The Tri-State Area: Many Signs, Wonders, and Healings
An Interview with Signs & Wonders Editor, Maureen Flynn
Interviewer: All right, so we’re talking about returning to the tri-state area after 31 years. I’ll start with how did you first hear about Our Lady of Light?
Maureen: The first time I heard about Our Lady of Light was when I was on the phone with a man named Gerald “Jerry” Ross from Ohio. He was on our Signs & Wonders mailing list. He and his wife, Charlotte, invited me at the end of 1993 to come and visit the area in January 1994 where the Blessed Mother was making appearances. He wanted me to visit and stay with them. He paid for my airfare, and so, I said yes. So that’s how this trip happened.
Interviewer: What about our Lady of Light and the invitation from Jerry Ross drew you there? What stood out to you and made you want to go?
Maureen: Mr. Ross shared about this wonderful priest named Father Leroy Smith, who had been to Medjugorje many times, and… things were starting to happen with him…. Apparently, there were two visionaries involved at the time that I knew about, and there were people seeing Our Lady appear. He explained there was a Batavia visionary who was seeing the Blessed Mother and was told to speak to Father Leroy Smith. Things began to happen, starting, I believe, in 1992. Our Lady was appearing and sending messages, and he was wondering if I would be able to come see what was happening.
Interviewer: Which of Our Lady’s original promises and messages spoke to you the most?
Maureen: Well, in one of the original messages, Our Lady talked about protecting the children. That spoke to my heart, because I had done a lot of work for pro-life and with sexually abused kids as a social worker. I thought, “Hmm, what did Our Lady mean, protect the children?” She also said she had a great plan for this tri-state region of Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, which I found intriguing. Our Lady said she had been sent by the Father, God the Father.
Interviewer: How have those original messages and the promises that have come since then, progressed? How have they been fulfilled as they have been happening over the years?
Maureen: So, at the time when I visited, the books had not been written. I believe Jerry Ross had started to categorize them, and archive the messages at the time. Eventually, the messages were published, and I was able to obtain the books and review them when I returned in August 2025. They are very consistent with messages around the world that the Blessed Mother has spoken. For example, she said she’s on this earth to basically go toe-to-toe with the dark ruler of evil, the devil himself, and that she’s been given the task by the Trinity to destroy the evil one. So I thought, “Hmm, that’s consistent with these other messages around the world.”
She also talked a lot about drawing people to her Son. She’s always focused on bringing people back to Jesus. She talked a lot about the power of the sacraments, the power of the priesthood, and in 31 years, I saw that those are the areas that have been under huge attack. The priests were under attack… all the sacraments: matrimony, confession, ordination, baptism, holy communion, and the anointing of the sick.
All the sacraments have been under attack. So that seems to be pretty consistent with what’s been happening in our Church in the past.
Interviewer: Compared to 31 years ago, when you first went, as we’ve seen, these messages and these promises of Our Lady have started to become fulfilled. Has any single message or promise stood out to you the most between then and now? Looking back on it, has anything really jumped out at you looking back at it after 30 years?
Maureen: Well, this time, when I returned, I met people whose lives have been greatly impacted by coming to either the Falmouth Farm or coming to St. Joseph’s at the time when Our Lady was appearing there. People saw her in the church; they saw her up on the bell tower. They saw lights all over the place at St. Joseph’s Church. They were able to buy the farm — Our Lady had wanted a farm — for people to be able to go to. People were experiencing many conversions, healings, and graces. Our Lady said that there would be tremendous graces that heaven wanted. She wanted a place to be called “Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center,” so that people could go to confession, attend adoration, and could go on retreats and receive healing. She wanted priests to be involved there.
This was all what she said back in the early ’90s. I saw, going back 31 years later, a lot of this had been fulfilled! Previously, the Norwood Seminary was decaying and falling apart. But, when I went back, I saw that people since then had come together to restore it. It’s beautiful. Now they have retreats there. There’s this beautiful chapel that Father Leroy was working on when I first met him. He was very good with his hands, and now it’s just a stunning chapel, beautiful. Now, they also have an Adoration Chapel. They have healing seminars, marriage seminars, and seminars for youth. To go back and see how it has truly become Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center was very powerful. There are beautiful statues throughout, and they have information literature everywhere — it was fantastic to see.
Interviewer: So, we’ll keep on that theme for a minute, then. Especially when you mentioned the seminary. How has the seminary, which is now the Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, changed since the first time you saw it to now?
Maureen: A lot has changed, most of the rooms were restored because it was really falling apart after last seminarians were there. It just sat there, this huge seminary, until one of the priests that Father Leroy Smith knew, went to the bishop and said, “Well, can we buy the seminary, purchase it for a certain amount?” Finally, the bishop said yes. Then they decided to renovate it, and brought all these lay people together to work on it.
It was a whole big group of people. They restored it over many years — it’s just beautiful to go to. On the 31st of August, every year, people pray the rosary in memory of Our Lady’s appearance there. There was a huge, miraculous photo that appeared on the top of the seminary, showing the Blessed Mother with the Holy Spirit. It was amazing. We were shocked that we saw it.
Interviewer: So you were able to see the center the first time you went? What about the farm? How has the farm changed?
Maureen: The farm has changed since I went there. It is now called “Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel” at Falmouth, Kentucky. The first time we went up in 1994… it was just a piece of land, and this time, going back 31 years later, there’s now a chapel built on the land along with a grotto. It was really neat to go back and see what the Blessed Mother wanted.
Our Lady said not everybody feels comfortable going to a church. The farmland was easily able to accommodate large crowds that would go there. It could be that there’s something coming in the near future where people will be coming in droves and they won’t be able to fit into a church. So, there’s a reason why she wanted that farmland.
Interviewer: And there are three other locations that have been connected with this tri-state region?
Maureen: Yes. Alongside the Norwood Seminary (which is now Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center) and the Falmouth Farm (which is now Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Farm), there are the Lourdes Grotto, the Immaculata Church, and, of course, St. Joseph’s Church.
The rest of this article can be found in Signs and Wonders 35#4, available now! Become a member today!
