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| All messages are taken from the official Medjugorje website www.medjugorje.hr Message, 25th December 2009 “Dear children! On this joyful day, I bring all of you before my Son, the King of Peace, that He may give you His peace and blessing. Little children, in love share that peace and blessing with others. Thank you for having responded to my call.” ANNUAL APPARITION TO JAKOV ON DECEMBER 25TH 2009 At the last daily apparition to Jakov Colo on September 12th, 1998, Our Lady told him that henceforth he would have one apparition a year, every December 25th, on Christmas Day. This is also how it was this year. The apparition began at 14:35 am and lasted 12 minutes. Our Lady gave the following message: “Dear children! All of this time in which God in a special way permits me to be with you, I desire to lead you on the way that leads to Jesus and to your salvation. My little children, you can find salvation only in God and therefore, especially on this day of grace with little Jesus in my arms, I call you to permit Jesus to be born in your hearts. Only with Jesus in your heart can you set out on the way of salvation and eternal life. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of November 25th 2009 “Dear children! In this time of grace I call you all to renew prayer in your families. Prepare yourselves with joy for the coming of Jesus. Little children, may your hearts be pure and pleasing, so that love and warmth may flow through you into every heart that is far from His love. Little children, be my extended hands, hands of love for all those who have become lost, who have no more faith and hope. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of October 25th 2009 “Dear children! Also today I bring you my blessing, I bless you all and I call you to grow on this way, which God has begun through me for your salvation. Pray, fast and joyfully witness your faith, little children, and may your heart always be filled with prayer. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of September 25th 2009 “Dear children, with joy, persistently work on your conversion. Offer all your joys and sorrows to my Immaculate Heart that I may lead you all to my most beloved Son, so that you may find joy in His Heart. I am with you to instruct you and to lead you towards eternity. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of August 25th 2009 “Dear children! Today I call you anew to conversion. Little children, you are not holy enough and you do not radiate holiness to others, therefore pray, pray, pray and work on your personal conversion, so that you may be a sign of God’s love to others. I am with you and am leading you towards eternity, for which every heart must yearn. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of July 25th 2009 “Dear children! May this time be a time of prayer for you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of June 25th 2009 “Dear children! Rejoice with me, convert in joy and give thanks to God for the gift of my presence among you. Pray that, in your hearts, God may be in the center of your life and with your life witness, little children, so that every creature may feel God’s love. Be my extended hands for every creature, so that it may draw closer to the God of love. I bless you with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of May 25th 2009 “Dear children! In this time, I call you all to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon every baptized creature, so that the Holy Spirit may renew you all and lead you on the way of witnessing your faith – you and all those who are far from God and His love. I am with you and intercede for you before the Most High. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of April 25th 2009 “Dear children! Today I call you all to pray for peace and to witness it in your families so that peace may become the highest treasure on this peaceless earth. I am your Queen of Peace and your mother. I desire to lead you on the way of peace, which comes only from God. Therefore, pray, pray, pray. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of March 25th 2009 “Dear children! In this time of spring, when everything is awakening from the winter sleep, you also awaken your souls with prayer so that they may be ready to receive the light of the risen Jesus. Little children, may He draw you closer to His Heart so that you may become open to eternal life. I pray for you and intercede before the Most High for your sincere conversion. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Our Lady’s annual apparition to Mirjana - March 18th, 2009 The visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo had daily apparitions from June 24th 1981 to December 25th 1982. During the last daily apparition, Our Lady gave her the 10th secret, and told her that she would appear to her once a year, on the 18th of March. It has been this way through the years. Several thousand pilgrims gathered in prayer of the Rosary at the 'Blue Cross'. The apparition lasted from 13:52 to 13:58. Dear children! Today I call you to look into your hearts sincerely and for a long time. What will you see in them? Where is my Son in them and where is the desire to follow me to Him? My children, may this time of renunciation be a time when you will ask yourself: 'What does my God desire of me personally? What am I to do?' Pray, fast and have a heart full of mercy. Do not forget