Former atheist poet reveals details of her Catholic conversion :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Poet Sally Read speaks with CNA in Rome on July 24, 2012.

Former atheist poet reveals details of her Catholic conversion :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Emmanuel - (Canto di Adorazione) - Medjugorje

Emmanuel-God is with us.

Back from Medjugorje, Bosnia

Date: July 29, 2012
Category: Medjugorje Pilgrimages

I've just returned from a summer retreat in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, with five peaceful days spent in the Marian shrine of Medjugorje. Each time I visit this town, I am stunned into silence by the profound and extraordinary peace that pervades the place, a peace so profound and so penetrating that it silences all doubts. An energy this holy cannot be based upon a lie. Still, I spent some time reviewing the many criticisms and accusations about the alleged apparitions still taking place here, and there are signs of contradiction and causes of concern, intermixed with lies and slanders and deliberate obfuscations. Clearly the Blessed Mother, if she is indeed appearing here (as I truly believe) has decided not to make it easy for anyone to reach a judgement about the place - not without considerable prayer and discernment.
Which is why I'm with Cardinal Schonborn on this one. If you haven't been here yourself and you haven't subjected the Shrine to your own personal prayerful, interior discernment, then no amount of rational analysis of the pros and cons will do you any good. This is the classic kind of case spoken of by St. Ignatius in The Spiritual Exercises. When you are faced with an issue or a problem in which the negative and the positive seem to be weighed almost equally, then you must resort to a careful discernment of spirits, and ask you self when considering the negative and the positive, which gives you the greater peace. Always go with the peace was the advice given by this great 16th century saint. And the peace of Medjugorje is simply too overwhelming to ignore, it pours into the atmosphere from such a profound source of sacredness and imbues the air with grace and holiness.    http://www.medjugorje.ws/

Read the whole article on gaymystic.blogspot.com

Marija Urges Youth To Be Active

by Jakob Marschner

Make good use of everything that Medjugorje offers, come along, and do not merely watch when others pray, visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti advises participants in next week’s Youth Festival. Mary counted on us from early on, and we had a beautiful time, Marija tells of her own youth.

Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti in Varese, Italy, November 2011. Photo: Daniel Miot, guardacon.me

Thousands of young people will meet for the Youth Festival in Medjugorje on August 1-6. A lot is being offered but to make the most of it, showing up in itself does not suffice, visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti told Radio Maria on July 25.

“We always say: profit from this time of grace and begin praying on the way here. We have the church, the chapel for Eucharistic Adoration, Apparition Hill, Cross Mountain: we have so many places that stimulate prayer, more so than anywhere else in the world” Marija said.

“We are preparing to welcome a sea of youth” Marija says – here from a previous Youth Festival in Medjugorje

“Here you will find people praying in the fields or just walking and praying the Rosary and you find yourself thinking: then I’ll pray too.  Don’t just watch. I remember in (the late Medjugorje priest, ed.) Fr Slavko’s days we would even pray behind a bush or rocks on Apparition Hill” the seer continued.

“You can use one of her messages, Scripture, the lives of saints to feel God and His presence.  Use the Psalms, we fell in love with the Psalms; they flow in your heart.  We felt it, it was continuous prayer.  Is this continuous prayer possible?  It is waiting for you at Medjugorje.”

Being active or being a spectator: Medjugorje’s Youth Festival places a choice before the participants, and their outcome of the festival also depends on what they choose, says visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti. Photo: Daniel Miot, guardacon.me

“Go to confession when you arrive, that the Holy Spirit, by way of the presence of Our Lady, can use us and form us. Help us. Many come and give you the impression of a broken vase, but Our Lady forms them into a beautiful vase” Marija said.

“There are so many examples of lives, of youth, who arrive in suffering.  Even these last few days I have encountered youth lamenting problems. I replied “You are in the right place. Welcome. Our Lady was waiting for you, She will bring you to her Son. A thousand times over. Just proclaim your yes.”

With the theme “Lord, increase our faith”, the 23rd International Youth Festival takes place in Medjugorje on August 1-6

“We are preparing to welcome a sea of youth that will come for the 23rd International Youth Festival. It will be a great joy for us and we await all of you that are coming. We put all of you under Our Lady’s mantle. It will be grand, and it will be a thank you to Our Lord for everything that is being done through His Mother.”

Marija’s conversation with Radio Maria host Fr. Livio Fanzaga also made her remember her own youth. The visionary confirmed that the Virgin Mary was preoccupied with the young people long before the idea came up of a Youth Festival.

“She guided several groups. The first was for families, to get the families to pray together. Then a little at a time she began with a youth group, and we went along because we were so taken by this experience – it was a natural consequence of having apparitions. They would grab our hearts, our minds, our whole person. Sometimes we would pray all night” Marija remembered.

Marija during an apparition when she was 21, as young as many festival participants

“Then, to establish some order, she would call us to form a youth group. We would meet three times a week on Apparition Hill, then another group began in the rectory two times a week.”

“Our Lady counted on us from the beginning. In 1985 we were like goats running and praying all over the hillside. Then we began many other things, and today we can say it was the strongest and most beautiful experience of our lives.”

