In 1917 my parents had only one child. Then in March of that year my mother gave birth to a set of triplets. I was one of them. I was the last one born and I was born with a defective heart. My mother sheltered me all through my childhood. It was not until I was eighteen years old she let me know I had a weak heart. At school when I would run, jump and play I would pass out. The older I got the worse it became. And I prayed. I prayed to St. Francis and nothing happened. I kept praying all my life for healing.

At age twenty-six I had a severe heart attack. That was when I found out I had heart trouble. I was in my thirties and I had another severe heart attack. I kept praying and I asked the Lord to heal me. Nothing happened. I was in my late forties when I had a third major heart attack. In between I had numerous little heart attacks which I called "flare-ups".

In 1955 I had a small florist business. I also had five little green houses I ran by myself which took up most of my time. Having a heavy workload and the additional task of arranging flowers for a family funeral I had my most severe heart attack, which laid me up for 3-1/2 years. I had that heart attack while at the funeral of my cousin and her husband that were killed coming home from Florida. That’s when I had my out of body experience.

My Out of Body Experience:

1. I’m going to strip you of your worldly possessions. (Being laid up for 3-1/2 years caused me to lose all except our house. I came to understand that I had been making my business and my green houses my god.)
2. You’re going to spread my news. (Things began to change in my life that brought me closer to the Lord. No longer was it enough for me to just fulfill my Sunday obligation.)
3. You’re going to make and distribute my mother’s rosary. (Of these three conditions I only remembered the last recently.)

While I was having my out-of-body experience they left my wife, my mother, my mother-in-law and my aunt in the room while the paramedic was working on me. And I could hear everything but I was stiff like a board. They said to my wife "I’m sorry we lost him." I could hear it. I jumped off the picture frame – I was sitting up there watching them. And my body didn’t mean anything to me. I jumped off and went to my wife and shook her. I told her I’m ok – I’m fine. She couldn’t respond. I went to my mother, I went to my mother-in-law, and I went to my aunt. None of them could respond to me – to talk to me. That’s when someone in white came and took me away and we went into this waiting area that I spoke of earlier. My six-year-old daughter, Peggy, was waiting in another room with my sister. My aunt went to this room and told them "Well, when it rains it pours. We just lost Lawrence." Peggy pulled away from my sister and came into where my body was. She came over and jumped on me. She said "Dear Jesus – don’t let my daddy die. I need him so bad. I need him so bad." And the doctor took her off of me. He had a needle and stuck it in my heart and waited a few minutes. He said, "I’ve got a faint heartbeat. Your husband’s going to make it." And that’s when I regained consciousness.

A big change in my life happened in 1972. My wife and I were invited to a bible study. We agreed to go. Two months later we were baptized in The Holy Spirit while going through a Life in the Spirit Seminar. This came to pass so that the second condition (spreading the goods news) could happen. We joined the Charismatic Movement in the Catholic Church. I began to hear the Lord speak to me; to recognize His voice.

In 1974 at a prayer meeting the Lord kept telling me "where ever your eyes focus start reading from your bible". They focused on John 15:7-17.

I never had a chance to read it aloud at the prayer meeting because I became ill. After the prayer meeting I landed in the hospital for a day for observation. Although they wanted to keep me longer I had to get out. I wouldn’t stay any longer because the following week we were to go to a international charismatic conference at the University of Notre Dame. We arrived at Notre Dame and I felt weak - my heart and my arm hurt. My wife, Martha and I went up to our room. She told me to take two of my pills and lay down and relax. So I did. While resting alone in my room I heard this voice call "Lawrence, get up. You don’t need that medicine. Get your bible." I stayed lying down. A second time he called my name "Get up. You didn’t need that medicine." I stayed lying down. A third time he spoke. I said I better get up. I heard it three times. Get your bible; open it up and start reading.

It opened up to Romans 12:1-2:

I dropped to my knees and stretched my arms up to heaven. I said OK Lord. Here I am. What more do you want? I’m yours – use me. A tingling sensation went through my body and I began to feel better.

By that time it was 6 – 6:30 p.m. We went down and got our meal. After dinner we went over to the stadium. The priest was well into the healing service. Many healings took place that evening including mine. Praise the Lord! I went into prayer. I said Lord I know instantly you can heal me but the healing I want is for my dad, my three brothers and my sister - to give them the love that you had given to me to love one another. The Holy Spirit came down upon me in fire as the priest said there’s a man up there that was born with a defective heart with heart trouble all his life. The Lord just gave him a new heart. The Holy Spirit went inside me, burned out the defective heart and replaced it with a brand new one. The Holy Spirit came up and touched my tongue. My tongue was loosened so I no longer talked with a stutter. Praise God!. A member of our charismatic group jumped up and gave me a hug and said "Larry, you’re healed! I can smell burning flesh coming out of your mouth!" And she’s alive today to help testify that that was the truth. I remember tasting the burning flesh that night.

Two weeks later I went to my doctor. Every time I went he took x-rays. He took another x-ray. He shook his head. He said I can’t understand it; your heart is perfect. The x-ray shows it to be a different heart. He laid the two x-rays down on the table and said here’s your old heart and here’s your new one. What happened? I said I went to a healing service - the Lord gave me a new heart. He backed up. He wouldn’t listen to me. He didn’t want to hear about it because he was unbelieving. My blood pressure and my heartbeat were that of a 15-year-old and it’s that way today yet. I’ll turned 83 years old in March.

Throughout the years the Lord has given me so many passages. One of them is Isaiah 12:

What more do we need? We don’t need anything else but God and Jesus Christ. And I base my life on that.

I go around to different prayer groups and give my testimony. The Lord has led me to your church. He has called me to give witness to his goodness. He has blessed me with so much. I have visited many shrines, the Vatican and the Holy Land. In 1989 I visited Medjugorje While I was there I heard a female voice tell me – You are going home and you’re going to make my rosaries. I didn’t know a thing about making a rosary but I have learned how to make them. At one of our Third Order of Franciscan meetings a lady gave me eight Job Tear seeds. I planted them and the Lord multiplied them. I used them to make rosaries and they have now been sent all over the world. This is in fulfillment of the third directive I was given. Last year I asked the Lord to reveal to me what the third directive was. He responded saying you have been doing it for almost ten years. You have been making my mother’s rosaries and passing them out.

I’m going to close with what the Lord gave to me some time back. It’s 1^st John, 4:7-12: