Even though the happenings in Medjugorje had been occurring for 14 years, I only had a vague idea what they were. Upon reading the in-depth interviews that Janice Connell conducted with the six visionaries of Medjugorje, I couldn't help but believe what they told her was true.
They told her the Blessed Virgin Mary says, "Hurry and be converted. Do not wait. The time is now."
It was impossible for me to read these years of Our Lady's messages and not be struck by their simplicity, patience, and love. She always called or invited us to conversion, she never commanded us. She allowed us our free will to make a choice.
So what would my choice be? I was faced with a dilemma. I believed in the validity of the messages that the visionaries said they were given, but should I follow them?
These messages contained the example Jesus gave us in the Gospels: prayer, fasting, conversion, penance, and a firm faith.
Although, I was born a Catholic, I had drifted away from the Church after leaving high school, entering the Army, and later college. I not only drifted away from the Church, I drifted away from God, and for 20 years I thought I could live my life without Him.
Now I was experiencing something new. I was being given a choice, a decision that only I could make, and that was to start living God's will, instead of my own.
So, for several weeks I thought about this and then one day I decided to go to the Bible for some guidance. It had been a long time since I had last opened up the Word of God. Not knowing where to begin, I did something I had never done before or since. I closed my eyes, opened up the Bible, and planted my finger down on one of the pages. I opened my eyes and looked at the verse where my finger rested. It was John 20:27, "Then He said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.'"
I got the message, to say the least.
Shortly after that, the federal government shut down and I was off work for a week. During that time I contacted the local Catholic Church and went to confession, and started attending Mass and saying the Rosary.
I also called a local Catholic bookstore to find out about travel to Medjugorje. The manager of the bookstore said, "Just a minute, my daughter just returned from Medjugorje yesterday. She's standing right here." So I got the name and telephone number of who to contact and, shortly after, paid the down payment for a 15th Anniversary trip in June,1996.
I had no idea how I would come up with the remaining balance. Being married with one child, a house to pay for and only one income, I was living pretty much from paycheck to paycheck. But soon the federal government shut down for another two weeks in December, and I ended up working 100 hours of overtime over the next three months to reduce the backlog of work. The amount of overtime pay I received just covered the balance due for my trip.
The trip to Medjugorje lasted ten days, and our group of pilgrims did what most groups do as shown in the photographs in my photo gallery on this homepage. But there is one thing I would like to mention. While attending the evening Croatian Mass, which was held outdoors, on June 24, 1996, I and thousands of others were witness to a solar phenomena. This was the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist and the 15th anniversary of when Our Lady first appeared in Medjugorje.
The sky had been cloudy during the entire day except for the far western sky, which was cloudless and blue. I don't believe the sun had shown that day prior to the Croatian Mass at 7:00 pm. Father Jozo gave the homily and during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the sun appeared for the first time in the cloudless part of the western sky. It seemed unusually large and appeared to be almost totally covered with a white disc which was oscillating. Around the edges of this disc was a rim of bright sunlight. Unlike a normal sun at that hour on June 24, this did not cause me to squint to look at it, and I was not wearing sunglasses. Many other people were also looking and some were pointing. No one appeared excited, but many were touched, including myself.
After going to communion and receiving the Host, I knelt beneath a small tree. During this time I could feel the peace and love of God fill my heart, and I gave thanks as the tears ran down my cheeks.
Michael Sepal
An old friend, whom I hadn't seen in years asked me if I ever heard of Medjugorje. He gave me a book called Medjugorje by Wayne Weible. I did not put that book down until it was finished, and then I found about four other books about it and read them one after another. Found a Catholic store, bought statues of Mary, looked up Medjugorje on the internet, bought rosary beads, a scapular and a Medjugorje medal. I started praying the rosary daily. I went to confession after about 25 years. I now attend Mass every Sunday and on holy days.
I am a living example of someone who has had a deep conversion of the heart. I am so proud to be a practicing Catholic.
Hail Mary,
Joe Stone
Yours in Christ,
Cindy Snipes
..Well, I had no money to go, but amazingly, the next day I got a check in the mail (totally unexpected money) & it was the cost of the tickets. Try as we might to follow the urging to leave in 3 days, ..we left on the 5th day. My friend even called & said maybe it was a bad time because of the situation there, but we told her we were on our way....
I had to withdraw my daughter from school. Everyone thought I was quite insane...going to a war zone. The airport in Dubrovnik was bombed right before our plane landed. Ignorance is bliss.."Look how dry it is here, they have grass fires just like back home from the hot weather." I thought.....Hey, it was dark....
