EXTRACTS FROM A TALK GIVEN BY JELENA VASILJ TO ENGLISH SPEAKING PILGRIMS, ONE OF THE INNER LOCUTIONISTS OF MEDJUGORJE
I was born here in Medjugorje. I was nine years old when Our Lady appeared to the visionaries. It was beautiful news, I felt immense joy. I tried to practise what Our Lady was saying to the visionaries. I see that Our Lady uses us as instruments. If we say ‘yes’ and it is a very small step, but that small ‘yes’ can really open a path to grace for other people.She said that young people are Her hope and young people are open to God. Often we complain that young people are not listening, they are not following. But young people don’t have very strong models. They don’t hear a very strong voice. If adults are teaching certain things but not living it, it can be very misleading to young people that either way are not very stable. This is why they need a stable adult in people because I am an adult now too.
Our Lady came to us as a teacher, we were all so powerfully drawn to Her. We felt we were in her heart, that she brought us together in Her womb. We were learning about the love of God. We were really experiencing God’s mercy. She was teaching us what it means to know God as a person because somehow, our faith is always left out somewhere in the margin and it doesn’t sink deep within. Young people have a greater ability to open their heart. Why am I repeating this, because Our Lady chose young people and those were the ones who were evangelising the parish.
All young people were invited to our prayer group. Our Lady said that after you have prayed by yourself, then call your family for prayer. People were praying personally and then we could get up and pray together with our families at 6.00 am. For Our Lady this was the best time for family prayer. These were the miracles Our Lady was working amongst us, changing hearts, changing families, bringing hope, bringing joy, bringing union, bringing tremendous peace. We still have to be faithful to this call, even within our own family.
If I become doubting, lets say irrational, I may be over using my reason, seeing people’s faults and becoming discouraged, saying ‘no’ this is not possible. People are not responding. They are not ready yet. After I became tired of reasoning, I realise I just have to pray. I start to pray and see the family blooming again. I see the effects of grace again. I don’t know how many times Our Lady makes me understand that if I try to change my family, if I try to something within my family, it wont work. I can really exhaust myself, trying to change other people but the only thing I can do is to change myself. The only thing I can do is to find God in my own heart, then that peace overflows. It goes into your family, and then from your family it goes out into the whole world. I think his is really the heart of Her message; that we all encounter Her love here. Our Lady said that Medjugorje is a place of prayer, but its also a place where hearts meet. I was here with this prayer group for eight years, she was teaching us what it means to be in Her heart, to pray with the heart.
I still feel a deeper call for entering into deeper prayer, because unless there is a personal meeting with God, who is a person, God who is more than a doctrine…but unless there is this inner encounter with God, the road becomes very hard. We can also lose ourselves on the way. Fr Slavko used to say that motivation was the greatest problem, for some reason, we had as hard time putting everything into practice. In words from the Acts of the Apostles St Luke talks about compunction of the heart, a touching of the heart. That this is what the Holy Spirit does in us. The Spirit is the great mover moves the soul. It is not just our own will, but it is something which is really above us. So when the heart is moved, which is love, it is not difficult to do all these things.
