both at peace to allow God to manifest His Will through the provincial, but they were both surprised and a little bewildered when the provincial sent word that he would not give his permission!

Three times this happened, and each time a Friend of Medjugorje kept asking, “God, you don’t want me to run Caritas, do You? I’m not a priest.” But when this third denial happened, a Friend of Medjugorje finally began to recognize what he felt in his heart from the beginning. God did want him to run Caritas. Yet, he also offered it to two separate lay people; everything was blocked. After five attempts, he finally accepted his fate. Though he was the hardest to convince that God wanted him at the helm of Caritas, once he accepted that this was God’s Will for him, he fully embraced his calling, even while he met with much resistance, and continues to do so, primarily because of what he says concerning what he sees in Our Lady’s messages.

From Why and How Did the Community Form?