What you see here is approximately 26 people (community), skilled labor, working to ready a pad for the foundation of a support building for the mission. The average skilled laborer is paid $26.00 an hour. The combined cost of 26 people for one hour’s labor alone would be $676.00, or stated another way, $11.27 per minute.
by a Friend of Medjugorje
December 11, 2023 A.D.
Dear Friends of Our Lady,
Our Lady just said on November 25, 2023:
“…the world…does not have hope…”
What do those words really mean? Is it “maybe”? A bluff? Of Our Lady’s six words, two of them show clearly what they mean: “DOES NOT.” Ask yourself a question: Will the world we live in continue as it is now? Because we follow Our Lady, does that mean we will not suffer through the chastisements? On November 6, 1982, Our Lady said:
“…it is not possible to avoid entirely the chastisement…”
Every man upon the earth will come through some type of purification. The world cannot escape what will happen. Whatever it will be, Our Lady has called us to help mitigate the chastisements. How? You must renew yourself. Our Lady said:
June 6, 1988
“…I ask you to renew in yourselves the messages…These are messages of ‘prayer,’ ‘peace,’ ‘fasting,’ and ‘penance’… ‘ALL’ of the other messages come from ‘these four basic ones’…”
The above message was so important that Our Lady, the very next week, on June 13, 1988, duplicated the exact message saying once again to renew “prayer,” “peace,” “fasting,” and “penance,” as ALL other messages come from these four basic ones. Have we put this message into our lives as Our Lady asks?
We, who love Our Lady, have not responded enough in our witness to annihilate evil, not even to slow its growth. Our Lady dearly desires to mitigate the chastisements. After 42 years of apparitions, our witness should have at least stalled evil and, thereby, lessened the chastisements. Many Medjugorje followers are at fault for ignoring the evil that has grown right in our faces, for not fully listening to God through what Our Lady is saying and asking.
There must be a total giving to Our Lady. What does that total giving mean? It means giving your life totally to Our Lady and to Her words that come directly from Her lips. It is an annihilation of self by the means of prayer, peace, fasting and penance. By doing these four things, miracles can be given to you. During the three-month stay of Marija in our home, with daily apparitions, there was no resistance to the thousands coming and going, daily and nightly. Who were we to deny and stop the flood of those who wanted to be with Our Lady?
But Our Lady had already been working in my heart. Our Lady gave a profound message, February 25, 1988, that radically impacted me. Our Lady gave this message nine months (birth) before She began Her apparitions in our home.
February 25, 1988
“…. sacrifice your lives for the salvation of the world…”
We gave and abandoned everything to Our Lady for three months. We gave Our Lady our home completely. The day before Marija was to leave (she was leaving on January 26th), the last 25th monthly message of her visit was given in our home. In that message, Our Lady said:
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 having responded to my call.”
This message is a summation of three beautiful months of conversion and the planting of a major plan, a new outlet for Our Lady to propagate Her messages to the world. In Our Lady’s last apparition in the Bedroom, Our Lady said:
January 26, 1989
“Dear children, I desire that your lives become prayer.”
Our Lady ended the apparition (January 26, 1989) with the same message She first began in the Bedroom:
November 20, 1988
“May your life be prayer…”
It was clear, through the three months of Our Lady’s presence, that Our Lady desired something to unfold that She was initiating. Marija said that Our Lady was always very happy here in every apparition. Going back to the February 25, 1988, message:
“…sacrifice your lives for the salvation of the world…”
Are those words meant to be taken literally? Our Lady is calling us to give everything—ourselves, our possessions, and whatever condition in our lives we are in, good or bad—everything is to be used to glorify God.
Surely Our Lady is not asking for everything, 100%. Is She? Yes, that is exactly what She is asking of us, to glorify God with our very lives.
Surely Our Lady is not asking for everything, 100%. Is She? Yes, that is exactly what She is asking of us, to glorify God with our very lives.
EVERYTHING
Ask yourself the question: Have you given your all? What is your answer? We, in community, voluntarily and willingly give our lives for the propagation of Medjugorje to the world. But Our Lady does not force you to do 100% of what She asks. It is your choice to decide. Our Lady said in a message to Medjugorje visionary, Vicka:
Undated
“Do you want to offer yourself, also, for the salvation of the world? I need your sacrifices.”
This question formed by Our Lady is a Yes or No message. Yes, Our Lady hopes and is expecting 100% from us. However, very, very, very few of Her children have done so.
