Another Testimony Of Michael
(the webmaster of Medjugorje USA)

Having returned from Medjugorje I attended Mass daily even though I was not Catholic yet but taking an RCIA Class. I never missed a day of Mass in 7 years. About the 4th year one day I went to Mass and a lady was sitting in my usual seat in the back row. So I sat in the row in front of her. I noted that she coughed constantly making if difficult to hear the Mass and I could feel her breath hitting the back of my neck.

I never ate before Mass and afterwards would go to the local coffee shop for a bite before going to work. One day this lady who was now coming to Mass everyday showed up in the coffee shop. She recognized me and sat next to me and started a conversation. As I was ready to leave she asked if I would give her a ride home. I was not aware she did not drive, so I gave her a ride.

The next day after Mass she asked if I was going to the coffee shop and I said yes. She asked to come along, and I said okay and took her and later drove her home before work. After a few days of this she asked if I would pick her up for Mass in the morning. I told here that I was in Mass at 7 am to do my morning prayers prior to the 8 am Mass. She said that was too early for her but insisted I pick here up. So after years of the same schedule, I changed it and got up earlier at home said my prayers and picked her up at 7:30 each morning.

The time came where she asked for my phone number and I gave it to her. In no time at all my phone was ringing off the hook day and night--it seemed I could not get anything done. I was either chatting with her over nothing or running and doing errands for her. I did these things to be a good Catholic and I figured she was sick due to the terrible cough she had.

My sister came to visit me one evening. She lived 100 miles away and it has been some time since we had seen each other. We were just headed out the door to go to dinner when the phone rang.  It was this lady and she called to chat. I cut her conversation short as my sister and I did have dinner plans. I told this lady that my sister was here and I had not seen her in a long time and we were just headed out the door to go to dinner when she called.  The woman got very angry at me and demanded that as soon as I got home I better call her and she hung the phone up in my face.

Needless to say I did not enjoy my time with my sister nor the meal as I was quite upset inside. I did not call the woman back that evening and did not go to Mass the next day. What I did do was to go see Father Ronald and told him these events I write now. Father Ronald told me that this Lady calls him 30 times a day and he use to call her back each time but it was far more than what he could continue to do. He said he just had to remove himself as she was grabbing hold him and not giving him time to breathe. He told me that the best think I can do is to call her tell her how I felt about the way she talked to me and tell her I can not continue to do what I did before. I had mixed emotions about doing this as I understood this woman had no one, but I did as Father told me.

Three days went by and that evening it was my usual night to visit a poor family I visited once a week. Each week I would bring a meal and after the food I would teach them how to pray and we would all read from the Bible. The woman was a single parent with a low paying job and two children. This evening I brought with me what we call a New England boiled dinner, it is one of my favorite meals, but to make this meal requires a very big pan which is quite heavy. I tried to make big meals as I felt the family could eat off the food for another day or two.

I came to their door that evening and had to put down the heavy pan to knock on the door. As soon as the pan was on the old cement step I heard a strange noise coming from the gutter by the house. I looked and saw a hole with a sparrow flapping its wings and the bird fell right to the ground. I thought the bird was injured so I approached it wondering what I could do. I slowly reached out to it and it just looked at me as if it was fully alert and it let me pat its beak. I moved my hand away wondering what I could do next for the poor bird when it flew on top of an old tire leaning against the side of this rented apartment. The bird just looked at me for about a minute or so, and I thought it even winked at me, and all of a sudden it flew away in the direction of the sun that was still shinning bright in the late afternoon. During this event the son of this woman opened the door, and he witnessed what had happened, and we did talk about it as it was quite unusual.

The next day I went to Mass and discovered the lady Father Ronald told me to get away from had died. I felt horrible and inside felt that I had done a real bad thing leaving her alone. For a week I suffered so much I though I was going to make myself sick. The follow week I made my usual meal and went to visit the family. They could tell I was sad and I told them that the day I came to visit them last that a woman I use to help died, and I told them the story.

The son said to me, "Michael do you remember what we read in the Bible about no sparrow falls from the sky without permission from God?  I said yes, and he said "Well, the time that you told me that Father said this woman died is the same time you come here each week, and that is when the sparrow fell from the sky, remember?"

 All of a sudden I understood he was right. At the time Father was with this woman and she died, it was the same time when the sparrow fell from the hole in the house near the gutter. God had sent me a great gift to easy my suffering. God was telling me that He was waiting for this woman and, in fact, I was keeping her from her time. God was letting me know that this is what had to be, and He knew how upset I would feel thinking I had abandoned this lady. God's gift was to send me a message through the teaching of the child I was trying to teach that as Scripture says, "Not a single sparrow fall from the sky without permission from Our Father in Heaven." I was now at peace knowing the sparrow had flown off in to the sun. The lady who was limited in life was now free to fly.