Medjugorje is a haven of peace. My last night in Medjugorje some 40 years was a profound experience of peace. Even during the war, it remained a refuge for the brokenhearted. Such a track record will eventually secure complete approval, I believe.
I feel I am carrying a very heavy cross but asking Mary for help here in medjugorje. Perhaps this cross could be helping others. Was at the front row of an apparition a few evenings ago and prayed to Our Lady.
How wonderful it would be to be in Medjugorje these past few days! Im grateful that MaryTV has been broadcasting live feeds of rosaries and messages. I don't know about you all but so far these past 4 days feel less like a series of messages and more like a maternal catechesis from Our Lady— a mother quietly preparing her children for something very important. I feel she is not speaking to the world but to individual hearts. There is a tenderness in her voice, but also an unmistakable urgency and a real call to conversion. I feel she is saying get ready. She is saying time is short, Heaven is near so prepare your heart NOW! She is inviting us not with fear but just like a mother. She is reminding us life is quickly passing and eternity is real so is urging we are at a moment where we need to return to God with all our heart, mind and soul. I sense that the 45th Anniversary message on June 25 will be important. While I don't think it will be an announcement of anything, I do believe it will be the threshold of her taking us deeper. I think a moment of great grace and a opportunity to strengthen our faith. To become holy as she has already tasked us with and to begin or persevere at leaving our mark of love that lasts long beyond this life. We are in unique days. God is Good! Peace.
Today’s message: Marija says the Virgin blessed us and said “Go in peace, my dear children. We will see each other here tomorrow at the same time and same place.” Marija was confused as to why there was no task for today, so she questioned this. The vision responded “Love God and glorify Him with your whole heart.” In my mind, she wants us to do this especially at Sunday Mass tomorrow.
I notice that Our Lady talked of the need for healing the family line. This caught my attention and I have been thinking of it. I know in the past several people have written about this on the forum and have read books and attended retreats and given a lot of prayer time to this. So I was thinking about my own family line and must do some prayer for healing myself. It can only be a good thing uf the Blessed Virgin asks for it. But it seems to me that it is not only bad things but good things we can uncover. For instance at my mothers funeral her cousin came up to me and said, 'Your mother was a very good woman!' I must have kind of shrugged at this for she shook her head and went om 'You don't understand me. We all thought your mother was very,very good even from being a child. We always thought this and commented on it amongst each other'. I just mention this because I think discovering good things in the family tree can be healing too.
At my father's funeral our aunt, his sister told us that as a young man my father had been overjoyed one day at having just completed the 9 first Fridays. He lost his faith later in life and never came back to it but between this and all the Divine Mercy chalets we prayed for him when he was dying we at least had some small hope to cling to.
I appreciate this! And I know Our Lord honored your faith. The promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are no small matter.
“Praised be Jesus! These next three days you spend in prayer, in thanksgiving, and fasting. Thanksgiving to God for all that He is giving you through Me. We are going to see each other tomorrow at the same place at the same time.” - tonight’s message
I think the promises attached to these devotions and sacramentals really do stick. A for instance is the number of conversions brought about simply be wearing the Miraculous Medal. People who were Jews, Atheists, Protestants, huge sinners who wore the medal brought to the Faith in their thousands ans thousands. I put my own conversion down to the fact that when I was young I had a huge devotion to Our Lady. These things are like a candle that never gutters out. We might loose Our Lady but she never looses us.
