Mary Our Mother "MOM" Foundation
A Story of Answered Prayers
The Message Booklet
For the past several years I have been involved in trying to help Our Lady spread her messages from Medjugorje. I have a great love for Our Lady since it was through her that I was drawn into the Catholic Church and back to Her son Jesus. I have seen and heard of many conversions that have come about as a result of Our Lady's messages. Several years ago I compiled a booklet of her messages and began distributing them through my parish with the approval of my pastor. Approximately 4,000 booklets have been acquired by people which has been a great blessing. With the help of fellow parishioners, free rosary packets have also been made available. Some people have taken the initiative to distribute booklets in their own parish. My sister, Sharon, is one of them. She puts them in three parishes in Michigan and makes them available through her workplace. I know Our Lady is thankful to all those who have helped spread her messages.
Even though Our Lady has appeared through the centuries in many places, there are still many people who do not know of her appearances. For this reason, I have wanted to help make her messages more widely available to people.
The Call to Make a CD
One day after Mass I stayed to pray the rosary. While praying it came into my mind very clearly, "Make me a CD". Following this inspiration I decided to go through all of the messages again and create more subject categories than what were in the initial booklet. Most of my free time in the coming weeks was dedicated to this task.
My first impulse was to have a CD with only the messages on it. However, after consulting with my pastor, Monsignor Hugh Marren, he told me the idea was great, but the messages needed to be offset with some music. Having songs between the messages would allow time for people to mediate on the messages. You have to understand I had zero knowledge of how to produce and make a CD, let alone what would make it more meditative. I contacted "MuellerExcel", a local Atlanta group, and got the name of a recording studio I could use. I now had the knowledge on how to move forward from the production and song end. The recording studio was contacted and we were on our way.
Our Name
The next day, the name Mary Our Mother Foundation popped into my head. The acronym for this is "MOM". I believe Our Lady chose the name for this ministry since she is truly a mother, my mother and your mother in Heaven! As Jesus called out "Abba" which means "Daddy" so we cry out to Our Blessed Mother, "MOM", for her intercession on our behalf.
A Reader for the Messages
A reader was needed for the messages, someone who had a calm, soothing, loving voice. Immediately I thought of Mary Murphy, a woman in our Medjugorje prayer group. I told her about the project and asked if she would be the reader. Her answer was a resounding yes! It was wonderful timing as she had just returned from Medjugorje. On her trip she had met up with Patrick and Nancy Latta (Father Jozo's interpreter) and had become friends with them. We thought this was quite a coincidence considering I had just met Patrick and Nancy at the Atlanta Marian Conference and had spoken with them about needing a reader for the messages. Now she was going to be the reader. Within a week's time we began recording.
A CD Cover Designer Needed
Someone was now needed to design the CD cover, but who? I thought of having a simple picture of Our Lady, but thought an actual drawing, something unique, would be nice. I met with Mary Murphy one day at St. Benedict and we went into the chapel to pray for an artist who could help us. After praying she left to go to her home parish and ran into Beth Abbott, a friend of hers, whom she had not seen in months. As Mary drove into the parking lot, Beth was coming out of the church. Knowing she had an artistic background she decided to talk to her about the project and what we needed. Amazingly Beth had been a graphic designer for an ad agency before and had done design work for CD covers and inserts before! Mary called me shortly thereafter to tell me the incredible news about the answer to our prayer. Our Lady wasted no time in answering our prayer and bringing us this beautiful picture to share with you. As you can see, the design work on the cover is a breath-taking picture of Our Lady with the child Jesus. We invite you to read the miracle story of the CD Cover.
