Medjugorje Website Updates

Mgr. Hermann Reich: I was struck by the main theme of our Lady’s messages, which is peace. Then, there is always again the question of conversion and confession. These are the main themes. I am also struck by the fact that she always comes back to the theme of prayer: do not be tired; pray, pray; decide yourselves for prayer; pray better. I think that there is much prayer, but maybe people do not pray in the right way. There is much prayer, there is quantity but, in many ways, there is a lack of quality. I think that we have, according to the desire of Our Lady, not to pray less but to improve the quality. We have to pray better.

Mario Vuknic: Medjugorje is an invitation to a change of life, to put prayer in life, to a change that requires great efforts… There is always a fear of losing old habits. However, in changing our life, we receive much, much more: a greater fullness of life. Medjugorje is a place where miracles do happen. This is a fact. We are witnesses. And I know many others.

Lidija Paris-Brajša: What do you think about ecumenism? Sometimes it seems that it is easier in countries where there is a religion representing the majority, and several religions representing minorities… Where the number of the faithful is equal, it seems to be more difficult…

Abba Nicolas Hakim: I will tell you one thing: we have to pray! Meetings are not enough: we have to pray much. Prayer unites the whole Church. If the Holy Spirit leads me, I am united to all. One Spirit makes one Church. In the same Spirit, there are no enemies. You are my spirit - I am your spirit. Only if the Holy Spirit permeates the whole Church, will it be one. The superiors and those responsible have to invoke the Holy Spirit, and if they are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Church will be one ipso facto. The Pope said: if the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts, the Church becomes one. Unity is very simple: it is the Holy Spirit in our hearts. There is something, which splits the Church: it is sin. Pride. Authority.

Fr. John Cooper: I think that there is a strong connection between praying and faith. The more you pray, the more you grow in faith. But also, I encourage people to pray for the gift of faith. People pray for material things, but how many pray to have a strong faith, for ability to love their husband or wife? When we pray for the spiritual gifts, which are necessary, God always answers our prayers. Many people come to me and say their faith is growing weaker. I tell them to pray for a stronger faith, to get into the habit of daily prayer, to take daily prayer seriously, to pray about faults they have. We need to relate confession to daily life.

Manuel Reato (23), a student of theology from Torino, has come several times to Medjugorje. Medjugorje has changed his life. Our Lady’s messages have deeply touched his heart and he believes that they are important for the whole world. Manuel is trying to live Our Lady’s message in his daily life. In Medjugorje, he has learned to seek God, here, he has learned how to pray. Although he is in a wheelchair since his early childhood, Manuel feels a call to become a priest.

One thing we can do is that each one of us tries as best as he can to live the messages, which the Queen of Peace gives us so patiently and tirelessly. Another thing we can do is to take care that the original message is not being falsified or obscured in the Medjugorje centres and prayer groups. Medjugorje is not just any pious prayer movement. The program of Medjugorje is not simply that of any popular mission, as it is from time to time presented to our communities. It is good to pray, to fast, to go to holy mass, to go to confession regularly, to read Sacred Scriptures. But, if we do not understand that, despite all personal piety, we are dealing here with total peace and conversion, then we have not yet correctly understood the essence of the Medjugorje message.

For me, Medjugorje is like a source of fresh water, where I come to drink, and to feel the power of God and the strength of Our Lady. The world we live in is different, very rough; there are so many things that surround us, that are offered to us, and that are happening, and there is so little presence of God in them. There are so many things that we still have to learn… Each time I come to Medjugorje, I learn something new.

Fr. Roman Grüter: I noticed that many people who come to Medjugorje seek healing of the body, of the soul, of the spirit. This is similar in all places of pilgrimages, but here it is especially strong. People seek to be transformed, renewed, healed in the deepest sense of the word; this is very important for people. I think that we should encourage them and help them in this process, and we need to give them good spiritual guides and help on this way.

Fra Tomislav Pervan: Medjugorje began with the laity, with ordinary children, it was brought to the laity and it was they who first beleived and only then was it passed on to the priests. And today it is the laity who bring the Medjugorje movement to the whole world. It is really the laity who hundreds of times cross even oceans to come to Medjugorje. When I ask them why they come so often to Medjugorje, and why they bring pilgrims to these parts which aren't safe, they reply that they do it because they see changes in people. Spiritual changes.

Interview by Marijan Sivric

Vicka Ivankovic: "She would like us to accept the message with our hearts and to live them. Often we accept the message, we begin to live it, but then we get tired and we remain the way we were before. And Our Lady would like that everyday we live her messages a little bit and that we would make progress in our lives."

Mons. George Tracy: Medjugorje began to have a great influence when I came here for the first time and it has continued. It has taught me in the depth of my being to live in the Immaculate Heart of Mary along with the Sacred Heart of her Son, which are the two Hearts that are central in my work in the “Cor Christi”. I have developed in my heart a real sense for the teachings of Grignon de Montfort, who is Mary’s child: To put my heart into her heart when I have to get in the Heart of Christ. I want to be Mother Mary’s child.

Mary says always again in her messages: Open your hearts! From the psychological point of view, I know that, because of our wounds, we develop mechanisms to defend ourselves. Out of fear, we have built up defence mechanisms that impede us to be able to trust blindly. If a person, as a child, has been rejected by the parents, he/she cannot believe that God will not reject him/her. Or if someone was beaten by the father, it is difficult to believe that God wants no harm on him/her. For people with these kinds of wounds, each step of the opening of the heart, each time, is an act of trust, a step in faith. In Medjugorje, Mary heals our hearts so that this path of opening and trust may become possible again, that we may receive a greater share of the fullness of the grace of God.

What I like in Medjugorje is that visionaries are also witnesses. They accept to give witness, they accept to transmit Our Lady’s message. They are missionaries and this is the characteristic of Our Lady’s apparitions in last 30 years. Bernadette entered into a convent, but these visionaries are educated by Our Lady to be evangelisators. It was wonderful when I was in the USA, at the Notre-Dame University, with Ivan. I was giving talks, he was giving talks, and it was wonderful: myself as a catholic priest and he as a child of God in a direct connection with heaven. It is wonderful.

I have learned one thing from Mother Teresa: it is not important what we expect and what we desire. The only important is to confide oneself to the guidance of Jesus and of Mary. There are surely people who come with some big problem, but the biggest problem is always lack of holiness! We surely bring with us people who entrust themselves into our prayer, but we should not limit the Lord and Our Lady to the gifts they give us.

The Holy Father John Paul II published on October 16, 2002 the Apostolic Letter on the Most Holy Rosary under the title, “Rosarium Virginis Mariae”, where he also proclaims a year of the Holy Rosary, beginning today and running through the same date next year. The Holy Father asks that the Rosary be prayed particularly for the causes of world peace and the strengthening of family life. In this document, the Pope proposes five new mysteries of the Rosary under the name “luminous mysteries” or “mysteries of light”.