We weren't Catholics at this time or even religious....While we were there, my friend kept trying to get me to go to an apparition or to Mass, but since we weren't Catholics I thought it would be sacrilegious to go. We would sit at Columbo's & visit while she went to Mass. Imagine being in Medjugorje for almost a month, and never doing one thing related to Our Blessed Mother, or her Son...But we did. Luckily, even when we are lost in ignorance, she extends her hand to us..
One morning when I came down for breakfast, it was as if there was a tear in reality...visually, but not touchable, there appeared to be a filmy gauzy veil between me and everyone & everything in the kitchen...it was like stepping outside of time & space...weird! I thought it must mean something, but I had no idea what as I had never experienced anything like that before (or since). It lasted only about 15 seconds then dissipated...
When my daughter came down for breakfast, she told me she had a terrifying nightmare that seemed incredibly real...her father, (from whom we were living apart because of his increasingly violent temper & alcoholism) was looking for us to kill us & then kill himself....I assured her that it was just a scary dream & that even if it were true, there was no way he would find us in a little Bosnian village in the middle of a war zone. Still, she was very shaken by how real the dream was...
Well, of course you can guess the rest....when we returned home, he had indeed committed suicide. A friend of mine had seen him outside of our house, apparently waiting for us, shortly before he killed himself...Though his body lay undiscovered, the coroner estimated the time of his death at about 7-8 days..about the time of Stacy's nightmare & my strange experience as I entered the kitchen...
Well, I realized that the guazy weird veil experience was Mary's mantle of protection I had heard my friend talk about, the same mantle which had protected Medjugorje from harm during the war...It was her subtle way of letting me know that she had interceded to protect us from harm....
Well, we weren't even Catholics, but we did start saying the Family Rosary, and after about 8 months my daughter said that since we were doing Catholic things, loved Mother Mary & she obviously loved us, maybe we should become Catholics....so here we are....We went back to Medjugorje last year to thank Mary for protecting us, being patient with us, & bringing us to her Son Jesus in the Eucharist. This is kind of a very short version of the whole thing, but since you know how Our Sweetest Mother works, you can kind of imagine the rest, especially how joyous our lives have become knowing that the Mother of God loves us & intercedes for us constantly.
P.G.
I was feeling kind of confused and scared about it. I knew I wanted to read it but couldn't understand what happened. When my husband came home I told him what happened and asked him if he would watch my son that evening while I started to read it. He did, and I started to read it. I didn't get very far when I started sobbing. I knew it was real. I cried my eyes out. I knew that somehow I was meant to read it and I wasn't even through the first chapter.
My whole life changed in that moment of time. I remember feeling loved, sorry for everything I had ever done, and wanting to be near Our Lady so bad it hurt. I knew it was true, and that it was going on in my time was unbelievable. I was a Catholic who hadn't been to church in 20 years but had always loved Our Lady and especially when I was a child I remember loving her so much. I remember watching Our Lady of Fatima and crying because I wanted to see her so bad myself. As I grew up, I grew away, farther and farther. I had done things I never wanted to admit to myself and was ashamed every time I walked into a church. I had been going to church, though, the last 4 years on a regular basis, trying to read the Bible and praying so hard for my life to change and for my family to start attending Mass with me. I was married with two sons - one was 18 and not a Catholic, my youngest was 8 and was baptized.
My husband was so curious to my reaction to this book that he wanted to read it also. He did and when he was done told me we were going, somehow, some way. I couldn't get it out of my head, it consumed me day and night. All I could do was pray. I started saying my rosary again right away and started (trying!) to fast every Wednesday and Friday. My life had changed.
Well, long story short, somehow we did get over there, and not just us, but all four of us went in June 1996 for the 15 year anniversary. God was so good to us. I remember arriving in Split and crying because I could not believe we had made it there. It had all seemed like a dream the 6 months before. We were there and I had no idea what to really expect.
We were given many graces while we were there as a family. So many....we saw the miracle of the sun, of the moon, we saw a pink heart over the sun, rosaries turned gold and continue to do so, and so much more. We were blessed to be in the apparition room with Ivan not once, but twice! It was totally awesome and of course didn't want to ever leave. The feeling inside was one of complete joy. My husband took it all in like a child with a total abandon of himself. Vicka prayed over my 8 year old and both of us. My husband cried like a baby. I couldn't believe how touched we all were at different times. It was more than I could have ever hoped or prayed for.