When we talk about love, we are not trying to give an easy way out to people, but we are trying to give them a strong motivation, and try to help them understand the true meaning of our path because we come from the love of God. We come from His womb as St John tells us and this is our destination. Our Lady is coming to us, especially during the Mass, Heaven is coming to us. I once had the opportunity to see a piece, if I might say Heaven, which is a reality in the Holy Mass. I saw lots of angels and Our Lord. Our Lady made me understand that Holy Mass is Heaven coming to us. So whenever we go there, we actually are immersing ourselves in the Presence, the Eternal Presence…
Our Lady told me that unbelievers are people who don’t know the love of God. In this way, being in love with God now, we will always remain very humble and we will let many people come to God. Because this is usually what happens. We think we know something, and then we become obstacles for other people who want to join the Church. They see our sins and say ‘no this is not for me’. But if we stay very humble and we really mirror God’s love and God ‘s mercy …
What is this prayer of the heart ? I will try and explain how Our Lady was teaching us to pray with the heart. I could see that Our Lady was following the pattern of the Holy Mass. We all have a moment of recollection. We all try to purify our hearts from everything that is an obstacle, and we ask for God’s forgiveness. Of course for grave sins, then we have to go to confession, but if there are smaller sins that are not grave matters, then we can simply ask God to purify our minds, because what happens usually is that if God doesn’t purify your mind, then we are very distracted in prayer. The prayer becomes very shallow. Simply, it means to transform our distractions to prayer. We pray for whatever comes to our mind. Frequently we have impressions In our mind and our eyes. We are talking to people. We have been seeing many things and all these things are in our mind. We cannot find peace. Our Lady said open your hearts to God. Ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart, to visit you, and to really purify your heart so that you can truly see. I must say this takes effort. It can sometimes be five,ten minutes. I have heard some people are never able to avoid distractions, but it is something we really at least try to do so that our prayer can bear fruit.
Then Our Lady said when your heart is abandoned, She said ‘abandoning yourself to God, then you can meditate. You can read the Scripture, and almost like light, a light comes within your soul because the Word if God is like a light, as if you were walking into a very dark room and all of a sudden you light a light. This is a deep experience you have of the Word of God, because the Word of God gives us direction, meaning and understanding. Our Lady said after you meditate, then you pray. What we usually mean for prayer is the prayer of intercession. So we pray for different needs. Prayer is more than just asking for our needs but it first trying to open our soul to God, trying to really encounter Him before we actually start to ask for things. Our Lady also recommended that we never forget to make a proposal, something to do. So prayer is supposed to bring fruit. There should be a change. She said we always have to experience conversion in prayer. Our hearts should be touched, and we should become different people. Otherwise, prayer has no effect in our lives. Also always end prayer with thanksgiving. If there is no thanksgiving, usually prayer has been very, very hard. So basically this is the pattern Our Lady gave us prayer with he heart.
I will finish by mentioning fasting which is also very important for all of those who feel they have kind of gone astray. They cant find peace in their spiritual life. They are just going off the road. Fasting is a good way to come back. Fasting is a good way to reorder your soul, your passions. It really is the prayer of the body. We know that our bodies are also important in our prayer. This is why we kneel. This is why we do so many gestures in prayer. So fasting and prayer, together with family prayer, community prayer, prayer groups, with the Holy Mass at the centre of our spiritual life, with spiritual direction, confession – there are all the pearls that Our Lady is giving us. I must say that they really are just forming our lives. I believe that if you, and I am sure if you believe in the words of Our Lady, that your lives will be reformed too.
Jelena Vasilj is now married and mother of four children. For four years she studied theology at Steubenville, USA.
With special thanks to the Coventry Medjugorje Centre Magasine, issue 167, 2010,Leics.LE10 0NE. England. Tel: 01455 634010
THE ORIGINS OF THE ROSARY - WHAT IT CAN MEAN TO US TODAY (1)
The Rosary is likely to have come from the East arriving in the West in the 9th Century. The word ‘rosary’ grew from Latin, rosarium meaning a rose garden or rose bed, which later included garlands and strings of roses. Crushed rose petals were moulded into small beads to be dried and polished then threaded on a string, still not uncommon in the East.‘Bead’ is from Old English – gebed, or prayer, each bead counted as a prayer said.
So the Rosary is a garland of praise and a wreath of unity. It became known by a number of names,‘Garden of Our Blessed Lady’, ‘Crown of Mary’ and ‘Our Lady of the Rosary’. In her book 'Smiles of God’ Felicity Leng describes how the Rosary evolved:
Aves became roses as a metaphor. Christ the Word was made flesh as a rose planted by the Divine Gardener in Mary’s womb, a rose garden or new Paradise. Each Ave Maria (made up of five phrases and five petals standing for Maria, being a rose in itself). When saying the Rosary we meditate on this Divine mystery as it echoes and recognises Jesus Christ the Word and Rose planted by God in Mary. Collections of prayers and devotions were known as ‘flower gardens’ or ‘gardens of the soul’, also to describe anthologies of sacred poems and texts. The rosary was approved by Pope Leo X in the 16th Century; the Orthodox Churches use rosaries with varying numbers of beads.
