A thousand uprooted people lived in former military barracks at the Wooden Bridge, a suburb of Tokyo. These people for the most part had no family ties. One night, about 2:00 A.M., a phone rang: a dying old woman was asking for a priest.
In her youth, this woman had attended a Catholic school. There, a nun instructed her for three years and at the age of 17 she became a Christian. I received the Holy Water and the Bread of God, she told me. But later she got married, following her family's wishes, to a Buddhist monk who owned a temple far away in the mountains. So she went to live there, and was in charge of keeping up the temple; one of her chores was to take care of the many tombs and burn incense during the funeral feasts. Her husband would have allowed her to go to church but there wasn't one in sight. She gave birth to eight children. 70 years later, her husband and all her children had died, among them five sons killed during the war. Then, another Buddhist priest came and she had to leave the temple.
I asked her if during all these years she had been thinking of God. She looked at me in surprise and painstakingly removed her right hand from under the covers. She was holding a rosary, and the answer I heard was: Every day, several times a day, without ever missing a day, I have been praying all these years. While going about my work, I always had Mary's chain in my hands or my pocket, and I asked her every day to help me find a Catholic priest who might give me the Bread of God once more before I died.
Fr. G. Goldmann in The Ragman of Tokyo Told in the Recueil Marial 1986 by Fr. Albert Pfleger, Marist (Source: from the website of A Moment with Mary)
Marija's Testimony
Marija, one of the six Medjugorje visionaries, gave the following testimony on the Vigil of Pentecost at St. Mary and St. Michael Church, London E1 0AA:
I want to greet all of you with all my heart, and through this witness of mine, may you come closer to Our Lady and her messages. In 1981 Our Lady started coming to us. We were believers and come from families who pray, but through this presence of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, we saw a great change in our lives, in our families and in our parish. Our Lady worked in the hearts of many people, particularly those who were open to receive her messages.
When we first saw Our Lady we were scared and ran away – we could not imagine that Our Lady would appear to us, but she actually chose us. She once said to us “God allowed me to choose, and I chose you." But she also chose many other people who are open to her messages. Many vocations have taken place through Our Lady’s presence, and now many parishes have a pastor through Our Lady of Medjugorje.
One grandmother told me that she kept asking her grandson to go to Medjugorje and light a candle for her. He used to work in a hospital but he was a drug addict and an alcoholic. One rainy day he went to Medjugorje to light this candle for his grandmother. Someone told him he could not come to Medjugorje and not climb the two hills. When he climbed Krizevac he felt the need to kneel down. He was healed and he also felt in his heart a vocation to the priesthood.
He became a priest and worked with a cardinal who was a friend of John Paul II. This cardinal was in a wheelchair and Stephano used to push the wheelchair when they went to lunch with John Paul II. Many times after lunch the Pope would ask Stephano to witness how he got his vocation. He did this so many times that sometimes he would try to make it shorter, but the Pope would say ‘Stephano , you forgot something.’
Every one of us can speak of our own experiences of Our Lady. Our Lady is asking us to pray and she told us to have prayer groups, but the first one has to be in our family. In this month of May in a special way we should pray the Rosary. Our Lady is asking each one of us to be her outstretched hands.
Many times we ask ourselves ‘who do we belong to?’ – a parish, a certain group. Many times we forget we belong to Jesus, who has suffered and died on the cross for us, but above all, the one who was resurrected. Saint Paul says that our faith is in vain if there is no resurrection.
Unfortunately many times we act as if we believe Christ died but didn’t rise. We witness our faith with sadness. Our Lady says that our faith has to be joyful and that we should give example with our lives. She calls us to be witnesses, and to be her extended hands. That is why Our Lady has been appearing to us for so long, why Jesus sends Our Lady for so long.
Through my witness I want to help you, to show that we are normal, not crazy. Many times journalists think that our apparitions are hallucinations. We have certificates to say that we are normal. Through this simple witness we can really touch the hearts of many. Our Lady chose us, but not because we are better than others. Once we asked Our Lady why she chose us and she replied ‘God let me choose and I chose you. God, even today, walks among us and operates in us.
There was a couple who had no children for many years. I told them that Our Lady says, ‘pray, go to confession and adore the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.' Then I saw the miracle of a baby coming to this family, when doctors had said it was impossible. They also now can witness. There was a sick lady sent home from hospital when the doctors had said they could do no more. She started praying ‘Lord have mercy’, and for her children too. She couldn’t lie down because of the tumour she had, and one night she feel asleep crying, with this picture of Our Lady on her chest. She woke in the night and started feeling better. She could breathe and she had no more problems.
There are many, many stories like this, but most important of all is when the hearts of people change. We are just simple people and we are not important. We didn’t know how to meet people, but Our Lady said ‘open your houses’, and then we opened our hearts. People were coming all the time, we would share bread, tell stories and pray with these people. We started climbing the hills at night. Vicka’s grandmother told us to take holy water and throw it on the apparition. Our Lady smiled and said ‘I am the Mother of God, and I came here as the Queen of Peace.'
Through prayer and fasting we can even stop wars. In the Bible we are told that certain evil spirits can be cast out only by prayer and fasting, so we started fasting and prayed more. Teenage boys are able to go to discos all night, so we thought we could pray all night. We asked our parish priest for all night adoration, so we started this way of prayer which has not been easy. We would sing and pray but at about 3 a.m. we became very sleepy. Some of us even started to snore, so we called that ‘deep meditation’. So we tried to keep each other awake and during the critical hours we would sing and read the psalms as it is easy to fall asleep praying the Rosary.