Why us? I do not know that, but I do know that we have changed. Since we have returned, my older son started RCIA and has made his sacraments. My youngest made his First Communion in a special service all by himself because the Priest felt he shouldn't wait because he had such a knowledge of the faith, and he made it on the Feast Day of the Assumption!! How perfect. I consecrated him to Our Lady forever on that day. My husband has started RCIA this year and cannot wait to receive the sacraments. We attend church every Sunday as a family, say grace at dinner, pray together and have grown in every way. I try so hard to live the messages. I attend mass a couple of days a week, attend adoration, teach CCD now, and I also make rosaries for Our Lady and give them away. I cannot keep up with the demand.
Everything I do, I think of her and Jesus and give thanks every day for knowing that no matter how far we think we are from God, truly as Our Lady says in Medjugorje, He is always with us and watches over us. The fruits since our trip have just seemed to increase with time. My sister-in-law, who was anti-Catholic, and my brother, who was born again, start RCIA classes November 2nd, and her boss, who had fallen away from the church, has started saying the rosary again, attending mass, and even went to the Medjugorje Peace Conference in Modesto with my brother and his wife.
I have been able to spread her message to so many people only through her and Jesus's grace and want to forever pay back all those years that I neglected my church and My God! I am definitely an example of a prodigal daughter.......His mercy is greater than anything we can understand. Amen.
Prodigal Daughter
GB Mildenberger
I thank God and His Blessed Mother for continuing to guide me on the right path. I learned by being in Medjugorje so many times that conversion will not end till we close our eyes for good. The more I know, the more I know I don't know.
A real change came upon me when Fr. Jozo Zovko agreed to give a Retreat for people leading groups to Medjugorje. It turned out that we could not interest the Agencies to attend so we asked people God led us to ask. We wound up being 12 people, 1 Agent. The rest of us organized Pilgrimages as a ministry. On this retreat, I finally realized the presence of the Holy Spirit who answered my on going question about Our Lady's message of "Pray, Pray, Pray". You see? I had already been praying the Rosary and attending daily Mass, most of my life. Although I knew she was speaking to me, I did not know why she kept saying that over and over again. Then during our Retreat, Fr. Jozo was interviewed for a Video called "A Call to Holiness". In this interview, Father related the story of his parishioners in St. James Church. Father quoted Our Lady as saying "IF YOU CANNOT FORGIVE, YOU CANNOT PRAY. YOU CANNOT PRAY THAT WAY!" Now, thanks to the Holy Spirit, I finally learned what I needed to know in order to even begin to become Holy. I was not forgiving many people in my life but now knew I had to forgive or else.
Now, I also knew what Our Lady was calling me to do. All of our Pilgrimages talk of Forgiveness and how to forgive. We share ways we have learned to Forgive. This is the first step to conversion and Conversion cannot even begin before we become aware of the need to forgive.
So, I end by saying, Thank you Jesus, Thand you Holy Spirit, Thank you God and Thank you Blessed Mother for loving us enough to help us on our road to Holiness.
Amen and God bless you for giving your time to this homepage.
Jackie
Pat wanted to go up Cross Mountain, but was afraid to go alone. The sisters decided to go and asked Pat to come with them. There are some extraordinarily beautiful metal sculpted Stations of the Cross which line the path all the way to the top. There is a matching set of Rosary meditation sculptures on the way up Apparition Hill.
A tradition in Medjugorje is that as you climb Cross mountain, you say the rosary between stations, so by the time you get to the top, you have done the Stations of the Cross as well as the 15 decade rosary.
Just as the three women began to go up, Pat exclaimed that she had to go back because she had forgotten her rosary in her room. The sisters said she could share theirs, so they started up. When they got to the sixth Station, Pat sat down on a rock and said she could not go on; she was too exhausted. Just then a tall, bearded man came up to them, said he was German and did not know English, helped Pat up and practically carried her to the next Station. He waited as they prayed, and did the same thing again. This continued all the way to the top of the mountain. When they finished praying at the last Station, he reached out his hand to Pat and said, "Here is a present from the Blessed Mother." He placed a rosary in her hand. He then turned and walked up to the Cross.
About that time, another traveling companion and I were coming back down from the Cross, saw this man praying with them, and wondered who he was.
When they had recovered from their surprise, the three of them ran to the Cross to thank him. As easy as it would have been to spot him, he was nowhere to be seen.
There is no place to hide at the top of Cross mountain, and you can see for long distances down the side of the mountain. There was only one trail and he did not come down. He had just disappeared. We never saw him again during our entire stay in Medjugorje.
Jim Dobbins
In gratitude for Our Lady's love and guidance we made a pilgrimage this past summer to Turin, Rome, Lisieux and ended at Rue de Bac where it all began.
I can only say that the fruit of Medjugorje in my life has been profound. I did not go there seeking God, Our Lady or conversion. In fact my attitude was to go along for a good time! Yes, I did see signs and wonders, but the most wonderful thing of all is that I came back to the Church and to the God who loves me and that would not have happened without this little place high in the mountains and Our Lady.
