After a few moments of though I continued  up the mountain with the nuns, stopping with them to pray at each station of the cross. And then on the mountaintop of Cross Mountian I was comforted by a young woman.  I was not sure it was one of the nuns. The young woman then laid a cloth over my shoulders and put a hat on my head.  The young woman had a special grace when I suddenly felt this immense sense of peace. I found myself laughing in some kind of glorious relief. The  whole episode–the storm, the singing nuns, my first prayers–was overwhelming. I then  closed my eyes to pray for a moment and after opening my eyes again I discovered that the sun was out, the skies had cleared, and the nuns and the young woman were nowhere to be seen.

By Fr. Daniel Maria Klimek, T.O.R.

What happens when a secular RollingStone journalist enters into the mystical world of Marian apparitions, visionaries, stigmatics, prophecies, and miracles, traveling from Rome to Medjugorje on a life-altering journey?

This was the experience of Randall Sullivan, a popular author who has written New York Times bestselling books about major names in the music industry — from Biggie and Tupac to Michael Jackson — and whose work has inspired the recent Johnny Depp film City of Lies. 

A project that Sullivan was not expecting was discovering the mystical world of miracles, visionary experiences, stigmatics, and Marian apparitions, as he read a story in a local Oregon paper that reported details about a woman who began to see the Virgin Mary. A priest said in the story “we have it under investigation.”

Sullivan was fascinated by these words, asking the questions: how does one investigate the supernatural? How does one investigate the miraculous?

To seek answers and to discover a new writing project, Sullivan found himself traveling to some of the major centers of Catholic spirituality and mysticism, from Rome to Medjugorje, where he stayed with the Marian visionary Mirjana Soldo. That’s right, a cultural mixture of fascinating proportions — RollingStone Magazine in Medjugorje with a visionary. 

When Sullivan was in Rome he met the priests — which he dubbed “miracle detectives” — who investigate cases of alleged miraculous healings at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the office within the Roman curia that medically examines healing miracles in order to see whether they can be connected to the heavenly intercession of a holy person, who may become a saint.

Sullivan found out with what depth the Church investigates such phenomena, employing some of the most esteemed doctors and scientists (many of them, secular) in the world, and discovering how many of these physicians explain that a remarkable number of healing cases they examine are scientifically unexplainable, that it baffles the mind. 

Find out more about Sullivan’s remarkable journey into the world of Catholic mysticism from the video:

 

Father Daniel Maria Klimek, T.O.R., is a Franciscan friar and an Assistant Professor in the theology department at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is a member of the theological commission of the International Marian Association, and has taught as a Lecturer in the School of Franciscan Studies at St. Bonaventure University. 

Father Daniel Maria is a recognized authority on Medjugorje, the subject of his dissertation. His book, Medjugorje and the Supernatural: Science, Mysticism, and Extraordinary Religious Experience, was published by Oxford University Press and has been nominated for the Distinguished Book Award for 2018 by the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and was winner the 2018 Faculty Award of Excellence in Scholarship at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Fr. Daniel Maria is the host of the MaryTV show Living the Message. His articles have been published in The Federalist, the Huffington Post, Crisis Magazine, ChurchPOP, and Aleteia.

 

1. DANIEL MARIA’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKoQ0RibV-woaT1I6cj9z1Q

 

1. DANIEL MARIA’S MARY TV SHOW LIVING THE MESSAGE:

https://marytv.tv/living-the-message-2/

 

1. DANIEL MARIA’S BOOK MEDJUGORJE AND THE SUPERNATURAL:

https://www.amazon.com/Medjugorje-Supernatural-Mysticism-Extraordinary-Experience/dp/0190679204

 

1. DANIEL MARIA’S WEBSITE AND BLOG:

http://www.danielklimek.com/

 

Randall Sullivan on Medjugorje

“There is no single word I discovered that so instantly could produce a rapturous smile a derisive snort or an uncomfortable silence in the Vatican as “Medjugorje.” What fascinated me  was that those that extolled Medjugorje as a place of sacred virtue of unparalleled power all had made pilgrimages to experience the village first hand, while those who scoffed knew only what they had read or heard. The priests inclined to to dismiss reports of miracles at Medjugorje (first as an insult to their intelligence and second as an embarrassment to the church) all seemed curiously muted.”  -Randall Sullivan

Former Atheist and Rolling Stone Writer’s Miracle in Medjugorje..”Suddenly I felt compelled to go down on my knees to pray for the first time in my life.”

By Stephen Ryan Publisher Mystic Post

Randall Sullivan is a former agnostic, raised by atheists, an Ivy Leaguer, and was a  contributing editor to Rolling Stone for over twenty years. He is also the author of The Price of Experience, Labyrinth, and the great book about Medjugorje called  The Miracle Detective, which inspired the television show he hosted on the Oprah Winfrey Network. 

Do miracles really exist? Or is there a logical explanation to the seemingly inexplicable?

While travelling as a war correspondent in Bosnia, Sullivan saw an inexplicable vision on Cross Mountain in Medjugorje during a violent thunder and lightning storm.  He’s convinced it was a miracle.  Mr. Sullivan took a moment out of his busy schedule to talk with Mystic Post about that “inexplicable vision that changed his life”

Randall Sullivan: “The ‘vision’ referred to is the experience I described taking place during my first climb up Cross Mountain after interviewing Medjugorje visionary Mirjana. The interview ended in a bit of of a ‘spat.’ She basically threw me out of her house.

Finding myself with time on my hands, I headed to Cross Mountain. It was a blistering hot day.  It was so hot nobody was crazy enough to climb the mountain that afternoon, so I found myself alone. Making my way up the mountain I was quickly engulfed and terrified by the strangest and most focused thunderstorm I’ve ever seen or heard about.  Lighting was so intense and close I could feel the heat. I thought ‘Well if there is a God, I guess this is my time.’

Strangely, as the storm raged,  I then heard a sound of French voices singing.  I continued up the mountain on very shaky legs, led by the beautiful song. I then came upon a group of nuns kneeling in the mud at a station of the cross.  As they knelt the thunder and lightening  continued to cascade around us. Then suddenly I felt  compelled to go down on my knees to pray myself for the first time in my life.  

After a few moments of prayer I continued  up the mountain with the nuns, stopping with them to pray at each station of the cross. And then on the mountaintop of Cross Mountian I was comforted by a young woman.  I was not sure it was one of the nuns. The young woman then laid a cloth over my shoulders and put a hat on my head.  The young woman had a special grace when I suddenly I felt this immense sense of peace.

I found myself laughing in some kind of glorious relief. The  whole episode–the storm, the singing nuns, my first prayers–was overwhelming. I then  closed my eyes to pray for a moment and after opening my eyes again I discovered that the sun was out, the skies had cleared, and the nuns and the young woman were nowhere to be seen.

I could not believe they were gone. I ran back down the mountain and then up again and then down again looking for the nuns, not being able to find them. I went into town and asked everybody that I could or anyone at the cafes at the bottom of the mountain who had seen any group of nuns on the mountain that day. Nobody had seen the nuns.

I was then confronted by the thought that I might have hallucinated, but I quickly came to a decision that I  HAD seen what I had seen and that it would be like slapping away God’s hand to deny it.”

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Hear Interview with Oprah about Randall’s Miracle on Oprah

 

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