Some of us got engaged and then married, and we went to pray the Rosary with the newly weds. Sometimes they fell asleep, and when they got a dig in the ribs they would wake with the words ‘Hail Mary’. I am inviting you to be witnesses with your lives. We don’t need to go to Africa to be missionaries, we can do it in our own families.
Tonight I prayed for you in a special way at the moment when Our Lady appeared. I asked Our Lady to bless you, and she did and she prayed over us. I’m sure tonight she also said to you, ‘Thank you for responding to my call.’ I want to finish this witness with a prayer for you, for all our needs and all that is in our hearts. We pray at all these meetings that Our Lady will bring us to Paradise. I remember when Our Lady said she would take Jakov and Vicka to Paradise, Jakov asked Our Lady to just take Vicka as he was an only child. So many times we are afraid of going to Paradise. Our Lady says, ‘don’t be afraid’, because God made us in his image. Our life is like a flower, quickly over.
In the same way, Our Lady wants us to witness in this world with joy and to be grateful to God, and then we will be able to witness for all generations.
There is a CD available of Marija's talk containing the full version of her testimony. Price of each CD is £3.50 which includes post and packing. To order contact: Order Department, Medjugorje Apostolate, PO Box 119, London SE7 5RH. Please make cheques payable to B.A.Smith - M A/C. Please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.
Seize the next chance you get to go to Medjugorje -even if you’ve been before!
by Dudley Plunkett
This was the conclusion several of us reached following our recent pilgrimage. I had not been to Medjugorje for seven years, though I have always kept myself informed of developments and followed Our Lady’s messages closely. I had thought that after several earlier pilgrimages I did not need to keep going. But then I wondered how much Medjuugorje might have changed over the years and I thought it would be good to go and see. As I prepared to go I found myself reading the Acts of the Apostles and remembering how my first pilgrimage 24 years ago had brought me the experience of being in a situation resembling the early Church, a time of intense faith and growth. Would this atmosphere have held in Medjugorje after so many years and such great changes?
A week on pilgrimage emphatically confirmed that Medjugorje is still a place where one senses the intensity of the early Church. The one difference from 1984 is that there are now large numbers of pilgrims who live this life of faith. They share with the local people the commitment to attending mass and receiving holy communion, to prayer and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and the same fidelity to confession. Of course it is true that Medjugorje is now a town, and besides all the paraphernalia of shops, restaurants and places to stay there are many different institutions, groups and communities established there. This means that pilgrims spend time not only in the church and on the hill of apparitions and the hill of the cross, or visiting the homes of the visionaries, but also in the several chapels where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for adoration, visiting the Cenacolo community to hear the testimonies of young people brought back from lives of drug abuse, and listening to talks given by the friars.
In a talk on pilgrimage, Fr Svet said that we get the pilgrimage we need. I found this to be very apt, as I spent the week feeling ill, but reflecting on how it is more important to be than to do! The week was like a very good retreat, time to ponder one’s life, go to confession (with a good measure of spritual direction), reflect on the spiritual needs of the world around us, and make some resolutions for the future.
But none of this does justice to the sheer spiritual peace of being in such a holy place, a place where you are inspired also by the design of an increasing number of works of sacred sculpture such as the mosaics of the Rosary Mysteries of Light and the the bronze statue of the Risen Christ, the encouragement of living with a small group of pilgrims in joyful harmony, and also a real sense of hope for the Church that is tangible and enormously positive for the future of our faith, something you are particularly aware of when you have left behind for a while the spiritually needful condition of western secular society.
A prophecy in the Old Testament of Our Lord's Resurrection on the Third Day
The Time of the Resurrection (I) The Virgin was absolutely certain of the Resurrection of her Son because He had so openly predicted it. However, she did not know the hour, which is, in fact, determined nowhere. Therefore, the night of Holy Saturday seemed very long indeed and she spent the time reflecting on the possible time of the Resurrection. She was aware that David, more than the other prophets, had spoken of the Passion of Christ and she skimmed through the psalms, but found no indication of the hour. However, in Psalm 57, David, speaking in the person of the Father to His Son, said: "Awake, my glory, awake my lyre and harp..." And the Son answered: "I will awake at dawn ..." When the Virgin Mary realized the hour of the Resurrection, I will let you imagine how quickly she must have got up to see if the dawn had risen. When she found that it had not, she continued reading the psalms. She wanted to find out if any of the other prophets had mentioned the time of the Resurrection and she found this text in chapter 6: 2-3 of Hosea: "After two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up and we will live in his presence. Let us strive to know the Lord, for his coming is a sure as the dawn."
Saint Vincent Ferrer Spanish Dominican (d. 1419)
Source: A Moment with Mary: A Marian Institute in France which publishes daily on the web extracts from accounts of Mary's tireless intercession for the salvation of souls.
New Evangelisation by Our Lady of Medjugorje
I believe that the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, came to Medjugorje as the Queen of Peace because she hoped that, with the help of the good people of Medjugorje, she could start her great plan of reconciling the whole world, beginning with Medjugorje, then in the Diocese of Mostar to which Medjugorje belongs, then between the Croats and Serbs and other ethnic communities of former communist Yugoslavia, and thus to set an example to the whole world. This how I understood her first message to Medjugorje on 26th June 1981:
I have come because there are many true believers here. I wish to be with you to convert and reconcile the whole world. Peace, peace, peace! Be reconciled! Only peace. Make your peace with God and among yourselves. For that, it is necessary to believe, to pray, to fast, and to go to Confession.
