40th Anniversary of Medjugorje
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The reported apparitions of Mary, the Mother of God, to six visionaries in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Hercegovina, beginning June 24, 1981 and continuing to this very day
The Church has not rendered a final decision on these apparitions because they continue, and the Church must wait for their conclusion.
However, Archbishop Henryk Hoser (Poland) head of the Ruini Commission established by Pope Benedict XVI stated: The commission established by Pope Benedict XVI to study the alleged apparitions of Mary at Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, voted overwhelmingly to recognize as real and supernatural the first seven apparitions…
May 12, 2019, the Vatican officially authorized pilgrimage to Medjugorje and designated the parish church of St. James in Medjugorje a pontifical shrine under the oversight of the Vatican.
John Paul II commented to the Archbishop of Slovakia, Pavel Hnilca: “Medjugorje is the continuation of Fatima, it is the completion of Fatima.” (Slovimir Oder, Why He is a Saint p. 169)
If you would like to learn more about Medjugorje
· Rene Laurentin: Is the Virgin Mary Appearing at Medjugorje?
· Read the books or watch the lectures on Medjugorje by Dr. Mark Miravalle on You Tube
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The Essence of the Message of Medjugorje is Conversion
God is Real – Mary appears as His Witness
On June 16, 1983 she said: I have come to tell the world: God is truth. He exists. In him is true happiness and abundance of life. I present myself here as the Queen of Peace to tell the world that peace is necessary for the salvation of the world. In God is found true joy from which true peace flows.
Our Mother comes begging us to be Converted and Return to God
“Be Converted!” Our Lady tells us, “It will be too late when the sign comes. Beforehand, several warnings will be given to the world. Have people hurry to be converted. I need your prayers and your penance…The only thing that I would want to tell you is be converted. Make that known to all my children as quickly as possible. No pain, no suffering is too great to me to save you…You cannot imagine what is going to happen nor what the Eternal Father will send to earth. That is why you must be converted.”
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Mary has encouraged us to take up five “stones” to bring about our conversion and to overcome evil in our lives
· like the “five stones,” by which David brought down Goliath:
1. The Sacrament of Confession
a. Dear children! In the great love of God, I come to you today to lead you on the way of humility and meekness. The first station on that way, my children, is confession. Reject your pride and kneel down before my Son. (July 2, 2007)
b. The West has made civilization progress, but without God, as if they were their own creators…Monthly Confessions will be a remedy for the church in the west… whole sections of the Church could be cured if the believers would go to Confession once a month.
2. Prayer “Dear children, I beseech you to begin to convert yourselves through prayer, then you will know what you must do.”
a. Pray the Rosary every day
b. Be more generous, spend more time in friendship with God in prayer each day
3. Read and Meditate on Scripture / the Word of God each day
a. We always find time to read and listen to human and secular voices
b. We should spend at least as much time, if not more Listening to and thinking about what God is saying to us
4. Fasting
a. Our Lady at Medjugorje has asked for a bread and water fast on Wednesdays and Fridays.
b. Fasting is the way to harness our desires and direct them to God, who alone can satisfy all our desires
i. I think we need a fast from our screens for a time each day…
5. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
Let Mass be your life.
“May the Mass, the most exalted and most powerful act of your prayer, be the center of your spiritual life.” (August 2, 2008)
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The 10 Secrets
Our Lady is to give each of the Visionaries 10 secrets to be revealed to the world.
· Mirjana, Jakov, and Ivanka have received all ten secrets,
· Marija, Vicka, and Ivan have received nine secrets
o Our Lady still appears to them at 6:40pm every day wherever they are
The first two are warnings that invite conversion before it is too late.
The 3rd secret is a sign of hope
· A supernatural, permanent and indestructible sign
· on Apparition Hill where she first appeared.
Each of the 10 Secrets will be revealed to the world in this way:
· 10 days before the date of the event foretold in the secret, Mirjana is to tell the priest that has already been chosen, what will happen and when
· Mirjana and the priest are to pray and fast for 7 days
· Then, 3 days before the event, the priest will reveal the secret to the world
Friday October 25, 1985
Mirjana relates: When she appeared the Blessed Virgin greeted me, Praised be Jesus.
