June 25, 2012 is the 31^st  anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions in Medjugorje. We thank Our Lady for coming to us for these 31 years.  This is truly a time of grace!

Permission is given to reprint original articles in our newsletters, provided that no wording is changed and that "The Spirit of Medjugorje" is credited. To reprint articles from other sources we have used, permission must be obtained from that particular source. (Sometimes permission is granted only to us for our use.)

Through the Intercession of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Medjugorje,

Badge and a Gun... Traded for a Crucifix

By Penny Abbruzzese

   The subtitle of the Delaware News Journal from July 16, 2011 was, "New priest spent 25 years in law enforcement." The photos in the article showed Anthony Cardone as a State Department Special Agent meeting President Clinton; kissing the hand of Blessed John Paul II; meeting with Nelson Mandela; Special Agent Cardone stationed in Beirut in 1993; and Father Anthony in his clerics just one month after his Ordination on June 18, 2011.

   The path to the priesthood wasn't clear to Fr. Anthony, but it always tugged at his heart. At age nine, he was an altar boy. He also attended Catholic schools and always found mystery and beauty in the Mass. He says if he'd had more courage as a young man, he might have entered the priesthood in his twenties, but he did have the courage to face criminals and guns.    

   Fr. Anthony has had numerous secular jobs. He first served as a flight attendant, then managed buildings in New York before going into law enforcement. He also married and has a daughter, Katie, who is now in her twenties. However, his marriage was not a sacramental one in the eyes of the Church, and it was annulled in the 1990s. His divorce was one of the most difficult periods of his life, and he found Divine Mercy in My Soul, a book by Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, a comfort. "Through the diary you can see God relating with love to His creation," he stated. "I know life is painful and people suffer and there's human weakness, but Jesus wants people to trust in God and seek forgiveness. With God's mercy all things are possible." Today the experience of surviving the death of his marriage and living through the grief of the divorce offers him a rare opportunity as a priest: genuine insight and true compassion, with a better understanding of the human condition.

   I first met Anthony twenty years ago at Fr. Moyna's Sunday night Rosary at St. Raymond's Church with his five year old daughter, Katie, on his shoulders. Back in the later 1990s both  Anthony and 12 year old Katie joined us on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. Throughout the years I would see Anthony at Adoration at a local parish around ten o'clock at night. He would be in his suit and tie, sound asleep, in front of the Blessed Sacrament after a long day at the United States Mission to the United Nations. His devotion to God grew, despite a career fraught with violence and glamour.

   At one point during his 25 years in law enforcement, Anthony went undercover to buy illegal firearms, explosives and drugs for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. As a special agent with the State Department, he made sure diplomacy at home and abroad was conducted safely, coming into contact with a wide range of political, royal and religious figures including the Dalai Lama and Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader.

   Earlier, as a Nassau County probation officer, a New York City police officer, and U.S. treasury agent, Anthony dealt with murderers, thieves and liars. He was well aware that these people needed to be arrested. At the same time, he often felt criminals could use his compassion. He found himself praying for those he booked. "If you have the right attitude, you'll do your job but do it in a loving way," he says. His first partner on the police force says, "He's a person that cares from his heart and takes an interest in you."

   Fr. Anthony’s former partner says he is the same now as when he was a cop. "Even then he had a knack for getting things done peacefully. I used to joke that he was connected. It was amazing how things just happened for him."

   Fr. Anthony says he often saw people's longing to be better people even when they sinned. That's why, while serving in diplomatic security, he once gave a miraculous medal blessed by Pope John Paul II to a war criminal. "This man, who had murdered many, welled up with tears," said Fr. Anthony.

   Fr. Anthony's loving compassion touches family and friends deeply as well.  In Father Moyna's last days, before being called home to Eternity, he was at home with my family, with hospice set up in our dining room. My father-in-law was dying that same week, the end of November, 2006. I was in Florida with my family saying good bye to Michael's father and for his wake and funeral. Fr. Anthony called me each night to give me an update on Fr. Moyna's condition. He visited Father every night after work, bringing him a new sweat suit, a personal DVD player, steak and lobster, etc... I kept on saying... "Anthony, he's dying...why are you spending all this money?" His loving answer and his heart of gold spoke loud and clear... "I want him to be happy; he deserves it!"

