OUR LADY OF THE ROSES - THE EARLY YEARS
May 19,1970 (STORY OF VERONICA tape transcription, pp. 1-7) (CONTINUED)
That's when Our Lady starting directing me. Now She gave me explicit things I was to tell this one and that one and this one, and everything. Now then there were directives to St. Robert's. Now Our Lady said--I'll start down the list, uhh, uhh. First She said mittens were to be worn on all formal occasions, that I was to send that to the Fathers. Then She told me to tell the Fathers in writing and also through phone calls, which I did, that they were to provide facilities for the pilgrims. And then also they were to make available chairs for the elderly and the infirm. Then they were to announce at all Sunday Masses--now they got, each priest got a letter for everything Our Lady requested--in order to announce at all Sunday Masses Our Lady's coming, and because Our Lady said She did not want any of Her children to miss the opportunity to see Her. Now if you listen to this, you can understand why Our Lady was so broken-hearted on the 18th, and why only a handful of graces could She give because She said if only one, one of Her requests had been heeded, She could see. But none were answered. Then She asked me to write to the nuns at the convent, and tell them to prepare the children--which I did--and to be there, and give Her a proper welcome--which I did, which they didn't. And then She also told me to send the drawing of the Shrine and called--which She said would be called, "Our Lady of the Roses, Mary, Help of Mothers." And that was to go to Fr. Mc Donald, Msgr. Mc Donald, the pastor, which I did. And also I was to call Fr. Dunne, an old ... [words unclear], I must call him ... [words unclear], though I hate to mention names, but like I say I wouldn't want to be like-- sound antagonistic to our Fathers, but as a basic truth we did try our best to do as Our Lady said, I did, honestly. I also called Fr. Dunne and I told them that Our Lady had told me to call him and tell him that he is to bring all peoples--with an "s", Our Lady stressed that I must stress the "s" on it--"bring all peoples."3 So Fr. Dunne said, "I'll be deposed." So I have the feeling he was kidding there, till the very end I hoped that they would listen to one thing I told them and then there were other things that, but then, the day came, and went, and that very day that I gave that directive and he said, "I'll bring the flowers." I passed by Our Lady's statue setting on the lawn, and I got a terrible fright, because the face had changed and there, the statue, I saw Her eyes swelled up, swelled shut as though She had been crying a long time. And Her lip was curled under, and everything. That was about two days before She was to come. I should have realized that something was wrong, but I didn't. That the sign She was giving me, but I didn't take it because I was so overjoyed at Her coming, that I didn't take that sign that She was unhappy. But I couldn't understand--because the next day when Martha Hallsman--I picked her up at the airport, the next day--we went back to see the statue and Our Lady's face had returned to being calm and serene. So I sort of forgot, about seeing Her face like She had been crying all the time. Her eyes were all puffed over the lids and closed shut. Also, Our Lady was most unhappy because I wrote to all the Fathers and told them that Our Lady had requested that the ladies of the Rosary Society run a continuous Rosary, and Our Lady even suggested that I write and tell them that in order to do this She would suggest that the ladies "stagger'--that's the word She used, "stagger"--and take turns so that it wouldn't be too difficult on the others, but they didn't even do that. So not one thing that Our Lady asked me to do at ... [words unclear] Our Lady cried so pitiously, and that's why everything happened the way it did, you know, Thursday night because I thought even though we prayed fifteen hours on our knees, after hearing Our Lady cry, like She did--you will read the message, everything that Shirley Mc Carter took down, that she tried to catch what I was trying to repeat.
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3 The borough of Queens, New York (in which Bayside is located) has over 100 languages spoken in it.