your shepherds. Pray that they may not get lost, that they may remain in my Son so as to be good shepherds to their flock. Our Lady looked at all those present and added: Again I say to you, if you knew how much I love you, you would cry with happiness. Thank you. Message of February 25th 2009 “Dear children! In this time of renunciation, prayer and penance, I call you anew: go and confess your sins so that grace may open your hearts, and permit it to change you. Convert little children, open yourselves to God and to His plan for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of January 25th 2009 “Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May prayer be for you like the seed that you will put in my heart, which I will give over to my Son Jesus for you, for the salvation of your souls. I desire, little children, for each of you to fall in love with eternal life which is your future, and for all worldly things to be a help for you to draw you closer to God the Creator. I am with you for this long because you are on the wrong path. Only with my help, little children, you will open your eyes. There are many of those who, by living my messages, comprehend that they are on the way of holiness towards eternity. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of December 25th 2008 “Dear children! You are running, working, gathering – but without blessing. You are not praying! Today I call you to stop in front of the manger and to meditate on Jesus, Whom I give to you today also, to bless you and to help you to comprehend that, without Him, you have no future. Therefore, little children, surrender your lives into the hands of Jesus, for Him to lead you and protect you from every evil. Thank you for having responded to my call.” |
I am here with a group of pilgrims from many different parts of Ireland, but we are all pilgrims. We are all brothers and sisters here. We are all Mary’s children, and thank God for that. I’ve jotted down a few thoughts that were coming to me during the week. There is an old custom, and an effort is being made to revive it in this present time, and it’s the custom of saying the Three Hail Mary’s. And if you go back in Ireland, and I’m sure other countries, maybe 20 years ago, when you went to confession, unless you had something very bad to tell, the priest would usually let you get away with three Hail Mary’s for penance. At home when we were maybe in need or trying to do something, our parents or somebody else would say to us, say three Hail Mary’s. And there is an effort being made now to revive that. I feel that it’s something worth considering and it's not to replace our regular prayer, it’s to increase the prayer that’s already there and to enhance it. Simply before or during the day when you find things difficult, stop for a moment and say the three Hail Mary’s, and that will lead you into more prayer. You might say, well three Hail Mary’s, what can that do? Very early here, Our Lady reminded us that even one Hail Mary is a great consolation to Her. We will never know how much good Our Blessed Mother can do with one Hail Mary that we would say, one prayer, well said. It can be the start of a great grace or great blessing. It’s like the young man who had the few loaves and fishes. He was keeping them for himself, for his own use, but when he gave them to the Lord, the Lord blessed them and multiplied them and it became the great miracle of the loaves and fishes. The little we have, when we give it to the Almighty, can become something very special, very great indeed. It reminds me of a lovely, little humorous story of St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, who was once asked why he became a priest. So he said, “I was reading the Scripture, in the Bible, where God through Samson, that Samson, with God’s hand, slew several thousand Philistines with a jawbone of an ass. So I thought to myself if God can do that with a jawbone of an ass, how much more would he be able to do with a whole ass.” So, he decided to become a priest and a very good priest he was. He was put away into a small place, in Ars in France and he transformed it with very little, simple efforts of prayer, kindness and devotion to the Mass and the Sacraments. And maybe it’s something that we can do as well. What’s happening here in this Church of St. James is something out of this world. And we all are feeling uplifted during the Mass, the Adoration is an experience not to be missed. St. James Church October 9, 2006. As the seasons change in Medjugorje, night time falls earlier, and the last fading light of the sunset casts its glow upon the Church of St. James, the Patron Saint of Pilgrims. For over 25 years pilgrims have gathered within and outside this church. Everyday of these 25 years it has been filled with the praise and worship of believers around the world. The confessions outside are another great blessing. And we all think, “Oh, if we could only take this home, wouldn’t it be great. If there was something like this in our own churches on Saturday evenings or Sunday mornings wouldn’t we uplift people?” How do we do it we wonder? I feel that the way we might be able to do it is just to move out from here. What I feel is happening here is because of what is happening outside around the village in the fields. People like ourselves unashamedly praying, carrying their Rosary beads. There’s nothing different in what is happening here (in St. James Church) and outside