   Often, Fr. Cardone has felt God's response to his spiritual needs. In the 1990s on assignment in Beirut, he was confined to a compound, unable to leave for Mass. "I went to my supervisor and he said it was too dangerous to leave and go to church." Still, he longed for Mass and Communion. From the compound he could see a statue of Our Lady through the barbed wire surrounded by machine guns. In prayer, he cried out for Her intercession, and one day a Capuchin priest from Nazareth, home of the Holy Family, came looking for Agent Cardone. The priest began to celebrate Mass almost every day. Anthony could not help but think Our Lady had something to do with this. This priest would later tell  Anthony that when he goes to Medjugorje he should ask the Blessed Mother if She would allow him to be one of Her priests.

   Anthony had wanted to be in Medjugorje for the 2000 Millennium. He said a prayer to Our Lady and was soon ordered to Sarajevo by the U.S. State Department. When he was stationed in Sarajevo he was able to spend almost every weekend in Medjugorje. Not only was he blessed to be in Medjugorje on New Year's Eve, but was able to stay there for a year. Once there, he was given a great privilege to be invited by Fr. Jozo to attend his priests' retreat, which is generally opened only to priests. This made Anthony think even more about the priesthood.

   It was back in 1994 that he was back in Medjugorje during the war days. He was contemplating his vocation and a mutual friend, Phyllis from Long Island, happened to be there at the same time. She didn't know what he was agonizing over, but simply told him... "To ask!" This he did, and was instructed in his heart to lie prostrate and ask... Anthony felt funny in doing so, and he suddenly turned and Phyllis was prostrate. That convinced him to follow her example. He prostrated himself and asked Our Lady if She would allow him to become one of Her priests. Phyllis told him that she was told to lay prostrate and not get up until she prayed for him. As he lay prostrate he was instructed in his heart to get up and kiss the altar. As he kissed the altar, he knew deep within, he was being called to the priesthood.

   In 2006, Anthony entered Blessed John XXIII National Seminary near Boston and it wasn't easy for him, being in his 50s and struggling with his studies. Anthony found an interesting mix of students who had full careers; among them were a former microbiologist, eye doctor, anesthesiologist, pediatrician, federal judge, airline pilot, CIA agent, rocket scientist, veterinarian and several military officers. "Late vocations to the priesthood bring life experience to the priesthood that is valuable to parishes," says Father Allan Fitzgerald, Director of Villanova University's Augustine Institute.

   Fr. Anthony is grateful to Our Lady with all his heart.  Prior to becoming a priest, he thought he would have to give up three favorite hobbies – fishing, boating and surfing.  But he was wrong.  He now finds himself in a parish on the Atlantic coast where there is plenty of fishing, boating and surfing. Looking back over his life, one of his favorite lines is that sometimes he feels like a spoiled child of the Blessed Mother.

   God called Fr. Anthony to His priesthood knowing that at the age of 58, when most are dreaming of retirement, Fr. Anthony is doing God’s Will.  We are in awe of God’s plan for Fr. Anthony and pray that the Will of God be done in all our lives.  All of our dear friends of Our Lady Queen of Peace Prayer Group are so proud of Fr. Anthony, but I think most of all, Fr. Moyna is beaming from above!

Ivan Speaks in Chagrin Falls, Ohio

By June Klins

   People traveled to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, from as far away as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (431 miles) and Toronto, Canada (475 miles) to hear Medjugorje visionary Ivan Dragicevic speak in Holy Angels Catholic Church on April 21, 2012. The large church accommodated 900 people, and it was estimated that there were 150 more people standing.

   Mass began at 5:00 P.M.  The readings for the Vigil Mass almost seemed to have been chosen by Our Lady! The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles ended with the words, “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away (Acts 3:19).” The second reading from the first letter of John began with the words, “My children.” And in the gospel reading, Jesus said, “Peace be with you (Lk 24).” 

   After Mass, the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary were prayed, and at 6:40 P.M., Ivan had his apparition.

People later remarked about how amazed they were at the complete silence during the 10 minute apparition –  that no one coughed or sneezed, that no babies cried, and no fussy children made any noise.  The Rosary was completed after the apparition, and then Ivan spoke.

