Medjugorje
August 13-21, 2001
Ted Szymanski had been trying to
talk me into going to Medjugorje for almost the last
3 years, I never really felt the need or desire to go.
When Ted would ask or in anyway bring up the subject I
would always say no. I felt that Medjugorje could not
offer anything that we did not already have in Emmitsburg.
Ted would then leave the subject alone for months at a time but every now and
then he would say “The day is going to come when I get you to Medjugorje”. I knew Ted wanted to return to Medjugorje very badly because of the profound experience he
had there in 1995 when he took his crippled wife there who was confined to a
wheelchair. I never knew just how determined Ted was to get back until early
this past June when Ted approached me with this offer : Ted said “Rxxxxx I am going to be 82 years on my next birthday and I
really want to go back to Medjugorje but I can’t go
by myself. Here is my offer, if you will take me to Medjugorje
I will pay your way”. This offer really made me stop and think and for the
first time I really realized just how important it was to him. I said “Ted if
we were to go to Medjugorje I will pay my own way”. I
told Ted I would mention it to S.C.C. to see if she wanted to go. S.C.C. took
less than 2 seconds to say yes she wanted to go.
The following week in the parish
hall at Saint Joseph’s in Emmitsburg, Doris Nolan
gave us a folder with information about a group named Mir Peace out of Pennsylvania, I called for more information and was told
there were trips scheduled for June, July, August, September and October. June
and July were to soon because S.C.C. did not have a
passport and other preparations needed to be made. September and October were
out of the question because C.R.C. would be in school. The only date that
seemed like it might work would be the August 13-21st. We talked it over and
decided we would do it.
A few days later (nearing the end
of June ) I told my boss that I would like to have
August 13-24th off. It seemed August was not going to be a very good time
because of other vacations and the work load. I started to think “This trip is
already falling apart”. My boss checked the vacation schedule and said “You are
already off on those exact dates”. When he said this I did not even have a clue
to what he was talking about. It turns out that when I started my new job back
in January I was asked to give a projected vacation schedule. Just at random I
filled in the EXACT dates that I needed for this trip to Medjugorje.
This astounded me and from that moment on I knew this trip to Medjugorje would become a reality.
Ted still insisted that he would
pay my way but I would not allow him to do so. I told Ted that if he really
wanted to help I would allow him to pay C.R.C.’s way but not to feel obligated
to do so. Ted paid C.R.C.’s way and I took the money that I would have spent
for C.R.C.’s trip and invited David G. to go with us. Roberta Marziani who is a very good Emmitsburg
friend was also asked if she would like to go with us, with Roberta this took
our group to 6.
For some reason waiting for the
day of departure seemed like it took forever. I knew this trip was going to
take place but somehow I knew there would be obstacles that had the potential
of preventing us from going and I told Ted that when the wheels leave the
runway, then I will feel much better.
About 9 or 10 days before we were
scheduled to leave I had a very unusual dream. The dream went like this: I was
sitting in the window seat of a jumbo jet. Everyone in our group to Medjugorje was there, I did not see them in the dream but I
was aware they were there. There were many other people on the plane as well.
The plane started to roll down the runway and as it picked up speed I could
even feel the force of gravity pushing me back in the seat. When the wheels
left the ground I was looking out of the window and all I could see was
hundreds of cables strung across the entire sky. The cables were electric lines
and telephone lines. They cris crossed the sky like a
spider web. The plane was maneuvering between these wires and often the tip of
the wing would just miss a cable by just a
inch or two. I knew that if the wing snagged one of these
wires that was the end of our trip and that we would crash. People on
the flight started to panic and some one yelled out
“How did we get tangled up in all these obstacles ?” I
was the only person on the plane who remained calm and I said “You do not have
to worry because this plane is going to Medjugorje
and Our Lady has said that everyone who goes to Medjugorje
will arrive there and get home safely”. After I said that I looked out the
window and all the cables were below us and the sky ahead was clear. There were
no more obstacles. Then I woke up. This dream was so vivid that it did not
really seem like a dream. A day or so later I told S.C.C. about this dream and
I also told Sister Genevieve and Roberta about it.