Antonio Miraldi transcribed and translated from Italian.
http://is.gd/JyZWBv

GRAND GRANDPARENTS

"These also were godly men whose virtues have not been forgotten; their wealth remains in their families." -Sirach 44:10-11

We need grand grandparents like Joachim and Ann, the grandparents of Jesus. We need grandparents who have not merely lived to see their children's children, but who are totally consecrated spiritual warriors that will "go out in a blaze of glory." Our grandparents shouldn't be re-tired but re-fired. They should "fight hard for the faith" (Jude 3), attack the gates of hell (Mt 16:18), and shoot Satan out of the sky (Lk 10:18). We need grandparents who aren't living as if they are afraid of dying (see Heb 2:15). We need elder Christians who are not ashamed of the Gospel (Rm 1:16), who have the courage to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15) and witness for Jesus (Acts 1:8), and who have long since stopped worrying about being popular (see Gal 1:10).
Grandparents, soon you will be seeing Jesus face-to-face (see 1 Cor 13:12). Now is no time for fear and selfishness. "You are not to spend what remains of your earthly life on human desires but on the will of God" (1 Pt 4:2). It's time to run for the finish line, "life on high in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:14). When we die is not as important as how we live. Despite the weakness and struggles of old age, live and die for Jesus.

Prayer: Father, "now that I am old and gray, O God, forsake me not till I proclaim Your strength to every generation that is to come" (Ps 71:18).

Promise: "Blest are your eyes because they see and blest are your ears because they hear." -Mt 13:16

Photo Image, Memorial Service, Aurora, Colorado

This photo image was sent to me by a friend of the Memorial Service
held  in Aurora, Colorado, where the shooting took place.

Look at the image in the clouds.  What do you see? 
I see an image of an Angel.  

Our Lady's message to Marija of July 25, 2012

"Dear children!
 Today I call you to the 'good'. Be carriers of peace and goodness in this world. Pray that God may give you the strength so that hope and pride may always reign in your heart and life because you are God's children and carriers of His hope to this world that is without joy in the heart, and is without a future, because it does not have its heart open to God who is your salvation. Thank you for having responded to my call."

THE INVISIBLE FENCE

"It is He Who is our Peace, and Who made the two of us one by breaking down the barrier of hostility that kept us apart." -Ephesians 2:14

Jesus is our Peace. He alone can break down the barrier of hostility that separates us from one another. A barrier of hostility had built up between Jews and Gentiles. Many barriers of hostility separate husbands and wives, parents and children, and employer and employee. These are not physical barriers of concrete, wood, or steel, but spiritual barriers of hostility, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, or resentment. These barriers can imprison us for life and forever in hell after this life. Only Jesus can remove these barriers.
In the suburbs of America, people buy invisible fences to keep their dogs in the yard. Barriers of hostility are like invisible fences. Whenever we come close to being free, living a new life, repenting of sin, and loving Jesus with all our hearts, the devil activates the invisible fence and keeps us trapped in the yard of sin, apathy, self-hatred, and selfishness. However, the invisible fence can't shock the animal unless there's a specific collar on it. Likewise, the devil can't activate the invisible fence without our wearing an invisible collar of hostility, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, or resentment. If we repent of these sins and thereby take off our collar, we can walk through the invisible fence and be free. The barrier of hostility is gone.

 Jesus, remove my barriers by removing my collar of sin.

Međugorje Ave Marija, Jakov Čolo e Roberta Faccani.wmv

Seer Sings Mary's Praise On Record
by Jakob Marschner
Medjugorje visionary Jakov Colo publishes a collection of songs influenced by 17 years of daily apparitions, and sings duet with Italian professional singer Roberta Faccani for the single. Video shows Jakov as a young man in the late 1980s, and footage from Apparition Hill and St. James Church. Jakov Colo with Roberta Faccani: “Medjugorje Ave Maria” from Jakov’s upcoming CD “A Mia Madre” (“For My Mother”) Text and music: Franjo Kraljevic Arrangement: Gabrijel Prusina http://is.gd/jT1Jrj

I walked today where Jesus walked

 

Medjugorje documentary, 2009

This documentary follows a group of pilgrims from Ireland who travelled to Medjugorje in 2009. It includes interviews with the visionary, Vicka and the charismatic priest, Fr Jozo Zovko.

Medjugorje: No verdict yet, but faith, conversions abound

Joyce Coronel | July 17, 2012 | 18 Comments

A woman prays against a crucifix on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, June 25. Millions of pilgrims from all over the world have visited the site where six village children first claimed to see Mary in June 1981. (CNS photo/Dado Ruvic, Reuters)

A very generous benefactor found out that after 10 years of writing for the Catholic press, I’d never been to Medjugorje, the site of purported Marian apparitions. The next thing I knew, a travel itinerary was delivered to my inbox.
Just before departing, a devout Catholic friend told me I should be visiting Fatima or Lourdes instead. He questioned the authenticity of the apparitions in the former Yugoslavia. Another dear friend, a priest, forwarded an anti-Medjugorje article from Crisis Magazine that featured a picture of a wolf in sheep clothing.
Recalling my late parents’ admonition to ‘never look a gift-horse in the mouth’, I decided to check out Medjugorje for myself.
I knew even before making sure my seat was in a fully upright and locked position — it took five planes and a two-hour van ride to reach our destination — that the Church has neither officially condemned nor approved the activities at Medjugorje, other than saying that parishes or dioceses should not sponsor pilgrimages. The late Blessed John Paul II was reportedly a supporter of the Medjugorje visionaries.
Allow me to cut to the chase: I did not see the Blessed Virgin Mary during my week-long visit. The links on my rosary beads did not turn to gold, nor did I see the sun spinning.
What I can say is that I was absolutely stunned by the outpouring of faith and heartfelt devotion I encountered. Our visit took place during the 31st anniversary of what the reputed visionaries say was their first encounter with Our Lady back on June 24, 1981. The village was inundated with thousands of pilgrims from all over the globe.

Indisputable fruits

Every day there were long lines for confession, where priests heard penitents tell their sins in more than a dozen languages, some I’d never even heard of before. Masses were jammed and reverent. Every night at 10 p.m. the amphitheater was packed with over 15,000 pilgrims who came to adore the Eucharist.
Even with such an enormous crowd, there was utter silence as the King of Kings was venerated. We knelt there in the gravel and I felt myself overcome with emotion. In the midst of such a huge crowd, packed with the sick and infirm, pilgrims of every age, and religious sisters from around the world dressed in their various habits, it seemed I was just a tiny speck, entirely insignificant in this vast sea of faithful.
It was then that I felt the Lord whisper a word of love to me that I — I who am so undeserving — am indeed precious to Him. A love beyond understanding filled my heart as tears streamed down my cheeks, so that even now as I write these words, I am brought back to that moment of profound peace. Our God loves us in spite of ourselves.
I saw fellow pilgrims climb barefoot up a 1,700-foot peak, praying the Stations of the Cross, oblivious to the sharp rocks they trod. One man was missing a leg and was making the climb using metal crutches.
I met a pediatrician and her dentist husband, who met during the Bosnian war in the 1990s when they both worked to save the children coming out of the refugee camps. They are sponsoring one of the dozens of kids who live in Medjugorje’s orphanages. I listened to former drug addicts who live in a community dedicated to helping men and women break free from the bondage of addiction. Theresa Burke, the founder of Rachel’s Vineyard, a ministry that helps women wounded by abortion, received her inspiration from Medjugorje.
The message of Medjugorje is simple. It’s a call to conversion: Pray the rosary daily from the heart. Fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays or perform some other penitential act. Read the Bible. Receive the Eucharist frequently and go to confession monthly.
If more Catholics lived that way, we would surely have more peace, stronger families and an increase in vocations. I’m all for that.

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Category: Joyce Coronel, Views

About the Author (Author Profile)

Joyce Coronel is a regular contributor and columnist for The Catholic Sun.

Blind Women Saw After Sun Miracle

By Jakob Marschner

Raffaella Mazzocchi was blind on one eye when her family persuaded her to go to Medjugorje. When she saw a sun miracle, she first turned blind on both eyes for five minutes. But she could see when she opened up her sick eye, and when she opened both, her inexplicable healing was complete.

The major sun miracle during visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo’s apparition on October 2nd 2011. After watching a similar occurence, Raffaella Mazzocchi’s sight was restored

Blinded on one eye without notice, then healed from one moment to the next. There is nothing gradual to the story of Raffaella Mazzocchi’s eye sight.

At age 16, on December 22nd 2001, the Italian girl completely lost sight on her right eye while she was at school. Doctors found her condition was due to retrobulbar optic neuritis, a virus that irreversibly destroys the optic nerve.

“It is a diagnosis without hope of recovery, and no treatment seemed to work. I was forced to leave school because I could not study. I could not even sleep, I went ahead with psychotropic drugs, and in this state I lived in a nightmare for eight years. I lost faith, and I stopped attending church” Raffaella Mazzocchi tells in her testimony at Messaggi Medjugorje.

Raffaella Mazzocchi

“One day, my aunts, my mother and my sister decided to go to Medjugorje, and at all costs they wanted to take me with them. I was reluctant but eventually succumbed to the entreaties of my family, but I had no intention of praying for my recovery.”

Raffaella Mazzocchi and her family arrived in Medjugorje and went to climb Apparition Hill on June 26th 2009. On the way down, something unusual caught the family’s attention.

“My sister noticed that the sun moved in a non-normal way, and seemed to be dancing. So I grabbed the my sister’s sunglasses and with my good eye, the left, I first clearly saw the sun rotating and pulsating, almost approaching my face and moving back again, and then changing color constantly, becoming red, blue, orange, green” Raffaella Mazzocchi recounts.

The Blue Cross by the foot of Apparition Hill in Medjugorje where many apparitions have taken place, and where Raffaella Mazzocchi got her eye sight back

“I finally took off the sunglasses and started to cry desperately because I realized that I had also lost the sight on my left eye and had become completely blind. My screams attracted many pilgrims who gathered around me but I kept screaming more and more desperately because I felt a strong burning in my eyes.”

“This total blindness lasted five minutes, the longest of my life.When she saw I was in panic, my mom got me seated and somehow managed to calm me down” the young Italian woman tells.

“While I kept my head down and my eyes closed, suddenly I felt the urge to open my right eye, the sick one, and I realized that I could see my hands. I opened the other eye and I could see very well with that, too.”

The sun miracle that Raffaella Mazzocchi saw in June 2009

“By moving my hands back and forth before my eyes, I realized that I was healed, but instead of jumping with joy, I was overcome by fear and locked. From seeing my eyes, my mother noticed the change in me and ran up to hug me. So did all the many pilgrims” Raffaella Mazzocchi tells.

“From that day, my sight has been fully recovered, and even now I have a perfect view of 11/10. And, more importantly, I also picked up the faith again because now, finally, we see in all directions.”