    Ivan, through his interpreter, recounted the early days of the apparitions for those who were not familiar with the story, interjecting a few humorous anecdotes. He became serious, however, as he spoke about the most important messages of “peace, conversion, coming back to God, praying from the heart, fasting and penance, firm belief, love, forgiveness, Eucharist, Confession, and hope.”  

   Ivan emphasized the importance of renewing our families through prayer. “Let every family be a living Church.”  He said that religious vocations would come through family prayer. He said, in quoting Our Lady, that parents do not pray with their children, and there is no time for each other in families. “Parents do not have time for their children and children don’t have time for their parents. There is no love in families, and there is not enough fidelity within marriages. Every second, third marriage is falling apart, and [there are] so many broken families, and tired families, and morality is on the downside. So many outside sources –  television, radio, media – are influencing the downfall. And it is pushing the young people into a valley of blindness.”  He said that people have time for “American Idol,” but not for prayer. Ivan said that Our Lady comes to tell us to put God in the first place in our families. “We need to heal our families spiritually. The world cannot get healthy until our families get spiritually healthy.”

  When Ivan spoke about the importance of forgiveness, he mentioned briefly something I don’t recall having heard him say in the many times I have heard him speak, and that is – the importance of forgiving yourself. “We need to know how to forgive –  and to forgive oneself and to forgive others.”  “Without forgiveness, we cannot get well spiritually, physically, or emotionally.” Ivan said that to learn how to forgive, we need the Holy Spirit and we need prayer.  This led him to speak about prayer from the heart.

   Ivan stated that Our Lady has said many times over the years, to “pray, pray, pray,” but She does not want us praying by habit or by, as Ivan said, “looking at the watch, that you may finish as soon as possible.”  She wants us to set aside a time every day for prayer, and to pray from the heart, which means “to pray from love and with love – to pray with your whole being, so that our prayer can be a meeting with Jesus.”  He said that if we pray like that, we will be filled with peace and joy.

    Ivan described what it is like to see Our Lady.  He said that to see Her is to see Heaven itself.  He said that behind Our Lady he sees Heaven. I had never heard him say that before. He sees light and flowers and “as if people are walking in the background.”  He expressed regret that it is hard to describe, and that if we were to see Our Lady for just one second, our lives would not be as interesting.

   Ivan said that during his apparition at 6:40 P.M., “She put Her hands above us and prayed for all of us in Her Aramaic language.” She prayed for the sick and the priests who were present, and then gave the following message: “Dear children: I call upon you today to open yourselves to the Holy Spirit. Pray during these times in your families. Renew your families so that my Son can be dwelling in your families. The Mother is praying together with you and She intercedes [to] Her Son for all of you. Thank you for being here today and answering my call.” 

   Ivan told us that Our Lady blessed all of us with Her motherly blessing as well as the religious items we brought with us. He said that She kept praying above all of us and She especially prayed for the Holy Father. She left in the light of the sign of the cross with the words, “Go in peace, my dear children.” 

   One of the pilgrims on our bus from Pennsylvania was in tears as she shared that her rosary had turned gold. Earlier in the day this lady had expressed that since she could not go to Medjugorje, this trip to hear Ivan was her “Medjugorje pilgrimage.”  When her rosary turned gold, it was like a confirmation for her! I later learned of two more people whose rosaries turned gold that evening.

   Another Pennsylvania pilgrim had a very interesting experience before, during and after the apparition, but she is waiting for permission from her spiritual director to share it with others. This same woman had a conversion of heart six years ago on a similar bus trip to hear Ivan in Ohio. Prior to that pilgrimage, on March 18, 2006, she attended Mass only on Christmas and Easter. In St. Paschal Baylon Church in Highland Heights, Ohio, that night, she saw a large wooden cross with a purple sash and a woman in a blue gown with gold trim and a shiny gold twisted rope around her waist. The pilgrim wondered who the beautiful woman was and why she was dressed like that. When Ivan came up to have his apparition, the woman disappeared, and she heard the words, “Do not allow sorrow to fall upon your heart. Look upon the cross.”  When she later found out that others on our bus trip did not see the large cross, she called the church and spoke with the priest, who told her there was no such cross in the church that night. He told her, “Many people go on these pilgrimages like Medjugorje, and see different signs, and someone standing right next to them does not see it. That was your sign. Just thank God for the sign and pray.”