On August 11th while we were
packing for the trip the phone rang and it was Helen Sarcevic
the lady who organized our trip, she wanted to tell us where to meet her once
our plane landed in Frankfurt. About 1 minute after we hung up a severe
thunderstorm came up suddenly and lightning struck very close to our house. The
bolt of lightning was so close that blue sparks actually came out of the wall
sockets. With that bolt of lightning we lost all of our telephone service and
electricity. Appliances in the house were damaged or destroyed, the well pump
got zapped, the stereo was destroyed, the alarm system was damaged, the Dish
Network receiver was destroyed upstairs but later after the power was restored
the one down stairs still worked and one of the few stations that still came in
was EWTN. The water spigots throughout the house were blurping
out mud. S.C.C. said “This must be the electric and telephone cable obstacles
in that dream you told me about” When she said that it left me stunned because
I was able to instantly relate that dream to the problems we were now having.
The next day, August 12 our situation had not gotten any better and I drove in
town to get some things we needed when my cell phone rang and it was S.C.C.
calling from her cell phone. She said I hope you are sitting down because
things have just gone from bad to worse. “There is a snake in the living room”
All I could say is “I am not at all surprised” By the time I got home the snake
had moved on and we never saw it again.
Roberta who lives near
Philadelphia was planning to stay at our house the night before we left for Medjugorje but with no water, electricity and a snake in
the house we did not know how we were going to work things out. Roberta arrived
and a few minutes later the telephone company arrived and fixed the phone.
About and hour later the electric company arrived and
got things going to a certain degree. We still did not have any water because
the well pump was completely destroyed. Things were still bad but they were
getting better. I was down in the basement when S.C.C., Roberta and C.R.C.
called me to come upstairs because there was something I just had to see. I
thought it was going to be the snake. There was the most beautiful rainbow
directly over our house that I have ever seen, stretched from horizon to
horizon. It was the first time I had ever seen a complete rainbow where both
ends seemed to touch the ground. I don’t know what it was but from that moment
onwards I seemed to forget all about the obstacles and was able to laugh about
the problems that plagued us for the past 24 hours.
The next day was departure day,
August 13, 2001 and S.C.C. drove out to the Health Care Center to see her
father before we left. Her dad was holding his own as he had been doing for the
past several weeks and all looked OK for us to make the trip. We drove to
Leesburg and picked up Ted and headed to Dulles Airport. When the wheels left
the runway I really did feel a sense of relief and a very strong sense of
peace. We flew from Washington to Frankfurt, changed planes and flew to Split,
Croatia and then took a bus for a 3 hour ride along the coast of the Adriatic
Sea to Medjugorje.
We finally arrived in Medjugorje and the first thing we did was go to St. James
church which was walking distance from the house that we were staying in. The
Rosary starts at 6 PM at St. James and Mary appears during the Rosary at exactly
6:40 every evening. At the instant Mary appeared to the visionaries the church
fell silent except for beautiful violin music that just seemed to penetrate
your soul. The peace and tranquillity during the
apparition was IDENTICAL in every way to what I had become so accustomed to at
St. Joseph’s in Emmitsburg. This indescribable
feeling of peace and love would alone have made the trip worthwhile even if we
had to walk to Medjugorje from Virginia.
On our second day in Medjugorje we climbed Apparition Hill which is a physical
accomplishment in itself. People had told me how steep and rocky it was but I
never pictured in my mind just how difficult it really was. Ted was determined
to make the climb and I tried my best to talk him out of it. Ted’s birthday was
the next day and he was going to be 82 years old. I did not see any possible
way he could make the climb but he started up the hill and I held his hand as
we made our way up. The hill is so steep and rocky there is no place you can
set your foot on level ground. The entire climb consist
of stepping from one rock to another. After a while I started to understand
that God helps people climb this hill. Under normal circumstances there should
be 10 rescue squads waiting to rush people to the hospital from broken bones
and heart attacks but EVERYONE I saw that started the climb made it all the way
to the top and back down without as much as a scratch. Usually if Ted walks up
a ramp he is out of breath and needs to rest but he made it up Apparition Hill
with energy to spare. Later in the day we returned to St. James for the 6 PM
Rosary and apparition. After the Rosary S.C.C. called home to check on her
father and was told he had become much worse and that she should come home. We
checked with Helen and she called the travel agency to see if there were any
available flights that we could take for a
early return. There were not. We place our situation completely in God’s hands
and simply prayed for His Will.
