A Cookbook on Apparition Hill
By June Klins

When I received the following email note from a fellow pilgrim on my 2012 pilgrimage, I was intrigued. Mary Jane Jurofcik wrote, "Looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday. I will be bringing the cookbook that I carried around Medjugorje for Our Lady's blessings on our trip last June. The cookbook, entitled Out of This World Recipes, is a beautiful collection of recipes from Priests, Bishops, Deacons, and Religious from around the world (many from our local area).

Most of these recipes are their Moms' treasured family recipes. The profit from the sale of these books is helping us to spread The Divine Mercy Chaplet to school-age children around the globe, and other charitable works. In addition to the recipes, the back of the book is 'The Heavenly Buffet,' which features food for your soul, spiritual nourishment."

Of course, I had to know more, so I wrote back to Mary Jane. She replied: "This book was a monumental task, to say the least - two years in the making. I was the Project Coordinator; it was a collaborative effort of Pat Polachek, Kate Papak and Bernie Conklin. I had the task of looking up Bible quotes with the word MERCY in them. Then, I looked up quotes from St. Faustina's Diary. At the end of the recipe, on the pages, if there was room, we put a Diary quote or a Bible quote. When we called Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the US headquarters for Divine Mercy, we were told they had to approve anything from the Diary. I was never so happy when, after the umpteenth revision, Pat told our printer, "Go to press." I saw that book in my sleep (not a bad thing). I should write a book on writing this book!

Mary Jane continued: "I carried the cookbook up Apparition Hill, and when I got to the statue I forgot my kneeling pad (remember I'm the gal with two knee replacements). I looked at the book and placed it on the ground and knelt on it. I carried it across the ocean for Our Lady's blessings upon all of the priests and religious who were so kind to share their Moms' recipes and treasured memories. I would say most of the Moms are enjoying their eternal reward. Their sons and daughters agreed to honor their mothers in this beautiful cookbook. It went up Cross Mountain and was in my backpack all week."

When I asked Mary Jane how this idea started, she replied: "Pat Polachek, the President of Jesus - The Divine Mercy Foundation, was at a fundraising event three years ago at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Pittsburgh. The Sisters charged a fee to have a stop at 'stations' where priests were cooking their dishes. So after the third stop, Pat asked Fr. Tom Sparacino, 'Father, would you ever consider giving the Foundation a recipe from your Mom for a cookbook we would like to do with nothing but recipes from the priests and religious from our area?' He said, "Oh, sure." That is where the idea started. Pat asked every priest there, and it snowballed. That was October of 2011. She called me a few days later. I had not talked to Pat in years. She said, "God told me you would help me with something big I am working on." I said, "Sure, call me." Ten months later, she asked me to chair the cookbook, because she was busy running the foundation and could not possibly take on this task, too. She had a lot of connections with a lot of priests. I did too. Some gave us more than one recipe and a little by-line from their memory of the recipe.

"In April, I went to Rome with Pat for the canonization of St. John Paul II and St. John XXIII. We carried that book with us and even got on the CBS evening news holding the cookbook! We stood in line for the gates to open, and were getting priests' addresses left and right. We were in the right place working the crowd. We laugh now about our antics. Pat and I were in Assisi, near the end of our trip, and we met a priest from France. He sat with us eating Assisi Pizza (mmmm good). We said, "Father, do you cook?" He said, "Why, yes." We asked where he was from and he told us, "France." Pat and I looked at each other and smiled. He said, "Oh no! What am I going to get into with you two?" I whipped the cookbook out and he said, "This is a magnificent idea." We gave him a free copy, and two weeks later he sent us his recipe. We give all recipe participants a free copy for their help.

"I have a dear friend who is a nun with the Sisters of Divine Redeemer, Sr. Jean Spatola. Sr. Jean was working on canonization papers for the foundress of her order, Mother Alphonse Marie. They have a convent inside the Vatican walls. Unbeknownst to me...not just anyone can go inside the Vatican without prior approval. Sr. Jean had asked me to hand-deliver this work she had done for her Motherhouse in the Vatican. I said, "Sure, I'm going there." Oh, my! I should have guessed the tight security because of the canonizations, but I eventually got inside, after two hours of trying to give Sr. Nantanella the papers from Sr. Jean. So I showed Sr. Nantanella the cookbook, and I showed her where the Pope's secretary gave us his blessing on the book, and she said, "The Holy Father says Mass in our chapel a couple of days a week. How about I give him a copy of the cookbook?" My jaw hit the floor. Sister said that the next time I come to Italy, she will have me over when the Pope says Mass. I had to pinch myself that I was hearing her correctly!

"This cookbook has brought so many blessings!"

Editor's note: Mary Jane sent me a copy of the cookbook, and I think it would make a wonderful Christmas gift. For more information, you can visit their website, www.jesusthedivinemercy.com. If you do not have the internet, you can call me at 814-898-2143 for her phone number.

November 2014 -THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE