The Spirit of Medjugorje Online

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.

“Dear Children! Also today I bring you the newborn Jesus in my arms. He who is the King of Heaven and earth, He is your peace. Little children, no one can give you peace as He who is the King of Peace. Therefore, adore Him in your hearts, choose Him and you will have joy in Him. He will bless you with His blessing of peace. Thank you for having responded to my call."

The marvel of Mary’s motherhood is that She wanted nothing for Herself that She didn’t want for Her children.

When Elizabeth greeted Her with the question, “How have I deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Mary found Herself in the middle of history looking forward to all generations – and going back to Abraham.

We see in Her the realization of being part of God’s plan for the redemption of His people. It was part of God’s providence to prepare Her for Her motherhood by the Immaculate Conception, and then by the virgin birth. The same God called Joseph to be His father and provider – and to give Jesus a male figure to respond to. He was there for the birth and the flight into Egypt. He was there when he and Mary called Jesus to come home “and be subject to them.” From him Jesus learned carpentry.

Then at His baptism, Jesus gave up carpentry for the mission by which Jesus changed all the years of the future.

His prophetic mission was carried on by His apostles and by sending the Holy Spirit for the work of salvation.

Mary’s return at Medjugorje is to call us to realize we are part of the fulfillment of God’s work.

Peace will come as an answer to prayer. We need to ask, “How have I discovered that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Many people are aware of being called to Medjugorje by Mary to realize the call to work and pray and sacrifice for peace and then bring back that message to those to whom we are sent

Bl. Vasyl Velychkovsky

Saint for the Year

For the last few years 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. It is actually the saint who picks us, and not the other way around. Last year St. Francis Xavier chose “The Spirit of Medjugorje.” This holy saint was a missionary, and so right away I saw the connection, in that the newsletter serves a missionary function as the messages are spread to many different countries of the world. However, we took on more of a missionary image recently as we began to help some young people in Africa who are starting a Medjugorje center there. (See the article on p. 4.)

Last year as well as other years, we used the list of saints provided by Children of Medjugorje at www.childrenofmedjugorje.com/medj/reports/saints2004.htm. This year, however, I felt prompted to use a more comprehensive list. So I went to the following website: www.catholic.org/saints/. I prayed to the Holy Spirit and picked a letter of the alphabet at random and then a saint at random. The saint who chose us this year is actually not a canonized saint yet. He is still “blessed” - Bl. Vasyl Velychkovsky, a Ukrainian Redemptorist Bishop and Martyr. Vasyl was consecrated to the Mother of God at the young age of 8. Throughout his life he referred to this event as pivotal, since he always sensed himself under the protection of Her loving care. After becoming a Redemptorist, he promoted devotion to our Mother of Perpetual Help. The Rosary for him was a pillar of strength throughout his imprisonment in the Ukraine. In between imprisonments, he became instrumental in organizing the underground church in the Ukraine. In 1969 he was arrested and underwent chemical, physical, and mental torture. Near death, he was exiled to Canada, where he died in 1973. Vasyl was beatified in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. His holy relics (a fully intact body) are enshrined at St. Joseph's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Since the opening of the Martyr's Shrine, there have been many blessings and favors that have been received through his intercession. Some have received physical cures, such as, cancer. The documentation of all blessings is important for the process of the canonization of Blessed Vasyl. If you receive any blessing, favor or cure through the intercession of Blessed Vasyl, please inform the shrine office at bvshrine@mts.net. Blessed Vasyl, please pray for us.

Editor’s note: You can read more about Blessed Vasyl at the shrine website, www.bvmartyrshrine.com .

On Prayer

Recently I have been reading about suffering and its value for holiness and for helping to save souls. I have also read lately about how important it is, how it can strengthen one’s ability to suffer if one suffers in silence, doesn’t tell people (and, of course, offers it up). One will actually be able to cope with the suffering better. As the Palestinian Carmelite stigmatist Blessed Miriam Jesus Crucified wrote, “Happy the soul who suffers in secret to God alone!” This great mystic also wrote, “How I love a soul suffering with patience, hidden with God alone.” Let us pray that when we suffer that we will not unnecessarily tell others about it. Yes, let us pray for that!

You can contact Brother Craig through his community's website www.monksofadoration.org

Painting by subscriber Annmarie Wright

Mary, the Mother of God

The following is an excerpt from “The Tabernacle, “a publication of the Monks of Adoration.

How can we not praise the Mother of God? St. Luke tells us in the Gospel how Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit, said all men would call Her blessed. Praising Mary is the will of God. And this is not some form of false prayer because our praises of Her do not stop with Her — they magnify the Lord. When I admire the gifts given to someone and praise them, don't I at the same time give praise and admiration to the giver of the gift?

We can pray with, and to, Mary (Cf. #2679).* Some people have a problem with this. I know that I did in my college days. I remember voicing the common objection, "Why do I need to pray to Mary when I can pray directly to God?" This question actually is worded poorly. First, we do not pray to Mary as we would pray to God, that is with worship. We pray to Her as one who has a unique role and honor among the saints. To use a little Latin, God only receives latria (worship), the saints dulia (honor or veneration) and only Mary hyperdulia (highest honor or veneration). We pray to Mary for Her intercession as our Mother. In my college days I wouldn't have had a problem asking someone else to pray for me. I would have had no problem asking a person to pray for my intentions. So why did I have a problem entrusting my needs and person to Mary? Who else do I know that can pray like Mary? Who else do I know has the unique position of Mary? Nobody! God wants to honor His mother by our recourse to Her intercession.

We are a family in Christ, aren't we? The family that prays together stays together. So pray with Mary and you'll stay with Mary and Her Son in Heaven for all eternity.

* Note: #2679 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to Her, we are adhering with Her to the plan of the Father, who sends His Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus' Mother into our homes, for She has become the Mother of all the living. We can pray with and to Her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope.”

The “Santa Maria”

By June Klins

One of the “perks” of being the editor of this publication is that I get many wonderful letters from people who tell me they are praying for me. I am always appreciative of the prayers and could not function without them. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I would like to share how your prayers for me were heard on December 1.

I was driving home after mailing the December newsletters and dropping off a Medjugorje prayer cloth to someone who was in great need. As I approached the short road that leads up to my home, I flipped on my signal to turn left. As I was turning onto the road, the driver behind tried to pass also on the left which resulted in a collision. My van, which I affectionately have called the “newsletter-mobile” became airborne after going into a ditch. The brakes would not work and I later saw from the tracks that I nearly hit a big tree. I went into another ditch and then back out before it stopped on the road. I had done a complete 360. The other car ended up in the ditch. Miraculously, no one was hurt. The tracks in the neighbor’s yard will probably remain till spring as a constant reminder to me of your prayers and how very blessed I am to still be alive.

Unfortunately, my “newsletter-mobile,” which has been my faithful and constant companion for 6 years, and often a “mobile chapel” did not fare so well, and had to be taken to the car cemetery. That meant I had to find a new vehicle in a hurry. I prayed that Our Lady would lead me to a vehicle that would be big enough to haul all the newsletters, but that I could afford on my very tight budget. After one day of vehicle shopping, I got very discouraged because I could not find anything in my price range. A few people told me that I needed to be more patient and that I needed to trust God, which I, of course, knew, but did not heed. That night, December 8, I renewed my Consecration to Jesus through Mary of St. Louis de Montfort, and after the Mass I felt so much at peace. The next day when I went vehicle shopping again, I asked Our Lady to please lead me to the right vehicle and let me know in some way that this was the vehicle She wanted me to have. I prayed the Mother Teresa Emergency Novena, which is 9 Memorare’s (see front cover) and one more in Thanksgiving. When I found a van I really felt was “the one,” I noticed that the man who had previously owned the vehicle lived on a street called “Santa Maria Drive!” I silently said a prayer of thanksgiving as I held back the tears of joy. It later dawned on me that the color of the van was listed as “gray,” which is the color of the gown Our Lady wears in Medjugorje!

If vans had names like boats do, I would call my new “newsletter mobile” the “Santa Maria!”

Stephen and friends at the Queen of Peace shrine in Uganda

Medjugorje Center in Uganda

By Stephen Sematiko

It was June of 2005, when I was at home listening to Radio Maria Uganda, and Father Bakka a frequent pilgrim to Medjugorje was talking about Mother Mary appearing to the six young visionaries in Bosnia. I listened so carefully because I like Mother Mary so much. The following day I went to school at the university, where we have a computer library at school. I logged into a Medjugorje website, and started getting all the information I could about Medjugorje. I went to the school chapel for Mass, and after Mass I talked to my fellow students about the good messages of Mother Mary in Medjugorje. Some listened to me and some didn’t. Many of the youth in Uganda have been running out of the Catholic Church because they want to go to the Pentecostal churches to listen to the great music played in these churches. The preachers were promising them a lot of things. Because they wanted to live a luxurious kind of life, they joined. I said to my schoolmates to stay in the Catholic faith because it teaches the true faith of Our Lord Jesus and Mother Mary. Some remained and we are still the largest percent at school, even though we had a lot of storm as Catholics.

In 2006, I went to the center church, Christ the King, to meet our youth chaplain Fr. Anthony. I told him about Medjugorje and the good messages being given by Mother Mary. He asked me, “Have you ever been there?” I said no to him, but that I visited their website. He prayed for me.

In October, the month of the Rosary, I was praying my Rosary at the statue of Mother Mary, and something came to me, saying, “You get these messages on the internet - what have you done to see that your fellow friends, who don’t have access to the internet, can receive and live according to these messages?” I contacted Charles, one of my greatest friends at the church, and I told him about the Medjugorje messages. I asked him how we can spread them to the people of Uganda. He told me that we have no way of doing it since we don’t have anything to use. We went on praying our Rosaries every day. I went to the shrine in Uganda called “Queen of Peace.” I prayed, asking Mother Mary to help us to see that we spread these important messages. We had no computers, no office, no photocopying machine, no printer, no scanner - we had nothing to use. But because Mother Mary was with us, I went back to the internet, and I logged into www.spritofmedugorje.org. I met sister June Klins. I sent her an email, and good enough she replied to me with a motherly heart. I continued to send her emails, Mother Mary continued to listen to our prayers. Soon she found a sponsor for me for a subscription to the newsletter containing the monthly messages and a copy of the book she compiled, The Best of “The Spirit of Medjugorje.” I read the book, and it is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Many of my friends are going to read this book so that we continue to strengthen the faith of our fellow youth. I was so happy to see that the Lord was listening to my prayer. I told Charles, and my friends Annette and Robert about the good news of the donation. We have students who are good at translating these messages in local languages so that our people can share Mother Mary's message. Then we had to make photocopies and spread them to other churches. We had too little money to do this since the Catholic churches are so many in Uganda. (Uganda is 65% Catholic, and there are 2640 parishes in Uganda.) We made some copies and they were all taken, and still people were coming to ask for more messages and books. We said to them that we have no materials to use for this work. I continued to ask for assistance from sister June. She sent us a prayer cloth and a box of books, a box of back issues of the newsletter, audio tapes and video tapes of Medjugorje.

We decided to call our group, the “Medjugorje Youth Prayer Group” or “MYPG,” for short. We still need things to do this work like, computers, a photocopying machine, printers, a scanner, etc. We kindly request people with the heart of God to assist us in this struggle so that the people of Uganda who cannot afford to go to Medjugorje can live according to these messages of Mother Mary. It is not easy, but with the help of Mother Mary we shall make it. God bless you so much.

December 2, 2006 Message to Mirjana

"Dear children, in this joyful time of expectation of my Son, I desire that all the days of your earthly life may be a joyful expectation of my Son. I am calling you to holiness. I call you to be my apostles of holiness so that, through you, the Good News may illuminate all those whom you will meet. Fast and pray, and I will be with you. Thank you!"