While the story of Raffaella Mazzocchi is relatively well-known in Italy, it has not been told in English before.

http://is.gd/OwRrWL

Bishop Venant Bacinoni from Burundi came to Medjugorje

Bishop from Burundi came to Medjugorje

Bishop Msgr. Venant Bacinoni, bishop from Diocese of Bururi in Burundi, was in Medjugorje from July 1st to July 9, 2012. This was his first visit to Medjugorje. He first came to Belgium and his friends from Belgium invited him to come to Medjugorje with them, as a pilgrim. “This is one really good experience for me, I can see people praying, and they pray from the heart, you can see that they came here because of prayer and not because of something else. This is where one sees fruits. People come to pray, they participate in the Holy Eucharist, and they receive sacraments. This is also where they meet in friendship and in dialogue, this is really something good. We had really heavy civil war in Burundi that lasted for more than 15 years and this message of peace is really important for me and for our people as well. We cannot have peace without prayer, without hope and without help of Our Lady and God. This is the message that I am going to take from Medjugorje”, said bishop from Burundi.
Medjugorje Official

LOW ENOUGH TO BE EXALTED

"The Lord took me from following the flock." -Amos 7:15

Amos was a country boy, a shepherd, and a pruner of sycamore trees - a nobody chosen by God to prophesy to the nation of Israel (Am 7:14). Jesus likewise sent out His apostles as nobodies. He didn't let them have the possessions and money by which many people try to command respect (see Mk 6:8-9). He didn't even provide them with accommodations (see Mk 6:10). The apostles had about as much prestige as homeless people. Of course, without credentials, status, clout, or worldly power, they were almost certain to be rejected. So Jesus told them to be prepared to shake the dust from their feet if any place did not receive them (Mk 6:11).
Jesus is the same today as yesterday (Heb 13:8). He continues to insist on choosing "the world's lowborn and despised, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who were something; so that mankind can do no boasting before God" (1 Cor 1:28-29). When Jesus sends us forth in weakness, His power reaches perfection (2 Cor 12:9). Jesus promised that the lowly will inherit the earth (Mt 5:5). Will you agree to become lowly? Will you let the Lord work through you?

 Father, may I be lowly in the world's eyes and great in Your eyes.

  "Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens!" -Eph 1:3

  Praise the risen Jesus, only Hope for the world. Glory and praise forever!

Our Lady Queen of Peace of Medjugorje message June 2, 2012

The 17th International Seminar for Priests began in Medjugorje

 

 

The 17th International Seminar for Priests that gathered more than 400 priests, deacons and seminarians from twenty countries began on Monday, July 9th, in Medjugorje with the liturgical evening prayer programme. Fr. Ivan Sesar, the Provincial of Herzegovinian Franciscan Province from Mostar was the main celebrant at the solemn Holy Mass of introduction to the seminar.
The coordinator of the seminar is dr. Miljenko Steko, and the theme of this International seminar that will finish on Saturday, July 14 is “Priest – man of faith.” The lecturer at the seminar is Dr.Fr. Ivan Dugandzic.
The seminar is simultaneously translated to more than ten languages. These international seminars began in summer 1996, at the request of priests themselves and grew with the time into these regular annual gatherings of priests from all over world.    Medjugorje Official

WORKERS FOR THE HARVEST ARE A HARVEST

"Jesus sent these men on mission." -Matthew 10:5

Although "the harvest is good but laborers are scarce" (Mt 9:37), Jesus does not immediately send out His disciples to labor in His harvest. First, He commands them to pray for the Father to send out laborers. Second, He gives His disciples authority over every demon and sickness (Mt 10:1). Third, He determines His primary community by choosing twelve apostles by name (Mt 10:2-4). Finally, He sends them out to evangelize and minister (Mt 10:6ff).

We will not have workers in the harvest until we form Christian community, until we are in a family of our own twelve apostles. However, we won't be able to participate in and form community unless we use our God-given authority to remove demonic strongholds standing in the way of Christian community life. However, we need to pray before receiving God's authority.
 
Yes, we need to pray for workers for the harvest, particularly for priestly and religious vocations to be accepted. Yet there's more. We must pray for Christians to use their authority in Jesus to form the community that provides workers for the harvest. Workers for the harvest are themselves a harvest, the fruit of prayer, the proper use of spiritual authority and Christian community.

"As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were worried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. So he said to his disciples, "There is a large harvest, but few workers to gather it in. Pray to the owner of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest." (Mtt 9:36-37).

Jesus I believe! (Medjugorje)

Jesus, I Believe in You

Pray for Your Shepherds!. May 18 2012 Ivan's message in Medjugorje

Published on May 19, 2012 by 88kmitchell

http://www.medjugorje.com

After the apparition of Our Lady at the Blue Cross in Medjugorje, on May 18, 2012 at about 10:00 p.m., Ivan said:

"The most important from tonight's meeting together with Our Lady I will try to describe in these words:

Our Lady came to us joyful and happy and at the beginning, as always, She greeted us all with Her motherly blessing: 'Praised be Jesus my dear children.'

Then Our Lady, with Her arms extended, prayed for a while over all of you here. She prayed for a while over you who are sick present here and then She blessed us with Her motherly blessing and She blessed everything you brought for a blessing. Then Our Lady, especially prayed for a while for priests, bishops and the Holy Father. She also called us:

'Dear children, also today I desire to call you to pray together with me for my shepherds, that they may lead their flock tirelessly in faith. The Mother prays together with you. Pray, dear children, with the Mother. Thank you, dear children, also today for having responded to my call.'