Thanks to the inspired preaching of the parish priest, Fr Jozo Zovko OFM, within weeks the parish of Medjugorje became a reconciled community in response to Our Lady’s call, giving a wonderful example to all who went to Medjugorje, as I saw when I went to Medjugorje for the first time in May 1984 and was able to admire the unique transformation there, in a Communist country.
The process of reconciliation, however, stopped at Medjugorje. It did not happen in the Diocese of Mostar, or between Croats and Serbs. I believe that Our Lady wanted the Croats and Serbs to be reconciled because there was much hatred between them, going back to the time after the First World War when Yugoslavia was established, dominated by the Serbs. Our Lady appeared on Podbrdo Hill on 24thJune 1981 for a special reason. Exactly 40 years ago, on 24th June 1941, in the newly declared independent state of Croatia (under the auspices of the occupying forces of Nazi Germany) an organisation was set up called ‘State Directorate for Renewal’ to carry out the Ustasha diktat of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Serbs in Herzegovina, in response to the atrocities committed by the Serbs against the Croats between the two World Wars. Following this diktat, on the other side of Podbrdo Hill, at Surmanci, which is a part of Medjugorje, there was a terrible massacre of many innocent Serb men, women and children, carried out by Ustasha agents from Mostar. The agents tried to force local men to carry out the killings, but the men of Medjugorje were hiding in the vineyards and in the hills to escape such a cruel ‘recruitment’. In November 1990 the earthly remains of the victims were taken from the mass grave to Serb cemeteries, causing more tension between Serbs and Croats, leading to the war seven months later.
Our Lady knew what might happen if there was no reconciliation and peace between the Serbs and Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but she also knew how difficult a task it is to ask for forgiveness and to forgive. In order to prepare the people of Medjugorje and all other people, calling them all as her children who are willing to listen to her, to the great act of reconciliation, Our Lady started a parish renewal programme in March 1984 for three years, 150 weeks to be exact, through weekly messages every Thursday through Marija Pavlovic. I made reflections on these messages, with texts from Holy Scripture for mediation as spiritual exercises for every day, and published them in 1991 under the title Living the Gospel with Our Lady. It is remarkable that all Our Lady’s messages are scriptural. Her messages are the messages of the Gospel, given in the language of a loving mother so that even children can understand them. Her messages could be summed up in the words she spoke at the wedding feast of Cana: Do whatever he tells you!
Seeing the tension building up in former Yugoslavia, after her last Thursday message on 8th January 1987, Our Lady started another programme through monthly messages, given on 25th of every month, guiding her children on the way to holiness of life to become reflections of Jesus and to become witnesses to God’s peace and love, so that Our Lady with our help might fulfil her plan for the peace of the world which she began at Fatima, as she told us at the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia:
Dear Children, today, also I invite you to prayer, now as never before, when my plan has begun to be realized. Satan is strong and wants to sweep away plans of peace and joy and make you think that my Son is not strong in His decisions. Therefore, I call all of you, dear children, to pray and fast still more firmly. I invite you to renunciation for nine days, so that, with your help, everything that I wanted to realize through the secrets which began at Fatima may be fulfilled. I call you, dear children, to grasp the importance of my coming and the seriousness of the situation. I want to save all souls and present them to God. Therefore, let us pray that everything I have begun will be fully realized. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th August 1991)
Sadly, the terrible war in former Yugoslavia was not avoided. It started on 26th June 1991. Unlike some neighbouring villages, Medjugorje escaped any war damage. The Serb pilot of a bomber aircraft was blinded by a strong light and so he could not find Medjugorje. However, Our Lady did not give up her crusade for peace because she knows what dangers and conflicts are still threatening the world.
With her last Christmas message on 25th December 2006 Our Lady completed 20 years of monthly messages from January 1987, that is 240 monthly messages. I have made reflections also on all these messages which can be found on the Internet at www.medjugorje.org.uk. What is most amazing for me is the general structure of Our Lady’s messages. Each year’s messages are centred on a special aspect of holiness, which could be interpreted as a programme for the renewal of the Church and for the New Evangelisation of the world.
Through the Second Vatican Council of the Church we were given a very important document about Our Lady’s role in the life of the Church: Lumen Gentium (21st November 1964), chapter 8, in which Our Lady is described as Mother, Teacher and Model of the church: the Son whom she brought forth is He whom God placed as the firstborn among many brethren (cf. Romans 8:29), namely the faithful, in whose birth and education she cooperates with a maternal love (no. 63). The followers of Christ strive to increase in holiness by conquering sin. And also they raise their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as model of virtues (no.65).
Pope Paul VI, in his famous Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (8th December 1975), writing on evangelisation in the modern world, entrusted the work of evangelisation to Our Lady, calling her the Star of Evangelisation (no. 82).
This is the desire (‘a programme of pastoral action with evangelisation as its basic feature’) that we rejoice to entrust to the hands and heart of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary... On the morning of Pentecost she watched over with her prayer the beginning of evangelisation prompted by the Holy spirit: may she be the Star of Evangelisation ever renewed , which the Church, docile to her Lord’s command, must promote and accomplish, especially in these times which are difficult but full of hope!
