Is that you back there?" here loving voice called to me as I stood in front of St. James, a little behind the statue of Our Lady of Medjugorje. "It is me, Mother." "Where is my right hand on my statue?" She asked with a questioning love, which lit up my heart. "Your right hand is on your heart" I answered, to which she replied with a voice of Mother presence, "Well now you know where the rose came from". 

Alleluia my nine month quest as to why the rose was in the right hand and why over the months my remembrance of March kept my attention to that right hand with the rose and why not the left? Our Mother has a rose garden in her heart.

Let me start from the beginning and then you will understand. Last February 1998 while sitting in a dentist's chair getting a filling, Dr. Cahill said he was going to Medjugorje. "Have you been there, Father?" he asked. With jaws opened and filled with fingers and instruments I signaled "yes". I had been to the Mary-Mother Holy Place twice. I saw the sun spin, a woman healed instantly, climbed hiss and Krucifix-Cross Mountain. What was so special were all the pilgrims and prayers. He took his finger out and said "we are going to open a clinic for refugee and orphaned children there.

Thus started a journey of nine months to the rose garden of Her Hearts. In a few weeks I was off to Medjugorje with Dr. Cahill and a host of 13 helpers and holiness seekers! I was excited not only because I love to travel but because I see such a great calling of the Holy Spirit and Hour Holy Mother to incarnate the Gospel-Gospel to life and life to Gospel.. We have to DO the word and not just believe and present and proclaim. A clinic in the midst of pilgrims and fanatics and holiness seekers- What a working of God!

In March we arrived at night. It was rather cold and morning came quickly because of jet lag, the time change and airline food. We stayed at a home about a block of so from "Mother's Village". What is "Mother's Village" you might ask? It is a place of grace and holiness for lots of children with deep wounds from the war & being orphaned. Some of these children saw one of another of both parents, a sister or a brother, shot to death, or just taken and disappearing into the horrid world of concentration camps. Pain and woundedness in children resemble the blank state of animals being led to slaughter. They do not know where or what awaits them. Sound like Jesus-the Silent Lamb of God.

Excitement concerning the clinic opening and having its first dental patient soon was marred by the fact that the first boxes of equipment were delayed by the Customs Agent- a three to four day wait.

The children soon began to charge the stairs and with questioning looks seem to ask "who are you and what do you do"? Joy, teasing, funny business and running around becomes the response of the kids after a few loving looks and embraces. One person in our group even started to give haircuts, this really broke the ice.

Then it happened, about the firth day, walking away from the clinic. I turned around to look at it - situated among other large and stylish buildings, looking like home. The clinic site is almost central to the plan. There She stood in the sky - Majestic - Tall - Regal - White - larger than life, above the clinic was Our Holy Mother. Dressed and looking like Our Lady of Medjugorje, Queen of Peace. But her right hand, not the left, visibly stretched out holding a beautiful reddish pink rose, you almost can smell it because it was so beautiful. Our Lady draws me to her wrist and I can see it angled downward - The rose is propelling and falls downward toward the clinic below. Hitting the clinic one gets the impression of it hitting dust, but it is gold and silver glitter thrust into the air by the impact of the rose. The glitter shines for the beautiful Lady in its reflection and starts to return, propelling downward by gravity. To my joy and surprise the glitter changes into children as it rests on the ground around the clinic.