Fr. Petar Speaks of Medjugorje

Transcribed by Kay Mule

On October 17, 2006, Fr. Petar Ljubicic spoke in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at Our Lady of Mercy Church. He spoke in Croatian. The following is taken from the English translation of that talk. He said that in Medjugorje there are two mountains and one church between. There you can find everything you need. Some people have a problem with the fact that Our Lady has been appearing so long, 9,232 days. But Our Lady sees that so many of Her children are having trouble that She continues to remind them that conversion in their life and following God's will for them

will bring peace and joy.

Next year Fr. Petar will be a priest for 35 years and he is still in the process of conversion. He told several testimonies of the miracle of conversion in the lives of people through their Medjugorje experience.

Conversion means to try to stop sinning, to try to live a new life. Once the visionaries asked Our Lady, "What do you expect of priests?" She said that they should firmly believe in God and help people to believe. Then he related the witness of a priest who told of his conversion in front of over 4,000 people and a bishop in Medjugorje. He had been a drug addict, but through Medjugorje he decided to become a priest. He held up his hands and said, "Look at my hands! A few years ago they were giving out drugs, passing around drugs, contaminating people. But Jesus

freed me from that condition. My hands were consecrated by my bishop and now my hands are passing Jesus around to people." Thus we see that God is able to do everything when we surrender to His will.

Q. What will be your role when it is time for the secrets to be revealed?

A. The Holy Mother entrusted the visionaries with ten secrets. Mirjana was given a parchment which contains the secrets (now invisible). Ten days before the first secret will occur, he will be given the parchment. He and Mirjana will fast for seven days. Three days before, he will reveal to everyone what will happen. The first and second secrets are related to Medjugorje because the Holy Mother appeared there. These will be a great warning to the people in Medjugorje about how they accept and live the messages. The third secret will be Statue on Apparition Hill

a perpetual sign that will happen on Apparition Hill. It will be a joy for people who believe and a sign for people who did not convert yet.

Now on Apparition Hill is a statue of Our Lady. One family from Korea had a son who was very ill. Jesus healed him through prayer in Medjugorje. As a sign of appreciation, they brought this statue of Our Lady there. Miraculous things happen in Medjugorje! The most important thing is that we convert, that we consecrate and live according to the will of God, that we pray and believe. Then whatever happens, we are in God's hands.

A year ago you had a huge catastrophe (Hurricane Katrina). This is also a warning that we always have to be ready. Every thing that we have obtained is gone in a few minutes.

But good deeds, prayers and faith are returnable. I am trying to say that we have to be able to read the signs of the times we are living in. We are just passing through this world. Our true home is in heaven. We are here on earth on vacation. And that vacation is short! We have to think about our eternal life.

This is what I have to say about the secrets. Secrets are made for people so that they take faith more seriously and try to become better.

Q. Was Katrina a warning for us?

A. Any catastrophe is always a warning. We always try to figure out why those bad things happen to good people. Just and good believers have nothing to lose. They only gain in catastrophes. God always gives them the strength to thank Him and they say, "God, we want to be faithful to you still, no matter what is going on." These persons always learn a lesson so they can become better. This is the way I look at it.

The Medjugorje Star

Great Idea for a New Year’s Resolution – Fasting!

“Why fast? You can find a lot of reading on fasting, but I am telling you: just start. Fasting is like prayer, it is a duty for us as Christians because both Jesus, Mary and all the saints fasted. And St. Francis, do you know how many days he fasted? This fasting means: living on bread alone for a whole day. This is very important, because one then gradually learns to live a simple life, one begins to realize that we have sufficient, that we do not have to worry, and to be anxious, and besides this, it is also a help to resist our continual longing always to have more. But the best thing to do is: start fasting, and then you will see. But in order to fast more easily, it is necessary also to pray. “

Fr. Slavko Barbaric

“Rosary Toes”

By Brian Klins

Throughout my wife’s pregnancy, she would, in the middle of conversations about the baby, randomly throw out, “I hope he doesn’t have six toes.” Susannah’s father had been born with six toes and is sentenced to a lifetime of wearing sandals with socks because of it. The socks hide his toes and the sandals leave room without having to buy two different sized pairs of shoes. It seemed to be Susannah’s biggest fear for the little guy on the way.