The next day was Friday August
17, 2001 and we started climbing Mt. Krizevak which
is also known as Cross Mountain. This climb is even steeper and more dangerous
than Apparition Hill. We started at 5:30 AM to try to beat the heat. S.C.C.
helped an old lady named Mary Ann all the way up and when she got to the top
where the Cross is S.C.C. prayed and prayed and prayed for her father. When we
came down S.C.C. helped Mary Ann every step of the way. Later in the day we
went to St. James for the 6 PM Rosary/Apparition and Eucharistic Adoration
afterwards. S.C.C. continued to do nothing but pray for her father.
When we returned back to the
house where we were staying it was about 11:30 p.m. and someone in the group
suggested that we walk back to St. James and so we did. Ted and Roberta stayed
behind while the rest of us walked back. We returned from the church around
12:45 a.m. and when we got back another lady named Dot who was staying in the
same house came up to me and said “We have a very serious problem, While you
were gone Ted said something to Roberta that offended her and she left here
crying and said she was going to climb Apparition Hill”.
When we first arrived in Medjugorje we were all warned that there are dangers in Medjugorje especially at night. We were warned that there
are Gypsies who will rob you and in the more isolated areas such as Apparition
Hill there are wild boars who have been known to
harass people.
At first I said to myself “Roberta will be all right” but after about 10 or 15
minutes I started to become worried and I remembered the warnings that had been
given to us. I sent C.R.C. upstairs to get David G. and told him to get his
shoes on and grab a flashlight because we were going out to find Roberta. We
started out on foot towards the direction of Apparition Hill and after we
walked about a quarter mile we came to a series of intersections and I could
not remember which one we needed to go left on to get to the path that leads to
Apparition Hill. I asked David if he remembered where we needed to turn and he
did not remember either. At this point I was starting to get very concerned
because I knew if we took the wrong turn we would not be heading to Apparition
Hill. There was no telling where we would have ended up. I then realized we
were wasting our time because we did not know what turn we needed to take to
get to Apparition Hill.. I told David
, “Its useless we might as well go back to the
house”. SUDDENLY THE SCENT OF THE ROSES CAME OUT OF NOWHERE! EVERY BREATH WAS
ROSES, ROSES AND MORE ROSES , EXACTLY THE SAME AS IN
EMMITSBURG AT ST. JOSEPH’S. THERE IS NO MISTAKING THIS, WHEN IT COMES, IT STOPS
YOU IN YOUR TRACKS. I SAID TO DAVID “DAVID I AM SMELLING ROSES RIGHT NOW” DAVID
SAID “SO AM I !”. WE BOTH INSTANTLY KNEW THE ROSES
MEANT YOU NEED TO TURN HERE!! SO WITH 100% CONFIDENCE WE TURNED DOWN THIS DARK
PATH AND WE KNEW FOR SURE WE WERE ON THE RIGHT ROAD WE ALSO KNEW WITHOUT A
DOUBT THERE WAS A VERY REAL REASON AND NEED TO GO TO APPARITION HILL.
After we walked about 500 yards
we saw an abandoned wheel chair sitting in a vineyard that I had seen 2 days
ago which confirmed that we were on the right road. When we reached the foot of
Apparition Hill I yelled for Roberta but there was no response. David and I
started the rocky climb up the hill and every 100 or so yards we would stop and
yell for Roberta at each bronze plaque representing the Mysteries of the
Rosary. When we reached the top we still had not seen Roberta. I told David
that most likely she will be at the Cross just to the right
of the 5th mystery that marks the spot where the permanent sign will
come. When we got there off in the distance I saw the flicker of what looked
like a flashlight off in the distance. I asked David if he saw it and he did
not. I yelled for Roberta but again there was no answer. We looked into the
darkness for about a minute waiting to see the light again but we never did. I
told David “ Follow me I know someone is over there
because I KNOW I SAW A LIGHT. When we got to the cross we found a lady named
Bernadette who was from Ireland. She had climbed Apparition Hill earlier in the
day and had the intention of spending the night up there. After it got dark she
realized that she was not at all prepared to do that and she tried to find her
way down but somehow went down the wrong side of the hill. She was totally lost
and was in a desperate state of despair when we found her. She told us that we
were the answer to her prayers. We asked her if she had seen Roberta and she
told us that she had not. It is now about 2:00 a.m. and I told David and
Bernadette that I wanted to pray the Rosary for S.C.C.’s dad before we started
walking down Apparition Hill. When I finished that we started the long walk
down. When we got back to the town of Medjugorje we
walked Bernadette back to the house she was staying in. She was still thanking
us for rescuing her off of the hill. As David and I were walking back to our
house I said to David “ You watch when we get back to
the house Roberta will be there”.
