Image: The statue of Our Lady in the back garden.

Wednesday, January 25

Diana sent me the Author bio page and the Visits With Angels promo page for the end of the book. They both look very good. Wrote the publisher to find out who my representative is; no response as yet.

Thursday, January 25

Diana sent me the corrected file of We Meet in Dreams to check; found no further errors. So we are done.

Spoke to our publisher’s representative today. Diana will have to contact her, I do not understand the technical aspects of the book. I still have contracts and papers to sign, decisions of all sorts to make; Diana has her own work to do. She will oversee the book’s progress from this point on, meeting the various printing requirements and making any needed changes in regard to the physical book’s appearance and outlay. At some point the publisher will send me a copy of the manuscript to proof and then approve for printing. Meanwhile I must wait for the publishing team to sort things out with Diana.

Sunday, January 26

In the low thirties and snowing, a steady stream of scurrying flakes in the lamplight - a light snow that has already turned the world white. Earlier tonight I took a wandering walk, to get a bit of air and to pray.

As I walked, I began with my usual ten Ave Marias for Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows. As I approached a corner, a few blocks from our house I thought I caught a brief whiff of roses. It was so gentle and fleeting that afterward I thought I might have imagined it, or mistaken some other scent for the supernatural.

I continued on and decided to next say, 'my next ten Ave Marias', this time for Our Lady’s Intentions for the world. My eyes involuntarily closed as I walked, I was thrown into a half meditation as I inwardly said the prayers and hoped that the Madonna’s Intentions for our Earth and its countless and varied inhabitants come true . When I had finished I became aware of a stronger scent of roses, and this time the fragrance stayed longer. I decided to complete my usual special trilogy of Aves by saying my decade and Mystery of the rosary, the Nativity - which I was assigned by the Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena, for the Triumph of Our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart. Again my eyes closed and I was thrown into a deeper meditation as I walked - and this time I was more floating over the rough sidewalk than walking. This decade of Aves completed, I became aware of the very strong aroma of roses, which lingered for a longer time than before. This last happened as I was crossing the street, so I stood in the middle of the empty road savoring and thanking the experience. There was no doubt in my mind that the fragrance of roses was real and signaled the Presence of a divine Presence, most likely that of Our Lady, a Heavenly "hello". As usual in these experiences, I could clairvoyantly see nothing, nothing at all.

I have been saying the Ave Marias for Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows every night for over thirty years. I do not remember how or when exactly I made that decision - but I look forward to that time each night. I say other prayers during the day, and they have changed over the years - but late each night it has always simply been those ten Ave Marias for the Madonna’s Seven Sorrows, often as I fall asleep. And in a way it has been the very simplicity that, for me, highlights those ten Aves, makes them the most memorable of the day.

But the fragrances tonight - for these simple prayers ... and for so few of them ... Granted, often the fragrances have occurred to us for no reason I could tell, walking outside at Windgarth, sitting at the kitchen table there and in town, in the hallway upstairs, in the gardens ... But I think what again struck me tonight was how personal and intimate our relationship is with the Divine Beings, and that the Relationship between the soul and God is constant. Whether we are aware of it or not.

Yesterday M. and Laurel and I went to dinner together after Mass, and while we were eating I told them the story about the letters to Our Lady. The story of the letters to the Madonna took place during the visions at Garabandal, Spain so many years ago. A man who lived in Garabandal was in the habit of writing Our Lady a letter every night. One night he told himself that to write Our Lady every night was a waste of time and effort. She would not read them or care that he wrote to Her - so he decided to stop writing them. However, after one of the appearances of Our Lady, one of the young visionaries approached him and told him that Our Lady had told her to tell the man that She missed his nightly letters.

Thursday, February 2

Just received Mirjana’s latest message from Our Lady in Medjugorje, by e-mail, from the Medjugorje website. In this newest message to the visionary Mirjana, Our Lady said we were closing our hearts and not hearing Her, not doing what She asks. The Madonna said that we are not praying to the Holy Spirit, asking the Holy Spirit to illumine us. She also said that "only a humble soul shines with purity and beauty because it has come to know the love of God." Followed by another incomparable sentence: "Only a humble soul becomes Heaven, because my Son is in it." I need to meditate on all those words from Our Lady, long and deeply ...