by Kathi Stearns

When Dr. Jack Mirabile leaves for Bosnia-Herzegovina on Feb. 6 he will board the plane as a soldier involved in a risky mission.

His uniform will be a sweatshirt that reads “Living the Message.” He will be strengthened by praying the rosary. His mission is to provide medical supplies to doctors and hospitals caring for the suffering children of the former Yugoslav republics.

Mirabile, a Gainesville resident, left his career as a psychologist and founded an organization called the Holy Family Adoption and Relief Services in July 1993. His diplomas still hang on the wall of his office and his former partner has promised to maintain the practice. But for Mirabile the days of private practice and financial security are over. The reason, he explained, is simply, “[Mary] called me and I could not say ‘no’ to my Mother.”

Even though Mirabile was raised as a Catholic, he began to question his faith as a child when Anthony, his 11-year-old best friend, was killed in a car accident. Anthony’s greatest desire in life had been to become a priest.

“I had some very 11-year-old thoughts that if there were a God, and He took away my best friend, who was such a holy young man, then He must be a God I really don’t want to know ... It wasn’t until the birth of my first son, my oldest child who’s named after my friend, that I recognized ... that something much greater than myself must exist, and it must be something very beautiful.”

Mirabile’s journey of faith began in October 1990 when friends from his parish of St. Michael’s, Gainesville, invited him to Medjugorje.

He remembers, “a groaning from deep inside my soul, a voice that didn’t belong to me said ‘yes.’” So he approached his wife, who was in the kitchen, and said, “Honey, I just said I’d go to a place called Medj-something. So you know where it is and why would I go there?”

His wife, Donna, and the friends planning to make the pilgrimage told him of the reported apparitions of Mary occurring since June 1981 at the village church of St. James in Medjugorje.

“I can’t tell you how skeptical I was. I’m a doctor, trained as a doctor of psychology. If you can’t taste it, feel it, measure it, then it doesn’t exist.”

Nevertheless within weeks Mirabile found himself on a plane bound for Medjugorje.

As the bus arrived at St. James Church, Mirabile says he felt a peace that surpasses words. “Our language doesn’t have a word that is really adequate to describe what was in my heart. It was the first time in my life that I ever felt such peace.”

During a daily Mass at St. James the priest asked those who felt a calling to some ministry to come forward for a blessing. As the people stepped forward Mirabile bowed his head in prayer.

“Jesus, I love you. Mother Mary, I love you. I opened my eyes and to my right, standing above the altar on a beautiful cloud, was our Mother. She is beauty beyond beauty; purity beyond purity. And she is love beyond love ... and of all the people in the church, those thousands of believers, she was looking at me.”

After the blessing, “I looked back and our Mother was no longer there. Our Lord Jesus was,” he recalled.

A cold chill overtook him. As Mirabile looked down he realized his shirt had become soaked in his tears and 12 minutes had elapsed.

But with this experience his life changed. “I think I became a psychologist with the hope that I could heal someone and make their lives a little less miserable. I never realized the power of God.” Slowly he pulled away from his practice. “I couldn’t do it in good conscience anymore,” he said.

Mirabile ran into a friend, Wayne Weible, a speaker and author of articles on the reported apparitions of Mary in Medjugorje, when Weible spoke at St. Michael’s in Gainesville. Weible told Mirabile of the need for medical supplies in Medjugorje. Three weeks later he and his son, Anthony, boarded a plane with 600 pounds of medicine and headed toward now war-torn Bosnia, which once had been Mirabile’s oasis of peace.

While they were there, a priest asked him to respond to the plight of children conceived as a result of the rape of over 20,000 Bosnian women during the war.

Mirabile told the priest he would pray about it. “I had just used all the money I had taking my son over there and I wasn’t in practice anymore.” On the way home he prayed that, if it was God’s will, he would be provided with the money to go back.

Six days later he received a call from an elderly woman whom he had never met. She had heard about the work he was doing in Medjugorje and wanted to send him a check for $2,000 but didn’t know how to spell ‘Mirabile.’ Her gift enabled him to return to Bosnia.

On his next trip in early April 1993, the parishioners of St. Michael’s supplied him with 700 pairs of children’s shoes to take to the war-ravaged country. He had only been asked to bring 300. “When it is God’s work it is always done beautifully,” he said of the unexpected results.

He returned again in July and November 1993, supplying doctors with medication, medical supplies and equipment. He travels as a private citizen to Bosnia and handcarries supplies he has gathered.

Private individuals, doctors, dentists, parishioners at St. Michael’s and many others have donated the supplies requested for Mirabile’s five trips. He believes his efforts would not be possible without their generosity. “They make God’s work a reality. I have been so overwhelmed by everyone’s continued support.”

Mirabile supports his family of four through money generated by the sale of stocks which he had set aside for retirement and his children’s college education. He has not returned to his practice. “God will provide for us. He never lets us go without anything we really need,” Mirabile believes.

Mirabile seeks medicines, medical supplies and equipment to bring to the region. He may be reached at (404) 534-3511.