Women writes to Pope and receives medal from Medjugorje

Featured article from June's Spirit of Medjugorje

A Very Special Medal

By Alicia Italiani

     Several months ago, I wrote a letter to Pope Francis asking his blessing and prayer for my family and for myself. I have a devotion to Our Lady of Medugorje, and I understand that whether the alleged apparitions in Medugorje are approved or not, that prayer and fasting and any devotion to the Blessed Mother is good and pleasing to God. But I still felt like I needed to know if it was OK to follow those particular messages (just because there’s been so much confusion regarding the devotion within the Church).

     On May 6, I received a response back – coincidentally the same day I had requested special Masses through Fr. Hampsch with the Claretian ministries for Healing of my Family Tree (Generational Healing). The response was from the Papal Nuncio to the United States from Pope Francis. Included in the envelope were a medal from Medugorje, a medal of St. Michael the Archangel and two holy cards – one with a picture of Pope Francis and the other a picture of St. Francis with his prayer for peace (Make me a channel of Your Peace...). The note said that the medals were blessed by Pope Francis!I felt so comforted and I just wanted to share the story.

     Editor’s note: Alicia is from Erie, PA. Please note that Alicia did not misspell Medjugorje. That is the way it is spelled in Medjugorje, and that is the spelling on her medal. Although we do not want to preclude any judgment by the Church regarding Medjugorje, we did find this story interesting. What was also interesting is that the postmark on the envelope is May 2 – the day that Our Lady appears to Mirjana to pray for unbelievers. I felt prompted to look up the Mass readings for that day and was not surprised at all when I saw that the first reading was from Acts 5, which included the words, “For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39).    http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/index.php