A God-Incidence
The following weekend I had gone to Mass. Afterwards I went to have breakfast at a restaurant I frequently go to. When I entered I realized there was no table available to sit at which had never happened to me before at this restaurant. I was ready to walk out the door and go to another restaurant when a gentleman asked if I wanted to share his table. I gratefully accepted. As we talked he shared with me all the different types of jobs he had done over the years. In our discussion I found out that he was currently involved with a manufacturer that makes many different types of acrylic displays for CDs and tapes for various stores, from supermarkets to religious stores. I thought this is great! It sure would be nice to have a display stand that would draw attention to Our Lady's messages. Now I don't know about you, but this was the first time in my life I had ever met a person involved with making acrylic displays for CDs and tapes! He ended up designing one while we ate and stated he was probably one of only ten people in the city of Atlanta I could of met that did what he did. Coincidence, no chance!
A Web Site
In coming out with a recording I thought it would be nice to have a web site, but I knew as much about making and designing a web site as I did about producing a CD, Nothing! It was Sunday and I had met a gentleman, Ben Vigil, after Mass whom I knew had done some web site application work before, but didn't know what he was involved with specifically. Well, I found out he was involved with the web site for the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Another coincidence, I don't think so!
The next Sunday, I spoke with Ben again after Mass and he told me he was hoping to acquire a dedicated server in 2 months which would allow him to host websites. In discussing the building of the "MOM" website, he stated it would be helpful if someone else could do it and then he could host the site. I agreed and had another person begin to build the site. However, one month into it he found out he had to move and not only that, but all the work he had done was lost due to his computer crashing.
The next time I spoke to Ben his dedicated server was only 2 weeks away from being up and running. I told him my situation and asked if he or someone else could build the website. The following Sunday I told him our projected launch date was still about 2 months away. This was the time frame he needed to begin working on it. The next week he agreed to build the entire website. I could not think of anyone better to do this as he now manages the entire website for the Archdiocese of Atlanta as well as the Archdiocesan Georgia Bulletin. Ben not only built the site, but now hosts it as well. I believe in my heart he was the one Our Lady led me to.
Choosing the Songs
What were the songs Our Lady wanted on the CD? The initial thought was to just have some songs that pertained to prayer. After some input I decided to take it to prayer. I stayed after Mass one day and prayed for a short while in front of a statue of Mary holding the baby Jesus. I asked for her guidance on what songs to have.
Our Lady came through again with a quick answer. Within the next day or two I listened to a CD a friend of mine, Therese Stecki, had given me. She gave me the CD because of the case it was packaged in and thought it would work for us. She also thought I might like the songs. When I listened to the CD, the song "Come To Me" hit me like a ton of bricks. I said to myself, "This is it, this song needs to be on the CD". I contacted Kathy Dittus who wrote the song with her daughter Laura and explained the project to her. She was open to using her song, but stated I needed to talk to her son, Rich, and his friend Megan Wilhelm, whom sang the song. I called them that night and after speaking with them they were both excited about their music being used to minister to people. I know I was given this CD when I was supposed to receive it. Our Lady not only provided the packaging case for the CD, but a beautiful song as well. Praised be Jesus and Mary!
Our Lady Continues Her Work
Our Lady did not stop here. One day while coming home I felt frustrated as I did not know what other song Our Lady wanted. Molly Clements, a member of our prayer group, had given me a CD some time back of a demo she had done and told me I could use any of the songs. The song "Be Like Jesus" jumped out at me. It was beautiful and the lyrics were wonderful! I called Molly up and asked if we could use it. She said sure and contacted the others that were a part of the song to get their okay too. They approved! Molly made a some changes in the lyrics and she re-recorded the song. The most amazing part of this story is that Molly had originally wanted to do something similar to this project, but seemed to keep running into dead ends. I think Our Lady wanted us to bring our talents and efforts together.
Another Song
Our third song came in the nick of time. We had initially recorded a song called "Come Just As You Are" which was sung beautifully by Molly, but we opted not use it since there were royalty fees associated with using this song. When this decision was made we were only a month away from our launch date and we still needed another song. With time running short I called Rich and Megan to see if they had a song we could use. Rich had recently written a song called "Hold On To Me." Megan read me the lyrics and sang a few notes. It was perfect! With only a few weeks left before our launch date we recorded it. I think you will agree it is beautiful and very moving.
