THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE P.O. BOX 6614 ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA

Transcription

1 THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE P.O. BOX 6614 ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA SUBSCRIPTION RATE - FREE WILL OFFERING - PLEASE SEE PAGE 8 If this is the first time you have received this newsletter, and you would like a Beginner s Guide, please contact us for one. EDITOR: JUNE KLINS EDITOR EMERITUS: JOAN WIESZCZYK SPIRITUAL ADVISOR jklins1981@verizon.net FR. WILLIAM KIEL VOL. 27, NO. 1 PUBLISHED MONTHLY January 2014 CURRENT MONTHLY MESSAGE OF DECEMBER 25, 2013 ON THE 25TH DAY OF EACH MONTH, THE BLESSED VIRGIN GIVES A MESSAGE TO THE VISIONARY, MARIJA, THAT IS TO BE GIVEN TO THE WORLD. A picture from a store at the foot of Mt. Krizevac Dear children! I am carrying to you the King of Peace that He may give you His peace. You, little children, pray, pray, pray. The fruit of prayer will be seen on the faces of the people who have decided for God and His Kingdom. I, with my Son Jesus, bless you all with a blessing of peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.

2 When we give this greeting to others, what are we really saying? Wishing a person a Blessed New Year hopefully means a year filled with many of God s graces ones for which we pray, and ones that God knows we need. Happiness Fr. Bill Kiel is a greeting we wish for others for many occasions during our lifetime, especially for personal and family celebrations, such as, Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Happy Valentine s Day, Happy Feast Day, Happy Easter. Do we think of the word new? Are we wishing just a new calendar year of blessings and happiness, or are we wishing the person to become an all-encompassing new person? Let us look at ourselves as we go into a new calendar year and what will be involved for us to become new or better persons. If we evaluate our lives, we may want to change our appearance, our jobs, our personalities to become more pleasant and patient, our eating habits, our use of time, or our prayer lives. Am I thinking about just what I want? Should I be thinking, What do I need to change? What will set me free? Do I begin with being more forgiving? Do I begin with letting go of habits that bind me to sin? Do I begin by praying to know the will of God for my life? Blessed and Happy New Year! By Fr. Bill Kiel An in-depth examination of conscience will greatly help in a self- evaluation for need to change. Before doing the examination of conscience, we should pray for the grace to let go of pride and be able to see our sinfulness as God sees us! As we evaluate our lives, we need to remember God has given each of us a role in His design for salvation. Prayer is necessary to comprehend what God s plan is for us; through prayer we will be more open to know and cooperate with God for peace and everything that is good. Also, remember our lives do not belong to us, but are a gift that helps bring joy to others and leads them to eternal life. This is extremely important to remember in our world today! Thinking of a new me or a new world must involve God. If we try to do it alone, with our own strength, we will fail, be unsatisfied, and lack joy in the heart. The word conversion is not often used for a new year s greeting, but is in the meaning for greeting someone to become a new person. So, with God s help, let this new calendar year of 2014 be a year of conversion and deeper relationship with God. Let the results just not be our words of what we feel inside, but lives we live! May God continue to bless you with many graces, fill each day with happiness of knowing Him, and transform you through daily conversion into a new person. Shalom! Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:18-19) The one who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. (Rev 21:5) Dear children! In a special way today I desire to call you to conversion. As of today, may new life begin in your heart (March 25, 2011) Dear children, with a motherly love and a motherly patience I am looking at your ceaseless wandering and how lost you are. That is why I am with you. I desire to help you to first find and come to know yourself, so that, then, you would be able to recognize and to admit everything that does not permit you to get to know the love of the Heavenly Father, honestly and wholeheartedly. My children, the Father comes to be known through the cross. Therefore, do not reject the cross. Strive to comprehend and accept it with my help. When you will be able to accept the cross you will also understand the love of the Heavenly Father; you will walk with my Son and December 2, 2013 Message through Mirjana Mirjana with her