I love Baseball! I always dreamed as a kid of pitching in the Major Leagues. In January of 1994, I was preparing to attend Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring in Florida where I would try out over 5 weeks and hopefully be selected to enter the minor leagues. It was an exciting time in my life. Although I wasn't good enough to pitch in the Major Leagues, I did believe I could make it as a Major League Umpire. I had the instincts of the game.
God works in mysterious ways and so does his mother Mary! She caught my heart off guard in the early morning hours of January 4, 1994 when I "stumbled" onto a book on my sister Maura's bookshelf with the unpronounceable name...Medjugorje.
I began to read. It said that on June 24,1981, the Virgin Mary began visiting a small farming village in Yugoslavia called Medjugorje. Six young people called seers began receiving messages from her for the whole world; urgent messages of peace, conversion and reconciliation with God; that God exists and loves us! "WOW" I thought in my heart. This is nuts. How can this be? The Mother of Jesus is appearing in my lifetime? Really??? I was stunned by this and needed to know more.
Over the next 5 weeks, while in Florida, I studied and practiced umpiring. I was one of the lucky few to be selected to enter professional baseball. I was assigned to the Gulf Coast League in Florida. I was happy and on top of the world except for this nagging voice coming from my heart that kept bringing me back Mary's apparitions in Medjugorje. I needed to know more about this place. So I began to read everything I could find about Medjugorje.
"Mary and me" is my conversion story. A story about music, baseball and faith! Over my first 3 seasons in professional baseball, Mary was preparing me for my eventual trip to Medjugorje. And what a trip it was! What I saw and experienced there just shook me to my core. My life would never be the same. I hope you enjoy "Mary and Me".
Peace, Sean