High Has Sent Me To You To Teach You Prayer. Prayer Opens

an old manger or feeding trough, with smelly, old hay and the animals there, and were so grateful they had that, along with the very poor shepherds who came and witnessed this awesome and wonderful event, giving praise to God, happy with what they had, and not grumbling with what they did not have! If someone gives you a pot holder for Christmas, cherish it and love it! A lot of work and love went into making that! Christmas is not about what we get, but what we give. Jesus got a manger bed with the breath of the animals keeping him warm in the hay, and the poor shepherds got the best gift of all, as do we: Jesus, our Emmanuel! Be happy. Be thankful. Be holy and prayerful. God is with you, our Emmanuel. He will never leave you, not for a second. As your Christmas gift to Him, never leave Him either. Keep Him close to you to warm you in holy prayer, holy Mass, and a holy life! Merry Christmas to you, one and all. Feel my prayers for you, and from Dublin, my faithful dog and best pal, and all the love in my heart for you, for our Blessed Mother, and for the whole Holy Family, the Church on this earth! O Come, O Come, Emmanuel! Father Ray and Dublin “I Accept This” By June Klins Tiny in stature, but a powerful prayer warrior was Ruth Burick, a woman loved by all who had the honor of knowing her. Ruth was the oldest member of our mailing staff, just a few months shy of her 99th birthday! You never saw Ruth’s name in our newsletter because she never wanted any recognition. Ruth did her best to live Our Lady’s messages, praying many Rosaries a day, and well into her nineties, walking to daily Mass, sometimes even in the snow (much to the dismay of her children). When Ruth became aware of Our Lady’s request to read the Bible daily, she, like many people, thought that if she attended Mass, she heard the Bible readings, and that would satisfy Our Lady’s request. When she found out that was not the case, and that Our Lady wants us to read from the Bible in addition to the readings at Mass, Ruth began to do that. For years, Ruth went to Adoration with me to my committed hour and one night on our ride there, she shared with me that she had been feeling kind of low, with the aches and pains of old age, and just longed to be with Jesus and Mary in Heaven. That day, she opened the Bible at random, and mused at God’s sense of humor. Her eyes had gone straight to a passage in the Second Book of Kings, which read, “I will add to your life fifteen years” (2 Kings 20:6). Secretly, I was hoping this passage would come true for her, as she was such a great friend and so much help in spreading Our Lady’s messages. She was such a faithful and efficient volunteer. I wish I had written down what year Ruth had shared that little story with me. If it had not been 15 years ago, I’d say it was pretty close to it! Ruth passed on October 2, the feast of the Guardian Angels, which we all felt was providential, but particularly me, since a man who would see her with me all the time at Mass and Adoration would call her “my bodyguard”. Ruth’s funeral Mass was celebrated on October 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. That day also was so perfect because of her great devotion to the Rosary. There was one lesson Ruth taught me that I would like to share during this Christmas season, and I hope it helps people. At the time of her husband’s untimely death, Ruth had never lived alone, Ruth Burick since she had moved straight from her parents’ home to life with her husband. Ruth had a large family of eight children, so the house was always full. On the night of her husband’s funeral, as she was unlocking the front door of her empty house, she thought to herself, “I am going to hate this!” Immediately, she heard an audible voice say, “Don’t say, ‘I am going to hate this’ – say, ‘I accept this.’” From that moment on, Ruth accepted her lot. Through the years, she accepted all her crosses, even when one of her sons was kidnapped at random and murdered. Acceptance was the secret of Ruth’s happiness. The late Fr. Angelus Shaughnessy once said that the key to sanctity as well as sanity is acceptance. This Christmas, as we think about how Joseph and Mary accepted that their Child would be born in a stable for animals, and that they would later have to flee their homeland to protect their Child, let us give Baby Jesus a gift of ourselves and resolve to be more like Joseph, Mary, Jesus – and Ruth – and accept what the Lord allows to happen. “Dear children, pray and seek more time for Jesus and then you will