“Accept the mission…”

As pilgrims walked to Apparition Mountain last night, to spend the night at the Blue Cross awaiting Our Lady for Mirjana’s 2nd of the month apparition, this is the scene that greeted them as they made their way through the Fields. As wild fires continued to spread on Cross Mountain, flames ignited also on Apparition Mountain and began to spread. Though the Medjugorje villagers would explain these fires as a normal occurrence in the heat of a hot summer, it is still an unsettling sight in Our Lady’s holy village to pilgrims who have come from around the world. The fires of Medjugorje can speak to us of what Our Lady has come to do through Her apparitions:
 

“And in this, Her time, God sent Her to the Earth, Her mouth touched by God.

July 25, 1985

“…listen to my messages…live everything that God tells me to convey to you…”

Of Her, the Woman of Revelation, it can be said as it is written in Jeremiah 1:9-10:

 

“Then the Lord extended His hand and touched my mouth saying:
‘See I place my words in your mouth.
This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms.
To root up and to tear down,
To destroy and to demolish,
To build and to plant.’

 

“Our Lady comes to the world as its Queen. Not to govern through earthly power of an office, but to govern spiritually through the heart. This will require a different arrangement of the world as we know it now to be, an abyss of sin. Our Lady’s triumph of a spiritual reign of the heart cannot happen without the destruction of the gains satan has made throughout the world. Jeremiah says, “to root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish.”

A Friend of Medjugorje
From his writing: “You Can Be Touched By God”

Many priests were already gathered in the early morning hours at the Blue Cross, leading the pilgrims in the Rosary. Referring to priests, Our Lady recently called them, “my beloved.” Our Lady needs Her priests to follow Her way in Medjugorje, because without them, the Church membership will not be able to “be real with themselves” in confronting the sin in their own lives and in the lives of the Church:

“The Church membership, to change the culture must be real with themselves, and this must begin with us, Our Lady’s children. We must acknowledge that society has failed because we have failed. The first step to changing this is complete admission and confession. We, the salt of the earth, the preservers of culture have gone flat. Salt that goes flat no longer preserves meat or prevents it from rotting, and the culture is rotten. Our Lady is here every day because we could not step through the purifying fire without Her. It is difficult to say yes now because on our own it is much easier to look the other way than confront sin in ourselves and in the Church. But for you who do, great will be your consolation even if you continue to be purified when the time of grace is over. But the good news, the hope is if we act now, choose now for Our Lady to purify us, we have Her coming everyday to help us and to guide us and to love us.”

A Friend of Medjugorje
From his writing: “You Can Be Touched By God”

Mirjana greets Our Lady when She arrives at the Blue Cross in today’s apparition of September 2, 2012.

“Our Lady revealed on November 8, 1984, that those who are not aware of the gift of Her appearance, as well as we who are, are not deserving of such a grace. Yet in God’s mercy we are granted gifts which are so great Our Lady says that if we comprehended them we would pray without ceasing.

November 8, 1984

“…If you only knew how great are the graces God is granting you, you would be praying without ceasing…”

A Friend of Medjugorje
From his writing: “Mirjana, A Mystery Revealed”

Mirjana receives Our Lady’s words in the September 2, 2012 apparition. Our Lady confirms to us, Her children—all those who are listening to Her—that we have a mission. All of us have the responsibility to answer Our Lady’s call, to first of all change our lives, and to lead others to Her through our witness.

“If you do not take steps to be in union with God now and desire to grow, you will continue to grow amidst the present culture. The present culture is under judgement by God. It is why the Blessed Mother is coming. The present culture will wilt away. It is dying and will die. If you refuse to step away from it, you’ll be swept away with it. Rather, you must die to the culture by changing your direction and be part of the new culture that is resurrecting from Our Lady’s words. One can only see this through reflecting, “thinking,” about the future.”

A Friend of Medjugorje
From his writing: “Make Your Home “Think”-Friendly”

A curious child bends to see “better” the face of Mirjana in ecstasy, as his mother bends her heart to see “better” all that Our Lady is, all that She is offering, all that She is asking. No one really noticed it, but throughout the apparition, this little boy was looking in the direction of Our Lady and winking his eyes. 

Few eyes in the whole history of man have had the grace of seeing what Mirjana is beholding at this moment.

“Fatima had thirteen apparitions. The Church has put it as by far the most phenomenal event of the twentieth century. Medjugorje is not yet understood, and if the Church holds this assessment of thirteen apparitions with this much significance, what will it view Medjugorje once the time of grace is grasped? Medjugorje is the event, a time given to Our Lady that has been in waiting for 2,000 years…”

A Friend of Medjugorje
From his writing, “Twenty Years of Apparitions”

The message is read aloud after Mirjana’s dictation. Simple words always filled with great mystery.

 

The large crowds that attended Our Lady’s September 2, 2012 apparition make their way through the fields back to the center of the village. How many present today, understood the great grace of being in Our Lady’s presence? Maybe no one. Who can fully understand what it means, on this side of the veil, to be with Our Lady to receive Her prayers and Her blessings in this special time of grace?