All this that you just read is laid before you to help you spiritually analyze yourself. But one can justify themselves because Our Lady always says, “Thank you for having responded to my call.” Yet, the Medjugorje world has not done completely what Our Lady has asked through the last four decades filled with messages. Ask yourself this question: Has all of mankind, including Medjugorje followers, gone more towards wanting the glitter of satan? Our Lady said:
August 2, 2005
“Dear children, I have come to you with open arms, to take you all into my embrace, under my mantle. I cannot do this while your heart is filled with false glitters and false idols…”
In the Medjugorje world, one would think that Our Lady is winning against satan. But is that true? For 42 years, satan has grown his army compared to Our Lady’s army. To support my words written here, I state to you: the chastisements will be the purification of what we, Her children, have not yet fully divested ourselves of. Few, very few, have purified themselves of the world’s ways. Many messages reveal these things and ways of the world: consumerism and modernism, all of which shackles, and enslaves us. All this is summarized in Our Lady’s September 25, 2023, monthly message.
September 25, 2023
“… I am calling you to strong prayer. Modernism wants to enter into your thoughts and steal from you the joy of prayer…little children, renew prayer in your families, so that my motherly heart may be joyful as in the first days, when I had chosen you, and day and night prayer resounded — and Heaven was ‘not’ silent…”
You, who have dedicated your lives to Our Lady, along with we in community, as well as those of you who are in unity with and support the community, are small in number. But numbers do not limit us in propagating Our Lady’s messages through your and our witness. The Navy SEALs fulfill their mission with only six men.
“There must be a total giving to Our Lady. What does that total giving mean? It means giving your life totally to Our Lady and to Her words that come directly from Her lips…” – Friend of Medjugorje
Our 2024 Community Plea
Tobit 12:8-9
“Prayer with fasting is good, but better than both is almsgiving with righteousness…For almsgiving saves from death and purges away every sin. Those who give alms will enjoy a full life.”
A Personal Note
From a Friend of Medjugorje
As you know, Caritas of Birmingham is operated by those of us who live here at Caritas. We, as individuals, make many sacrifices for the sake of the mission of Caritas. We are happy to do it, as it is our wish to do so, as it is the wish of Our Lady to find souls who will be missionaries of Her messages and give all.
We, in community, have dedicated our lives to a religious vocation. On December 13, 1988, just after Our Lady ended the apparition in the Bedroom, Marija turned to me and said, Our Lady wants a community “here.” It is a major and profound call to establish a community asked for by the Queen of Heaven. Marija shared my surprise that Our Lady would ask such a thing, as to have a community formed here. The Community must have provisions and necessities of life. The machine of The Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages, its presses, its shipping, and many other operations are fueled by the Community.
While we make pleas throughout the year for the mission, in which we designate many more reasons in which to give, we will not do so on behalf of the Community members. We, instead, make one simple plea for a donation for the year. This donation goes toward strengthening the Community to become more and more self-sufficient, so as not to rely on and burden Caritas of Birmingham. This efficiency was installed when Caritas of Birmingham was founded. It is why Caritas has been able to not only maintain, while so many missions are struggling, but actually expand our work!
The philosophy of my business was instituted in the Community of Caritas. It is not for short term subsistence, but long term. One principle we live by is, NO DEBT. If God doesn’t send the funds we need, we won’t borrow, but will pray and wait until God gives it. We, therefore, ask for a generous donation, for the year 2024, whether it’s $1.00 or thousands. It will help us to continue to build up Caritas of Birmingham and the Community, so we can be ready when the whole world will go on its knees as a result of the release of the three Secrets. Millions of materials will be demanded by hungry souls across the world. The devil will still try, even with the Secrets, to divert and block conversion and Our Lady’s messages. Every step we take is to produce and propagate the materials that will feed souls, the souls who will be starving for Our Lady’s way of life. For years, we have testified of these beautiful conversions. This Christmas, please consider a once-a-year generous gift offering to the Community of Caritas, so that the rest of next year we can continue operating the mission of Caritas.
There are many causes and annual fundraisers for organizations. Every year their goal is increased, but not ours. How is it that we have only raised our annual goal two times—in 2002 and 2015. With the current inflation, one would understand Caritas would have to do the same again with its constant growing and expansion. Yet, for 8 years we have not asked to raise the goal for the community. The Annual Community of Caritas Plea will remain $200,000.00 as its goal for 2024. We manage funds in a way that we can say we operate by “deflation.” How can that be? Inflation eats away the dollar. So how can we go the opposite way? The U.S. Inflation Calculator measures the dollar’s buying power over time.