Through her messages Our Lady wants to share her own spirituality with us. Nearly in every message she assures us that she is with us and loves us very much and she has often asked us to witness to her presence with us. I am so pleased to quote Pope John Paul II from his Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater (25th Mary 1987) emphasising the presence of Our Lady in our time (nos 3, 48):
Now, following the line of the Second Vatican Council, I wish to emphasise the special presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and his Church... ‘Marin spirituality’ like its corresponding devotion, finds a very rich source in the historical experience of individuals and of the various communities present among the different peoples and nations of the world... I am pleased to note that in our own time too new manifestations of this spirituality and devotion are not lacking.
In the light of the Church’s teaching quoted above, should we be surprised that Our Lady is actually fulfilling her mission for our time through Medjugorje? Those who are rejecting the Medjugorje phenomenon, are they believing the Church’s teaching about Our Lady’s role in the life of the Church? As I stated in all my publications about Our Lady’s messages, I subject myself to the final decision of the Church concerning Medjugorje. In the meantime, however, in conscience I have to listen also to the word of God in Sacred Scripture: do not stifle the Spirit, or despise the gift of prophecy with contempt; test everything, and hold on to what is good and shun every form of evil (1Thessalonians 5:19-22), and the words of Jesus: Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Revelation 2:7)
My only fear is this: Our Lady’s requests made at Fatima were fulfilled too late, after a terrible world war and godless Communism about which Our Lady gave warning. If Our Lady’s requests through her Medjugorje messages are not followed up, what will happen to our world which is moving away from God more and more? But, whatever happens, I believe in the promise Our Lady gave us at Fatima: Ultimately, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.
Events leading up to the apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje
Mgr George Tutto
I go back to 1933, the Holy Year of Redemption, when the people of Medjugorje, following the inspired suggestion of Pope Pius XI, built a huge cross in concrete on the mountain-top of Krizevac (Cross-mountain) and dedicated the whole region to the Suffering Redeemer.
Following that, they wanted to build a new church, but there was a lot of argument as to which hamlet to build it in, that is, Bijakovici, Miletina, Vionica or Surmanci. Following an old man’s vision, they started to build a big church with two spires in between the hamlets in 1937 but, because of the war, they finished it only in 1969. Many of the parishioners wondered why such a big church should be built for a small parish of only 400 people. Now they know.
In the meantime there was another event which may have relevance to Medjugorje as well as to the Second Vatican Council. A very significant intervention took place at the beginning of the Council meetings. On 10th November 1962, Bishop Petar Cule of Mostar, to whose diocese Medjugorje belongs, put in a long plea in a frail voice for the inclusion of the name of St Joseph in the Canon of the Mass (now the First Eucharistic Prayer). Many of the Council Fathers expressed their irritation, and he was stopped by the presiding Cardinal. Fortunately, there was someone else who was listening to the debates on closed circuit television in his apartments: Pope John XXIII. He knew about Bishop Cule’s trials and sufferings at the hands of the Communist rulers of Yugoslavia. Perhaps it was the brusque cutting off of Bishop Cule that prompted the Pope to issue a motu proprio decree three days later, on 13th November, effective from 8th December 1962, ordering the insertion of the name of St Joseph in the Canon of the Mass. The bishop’s heartfelt wish was granted.
There was something else which I regard a being relevant to the Medjugorje story. Bishop Cule was perhaps the only diocesan bishop attending the Council who did not have a cathedral-church of his own. The Franciscan church in Mostar was used a pro-Cathedral. With the help of other countries, especially from Fr Werenfried’s Aid to the Church in Need, he was able to build a cathedral to mark the centenary of his diocese in 1981. The diocese was established in 1881, after 400 years of Turkish occupation. Pope Paul VI donated the high altar before his death. He was mainly responsible for the new title of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, adopted by the Vatican Council, and it is significant that the new cathedral of Mostar was the first one dedicated to Our Lady under this new title. I feel that the Mother of the Church wanted to add her own special contribution to the centenary celebrations by her visitation to the diocese in 1981. Perhaps this was her ‘thank you’ to Bishop Cule.
Prophecies about Medjugorje
Coming close to the Medjugorje events, first we go to Rome where about 600 delegates from all over the world took part in the Fourth International Leaders’ Conference of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal from 4th to 9th May 1981. Father Tomislav Vlasic OFM, of Medjugorje, was one of the delegates, as chaplain to youth and member of the Franciscan Council of Herzegovina, through whom the first signal came from Heaven by way of prophetic utterances by Sister Briege McKenna and Father Emiliano Tardif, both well-known charismatic healers and leaders who were present at the Conference.
Fr Vlasic went to Rome in a depressed spiritual state in view of the atheistic influence of the Communist system of Yugoslavia on young people and on people in general. Before the end of the Conference he asked Sister Briege McKenna to pray with him for enlightenment as to what to do in his ministry. She had a prophecy for Fr Vlasic in the form of a vision, seeing him sitting in a chair in a large church with two spires, with large crowds of people around him, and streams of water flowing from beneath where he was sitting. Just then Father Tardif joined them and uttered a prophecy, saying to Fr Vlasic: ‘Do not fear, I am sending you my Mother.’ None of them could understand the meaning of these prophecies. Puzzled, Fr Vlasic returned to Medjugorje. He prayed and waited. Then it happened. But before we get to the dramatic event, there was another one in Rome.
