Medjugorje visionary, Marija, returned with her family to Caritas of Birmingham for a special Five Days of Prayer to celebrate Our Lady’s 2021st birthday, August 5th, with thousands of Her children who, again, traveled from all over the country to be with Her. Caritas’ founder, a Friend of Medjugorje, had for years, prayed for the grace to honor Our Lady on the day She revealed from Medjugorje to be Her true birthday, August 5. For this special event he designed, and the community then built, a life-sized “nativity†of Our Lady’s birth that was unveiled the Eve of Her birthday, lit up by 2021 candles. On Mary’s “Christmas†Eve, August 4, 2005, they prayed a special Rosary meditating on the events of Our Lady’s birth and recalled that different mystics spoke of a violent storm that broke out at the time that St. Anne gave birth to Mary. The next evening, on August 5, Our Lady’s birthday, everyone gathered around the little house of Mary, praying the Rosary and awaiting Our Lady in the apparition. Though the weather was overcast, the sun was still shining. Within the short expanse of praying two Rosaries, dark clouds rolled in from the east (even though storms in this region never come from this direction), while the sun remained shining, going down in the west. Suddenly lightening, thunder, hail, wind and drenching rain assailed everyone in the open Field. Realizing that they were, in some mysterious way, reliving the moment of Our Lady’s birth, everyone’s heart filled with joy. There was no fear. Marija came into the little house of Mary for the apparition and at the very moment she went into ecstasy, a crack of lightening struck so loud it shook the ground and was seen to strike just above the house. Though everyone was drenched, not one person wanted to leave the Field. Marija said that Our Lady, in the apparition, had smiled this evening and that She stayed for an unusually long time. Three angels accompanied Her. She said: “…Do not forget that I am your Mother and I love you.†She then said: “I thank you for the novenas,†referring to the five nine-hour novenas, on August 1-5, that everyone had offered for Her birthday intentions. Our Lady then gave everyone the Special Blessing. It was an experience of a magnitude that all who were present knew they had experienced a supernatural grace, one that they would remember for the rest of their lives.
