Video composed from photos made during an autumn 2007 pilgrimage to Medjugorje
The 13th International Seminar for Priests will be held in Međugorje from June 30th to July 5th 2008. The topic of the seminar is:
«We will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6,4)
Our dear friend Roberto, who has for many years been bringing pilgrims to Medjugorje from Mexico, shared this beautiful testimony with us recently. It is from Carmen, who lives near the city Valle Tamaulipas. She went with his group to Medjugorje for the Anniversary last summer. She shares:
Approximately 3 years before the Bosnian war, I dreamt that I went overseas with some friends from work. We were traveling around together but I felt a negative force chasing us to kill us. As we traveled around, there were so much death and destruction, people dying of hunger, others with limbs missing and children left orphaned.
It was as though we were traveling around this map with death and destruction. There were tanks bombing buildings, people being shot or stabbed.
Silvia Janine Rusneac from Romania has the master’s degree in the Roman Catholic and the Greek Catholic Theology. Since 1994, she is organising pilgrimages to Medjugorje. This is her testimony:
In September 2007, Jorge de Jesús Loria Padilla, founder and leader of the Peace center in Toluca in Mexico, came to Medjugorje. He is organizing pilgrimages to Medjugorje and editing Fr. Slavko Barbaric’s books in Spanish for Mexico.
This is his testimony:
Alois Epner (76) is a retired teacher from Upper Austria. He was born in Croatia, but in 1944, the Epner family had to flee the country to escape from the communists. Although he never forgot his childhood in his native Croatia, he found a new home in Upper Austria. He visited Medjugorje for the first time in 1984, and since then he returns on a regular basis. When he speaks about his experiences, his eyes fill with tears.
Fr. Jose Rodriguez Carballo, Minister General of the Franciscan Order, visited Medjugorje on October 8th, 2007. He was in Herzegovina from October 7 to 10, visiting the friars of the Herzegovinian Franciscan Province of the Assumption of Mary. Dragan Soldo spoke with him for Radio Mir Medjugorje.
Apparition of Our Lady, Queen of Peace at Comunity Cenacolo at Medjugorje, 18 March 2001
It is not difficult to know to whom to dedicate this short story.
I give God all the praise and glory.
This testimony strongly advices readers against looking at the sun. The extent of the damage that may occur by looking at the sun even for a brief period is blindness, severe damage to the eye’s retina due to solar radiation and disorder of color pigments. The danger to vision is significant because injuries and damage occur to the eyes without feeling any pain. Needless to state, I shall not be responsible in any manner to a person who might suffer any damage and injury by looking at the sun even for a brief period, thus, dangerously exposing his/her own vision.
I was a young priest - ordained four years previously. The parish priest then was Fr. Pervan, and when I was told I’d be coming here as a spiritual assistant it frightened me a little. Being newly ordained it came as a challenge. I’d thus far come to Medjugorje as a pilgrim, and it was here that I decided to become a monk; after that I came here a few times also to help with the confessions. It is totally different to come here every now and again, and to live here. To live here is like an immersion; you live Mary’s presence in your heart.
On August 24, 2002, Jelena Vasilj got married to Massimiliano Valente in St James Church, Medjugorje. It was indeed a very prayerful and joyful wedding! Visionary, Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti, was Jelena's Maid of Honor. Rarely do we see such beautiful and striking newly weds! A week before the wedding, they visited our home and shared at length about their values as a christian couple. Let's remember that Jelena had been taught by Our Lady herself for many years, through inner locutions, under the wings of Fr. Tomislav Vlasic, and she was chosen by Our Lady to lead a prayer group until she started her studies in the US in 1991. I'll start reporting here some of Jelena's answers to my questions.