interpreter, Miki Musa, looking on. with me; you will differ from those who have not come to know the love of the Heavenly Father, those who listen to Him but do not understand Him, those who do not walk with Him - who have not come to know Him. I desire for you to come to know the truth of my Son and to be my apostles; that, as children of God, you may rise above the human way of thinking and always, and in everything, seek God s way of thinking, anew. My children, pray and fast that you may be able to recognize all of this which I am seeking of you. Pray for your shepherds and long to come to know the love of your Heavenly Father, in union with them. Thank you. We are thankful for the many helpers we had for our December mailing: Susannah Klins, Sue Kirby, Mary Tirak, Rose Leach, Cindy Bielanin, JoAnne Warren, Marge Spase, Vickie DeCoursey, Barb Sirianni, Marian Hoppe, Lore Blair, Kathy Luschini, Celeste Migneault, Sally Dugan, Jean and Dave Heid, Laura DiBacco, Julie Hansen, Janet Arment, and Mary Agnes Lukachik. We also thank Pat Berrier, our proofreader, Michael K. Jones, our webmaster, and Anita Cugini for making more prayer cloths. THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE January 2014

3 Conversation with Jakov Colo The following was excerpted with permission from the book, A Conversation with the Visionaries, by Kresimir Sego. From the very first days on, there were various accusations that you were liars, that you made the whole matter up, that you were all hallucinating, that drugs played a role in all this, that you were put up to it by someone Were you afraid of such stories, of all the medical examinations, of the interrogations by the militia, and also by people from within the Church? We absolutely felt no fear, as God gave us strength, and the Gospa was with us. Sometimes I got angry because they accused a young boy, who was telling the truth, that he was a liar; it is normal that this made me angry. We tried so hard to convince people that we were not liars, that we really see the Gospa. As I grew older, I realized that people cannot be convinced with words to believe; we can only pray for them, and that is what we do. Faith in God is something that every person needs to find within his own heart. The day after your last apparition, you had a prayer program scheduled to take place in Haiti. Were you in doubt as to whether you should go or not? After the last apparition, I wanted to block out everything. I didn t feel like going to that prayer meeting. I constantly thought about why I should go, since I no longer saw the Gospa every day. I felt an agonizing pain in my heart. However, it was difficult to tell the people, who had planned this event for over a year, that I would not be going. I prayed and asked the Gospa for help. I left everything in God s hands and went to the prayer meeting. This is one of the poorest places on earth, but between 70,000 and 80,000 people turned up. Seeing such joy and such a yearning for God people were praying and singing, even though some of them may have had nothing to eat that day I realized that prayer was their food. I realized that many were wealthier than we, even though they were poor. They were wealthy because they had God. I recognized the Gospa in every person that was at the prayer meeting. I saw the Gospa was there, even though I couldn t see Her. She was there with me. How did you get through the next days? They must have seemed completely empty to you. Through prayer and only prayer. Jakov Mirjana has all 10 secrets written down on a piece of parchment. How do you keep your secrets? What are they written on? My secrets are not written anywhere. I have them memorized. As the secrets are secrets, you cannot talk about them. However, all the visionaries have confirmed that the third secret is the same for all the sign on Apparition Hill. Did you see the sign and do you know when it will take place? Yes, I do know when it will take place, and yes, I have seen the sign. Is it difficult to keep these secrets? Are you ever tempted to talk about them in detail? No, this has never happened, and I tell the pilgrims not to think of them, but to pray instead. As I have already mentioned our greatest secret is to be ready to step before God at every moment. Every person who knows God and who lives with God does not need to be afraid of anything. As soon as the secrets are mentioned, catastrophes and wars come to mind. It is better to think of positive things, to think of one s own life because, if we have God in our life, we do not need to fear anything. Why do people have such cold hearts and do not see these fruits? Is it not enough to see so many people at the church in Medjugorje, so many waiting in line for Confession, many in wheelchairs, so many priests at the altar, thousands of faithful at Holy Mass, tens of thousands of young people from all over the world who come here to pray in the hot sun instead of going to the beaches, so many people praying on Apparition Hill and on Cross Mountain, and the many priests who felt their calling precisely here in Medjugorje? This question should be asked of these people; I often ask myself why people have such cold hearts. The Gospa has been with us for 27 [32] years. She calls us Her dear children and She always thanks us at the end of each apparition. She thanks us; instead, we should thank God and the Gospa for Her presence here We must pray for these people, because She has said that even wars can be stopped through prayer and fasting. I am sure that these people can experience change with the help of our prayers. Jakov s Message of December 25, 2013 At the last daily apparition to Jakov Colo on September 12th, 1998, Our Lady told him that henceforth he would have one apparition a year, every December 25th, on Christmas Day. This is also how it was this year. The apparition began at 3:07 p.m. and lasted 8 minutes. Afterwards Jakov transmitted the message: Little children, today in a special way, Jesus desires to come to dwell in each of your hearts and to share with you your every joy and pain. Therefore, little children, today in a special way, peer into your hearts and ask yourselves if the peace and joy of the birth of Jesus have truly taken hold of your hearts. Little children, do not live in darkness, aspire towards the light and towards God s salvation. Children, decide for Jesus and give Him your life and your hearts, because only in this way will the Most High be able to work in you and through you. January THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE

4 God Always Brings Good out of Bad By June Klins Recently, I was asked how I got involved in Medjugorje. I have shared parts of my story before, but never felt prompted to share the whole thing until December 8, 2013, as I was praying near the statue of Our Lady in our Adoration Chapel. My life changed forever on November 9, That was the day my father-in-law took his own life, after having lived 45 years with constant phantom pains from an amputated leg. My family, which to this point, had been the storybook family (or so we had been told) fell apart from all the anger and hurt. The following year was the worst year of my life I cried enough tears to fill a small pond. My mother suggested that I pray the Rosary, so I took out my First Communion rosary which was buried in my bottom drawer, and began to pray with it again. Three months later, a priest at the school where I taught part-time, offered to say a Mass for my father-in-law. It was after this Mass that I decided to go to Mass a few times a week that year for Lent. I quickly got addicted and found myself going every day. The Rosary led me to daily Mass. Our Lady always leads us to Jesus! Things began to improve somewhat and, in gratitude, I decided to visit some patients in a nearby nursing home that year on Christmas Eve. One of the patients I visited was non-responsive, but her roommate, who had Alzheimer s, kept talking to me, but made absolutely no sense. All of a sudden, she looked me right in the eye and said, You don t have to worry about anything anymore. God is taking care of you. I could not hold back the tears. I knew that God was speaking to me through her. Less than three weeks later, on January 11, 1997, my husband and I were walking in our local mall, when my right foot went numb. Minutes later, both my hands went numb. I thought I was having a stroke, so we went home and called the doctor. The doctor who was oncall that night called back at about 10 P.M. and said not to worry. The next day, I noticed on the caller-id that the doctor had called me from the same exact nursing home where that lady told me not to worry. What are the chances of that? What doctor visits nursing homes at 10:00 P.M. on a Saturday night? After three weeks, the numbness, which was in both hands and now both feet, went into a burning sensation that was excruciating. At its worst, which was most of the time, sitting comfortably was even a challenge. Sometimes I would even begin to shake uncontrollably because of the intense pain. During all this time, as my symptoms baffled doctor upon doctor, my family and friends continued to pray for my recovery. The following year, my mother s friend sent her a medal of Our Lady of Medjugorje to give to me. Five days after I had received the medal, Our Lady led me to an answer through the Internet. As I had suspected all along, my problem was Our Lady of La Leche Shrine a hormone imbalance. This condition is known as