25 years ago I was in Medjugorje and dragged my agnostic boyfriend David along with me. We had been traveling around Europe. On 5th October 1997, the fourth day of our being there - he got lost during a hike, in the dark, on a mountain... but found God, for the first time.
 

We hadn't been together long. We were kind of misfits because we didn't share faith, and I was enthusiastic about mine. I was Catholic and he called himself Agnostic. It wasn't that he didn't believe it was all just 'information' Nothing had ever really penetrated for him about God before. Mirijana, one of the Visionaries says it so well: Those that 'have never felt the love of God'. He was not one to buy into anything easily either and aside from my spirituality which he could see had a positive effect on me, was skeptical of it all.
 

On the Sunday evening, having had enough of all this 'religious stuff' he told me he was going hiking in the early evening. He picked out the mountain between Cross Mountain and Apparition Hill, a fair way from the township. He reached the summit of the mountain at dusk. He decided to take a shortcut back via a ridge he spied on the way up, but it got darker, later and he got very lost on his way. Stuck between brambles and rocks in the dark he became frightened. Just the day before he'd been told there are deep cavities in and around the mountain rocks. As it was dark he felt afraid of falling through and started to despair. After slipping on a large steep rock and holding on for dear life, for the first time, he cried out "Mary,  please just get me out of here!". He felt a calling to climb back upwards, somewhat counterintuitive but he followed it anyway. Wet with sweat and exhaustion, he reached the summit again and broke down in tears of relief.

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It was then that he felt tingles from his nose that spread to his face and understood that he had put his face into someone's hands, he knew those hands were Mary, our Blessed Mother’s and that she was consoling him. Although he didn't know how he would get back to safety, a light breeze blew and a very peaceful sense of love swept across him. He then noticed that his wet sweaty clothes were dry. He told me that he felt the Trinity right there with him ( The Father, Son and The Holy Spirit) and knew with a deep knowing that God was real. He sat for some time in deep peace. During those moments, there was a life review where he was shown all the rights and wrongs he had done in his life. Like the flickering of an old movie. For example, he is quite a jovial character but for the first time, he saw how he had hurt others at times when taking jokes a little too far. Other life events were illuminated to him, and it was as though he could see them through the eyes of God.

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When he got up and walked some metres across the summit, he said aloud, 'now, how am I going to get down?'. Again he was guided to look up. There was a beautiful sky full of stars. Within the sea of stars, he could see a prominent cross made by a group of stars. This was his guide home. He began his walk, looking up. When it was time to turn, that group of stars would fade and another group of stars forming a cross would clearly appear. Along the way, he was given signs and asked questions about faith. Shooting stars would burn across the sky to give him an affirmative to his questions, which were mostly about if the experience was real, and whom he could tell. He learned things about faith on the way down as well. One such learning was that when he looked down, he would stumble. The lesson was to keep your eyes on the cross and have faith lest you stumble and fall. He made his way back to the township and home to where we were staying, close to midnight.

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Happy to see him finally, I could see something profound had happened. I was about to do a midnight climb up Cross Mountain with a group of pilgrims. For those that know Cross Mountain, it’s a good 1-2 hour climb. Not knowing his experience, I asked if he wanted to join me. I was surprised that not only did he say 'yes' but when I told him we would need a torch he very emphatically said 'no, we won't need a torch!’. I knew then that something had happened. David would never forget his torch. When I said, ‘David has something happened to you?’ he nodded and said he would tell me at the top. When we sat together at to top of Cross Mountain he shared his story. While he was sharing a monstrous shooting star burned up across the sky to give me confirmation about his story. It was so big I gasped, but David didn’t flinch. He turned to me, imploring; ‘Yes,  this is what just happened to me!’. Perhaps there was a meteor shower that night but David saw 9 shooting stars as part of his dialogue with God.

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On the morning of the feast of the Rosary two days later, he stood at the back of the church during Holy Mass. He saw and experienced many things. I also attended and found it strange that his upper torso was turned, and he was looking up toward a stained glass window, tears of joy streaming down his face. The stained glass window had a picture of Rosary Beads on it. The beads were like stepping stones, and he later shared with me that the sun seemed to move along through the stepping stones illustrating life in faith. The priest was giving his sermon, and the light seem to amplify at specific points, such as when the priest said that faith will be tested. During communion, the light had reached the cross on the stained glass window and pulsated, during which time David felt an immeasurable sense of God's love as each person received him in the Holy Eucharist.

 

You can imagine how astonished I was seeing him like this. His face just shone with tears of joy, I had no idea what he was experiencing. Also, during the consecration, he saw shimmering light come down on the altar. After that Mass, he said to me; 'Do you know that heaven comes down on the altar at every mass?'. I had never told him that our Catholic belief was that the bread and wine turn into the body and blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, yet this was revealed to him during the Holy Mass. Other special signs and lessons came. One was that he could pray the rosary instantly. For someone who can never remember words to songs, I was astonished that he prayed it like he had been praying the rosary for years.

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