When we got back to the house we
were locked out but after a few minutes someone heard us and came down and
unlocked the door. I walked up to Roberta’s room and peeked in and sure enough
she was there in her bed asleep. I said to David “ It
was not a wasted trip at all because if we had not gone up Apparition Hill
Bernadette would still be lost and stranded up there. David and I both
completely realized that if the roses had not come WE
WOULD NOT HAVE MADE IT TO APPARITION HILL AND BERNADETTE FROM IRELAND WOULD
HAVE BEEN LOST AND STRANDED UP THERE ALL NIGHT LONG.
I looked at my watch and it was
3:13 am. I told David to get some sleep because we had a busy day ahead. I laid down but I was not able to fall asleep. After 8 am
breakfast S.C.C. and I walked to St. James and said another Rosary for her dad
and after that I told S.C.C. about our search for Roberta and how it turned
into a rescue for Bernadette. S.C.C. asked “What time did you and David get back?” I told her 3:13 this morning. When I saw Roberta
I asked where she went and I told her that David and I had gone out looking for
her. She said that she had intended to hike up Apparition Hill but when she got
to where you had to turn she was unable to remember which turn to take so she
turned around and went back to the house. This was the very same spot where
David and I were going to give up but kept going because of the roses. I later
found out that she returned to the house about 5 minutes after David and I left
to go look for her.
At 6:00 PM we all went back to
St. James for the Rosary and the Apparition, when that was over S.C.C. said she
wanted to call home to see how her dad was. When S.C.C. called she was told
that her father had died on August 17th at 9:13 in the evening. There is a 6
hour time difference between Virginia and Medjugorje.
In Medjugorje the time would have been August 18th at
3:13 in the morning, the same exact time David and I had just completed our
rescue mission on Apparition Hill. In addition to that August 17th is the date
C.R.C. was beatup by his baby-sitter which is the
event that started this whole thing for us in Emmitsburg.
This experience as it happened to us in Medjugorje
does not in any way clash with the wonderful experiences we have had in Emmitsburg in fact Medjugorje
became a perfect, seamless continuation of this whole experience.
I believe that God wanted us in Medjugorje for S.C.C.’s fathers death. I believe He wanted our prayers for
him from Medjugorje. S.C.C.’s father was a Southern
Baptist and he was a very good, good man. But I also believe that before
anybody can enter Heaven they must know and accept certain truths about God
found only in His Catholic Church such as the Eucharist. I believe that
Purgatory is not only to purify unconfessed sins but that God can also use it
to teach the truth to those who need it. It makes me think of Purgatory as like
an RCIA class after death. I believe God wanted our prayers for him from Medjugorje to shorten S.C.C.’s dads stay in Purgatory.
Perhaps it only took a few minutes but what ever it
is, it is nothing short of God’s perfect plan.
The pastor at St. James is a
Franciscan named Fr. Ivan Sesar, during Eucharist Adoration he said a special prayer for
S.C.C.’s father. He was very helpful and even allowed us to make calls back to
the United States from his office phone.
Our flight back from Medjugorje was a long one. It was sad knowing we were flying back to a beloved family members funeral. For some reason this sticks out in my mind so I will tell it here. We flew from Europe back to the United States. Our landing at Dulles International was not a smooth one. When the plane landed it was a VERY HARD landing. People on the plane were startled. The television screen that was on the back of the seat in front of me had a digital clock. At the very instant of our very hard landing the time on that clock switched to 3:33.