CATHOLIC ARROWS

I first want to state that no alleged apparition can be fully accepted as authentic until holy mother Church declares it as authentic. That said, let me tell you a story about my trip to Medjugorje in Bosnia back in 1999.

If you have read my Rainbow Lady story, you will have discovered how a very strange and unusual thing happened before my departure.

Here is what happened during my time in Medjugorje.

I was living in south London at the time when I attended holy Mass and found out about Medjugorje from a poster at the back of my local church. The poster contained a telephone number of a woman I now refer to as “The Rainbow Lady” (please see previous story).

My girlfriend at the time was not spiritually minded and completely disinterested in coming with me, so I decided to go alone. I was 27 years old at the time and felt compelled to travel to see this place for myself, by myself.

I flew into Croatia and travelled by bus for a few hours to the Bosnian town of Medjugorje. It was pitch black when our bus pulled up outside the hotel.

In the morning I was surprised to see how beautiful the surrounding hills and countryside looked.

I got to befriend a few people in the hotel. One was a really tall black guy who was a bouncer at a London nightclub.

He was a real nice guy, very quietly spoken and humble, but I sensed he was scared, but I never knew what he was scared of.

His name was Mark and we just connected straight away. He told me about his life at the London nightclub, about the parties, the drugs and he told it all with a deep sense of shame. Most guys would brag about the things he had done, but he knew they were sins and he spoke about them with shame and regret.

He also told me he was a heroin addict. He was the nicest heroin addict you could ever hope to meet.

One day we went to mass at the local church of St. James, and afterwards we walked out the back and began to chat. It was a lovely summer’s evening and the sun was low in the sky.

As I was speaking to Mark, he was looking up at the sun. I asked him if he wanted to head back to hotel. He completely ignored me and just kept staring at the sun. I didn’t think much about it at the time, presuming he was just lost in his own thoughts.

A few hours later, at the hotel, a bunch of us sat around the dining table talking, cracking jokes and laughing, but not Mark. He looked preoccupied as if ruminating on something. I went over to him, as I noticed he wasn’t joining in any of the conversations. I said “Hey Mark, how’s things mate?”. Mark just looked at me and gave me a smile, but it was a smile with the mouth and the rest of his face remained motionless. I said “Are you ok mate?”, he then motioned me to come with him out onto the veranda. He looked at me with a very serious, intense look and said:

“If I tell you something, I don’t want you to think I’m crazy”.

I replied “Hey Mark, I’m a psychiatric nurse, I know you’re not crazy”. He seemed more relaxed and reassured when I said this, he already knew what I did for a living. Then he told me something very strange.

He said:

“After mass tonight, when we came out of the church, I looked up at the sun..” He then stopped mid-sentence. I had to encourage him; I said “Yes mate, I remember trying to talk to you, but you looked like you were in a trance”.

He replied “Please don’t tell anyone this”, I said “Don’t tell anyone what?”.

Mark then said:

“When I looked at the sun, it was spinning in the sky and waves of colour were spiralling out of it”.

I nodded in agreement to let him know I was listening and that I was taking him seriously. He then said “I know it sounds mad”. I said “Well, I have read stories of other people seeing the same thing”. He smiled at me and was glad I didn’t doubt his sanity. He then said to me for a second time “Please don’t tell anyone”, I reassured him I would not, and I didn’t.

I hung around with him for a full week until he flew back to London. When he left, I recall wishing I had got his telephone number. I stayed in Medjugorje for another week.

A few months after returning to London, I called another friend I had met there, who also lived in London. During our conversation, I asked him if he kept in touch with Mark, he replied:

“Mark died of a heroin overdose, shortly after coming back from Medjugorje”.

SAY A PRAYER FOR MARK