of here (in the village streets and fields). Of course when we go back to our parishes there is the church. We have our churches, we have our faith but when we leave our churches we seem to leave everything else as well, including God. And we’ve drifted away a little bit in our prayer and as we fall off in prayer, we fall away from God. We have distanced ourselves from God. Our problems have become big because our God has become small. So we need to once again to begin to take the Mass and what is happening in our churches, out into our daily life. I’m very impressed by people moving among the streets and fields praying in groups. I’m particularly impressed with our young people, turning their Rosary beads and unashamedly being part of all of the spiritual exercises. I’d like to say to all of us when we go back home, let’s not be ashamed of carrying the Rosary beads and let them be seen. There’s nothing wrong going inside a church to visit the Blessed Sacrament, to light a candle, to say a prayer. Pope Paul VI said people will be more impressed by witness than anything else. And take the late great Pope John Paul II. Was there anyone in the last 50 years that stood out more than he did? Why? Because first of all he was a man of prayer with a deep devotion to Our Blessed Mother. Remember the last time he was in Lourdes, down at the grotto, crippled with pain. When the prayers were finished he asked his helpers, his aides, to take him out of his wheelchair and he was stooped over to one side. They said, “Your Holiness, you won’t be able to do it.” He said, no I want to do it. And they placed him on the kneeler and he spent a considerable amount of time in prayer to the Blessed Mother. What prayer he said, we will never know. He knew that this would be his last time. When he got up he turned to the people who were in wheelchairs, and to people who were suffering a great deal. He said, “I’m here as one of you. Walk with Mary.” And that’s the point of being here in Medjugorje. We’re walking with Mary and we need to do it when we go back home also. Our own Rosary priest from Ireland, Fr. Peyton, coined the phrase, “the family that prays together, stays together.” Who could not be impressed by Vicka yesterday morning in particular her prayer, her deep prayer, her reverence in prayer, her life in prayer. And this morning we got another beautiful message from Jakov. And one of the very first things he said was the graces of Medjugorje are not just for Medjugorje. They’re for all of us and all our parishes and that should help us go home feeling we’re not alone in trying to bring this message of Our Blessed Mother to a hungry world. This should be a very precious item for all of us. Have your Rosary beads in your possession. It will protect us. But it’s no good just having it on us. We need to be using it. And when we start using our Rosary beads, in our hands it is the Blessed Mother’s hand in our hand. And just try to remember that as we pray. As we pray the Rosary, Our Lady is praying with us. She is holding our hands as we hold the Rosary beads. When we start to pray like that we will then be led into Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and Mass. We won’t just be bumping into Jesus, we will be letting him touch us and when we let Jesus touch us, our lives will be transformed and then people will begin to see Jesus living in us and our faith will come alive in church and out of church. |
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| Monthly Messages from Our Lady, plus Homilys and Interviews about Medjugorje |
| Medjugorjepilgrim.com |
I will take Our Lady with me! An interview by Francesco Cavagna with Fr. Ljubo Kurtović first published in Echo of Mary. Fr Ljubo recently left Medjugorje to take up a new appointment in Zagreb as Master of the Seminarians. • Fr Ljubo, I’d like to sum up your experience at Medjugorje over these past seven years. Let’s start from the beginning. How did you feel when you were told you’d be coming here? I was a young priest, ordained four years previously. The parish priest then was Fr. Pervan, and when I was told I’d be coming here as a spiritual assistant it frightened me a little. Being newly ordained it came as a challenge. I’d thus far come to Medjugorje as a pilgrim, and it was here that I decided to become a monk; after that I came here a few times also to help with the confessions. It is totally different to come here every now and again, and to live here. To live here is like an immersion; you live Mary’s presence in your heart. • And were you enthusiastic about it? I didn’t feel enthusiasm, because it’s very difficult for me to get enthusiastic about anything. It took me some time to get used to. At first there was Fr Slavko, and it was only after he had died that we came to realize how much he did. We had to cover his responsibilities. I got the part of translating and interpreting the message of the 25th of the month, and the various seminars which he used to hold. Of course, I had to “throw myself in” and manage. We have a proverb that says that a donkey can’t swim, but if it is thrown into the water it will learn. So I had to learn how to swim. • During these seven years have many things at Medjugorje changed? For better or for worse? Would you say the spiritual level of pilgrims has risen? Everyone says that the first two or three years here was like being in Paradise. Then there was a lot of enthusiasm, but to remain enthusiastic