Anne Marie from Minnesota (Ammead1@aol.com)
When I first got to Medjugorje I got out of the bus and I felt as though I was in my own back yard. When they said it is the edge of heaven, they were right. The peace I felt...I felt like I was home. By the end of my stay, I didn't want to leave.
When we got there we did everything that a pilgrimage to Medjugorje does and then some. We even had Mass said on Cross Mountain. I cried everyday I was there especially during that Mass and during the Stations of the Cross going up the mountain.
One day we were to see the visionary Vicka. When we got to her house she came outside and started to talk to us about seeing Our Lady and telling us what she was saying and what should be our response. After her talk, she began to pray over people. As I was in line waiting my turn, I was watching her. She would bow her head in prayer as she was praying over a person and then when she was finished, she would lift her head up and begin smiling at the people in the crowd. Vicka is known for her smiles.
Well, one time she finished praying over a person, she looked straight up and without smiling, looked directly at me. She stared at me with a look that was unquestionably the look I asked for from Our Lady. The look of a parent to her child that had just gotten into trouble. After a few minutes, which felt like an eternity, she resumed praying over people and eventually she prayed over me. From then on I had no doubt that Our Lady IS appearing in Medjugorje.
One other thing happened to me over there. I saw the spinning of the sun during sunset before the seven o'clock Mass. And the fact that I continue to see the sun everyday I have looked at it since then also enhances my belief in what Our Lady is saying in Medjugorje.
I extend Our Lady's blessing to you.
Bob K.
I obtained some literature and ordered a book called "The Queen of Peace Visits Medugorje" by Joseph A. Pelletier. This book is one of my prized possessions because it was written in the early days of the apparitions when incredible things were happening. I also received information from the Pittsburgh Center for Peace. I then started following EWTN and they are always having information about Medugorje. The apparitions of Medugorje definitely rekindled my interest in the Church. I have had the opportunity to see Wayne Wieble, Vicka, and Ivan speak here in Buffalo. We are blessed to have a Croatian Catholic parish where the pastor (a Franciscan) is a personal friend of the apparitionists and is originally from Medugorje.
I have been seriously following Medugorje for about 17 years and have absolutely no doubt about its authenticity. The good fruits coming out of Medugorje are astonishing. Physical healings, conversions, supernatural manifestations; European scientists have been sent there to study the children and have been converted themselves; journalists have gone there and quit their secular jobs to dedicate their lives to spreading Mary's messages; the miracle of the sun, spinning crosses, a parish which is perhaps the most spiritual in existence. Pope John Paul II has spoken favorably about Medugorje on many occasions. It seems to me that the spiritual giants in our faith are all followers of Medugorje. For example, Mother Angelica, Father Ken Roberts, Father Groshel, Father Gobbi and many others.
How the local Bishop there can say that nothing supernatural is happening is beyond me, but I will let Jesus and Mary handle that situation.
God bless you, Mike
In 1995 we were fortunate enough to go back to Medjugorje for the feast of the Assumption. My mother had passed away and I brought her crystal bead Rosary with me because I was praying for an affirmation that she had gone to Heaven. At St. James I dipped the Rosary in the Holy water, along with my fingers, when entering the church before Mass. I didn't really think anything of it and just put them back in my pocket. Later that day, I took them out and the entire chain and all the metal caps on the end of the beads had turned bright gold. What an incredible and beautiful gift from Our Lady. It had me in tears of thanksgiving. Our Lady has told the visionaries that doing this (turning Rosaries gold), is just a small gift She gives to Her little children. Thank you Mother for your small gifts that bring so much joy and faith to your little children!
God Bless you all.
Tom Blais
I have also been to Medjugorje, and while I await the "final" decision of the Church on this issue, I can tell you from my own personal experience of what I have witnessed there, what I have read and studied about the messages, and what I have seen as to what it appears that Our Lady wants us to do ... to confess, to do penance, to pray the 15 decades of the rosary daily, to go to Mass every day ... it is all very Catholic and very biblical ...
I would be the first one to admit that private apparitions are not necessary for a person's salvation ... and one does not have to believe any of them -- not Lourdes, not Fatima, not La Sallette, etc. but to suggest that this is somehow the work of the devil ... is a bit too much ... The Pharisees accused Christ of doing the work of the devil ... and Christ answered them by basically explaining to them how could it be when he was trying to get people to repent and to convert ... a house divided cannot stand.
Medjugorje may be called a "hoax" ... but what I have found in it and through it is far from it.
Yours in Christ
Ed