A Final Song?
When we had the initial three songs recorded we were wondering what the fourth song was that Our Lady wanted. Since the beginning we thought we would have four songs, but again what was it Our Lady wanted? I received a call from Mary Murphy one day and she stated she had been praying about it and it came to her that it was not a song Our Lady wanted, but the Medjugorje story. In going back I found this in our early notes, but for whatever reason it was put on the back burner and forgotten about. We agreed to take it to prayer some more to make sure this was what Our Lady wanted.
The next day I got to Mass a little early and said a few prayers. I was thinking about what a good idea it was to put on the Medjugorje story since many people had never heard of it or if they had, many didn't know what was happening there. I had brought in a Medjugorje magazine with me so I could read an article. When I flipped open the magazine I found an article entitled "The Medjugorje Story." That was our confirmation! I thank Our Lady for this as it has been her hand all along that has directed everything in this project.
A Priest for the Conclusion
We contemplated having a priest read the introductions into the messages or doing a brief reflection on each of the message topics. What should we do? I decided to pray and ask Our Lady to speak through our pastor Monsignor Marren. He had an immediate answer. He said to do neither, but have a statement at the end of all the messages tying them together. His comments on what to say were so good I wondered if maybe Our Lady didn't want him to do it. After all, he has a great devotion and love for Our Lady as well. I felt he was supposed to and decided to ask him.
The recording date was set for the coming Wednesday and I had only seen Monsignor Marren once in the last month or so at 12:10 Mass as we had quite a few priests visiting our parish. Our time line was short and I needed to know Monday if he would do it. I prayed to Our Lady as I drove to the Monday, 12:10 Mass and said, Mary, you know my schedule, if you want Monsignor to do this he will have to be at Mass today so I can ask him. When I drove up I did not see his car. I thought that was my answer, no. I went in for Mass, but there was no priest there yet. Well, when I heard the bell ring for Mass guess who was doing it? You guessed it, Monsignor Marren! After Mass I spoke to him and asked if he would do it and if he had time Wednesday. He looked at his calendar and said he did and that he would do the conclusion for the messages. The two miracles in this were his schedule providing him time to do this as he is extremely busy and the fact that I had not seem him at a 12:10 Mass for at least a month. When Our Lady wants something done, she opens the doors to make it happen!
Special Thanks
It is truly a blessing to be a part of this ministry! I thank Our Lord and Lady for bringing such wonderful people to this project to make it all happen. I would like to thank all those who were involved in the production of the CD and web site. They are my sister, Sharon Amaya, Mary Murphy, Therese Stecki, Carol Searing, Beth Abbott, Kathy, Rich and Laura Dittus, Megan Wilhelm, Ben Vigil, Molly Clements, Mark Coughlin, Ken Leffingwell, Tex Crossin, Mary Karamarkovich, Charisse Excell, Lori Mueller and Monsignor Hugh Marren. I would also like to thank our Medjugorje prayer group for their prayers and support. Through everyone's efforts this vision has become a reality. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!
From conception to the final product, all the pieces fell into place through prayer and perseverance. This is how I know it was Jesus and Mary's plan, not ours. What I learned through this whole journey was that whenever you have a decision to make, you must always take it to prayer first! God surely answers prayers and Our Lady surely intercedes for us in all our needs!!! We now know there are no coincidences, but only God-Incidences.
Let Us Go Forth!
It is up to you and me to continue the work Our Lady has called us all to, spreading her messages of prayer, peace, faith, love, fasting, penance and conversion. Let us all strive to answer the invitation Our Lady gave on February 25, 1995.
May God Bless you in all your efforts as we work together to bring these messages to the world.
In Jesus and Mary,
Greg Amaya
Director
Copyright (c) 2002-2007 Mary Our Mother Foundation, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.