After that I recommended all of you, all of your needs, all you intentions, your families and in a special way, all the sick. Then a conversation followed between me and Our Lady. After that conversation Our Lady left in prayer in an illuminated sign of the cross, with a greeting, 'Go in peace, my dear children.'

LOVE SUPREME

"I will espouse you to Me forever." -Hosea 2:21

Imagine going to a funeral home and seeing Jesus raise a twelve-year-old girl from the dead (Mt 9:25). What would you think? What would you say to Him? What if Jesus then walked over to you and said: "I will espouse you to Me forever" (Hos 2:21)?
Jesus is proposing to you something which transcends any relationship - including marriage - something which will last forever. How could you accept His proposal? How could you even understand it?
Jesus will do three things to prepare you to make the decision of espousal to Him forever. He will:
* allure you (Hos 2:16). Jesus - lifted up on the cross, in the Resurrection, and at the right hand of the Father - will draw you to Himself (Jn 12:32; see also Jn 6:44).
* lead you into the desert (Hos 2:16).
* speak to your heart (Hos 2:16). The Sacred Heart of Jesus will have heart-to-heart talks with you.

After this desert experience, you will decide to be espoused to Jesus forever "in right and in justice, in love and in mercy" (Hos 2:21). You will be espoused to Jesus in fidelity "and you shall know the Lord" (Hos 2:22). Respond "I do" to Jesus, the Bridegroom (Mk 2:19).

 Father, may I "grasp fully, with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love" (Eph 3:18).

 "Jesus turned around and saw her and said, 'Courage, daughter! Your faith has restored you to health.' That very moment the woman got well." -Mt 9:22

Priest Warns of Excessive Celb Focus

By Jakob Marschner

Media over-covered football manager Roberto Mancini’s visit to Medjugorje, says former editor-in-chief of Radio Mir Medjugorje and head of the information centre. Medjugorje may not be subjected to a celebrity and advertising style, Fr. Mario Knezovic writes in Franciscan magazine.

Fr. Mario Knezovic during a Mass in Medjugorje. For several years, the Franciscan priest headed the parish information centre, and served as editor-in-chief of Radio Mir Medjugorje

Medjugorje is modest and silent, and this atmosphere is at odds with excessive media coverage of famous people’s visits, a former head of Medjugorje’s information centre states.

Fr. Mario Knezovic, who further served as editor-in-chief of Radio Mir Medjugorje, was particularly struck by media behavior when football manager Roberto Mancini visited:

“The first day, the entire front page. Inside, three pages of text and photos. The second day, half of the cover and two pages inside. The third day, two pages again. One would think that something big is happening. Turns out a football manager has come on pilgrimage to Medjugorje” Fr. Mario Knezovic writes in Nasa Ognjista, a Croatian Catholic magazine.

Football manager Roberto Mancini followed by reporters in March, during the first of his two visits to Medjugorje in 2012

“The news of the arrival of Roberto Mancini turned into a sensation, as if no one else are coming to Medjugorje during the year. Why this fascination with “ordinary mortals”? Certainly his arrival should be followed, recorded and published about, but not in exceeded measure as in this case.”

To Fr. Mario Knezovic, part of the core identity of Medjugorje is being challenged by recent years’ more frequent celebrity visits.

“Medjugorje can not tolerate to be subjected to an advertising and celebrity style. This world is modest and silent. Those who deny that do not realize that Our Lady herself wanted to stand back and point to Jesus” he writes.

Fr. Mario Knezovic

Fr. Mario Knezovic next points to a column he wrote in the recent issue of Glasnik Mira, the magazine published by the parish of Medjugorje.

“I wrote that every story has a quiet hero who is not destined for this. Some exist and become a part of the story with the motive of recruiting other heroes. Such a story we meet in Medjugorje. “Little” people’s stories often come across as the biggest when we view them with eyes of honesty” he writes in Nasa Ognjista.

http://is.gd/76vHid

Catholic Woman who saved Jewish Children

 

Irene Sendler

A concert was held July 5 at the Melbourne Recital Centre to remember Irena Sendler, the Polish Catholic who saved some 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of Warsaw’s ghetto.

The concert, titled “Irena’s Song: A Ray of Light through the Darkness,” featured acclaimed Israeli composer and conductor Kobi Oshrat and Israeli vocalist Karin Shifrin. The pair collaborated with the Australian Orchestra Victoria to remember the heroine through music.

