Posted on 04/01/2008 4:23:02 PM PDT by NYer
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February 16, 2004 - Reported in Spirit Daily.com online newspaper. "In 1992 my life changed dramatically," says Father Donald Calloway. "I had a profound conversion experience after reaching rock bottom."
Rock bottom indeed! Now a 31-year-old priest who serves as assistant rector at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Father Calloway had been a runaway youngster who was immersed in everything from drug abuse to theft.
"I had gone through all a boy could do up to the age of twenty," he says. "My mother had been married three times and we had no religion. The family was very hedonistic. There was a downward spiral in my life."
It started in Virginia Beach -- where his stepfather was based in the military -- and continued when the family moved to California. Drugs, sex, smoking, and drinking -- all by the age 11. "It escalated to the point of getting out of control," he now recounts. "We moved near Los Angeles. Then to Japan. That rocked my world."
Uprooted so continuously from friends and his environment, young Donald Calloway had decided to teach his parents a lesson. As soon as they got to Japan, he became a "living hell" for them. He tied in with the wrong crowd and started doing "unbelievable" quantities of drugs -- opium, heroin, alcohol every day, even inhaling the fumes of gasoline.
That escalated to where he ran away from the military base and fled around the foreign country, committing felonies -- stealing "massive amounts" of money, cars, mopeds. He even got involved running errands for the Japanese "mafia."
"I had no concern about anything or anybody," says Father Calloway, whose mother had a breakdown, ended up consulting a priest, and became a Catholic -- something young Donald knew nothing about. She was also forced to return to the U.S. without him. Police even tapped phones to the military base to try to get the youngster, and finally did apprehend him. When they did, Calloway spat in the face of one of the military cops. By now he was 15 with long hair and a profane mouth -- so wild that he was shackled and deported.
Thrown out of Japan, Calloway returned to the United States, where he told his mother he hated her but agreed to enter a rehabilitation center. In short order he ran away from there too and went back to drugs on an even grander scale. Heroin, crack, LSD, uppers, downers. And there were the girls. "There came a point where I started following the 'Grateful Dead' and living in places like a tree trunk," recounts the priest. "In Louisiana, I ended up in jail. It was an absolute mess."
He was a drop out, his hair down to his belt. He was tattooed. It was "a life cycle of death." There was another attempt at rehabilitation, but of course, that fell short again. In fact, the drug use got even heavier.
"Then one night in 1992 I knew that my life would radically change, that something was going to happen in my life to cause a radical change," he says. "I knew something was going to happen. Something was coming."
It was this peculiar, sudden, and powerful intuition that changed his life -- a feeling so powerful that he turned down the calls from friends to come out to party as he did on a nightly basis. He still has trouble explaining exactly what happened. The prayers of a mother?
For a while Calloway remained in his room waiting for this unknown "something" to arrive, then went to the hall looking for a magazine or book to read as he waited, guided by an amazing internal feeling. "I wanted to look at some kind of magazine with pictures while I was waiting, something like National Geographic, with pictures, and I went out there and there was a book that caught my eye," he says. "On the binding it said, The Queen of Peace Visits Medjugorje."
It was a book about the apparition site in Bosnia-Hercegovina by Father Joseph A. Pelletier and Calloway couldn't comprehend what the words meant. He wondered if his parents had taken up a foreign language! Looking at the pictures, he saw six children staring up into nothing. It was the seers during an apparition -- something he had never even heard about. He read the caption and it said they were looking at the "Blessed Virgin Mary." He was so poorly versed in religion that he didn't know who the Blessed Mother was. "I thought Jesus was like Santa Claus," he recalls. "I was a blank slate." Looking at more of the pictures, he saw other words like the Rosary, Communion, and the Eucharist that he had little idea about.
There was all this Catholic lingo, but he began to avidly read it. He couldn't put it down. "I read that whole book by 3:30 or 4 a.m. in the morning," he says. "I ate that book like it was life. I consumed it. And I said to myself, 'That is true. Everything in that book is true.' She was saying that Jesus was God, and I thought, anything she says is true. She seemed so beautiful and flawless. She captivated my heart. And I said, 'I give myself totally to this woman.'"
The young man went to his mother the next morning and told her he wanted to see a priest. She was shocked. He knew there was a chaplain on the base, and that's where he ended up going -- skipping with joy like a little boy, his long hippie hair flowing past marching Marines.
When Calloway caught up with the Navy chaplain, the priest told him to go to church and sit in the back while he said Mass, and then they would talk to him. Donald did as he was told, waiting as a small group of Filipino women recited a repetitious prayer -- which of course was the Rosary. Then came the moment that changed his life. The priest came out with robes. Calloway thought it was some kind of performance. He had no idea what was going on. "I was amazed. All these ladies were kneeling and standing at the same time."
But it just clicked. All of a sudden, this young man -- this drug abuser, this runaway -- "knew" what was happening, that what was transpiring was a "real" re-presentation of what had happened 2,000 years ago, and that it was being poured out again. "Time ceased," he says. "I saw myself at Calvary with the faithful beholding the sacrifice of the lamb." Everything about it captivated him. He felt the Presence of Christ -- knew He was there -- as the priest held up the "white circle."