In 2015, we increased our Community Plea to $200,000.00. With inflation rising since 2015, our annual plea should increase to almost $60,000.00 more. However, as stated, we will not be increasing our plea. It will remain at $200,000.00. The loss of $60,000.00 rounded off leaves only $140,000.00 purchasing power out of the $200,000.00 goal. How can the community take such a loss through inflation and not raise our goal? I’ve guided Caritas to operate the opposite way of other nonprofits and organizations.
Our Secret in Expanding
With Radical Inflation
When you donate to the Community, you will be giving more money than you give. How? When we built The Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages, instead of hiring a contractor to do the excavation, we took the donations gifted to us and purchased equipment such as a bulldozer, a trackhoe and many other pieces of heavy equipment. In expanding Caritas of Birmingham, instead of giving a check to an excavation company, we gave the check to the Caterpillar equipment dealer. Through the years we did the same, buying equipment to do the work ourselves. For example, to pour concrete for expanding the mission, cement is $100 per yard in Alabama. We purchased a cement truck and a cement plant and can make our own cement here for $50.00 a yard. That means we produce concrete for only 50 cents on the dollar! With other projects or expansions, we may have 5 cents or 10 cents or 20 cents on the dollar.
Without each piece of equipment purchased to build and expand the mission, Caritas would not be anywhere close to where it is now in its ability to feed Our Lady’s messages and feed conversions across the world. This same principle can be seen with the print shop. Caritas could never distribute the number of books, materials, etc., that we do if we had to outsource our printing and pay the overhead to a printing company, delivery costs, etc. With our own printing press, we pay only the cost for the paper and ink and therefore, much of our materials are free. When orders come in bulk to spread materials, we ask only to cover the cost of the paper and offer the material for free.
In Medjugorje, in our Mission House, we have given away millions of different materials across the world of Our Lady’s messages free. How? We could never pay a print shop for the volume produced. Our printshop is almost able to do everything. The inflation chart that follows shows what your donation does for pennies on the dollar. Study the example on the charts on pp.11-12. Whatever project we are doing, be it an addition of The Tabernacle or building the Cross, it is pennies on the dollar. With building the Cross, we made a 3-mile road, needed 50 cement truck loads, cut down the top of the mountain then repacked it for the foundation. We did all this for pennies on the dollar. The Cross was built for $100,000, instead of several million dollars if we had contracted it. This principal of “pennies on the dollar” also extends to our homes in community. Most of our homes are heated with firewood, through which we too save money.
Just like the miracle of the loaves and fishes, where five loaves and two fish are multiplied miraculously to feed 5,000 people, every dollar you give to Caritas is multiplied many times. No debt, no interest, no rent, no purchase with monthly payments and we produce lumber practically free. We are capable of building and producing many other things, all for the mission of Caritas of Birmingham to be able to do what Our Lady birthed this mission for. Our Lady gave a mandate for Her mission of Caritas, birthing and growing a worldwide mission through prayer and sacrifices. Our charter message we go by is:
February 25, 1995
“…I invite you to become missionaries of my messages, which I am giving here through this ‘place’ that is dear to me…I invite you to live…the messages I give and transmit them to the whole world…”
In the Love of Our Lady,
Friend of Medjugorje, COCI
“The philosophy of my business was instituted in The Community of Caritas. It is not for short term subsistence, but long term. One principle we live by is, NO DEBT. If God doesn’t send the funds we need, we won’t borrow, but will pray and wait until God gives it through you…”– Friend of Medjugorje
Inflation System of a World Without God | ||
|---|---|---|
$200,000 | becomes only | $140,000 |
How?
Loss of Dollar Value
+
The Rising Cost of Labor
+
Cost of Equipment
= up to 30% Loss of Purchasing
Power
Versus...
De-flation System of Our Lady and Her Messages | ||
|---|---|---|
$140,000 (of inflated dollars) | becomes up to | $2,800,000 |
How?
Free Missionary Labor, Prayer, Sacrifices & God’s Blessing
+
Equipment Already Purchased
= Up to 20 Times the Purchasing Power
The chart below shows how your donation to the
the Community is multiplied by A Way of Life De-flation ,
to produce more than the inflated dollar’s value.
The chart gives the example of a project that may cost, on the low side, only 5 cents on the dollar to produce without labor & equipment, as well as a project, on the high end, that may cost 50 cents on the dollar for us to produce.
