Padraig, I am also very glad you started this forum and that I was led to it. Sorry I have been silent for several days...preoccupied with my husband's birthday. Took him to a football game at Notre Dame, and were there from Friday morning until Sunday night. So we were in our element, so to speak, at the one place here in the US that most closely makes us feel like we did when we were in Medjugorje. Even at the football game, there are so many Catholics milling about, and so much of the entire game experience revolves around Mary and the Mass, that it was a great weekend on so many levels. Prayed at the Grotto twice, went to Mass in the Basilica, met wonderful souls everywhere we looked. The entire team goes to Mass at 12:30 before every game...isn't that wonderful? And people line up outside to see them when they come out of the Basilica and they walk to the stadium with everyone...and all the team members are wearing suits and ties!!! That impressed me so much, to show that kind of respect these days. Anyhow, this forum feels like that too, it feels like a blessed place to go, like a sanctuary on the internet for me, a place to breathe and to rest from the hectic and crazy places I also post on (like Facebook). I have missed it, not participating for this many days! Sometimes life gets busy and gets in the way, and we slip a little with our routines, but God and Mary always welcome us back and we can start again. This forum is a place like that. Padraig, when I talk about you to others, I tell people I know a very good and holy man in Ireland, and that he has helped many people with his prayers and wisdom, and sometimes I even go to church with him by attending the Belfast Mass that he goes to online! Anyway, Mary was right as always, and while this forum is here for us, we will use it. We all are grateful that you listen to her, and you are not in any way being boastful or anything else. When Mary calls, we are supposed to listen and do. Oh, if only more people would actually listen and do what they are being called to do...then the world would already be that peaceful place we all long for. Padraig, thanks for listening and thanks for encouraging us to listen too. Just one tiny example...without you, I would never know that my guardian angel's name is Carroll (which by the way was again confirmed at Notre Dame...). So many blessings have come from this forum...my grandson's miracle being the biggest one for me so far.
