Magdi prepared very diligently for Christmas. She did everything she could to ensure that there would be a Midnight Mass not only at the factory parish church, but also in Lit\u00e9r. However, this plan encountered more and more difficulties.<\/p>\n
As the saying goes, misfortune never comes alone. Father Istv\u00e1n O. suffered a severe gastric hemorrhage. Under the circumstances, proper medical treatment was impossible, so he had to return to Moson, his hometown. He left us with a heavy heart, hoping that he would soon recover and return.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat shall we do now?\u201d I asked Magdi. \u201cHow can we manage the Midnight Mass in Lit\u00e9r? If I could get some help, it wouldn\u2019t be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us ask for a substitute priest from Veszpr\u00e9m for the holidays,\u201d she suggested.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea isn\u2019t bad,\u201d I replied. \u201cBut you know that Bishop Mindszenty is also in prison. There is no one to make arrangements.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen visit the Bishop, Father, and ask him to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can try,\u201d I said, \u201cbut I don\u2019t believe it will succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Encouraged by Magdi, I went anyway\u2014and it succeeded.<\/p>\n
Christmas arrived\u2014Magdi\u2019s last Christmas, though we did not know it then. Around six o\u2019clock in the evening she came to see me. She brought her Christmas gift: a holy card with a spiritual bouquet and a small wax Baby Jesus placed inside a tiny golden walnut. She set it on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy little Baby Jesus is quite poor,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I brought Him gladly.\u201d She could not have offered a more touching gift.<\/p>\n
Then she came forward with what she herself called her \u201cgreat request.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I manage to obtain permission from the authorities and the soldiers,\u201d she asked, \u201cwill Father truly come to Lit\u00e9r to celebrate the Midnight Mass?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have planned it,\u201d I replied. \u201cI promised that if Magdi removes the final obstacle, then of course I will come.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m leaving immediately!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time,\u201d Father J\u00f3zsef continues, \u201cit was no longer possible to travel in the evening, especially around the factory settlement. Military guards were everywhere. The factory was an important war facility, and the front line was already not far away, somewhere beyond Balatonkenese. Throughout the country, Midnight Masses were celebrated in the afternoon on December 24 due to air raids and the severe wartime situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Christmas Eve, in the late afternoon and evening\u2014when everyone longed to experience joy at the manger of the Child Jesus\u2014Magdi was going from office to office to obtain permits. She rode her bicycle, tired and alone in the darkness, passing through military checkpoints, so that she could bring true Christmas joy\u2014the light of sanctifying grace\u2014into people\u2019s souls.<\/p>\n
I feared that a soldier, unfamiliar with courtesy, would refuse permission without a second thought. But Magdi was irresistible\u2014she knew how to ask so beautifully. She obtained all the necessary permits. She even had to personally assume responsibility for the blackout regulations.<\/p>\n
In addition to the military authorization, she also secured permission from the local magistrate so that the faithful could move freely to and from the Midnight Mass. She arranged the location of the Mass in the great hall of the castle.<\/p>\n
About two hours later she returned, radiant with joy, and handed me my copy of the permit.<\/p>\n
\u201cFather,\u201d she said, \u201cplease come a bit earlier\u2014there will be penitents, even \u2018big fish.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be there an hour earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every Midnight Mass is beautiful, but this one was extraordinary because of the many conversions and the great number of communicants. After the Mass, Magdi gratefully thanked me for coming\u2014though in truth, I was the one who should have been thanking her. It was a quarter past two in the morning by the time I arrived home.<\/p>\n
Source: J\u00f3zsef Temesi, Testimony with Lily and Blood<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Magdi prepared very diligently for Christmas. She did everything she could to ensure that there would be a Midnight Mass not only at \n <\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2952,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951\/revisions\/2952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodimariamagdolna.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}