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MARY TV Cameras Capture Testimony at 2008 National Conference on Medjugorje at the University of Notre Dame
The original Medjugorje Conference was held again this past May 23 -25 at the University of Notre Dame, and MARY TV was there.
Among the featured speakers was Andy Meier of Hartland, Wisconsin. He and his wife, Elizabeth, took their three children on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in June of 2007. Despite a horrific bus crash near Sarajevo that nearly took his life and left him paralyzed from the chest down, Andy says his faith today is stronger than ever.
 "God is working through me," Andy told MARY TV. "It's nothing I'm doing, obviously, but it is affecting a lot of people. Those things that I was attached to, now I've been able to detach from…they're not important to me anymore."
During the long days and nights Andy spent in a Sarajevo hospital, doctors did everything they could but still advised Elizabeth he might not make it. Andy recalls seeing a vision of a crucifix on the wall of his hospital room, a crucifix nobody else could see. At that moment, Andy realized his suffering had meaning.
"I learned about redemptive suffering. I learned something else about Catholicism that I didn't know about before," explained Andy, who converted to Catholicism in 2000. "How we can offer our suffering in union with Christ for the poor souls, and for really our loved ones; those who have turned away from the Church, those that don't know Christ. We can offer that because that's what Jesus did for us."
As doctors were finally able to stabilize Andy, Elizabeth made a hurried visit to Medjugorje to check on their children, who had continued on under the care and supervision of friends who had also made the pilgrimage. According to Andy, visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo had some profound words for them.
"Although Andy tried to come to Medjugorje, Medjugorje instead has gone to him," said Mirjana.
 Elizabeth told MARY TV her entire family continues to receive special graces from Our Lady of Medjugorje.
"We would pray the rosary together on the way to Mass," recalled Elizabeth, "now we pray together every morning on the way to school. We all get out our rosaries, even our five-year-old. When we're on the way and we don't start right away, he says, 'Well, aren't we gonna pray?' "
While Andy's amazing recovery continues, so does his suffering. Yet, he give thanks for his family's experience of Medjugorje for all he has gained.
"I wake up in the middle of the night," added Andy, "to take care of personal things because of the spinal cord injury, and I feel closer to God. And I pray a rosary then. All by myself in the dark of the night, and it's really beautiful."
 Fr. Rick Wendell was the priest traveling with the Meiers to Medjugorje. It was his hand that saved Andy from further injury, and the former EMT not only restored Andy's breathing but administered the sacraments to him and the rest of the frightened pilgrims immediately following the accident.
It was in Medjugorje 16 years earlier where Fr. Rick not only experienced an amazing conversion, but also the call to the priesthood. He shared that story with MARY TV, and also the importance of Our Lady's continuing  presence in Medjugorje and her simple yet vitally important messages for the world.
"The fact that she is appearing is extraordinary," said Fr. Rick. "But what she's asking isn't extraordinary…it's ordinary. It's prayer, it's communication with God. It's using the sacraments…the vehicles, the means by which tangible grace is obtained…is available!"
  Among the other speakers interviewed by MARY TV are Fr. Michael Lightner. A former college football star bound for the NFL, Fr. Mike also received his vocation to the priesthood in Medjugorje. He tells us how the Sacrament of Reconciliation literally turned his life around, and how his experiences in Medjugorje provided him with many graces and the opportunity to bring still more people to know and love Jesus.
  Tatiana, who at the age of 19 was at the top of the pop music scene in Europe, knew something vital was missing in her life. Hear how this talented musician and young wife and mother turned her life over to God after hearing Our Lady's call in Medjugorje.
 John Pridmore led a life of violence and crime, using alcohol and drugs to hide the pain of not having God in his life. Through it all, John's own mother prayed to the Blessed Mother to save him. John tells MARY TV how a priest from Medjugorje brought him back to Jesus through Our Lady and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This former gangster is now sharing his experience of salvation with young people all around the world, opening their eyes to the love of God and giving them hope for the fuure.
These stories, and many more, will soon be made available on this web site.We have just completed a 33 minute video, Medjugorje and the Mission of Mary TV. We encourage you to view it and recommend it to others. This video is available for download on our homepage. It explains our mission and is very inspiring. Copies will be available on DVD soon. If you are interested in obtaining a version of the video suitable for broadcast, please e-mail Denis Nolan at dnolan@marytv.tv.
Thank you for supporting our work and praying for us.
These days are filled with grace and we long to share the grace
with the whole world!
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November 1, 2003
All Saints Day
Dear Children of Medjugorje,
Praised be Jesus and Mary!
Our Lady is the source for the new evangelization...Kathleen Martin lived with the visionary Marija in Medjugorje for years and is a first hand witness to the peace brought through the prayer group that Our Lady began and led in Medjugorje. She spoke earlier this year to young people in America:
"Something very special is happening in the world today - something that encourages us to live our life of faith in a very deep way, a very loving way. God the Father is seeing how difficult life is today in the modern world and has been giving us this gift of the daily visits of Jesus' Mother. This daily visit has changed the lives of millions of people. She's coming every day for over 22 years and people from every country in the world, practically, have come to Medjugorje - they've experienced this gift of peace that's given freely in that place, where she wanted to create as an oasis of peace. She worked with the parish - which is great news for parishes! She daily guided the young people - which is great news for young people! God really wants to be part of our day to day life, and so he is giving us the gift of her daily visits. And because Our Lady is who she is, she brings us to Jesus and into a fullness of a love relationship with Jesus and a fullness of understanding the gifts that God gave us through the Church. So in her visits - in her path where she led the young people and then when she took an active part in shaping and forming the parish, I see a light of new hope for the world!
"We're going through times when our Catholic faith is alive, and yet it can easily be hampered - it can easily be stifled because of circumstances in the world today due to the rise of materialism and the rise of egoism. It's more and more difficult to understand the love relationship that the Lord wants to have with us. And this love relationship we're discovering little by little through this presence of Our Lady every day with us through the apparitions. And I say "with us" because the Lordchose 6 young people in Medjugorje - but what he has to give is to us all!
"People ask about my private life. I did leave everything at one point in my life because I wanted to change radically inside. I understood I needed to change. And the only way I could do it was with Our Lady! I couldn't do it on my own. I needed her help and I understood that she was giving it in Medjugorje! And so that's how the idea was born to give my life to Our Lady - to just go there and learn from her little school of love. I wanted what she was offering. I saw it alive in the people there.
"And my joy was so great! I discovered that everything Jesus talked about everything he did with his disciples, the ways of the early Church, the love relationship between the people - that's possible today! I didn't believe that before. I was looking for it. I was hungry for it. And when you're hungry and you see something you like put before you, well then.... like this morning when Father Paul offered me donuts. I like cinnamon donuts because that's what my mom and dad gave me when I was a little kid. I've been away from the States for 33 years. So it's something that brings back a memory. What I saw in Medjugorje brought back in my life the memory of heaven: that I came from the womb of the Father's love in heaven! He invented me. He created me. He brought me forth and I'm longing to go home. And this longing to go home, that's what was missing!"
A properly formed memory tells us we are God's children... Pope John Paul II laments the"loss of Christian memory today," and that "European culture gives the impression of 'silent apostasy' on the part of people who have all that they need and who live as if God does not exist." To again have hope "it is necessary to return to Christ and to start afresh from him!" (7/13/03). And he reminds us that it is Mary who "continues to set before the memory of believers the historical events which are the foundation of their faith," (6/9/03). And in her most recent message Mary is calling us to consecrate our hearts anew to her heart and to the heart of her Son, "Only in this way, through you, we can lead all the more souls on the way of salvation. Do not delay, little children, but say with all your heart: 'I want to help Jesus and Mary that all the more brothers and sisters may come to know the way of holiness,' " (10/25/03).
I have a plan... In November, 2002, just as I was arriving in Medjugorje, Kathleen Martin, who had also arrived that same day, came up to me saying, "I am praying for your intentions! I am praying for your intentions!" When I asked her, "What intentions?" she said, "I don't know, but I know they are important!" Actually, she explained that living in Italy she had often traveled to Rome and had been paying close attention to what was on the heart of the Holy Father. And a very high priority to the Pope was that Christians collaborate with one another to make a place for Christ in the media. Kathleen knew that for years I had been working on a plan to use satellite technology to bring through television the daily events of Medjugorje - live - to the world. (Two years before his death Fr. Slavko Barbaric and I had spoken about this project - and I believe he is interceding powerfully for it now in heaven!)
