He Said Yes

 

I was praying the rosary for a local priest whom I was asked to pray for when I noticed that the rosary I was holding in my hands had a picture of Mary on it. She wore a crown and behind her beautifully crowned image was blue sky, with calm blue waters beneath it.  On the back of that picture were the words: “Our Lady of Lepanto, pray for us.”  Lepanto is the place where badly outnumbered European naval forces had fought to save Europe and the Catholic faith on October 7, 1571.  Prior to the battle, the European forces had prayed to Mary to plead with her Son for their safety.  The European forces, against all odds, surprisingly won, and the title of Our Lady of Lepanto was created and remembered (although often she is often called Our Lady of Victory).

As I prayed the rosary, I recalled the time Our Lady had intervened in my life also, and like Lepanto things beyond all odds happened. What came to my mind was my strange call to go to Medjugorje in 1987.  It definitely was beyond all odds that I should go to that place that no travel agent had ever heard of, nor knew how to get to.  Yet I was called to go there.  A number of people tried to talk me out of “my silly idea”, but I had to go to that place halfway around the world.

I think a big part of my going, however, was aided by my sister.  When I told her of my strange compulsion, she also said I was silly, and no way would her husband let her go to such a strange place in a communist country.  Yet, two days later my sister called me all excited: “He said yes!”

She was going with me.  And my life, and hers, radically changed.  Up until right now, my focus had always been on my strange compulsion to go there.  I don’t know what would have happened if my sister had not agreed to go with me.  But, although I never spoke to him about it, I think her husband must have also had a strange compulsion to let her go with me.  He said yes.

At Lepanto, the world changed because of Mary’s intercession.  On a much smaller scale, because of her intercession my world, and that of the people I would meet over the rest of my life, changed. Many big things in our lives happen when we follow what I call the Spirit’s little nudges, but at this one my life radically changed course.  Lepanto was much bigger than my change, of course, but there was one major intervention of Mary which was even more world-changing than the battle at Lepanto.

There once was a young virgin named Mary, who said yes to an angel, and …

 

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And as I type these words, I recall that today is a feast day in the Catholic Church.  It is the feast day of the Queenship of Mary.