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"Dear children! Thank you for dedicating all your hard work to God even now when He is testing you through the grapes you are picking. Be assured, dear children, that He loves you and, therefore, He tests you. You just always offer up all your burdens to God and do not be anxious. Thank you for having responded to my call."
Our Lady’s Medjugorje message, October 11, 1984
Both the evening before we departed for Medjugorje and the following morning while trying to get ready to leave were a challenge.. Naturally, when one is preparing for a journey, especially overseas things can get quite hectic and if we are not careful anxiety can often set in rather quickly.. And by nature, I am a panicky person to begin with who get’s stressed easily.. I’m getting much better at dealing with it though.. lol.. So on the eve of our departure as I did a last minute sweep of everything packed I suddenly realized that my passport was missing.. “Okay, no big deal.. It’s got to be around here somewhere.” I thought..
I was sure it was sitting in my desktop odds & ends tray right by my computer where I always keep it. Yet, it was not there. I began to search other places. The pockets of all my jackets, the sleeves of the suitcase I used on my last trip, my dresser drawers, under my bed. Nope.. Nothing! By the time I was searching the cupboards in the kitchen which was a ridiculous thought that it would even be there it finally occurred to me to say a prayer to St. Anthony asking him to help me.. and I remembered a little prayer the same sweet lady named Evelyn who made it possible for me to go to Medjugorje the first time had taught me last year, So I began, “Good St. Anthony, I need your help! Something's lost and can't be found, please St. Anthony, look around. Dear St. Anthony, I pray, bring it back without delay.”
No sooner had I said this and I was given a thought.. Call Louise and Curtis! It’s in Curtis’ car.. I had used Curtis’ car to visit in the States just weeks earlier so it made perfect sense that it would be there, even though the thought was far from my cluttered mind in my panic to prepare for this journey.. I picked up the phone and called over at my sisters.. Curtis answered the phone and honored my request to search his car.. He didn’t have to search too deep.. It was right there in the console! I sighed in relief.. Praise God!
I had slept in a little bit and awoke around 8:30am Monday morning.. No need to rush though it should seem as by bedtime last night everything was pretty much packed and in order.. I did have some printing to do.. Now a days when you fly they give you an itinerary online to bring to the airport.. You do not get your boarding passes until you arrive at the airport.. So I needed to print up the itinerary to bring with me. Well, of course the printer had to be out of ink.. lol.. and the new ink cartridge was being rejected by the printer itself.. Another moment of anxiety.. I spent the next hour fussing with the machine until finally I threw up my arms in haste and with a tone of self pity in my voice pleaded to Our Blessed Mother, “What do you want me to do! I thought you wanted me to come to Medjugorje!” She must have been laughing at the silliness of my panicky mood because suddenly the thought occurred to me that Greg has a computer in his office he uses daily.. There was absolutely no need for me to panic… I went downstairs and two minutes later I had the itinerary in my hands..
There were three of us from Canada on this pilgrimage. The rest of the pilgrims were from the Chicago Illinois to Green Bay Wisconsin area of the United States. By 3:30pm Monday we were on our way.. At least the three of us from Canada. Two ladies, my friend Barb and another named Elizabeth, and myself boarded a United Airlines flight in Detroit and were in Chicago O’ Hare airport 15 minutes later.. Well, sort of.. The duration of the flight itself was 1 hour and fifteen minutes but because of the time change we arrived only 15 minutes later.. I thought that was kind of neat! lol..
Soon we found our departing terminal to head to Frankfurt Germany.. A few Chicago area pilgrims were already there.. As I entered the gate area I first spotted a very familiar face.. It was Fr. Peter Mary Rookey, a well known healing priest, who has a ministry called the International Compassion Healing Ministry.. Us three Canadians walked over and greeted Fr. Rookey and those who were with him, including a secretary in his ministry named Sara who was looking after him. Sara asked me to sit next to Fr. Rookey while she tended to some things at the desk.
This was my very first opportunity to converse with this beautiful holy priest. I sat down in the seat next to Fr. Rookey as Barb, standing near us introduced me to him. It became very clear from the very first moment that this wonderful man also possessed a wonderful sense of humor.. He introduced himself as a rookie priest.. He is 93 years old.. lol.. Then he asked me where I was from? So I replied, “Father, I’m from Canada.” His eyes widened.. “Oh Canada.. my father was born in Canada. What part of Canada do you come from John?” I replied “That would be Detroit Canada Father.” lol.. and so we shared a good chuckle upon our first meeting.. Soon, the entire pilgrim group was with us in the boarding gate area and we were on the big Boeing 777 to Frankfurt Germany..