St Thérèse of Lisieux in her 19th Century Carmelite Convent knew well the determination and concentration required to recite her rosary. She had to blend the abstract thought of her meditations with real events of an ineffable mystery with the life of Jesus and Mary. Thérèse was devoted to Mary, but she found the repetition involved with praying the rosary more difficult than wearing an ‘instrument of penance’. When ultimately her body was exhumed the cross of her rosary was still entwined in her fingers.
‘A flower is a smile of God’.For Christmas Day 1894,Thérèse wrote a poem attributed to an angel of the Child Jesus as a theme for a retreat given by Father Lemonnier,second verse begins:
These flowers that we love so, Jesus, I know are your friends, For you come from heavenly meadows, To find your sisters the flowers.
The priest recommended offering Jesus the ‘roses of our love’ for sinners and as a way to share in his sacrifice. Thérèse had used the idea of the soul as a flower as expressed in scripture, devotions and the experiences of some mystics.
When praying the rosary, at the same time recalling its origins and the power of its symbolisms,can help us meditate while we pray. To remember ‘the connection between blood and roses as promises of rebirth after sacrifice'. To also try and go deeper into treasuring each bead of prayer when reflecting on events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, to think about what their lives mean to us today as we proceed through each mystery.
Source: Felicity Leng, 2003, Smiles of God –The Flowers of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Reproduced by kind permission of Continuum International Publishing Group).
NEXT: OUR LADY THE ROSARY & ST DOMINIC (2)
Fr John McCaffery's recent homily at St James' Church, Medjugorje
In my one and only pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I will always remember kneeling at that holy spot, where the carved words in the marble make such an impact: VERBUM CARO HIC FACTUM EST. The Annunciation marks the beginning of our salvation – a powerful mystery to be revered and reflected upon.
In your Rosary mediation of this mystery have you ever imagined the face of the young girl immediately after the Angel Gabriel had left? I should imagine that her face spoke of stunned reverence, awe, wonder, total astonishment. This young girl from Nazareth had just accepted God’s message, and she consented to bear the Messiah, the long awaited Redeemer – a momentous moment for humanity. But she was given no insights, no warnings, no cautions or advice regarding the future. In other words she had to walk in faith, trust in God and grow in His abiding Love. Very soon that faith was to be put to the test: And a sword will pierce your own soul too.
Then there was the loss of Jesus for three days: Why ever were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s House? Following that there was the disaster at the wedding reception: They have no wine. And the reply of Jesus: Woman what concern is that to you or to me? My hour has not yet come. But we glimpse something of Mary’s faith: Do whatever he tells you. That, dear Sisters and Brothers, is the glory and beauty of the life of Mary, Mother of Jesus; and we see it in all its splendour on that terrible day on Calvary, when she watches her Son dying on a Cross in the convulsions of agony.
The life of Our Lady emphasises for us the importance of Faith and how each of us has to walk that path, strengthened and inspired by that gentle voice: Do whatever He tells you.
Earlier this year I had to look back on my 50 years of being a Priest. When I was ordained I was given no blueprint about what life would hold for me and how I was to act. Nothing about Vatican II; no mention of the upheavals in the Church, the loss of many friends and colleagues as they left the Priesthood, the loss of five members of my family in five years, my own lessening of Faith, giving up the Rosary and reduced to simply doing the minimum, just ticking over and no more. But there was the Grace of God and the motherly guidance of Our Lady which helped me to avoid the pitfalls and dangers. Otherwise I could well have taken another path. I can see now how visits to Lourdes, Rue de Bac, Fatima, Guadalupe, Ephesus, Knock and Medjugorje all played a significant role and there was the ever present tug at the sleeve and the warning: Do whatever He tells you.