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Dear Family of Mary

(c)Mary TV 2012 July 10, 2012 Dear Family of Mary! "My children; Again, in a motherly way, I implore you to stop for a moment and to reflect on yourselves and on the transience of this your earthly life. Then reflect on eternity and the eternal beatitude. What do you want? Which way do you want to set out on? The Father`s love sends me to be a mediatrix for you, to show you with motherly love the way which leads to the purity of soul; a soul unburdened by sin; a soul that will come to know eternity. I am praying that the light of the love of my Son may illuminate you, so that you may triumph over weaknesses and come out of misery. You are my children and I desire for all of you to be on the way of salvation. Therefore, my children, gather around me that I may have you come to know the love of my Son and thus open the door of eternal beatitude. Pray as I do for your shepherds. Again I caution you: do not judge them, because my Son chose them. Thank you." (July 2, 2012) Our Lady speaks very directly to us in this message. She wants us to stop and think. She wants us to take a moment and assess. What are we choosing? What are we desiring? Are we aware that this earthly life will end and that we have eternity in our future? Do we know the eternal consequences of our choices? She tells us that God has sent her to help us discover the answers to these questions. She is with us to show us the way that leads to eternity. She has come to show us that God exists. But Our Lady knows that we cannot respond to her words if we do not encounter her Son. We are not capable of understanding the reality of eternity, apart from knowing Jesus. He is the one who can wake us up, help us to see, help us to understand. And so she says, "I am praying that the light of the love of my Son may illuminate you, so that you may triumph over weaknesses and come out of misery." This prayer is an anointed prayer. It is the prayer that the Holy Spirit has given Mary, because the Spirit knows what we need. We need the Light of Christ if we are to emerge from our weaknesses and misery, and choose eternity. We need the Light of Jesus, if we are going to choose rightly. Only that light-filled experience of Jesus will be able to move us forward towards Heaven. St. Faustina had that very experience of the Light of Jesus, in her prayer. She describes it this way: February 12 [1937]. Today, the presence of God is piercing me through and through, like a ray from the sun. My soul is longing for God so intensely that I fall into a swoon every now and then. I feel Eternal Love touching my heart, and my littleness cannot bear it, and this causes me to swoon. Still, my interior strength is great, and my soul wants to match the Love with which it is loved. The soul at such moments has a very deep knowledge of God, and the more it comes to know Him, the purer and more fervent does its love for Him become. How unfathomable are the mysteries of the soul and God! (Diary, 946) "Today, the presence of God is piercing me through and through, like a ray from the sun." This is exactly what Our Lady prays for to happen to us! "I am praying that the light of the love of my Son may illuminate you..." St. Faustina experienced that Light often. She was overcome by it, filled with such surrender and peace that she would swoon. The Light of God's love is the mystery of His communication of His life to us. He wants to come to us in such love, such power! He is a Lover who can hardly hold Himself back, He loves us so much. That Love is the key to our future. It is the power that will bring us to Heaven. Like St. Faustina, we can receive that Light. We can be ravished by it. God waits to come to us. We have only to choose to pray, to choose to be open, to choose to want Him. He will do the rest. May we all choose God today. May we ask for the grace that Our Lady is praying down upon us, the grace to receive the illuminating Love of Jesus deep in our souls. Come, Lord Jesus! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2012

Cardinal Impressed by Medjugorje Fruits

by Jakob Marschner  7/6/2012

Medjugorje’s spiritual fruits are overwhelming good, says Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna. He calls the Church’s stand on Medjugorje “very clear”: the question of authenticity is left open, and so clergy cannot arrange official pilgrimages. But all are free to visit on their own.

While Cardinal Schönborn praises the fruits of Medjugorje, it is other local dishes he is being served here – by visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti during the Cardinal’s visit for New Year 2010. Right: visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo

“Overwhelming good spiritual fruits”. To Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, this is the most important about Medjugorje, he tells Our Sunday Visitor.

Cardinal Schönborn, a member of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the main editor of the current Catechism of the Catholic Church, says the Church’s teaching on Medjugorje is clear, and has been so continuously for 21 years now:

“I think that the Church’s teaching on Medjugorje is very clear. The bishops of the countries of the former Yugoslavia took a clear position in 1991. This is still valid and has been confirmed by the Vatican twice” Cardinal Schönborn says.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna (born January 22nd 1945) is the main editor of the current Catholic catechism. As a member of the key Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he will be on the receiving end of Cardinal Ruini’s commission report on Medjugorje, expected later this year

“There are three important points in this statement. First, that it is not confirmed that the events are of supernatural origin. That means it is neither confirmed nor denied. The Church left it open.”

“The second point is that, as the so-called apparition question and message question has not been decided, it is not permissible to make official pilgrimages to Medjugorje. So, for example, I cannot organize a formal diocesan pilgrimage to Medjugorje as we can to Rome or Fatima or Lourdes.”

“The third point, however, is that the people who choose to go to Medjugorje on their own are entitled to spiritual care. So, we priests or bishops are invited to provide spiritual company to pilgrims. That’s what my predecessors in Vienna did from the very beginning regarding Medjugorje, and that’s what I continue to do” Cardinal Schönborn tells Our Sunday Visitor.

“I think these three points are sufficient for a good understanding of how to approach Medjugorje. The most important for me are the overwhelming good spiritual fruits of Medjugorje.”

As a member of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Schönborn will be among the formal receivers when the results from Cardinal Camillo Ruini’s current investigation into Medjugorje are being presented.

Cardinal Schönborn has been a personal friend of the Pope since the early 1970s when he studied under not-yet Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in Regensburg

CDF, the Church’s teaching organ and a key Vatican office headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope, will formally hand over the report from Cardinal Ruini’s commission to Pope Benedict XVI, with or without remarks of their own.

This Autumn, Cardinal Schönborn will open his Cathedral in Vienna for a public apparition to a Medjugorje visionary for the third consecutive year when Ivan Dragicevic returns to the Austrian capital.