When Thomas was born, he had been out of her belly for less than a minute before an exhausted Susannah leaned over the bed and, in a tired raspy voice, forced out, “Count his toes.” On his left foot, he had six.

Brian and Thomas

While rocking Thomas to sleep the other day, I turned off the television for a bit of quiet and decided to pray the Rosary. However, I didn’t have a rosary at hand, and with Thomas partially asleep, I didn’t want to get up to get one…any crying that can be avoided is avoided. I decided to use his toes as my beads and can remember thinking, “I’ll have to ignore THAT one.” When I got to the tenth Hail Mary, I found there waiting for me, at the end of the toes, an extra digit for the Our Father. Perfect little "Rosary toes," indeed. What a blessing!

“Dear children, Today I call you to renew prayer in your families. Dear children, encourage the very young to prayer…” (3/7/85)

Editor’s note: Brian, Susannah and Thomas live in Beckenham, England.

Jakov

Jakov Speaks at the Youth Festival, 2006

   Since you are all here in Medjugorje, you came for God because this is what Our Lady wants, and this is why you were called here. Thank you for having responded to Our Lady's call. You chose to be here to meet your Gospa in a special way, to meet your Jesus in a special way. Through Our Lady we will better know Her Son and what He is like.
   People will say, “Why does Our Lady give so many messages, and why so long?” Instead of asking that, we have to say thank you, thank you God for so many years that you are sending Our Lady here and that you let Her
come. If we open our hearts towards them, there will be no more, why? She comes for a reason because She is our Mother and that She wants to show us the way to peace and to Her Son. Our Lady's messages are the path to know Her Son. We all have to tell Our Lady “yes” and start our new life with God.
   Your experience doesn't end here, but you take this home with you. Everywhere we go then, when we return home, for us will become Medjugorje if we desire this.
   Our Lady says, pray the Holy Rosary, but when you pray, pray with your heart. Feel at peace and let that open your hearts to happiness. Prayer with the heart is a gift from God, we have to want this gift, and desire it and work towards it. Everyday to pray more, then our prayer will be better. Our Lady listens to all of us, not just those who are receiving the visions, but She came and is the same for every single one of us.
   Why is it important to fast people ask? It is important because Our Lady asks this of us. “Dear children, with prayer and fasting, we can accomplish all and abolish wars.” And this is why fasting is so important.
   When we say, God where are you, why do you leave me alone, we should be asking ourselves, where were we, how much did we pray in our lives, how many times did we seek Him? He is always close to us, but because
of our sins, we ourselves are the ones who can push Him away.

   Change your hearts, all of you who come here. It is not important to see the visionaries, and we should not come to see signs, because the biggest sign in Medjugorje is conversion and a new life.
   You don't have to have a fear of converting, such as, what are we going to say to our friends, are they going to make fun of me. But when we know God and all the peace that He wants to give us, it's not important what others will say about us because we will have that closeness of God in our hearts.
   God will always show us the right way. And when we go back to our homes, it's not as important to say you were in Medjugorje, but let Medjugorje live in your hearts and be the example to others about Medjugorje.
   One other message from Our Lady. She says, “Dear children, if you only knew how much I loved you, you
would cry with joy.” Every day, we need to think of this. And to think of the graces we receive from Her. She says, if you only knew. When you open your hearts toward God and Our Lady and you give your “yes,” then you start being with Our Lady and Jesus.
   I will pray for all of you and all of you who have come here, and you please, pray for the visionaries.

