On this Feast of the Visitation, the Founder of Caritas of Birmingham, a Friend of Medjugorje, was with Marija at her home in Milan, Italy. He had gone to visit Marija and her family while he desired to spend a few days of prayer and retreat and be with Our Lady in Her apparitions as he felt Our Lady was leading Caritas’ mission to a new level of responsibility. On his last day, he asked Marija if she would ask Our Lady to pray over him in the apparition. When Marija made this request, Our Lady immediately spoke this message:
After the apparition, without saying anything to a Friend of Medjugorje, Marija got up to find paper and a pen and began writing. A Friend of Medjugorje realized that Our Lady had given a message. He was deeply moved when Marija told him the message was for himself, his family and the Caritas Community. Though for years he had been around the apparitions and many times received messages, never had he experienced Our Lady giving an individual a message without being prompted by a question first, and then, too, of the many who asked, rarely an answer was given. This message he understood, by a special grace during the apparition, was a clear mandate; that Our Lady had brought this mission and community to a special point by trials and the purifying fire of tribulations in order to now be used by Her in a special way.