Singular Donation Given to the Community Plea | Cost of Construction Cents on the Dollar Based on Deflation | Your Donation Multiplied by Deflation = Purchasing Power | Total Purchasing Power of the Community’s Goal During Inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
$100.00 | 5¢ | $100.00 Donation | $140,000.00 x 20 |
$100.00 | 50¢ | $100.00 Donation | $140,000.00 x 2 |
Due to inflation, the $200,000.00 plea shrinks to only $140,000.00. The chart above shows what your donations can do, because Caritas was structured to operate at well below cost, even with inflated dollars.
In the example above, a $100.00 donation given to the Community plea becomes a $2,000.00 donation when combined with Caritas’ labor and already paid for equipment, which can complete a project for as little as 5¢ on the dollar vs. an inflated bill from a contractor. If every project in 2024 could be completed for 5¢ on the dollar, it would turn the $140,000.00 of inflated dollars of the Community plea into the purchasing power of $2.8 million. If every project could be completed for 50¢ on the dollar, the $140,000.00 would become $280,000.00 in purchasing power without a decrease in purchasing power from paying contractors.
The chart below shows the cost of building
the Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages,
65,000 square feet.
Actual Cost to Build the Tabernacle by community performing much of the construction using our equipment | Cost to build the Tabernacle based on the National Average in 1993* would have been: | Cost today to build the Tabernacle based on the National Average in 2023*: |
|---|---|---|
$4.5 Million ($69.23 per sq. foot) | $23.6 Million ($363.08 per sq. foot) | $50.3 Million ($773.85 per sq. foot) |
If you were to build The Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages today at the cost of $69.23 per square foot*, you could see that it is greatly undervalued. It is obvious that to build a building like The Tabernacle with the stained-glass, stone work, and hand-carved marble statues, it should cost more than $773.85. Easily, The Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages should cost $1000 per square foot.
* 2022 Guide to US Building Commercial Construction Cost per Square Foot – The cost of the national averages in 1993 and 2023, are based on the median average of the highest and lowest price per square foot. The year 1993, is when the construction of the Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages was begun.
A bridge for pilgrims to walk over the large creek to go to the Cross. We poured the cement, making our own beams with our cement for a bridge, and set with our own crane. This project would have cost us thousands of dollars if we had to hire a contractor. This is part of a project for the Cross. It definitely cost us just 5 cents on the dollar.
“Just like the miracle of the loaves and fishes, where five loaves and two fish are multiplied miraculously to feed 5,000 people, every dollar you give to Caritas is multiplied many times. No debt, no interest, no rent, no purchase with monthly payments and we produce lumber practically free. We are capable of building and producing many other things, all for the mission of Caritas of Birmingham to be able to do what Our Lady birthed this mission for…”– Friend of Medjugorje
The four-story extension of The Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages, including Caritas’ print shop, shipping, and auditorium. Prayer was constant, asking for Our Lady’s help, for safety and for donations to be able to complete the project. This project involved over 20 pieces of industrial equipment. Again, we were able to build this because we did it, pennies on your dollars donated. All for the purpose and the goal to spread Our Lady’s messages and be ready for the release of the three secrets, when people will be begging for material concerning Our Lady’s way of life.
Excavating to build a 3-mile road for access to where the
Cross would be built. All the equipment was paid for. The
Cross was built for pennies on the dollar.
Marija kneeling before the unfinished
Cross. Marija and her family came
in July 2013, when a Friend of
Medjugorje gathered people from
across the country to consecrate
the United States to Our Lady
and the Cross. To a Friend of
Medjugorje’s surprise, Our
Lady, without Marija asking,
told Marija She would go
with the whole community
to the Cross and She would
bless the Cross at the Cross.
He was overjoyed that Our
Lady blessed the Cross that
was still under construction.
The Cross
For the Soul of America
Caritas, Alabama USA
June 29, 2013
June 29, 2013
“Free” lumber beams. They were cut by our labor and milled in our St. Joseph’s carpentry shop. A Friend of Medjugorje has guided the community with the foundation principles of a strong spiritual life and good stewardship, to always use every step in a way of life to propagate Our Lady’s messages.
It is very important to make your donation out to the Community of Caritas.
Your donation is tax exempt under Federal Tax ID # 63-1219612.
(This is different from Caritas of Birmingham.)
If you are sending in your regular donation to Caritas, please make out a second check for your donation to the Community of Caritas. You may send both checks in the same envelope. Thank you.
You can mail your donations to:
Community of Caritas
100 Our Lady Queen of Peace Drive
Sterrett, Alabama 35147 USA
You can also call: 205-672-2000 extension 315