Prayer cloths made by a subscriber

News from the Prayer Cloth Library

By June Klins

In our October issue, subscriber Marge Lee shared with us the instructions she got from the Lord on how to make prayer cloths from the original ones that came from Medjugorje and were wiped on the “tears” which flow from the knee of the Risen Jesus statue behind St. James. Marge called last month to tell me that she had made 84 more cloths because the large demand for them, due to the peace people experience when praying with them.

The day after Marge made the 84 cloths, she told me that she got very sick and could hardly get out of bed for a week. When she recovered, the Lord let her know that the reason she got sick was because she had drained herself when she made all those cloths at once. This made perfect sense to Marge because she said she puts her whole heart into each one, it totally drained her. He told her that she should make no more than 20 of them at once, and should spend about 2 minutes praying with each one as she touches it to the original cloth. The Lord also asked her to pray another prayer along with the “Our Father” as she touches the cloths together: “I wish this person be healed with this cloth, if it is Thy will, and bring happiness and joy into their life. Bless the bearer of this cloth. For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen and amen.”

Marge was also told that when praying with someone who is sick, both people should touch the cloth and pray “Our Lady’s Prayer for the Sick.” We have been including a copy of this prayer with each cloth we mail out. This prayer was in our October issue. If you no longer have a copy, you can find it on our website in the October issue.

Whether or not these instructions for Marge apply to others, we do not know. The best thing is to pray about it. Our Lady told the visionaries that whenever you do not know the answer to something, to pray and you would get your answer.

Some people have questioned how we know that the prayer cloths we made have the same blessings as the originals. It is all about the “fruits.” And the fruits have been very good.

We continue to receive letters from people who have been touched in some way by these cloths. One lady wrote to say that her husband’s PET scan showed no more cancer anywhere in his body. Another lady reported that the numbers on her tests for a liver problem came back normal. One woman said she thought she broke her foot, but that after praying with the cloth no surgery was needed. Still another said that the excruciating pain in her leg disappeared. Another lady said she let her mother borrow it to pray with the people (Catholic and non-Catholic) in her senior citizen complex and one of the ladies who had been to Medjugorje shared stories about Medjugorje with all of them.

It later occurred to me that, unlike medals and rosaries, a prayer cloth is one sacramental that can be accepted by other Christians, because it is biblical. (In Acts 19:11-12, it speaks of how cloths were touched to Peter and Paul and taken back to the sick who were often cured of their ills.) This is a great way to introduce Our Lady’s messages to Catholics and non-Catholics alike! It is also a way to entice people to pray more.

One of my favorite recent testimonies involves a lady who told me that all of her life she has had dental problems.

She had been told by her dentist that at her next appointment a crumbling tooth was going to have to be capped. When she received the cloth, she held the cloth up to her cheek and prayed. She was pleasantly surprised at the next visit that not only did the tooth become strong and not need a cap, but that for probably the first time in her life, she could say, “Look, Ma, no cavities!”

The majority of letters I receive speak of the peace people experience. Since many people cannot make the journey to Medjugorje, we can help bring the Medjugorje peace to them. Our new young friends in Uganda have been taking the cloth to the hospital and praying with people there.

If you would like a prayer cloth we made that you can keep, send a self-addressed stamped legal-size envelope with $.52 postage on it. If you would like to borrow an original for a few days so you can help spread that peace by making more of them, send a self-addressed stamped envelope, and include your phone number.

It is important to remember that the blessings of the prayer cloth do not come from the cloth itself, but from Almighty God. If a person acts in a way contrary to God’s will, but feels because he possesses a prayer cloth that he is blessed, this is superstitious. Several people told us that they did not want to return the prayer cloth to us, and one person actually refused to return it. Although Jesus said, “Lend expecting nothing back” (Luke 6:35), we did not want it back for ourselves, but to share the blessings with more people. We want to spread the blessings to the whole world!

May the peace of the Lord be with you and your families this new year and always!

Note: If tempted to keep the cloth, a priest recommended the reading of the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 5.