   Since that time, this woman, who is a grandmother of five, began living the messages of Our Lady. She joined a Medjugorje prayer group, is a Eucharistic minister and also a Catechism teacher. In addition, several of her family members have also had a conversion of heart since this experience. When she gave her witness on the bus ride home, she told the other pilgrims, “My faith in God is incredible….God reaches out to us, and I can’t understand it myself….I’m going to tell you, in the next couple of months, or weeks or days, you’re going to know that something is changed in your life –  because that is the power of God.” 

Outdoor Adoration in Medjugorje

The Ciborium Cried Out!

By Louise Lotze

    In Sister Emmanuel's book, The Hidden Child of Medjugorje, she relates how when performing her sacristan tasks in her Community of the Beatitudes' chapel, and when she was also doing her time of Adoration, she noticed some wax from a candle had dripped onto the wooden frame of the door of the tabernacle.  So she set about removing every trace of the wax, but was startled by a sort of cry.  It wasn't coming from the monstrance, but from the ciborium placed in the back of the tabernacle, which contained many consecrated Hosts.  The cry wasn't audible through her bodily ears, but it resonated all the more in her heart. She further stated  that our hearts have the most powerful antennae.

   Jesus had something to say to her.  He was truly living in each one of the Hosts, although there were not 337 of Him in this ciborium.  Jesus was one, but multiplied.

    For Sr. Emmanuel, it was as though each Host was beginning to explain itself.  “It seemed to me that each Host knew to which soul, to which person It was destined.  Each Host was going to live a unique, loving adventure, and the breadth of possibilities was amazing!  Certain Hosts were going to fall into hearts which would be for Them a Heaven; for Others, it would be like a descent into hell.  The cry which resonated in my heart was in reality a cry of anguish.”

   Sr. Emmanuel feels many Hosts are in agony because They know They will be received into unworthy dwelling places where sins, which lead to death, reign.  She was shocked and stood glued to the floor.  Jesus was crying for help like the silent cry of an infant-embryo who feels his death coming from the abortionist's instruments.  It was the silent cry of God!

    She continues by saying each Host also knows the day and the hour when It will enter into the heart of the person who will consume It.  Sr. Emmanuel is fascinated by the consciousness of Jesus Who knows all, sees all, foresees all, and yet He lets Himself be treated like a lamb, with all its risks and perils, into the hands of men.  Thankfully, most of the Hosts rejoice in advance over Their known recipients.

    Sr. Emmanuel also refers to Sr. Faustina's Diary (#1658)  where there is an entry explaining how Sr. Faustina was sick in bed and received two Hosts from the Jesuit priest, since he thought she was his last recipient upstairs.  However, there was a novice lying in the next cell and the priest had to go back again for another Host.  Jesus then told Sr. Faustina that He enters that heart unwillingly, since that soul resists His grace.  His visit to such a soul is not pleasant.  Jesus also told Sr. Faustina she had received two Hosts so that He could delay His coming into that other soul.

   Sr. Emmanuel continued by closing the tabernacle that night and pondering the message that Jesus had given her – one she won't truly understand about His cry for help until she comes face to face with God in Heaven.  She feels that Jesus invites her to adore Him in spirit in all the world's tabernacles as well as in the hearts of those who receive Communion –  the good as well as the bad.  This way Jesus will receive at least one tiny visit of love – a humble bit of attention which will console Him.

Liquid Drips from Both Legs of Statue

By Jakob Marschner

   With liquid dripping from one knee, the bronze sculpture of the Risen Christ has been a mystery in Medjugorje since 2001. While the nature of the liquid is itself mysterious, the mystery as such has just increased, for these days the unknown substance flows from both legs of the sculpture.

   Almost 11 years after one of the knees of the Risen Christ sculpture in Medjugorje first started to shed a tear-like liquid, even returning pilgrims are surprised by the sculpture these days.  Now the watery substance comes from both legs.

   “Yes, it is true. Water is coming from both legs now. The new drip is actually just above the knee, on the lower thigh. The new drip is stronger than the older one,” film-maker and Queen of Peace Productions founder Sean Bloomfield reports from Medjugorje.