A really beautiful story about the early days of Medugorje: https://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/index.php?ArticleSeq=222#featuredArticle&gsc.tab=0 "Go and Tell Me if She is There" By June Klins On a recent segment of "Fruit of Medjugorje" on marytv.tv, Denis Nolan said, "Our Lady will reminisce with Ivan on the 24th of June about the early days when She first came, when they [the visionaries] were together. She loves these memories with every one of Her children." I think Our Lady will love this testimony that one of Her children, who was there in the early days, was willing to share with our readers. Diana Berman, a subscriber of The Spirit of Medjugorje, called me in March to request extra copies of the March issue, and ended up telling me about her first pilgrimage to Medjugorje. She thinks she and her young sons may have been among the first Americans there, because during the first couple of years, the Communist government would not allow pilgrimages. I asked her permission to share her story in our newsletter and then began taking notes as she spoke. Since I did not get involved with Medjugorje until 1998, I am fascinated with the stories about the early days. I hope you will enjoy her story. One day in the early 1980s, Diana and her two young sons were in New Orleans. Diana knew of a church that had Mass on Wednesday evenings in Metairie, so they went there. When they got there, the church was packed. They could not find seats, so they went to the back of the church where they met an usher who offered to find them seats. He escorted them to the front of the church, where they had just been, and lo and behold, someone had just set up three folding chairs. The priest said they were going to show a video. They set up a huge screen right in front of them and Diana thought, "This was meant for us to see." They showed a video about Medjugorje. The man who took the video had gone there for that purpose and ended up being arrested and put in jail in Čitluk, a town not far from Medjugorje. At the time, no cameras or video equipment were allowed there by the Communists. With God's grace, the people who were with him got him out of jail. They were put out of the country and told never to come back. But somehow, they managed to sneak the video out of Yugoslavia. Our Lady wanted people to see this video! After the video, Diana said to her sons, "She's there and we've got to go there." In the following months, Diana kept trying to find out more about the apparitions, but little was available at the time. One day she met a priest from Italy when she was doing some volunteer work. Since she knew Italy was not far from Medjugorje, she asked the priest if he had been there. He said he had been there and that, in fact, one of the Franciscans there was his spiritual director! What are the odds of that??? Diana asked the priest if he believed Our Lady was there, and he replied, "You go and you tell me if She is there." The priest gave Diana the name of a travel agency. When she called them, the owner said he was looking for someone to go to Medjugorje to check it out. He offered to send her and her sons, no charge! But there was a hitch - they could only fly as far as Italy because the airline would not fly into a Communist country. Diana asked the priest how they could get to Medjugorje from Italy. He told her they could take a train to the coast and then a ferry boat across the Adriatic to Dubrovnik. That sounded like a good plan, so Diana accepted the offer. People said to her, "You can't take two kids (ages 9 and 12) to a Communist country!" But Diana was determined. She had no fear because she knew Our Lady was calling them and would take care of them. They planned to go at Christmas time because the children would be off school. Their adventure began shortly before Christmas. Things went smoothly and they enjoyed their overnight on the ferry boat and waking up to a beautiful sunrise over the Adriatic on Christmas Eve. But when they landed in Dubrovnik, their luggage got caught in an elevator. They had five minutes to get off the ferry boat or they would have to go back to Italy. No one knew English, so it was a stressful few minutes, but Our Lady was taking care of them. All of a sudden, someone got the door opened and they got their luggage! When they got to customs, there were hundreds of people in line, and Diana and her sons ended up being last because of their luggage delay. Diana noticed that they were using knives to slash open the suitcases. The Italian priest had warned her not to take expensive luggage because they cut it open looking for secret compartments with drugs, cameras, etc. The priest had told her that the Communists were convinced that the US wanted their country. Diana walked over to a Communist guard who was about 6 ½ feet tall and asked how to get to Mostar. He did not speak English and just stared at her. After a bit, he blew a whistle and motioned for the customs people not to open Diana's luggage and he moved them outside. Our Lady to the rescue again! Once outside, there were many cab drivers standing there. Diana asked if any of them spoke English and a lot of hands went up. She quickly quizzed a few and finally found one that really did speak English. He had lived in Chicago for twelve years. The Italian priest had told her to offer $50 to a driver to get them to Mostar, so she did. (Although a bus ride was only ten cents for the 3 ½ hour ride at the time, the priest had warned her not to take a bus there. He knew a couple who took a bus and when the bus driver found out they were going to Medjugorje, he threw them off the bus and they had to spend the night sleeping on a mountainside in this Communist country and had to walk to Medjugorje from there.) Early photo now displayed behind St. James