Pope John Paul II and Medjugorje
On 7th May 1981, during the Charismatic Conference, Pope John Paul II delivered an inspiring address to the participants and, talking about Our Lady’s role in the renewal, he concluded his address with these words:
‘It is to this Woman, Mary the Mother of God and our Mother, ever obedient to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, that I confidently entrust your important work for renewal in and of the Church. In the love of her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, I willingly impart to you my Apostolic Blessing.’
Six days later, on 13th May, the feast-day of Our Lady of Fatima, while the Holy Father was giving his usual Wednesday audience in St Peter’s Square, a professional assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, attempted to kill him by shooting him from close range. The Pope was very seriously wounded and was rushed to the Gemelli Hospital. You know what happened, how the Holy Father was saved, how he thanked Our Lady of Fatima a year later in Fatima for saving his life. I just want to refer to the events which took place on Pentecost Sunday, 7th June 1981, a few weeks after the assassination attempt.
He invited all the bishops of the church in Rome to celebrate the 1600th anniversary of the First Council of Constantinople of 381, which finalised the profession of faith by emphasising the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and to celebrate the 1550th anniversary of the Council of Ephesus of 431, which declared the dogma of the divine Motherhood of Our Lady (Theotokos).
On Pentecost morning, broadcasting from his hospital bed to the assembled cardinals and bishops in St Peter’s Basilica, the Holy Father entrusted the Church to the Holy Spirit in a beautiful prayer, concluding with the following words:
‘Today we, Pastors of the Church, heirs of those who received the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room on Pentecost, must go forth as they did, conscious of the immensity of the gift that is given in the Church to the human family. We must go forth into the world and, in different places on earth where we are, we must repeat with still greater fervour: Let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth.’
In the afternoon of Pentecost Sunday, in a recorded message to the same cardinals, bishops and faithful people gathered in the Basilica of St Mary Major, the Holy Father poured out the testimony of his heart about Our Lady, followed by an Act of Dedication entrusting the Church and all mankind to Mary the Mother. This was a very powerful prayer, revealing a prophetic vision of the Church in which the motherly love of Mary is the very driving force used by the Holy Spirit for the renewal of the Church and for a New Pentecost. I only quote the last words of this prayer of entrustment: ‘Placing our trust in your motherly intercession, come, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!’
I believe with all my heart that Our Lady responded to this prayer. ‘Come’ she did, as she was asked to do on Pentecost Sunday, and she did come in the same month at Medjugorje, on 24th June 1981, the Solemnity of the Birth of St John the Baptist, indicating that, just as St John the Baptist came heralding a new age, calling the people to repentance and conversion, and revealing to them Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Suffering Redeemer of the world to whom the Medjugorje region was dedicated in 1933, so did she, the Mother of God, Mother of the Church, calling all people of the world to conversion and reconciliation. She came with the Baby Jesus in her arms with a gesture of unveiling Him to the visionaries, as if to offer Jesus anew to the visionaries and to the world. In her first message at Medjugorje she revealed the purpose of her coming: ‘I want to be with you to convert and reconcile the whole world.’
THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST AND MARY
Extract taken from the website: "A Moment with Mary".
'It seems that nobody has penetrated the mystery of Christ in its depth except the Blessed Virgin. Saint Paul often speaks about the "understanding" that was given to her,and yet just look at how all the saints remain in the dark when one contemplates the clarity of the Blessed Virgin ?'
The secret that she pondered and kept in her heart, no tongue has been able to tell, nor pen translate. May this Mother of Grace form my heart,so that her little child be a living and striking image of her first-born the Son of the Eternal,the One who was the perfect praise of the glory of his Father.
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880-1906) Mary,Model of Interior Souls. Spiritual Life,(La Vie spirituelle,1928)
Medjugorje and the Marian Age
by Mgr George Tutto
The Medjugorje apparitions and messages of Our Lady since 1981, a unique phenomenon in the history of the Church, may impel us to question whether there is any connection between Medjugorje and the other shrines of Our Lady. In the chapter Through the Marian Age to the New Pentecost, in my booklet Femininity in the Holy Trinity and in our World, I explained the connection beginning with Our Lady's apparition to Catherine Laboure on 18th July 1830 to Our Lady's apparitions at Fatima (1917), emphasising the warnings of Our Lady about future evil events threatening the peace of the world unless people are converted to the Lord and consecrate themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But Our Lady alos gave a very encouraging promise at Fatima, Ultimately my Immaculate Heart will triumph, for which Our Lady has repeatedly asked our cooperation in her Medjugorje messages, especially one made 16 years ago, at the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia:
Dear Children, Today, in a special way, I invite you all to prayer and renunciation. For now, as never before, Satan wants to show the world his shameful face, by which he wants to seduce as many people as possible onto the way of death and sin. Therefore, dear children, help my Immaculate Heart to triumph in the sinful world. I beseech all of you to offer prayers and sacrifices for my intentions so I can present them to God for what is most necessary. Forget your desires, dear children, and pray for what God desires and not for what you desire. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 September 1991)
There was, however, another heavenly manifestation immediately preceding the Medjugorje events which has a very close connection with Our Lady's plan through Medjugohrje, and this happened in my own country, Hungary, which was ruled by Communism until 1989, and which neighbours the former Yugoslavia. The chosen instrument was a a widowed mother of six children Mrs Karoly Kindlemann, nee Erzsebet (Elizabeth) Szanto, through whom Jesus and Mary communicated, by way of interior locution, very important messages for the whole world, under the title Flame of Love, from 1961 to 1981.