“The book will provoke thought. It will make your mentality change. It will give you a process of thinking that will lead you to act. You will finish this book knowing you need to act now.”

A Friend of Medjugorje

This large picture window located in Caritas of Birmingham’s print shop looks out into the wooded area surrounding the Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages. A Friend of Medjugorje chose this message because it expresses the essence of Our Lady’s print shop which was built to transmit Her messages to the entire world. We see the fulfillment of these words of Our Lady everyday in the mission, as we literally, through the print shop and shipping departments at Caritas, as well as through Medjugorje.com, transmit Our Lady’s messages to the whole world. And now, what Our Lady revealed through They Fired the First Shot 2012, was finally being able to be released to the world as well.

Caritas’ Heidelberg press worked around the clock for the first printing of They Fired the First Shot 2012. The printed pages then lined up behind the folding machine, where small stacks were hand loaded. From the folder, the different sections of the book were loaded on to pallets, waiting for the next step of the process—the book binder.

“It was suggested to me that I would not regret it if I came down to Caritas and read it in the light of Our Lady’s presence. I came down and it was the most incredible book I have ever read. A community member had said to me before the book came out, “My life will be changed forever.” I didn’t realize what he meant then. I do now. My life will be changed forever. It was the most exciting book I’ve ever read. The most important book you must read.”

Caritas Supporter Who Previewed They Fired the First Shot 2012

“All hands on deck!” Because of the length of They Fired the First Shot 2012, the book had to be made in “blocks.” This line of stacks is collating only 1/3 of the book, as you see coming out on the conveyor belt to the left. The long line of pages to the right will be replaced with new pages two more times, to create three “blocks” that when put together, will form the whole book.

“Everything has fundamentally changed for me after reading They Fired the First Shot. I’m so excited for this book to be distributed. Don’t let anything stop you. Don’t let anything delay you. Every man of good will, will love this book and it will spread like wildfire.”

Caritas Supporter Who Previewed They Fired the First Shot 2012

 

The first third of the book comes out in neat stacks, to be later combined with the middle and back sections.

“Our Lady has led us on a path for a long, long time, from one writing to the next, accumulated into a thought process, and this has been brought together, combined in completion, in They Fired the First Shot 2012. It’s not a problem identifying book. It’s laying it out, giving a mosaic of a better understanding of all Our Lady has been teaching, and why, since She began appearing in Medjugorje.”

A Friend of Medjugorje

 

The first books are about to make the final turn into the three-knife trimmer, where three of its sides will be trimmed to book size.

“When you finish the book, you can feel like you can take certain steps now. And you don’t have to have money to do that. You don’t have to go borrow money to do that. What the Holy Spirit gives through this writing is something concrete.”

A Friend of Medjugorje

The completed They Fired the First Shot 2012 books are stacked on pallets, with one more stop at the shrink wrapping machine, before heading up to the shipping department.

“We are trained and conditioned to look to the voting booth for the answer—and it’s not there. God’s got the answer. And I’m not speaking in the context of prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting results in something solid –a solid direction. That direction is physical, it is temporal, it is to be done in this life, and it’s in the book.”

A Friend of Medjugorje

With thousands of orders to fill by those who pre-ordered the book, the conveyor belt is filled and then re-filled over and over again.

“The beauty with God’s plan is that when you get an inkling of it, you see it was right there in front of your nose all the time. But like the Promised Land, you will have to fight to get it. Thanks to A Friend of Medjugorje for taking the blinders off.”

Caritas Supporter Who Previewed They Fired the First Shot

 

Each order that goes out from the Caritas shipping department receives a hand-written note to say “thanks” for supporting Our Lady’s mission, and to say “you are in our prayers.”

“This book is absolutely unequaled; it’s on a new level. Glory be to God for this writing.”

Caritas Supporter Who Previewed They Fired the First Shot

Now, on a different conveyor, the packages line up for postage.

“Get the book as soon as possible—get it. I’m telling you, before the election, you get this book. And I’m not saying this in the context that you should read this book so to elect the right president. I’m saying, you need to be in the know for what can unfold between now and then or just afterwards. It maybe that quick. It may be that soon.”

A Friend of Medjugorje
 

Even the very youngest members of the community can find a way to help spread Our Lady’s messages. One-year-old Jacob is helping load Our Lady’s truck which will bring more than 500 packages to the post office in the first round of filling orders of They Fired the First Shot 2012.

“I was praying for fresh conversion in my life. This book did it!!”

Caritas Supporter Who Previewed They Fired the First Shot 2012

Our Lady’s truck leaves from the shipping ramp of the Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages laden with hundreds of They Fired the First Shot books heading “from sea to shining sea”—literally every state in the country. While these books were heading out the door, down in our print shop, another 21,000 books began to be printed—the whole process starting over again.

 

“So, where do we go from here? You don’t have to be told that. After you read the book, you’ll know where to go. You’ll know what you will need to do.”

A Friend of Medjugorje