In reflecting on all this, it is obvious that we walk by Faith. We may ask: what exactly is Faith? To keep it simple, I recall listening to Cardinal Suenens talking at an ecumenical conference. We were still in the aftermath of Vatican II and he mentioned how theology was being explained using big words for the greatest effect. The Cardinal told of the Lord walking along with two modern theologians and He asked them: Who do you say that I am? Looking at Him, they said: Lord you are the fundamental eschatological expression of the ecclesiastical assembly. In reply Jesus said; I’M WHAT???. So to keep it simple - Faith is a meeting with Jesus, and when we really allow ourselves to be with Him all other worries and concerns evaporate because He lifts us and renews our Love.
Come follow me.Come to me all you who labour and are burdened.As the Father love me so I love you, remain in my love.
At present all countries worldwide live in darkened times and we find opposition, hatred, violence, terror and disregard for life. Is it any wonder that Our Lady in her recent message to Mirijana said: As I look at you my heart seizes with pain. But Faith means resisting the brute force of history and its impossibilities. Faith means company and fellowship with Him who has the other kind of power, one that draws us up, that holds us fast, that carries us safely over the elements of death: In the world you face persecution, but take courage, I have conquered the world. And we remember that the Lord spoke these words only hours before His terrible agony and death. United as we now are, we must give thanks for being able to share in a few moments, in the renewal of His Sacrifice on Calvary, in the reception of the Sacraments, in our moments of personal prayer and in our contact with our brothers and sisters, all moments when we are more solidly established in the bond of Christ’s eternal Love.
We have come here from all over the world to pay honour to the Lord, through His Mother Mary, who from this hallowed spot has been reminding us of the Gospel of love, which must form our lives. What better way to end than with the words of the Jesuit priest and poet, Gerald Manley Hopkins:
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine, Find me a place by thee, Mother of mine. In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine, I shall come home to thee, Mother of mine.
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine, Show me Thy Son, Mother, Mother of mine.
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine, I shall worship His wounds with thee, Mother of mine.
Fr John McCaffery ofm
REPORT ON SYLVIA BUSO’S HEALING AT MEDJUGORJE
GIVEN AT THE MEDJUGORE LEADERS CONFERENCE MARCH 4TH 2009
I was a teenager when my body was attacked by a virus, and as a result of this it left me as a helpless paraplegic. I was unable to walk and the only way I could get about and continue my education was in a wheelchair. I was also experiencing cramps/convulsions which were similar to Epilepsy. During this time I was also losing a great deal of weight. My family were Roman Catholic, but as for myself I had only gone to church out of habit – like a lot of today’s teenagers I had not discovered the meaning of a personal meeting with Jesus Christ.
One day my mother took me to a Prayer Group. It was just before Easter. A lady gave me a medal from the Rue de Bac. I was told it was the Miraculous Medal and had also been blessed by our Lady in Medjugorje. As she gave it to me she said ‘ I think that you need this more than I do!”
After Easter, I was able to finish my 3rd grade in High School. My parents decided that it was not enough for them just to attend the Friday Prayer group and Mass on Sundays, and they started going to daily Mass. Eventually, I grew to desire to go to church greatly – although not at first. I passed all my exams and then on the 20th June my doctor told me should would be away for 2 weeks as she was going to a place of pilgrimage called Medjugorje. I asked her if I could go to and she said ‘Only if one of your parents accompanies you because you are under 18 years old and you are also very sick.
Finally everything was arranged for us to go to Medjugorje with an Italian Group that were leaving on the 23rd June. We arrived here on the 24th June which was the day before the Anniversary of Our Lady’s Apparitions here in June 1981. I attended my first Holy Mass in Medjugorje with the Italian Group and then went along to the Conference Hall where the Visionary Ivan was giving a talk. Afterwards we learned that he would be having an Apparition that night on Apparition Hill. I longed to go, but it seemed an impossible dream.
However, some of my friends offered to carry me up there in a chair. I thought that everyone would be looking at me! – so they then offered to carry me up the mountain on their backs. My longing was so great that I readily agreed. In any case, I had lost so much weight that I hoped I would not be too heavy for them,We finally arrived at the top of the mountain around 8.30pm and they found a rock for me to sit on and I started praying.