Then she spoke of unbelievers saying,
They are my children. I suffer because of them. They do not know what awaits them. You must pray more for them.’
…Then she showed me, as in a film, the realization of the first secret. The earth was desolate. Our Lady said:
It is the upheaval of a region of the world.
I cried, “Why so soon,” I asked?
To which Our Lady responded: In the world there are so many sins. What can I do if you do not help me. Remember that l love you.
How can God have such a hard heart? Mirjana protested.
God does not have a hard heart. Our Lady responded, Look around you and see what men do, then you will no longer say that God has a hard heart. How many people come to church, to the house of God with respect, a strong faith and love for God? Very few! Here you have a time of grace and conversion. It is necessary to use it well.
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What is the purpose of the Secrets?
If we consider the 10 secrets of Medjugorje in the context of the messages of Our Lady at Fatima, Akita and Kibeho then
· the secrets seem to allude to a dramatic world-wide purification.
What is the purpose of the Purification and why warn the world ahead of time?
God does not punish mankind
· God leaves mankind free to do good or evil
· Good choices result in good consequences collectively
· Evil choices cause evil consequences world-wide…
o Wars; famine; natural disasters and persecutions are all ultimately the result of evil
The Purpose of the Message of Purification or Chastisement is two-fold:
A. It is a call to conversion before it is too late
B. It is a call for us to get in the game and do all that we can to help Jesus and Mary rescue souls and change the tide of world events.
The explanation Cardinal Ratzinger gave when he revealed to the world the third part of the secret of Fatima gives us an insight to the Purpose of the Secrets of Medjugorje - he said:
“In this way, the importance of human freedom is underlined: the future is not in fact unchangeably set, and the image that the children saw is in no way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed.
Indeed, the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction. The purpose of the vision is not to show a film of an irrevocably fixed future. Its meaning is exactly the opposite: it is meant to mobilize the forces of change in the right direction. Therefore we must totally discount fatalistic explanations of the secret…Rather, the vision speaks of dangers and how we might be saved from them.”
The future is not irrevocably set
· We can change world events and help save souls
· If we answer the call of Our Lady by
o Turning away from sin and turning back to God
o By taking up the Five Stones
o By helping others through our Families and Friendships
The only thing Mirjana will say about the secrets is this: “Our Lady is planning to change the world. She did not come to announce our destruction; she came to save us, and with her Son, she will triumph over evil.”
Medjugorie Apparitions
At Medjugorje Our Lady is Reported to have said: “What I started in Fatima, I will complete in Medjugorje. My heart will triumph.”
Mirjana emphasized:
“If the heart of our mother will triumph, then we don’t need to be afraid of anything. It is only important to put our life in her hands and not to think about the secrets. We should think about the messages and what she has asked us to do, so that we can help her Immaculate Heart to triumph.”
Gratitude
It is not the Secrets or some threat of Divine Punishment that should motivate us to change our lives.
Mary comes to remind us:
God is real.
He created me in His image
We have an immortal soul
Jesus died and rose for me
And He placed His divine life in my soul
Making me an adopted son of the Father
Sharing His divine nature
Until now, most of us have spent all our energy trying to make ourselves relevant, to give ourselves some value.
Well, you don’t have to make yourself valuable.
God already did that.
Now I know who I am – a son of the Father.
I am not responding to some threat of punishment…
I want to respond in Gratitude to all God has done for me.
For he who is mighty has done great things for me and Holy is His name.
Passive Purification
God must begin and bring to completion our conversion, purification and divinization
Our job is to cooperate
How do we cooperate?...Taking up the 5 Stones
Problem – we decide how far we will go and then draw the line
Most people think they are “good.”
They won’t convert any further by their own choice or effort
That is why God allows
· The passive purgation of the senses and the spirit for those pursuing holiness
· That is why God allows addicts to hit rock bottom
· That is why God allows the world to inflict upon itself a chastisement