Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje

Medjugorje is one of the villages of the Western Herzegovina municipality of Citluk in the former Yugoslavia. The name Medjugorje is Slavic and means "area between two moutains". This true story takes place in the Bijakovici section of Medjugorje. On the afternoon of June 24, 1981, two girls, Ivanka Ivankovic, age 15, and Mirjana Dragicevic, age 16, were returning home from a walk. Looking toward the hill called Crnica, Ivanka saw a bright silhouette of a woman. She said to Mirjana, "It is the Gospa!" (Our Lady).

On June 25, the two girls returned to the hill with four others. Their names are, Vicka Ivankovic, age 16, Ivan Dragivevic, age 16, Maria Pavlovic, age 16 and Jakov Colo, age 10. A figure in white was calling them to come up the hill. The children were somehow transported in some mysterious way to a beautiful Lady who calls herself, the Queen of Peace. The Lady gives messages to the seers for the whole world. To date, the Queen of Peace has left thousands of messages. At first, the messages were almost daily. Now, for the past several years, they come on the 25th of each month.

The visionaries describe Our Lady as beautiful beyond words; radiant with holiness. Her conversations with the children have taken the form of motherly tenderness and love, and she has taken the role of both mother and catechist in advising and directing their lives. She greets them with, "Praised be Jesus, my dear children." At the end of the apparition she says, "Go in peace, my dear children." She appears to the six visionaries as a three-dimensional real image and always appears amid brilliant flashes of light. Her appearances generally take place about 6:40 pm every day. In Medjugorje, thousands of people come daily at this time to participate in the event with prayer, song, the rosary and the Mass, which is often concelebrated by thirty or more priests. The entire evening service lasts about three hours. And this has been happening daily since 1981!

During the apparitions, the visionaries do not react to light, they do not hear any earthly sound, they do not react to being touched. They have been subjected to many scientific tests even during the apparitions, and the findings are well documented. While with Our Lady, they feel they are outside time and space.

"According to the united testimony of the visionaries, Our Lady, on the occasion of her apparition gave a series of messages, to be transmitted to the people. Even though there are many messages, they can be summarized in five themes, because all the messages basically underline or lead up to these five. General themes of the messages:

"You of the parish, be converted: this is my second wish. In so doing, all those who come here will be able to do likewise". (March 8, 1984) "Tell all my sons and my daughters, tell all the world. as soon as possible, that I wish for conversion; the only word I say to the world is: Be converted".

PRAYER

"Without prayer there is no peace. Therefore, dear children, I urge you to pray for peace before the Cross". (September 6, 1984) "Today I wish to make you this request: PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY! In prayer you will find the solution to every difficult situation. Thank you for the progress you are making in prayer! Each on of you is dear to my heart, and I thank all those who have encouraged prayer within their families". (March 28, 1985)

FASTING

The Virgin Mary asks that we fast on bread and water on Wednesday and Friday. If we can not fast on bread and water, we should fast from other pleasures, such as television, and things that distract us from prayer. Fasting and prayer together are necessary to help us convert. It shows us our dependence on God and opens our hearts to His grace. Fasting takes power away from the devil.

Our Lady began imparting secrets to the visionaries in Medjugorje very early on. She has told the visionaries that each of them would receive ten secrets. Our Lady has imparted these secrets to the six visionaries progressively over these past 18 years. Three visionaries have received all ten, and subsequently, they have stopped having the daily apparition with Our Lady. The other three each have nine. The secrets pertain to the visionaries themselves, to the Church, to the sign, to all humanity, and to everyone, and to the whole world and to Medjugorje. The ninth and tenth secrets are grave matters. They are a chastisement for the sins of the world. The punishment is inevitable because we cannot expect the conversion of the entire world. The chastisement can be mitigated by prayers and penance. It cannot be suppressed. An evil which threatened the world, according to the seventh secret, had been eliminated through prayer and fasting according to Mirjana.

Before the visible sign is given to humanity, there will be three warnings to the world. The warnings will be warnings on the earth. Mirjana will witness them. Three days before one of these warnings, she will advice a priest of her choice. Mirjana's testimony will be a confirmation of the apparitions and an incentive for the conversion of the world. After these warnings, the visible sign will be given for all humanity at the place of the apparitions in Medjugorje. The sign will be given as the testimony of the apparitions and a call back to faith.
After the first warning, the others will follow within a rather brief period of time. It is so that people will have time for conversion. This time is a period of grace and conversion. After the visible sign, those who are still alive will have little time for conversion. For that reason, the Blessed Virgin calls for urgent conversion and reconciliation. The invitation to prayer and penance is destined to ward off evil and war and above all save souls. We are close to the events predicted by the Blessed Virgin. Convert yourselves as quickly as possible. Open your hearts to God. This is a message to all mankind.

The news that Our Lady might be appearing immediately began to attract pilgrims to Medjugorje, first from the surrounding countryside, and then, despite the communist government of that day, from Europe and the whole world. These included clergy and theologians, as well as experts from the physical and medical sciences who testified to some kind of phenomenon taking place when the apparition was said to be occurring. The private judgement of these early visitors did much to bolster people's belief in the events at Medjugorje. In addition, some pilgrims reported seeing the sun spin and being able to look at it without pain or eye damage, others that their rosaries turned gold colored, still others that remarkable physical or spiritual/moral healings had taken place. All of these contributed to the fame of the alleged apparition.

Our Lady appeared to the visionary Marija and delivered the following message to the world:

- January 25, 2012 -

"Dear children! With joy, also today I call you to open your hearts and to listen to my call. Anew, I desire to draw you closer to my Immaculate Heart, where you will find refuge and peace. Open yourselves to prayer, until it becomes a joy for you. Through prayer, the Most High will give you an abundance of grace and you will become my extended hands in this restless world which longs for peace. Little children, with your lives witness faith and pray that faith may grow day by day in your hearts. I am with you. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Our Lady's message given to Mirjana on the day for Non-Believers

- February 2, 2012 -

"Dear children; I am with you for so much time and already for so long I have been pointing you to God’s presence and His infinite love, which I desire for all of you to come to know. And you, my children? You continue to be deaf and blind as you look at the world around you and do not want to see where it is going without my Son. You are renouncing Him - and He is the source of all graces. You listen to me while I am speaking to you, but your hearts are closed and you are not hearing me. You are not praying to the Holy Spirit to illuminate you. My children, pride has come to rule. I am pointing out humility to you. My children, remember that only a humble soul shines with purity and beauty because it has come to know the love of God. Only a humble soul becomes Heaven, because my Son is in it. Thank you. Again I implore you to pray for those whom my Son has chosen - those are your shepherds."

Millions of people of all faiths, from all over the world, have visited Medjugorje and have many stories to relate of miracles, visuals and conversions.
Our Lady says: "You have forgotten that with prayer and fasting you can ward off wars, and suspend natural laws".