Medjugorje News & Articles

Pilgrimages are known in all religions. They are an expression of a person who searches for God in places where He has revealed Himself in a special way; where He has offered persons the possibility to feel His presence more easily or with particularly gifted persons, who - through their gifts - have become a special sign of God's presence. This is why there are places of pilgrimage which attract people and where they come in their search to experience God in a new manner, that is, to experience peace, joy, love and hope. With each pilgrimage, a person leaves behind his everyday life, his work, his family, his friends, his security and - longing for a new encounter with God - starts on his journey to places and to people who have proven themselves as "gifted", so as to help him in his new experience with God.

Dominique Delforge-Struyf: I could never be a psychotherapist as I am today without prayer. What Medjugorje brought to me – concerning my work – is the possibility to listen to people while uniting my intelligence and my heart. Prayer really makes it possible to me to create this link, and also not to allow people to eat me up, to overdo, to become ill in this work, which is wonderful, but extremely hard. When I have the occasion to come to Medjugorje, I also seek this atmosphere of prayer that allows me each time to find a new motivation to pray for my patients and to fast for them.

Leon Dolenec: We do not watch television, we do not play with the computer, we do not go for useless parties; we are occupied with Jesus and Mary. We have about 100 collaborators. We also have a circle of friends who help us in different ways, a few thousands of them.

Rita Falsetto: I would just like to encourage people to come to Medjugorje, to open up their hearts, to God’s Love, to Our Lady. Even though they may feel that they are not worthy enough, that they are in problems… I wish to thank everybody here in Medjugorje and throughout this country for giving me the time and the chance to share in a part of this wonderful country and this wonderful place. And don’t give up on God, because he will never give up on you! Thank you.

We see that there is much tension in the world. America has felt the violence of the terrorism. How much America today can listen to the message of Peace and work on a just peace in the whole world?

I think that we have not got the message yet. There was a great turn to the Lord right after September 11th, but we need more then that, I think, before that country really turns to the Lord. So we just pray for that day, we hope we will turn to the Lord before we have to learn too many lessons, but this is also an act of the mercy of God. Everything is an act of the mercy of God. We know very well that God in his merciful love, in his permissive Providence, will take all the means possible that none of the least of his children will be totally lost. That’s all that really matters.

Sometimes God does not answer our prayers the way we want him to answer, but that is a part of being a Christian too: learning to carry the cross. Every one of us has a cross to carry. Maybe it is God’s will that we carry our cross. We have to be willing to accept that. That is all a part of the will of God. What we need to do and to know when we come to places like this is that we come and surrender to God; we accept His will whatever it may be. Even if our own personal requests are not granted in the way that we expect, nevertheless we are blessed if our faith is deepened, if we grow in our love for God and for his Mother.

Melinda Dumitrescu: I was studying music in Germany, at the Music Academy in Lübeck, where Brahms and others were also studying. I heard about Medjugorje, I read a book with Our Lady’s messages. Ever since my childhood, I was successful in music. I was – as people say – a Wunderkind, but success was not sufficient to fill my heart. I was always seeking something else. I was traveling a lot, and I was always asking myself: where do I really belong, where is my family? I was traveling because of my studies and because of the concerts. I was all the time leaving behind me people whom I loved. While reading the messages of Medjugorje, I felt that - here - I could find what my heart was seeking.

Hubert Liebherr: There are times when everything goes well, and times when I think that nothing functions for me! What had helped me personally was Our Lady’s answer given to the visionaries, when they asked Her why She had chosen them. She said that she had chosen neither the best ones nor the worst ones. When I saw that they were ordinary people, that each one of them has a character, a specificity, it helped me. They are ordinary, I am ordinary… it means that it is possible. If Our Lady had chosen some very holy people, very much advanced in spiritual life, I would have probably said that it was not my world, or that I will never make it. It helped me. There are periods when I have difficulties with prayer, but the Lord knows me and has understanding for my weaknesses. This is why I can trust Him, I can trust in His love and mercy.

Those who go against God and against His law of love destroy themselves, individually and collectively. Today, there are some really immoral laws that destroy human beings, in some cases even proscribe to kill an unborn child. There are thousands of reasons for which we can say that human beings destroy themselves today. I would not say that this was God’s punishment; it is a self-destruction, and human beings are working on it themselves. When an alcoholic drinks too much, gets a lever disease and dies from it, it is not God who punished his lever, but the alcohol that destroyed it, that the person drunk with so much passion.

Jim Caviezel: ... She said that Ivan Dragicevic was coming to Ireland… I met with him a couple of times, and during an apparition, I felt a physical presence. Ivan told me two things that really hit me: “Jim, man always makes time for what he loves”, and “The reason man does not make time for God is that he does not love God”. Then, he talked to me about praying from the heart. That became like a beginning of a mission for me – to always pray from my heart.