estrogen dominance, and is a widespread problem today because of the exposure to so many chemicals. That day I began using a topical natural progesterone cream, purchased in a health food store, and the healing process began that very night. By the end of the week I was able to walk up and down every aisle in the grocery store something I hadn t been able to do for a year. I knew that it was Our Lady who pointed me in the right direction, especially when I realized that the day my mother gave me the medal was January 11, 1998 exactly one year after my problems began. For Valentine s Day that year, my husband had given me his bonus check from work and said that I could use it for my mother and I to go on a pilgrimage. By that point I was on my way to recovery, and I wanted to go and give thanks for my healing. My husband thought it was too dangerous to go to Medjugorje at the time, so I did not even consider it. We were mostly interested in Guadalupe, Fatima, Lourdes, and Betania. After all, it is the same Blessed Mother! However, every time we would find a pilgrimage that looked good, it was either full or cancelled. This kept happening over and over. I stopped looking, though, when my mother came down with a strange virus that affected her vision and we had no idea how long it would last. I just felt it was not in God s timing. In May of that year, our son was going to be graduating from basic training at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Since the graduation date was a few days after Memorial Day, and I was doing so much better, we decided to make a little vacation of it and go to St. Augustine, Florida for a few days. I felt a calling to go there because my mother kept sending me information on the little Marian shrine there the oldest Marian shrine in the United States. On the Sunday before Memorial Day, we visited the shrine, which is called Our Lady of La Leche. We went into the little chapel and I filmed it with our video camera. Then we walked around the rest of the mission grounds, taking in its beauty and historical significance. Later on that evening, it began to bother me that while I was at the shrine, I never lit a candle for my mother who was having a problem with her eyesight, nor did I even say a prayer. So I asked my husband (who is not Catholic) if we could go back to the shrine again before leaving for Georgia. He graciously agreed. We decided not to go until Tuesday though, because there was a festival on the mission grounds, and we wanted to go when it was more peaceful. When we arrived at the shrine that Tuesday, we were the only ones there. But when I went over to the religious store adjacent to the shrine to purchase a candle, a man and a woman walked into the shrine and sat down. After I went back to the shrine, as I was lighting the candles, THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE January 2014

5 the man said to me, Have you ever heard of Medjugorje? I proceeded to tell them about the medal I had received from my mother s friend and about my healing. After I finished my story, the woman reached into her purse and gave me a gold medal with a beautiful picture of Our Lady on it. She told me that the medal was from Medjugorje and it had been blessed by Our Lady during one of Her apparitions. Then the man told us about the time that Our Lady appeared right there in the shrine when visionary Vicka was visiting. He showed us his rosary which had turned gold, and told us he had seen the sun spin, and had even video-taped it. He said to me, Don t be surprised if your rosary turns gold. Then he invited me to pray the Rosary with them, since the reason they were there was for their weekly prayer group. After the Rosary, he remarked that it was odd that only two other people had shown up that day, when they usually have 15 or 20. In hindsight, I think that it was all part of God s plan. If the others had all shown up, these people might not have ever spoken to us. An hour or two into our ride to Ft. Benning, my husband said, Take out your rosary, and see if it turned gold. I was flabbergasted when I saw that my rosary had, indeed, turned gold! I couldn t help but wonder why this had happened. After we came back from Florida and Georgia, my mother s vision was improving (maybe because of the prayers on our second trip to the shrine), so I began to look into pilgrimages again. I got on the Internet, and found a pilgrimage to Fatima, Lourdes, Medjugorje, and Rome that sounded enticing. I ed and asked about it, and a woman named Sandy sent me the phone number for the travel agency. As I had suspected, it was full. I wrote to Sandy and told her to keep me informed of any future pilgrimages. A few days later, Sandy wrote and told me that the travel