I have met Elizabeth Szanto twice, in 1979 and 1983, and I know about her life and about her many sufferings and utter poverty in which she had to bring up her children. When they grew up and got married she gave everything to them and she had to live through their charity. She was able to have only four years of primary school education and you may wonder why such a person was chosen by Jesus and Mary to communicate through her very important messages for our world which were written down by her by way of a diary. Our Lady explained to her why she was chosen. Elizabeth, as a mother with much suffering, could share the pain and sorrows of Our Blessed Mother for her many children who are in mortal danger of losing their souls, especially the families who are facing great crisis in the days. Elizabeth was a member of the Carmelite Third Order and this helped her very much to lead a deep spiritual life in spite of her many trials and sufferings.
Following the guidance of Jesus and Mary, besides daily Mass and Holy Communion, Elizabeth fasted on bread and water several days in the week, spending night-vigils in prayer, doing Holy Hours by praying the Holy Rosary and other devotions, making reparation and offering many sacrifices for the conversion of sinners and unbelievers, for the suffering souls in Purgatory and for spreading the Flame of Love all over the world. It was explained to Elizabeth that the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is Jesus himself, and the brightness of this flame will blind Satan and will bring about his final downfall. The words of Jesus in St Luke's Gospel about the blazing fire, I am sure, refer to the Flame of Love which Our Lady is bringing into our sinful world: I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already blazing. (Luke 12:49) In our Christian living the blazing fire and its flame refers to love, the most important gift of God to us, which must dominate our life, our families and communities, so that by our holy living we may help the Immaculate Heart of Mary to triumph over Satan.
The Flame of Love devotion is spreading all over the world, centred on the spiritual expercises as Elizabeth practised them, in families and prayer groups, as Our Lord and Our Lady requested Elizabeth to communciate through her diary. The book, Flame of Love, is available at Padre Pio bookshop, 264 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 1EJ (tel: 020-7834 5363) and at Angelus Communications, 16 Saw Mill Way, Littleborough, Lancs. OL15 8SD (tel: 01706-372 674).
Through Medjugorje Our Lady has established her school of prayer and love guiding us on the way of holiness of life, centred on her Flame of Love, that is, on Jesus Himself, so that her first message on 26th June 1981 may be fulfilled: I wish to be with you to convert and to reconcile the whole world.
Dudley Plunkett’s recently published book on the evangelising of secular culture
Dudley Plunkett, Saving Secular Society (2007) - price £10 - can be ordered from Alive Publishing (tel: 01782 745 600)
The book makes the point that secular society needs saving, from itself. It identifies some of the major moral and spiritual confusions of contemporary culture, and proposes a series of spiritual and practical remedies open to all faithful Christians, including witnessing to their faith to those who are unaware of its truths or who have forgotten its claims on them, inspiring spiritual renewal, and proclaiming God through the way of beauty. Dudley hopes that his latest book will encourage Catholics to have a renewed trust in God’s mercy and in the Church’s mission to bring the gospel to a world that risks forsaking God for a dispiriting materialism and meaningless self-sufficiency.
While faith and reason are not opposed, contemporary hearts are often closed to them by countless distractions. What is needed—and Plunkett echoes this call—is to make secular culture reopen its horizons, make it face the big questions, restore the human quest for truth, and open a window for the actions of Grace. This is the response to the trend of contemporary culture to ignore faith and the truth. This is the eagle which soars on the two wings of faith and reason.
(Cardinal Paul Poupard, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture)
Saving Secular Society could profitably be read both by individuals seeking to gain an understanding of what is going on behind the scenes in our world, and by discussion groups, in parishes, for example, seeking both to understand and to take action.
(Mgr Keith Barltrop, Director of the Catholic Agency for the Support of Evangelisation)
TO HAVE FAITH AND TRUST IN TODAY
An extract from Father Slavko Barbaric's book 'Be Similar to My Heart' (Informativni Centar 'mir' Medjugorje (1997, p.91).
'Our Lady wants us to have faith and trust in today. The expression, 'a precious moment', is precious because that is all we have been given. It is not the past nor the future, but only now. We do not take care of our souls because we are constantly carrying the burden from the past. We also look to the future and carry another burden toward it, worrying about what may happen. The cross of yesterday and the cross of tomorrow hinder us from doing anything now. We must try not to hang on to the past nor worry about the future. Every day has its own burdens. If we can stop living in the past and worrying about the future, we will have the peace Our Lady is talking about'.
Father Branimir Musa OFM: February retreat(07) - 2nd Extract
Our Lady's messages from Medjugorje frequently call for the conversion of our hearts. Father Branimir explained how difficult making this step can be:-
'When we talk about conversion, people are afraid of conversion,they are afraid of that new life. We do not have the experience, we do not know what it is, we just have the experience of what we are presently living. That is why it is so hard for us to step out and to be something new. It is human nature to keep what is old inside of us. When Jesus performed a miracle they asked him to leave their area because they were afraid of his demands. They were afraid of his demands of them to change their lives. So let us not be afraid to make that step, to convert and to be a new person. People will have a new perspective towards life. Le us not be afraid of being just simple, ordinary people, let us try to enjoy the simple things'.
(Further extracts from this retreat will be published each month. Father Branimir will be leading our Pilgrimage and National Day of Prayer at Walsingham on Monday 27th August Bank Holiday 2007)
Priests' Retreat in Medjugorje
The Medjugorje parish website recently reported the impressions of some of the 628 priests attending the retreat from 2-7 July. These were so positive and rewarding that we are offering some extracts here. For the full report go to www.medjugorje.hr.