He was twenty, going on 21, and "all I knew was that I was madly in love with God and Our Savior."
So touched was he by the Mass that Calloway was ready to go door to door to tell everyone about it. The enthusiasm exploded. After Mass he went home, tore down all his posters, grabbed several big black trash bags, and threw away just about everything in his room -- replacing it all with a picture of the Pope and another of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which the priest had given to him (along with a Crucifix).
"I don't remember ever having said a prayer in my life," he says of his return to his room. "I looked at the book, the six children, who were on their knees with their hands folded, and I did the same thing and just looked. I had no idea how it worked. I didn't know what was supposed to happen next. My eyes focused on the picture of the Sacred Heart and as I looked at that image something within me knew that was the God-Man hanging on the Cross -- and that everything the Blessed Virgin Mary said was for people like me.
"I cried profusely. You could have filled a bucket. I was so remorseful for the things I had done. Everything came on me at once. It was like every fluid in my body was coming out of my eyes. Yet at the same time I knew there was hope, and I was crying tears of joy. I was almost laughing. I knew that this Jesus died for me and loved me.
"After a long time I laid on the bed and for the first time in years I felt free. An unbelievable peace came over me. Something happened to me that I don't know how to explain. Right on the verge of sleep, something came from behind me and knocked me out of my body. My soul or spirit or whatever was leaving my body. I couldn't say anything, I couldn't move. The only person I knew to cry out to was Mary, and I cried out spiritually. I was terrorized with fear. I screamed with everything I had, "Mary' -- and all of a sudden I was pushed back into my body with the force of a universe come crashing down upon me and I heard the most beautiful feminine voice I have ever heard and will ever hear say, 'Donnie, I am so happy.'
"No one called me Donnie but my mother," he notes. "It was unbelievable."
And so was what was to come next:
Instantly, Calloway had lost his craving for all his vices -- from impure thoughts about women to cigarettes. There was no more desire to do anything he had been doing! "God had simply changed me, and it was unbelievable," he says. "Christ just overwhelmed me with His love. I started 'living' in the church, saying the Stations of the Cross until I was worn out, even slept in the pews. I began reciting the Rosary, wearing a scapular, reading everything I could on the saints."
He says he experienced a supernatural "infusion of knowledge" about the faith and became a Catholic within nine months.
Shortly after, he joined the Marians of the Immaculate Conception and discerned a priestly vocation.
Last September, he finally made it to Medjugorje -- where he delivered the homily as forty other priests joined him on the altar. "All I knew was that I loved Jesus," he says. "I loved every minute of Medjugorje. I'm going back in March. It's the edge of Heaven, wonderful." At the seminary, he says, most of his peers had also been there. "Our Lady is building up this army, this whole new generation, layer by layer. Rank by rank they are coming out of seminaries to take their places. There's a whole generation of priests coming, and they're just like me. No nonsense. I always tell people, get ready, because it's coming to a parish near you. We've only known one Pope, and he's a saint. We've been formed by the Blessed Virgin Mary and her apparitions. So many of the guys I knew in the seminary, they loved things like Medjugorje or Betania or Amsterdam or Kibeho. They don't have a problem with it. They bite onto truth like a shark, and they're going to be the guys in the seminaries teaching. They're going to be in the parishes. One cardinal said if it were not for Medjugorje, he would have hardly any seminarians. I compare it to Guadalupe."
Hell broke open in the Church, Calloway opines, due to a lack of emphasis on both Mary and the Blessed Sacrament. "You take away the Eucharist, and you take away a priest's passion, his understanding of who he is," he says. "And when Mary was deconstructed -- made just a sister -- it tore priesthoods apart. I attribute a lot of the problems to feminism. We need to go against that."
Homosexuals in the church are the result, he believes, of "the devil twisting" priests and seminarians. "With no Mary, there is a lack of tenderness and they seek in a new way," he asserts. On the current culture, says Father Calloway: "It's not the kingdom of Heaven. We're going back to Sodom and Gomorrah, and we're there. And we better get ready for the Father's discipline. He loves us, and because He does, He's going to chastise us." With youth, the biggest problem is indifference, he notes -- the attitude of "whatever." Everything is okay.
What is the most important thing parents can do?
"The best thing that a kid can see in the parents is for a man, a father, on his knees," says Father Calloway. "That is strength. When a man is on his knees, that is stability. When a kid sees that, it's a confessional statement. It speaks volumes. And when they see a mom and dad being kind and loving to one another, that's also important -- showing kindness to each other."
As for his conversion, Father Calloway notes: "There are no accidents in life. Everything happens for a reason, because of God the Father's plans." And as for Our Lady of Medjugorje: without her, he says, "I might be dead."
Seriously.
What the Church teaches is published in Catechisms, Encyclicals, Bulls, Councils, etc ... loaded with Scripture and patristic references.
All we have to do is quote them. All anybody who really wants to know what the Church teaches has to do is read them.
No secrets here, folks. Read all about it.
