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Documente Cultură
July-September 2009
Mother's suggestion was like a fire ignited in my heart. In my mind and heart I responded: "Oh!
Yes. That would be great to be like Father O'Meara - so good, kind, and be at the altar like he
does. Then I could raise up that large Host who is Jesus and that golden chalice with the Blood
of Jesus in it." I never lost that burning desire all the way through grade or high school. My
mother wisely never pressed me on it but after I was ordained, told me: "Your father and I
prayed for this." From about five or six years of age to 18, it was my secret shared only with
Jesus, Mary and my Guardian Angel.
I did not tell any of my family, or cousins or close friends. The secret was too sacred to talk
about. I would go to the church alone as a boy, when my mother took me along from our farm
to town to do shopping. She'd say, "Meet me back here in two hours." I never told her or others
how I spent those hours. I would go close to the front, and look at the tabernacle. I experienced
power from the Eucharist. The fire and tug in my heart was intensifying with the years. Christ's
power from the Eucharist drew me. Alone in Church with Jesus, I'd get up at times, walk to the
beautiful altar of Our Lady of Grace, and kneel. I would talk to Mary. She communicated love
to me, then sent me back to Jesus in the tabernacle.
Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Hanceville AL
"Come follow Me. ...You have not chosen Me, I have chosen you."
A priest is called to give his whole heart to Jesus. Ideally it should
be capped with living total consecration to Mary.