Reconciling Our Families – Caritas December 2009

Today, as the Five Days of Prayer continued at Caritas, the Bedroom of Apparitions was opened for pilgrims to visit. In this Bedroom, Our Lady of Medjugorje has appeared more than 150 times. January 26, 1989 was the last apparition that took place in the Bedroom the first time the visionary Marija had come to visit. It ended a 2 ½ month stay when Marija had come to donate one of her kidneys to her brother in an operation that took place in a Birmingham, Alabama hospital. Thousands of pilgrims from all across the country had come to Birmingham to be in the presence of Our Lady in these special apparitions. A few days before Marija left to return to Italy and then onto Medjugorje, one pilgrim had brought the family 13 dozen roses as a gift to Our Lady. The founder of Caritas and his wife took the flowers and arranged them on the bed just as you see in the pictures below, to say farewell to Our Lady, in what became a very emotional goodbye. Each of these past 16 years since we began opening the Bedroom for pilgrims to pray during the five days of prayer, we have arranged the Bed in exactly the same way as it was seen on January 26, 1989. It is difficult to comprehend that was over 20 years ago. The presence of Our Lady is strongly felt in the Bedroom and many who come to pray here consecrate their own families to Our Lady from this “altar” of the family. 

On January 25, 1989 Medjugorje visionary Marija received Our Lady’s message for the world in the Bedroom, which was the day before she was leaving to return home. In light of the fact that during these apparitions Our Lady had requested a community to begin here of people who would come together to live Her messages, it has been very meaningful over the years to meditate upon the words of Our Lady in prayer of what it was She desired to form here.

January 25, 1989

“Dear children, today I am calling you to the way of holiness. Pray that you may comprehend the beauty and the greatness of this way, where God reveals Himself to you in a special way. Pray that you may be open to everything that God does through you so that in your life you may be enabled to give thanks to God and to rejoice over everything that He does through each individual. I give you my blessing. Thank you for your response to my call.”

Below picture: On Christmas night, 1988, Our Lady appeared in the loft that you see behind this beautiful Christmas display, of the home of the founder of Caritas, with the newborn Baby Jesus in Her arms. Our Lady’s theme throughout all the years of appearing in this home is about “family” and “holiness” and bringing the two together.

July 24, 1986

“…Let your family be a place where holiness is born…”

Picture below: Pilgrims wanting to pray in the Bedroom of Apparitions were greeted with the warmth of the lights shining forth from the house that Our Lady of Medjugorje has appeared in many, many times over the past 20 years.