This time it was a real prayer of the heart. I found myself praying not for my own needs , but for the needs of others. I asked the Lord to make everyone far away from Medjugorje feel better. The Group Leader told me to ask Our Lady for anything – so I asked Her for the strength to survive life in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. At this stage, I did not know what path/career I should follow. At the moment of the Apparition our Group Leader said ‘ She is here now. Please kneel and ask Our Lady for all those requests in your hearts Then, I saw on my left hand side a marvellous white light. It was so beautiful, I just had to look into its brilliance and felt myself bathed in love.
Suddenly the Apparition was over and the Leader was calling the people to come down the mountain. I tried to stand up without even thinking and take a couple of steps. Immediately my balance was gone and I fell down and hit my head on a rock. I felt no pain and the hard rock was as soft as a pillow. I heard a sweet voice in my ear, although I cannot remember the words that penetrated my heart. I only knew as I lay there that I had been completely cured. I opened my eyes and someone held out a hand to pull me up. My legs were very weak because they had been confined to a wheelchair for so long. Nevertheless, my heart was joyful as I began to slow descent down Podbrdo with the help of my group.
Back in our Pilgrim House I tried hard to sleep, but could only lie awake thinking of all the wonderful events that had led to my cure. At 4am in the early morning I rose and wanted to go and give thanks for my healing on the Cross Mountain. I was able to walk up the steep mountain in order to pray and thank Jesus who had healed me just as he had healed the paraplegic who was lowered through the roof whilst still on his bed. My friends told me afterwards that I had only taken approximately 20 minutes to come down Cross Mountain. I am not normally very outspoken, in fact my family tell me that they consider me to be a very shy person. However, I met with Fra Lubjo and he blessed me and I received the power to speak out and tell everyone about my experience. PRAISE BE JESUS AND MARY NOW AND FOREVER.
Pope Bendict XVI and the contemplative power of the Rosary
Some people say they have difficulty with the Rosary because it is so repetitive and their attention wanders. Pope Benedict recently spoke about the power of the Rosary which many have still to discover, by overlooking the deeper potential of what the Rosary offers in the development of their spiritual life.
He recently spoke about the potential for contemplative prayer when reciting the Rosary. He explained that the repetition of the Hail Mary does not disturb interior silence; rather it requires it and feeds it. He made comparisons with the reciting of Psalms, and when we pray the Liturgy of the Hours, saying that silence blooms through words and phrases, not like emptiness, but like a presence of ultimate sense that transcends words themselves and with them, speaks to the Heart. The Pope urges us to be careful to ensure that our voices do not cover that of God, who always speaks through silence, like the murmur of a light breeze (1 Kings 19,12).
The Pope also stressed the importance of taking care of this silence full of God in both personal and community recitation. He repeated the necessity for the Rosary to be understood as a contemplative prayer, and can only come about when there is a climate of inner silence; that the Rosary is a spiritual bond to remain united with Jesus, to become like Him, to be like his feelings and behave like He behaved. The Rosary is a spiritual weapon in the fight against evil, against all violence, for peace in hearts, in families, in society and in the world. ( Given at Pompei, 19 October 2008, with thanks to the Echo of Mary Queen of Peace newsletter Jan-Feb 2009, Mantova Italy, issue no 203).
Our Lady of Medjugorje - Her School of Love
Our Lady continually emphasizes the need for prayer which helps us to grow in our capacity to love our brothers and sisters, meaning all those we encounter in our lives, which Jesus taught us to do with the second commandment.
A contemporary meditation on the power of love is expressed in this reflection:
Lord Jesus, we are living in times in which efficiency, planning and tangible results are exalted. This is not the logic of your gospel and for this we give you thanks! we remain in our furrow, we soak in silence, we mature in concealment, certain that this is the only efficient pathway that produces and continues to create a surprising dynamism of love !