be able to understand and accept everything, even the most difficult sicknesses and crosses.” (Our Lady, 1/25/92) Our thanks to Fr. Ray Donohue, Carol Bleck, Diane Niebauer, Sue Taccone, Tom McIntire, Cindy Bielanin, Laura, Kevin and Virginia DiBacco, Kandace Lyons, Pat Heinlein, Betsy Truran, Rose Heintzel, Louise Lotze, Chris Falk, Barb Cesare, Peggy Chludzinski, Joan Peterson, Marlene Figurski, Barb Sirianni, Elaine Brady, Darleen Wilkinson, and those who want to remain anonymous for their help with the November mailing. We thank Barb Cesare for the use of her photo in this issue. We also thank our proofreader, Pat Berrier, our webmaster, Jason Klins, and our prayer group administrator, Patti Millar. Prayer Intention of Pope Francis for December Volunteer Not-for-Profit Organizations – We pray that volunteer non-profit organizations committed to human development find people dedicated to the common good and ceaselessly seek out new paths to international cooperation. THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE -3- As of November 25, 2022, the number of Masses reported for Our Lady’s intentions was 39,282. Thank you. DECEMBER 2022

How I Met Jim Browne and Began to Distribute the Christmas Day Crucifixes By Barbara Kleaveland Six months later, I was back in Medjugorje, and we saw In 2008, I was looking at information about Medjugorje on the internet. I had gone there in 1997, and then again in 2007, Jim Browne again. Carole asked him if he ever went to the with Totally Yours Pilgrimages. I came across a website, United States. He said he was supposed to go to Boston in MaryTv.tv. Every day, at 10:00 a.m., Denis and Cathy Nolan January. We asked him to let us know more about it, but we pray the Rosary from the prayer room in their home. I began never did find out. Six months went by. I was in Medjugorje again, and ran watching and praying with them daily. My mother moved in with us in 2010. She also enjoyed praying the Rosary each into Jim before the English Mass, in the courtyard outside the church. This is where you will see all the confessionals day with Denis and Cathy, until she died in 2014. MaryTV had been expanding, and started a program called filled with priests from all over the world, hearing hundreds “Fruit of Medjugorje”. They aired it on Monday night, and it of confessions each evening. I struck up a conversation consisted of the stories of people who had been to Medjugorje with him and asked if he would ever come to the United and had been touched by God. These stories were mostly States. He said he would, and I asked him how much he about the incredible conversions that people had there. No would charge. He said, “Nothing.” And I said that I would one goes home from Medjugorje without a gift from their like to invite him to come to Michigan. That was how my relationship began with Jim Browne. Mother – even if they don’t realize it while A few months later, we were they are there. getting the OK from our pastor to One of the “Fruit” shows was about host Jim. He presented a retreat to Jim Browne from County Mayo, Ireland. us, called “Surrender and Accept I was very moved by his story. At the end Jesus”. It was a life-changing retreat of the show, he told about the Christmas for many. The Surrender Retreat Day Crucifixes that were blessed by Baby was given to Jim by Our Lord. He Jesus and His Mother Mary on Christmas will tell you that there is no way he in Vicka’s prayer room, where Our Lady could have come up with this retreat appears to her. Jim offered anyone who on his own. We ended up having emailed him, one Crucifix. Jim Browne in Michigan 3 times. Watching MaryTV put a longing in my Eventually, friends from South Bend, heart to go back to Medjugorje. In 2015, Indiana and Indianapolis had him I decided to go back to Medjugorje with at their parishes for the Surrender Michael Nolan’s Tour Group. He is the son Retreat. of Denis and Cathy Nolan, and I had met Barbara and Jim Jim started a prayer group him in Chicago at Guy Murphy’s Totally modeled on the retreat, at his home Yours Conference. Getting there was short of miraculous and really, because it changed my life in a at Kiladoon in Westport, County Mayo. He was telling us very good way, I have to say this trip was totally ordained by about the Friday night prayer group and how much the God. The people that I met on this trip have stayed in my life people love coming to it each week. A group of us asked him and have become like family. We get together several times if he would help us start our own prayer group. We started a year, have a group