agency was going to try to see if my mother and I could go on just part of the pilgrimage. It never occurred to me that you could go on part of a pilgrimage. That afternoon, a woman from the travel agency called and said, Sandy and Fr. Ken are pressuring us to find two seats to Medjugorje for you and your mother. I could not believe my ears! I had never even communicated with Fr. Ken! I knew in my heart that we were supposed to go on this trip, even though we had never even considered going to Medjugorje in the first place. How could I say no? (I felt more at ease about going there at this point, because when we were at Ft. Benning, I had read an article in the base newspaper about how peaceful it was in Bosnia since the war ended.) I called my husband at work and then my mother. Soon after, a man from the travel agency called back, and said he already had us booked on the flights! This was before I confirmed anything with the agency! Good thing we had already gotten our passports, because the pilgrimage was only two weeks away! I hung up the phone wondering why we were booked on this flight. Why were we invited to Medjugorje? What did Our Lady want of me? At this point, I really did not know a lot about Medjugorje, but I did know, from the little reading I had done, that miracles occurred there. I went to Medjugorje expecting to see a lot of miracles because it was anniversary time. Soon after we arrived, my mother s rosary turned gold. On numerous occasions, most everyone in our group saw the sun spin, but neither of us did. We were not disappointed though. We both felt we were at the edge of Heaven; the peace we experienced was indescribable, and we did not want to leave. We both cried as the bus pulled away from St. James This pilgrimage had been such a blessing, but what did Our Lady want me to do with this awesome gift? Although I did not realize it at the time, the plan began to unfold on our first full day in Medjugorje. When we went to visionary Mirjana s house to hear her speak, a man I did not know walked up to me and asked me why I was not taking notes. He said, You are a teacher. You should be taking notes. I asked the man how he knew I was a teacher, and he replied, I don t know. You look like a teacher. From that point on, I took notes at every talk we attended. When I returned home and told my story to a lady at church, she gave me a copy of The Spirit of Medjugorje newsletter, and suggested that I send in my testimony. I had never even heard of The Spirit of Medjugorje, even though it had been published in my city since I sent in some of my writings from the notes I took in Medjugorje. A few days later, the editor, Joan Wieszczyk, called and wanted to meet me. She began using my articles in almost every issue. I went back to Medjugorje the following year and gathered more material for the newsletter, and continued to write. In 2001, Joan made me co-editor and asked me to take over as editor if anything ever happened to her. In 2002, she suffered a heart attack and the newsletter fell into my lap. After her heart surgery, Joan made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje to pray about Apparition Hill in 1998 her retirement. When she returned, she made it official and I became the editor. I am so grateful that Our Lady healed me and invited me to Medjugorje and then asked me to help Her to spread Her messages. In my gratitude, I began to try to live Our Lady s messages as best as I could. I could fill a book with all the wonderful blessings I have gotten over the years. Of course, I have had my share of trials, but the lessons I have learned through Our Lady have helped me to deal with them. One important lesson that I have learned is that God always brings good out of bad. For example, my father-inlaw s suicide, which was devastating to our family, became a catalyst for my conversion. Suffering can make you bitter or better. Thanks to Our Lady, it made me better. And then through my new Medjugorje friends, I learned about Gregorian Masses, and had them said for my father-in-law. I later received a sign that he was safely Home. Isn t that awesome? God always brings good out of bad. I will always be grateful to Our Lady of Medjugorje. Editor s note: In 2011, I started a group to pray for those who are suicidal and the souls in Purgatory who have committed suicide. You can visit the website at January THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE

6 For a number of years now, we have been randomly choosing the name of a saint to be our holy protector for the year. St. Faustina s community used to do this every year on New Year s Day. This can be a fun and educational thing to do with your family, friends, prayer group, or parish. Almost always, there is a connection between the saint and the person or organization who randomly picked it. Sometimes you might not see it at first, but throughout the year, if you read about your saint, you will usually discover it. What is especially heartening is the fact that the saint does not leave you at the end of the year. So, if you do this every year, you will eventually have a whole army of holy helpers protecting you! Although any list of saints can be used, there is a good one on this site: The tradition goes that it is the saint who chooses you, not the other way around. The saint ishes to help you. As we pray with the saint every day, that saint will pray for us and help us. On August 25, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI you. recommended choosing a special saint Patron Saint for 2014 By June Klins as a model. Speaking in his General Audience, the Pope encouraged everyone to have a devotion to a particular saint, so that the saint can intercede but also be a model to imitate. In Her message of October 25, 2010, Our Lady said, Pray and seek the intercession of all the saints. May they be for you an example, an incentive and a joy towards eternal life. My grandson, Thomas, picked the saint for The Spirit of Medjugorje this year St. Jerome. This was a great pick because St. Jerome is known for his love of the Scriptures. St. Jerome said, Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. Our Lady has asked us to read from the Bible every day, so St. Jerome will help us to do that. If you have access to the Internet, a good way to study the Gospels this year is by signing up at A short Gospel reading and commentary will be sent straight to your inbox every day. If you read that little bit each day, you ll have studied all four Gospels of the Holy Bible in a year! Fr. Jozo s Reflections on the Daily Reading of the Scriptures by Louise Lotze While reading from the book, Meetings with Fra Jozo, by Sabrina Covic-Radojicic, it is no surprise to me as to why God placed Fr. Jozo as the pastor at St. James Church for the arrival of Our Lady as Queen of Peace. Fr. Jozo so humbly and eloquently explains Our Lady s messages and Her requests in a clear and simple manner. I am in awe as I read and listen to him, as he truly is inspired by the Holy Spirit. He prays and contemplates over Her messages and one can truly sense that he feels Her in his heart, his life, his soul, his body, and his spirit (which he himself relates). Anyone who has heard Fr. Jozo speak in his soft-spoken voice to pilgrims at Tihaljina or Siroki Brijeg, knows this from experience. There is an aura in his dignified posture, and he tends to give his speeches an intimate touch. I d like to share what he has to say about Scripture reading because it gave me new meaning to Our Lady s request: The word of God is always alive, creational, almighty. Even when it is closed in a book, it is like a prisoner in prison isolated, disdained, abandoned. The task of God s word is to be with man, in man, in the tabernacle of the human heart, in the life of every man. It creates man, educates man, blesses man and fills him with peace. It is communication of God and man. From the beginning, Our Lady has been asking us to read the Bible every day. If we analyze Her messages, then we find the expression every day in two messages: for the recitation of the Rosary and the reading of the Bible. The reader must be in the mood in which Samuel was, when Eli instructed him: Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. In our everyday life we have to find time, to give God a chance to speak to us: Speak, Lord, we The tradition goes that it is the saint who chooses you, not the other way around. The saint wishes to help want to hear Your voice, Your word in our families, in our hearts, in our souls, in our homes. The Word of God is alive. It is an immeasurable gift, a great grace. Anointed with the Holy Spirit, it continues working, living in us and bearing immensely great fruit. The Word of God irresistibly asks of us to be accepted and received, to be embodied, to be given a figure in our life, to make it recognizable, visible. The Bible is not like a human word something acoustic, informative, but it is creative, gracious. It is life-giving. The Bible is not a book, it is a Person. Therefore it is God. It is God s speech and God s communication with man. When we read the Scriptures before prayer, then a climate is created, a divine disposition in us, and an incentive from the Holy Spirit to thank, to honor, to bless God. When we read Scriptures, then the Word of God falls into the depths of our hearts, our minds, where it germinates, grows and bears gracious fruit. In his Letter on the Rosary, the Pope (John Paul II) gives six pieces of advice for good prayer. The first advice is to take the Bible before the recitation of the Rosary, open a text, read a passage, and stop in the silence of our heart. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you and take you before the face of the Lord, just as a child finds itself before the figure of its father. When we hold the Bible in our hands, then we are like the old man Simeon who takes Jesus in his hands to present Him to the Lord. The Bible is a book where the living God is present. The Bible has a heart, it breathes, it lives. After each reading, kiss the Bible. It is a kiss to Jesus who spoke to us, and in this way we want to say: Lord, Your Word remains in my heart, and I will reflect on it like the Blessed Virgin, I will live it. Editor s note: Louise is from Ashtabula, OH THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE January 2014

7 Our Lady continues to call on us to get our act together! She is patient, but persistent! We need to live according to Her Son, to be Her apostles, to accept God s truth with all our hearts, and to pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance. We need to do these things so that we will actually be living examples of Jesus love for others. She needs us to carry the love of Her Son to our families, neighbors, cities, work places, and parishes! That is what She needs from us. She also needs us to shape up, because She needs our prayer power for the sake of sinners. She needs intercession so that the conversion graces She desires to pour out on them will be won. And She is the master at conversion graces. I want to share the accounts of two dramatic conversion stories that we have aired on Fruit of Medjugorje last fall. In both cases, the person did not want to be in Medjugorje, did not think they needed to change, and were not open to Our Lady s presence in Medjugorje. But through the graces won by Our Lady s apostles, and the witness of Vicka, they both were given the illumination of conscience, in a moment, and were forever changed! Barry MacCarthy from Ireland - June 1990 (Barry and his wife Ann went to Croatia for a vacation and just took a quick side trip to Medjugorje...) When I arrived in Medjugorje I wasn t impressed with the place...but Ann said that since we were here, we might as well go to the place of the first apparitions. And so just to make her happy, we got a taxi to Podbrdo. And the taxi stopped outside this house. I didn t know where we were, but as soon as I got out of the taxi, I looked and I saw this girl standing in the courtyard with an old woman. And I knew who she was. I knew her name, even. I said, Ann, quick, there is Vicka. To this day I don t know how I knew her. I ran up to her garden and I was just spellbound looking at her. I was mesmerized by her. The best way to describe her was that she didn t seem human; she was like an angel. There was this presence about her. So she came over and she laid hands on me and prayed over me, and just like that, in an instant, my whole life flashed in front of me. Everything I had done wrong, the way I was living, it all just flashed by me, and I just knew, from that instant on, that I had to change my life. And we went up Apparition Hill, and I got to the top, and I just cried. I sat there for maybe an hour or so, I don t know, but I just sat there and I cried. I cried like a baby. I got rid of all this rubbish, this garbage I was carrying. I felt this peace a peace I had never known before...i only spent three hours in Medjugorje and Two Dramatic Conversion Stories By Cathy Nolan it changed my whole life, thank God. I don t know where I would be if I hadn t come at this stage of my life. ( Fruit of Medjugorje, Episode 6 at ) Joanne Ronallo- June (Joanne went to Medjugorje with a youth group, not believing in the apparitions. She arrived in the middle of the night and the next morning...) I got up out of bed and went outside and said, Oh my gosh, this town is so remote, so dusty, I don t want to be here. So I m thinking in my head as we are walking through Biakovici, and the chickens are running in front of us, I m going to get out of this town, and wait for the group in Rome. I ll do some sightseeing, whatever! So I ran into the group leader and he said, This is Vicka s house, the group is down at Ivan s and will be up soon. At this time the visionaries would talk in front of their homes. So I said, I ll just wait here at Vicka s for you. So I got in her little courtyard and then the kids came, and then Vicka came down. She started her talk, and we looked at each other, right in the eye, and all of a sudden I had an illumination, and I could see everything I ever did right in my life, and everything I ever did wrong. And there was no justification, no Well, I