for 26 years isn’t realistic. Even these phases of enthusiasm need filtering. However, there are many who have remained on the journey with Mary and try to live according to her indications. To speak of quality is a bit difficult. I think it is necessary to leave aside the enthusiasm and allow the roots to take hold so that he who has truly decided to follow the Lord may persevere and learn to suffer and remain faithful to Mary’s messages. We are all on a journey or quest, and it isn’t possible to see what the future holds for us. It is enough that we can see which is the next step to take and to proceed with trust, knowing that the Lord guides everything, and will turn all into good. • What is Mary’s aim? Where is she leading us with these apparitions? Mary herself said: “The most important message I have given you is the call to conversion” which is, after all, an evangelical call. So, her desire is to bring to our attention the truth of the Gospel. She surely wouldn’t have appeared if everything was proceeding well - in the Church and the world. Mary, who is Mother, comes, speaks, advises, and calls us, as mothers do. • Twenty-six years, and that which has been announced has not been fulfilled... There is man’s time and God’s time. For God a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a single day. Twenty six years are many, and yet they are few. Three years after the first apparition the visionaries asked why Our Lady had been with them for so long, and she asked if we were already tired. Weariness may come because her love and messages are demanding, but she does this for our own good; she came to make us happy, not unhappy. God and Our Lady have never promised us Paradise on the earth; here we are on a journey. • After your experience here, do you think you’ve changed within? What have you received; what have you learned? Being amongst pilgrims and their needs is for us priests (a way of) formation and learning, because in one way or another we also receive. Inevitably, we influence each other. I’ve understood there are still many steps for me to take. I have never experienced sudden conversions; neither have I fallen from my horse in the manner of St. Paul. In me everything has proceeded along gradually. I need only journey along. • Apart from your experience with the pilgrims, what has influenced you? Living here has made me ever more convinced of Our Lady’s presence. Humanly speaking, it would be easier not to live here, because this is a particular kind of parish. Besides the graces, there are also many crosses and much suffering; and these can help strengthen a person’s faith, because it is when we suffer that we learn to pray, and if you decide to suffer with God, then your faith is purified. • What difficulties do you priests encounter here at Medjugorje? Many people come here and with them they bring different problems and suffering, and also their “spirits” are different. It takes a good deal of discernment, and wisdom, love and patience, and strength, to be able to respond – as priests - to all these needs. • You lead the Adoration before thousands of people. Is it demanding? It is difficult and demanding, but also very beautiful, because the strength comes from grace. During the prayer of adoration I speak mostly to myself – as a way of introducing the people into a relationship with God. Having a relationship with Jesus myself helps me lead others to Him. Before I came here I had had some experience, only there weren’t as many people. As soon as I arrived I began to listen to how Fr. Slavko prayed. We always learn from others. I have learned much from various people. • You are not particularly effusive; you often seek silence and avoid people. Yet it seems that pilgrims seek your company precisely for this. Do you have a word for them? There’s a fundamental difference to understand. Do they seek me or Jesus? If it is me, then I am happy to keep on escaping, because I wouldn’t give anything if it were just me. Here there is a battle being fought; here is the true journey towards Christ. I can say that many are those who seek Jesus. • Do you think the Youth Festival is an important event for Medjugorje? Yes, certainly. It was all started by Fr. Slavko, a man of great courage and faith who grew at Mary’s school. He had the courage to begin everything with a small group of maybe not even 30 people, and from this seed grew a great tree. At present more than 30,000 people attend. Of course, this is no merit of mine. • What would you like to say to all the young people that will read this interview? The same that Mary says: “Dear Children, open your hearts; surrender to Jesus; consecrate yourselves to my Heart, and do not fear, for I am with you.” You too are with her. Persevere along this journey, even when it is difficult. • Do you think your transfer to another convent far from Medjugorje will be a step forward in your journey? In my heart I will never leave Medjugorje. I can go bodily, but my roots are here, even if the branches are elsewhere. Here at Medjugorje I have tasted the beauty of my priesthood and I’ve seen how much people need priests, or rather, they need Jesus through the priests. • So do you read the will of God in this transfer? Do you think it will be beneficial for your soul? I don’t know how it will be, but I think it will be beneficial. One needs to be at a certain distance from God to be able to see Him. Being too close can impede the vision. • After