email, and some of us Skype and say having our prayer group on Friday night and Wednesday the Rosary together each week. I began going to Medjugorje afternoon. Only 2 or 3 would come on Friday night, so we decided to have it after Mass on Thursday morning. every six months since then. On that first trip with Mike Nolan, I met Carole Pastrick Eventually, it grew to about 20 people, and is still going from Chicago, Illinois. We went to the English Mass together strong for over 4 years now. This is how I was entrusted with mailing out the Christmas at 10:00 a.m. at St. James Church. After Mass, Carole said, “There is Jim Browne! I am supposed to meet him here. I Day Crucifixes. I brought a few hundred home with me from have to get some Crucifixes from him.” I was so excited. I Medjugorje; and when Jim received an order from the US, he had hoped to email Jim when I came home, because I had a would contact me with the information, and I mailed out the friend with terminal cancer, and I wanted to give him one of Crucifixes. This went on for a couple of years, until an article came out in Medjugorje Magazine. these miraculous Crucifixes. Carole Pastrick lives near The Catholic Shop, owned Carole ran up to Jim and introduced herself. She had emailed Jim and talked to him over the phone before her by Mary Sue Eck. She and her husband, Larry, published trip. He told her it was impossible to mail the Crucifixes to Medjugorje Magazine for many years. Larry died a few years the United States from Europe, and the only way he could ago, and Mary Sue continues to run the store and publish get them to us was by pilgrims offering to take some home the magazine in her late eighties. She is an amazing woman to America and sending them out for him. He gave Carole a filled with zeal for the Lord. We took Jim Browne to the store, and Mary Sue interviewed fair amount of Crucifixes, and he gave me 3 Crucifixes. After we left Jim, Carole gave me a few of hers. This was our first him for the magazine. It was an incredible interview, and we all cried. Mary Sue had plans to put it in the next magazine, meeting with Jim Browne. DECEMBER 2022 -4- THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE

but she ended up with vertigo for months. The article finally came out in the Summer issue, 2019. The second half of the article came out in the following issue. When the magazine came out, I was swamped with orders. I think I sent out over 1,000 Crucifixes in 4 weeks. I had to mail them at the Post Office and this was quite a challenge. One postmaster offered to stay after his shift on Saturdays to help me. I gave him and a woman postal worker a Crucifix and the story about Jim Browne. I wanted them to know what they were actually helping me to do. As of today, we have anywhere from 5 to 20 orders per day. It has truly been a blessing for me. I have such a good feeling as I fill the orders and I pray for each person. Many folks are asking for the Crucifix for loved ones and friends who are very sick. We keep everyone in our prayers. Some people call or write about miracles, and I write them in a book. At the time this was written, Carole Pastrick and I were going to visit Jim Browne in Ireland the week before Easter. We then flew to Medjugorje for Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday. At that time, we brought home more Christmas Day Crucifixes. The only way we can make the Crucifixes available to people in the US and Canada is to go to Medjugorje and bring them back with the help of fellow pilgrims who offer to put them in their suitcases. If you would like to obtain a Christmas Day Crucifix (one per order), include your name and address, printed or typed legibly, and a minimum of 5.00 for postage. (Canadians send 15.00, U.S. money order.) Any donation beyond the 5.00 will help buy Crucifixes for next year. Send orders to: Barbara Kleaveland, 822 Moulton Ave, N. Muskegon, MI 49445. There are 100 copies of Jim Browne’s Surrender Retreat DVD available for 20.00. Send a request, and only pay for it upon receipt, in case they run out. Editor’s note: Barbara was being very conservative in suggesting 5 for postage for a Crucifix. Postage has gone up in price a number of times since she began sending these out and the packaging materials have gone up as well. Barbara’s conversion testimony was in our October 2009 issue, and Jim Browne’s testimony was in our March 2020 issue. Both can be read online in the archives on our website, spiritofmedjugorje.org. Blessings from the Christmas Day Crucifixes In the previous article, Barbara Kleaveland relayed how she