Later that same day (as if in response to Kathleen's intercessory prayer) I had a meeting in the village.... and the project to finally start building the television studio was presented to me. I asked how much money it would take to begin, and was told, "$100,000." I remember saying that I had nothing - but the money would be no problem - God would supply it if this project served Our Lady's plans. I became concerned though because we were entering a domain Satan believes he owns (and from all appearances today, he does)! And for sure he wouldn't be willing to share air time with the Gospa. I told everyone to kneel down right then and pray a decade of the Rosary that this plan be protected. I then got up and started walking home. By the time I got there I was offered the $100,000 with which to begin!
Each year new digital technology is making such a project easier and easier to realize - and less expensive. But it still isn't cheap. To give a rough estimate: a transponder on a satellite - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, will cost (for one year) about $350,000; TV studio and uplink equipment, at least $1, 500,000, and the facility itself, another $500,000. But why shouldn't we do this? It's easily attainable. Several television networks have already told me they will broadcast whatever se send - one has even been working on incorporating the latest technology for simultaneous translation! And haven't we just been asked by Our Lady not to delay but to say with all our hearts: "I want to help Jesus and Mary that all the more brothers and sisters may come to know the way of holiness!" (10/25/03)She said only through us can she and Jesus "lead all the more souls on the way of salvation."
Our Lady can reach a soul in a moment...As reported earlier, when he was a young boy, Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, the Assistant Rector of the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy*, was taking heroin, crack, opium - everyday! By age 14 he was committing felonies. To use his own words, his was a life cycle of death. And one night his whole life changed when the events of Medjugorje happened to be shown to him through a book. He didn't know who Jesus was, (he thought he was "like Santa Claus, something to make the kids happy,".... and he didn't even know there was a Virgin Mary! But that one night, being exposed to Medjugorje, he gave her his heart! And she gave him in that one night, his whole formation as a Catholic! I believe his experience is a microcysm of what can happen for the world - just by having attentions refocused - memories awakened - through the events of Medjguorje coming into homes - live - through television. And haven't we already seen numerous examples in recent reports of lives dramatically changed by seeing a glimpse of Medjugorje on TV?
Television could become a powerful tool... Blessed Mother Teresa shared how an image of her sisters on television saved a man in despair: "One great Brazilian man, a man of high position, wrote to me that he had lost faith in God and man. He gave up his position and everything and only wanted to commit suicide. One day, as he was passing by a shop, his eyes suddenly fell on a TV in the window. There was the scene of Nirmal Hriday, the Sisters looking after the sick and dying. He wrote to me that after seeing that scene, he knelt and prayed for the first time in many years. Now he has decided to turn back to God and have faith in humanity because he saw that God still loves the world," ("JESUS, The Word to be Spoken," Servant Books, 1986, pp.53,54).
The world is far more diligent that we are... During our flight across the ocean (on September 11th) Fr. Calloway and I were shown a film about something I knew nothing about, "Formula 1," featuring Frank Williams. He had begun funding his own British race car by selling used car parts. Eventually he had the idea of placing it on a London street in front of the apartment of the son of an Arab sheik. The boy saw it, fell in love with the car; and from then on he no longer had to sell used car parts. The Arab oil baron backed him with millions. Today, according to the film, Frank Williams has a yearly budget of $350,000,000 and a crew of 400 engineers - who are so dedicated (the narrator said) that they have no social life! They work around the clock because the car has to be improved on every day! What dedication! These guys are serious!
And so must we be. Together we can make it possible to beam the face of Our Lady of Medjugorje around the world. And we can't delay!
Here's what you are being asked to do... At least 20 million pilgrims have been to Medjugorje.
If each pilgrim sends a monthly contribution - spreading this appeal to others (and those who have promised continue praying a decade of the Rosary everyday for this intention) we can give this satellite TV uplink facility to Our Lady and have it in place when the permanent sign comes! Send contributions to "MARY TV, P.O. Box 899, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 (USA).
Dear Mother, we want to help you and Jesus so that all the more brothers and sisters come to know the way of holiness! And we won't delay!
Denis Nolan
*Fr. Donald Calloway is presently the Vocations Director for the Marians of the Immaculate Conception and House Superior of of his order’s House of Studies at Steubenville.
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