The Queen of Peace Visits Medjugorie.
Since June 1981, when six children claimed to receive daily visits by the Virgin Mary, people have poured into Medugorje hoping to share in the remarkable events and special messages. This book has been described as the best basic account of the Medugorje phenomenon.
Father Pelletier, Augustinian of the Assumption, educator and college administrator, has written seven books since 1952 about Marian apparitions. In this one he writes about visionaries he was privileged to see communicating with their heavenly visitor. The Queen of Peace, began appearing in June 1981 to four girls and two boys, from ten to sixteen years old, on a daily and even more frequent basis, and has continued almost without interruption. Then in December 1982 she began to speak to two ten year-old girls in completely separate manifestations. Six years later Our Lady still comes to Medugorje bringing hope to all believes in a sin-filled world. Accomplished narrator, fervent supporter of devotion to Mary, astute interpreter of heavenly behavior, Father Pelletier writes with simplicity and touching appeal. All updating since his death has sought to preserve and enhance his presentation of Our Lady’s impact on the lives of people of faith, whether lay person, priest, or religious.
Fr Donald read the above book and found a card in the book that read, “You don’t have to change to love me; loving me will change you.” And it did. He fell in love with this heavenly mother who captivated him with her love and her tenderness. He writes:
As I read, I knew I had to give myself to this thing Mary called “church.” She always seemed to be leading or pointing towards it. I always imagined church as being oppressive, something that dominated your life and sucked all the fun out of life. I believed that was the role of the Church, so naturally I hated church, just like I hated Jesus. But if I was going to surrender to Mary, I had to believe her and give myself to Jesus and the Church. And even though I didn’t verbalize it or speak it internally, somehow I knew I had to surrender to this Blessed Virgin Mary. She would help me to understand the real Jesus, the Jesus whom I never knew.
Early in the morning, when I closed the book, I said, “The message in this book is life-changing. I have never ever heard anything so amazing and convincing and so needed in my life.” One might say that this was my first prayer. Whoever this Virgin Mary was, I believed what she was saying — that she was my mother and came from heaven for me.
Though today he is a devout Catholic Marian priest, Fr. Donald’s early years were no indication of what was to come. Before his conversion to Catholicism, he was a high school dropout who had been kicked out of a foreign country, institutionalized twice and thrown in jail multiple times. Discovering a book on Our Lady led to his conversion and ardent love of Mary and the Church.
As a priest in the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception, Fr. Donald has completed advanced studies in Mariology and strives to share his own love of Mary. Currently Fr. Donald is the House Superior of the Marian House of Studies in Steubenville, OH, and Vocation Director for the
Marians.Fr. Donald is know because of his conversion story. He has spoken of it at conferences, on television, radio, online, and wherever he can spread the message. His book No Turning BackA Witness to Mercy
(Fr. Donald H. Calloway, MIC) finally captures in print how Divine Mercy, through the intercession of the Blessed Mother, touched his life.
I just googled.
I want to say I heard it from a guest on The Journey Home on EWTN, but I’m not sure who it was or the specifics. Thank you for trying, though, I really appreciate it!