How blessed am I that I can be the first one to review this!…read more
I have to say for starters, I was skeptical of this place from the beginning. But little did I realize the good fruit that takes place essentially in our backyard in a little farm town of North Ridgeville.
My first experience regarding this place was when I went to Adoration one day at St. Anthony's in Lorain more than 2-3 years ago -- this lady handed me pamphlets about the place. I said there is no way this is real, and even the diocese of Cleveland "admonished" it. So, I shook it off without really looking more into it.
I was really into apparitions and miracles at that time because it is what brought me back to the faith in the Fall of 2017, thanks to the movie based on a true story, Miracles From Heaven. But for some reason, I got dismissive about this place -- could it have been Satan/his demons influencing me? One would think...
Little did I know that when I went to Adoration at St. Joseph recently that a different lady would tell me all of this... which had me in awe and shock:
-- Profound stories/experiences that people had there. I even checked with a couple people I knew and they had extraordinary stories/experiences to tell as well, even leading to a marriage discernment.
-- The on-going apparitions of Mary, Jesus, God the Father, and the Saints have been going on since the mid 80s to this visionary and learning about her story and the people who now work at the ministry as well are amazing.
-- How this ministry, despite a lot of adversity (just like Medjugorje), has been around for 30 years and is still aligned to the Catholic teaching and Scripture, despite being ecumenical, allowed by Canon law.
-- A well-known author (Wayne Weible) who was well invested in Medjugorje and his conversion to the faith through the Blessed Mother was skeptical himself. But he saw the good fruit as well when he came here. He even wrote a book about it (Intimate Messages from Heaven). Many connections to Medjugorje.
-- This place has been endorsed by other Archbishops from different dioceses/places around the world and scholars of Marian apparitions have said that to say what's going on here is bad and the apparitions aren't authentic would be complete and utter ignorance to what has been revealed since the beginning, throughout the living Word of God in Scripture.
I could go on and on.
The fact of the matter is, just like the diocese of Cleveland, I initially judged it for what it was and never discerned carefully as to whether this place had established good fruit (just as Jesus taught us), and was in fact aligned to Catholic teaching and Scripture. After all, it is private revelation... you have to look at the Saints throughout history who have had private revelations and had undergone condemnation from the Church and overcome so much adversity (St. Faustina and St. Padre Pio come to mind). But, the fruits are what ultimately mattered, and they turned out to be great Saints in the modern era.
And so... I decided to go today, and for some reason July 31 was the day I picked out the week before, which amazingly enough is the day Catholics celebrate St. Ignatius' memorial -- he wrote about the discernment of Spirits. I didn't realize that until after. I don't believe in coincidences anymore.
When I got there, it was like standing on holy ground. All you could feel was peace and consolation. Definitely a discernment of the good spirit. The Holy Spirit was within you, and Jesus, Mary, and the Angels were beside you in Spirit all throughout the journey of the site to the different areas of devotion. It was remarkable. I soaked it all in for 3 hours walking to each devotion area and being with God, Mary, and the Angels. I didn't go into the chapel, bookstore, or the main building, but next time I'll have to check that out.
I'd be remiss if I didn't say -- Just go...see...experience it yourself. You don't know what wonders God can do for you at any point in your life. Healing is a wonderful gift God can give, whether it be spiritual, physical, emotional, mental -- He can go anything for you, even if we have little faith; be open to it and you will see wonders.
