Jackie

In 2015, I was at a pivotal point. I ended a relationship. I had a really great job. I left the job to start my own practice. I took a lot of leaps of faith. 

Then I got really sick with Lyme disease. I spent a lot of time in adoration. I started bringing Christ to the center of my life. I realized He didn’t just want to be in the center of my faith life, He wanted to be at the center of everything that I do, in the center of the way that I eat, in the center of my closet, in the center of my friendships, everything. 

Then I realized He needs to be in the center of my work also. 

I invited Him into the center of my work. I was nervous because I didn’t feel worthy. I didn’t know if I was equipped. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that when you continue to say yes, He provides a way and wisdom. 

I started Reform Wellness which is a Christ-centered wellness practice. We merge faith and functional medicine together. We look at the state of the whole person, the body and the soul together. 

I’ve found that in religious life there’s a beautiful attention and reverence to the state of your soul, but not enough to the state of the body. In the world, there’s a lot of attention to the body and not enough to the soul. We look at both together. 

We have a team of doctors and practitioners and creatives and educators. We help people journey to wholeness and holiness together. 

We have nine pillars: nutrition, sleep, stress management, movement, personal growth, community, space, play, and faith. That’s how we define health at Reform. 

I moved back to New York, and I connected with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. I stared helping them with their missionaries and postulants and priests, and it started to grow. 

Today we’ve walked with thousands of people from all over the world on their journey. 

I was in Medjugorje for the first time in 2018, and just prior to that I had been in Lourdes.

It was on that trip to Lourdes that I was discerning my vocation. I felt a very strong call to religious life and also to marriage, and I wasn’t sure. In the grotto one night, well after midnight, I was praying the Joyful Mysteries, and I felt very strongly that I was supposed to conceive a child as Mary did. 

When I came to Medjugorje right after that, on a pilgrimage with my home parish, I also met my sister and her four children here. I was walking out of Ivan’s chapel and I looked up and I saw two turtledoves. 

When I was Lourdes praying the Joyful Mysteries, it was the Presentation where Mary and Joseph give two turtledoves as a sacrifice when I felt my heart leap. I had two turtledoves here. I had no preconceived desire to see anything so it was really special.

Medjugorje is a place where you can come and receive clarity on your vocation. 

I have such a desire to imitate Mary. We know that She’s the fastest and safest and surest way to Jesus. Really getting to know Her and mirroring Her virtues are so beautiful.

We can imitate Her in the modern world. It’s okay to be radical. It’s okay to have a deep love and desire. I think the depths of our hearts are craving a deeper intimacy with the Lord and we need Mary to get us there, increasing our obedience and our patience and our love and our mortification, all the beautiful virtues of Mary. 

When I come to Medjugorje, not only do I feel peace, but I feel so cared for. We often pray to be under Her mantle, and that’s exactly how I feel in Medjugorje. I feel like I’m under Her mantle in a beautiful way. 

You feel so close to the Lord and so close to Mary. It’s an opportunity to come away from the noise and into a safe place with our Mother.