Brother Michael Davide (Echo of Mary, Queen of Peace January to February 2009. Issue No 203)
Medjugorje as a spiritual compass in troubled times
Dudley Plunkett
Marian apparitions of the twentieth century
The Fatima apparitions in 1917 occurred against the backdrop of the First World War and the brewing Communist revolution in Russia. The full extent of the threat to a still relatively stable western world only became apparent with the moral, political and economic chaos of the ensuing years. It was a very different world by the time of the Garabandal apparitions (1961-65): the moral revolution of the 60s, the collapse of authority in society and in the Church with the way in which the second Vatican Council was widely interpreted, and post-Second World War materialism and consumerism that made the things of this world seem so enchanting.
The state of the world radically changed yet again in the years since the first apparitions in Medjugorje (1981). We can see with the eyes of faith how secular society has laid the axe to the very roots of western civilisation, and yet beyond religious groups there is little awareness of this. For example, it has become a premise of secular society and especially of the media that everyone is entitled to live a full sexual life in whatever way they wish without any intervening morality; there is disunity in the Church and increasingly harsh criticism of the Pope and of other religious leaders and religious values. The Marian apparitions have thus attested the coherence of the Faith in the context of a progressively crumbling secular world.
This is not to deny that we are able to search out the truth by other means, including by humble obedience to the Church, by taking thought, again humbly and in faith, following the saints, imitating Jesus, or praying to the Holy Spirit. But the facts speak for themselves. Many people, even those far from faith, have found that Medjugorje has brought them suddenly into the light. They could see where they were going or needed to go. They no longer wanted to rebel at each step against the Church. They saw the importance of being in sincere and regular prayer. They did not become fanatics of Marian devotion, because that was not what God wanted or what Our Lady expected. They turned to the Mass, confession, self-denial (fasting, moderation of language, use of TV, etc.), and to works of peace and mercy. These are the fruits by which we can know the value of Medjugorje for the Church and for the world today.
Have we been losing momentum?
These fruits are still appearing in many societies, but perhaps we need to come back to basic principles and see where we may have been losing momentum, forgetting what we were told, slipping into more relaxed ways, just at the time when we were needed as intercessors, witnesses or apostles. Indeed, there are those who have become bored by the claimed repetitiveness of the Medjugorje messages, the apparent failure of the prophecies made to be realised, the monotony experienced in the discipline of unceasing prayer. Others have been cowed by the objectors, the critics, those in the Church who forcefully reject Medjugorje and all it represents, calling it conservative, fundamentalist, superstitious, and so forth. As a result many who were once convinced, and even ardent disciples, have turned away, just like those who could not maintain their faithfulness to Jesus, and no longer walked with him. It was Peter who gave them the lie: Do you too wish to go away? Jesus asked his apostles. Lord, where shall we go? said Peter. You have the message of eternal life.
Yet, it is a tragic fact that the response to the various apparitions of Our Lady cited above, though they bore the message of the Gospel, has often followed the pattern of initial enthusiasm and gradual decline, partly indeed because the Church has delayed its official response to the apparitions and their messages. After the Fatima apparitions it took the Church thirteen years to give its recognition. The response to Garabandal has been even slower. Study of the testimony of the visionaries and of many witnesses to the events make it difficult to see how they are not worthy of belief, or at least a much closer scrutiny than they have so far received.
Our Lady’s persistence
Yet the messages of these apparitions stand, with their emphasis on the Eucharist, on penance and conversion, and on prayer, especially the rosary. There is the Garabandal prophecy of the ‘warning’, to be followed by a visible miracle. There is the shadow of prophesied chastisements if people do not change. And there is the declaration that the Church is being divided by opposed teachings, something that no one today could deny. If, in the convergence of their messages, we see Garabandal and Medjugorje as the continuation of Fatima we ought to acknowledge that Our Lady is being persistent, and that we are truly called to respond to her pleas for conversion, prayer and intercession, Eucharistic devotion, and bringing others to faith. In spite of the growing spiritual disaster all around us, we have also to acknowledge that we have been slow to make a response. Medjugorje offered us a touchstone of orthodoxy, a compass to plot our way, which has been available to everyone.