The Cardinal celebrated New Year 2010 in Medjugorje, climbed Apparition Hill with visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti, and also met with Ivanka Ivankovic-Elez and Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo.

http://is.gd/cmeBw9

NOW HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD

""NOW HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD!" (Am 7:16)

"The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel.' " -Amos 7:15

The gift of prophecy is to be sought above all other gifts (1 Cor 14:1). We need to hear prophecy because, like a two-edged sword, it will penetrate and divide soul and spirit (Heb 4:12). Prophecy will judge "the reflections and thoughts of the heart" (Heb 4:12). Because prophecies are messages from God, they are not easily dismissed. We naturally resist God's words, for His ways and thoughts are as different from our ways and thoughts as the heavens are high above the earth (Is 55:8-9). However, prophecy resists our resistance.
Prophecy stands up for itself. It fights against our hardness of heart. Because prophecy cannot be chained (2 Tm 2:9), easily brushed off, or forgotten, it is easier to throw the prophets out of town or to kill them than it is to dismiss their prophecies (see Am 7:12). This shows how powerful and undying prophecies are. This helps us understand why prophecy raised the dry bones of a sinful nation from the dead (Ez 37:4) and why the Church is founded on the apostles and the prophets (Eph 2:20).
Instead of rejecting prophecy and persecuting prophets, pray to receive prophecy. Pray: "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening (1 Sm 3:9). Lord, penetrate and purify my heart with Your prophetic word."
 Father, only say the word and I shall be healed (Mt 8:8).
 "Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven." -Mt 9:2
!" (Am 7:16)

WHITNEY HOUSTON BEST NATIONAL ANTHEM PREFORMANCE

Pilgrims from Uganda in Medjugorje

 

After Medjugorje celebrated 31st anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions, many groups are still present on their pilgrimages and among them we met a group of pilgrims from Uganda. Fransis is bringing pilgrims from Uganda since 2005, and he brought 40 pilgrims on his first trip. They heard about Medjugorje from one Italian priest who spoke on Radio Maria in Uganda. “I had to take a map to look for this place and then I decided to bring a group of pilgrims together with a priest. It was hard for us to obtain visa since we do not have embassy in this country”, said Fransis. One of the pilgrims, Frederik Deogratias Musaazi said: “I was immediately impressed with people’s conviction in the presence of the Blessed Mother in this place. People here believe so much and the whole group that I was with was really impressed with that. When I returned to Uganda, I promised Mother Mary that I will proclaim the word about her throughout the country, that I will spread her name. People are asking to come here. They would like to know where Medjugorje is. I do not think this is going to stop, people are going to continue coming here.”
Radio Mir Medjugorje is also interviewing people who walked to Medjugorje for this 31st Anniversary. Livia Cianni and Guido Piasnelli walked from Rome to Medjugorje. They started their journey on June 16 and they arrived on June 24, 2012, the evening before Our Lady’s Apparitions. These two pilgrims spoke about their pilgrimage and about the experience of Medjugorje. “Medjugorje was calling us, we were here in 2011, and we felt invitation because Medjugorje changed us. This is the centre of the spirituality. It was a long journey, but the heat was the worst”, said Livia and guido who already announced their next pilgrimage when more people plan to join them.
Davor Miksic, Mile Pavic and Vjeko Rimac walked 520 kilometres from Samobor, Croatia. They started their journey on June 12, 2012. “This is a great experience for us, we met wonderful people and this is thanksgiving to the Queen of Peace and to Jesus”, said three pilgrims from Samobor.
We should also mention a group of 22 pilgrims who walked from Rama in Bosnia and they walked for nearly two whole days. “We came to thank Our Lady; we are filled with Holy Spirit!”
Ivica Sapina walked from Bugojno for three days. “This is my 12th or 13th time to walk to Medjugorje. I do not find it hard, this is where I find true peace”, said Ivica. We also met a group of nine pilgrims from Livno and one 12 years-old boy was with them as well. A sixteen-years-old girl said that she nearly gave up, but at the end she continued because of the promise she made to Our Lady.
Medjugorje Official

Medjugorje: Our Lady's Message to Mirjana of July 2, 2012

"My children; "Again, in a motherly way, I implore you to stop for a moment and to reflect on yourselves and on the transience of this your earthly life. Then reflect on eternity and the eternal beatitude. What do you want? Which way do you want to set out on? The Father`s love sends me to be a mediatrix for you, to show you with motherly love the way which leads to the purity of soul; a soul unburdened by sin; a soul that will come to know eternity. I am praying that the light of the love of my Son may illuminate you, so that you may triumph over weaknesses and come out of misery. You are my children and I desire for all of you to be on the way of salvation. Therefore, my children, gather around me that I may have you come to know the love of my Son and thus open the door of eternal beatitude. Pray as I do for your shepherds. Again I caution you: do not judge them, because my Son chose them. Thank you."

Padre Pio’s Prophecies on Medjugorje

Posted on June 29, 2012 by daniel

Padre Pio

It is a known fact that two eminent blesseds (and future saints) of the twentieth-century, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, had a devotion to the apparitions in Medjugorje, reporting to unite themselves in prayer each day with the Madonna of Medjugorje. It is, however, a lesser known fact that Padre Pio, the great Italian mystic, stigmatic, and saint, also had a connection to the events in Medjugorje. Even though he died years before the apparitions began, Padre Pio made two magnificent prophecies regarding two separate mystical events that would come from Medjugorje: one regarded the apparitions, while the other regarded the weeping statue of the Madonna from Medjugorje that would gain international fame in Civitivecchia, Italy.

In 1994, Don Pablo Martin was the parish priest of Saint Agostino’s Church in the Pantano district of Civitivecchia in Italy, the area where the statue from Medjugorje—later dubbed “the Virgin of Civitivecchia”—would gain international attention. It was Don Pablo who, making a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in September of that year, bought a sixteen-inch, white plaster statue of the Virgin as a souvenir from Medjugorje.