became involved with distributing the Christmas Day Crucifixes blessed by Our Lady and Baby Jesus on Christmas Day. She also sent us copies of a few of the letters she has received. She gave me permission to share these with you and remind you that, if you want a Christmas Day Crucifix, the information on how to obtain one is at the end of her story (above). “How A deacon named Fred wrote, “Thank great are you so very much for the Christmas your works, Day Crucifixes. When they came in the Lord! How mail, I was so overjoyed to receive them, profound your because I could start giving them to designs!” people who could use a miracle in their (Ps 92:6) life. And I am again overjoyed when I do give someone a Crucifix, knowing, hoping and believing that miracles do happen. I just have this overwhelming feeling, and I start to get emotional. Today, I feel that I received a miracle through the Christmas Day Crucifix. For the last 2–3 days, I experienced severe back pain so bad, I could hardly get in and out of my pick-up truck. This morning, before getting up, I took the Crucifix and held it in my hand. Already [while] eating breakfast, I noticed the pain was gone. I was going to see my chiropractor because of the intensity of the pain, but since I was no longer in pain, I decided not to go. May God abundantly bless and reward you and your ministry.” A lady named Carol wrote, “Thank you for the blessed Crucifix you sent to me after Christmas Day. My blessing was two healthy eyes. Macular degeneration is gone!!! There was no sign of it. Cataracts were seen, but I do not need surgery for 3 or more years.” A man named Mark wrote: “Three months ago, I asked a man named ‘JJ’ to put a bid on some work at my house. He came over and, after giving me a good price, I hired him. He told me that they had gotten awful news at home; his 24-year-old son was diagnosed with lung cancer. JJ was awful upset, and didn’t know what DECEMBER 2022 was to be happening going forward. “I ran out to my Jeep and gathered up 6 or 7 Crucifixes and put them in a bag. I told JJ that the Crucifixes were blessed by Jesus and Mary on Christmas Day in Medjugorje, and how my life was saved through this Crucifix, and I wear it every day. I had three tumors, and two of them miraculously disappeared. One of the tumors was on my lung, just like JJ’s son’s. I told JJ that these Crucifixes are seriously powerful, and many miracles have happened Christmas Day Crucifix through them, and he needed to give one to his son. I told him to ask his son to pray with the Crucifix, that the cancer would be gone. I didn’t know if JJ gave a Crucifix to his son or just threw the bag on the dash of his van. “Two weeks later, he came to my house and said that he had given his son the Crucifix, and that he had gone through chemo, and everything went well. He was to go back in October for a scan. He promised to ring me with the results. “Yesterday, JJ rang me. He told me that his son had the scan, and he is cancer-free. He does not need any more chemo, just a checkup, on and off. “I told JJ that we need to give thanks to God. ‘Do you realize what has happened? The Crucifix that I gave your son has worked a miracle! It has saved your son’s life, as it has saved mine and numerous other people.’ “JJ said, ‘The people were so good at the hospital,’ and I said, ‘NO, Jesus saved your son’s life. I was only an instrument in giving you the Crucifix. Tell your son to give thanks and gratitude to God for saving his life and wear the Crucifix every day.’ His father said he has seen his son wearing the Crucifix. “This father was flying, with the joy that his son received a miracle healing. We thank God for healing JJ’s son.” -5- THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE

Marija Speaks About Her Christmas Apparition in 2021 The following is an excerpt from an interview with visionary Marija Pavlovic Lunetti by Fr. Livio Fanzaga of Radio Maria on 12/25/21 regarding the Message of December 25, 2021. The entire interview can be read at out-our-ladysmessage/ . We thank Cathy Nolan of MaryTV for sharing it. F.L. Dear friends, we have now Marija live, who is going to tell us the December 25, 2021 message of the Queen of Peace. Hi, Marija. M. Hi, Father Livio, and hello to all Radio Maria’s shipmates. I wish a Holy Christmas to everyone, with peace and joy. Today, Our Lady, like every 25th of the month, gave us the following message: “Dear children! Today I am carrying my Son Jesus to you, for Him to give you His peace. Little children, without peace you do not have a future or blessing; therefore, return to prayer, because the fruit of prayer is joy and faith, without which you cannot live. Today’s blessing which we give you, carry to your families and enrich all those whom you meet, that they may feel the grace which you are receiving. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Here we are, Father Livio! I think the most important thing today is the fact that Our Lady came with the Infant Jesus. Yes, Our Lady, today in a special way, gave us the blessing of peace with Her Son Jesus, Who is the King of Peace. With the presence of the Baby Jesus in Her arms and the richness of peace that we do not appreciate until a war begins, they are stronger. M: Yes, He is dressed, even if He is wrapped in His Mother’s veil. He is not naked. F.L. There! Awesome! So, He is not swaddled, He has a little tunic, and Our Lady covers Him with Her veil. And listen, Marija, He is a newborn, but does He have hair? M. Artwork by Mike Conti to people, but the Child is just a newborn baby or M. He is a beautiful little newborn baby, and our hearts melt with joy even at the thought of Christmas which, like every year, is special. Our Lady arrives with a golden dress, the most beautiful, as if it was embroidered with gold, but also, at the same time, with the Child Jesus, Who is the King of Peace, Who is the Bearer of Peace, Who is the Blessing for us and for our future. Today, in a special way, I asked Our Lady and the Child Jesus to free us from this pandemic and to restore peace to the whole world. F.L. I’m sorry if I’m a bit curious – I wanted to ask you – but Baby Jesus is swaddled? M. He was wrapped in the veil of Our Lady, that seemed to be one with the Baby Jesus. They are one, and with this enriched dress of Hers and the very wide veil, they formed a unity between Them so that, at the same time, you don’t know where one ends and where the other begins. I think this beauty can only be seen in Heaven. F.L. Listen, Marija, I was particularly struck by the fact that Our Lady said that today’s blessing “we give you”, that is, both of Them gave us the blessing of peace; but did Jesus also give the blessing? F.L. Listen, Marija, sorry for being peculiar, but She is dressed in gold and also Her veil is golden? M. Exactly! This is extraordinary because Our Lady and Her Child Jesus, both, gave us the blessing through Their Sign of the Cross. M. All embroidered, it is much richer than that of every day; even the veil is embroidered, and inside is the Baby Jesus. F.L. That is, Our Lady, Who was holding the Child in Her arms, and the Child, turned to you and gave the blessing just looking at you. F.L. Then Our Lady covers Her Child with the veil? M. Exactly! Our Lady said that today’s blessing is not only for us, our families, but also for all those we will meet. F.L. Listen, Marija, I say this because it is nice to be able to describe the apparition THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE M. Yes, and Baby Jesus also has a little dress, because when He raised His hands for the blessing, the sleeves were shown. F.L. And, therefore, when on Christmas 2012, the Child Jesus got up and said: “I am your peace, live my commandments”, He had just a little dress, a tunic? -6- Yes, thank Heaven! He has hair. F.L. Blond hair? M. Brown, not quite curly, not definitely black. F.L. I see. Instead, Our Lady has black hair. M. Our Lady has black hair that is barely seen because it is covered by a veil. It shows in the back because it’s long and dark and it comes out. F.L. And listen, has Baby Jesus blue eyes? M. Yes, Baby Jesus has blue eyes. F.L. And also our Mother has blue eyes? M. Precisely. F.L. Therefore, He resembles His Mother also in the eyes. M Yes, Our Lady resembles the Infant Jesus and the Infant Jesus resembles Her, and then there is this light of Heaven which gives even more expression to the beauty of Our Lady. F.L. It is a wonderful thing. M. Father Livio, it is a beautiful thing; and every time, we feel and see Heaven, through this peace and blessing that we receive, not only because we see the light that comes with Our Lady and Jesus, but also the beauty and the expression of love towards Her Son when She gives Him to us. F.L. But in any case, I was struck by the fact that they both gave the

teach you prayer. Prayer opens hearts and gives hope, and faith is born and strengthened. Little children, with love I am calling you: return to God, because God is love and your hope. You do not have a future if you do not decide for God; and that is why I am with you to guide you to decide for conversion and life, and not for death. Thank you for