I personally wonder where I would be now without the kind of guarantee of authenticity that Medjugorje has given to my life and activities, with all the dissent, factionalism, aggressive secularism and moral drift of the last 25 years. Many Catholics, lacking the sense of the unique wholeness of the Faith, seem content with a cafeteria approach to religious faith and practice. Is it not clear that Medjugorje was meant to give us a more coherent vision?
Any response must surely come in the first place from those who have known the experience and inspiration of these holy places. The message of Our Lady is exactly that of the Gospel and the New Testament writings:
Do not be conformed to the world where you live, but rather be transformed through the renewal of your mind. You must discern the will of God, what is good, what pleases, what is perfect. (Rom 12:1-2)
If we are seeking to follow the guidance of Scripture we have the encouragement that is being offered by the Medjugorje messages. If earlier apparitions represented a warning of chastisement and a summons to penance and purer worship, then at Medjugorje Our Lady clearly indicates the ways we can make our response: conversion from worldliness, prayer, devotion to the Mass and holy communion, fasting in a variety of ways, working to serve others, giving witness to Gospel truths and values, and in every possible way seeking to lead holier lives.
Our Lady’s Mission to the World through Medjugorje
by Mgr George Tutto
In recent months critical articles were published in some secular and Catholic papers against the claimed apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje, based mainly on the various statements against the apparitions by Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno and on the suspension of Fr Tomislav Vlasic by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Bishop Peric is interpreting the interim declaration of the bishops of former Yugoslavia, made at Zadar on April 10th 1991, as a final statement by the bishops against the supernatural character of the claimed apparitions of Our Lady. This prompted Mgr Gilbert Aubry, Bishop of Saint Denis de la Reunion, to write a letter on 1st January 1998 to Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, asking him for clarification regarding the views of Bishop Peric on the claimed apparitions and pilgrimages to Medjugorje. In his reply, dated 26th May 1998, Archbishop Bertone stated the following: The bishop of Mostar has the right to express his personal conviction, but it is and remain his personal opinion. As regards pilgrimages to Medjugorje, which are conducted privately, this Congregation points out that they are permitted on condition that they are not regarded as an authentification of events still taking place and which still call for an examination by the Church.
The statement by Archbishop Bertone is confirmed also by the Canon Law of the Church: Can.1232 para. 1: The local Ordinary is competent to approve the statutes of a diocesan shrine; the Episcopal conference, those of a national shrine; the Holy See alone those of an international shrine. Medjugorje is an international shrine since many bishops, thousands of priests and millions of the faithful from all over the world are making pilgrimages to Medjugorje.
Regarding Fr Vlasic, he was not even in Medjugorje when the apparitions of Our Lady started in June 1981. He was sent there by his superiors in September 1981 when the parish priest, Fr Jozo Zovko, was arrested and imprisoned by the Communist authorities who also persecuted the visionaries. Fr Vlasic was transferred to Vitina in 1985, and in 1988 he left for Italy where in 1992 he joined the Italian Franciscan Province of Abruzzo.
The other points of objection by the opponents of Medjugorje are the long duration of the claimed apparitions and the many thousands of messages from Our Lady. Such objections are based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the apparitions which I shall clarify in the following paragraphs.
Our Lady foretold at La Salette (1846) that the countries of Europe will be the scene of wars and conflicts, but she also spoke of the apostles of the last times, the children of light bringing light into a dark world. Similarly, Our Lady of Fatima (1917) spoke about future terrible events, but she foretold that ultimately my Immaculate Heart will triumph. Our Lady of Medjugorje is preparing her willing children to be the apostles of the last times to help her Immaculate Heart to triumph to save the world. In her messages, Our Lady has often said that God sent her on this mission, a unique phenomenon in the history of the Church. First, Our Lady started to train the visionaries and the prayer group of young people for the first three years in the spiritual life, then the parish of Medjugorje through her Thursday messages through Marija Pavlovic for three years, from 1st March 1984 to 8th January 1987, 150 weeks, so that this parish could become an example to all parishes in the world. Then, on 25th January 1987, she started her monthly messages, again through Marija Pavlovic, for all the faithful people of the world that they might become the reflection of Jesus bringing light into our sinful world walking in darkness, as she told us on 5th June 1986:
Dear Children, Today I am calling you to decide if you wish to live the messages I am giving you. I wish you to be active in living and transmitting the messages. Especially, dear children, I desire you to be the reflections of Jesus, who enlightens an unfaithful world which is walking in darkness. I wish that all of you may be a light to all and witness to the light. Dear children, you are not called to darkness. You are called to light and to live the light in your lives. Thank you for your response to my call.