It is interesting to note that, in his spiritual life, Don Pablo had a strong devotion to Padre Pio – even before Saint Pio was officially canonized by John Paul II in 2002. This devotion is noteworthy because Don Pablo credits Padre Pio’s intercession with helping him select that statue from Medjugorje that would weep tears of blood on 14 different occasions. It was Padre Pio who assured him, according to Don Pablo, that “the most beautiful event of his life” would result for selecting and buying that statue. The fact that Padre Pio had been dead since 1968 made this message—seemingly a spiritual communication—that much more interesting.

Yet, it deserves mention that even when Saint Pio walked the earth and greeted pilgrims in his friary, in San Giovanni Rotondo, he made what is believed to be a prophecy about the coming of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Medjugorje. In her book A Spark from Heaven, the BBC journalist Mary Craig reports that a few years before the apparitions in Medjugorje began, Padre Pio had told a group of pilgrims who were visiting him from the diocese of Mostar: “The Blessed Virgin Mary will soon be visiting your homeland.”
Medjugorje exists within the Mostar diocese, making Saint Pio’s prophecy that much more remarkable.

Of course, Padre Pio was a saint who was famous for his various spiritual gifts. God had given him incredible graces. He had, among other things, the ability to heal, the ability to read souls in the confessional, the ability to bilocate, the ability to experience visions of Jesus and Mary and his guardian angel, and – apparently – the ability to prophesy. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the great saint’s connection to Medjugorje, in both prophesying the coming of the Madonna’s apparitions and interceding in Don Pablo’s selection of the Marian statue that would shed tears, is a very plausible reality.

The bishop of Civitavecchia Gerolmo Grillo reported that in 1995, the same year that the statue from Medjugorje began crying tears of blood, Pope John Paul II asked to have the statue brought to the Vatican. When the statue was brought to the Holy See, John Paul II venerated the Madonna with great reverence, praying before the statue and, after his humble prayer, placing a crown on the head of the Virgin – a crown which the pope himself brought for the occasion.

Prayers Needed

An entire neighborhood burns near the foothills of Colorado Springs. The Waldo Canyon fire continues to burn northwest of Manitou Springs, Colorado. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

Radio Maria--Sacred Treasures with Kathie Duggan

Sacred Treasures is a weekly interview program on Radio Maria hosted by Kathie Duggan. Each week, Kathie interviews Catholics from around the world and all walks of life about their faith journey and work in building the Kingdom of God. Be sure to tune in each Monday at 3pm EST / 2pm CST for this live show.    http://radiomaria.us/sacredtreasures/

June 25, 2012 – Sr. Emmanuel Millard

// June 25th, 2012 //

The Queen of Peace messages to the world and the conversion stories from Sr. Emmanuel Millard testify to the fruits of conversion in this 31st anniversary talk from Medjugorje.

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Medjugorje 31st Anniversary Video-Our Gratitude

23/06/2012 01:57:49: The six visionaries talking with Our Lady

Daily Grace: Let Prayer Be The Joy Of Your Soul

Daily Grace: Let Prayer Be The Joy Of Your Soul: Dear children! With great hope in the heart, also today I call you to prayer. If you pray, little children, you are with me and you a...

Marija, Medjugorje Still At Early Stage

by Jakob Marschner

Clear majority of first time pilgrims, new conversions and fresh messages from the Virgin Mary show the events of Medjugorje are still in their first phase after 31 years, says visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti. Mary’s heart is big enough to embrace the whole world, Marija adds in Radio Maria talk.

Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti during an apparition in 2011

31 years after the first apparitions, the events of Medjugorje are yet to develop beyond their initial stage, visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti told Radio Maria on June 25.

“Despite the 31 years, would you say Medjugorje is still in the first phase?” Radio Maria director Fr. Livio Fanzaga asked.

Fr. Livio Fanzaga, director of Radio Maria

“True. We can tell from her “fresh” messages, and that 80 percent of the visitors are here for the first time. People are still coming from afar and converting, being healed, some beginning to walk the path of saints” Marija answered.

- Many priests regain enthusiasm.

“True, and I still find them saying “I would have been finished if not for Medjugorje.” They live the joy of God and transmit it.”

Mary’s heart can embrace the world

Marija on May 20 in Rho, Italy. Photo: Daniel Miot, guardacon.me

Marija was on the phone from Medjugorje and told of a very joyful atmosphere at the 31st anniversary:

“We have just gotten back from the Mass. At the end, after we sang Hail Queen of Peace, there was a grand applause as a big thank you to Our Lady. With the joy in our hearts of 31years of her presence and the gift that God gave us” the visionary said.

- Was she happy this evening?

“Joyful and with a heart big enough to embrace the whole world, not just us.“

“We are praying and living the joy of 31 years of apparitions. Last night we stayed up as a thanks for all Jesus gives us” Marija said.

Hill has lost rocks

Though some are missing, there are still many stones on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje

Always fond of anecdotes, the visionary also found time for one on June 25:

“A Spanish priest asked for a personal gift. I said fine and gave him a rock from Apparition Hill, something from Our Lady. Seems like I gave a thousand away. Now the hill has less. They have gone to all parts of the world!” Marija told.

- Yes, the hill seems to have lost some.

“Our Lady was generous to choose a hill with so many rocks.”

Antonio Miraldi transcribed and translated from Italian

http://is.gd/XYpyQK