picked this flower... No, I just knew...dear Lord I m going to hell! And it was such a...not even a fear...such a disappointment that I had hurt Jesus so much...that He was real, and He was ready there with His mercy...and His love, and I was just like Ivan, I wanted to run!!! So I did, I bolted Vicka with pilgrims when she was out of the area, started running down the younger street in Biakovici, and where are you going to go??? There was nowhere else to go, so I sat down on a stone wall and started to cry and cry and cry. The kids said, What s wrong with you? So I just said, I have to go to Confession. I hadn t been to Confession in 20 years. I had lived in Aspen, Colorado, hung with the Eagles, did sex, drugs and rock and roll... Two hours we spent [in Confession], and we went through everything...i felt so refreshed. (Fruit of Medjugorje, Episode ) Both Joanne and Barry came to Medjugorje expecting nothing, and left having received everything conversion, faith, forgiveness, joy, hope, and love!! All because of the intercession of Our Lady and her apostles who won the graces, and the witness of Vicka who carries the life of Jesus in her. This is Our Lady s battle plan for the world! She wants us to help Her obtain conversion graces for all of Her lost children. This is a great task given to us! Wow! It s hard to believe that a year has gone by since we started having Masses offered for Our Lady s intentions. (To read the original story, go to If you had a Mass said last year, it s already time to have another one said for this year! If you did not have one said last year, what a great idea for a New Year s resolution! Please report it to us to encourage others to do this as well. We had hoped when we started this to get 1,000 Masses, but as of December 25, 2013, there have been 7,136 Masses reported for Our Lady s intentions! Thank you for having responded to Her call. January THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE

8 The Spirit of Medjugorje Information Center P.O. Box 6614 Erie, PA U.S.A. RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID ERIE, PA PERMIT NO. 685 DATED MATERIAL On June 24, 1981 in Medjugorje, Our Lady appeared to six children. She identified Herself as the Blessed Virgin, Queen of Peace, and has continued to appear daily. Her message is PEACE, peace with God and man. Her words to the visionaries, I have come to tell the world that God exists. He is the fullness of life, and to enjoy this fullness and obtain peace, you must return to God. Today, all but three of the visionaries have daily apparitions of the Blessed Mother. During the apparitions, the visionaries do not react to light, don t hear any sound or react to being touched. They feel that they are outside of time and space. All the visionaries declare to see the Blessed Virgin as they see other people - in three dimension. They pray and speak with Her. The Blessed Mother is confiding ten secrets to each visionary (some are chastisements for the world) and promises to leave a visible sign at the place of the apparitions in Medjugorje for all If you want to receive The Spirit of Medjugorje, please fill out the form below and return to: P.O. Box 6614, Erie, PA with your donation to help spread Mary s messages. Thank you for your goodwill offering. May GOD BLESS YOU. Please check one: New Renew Name MARY IS CALLING YOU Street Address humanity. This time, this period of grace, is for CONVERSION and a DEEPENING OF FAITH. After the visible sign, those still living will have little time for conversion. The Blessed Mother invites us to PRAYER and FASTING and PEACE. You have forgotten that with prayer and fasting you can stop a war from happening. You can suspend natural laws. The publisher recognizes and accepts that the final authority regarding the apparitions at Medjugorje rest with the Holy See in Rome. Permission is given to spread the text of any original works and may be used with the following conditions: 1) No words are changed; 2) Spirit of Medjugorje is cited. For articles by other sources, permission must be obtained from the original source. Distribute Adoration Newsletters Issue #1 or Issue #2 (please circle) (# of newsletters) To borrow an original prayer cloth from Medjugorje for a week, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address below. You must include your phone number. If you want a prayer cloth we made to keep, send a self-addressed stamped business size (4 1 / 8 x 9 1 / 2 ) envelope with $.66 postage on it. Sponsor a subscription for someone overseas (suggested donation: $12 to cover postage) Distribute Beginner s Guides (# of guides) (Please, no foreign checks or money orders, except postal money orders. U.S. FUNDS ONLY) City, State and Zip Code VOL. 27, NO. 1