   “With all the people in Medjugorje now, having both knees dripping sure helps in the crowd flow!” he adds on the discussion board at MedjugorjeLive where another pilgrim just back from Medjugorje likewise tells to have witnessed the substance dripping from both sculpture legs.

   The sculpture has shown to be unpredictable on previous occasions as well. Several times, the dripping has stopped for extended periods of time. One such occasion in 2010 coincided with Medjugorje receiving large amounts of rain, weakening a theory that the watery substance could be rain dripping out from inside the sculpture.

   On another occasion, a large group of pilgrims witnessed how the substance was suddenly red and no longer clear: “My friend Drago who lives in Medjugorje has informed me that this past week a man took a paper napkin and reached to take a drop of oil from the Risen Christ statue. When he looked at the napkin it is reported that the napkin was full of blood. A minimum of 50 people witnessed this. Some screamed in fear and some said, ‘It’s a miracle,’ ” MedjugorjeUSA reported at that time.

   Vatican experts have been rumored to have analyzed the substance, but neither Rome nor the parish of Medjugorje have ever confirmed such analysis to have taken place.

   The statue is a replica of the 277 centimeter silver sculpture “The Resurrection,” sculpted by Andrej Ajdic and presented to Pope John Paul II on the occasion of his 1996 visit to Slovenia.

                                                                                                                             www.Medjugorjetoday.tv (May 9, 2012)

St. John the Baptist

By June Klins

   Recently my friend gave me a copy of an article about St. John the Baptist because she knew that both my grandsons were born on a feast of this famous saint.  Oliver will be three years old this year on June 24^th, the feast of the birth of St. John the Baptist, and Thomas will be six on August 29^th, the feast of the death of St. John the Baptist. I found this article to be very interesting and would like to share some of it because Our Lady first appeared in Medjugorje on June 24, 1981, the feast of the birth of St. John the Baptist.

   According to the author of this article, Fr. Vergil Heier, CMM, the feast of St. John’s birth is one of the oldest saint commemorations. In the Latin Rite, it is a solemnity with a vigil, something that is usually reserved only for Mary and Jesus. The commemoration of his death is almost as old as the commemoration of his birth.

   Father Heier explains that there are two reasons that the Church greatly venerates St. John the Baptist – the first is because of what Jesus said about him: “I tell you, among those born of woman, no one is greater than John (Lk 7:28).”

   The second reason is the fact that St. John was cleansed of original sin while he was in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth. The angel told his father, Zechariah, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb (Lk 1:15).”  Also, when Mary went to visit Elizabeth, “The infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth [was] filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:41).” Father Heier explained, “At Mary’s words, John was freed from the stain of original sin, for the Holy Spirit and sin cannot exist together.”  For these reasons the Church celebrates both the birth and the death of St. John. Usually the Church celebrates only the day of the death of a saint.

   August 29^th is sometimes called “The Beheading of St. John the Baptist.”  The story is recounted in Chapter 6 of Mark’s gospel. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria holds a shrine which is said to hold the head of St. John the Baptist. This mosque, also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus, was formerly the Basilica of St. John the Baptist until the 634 Arab conquest of Damascus. Pope John Paul II prayed before this relic of St. John in the Umayyad Mosque, when he visited Syria in 2001. What is interesting to note is that St. John the Baptist is honored as a prophet by Christians and Muslims alike. Fr. Heier wrote, “Thus, St. John, along with the Blessed Mother, stands as a door, we might say, through which our Muslim brothers can find access to our faith.”

Nothing is More Important than Unity in My Son

   The number of Holy Communions distributed at Medjugorje last month [April] shows a staggering 40% increase on the corresponding month for 2011.

   The April 2012 figure is reported at 351,500 by the parish information office, up by 55,300 on the previous year’s total.  This is the highest level ever recorded for the month of April since the parish first began publishing records in 1985. The previous highest ever total for April was in 1990 (143,800), the year before the outbreak of war in the Balkans. The figure dropped to 100,000 in 1991, and after that the full impact of war reflected the total in 1992, just 11,000.

   But the light of Christ in Medjugorje was never extinguished, and when hostilities ended, pilgrims began returning to the village, and the number of distributed Communions has steadily risen year on year.

   Last year’s total of 2,027,900 was the highest number of Communion Hosts distributed at Medjugorje for a single year.