Each Christian is but a part of the body of Christ - only Christ can speak for entire body. The toe cannot; the finger cannot. You cannot, I cannot. Therefore, you must be speaking for another collective.
But it would seem from the content (as distinct from the style) of your post that it can only be your opinion and the conclusion of your study.
NOT that there's anything wrong with that. I'd guess that, except when I wax rhapsodic, that what I present is the result of my opinion and the conclusions I've drawn from my study. Different data set, similar result.
The unity of the Mystical Body of Christ.
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participatoin in the Body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” Cor 12:13
“If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. To that which you are you respond, AMEM and by resonding to it you assent to it. For you hear the words, “The Body of Christ that your Amen may be true.” St. Augustine, Sermo, 272.
And yet Her enemies lie, distort, represent and generally get it alarmingly jarringly wrong day after day.
In case y’all are wondering: I do have another life.
This one is on hold since the pollen here has rendered me completely disabled even with meds.
Can’t lay down, can’t sleep, can’t move around, go outside (Heaven forfend!) Can’t visit because I look like a leper with my blotchy face and runny eyes. And sneezing, coughing, hacking, dripping, and drooling, don’t forget the drooling.
Well, it only lasts two weeks. Hampton Roads is the worst place in the world for allergies.
Why should we, His humble and most unworthy servants, expect any better treatment than He receivied?
I've developed allergies in my senility. My big brother was our "land detector" when we were sailing. When we got within say 5 miles of land he'd start sneezing and stuff.
I have actually had discussions with non-Catholics who could understand what we believe - at least the main points - and simply disagree with it. "You interpret the Bible one way, and we interpret it another way." (Insert big picture of lightbulb ...)
I don't think that's a perfect summary of the dispute, but it goes a long way!
With ease I can point out to you why Calvinist denial of free will is counterscriptural nonsense: the Beatitudes, the explanation of the Last Judgement in Matthew 25, and exhortations to virtue with which St. Paul ends all his letters, all contradict the concept that men can do nothing to save themelves or others.
However, this is not what I asked the "doctor" to do. I have no interest in fully figuring out Calvinism; what I heard was enough to dislike and despise this pseudoreligion. If you have an interest to find out what the Church teaches about predestination, election, and free will, I will do so on an apporpriate thread. In fact, I already did so: on my profile you will find this reference, Luther and Erasmus: The Controversy Concerning the Bondage of the Will , as well as an index to some important posts I and others made therein. See also St. Irenaeus on Free Will (Adversus Haereses IV,37).
Or perhaps, just like I post Catholic conversion stories, you could post a Calvinist conversion story where the convert explains how he came to believe in absence of free will, and what scripture he found to support the notion.
This is what I did ask: "If you have a scripture that you think contradicts [Catholic mariology], kindly make a reference to it and explain where do you think the contradiction is" (441). Let me now go over your post to see if any scriptural assertion there does the job I asked the "doctor" to do.
(1 and 2) simply mention that Mary was predestined from all eternity to give birth to Christ. That would seem to be alone a good reason to venerate her. I don't see from these sections anything that tells us not to venerate her.
(3) concentrates on Mary's role in the Nativity. It does not address the issue of venerating her or any saint, however insignificant in relative terms. But Mary also appears at the pivotal to us wedding at Cana, among the disciples during Jesus's ministry, where her identification with the Church is established, and an early act of veneration is recorded, at the crucifixion, at the Pentecost, and after her assumption in Apocalypse. So it is plain false to say that Mary is an inimportant character. Further, Mary's absence at the empty tomb is significant: we conclude from it that she expected the resurrection and was with the disciples as they were receving the happy news -- she was with Christ's church, as she ever is.
(4 and 5) start with a correct statement that angelic life of the heavenly dwellers such as Mary and the saints differs radically from our life on earth. From that it doesn't follow that all saints in heaven are the same and lack individuality, or are incapable of interceding for us. The proper conclusion is the opposite: that since the scripture shows angels interceding and having diverse roles, the saints who are like angels have different roles and intercede also.
(6) is unscriptural. The scripture speaks of various rewards in heaven on more than one occasion. There is no reason to speculate, like you do, that the unique role of Mary on earth does not extend after her glorious assumption, and in fact, Apocalypse 12 describes her unique role in heaven plainly.
What a great post! Step by step it breaks down all the mythology surrounding Mary. Please freepmail me the web site.
Great read.
AMEN, MTWD!
I think you're right. The Mary of the RCC has all kinds of supernatural powers none of which can be found in Scripture.
I don't believe Mary truly knew who Jesus was until the Resurrection. She rebuked him in his Father's house when he was a child talking with the Rabbi's. She came with his brothers to take him home when he was beginning his ministry. Yet, when all fled except for John she stayed to the end.
http://www.catholicconcerns.com/MaryWorship.html
It's that nun.
I would like to say that I at least attempted to address the arguments which Manfred put up here .
As long as you admit you're doing the same it shouldn't be any big deal. The general rule is are you looking for the consistency of the application. IOW, is it consistent with other passages of Scripture.
But, but, but you mean she can't make my prayers any more important than yours?
Do you mean the "God Bearer"?
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