My wife Joanna and I
I
was born on
December 29, 1941 in The Hague, Holland and I was brought up in a Protestant
environment. On July 29, 1962 I met a girl from a catholic family. At that
time I was 20 years old and a conscript in the Royal Dutch Navy; she was
15 and a salesgirl at a grocery shop. In the end I converted, under duress,
to Catholicism and as such it didn't mean much to me. We were married on
October 4, 1966 in the catholic church. My bride asked, on our wedding
day, to pray and place flowers at the Altar of Our Lady. All that was OK
with me, as I didn't appreciate the feelings people could have for this
person "Mary". I only knew that she was the mother of God and, further,
She didn't hold any interest for me. Indeed, I didn't know anything about
Mary.
On April 14, 1967 we were blessed with a dear little girl, Monique,
and within a year on March 2, 1968, a dear son we called Robin. Monique
suffered from acute leukaemia and died on July 14, 1972, aged five. We
had just moved, on July 1, to another place in Holland. In this new place
we didn't receive any support from anybody and that included the Catholic
Church. My wife and I went into a deep depression. I hated God for letting
this terrible thing happen to us. It would be impossible for Him to
exist and even if He did exist, why should I worship someone who had touched
my life like that. I lost my faith. I cursed anything to do with religion.
I hated all religions. I felt like an atheist for the next 15 years, till
1987 the beginning of the year of Our Lady.
I detested the Catholic Church till Mary called on me.
On 6 June 1987, which was in the Marian Year proclaimed by Pope John Paul II, my eldest son Robin came home with a newspaper with a very beautiful image of Mary in it, as She is represented in the church St. Andrea delle Fratte in
I saw that newspaper and then .........???
From that moment on, my life totally changed.
Something happened that I had never felt before. I can't formulate it in any other way. She brought me back to Jesus, like Ratisbonne. I, who had lived the past 15 years like an atheist, was called by Her. Only there was no apparition and neither did I become a priest like Ratisbonne had. However, I did experience Our Lady in the form of a special Grace bestowed on my family.
I cried many times as suddenly I experienced such strong feelings, that I can hardly put into words. I changed completely. That is certain. It was a total reversal in my life. At that moment however, I did not know what to do with it. What happened with me? I can't explain it in any other way. I thought: "Why me?" Do you have an instruction for me? I was unable to understand why Maria came into my life with so many emotions.
Whilst watching 4 different television broadcasts about The Blessed Virgin in 1987, I cried throughout all of them. Why I do not know. She called me, but why? I still don't know why at this moment.
To give my love for Mary to the world I started a homepage on the Internet called: "Marypages", a non-commercial catholic website. It was founded 9 years ago and since then has grown to become one of the biggest sources for information about Marian apparitions. Marypages also offer information about Saints, Holy places and the Christian feasts. Further you will find religious stories and prayers in all different languages. Marypages has been translated into 8 different languages to make it available for almost everybody worldwide. All pages are decorated with nice graphics and music to make it pleasant to read.
I do not know why I have received a calling to serve Our Blessed Virgin Mary - but I am honoured to be able to respond to Her.
In 1988 my nephew Robbie, my twin brothers Rob little boy became dangerously ill with the disease called: “The Guillian-Barré Syndro My twin lives in Sydney Australia. Robbie became completely paralysed. I heard about this from my brother via a telephone call from Australia. But ........................
In my bedroom that evening, I felt very sad and prayed: "Mary want do You want of me? If You really exist, give me a sign and heal this little child in Sydney".
That evening there was a wonderful smell of pure flowers in my bedroom. Joke, my wife and I both smelt it at the same moment. As I am allergic, there are never any flowers of perfume in our house.
Two days later my twin brother phoned my parents to say that his son had recovered for the full 100%.
After 13 years, my
twin brother send me this email:
"Robbie was
in hospital for nearly two months, of which he sent 6 weeks in Intensive Care. He was
totally paralysed. He was even unable to move his eyelids himself. He was on a
ventilator which breathed for him. The first
two weeks he was critically ill. He had Plasmaphoresis for two weeks. It
is amazing that he got better so very quickly and completely.
IT IS A MIRACLE. Even the
doctors were stunned, one doctor even said, " There are some things which we
doctors cannot explain. This was for us a MIRACLE and has greatly influenced
our lives, the way we think and live daily". An awful lot
of prayers were said and offered for Robbie and our PRAYERS were answered".
You can read this story with the newspaper article and picture below.
He doesn't know that I asked for the Blessed Virgin for Robbies healing.
Later a priest told me that such things happen and that the smell of flowers in my bedroom was a grace of God.
Please give me your opinion about this story.
By God I swear that this story is true.
Our Lady, next to my family, plays the most important role in my life. I enormously admire Saint Maria Goretti. Especially as she is the paragon of purity, virtue, honesty, mercy and her great love for Our Lady. Someone like that stands for me above all. Our Lady and Maria Goretti will, therefore, always adorn our lounge room.
I also wear the miraculous medal. When I first converted to Catholicism I hardly knew about Mary,but now she means "everything" to me. Through events, which I experienced after this, I started to question myself if there might be some religious task for me in this life. I am not too sure about that. However, I see it as something lovely and beautiful for everyone who visits my homepage to witness my love for Our Lady, but more importantly, her love for all mankind.
I wish to do this, by placing all known apparitions, sanctioned by the Catholic Church in Rome, on my homepage. I have started with the first apparition in Paris and others will follow. Together with my son Robin we will present the Dutch version, whilst my twin brother Rob in Sydney, Australia will look after the English translation.
In this way, I will try to attract the attention of the rest of the world for Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
November 13th, 2001, I had to tell this story to a roman catholic priest for Dutch Television.
God bless
you all,
Grandpa Leo
de Bondt from Holland