these years here, which event has impressed you the most? Not a specific event; it’s more a case of saying that each event has been very precious. It is in seeing how God works in souls that gives the most satisfaction: you know, seeing how people leave here full of happiness and hope. This gives you the enthusiasm and increased strength to persevere in doing God’s will. This image of the people who come here to seek God and leave here happy and interiorly renewed will accompany me. I think this is the most beautiful thing; in reality this is Medjugorje. • You will have to leave this reality and go forth, but Our Lady works everywhere! I will not be leaving Our Lady behind; I will take her with me! I always tell pilgrims not to leave Our Lady behind. We can take her in our heart by doing precisely what she has been asking us to do for the past 26 years. This is the best way to be always with her, and through her, with Jesus. |
| In Medjugorje, 'People are turning to God' by Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Source: St. Paul -Minneapolis archdiocesan newspaper, The Spirit, October 19, 2006 Some years ago when I was first a bishop in Louisiana, it must have been 1988, I was making my first "ad limina" visit to the Holy Father in Rome. The other bishops of Louisiana were with me and, as what the custom of John Paul II, we were invited in to enjoy a lunch with him. There were eight of us at the table with him. Soup was being served. Bishop Stanley Ott of Baton Rouge, La., who has since gone to God, asked the Holy Father: "Holy Father, what do you think of Medjugorje?" The Holy Father kept eating his soup and responded: "Medjugorje? Medjugorje? Medjugorje? Only good things are happening at Medjugorje. People are praying there. People are going to Confession. People are adoring the Eucharist, and people are turning to God. And, only good things seem to be happening at Medjugorje." That seemed to have ended the discussion and we went on to another topic. But, I will long remember the very skillfully cautious response of our Holy Father. A Pilgrimage Adventure Just two weeks ago, I had an opportunity to visit Medjugorje. We flew from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, from Amsterdam to Prague and from Prague to Split in Croatia. We remained in Croatia for two evenings before we traveled up the mountain to Medjugorje in Bosnia along the Adriatic Sea. It is quite an adventure in arriving in this little mountain village which has apparently become famous because of the alleged apparitions that take place there. The drive from Split into Medjugorje is a beautiful one, indeed. The road snakes around the Adriatic Sea and up the mountain. At times it might seem a bit perilous but the beauty if overwhelmingly inviting. We arrived in the village on a Friday afternoon. There were 30,000 to 40,000 pilgrims there for the weekend. I was quite impressed with them all. They were from all over the world -- countries throughout Europe, the United States, Ireland, Canada and the Philippines. Italy was well represented also. On Saturday morning we heard one of the visionaries speak and I must say that everything that he said was very solid. Someone in the audience asked him a question about "Communion in the hand." His answer was very direct and very simple. "DO what the church permits you to do. You will always be safe." The great moment, for me, was the hearing of confessions every afternoon from 5 p.m. until 10 or 10:30 p.m. There were 46 priests hearing confessions in various languages. What a great grace that is onto itself: "People turning toward God." I just walked and around and looked at the lines. There were 26 confessional stations in which there was a priest and then 20 more priests hearing confessions in temporary stations. This happened also on Sunday afternoon from 5 p.m. until about 8:30 p.m. I heard confessions in English, and it was a great grace for me and a wonderful experience. The Chapel of Adoration was most edifying. People came in quietly to adore the Eucharistic Lord and to pray. Everything seemed to have been so orderly and quiet, as were the groups of people in the streets and on the hills saying their Rosary and praying. I celebrated the noon Mass on Sunday in English. The church was packed to overflowing. There are pews outside on all three sides of the church in which people can hear the Mass but they cannot see it. Once again the faith of so many people touched me deeply. A Yearning Within This past week we celebrated the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch. In his letter to the Romans, Ignatius wrote: "Within me is the living water which says deep inside me: 'Come to the Father.' There is something of that yearning in all of those pilgrims who visited Medjugorje. Somehow there is something deep within them which keeps crying out, "Come to the Father." They do this through devotion. They do it through their love for Mary. They do it through their love for Jesus Christ. "Come to the Father" is deep within each one of us. ...All in all, after the journey to Medjugorje, I keep pondering the words of John Paul II as he was eating his soup on that day sometime in 1988: "Medjugorje? Medjugorje? Medjugorje? Only good things seem to be happening at Medjugorje. People are turning to God." |
| From the pulpit of St. James Church, Medjugorje Homily by an Irish Priest October 7th, 2006 |
| In Medjugorje, 'People are turning to God' |