Our Lady came into our world as Queen of Peace, because she wants to bring peace and reconciliation to the whole world as she stated in her very first message on 26th June 1981:
I have come because there are many true believers here. I wish to be with you to convert and to reconicile the whole world. Peace, peace, peace! Be reconciled! Only peace. Make your pece with God and among yourselves. For this, it is necessary to believe, to pray, to fast and to go to confession.
Keeping in mind her promise made at Fatima, Our Lady urged us all to help her in a message given at the beginning of the Balkan war, on 25th August 1991:
Dear Children, Today, again, I call 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.
Not many people realise that Our Lady’s mission to save the world is happening according to the teaching of the Church expressed at the Second Vatican Council in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, Chapter 8, about the role of Our Lady in the life of the Church. It is clearly stated that she is the Mother, the Teacher and the Model of the church. I quote just one sentence: The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren (Romans 8:29), namely the faithful, in whose birth and education she cooperates with a maternal love. (no. 63)
Pope Paul VI, in his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, gives a clear interpretation of the above text: Mary is not only an example for the whole Church in the exercise of divine worship but is also, clearly, a teacher of the spiritual life for individual Christians. The faithful at a very early date began to look to Mary and to imitate her in making their lives an act of worship of God and making their worship a commitment of their lives. (no. 21)
Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater, treats this subject at length, especially in the third part, Maternal Mediation, under the heading 'Mary in the life of the Church and of every Christian'. He emphasises the above quotations: Mary is not only the model and figure of the Church, she is much more. With maternal love she cooperates in the birth and education of the sons and daughters of Mother Church. (no. 44)
Our Lady’s apparitions and messages do not add new revelation to what we have already received from Jesus through his apostles. In the Old Testament, God revealed his laws for his people through Moses, but he had to send many prophets as well to urge his people to live by his laws and not to turn to pagan gods. In the New covenant, the Church, God sends his mother, the Queen of Prophets, as Mother, Teacher and Model to all his children, to teach them how to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Education, teaching and guiding in the spiritual life by Our Lady cannot be completed in a few messages as was the case in previous apparitions of Our Lady. I repeat what I stated before. The apparitions and messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje are a unique phenomenon in the history of the Church. The emphasis should not be on pilgrimage to Medjugorje, praiseworthy as this is, so much as on living Our Lady’s messages as she asked us to do so many times. Only by living her messages on holiness of life can we become her effective helpers and instruments in her hands for the salvation of the world.
It should be noted that in Our Lady’s teaching for the spiritual life her messages are following a recognisable structure: in the Thursday messages every phase of ten weeks and in the monthly messages every year has its own objective, thus building up our holiness of life step by step.
We should be grateful to God for sending Our Lady, the Queen of Peace, to teach us to live the Gospel and so to become helpers in her Immaculate Heart’s triumph over the power of Satan to save the world.
Lastly, I subject myself to the final decision of the Church regarding Medjugorje, but in the meantime, following my conscience, I believe in the injunction of St Paul: Do not stifle the Spirit, or treat the gift of prophecy with contempt; test everything and hold on to what is good and shun every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5: 19-22)
Note:
The Thursday messages, together with spiritual exercises and scripture passages for every day for three years (Living the Gospel with Our Lady) can be found at www.manchestermedjugorjecentre.org, and reflections on the monthly messages at www.medugorje.org.uk
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.
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.
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.
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).