“A very positive experience. The spirit of Medjugorje is attracting by itself. I came in order to encounter here priests from all over the world, to experience communion with them, union with Christ independently from different places in which we live, independently form different services that we are giving. We are here together, we belong to Christ, we belong to Mary, we came in order to encourage one another and to go forward.”
“Coming to Medjugorje is like coming to Heaven. For me, the most beautiful is Adoration.”
“This is my first participation in this retreat, and my third coming to Medjugorje. For the first time now, I can say with personal inner conviction: Our Lady is really appearing here. This is really a holy place, where we know that Heaven is touching the earth through the Mother of God. This year for the first time this became so clear to me, and became my personal conviction. Before, I believed what others say about this, but I was not so much interested. After I came to this conviction, I began for the first time to read the Messages conscientiously, namely the message given to Mirjana on July 2nd. I was incredibly touched, because for the first time I heard a message speaking about tenderness, about Our Lady’s tenderness, about Jesus’ tenderness.
“I like it very much. I wanted to come for the priests’ retreat already last year, but I could not. Every year. I am coming two or three times to Medjugorje for personal prayer. I like to be alone here and to experience the presence of Our Lady. I was here about thirty times, only five or six times with groups of pilgrims. I also brought my bishop here. I do not know what would have happened if another preacher had come. This is excellent. Prof. Ivan?i? is treating very interesting questions. He is giving right answers to many questions of our times. I am happy that he is here.”
“The lectures resound in my heart, especially the central importance of our relationship to Jesus, which needs to be permanently deepened. The necessity for a priest to be another Christ. People need Jesus and not our own stories.”
Impressions of bishop Sebastian Thekethecheril, of the diocese Vijayapuram (India) “Today, I celebrated the Holy Mass at 10 o’clock. I said that this is the most beautiful place in the world, because the Most Beautiful Woman appeared here. And why is she the Most Beautiful Woman? Because she has conceived the Most Beautiful Person – Jesus Christ. And since she appeared here, this place is the most beautiful place. I am coming from India, from Kerala, which is such a beautiful place, and I come here, and I am saying this is the most beautiful place, because Our Blessed Mother appeared here. Why is She so beautiful? Because She was full of Grace. And here, we can see the graces, especially during this retreat. So many priests, over 600 priests are here, and I see all of them happy. And why? Only when people are filled with the Holy Spirit, they can be happy on the outside also. I have also this experience. I was longing to come here for so many years now. I had a problem with the visa, and now in the last minute I got the visa, and I came here, and I believe that this is a miracle in itself.”
Scientific Examination of the Visionaries of Medjugorje in Ecstasy
The electro-oculograms carried out on the visionaries show very astonishing results: the electrodes placed near the corners of the eyes make it possible to follow the movements (voluntary or not) of the ocular spheres.
The study was carried out at the same time with two of the young people (Maria and Ivan). Various usual jerks in the waking state (even when one decides to fix his attention) stop almost simultaneously at the beginning of the ecstasy. These slight movements begin again at the end of the vision. This result underlines that the power behind the fixed stare is greater than personal will. The simultaneity is also remarkable: the apparition begins and finishes at the same time for all. And the simultaneities are worthy of notice: they all kneel suddenly at the same time, according to the methodical study made by Mrs. Joyeux, under the direction of Professor Henri Joyeux. The synchrony sometimes falls on exactly the same fraction of a second, which contributes to exclude any possibility of an external signal. They recite from the third word of our Father “who art in Heaven”, that they continue to recite with the Virgin until the end of the Lord's Prayer. Someone once asked them, “Why you don't you recite the first two words: 'Our Father'?” The visionaries replied, “The Gospa starts the prayer and we join in with her”.
In conclusion, these facts seem to confirm that a cause outside the visionaries (and invisible to observers) starts these various phases of the ecstasy, which has no psychological or neurological explanation. This study in Medjugorje is extraordinary and undoubtedly constitutes an important medical case concerning religious ecstasy. Neurology is simply confounded by these unexplainable reports.
Source: according to the Dictionary of Apparitions by Father René Laurentin - (Dictionnaire des Apparitions - Fayard 2007)
Hail Mary, Full of Grace, The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.
Ref: extract taken from the website 'A Moment with Mary'
PRAY WITH THE HEART!
'Remain in silence and listen in your heart to Jesus's words':
"Woman, there is your son"
'My Jesus,what a consolation it must have been for You that Your Mother bore patiently her cross following You on Your way of the cross! Now I pray to You for all who are lonely, who have become withdrawn, who have nobody, or who have been abandoned.'
From PRAY WITH THE HEART by Father Slavko Barbaric O.F.M. Medjugorje Manual of Prayer.St James Parish Office.Medjugorje.1988.
MARY HAS GIVEN THE WORLD ITS TRUE LIGHT
Holy Mary, Mother of God, you have given the world its true light, Jesus, your son, the Son of God. You abandoned yourself completely to God's call and thus became a wellspring of the goodness which flows forth from Him.
Show us Jesus. Lead us to Him. Teach us to know and love Him, so that we too can become capable of true love and be fountains of living water in the midst of a thirsting world.
(Pope Benedict XVI, Encylical Letter 'God is Love', December 25,2005.quoted from the email series published by 'A Moment with Mary'.)