The priest had told Diana not to tell anyone she was headed to Medjugorje, so she told the cab driver she was going to Mostar to visit friends. During the picturesque ride, she saw a sign that said, "Medjugorje." She told the cab driver she changed her mind and wanted to go to Medjugorje. He told her no, that he would not even think of going to Medjugorje. He said, "I can't go in there. They'll kill me." He said it was illegal. She reminded him about the $50, which was a big incentive, since $50 was a very large amount of money to them. He conceded, but Diana said he was a nervous wreck the whole drive there. Diana told him that the Mother of God was there and that he was protected, but she was not sure he believed it. She said of herself, "I never had a moment of fear though - zero." The driver dropped them off at the rectory and then sped off at lightning speed. The Italian priest had called ahead to Sr. Janja, who was the only person in the village who spoke English, to tell her about Diana's visit. Sr. Janja found her a place to stay, with a rich family in the village. They had the only phone in the village besides the church, and the only car. They gave Diana and her sons their beds and they slept on the floor. The family did not speak English, but Diana said it was amazing how her sons and their children could play games together. Diana said they played chess together as well as some new games her sons received as early Christmas gifts, in which instructions would need to be explained. But they could understand each other! I suggested that perhaps they were given the gift of tongues, which is not uncommon in Medjugorje. Diana had many wonderful memories from this pilgrimage. It was very simple living. The roads were not paved. There were no restaurants, no pizza. She remembers only one "store" there that was in a neighboring house. Where they stayed had running water in the bathroom, but that was unusual at the time. They washed their clothes in the bathtub since there were no washing machines and hung them outside even in cold weather. Diana remarked that it reminded her of how Fatima must have been at the beginning. She said, "There was nothing, but it was everything." Diana had brought a Walkman with her to listen to Christian music on the plane and the grandmother at the house where they stayed was so excited. She wanted to show her friends. They were all sharing it in wonder. She said they were more excited about that than looking at the Miracle of the Sun! There were no little stores with religious items for sale, or even stands with rosaries or anything for sale at that time. So the day they were leaving, Diana went to the rectory to see if they had any medals. Fr. Slavko said that he had just received some medals that very day! These were the first medals ever available for sale in Medjugorje! So she bought a bag of 100 medals to take home and distribute. One day, Diana was sitting on the porch of the house where they stayed and the man from this house was pointing up to the sky. She figured he was saying, "That's where God is." She later found out that she missed the Miracle of the Sun! (She did get to see it when she got back home while she was praying the Rosary, and has seen it many times since then.) Sr. Janja (since Diana could not take photos, this is June's photo from 2001) The highlight of the trip for Diana was when she and her sons were blessed to be present for an apparition. The man who owned the house where they stayed took them to Vicka's grandmother's house. Vicka was lying on the couch, recuperating from surgery. Ivanka was with her, looking after her. She sat there quietly and smiled at them. The man said something to Vicka and then left. Thirty minutes later, he came back for Diana and her sons and took them to the church. Sr. Janja told Diana they were being invited into the apparition room for the apparition that night! They were there three hours ahead of time and had to stand the whole time. The other people in there were men who worked in Germany to support their families, and were home for Christmas. People put their religious items on a table to be blessed by Our Lady. The visionaries were in the church kneeling and praying the Rosary. When Our Lady called, they all stood up at once and went to the apparition room. They went to the front of the room standing side by side and all hit the floor at the same moment. Diana said Mirjana was not there because she had stopped having daily apparitions and Vicka was recuperating, but the other four (Ivanka, Marija, Ivan and Jakov) were there. Diana could see that at times all four were talking to Our Lady at the same time, having different conversations. When Our Lady left, she heard the visionaries say, "Ode," meaning "She is gone." Because there was a lot of snow there that Christmas, they did not get to climb the mountains, which would have been very slippery, but they still had a very blessed week there. They had no problems getting back home. Diana knew she was called to Medjugorje, but did not know why. When she got home, she knew in her heart that Our Lady wanted her to help spread the messages of Medjugorje. Soon after her return, she began receiving many phone calls about her trip, some from people she called "bigshots." They wanted to know all about Medjugorje and her thoughts about it. She began giving talks and distributing the medals from Fr. Slavko. She continues to spread the messages of Our Lady. For instance, as I mentioned in the beginning, she recently asked for extra Medjugorje newsletters to distribute at her church and other churches. One thing Diana had asked of Our Lady was to make her parish (named St. James) like St. James in Medjugorje. Diana added, "She did!" This sounds like a good prayer for all of us to ask for our parishes! Diana's story, to me, was so interesting, but what stood out for me the most was Diana's unwavering faith. She knew from the beginning in the church in Metairie that Our Lady was calling her and was not afraid to answer that call. She said that when they got back home, people said, "You must have been afraid. You had young kids with you." She replied, "Not for one moment did I have any fear that everything wasn't going to be OK. It was OK from the very beginning. I never had a moment of fear." Would that we could all say the same thing about situations in our own lives!
The first time I went to Medjugorje, I was 23, taking my 12-year-old brother Joseph. I can attest to that feeling of extreme calm and peace, that Mary was taking care of everything. My mother had already left the family by that point, so my dad drove me and my brother to the airport and dropped us off, then went to work. When we got to check-in, they told me I needed a form signed by dad giving permission for Joseph to leave the country. And it had to be notarized. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and the office that had the notary was closed for the day. I was absolutely shocked that I didn't feel panicked in the slightest. I called my dad and asked him to come back from work, and when he arrived, I said, "Let's go to the notary office." The guy at check-in said, "There won't be anyone there; it's Sunday." But I went anyway. And lo and behold, the notary was there! He had just arrived a moment before to pick something up and was about to leave, but he quickly notarized our paper! I knew Mary had arranged it all.
