In my teenage years I became fascinated with girls and my passions took a new turn. The warnings at Fatima and in The Bible became more than I could handle in those confusing years. Needless to say, I became very lukewarm about my faith. I still prayed but not exactly in the way of the early Church Fathers.
In my twenties I searched many different faiths and started asking Our Lord daily to lead me to truth. I still had many years of searching, praying, and in general, fighting the good fight, to get my life in order. This was the 80's and I tried and did everything (just about) at least once. I slept around and took drugs. I shudder when I think that I might have been responsible for many abortions that I didn't even know about. I still prayed and I knew someone was listening because I made it through the 80's alive. Day by day, step by step, I was growing up and reaching out for the only One I could trust.
In my thirties I was brought together with my love, my wife. I learned to put away the bad habits and childish things of youth. Step by step, day by day. We entered into the marriage covenant. A strange and wonderful word, covenant. Some people try to reduce its meaning to a contract. It is said by Jesus only once at the last supper. In Bible reading people should see it in its true context. A Sacred family bond, between man and man, man and woman, God and man. We heard the stories that the Virgin Mary was appearing in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina. There wasn't any way for us to get there so I pondered all these things in my heart.
We heard about a humble, gentle man named Ray Dorion. We were told that the Blessed Vigin Mary just might be appearing to him at Our Lady of the Snows a national Catholic Shrine on the 13th of every month. It is about a five hour drive one way from Kansas City. The first time we went was April 1995 and during the Rosary my wife had a profound conversion experience. We deciced to make a family pilgrimage every month for the next six months to say the Rosary and meditate on the passion and life of Our Lord. In case you aren't Catholic, that is what the Rosary is all about. The prayers said are important but the main purpose is to concentrate on the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries. Try it, you'll like it!
It didn't occur to us at the time but we were in our own simple way mirroring the events that had happened 78 years earlier in Fatima, Potugal. Our car broke down shortly after that and is still broke so we have only been to Our Lady of the Snows a couple of times by bus since then. We don't feel the need to go there because so much has changed in our lives since that time. Since April 95, we have changed our work schedule and go daily to morning Mass and say the Rosary every single night. We study Scripture with an earnest heart. We adore Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the most Holy Eucharist. It has been two years now and I just have to tell all of you, we are filled with peace and have never been happier. Having been very bad in my youth, I try not to judge anyone in their path to God. God has many ways to bring His people to a deeper conversion of faith. We are saved by His Grace.
The Church doesn't say you have to believe in Fatima or in any of the apparitions to get to Heaven. It does say that the apparitions at Fatima, Portugal in 1917 are, "worthy of belief." This is the same church that the Holy Spirit guided and entrusted to put together the New Testament Canon in the Councils of Hippo and Carthage in 393 and 397a.d. It is the same church that has supernatually been around for almost 2000 years. The same church that has an unbroken succession of Popes all the way back to the first Bishop of Rome, St. Peter. Is the Blessed Virgin Mary appearing in all these places you have heard about at the request of Her Son? You will have to decide that for yourselves.
You know, for many years I asked Jesus to "become my personal Lord and Savior." I never had a profound, life-changing experience, but I just kept on asking. Then one day I went looking for His Mother. She brought me back to Him in a deep and life-changing way. He is My Lord and My God, and He has taught me to love everyone but He has also taught me to love someone He loves in a special way. His Mother and Our Mother, The Blessed Virgin Mary. She is our example of perfect obedience to the will of the Father. She asks us to, "Pray unceasingly" and "Do whatever He tells you" (John 2:5)
This is our simple story. I hope you like it.
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