Pope John Paul I's devotion to Our Lady and the Rosary
Recently, after a preview in Rome of a film about the life of Pope John Paul I, Pope Benedict used the opportunity to speak about his predecessor, 'ever ready with a welcome and a smile', and whose ‘unflagging pastoral activity, constantly encouraging clergy and lay people to pursue one common ideal of holiness’. He recalled Pope John Paul I’s devotion to Our Lady when, as Patriarch of Venice, he wrote:
It is impossible to conceive of our life, the life of the Church, without the Rosary, the Marian feasts, Marian shrines and images of Our Lady.
Pope Benedict concluded:
It is beautiful to accept his invitation, and as he did, to find in humble entrustment to Mary the secret of daily serenity and effective work for peace in the world.
CDs of Talks by Fr Slavko
The Medjugorje Apostolate for England and Wales has launched a series of 8 CDs of talks by Fr. Slavko Barbaric in his memory, and to mark the 25th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions at Medjugorje.
Five of the talks were recorded in Medjugorje, and three in England.
The list is as follows:
A Turning to God 1986
B Mary and Renewal, London 1987
C The Way to Holiness 1987
D Take Time for God 1987
E Peace and Prayer 1987
F Mary our Advocate 1987
G The School of Love, Walsingham & Birmingham 1999
H Adoration of the Holy Eucharist, Walsingham & Birmingham 1999
Each CD has a short introduction by Milona von Habsburg de Rambure who was the translator at the time, a brief mention of her role, and at the end of each talk, a summary of Fr. Slavko’s life, ending with the Medjugorje hymn.
The price of each CD is £3.50 including post and packing. To order, please contact: Order Department, Medjugorje Apostolate, P.O. Box 119, London SW7 5RH. Please make cheques payable to B.A.Smith - M A/C
The Rosary as an act of love
Extract from Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter - Rosarium Virginis Mariae
26.'" For me,to live is Christ".One thing is clear: although the repeated Hail Mary is addressed directly to Mary, it is to Jesus that the act of love is ultimately directed, with her and through her.
The repetition is nourished by the desire to be conformed ever more completely to Christ, the true programme of the Christian life. Saint Paul expressed this project with words of fire:" For me to live is Christ and to die is a gain" (Phil 1:21). And again: "It is no longer that I live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal:2:20). The Rosary helps us to be conformed ever more closely to Christ until we attain true holiness.
27.We should not be surprised that our relationship with Christ makes use of a method. God communicates himself to us respecting our human nature and its vital rythms. Hence while Christian spirituality is familiar with the most sublime forms of mystical silence in which images, words and gestures are all, so to speak, superseded by an intense and ineffable union with God, it normally engages the whole person in all his complex psychological, physical and relational reality'.
What does it mean to recite the rosary ?
The importance of praying the rosary, Our Lady continues to emphasize in her monthly messages. The rosary is crucial to following her invitation to make prayer a central part of our everyday lives. Father Slavko well known by millions of Medjugorje pilgrims, in a series of meditations, reminded us that Our Lady called us, when reciting the rosary to 'Pray with your heart'.
Extract from a 'Meditation' by Father Slavko Barbaric OFM. 1985.
The rosary is the meditative, biblical prayer and when Our Lady asks for the rosary, she wants us to come closer to the mysteries of the life of Jesus and her life too, so that we may come closer to the mysteries of the Redemption.
Prayer is life with Our Lord, not just words for Our Lord. So it is not enough to say one hundred and fifty Hail Marys, but to dialogue with Our Lord.
To recite and pray the rosary means looking for a real stimulus in our own life in each mystery - to deepen our prayer. We can begin with ten minutes each morning for one mystery. The first joyful mystery for example: I am ready to do Your Will. Our Lady said 'Thy will be done; Behold the Handmaid of the Lord'. When we contemplate the Annunciation we really must take time to do so; to contemplate means looking for the significance of the Will of Our Lord for me today. Where does Our Lord want me today?. What does Our Lord expect from me today? Where can I do Our Lords Will today? If we do not take time to pray in this way there is a danger that out prayer will become just lip prayer.
When Our Lady asks us to contemplate all the mysteries that the Church gives us in the rosary every day, she wants the life of Christ to speak to us, to mean something to us. The moment in which the Word or a mystery of the life of Jesus or the Madonna starts to speak to us, our conversion has begun - this signifies a change in our life and our behaviour.
( Source: open your hearts to MARY queen of peace.Grey Book. Milan. 1985)
'BE SIMILAR TO MY HEART'
AN EXTRACT FROM THIS BOOK by Father Slavko Barbaric
We must not blame God, people, or situations for our suffering. We must first look into our own hearts and then see what we can do to change ourselves. It is most important that we try to create the conditions in ourselves where love and forgiveness can then grow and blossom. We need to develop these conditions for growth, love and forgiveness. Otherwise with all the negative feelings we are holding inside us, we can destroy ourselves from within. If we do not work on changing our hearts from within, then one day this negativity can take over and destroy us completely.
We cannot kill this negativity, but only transform it. This negativity is the anger, frustration, jealousy and pride inside us. It can be compared to a wound. It is our wound and no one else's.
( Father Slavko Barbaric O.F.M. before his death, was spiritual guide to the six visionaries in Medjugorje who receive messages of peace,penance and conversion from Our Lady - Queen of Peace: 'Be Similar to My Heart'. P.80. Para. 3-4).
