Medjugorje Experience: My Journey
Since June, 1981 the Blessed Virgin Mary has been appearing to 6 persons from the village of Medjugorje. She appeared to Ivanka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragivevic, Maria Pavlovic and Jakov Colo. So in 1985, I took a pilgrimage to Medjugorje.
None of us wanted to leave Yugoslavia. It was beautiful, simple and rustic. Fifty-three of us traveled together in this pilgrimage. The mantle of Mary continually covered us. By the time we arrived to our hotel in Neum, Yugoslavia, 26 hours had passed. It was an ordeal, especially for the older ones. We arrived a broken people yet we always knew God and Mary was with us.
In Medjugorje we met people of various countries. Each one searching, and expecting miracles. Many left their hurts and pains at the foot of the cross.
As the days passed people began to greet one another upon passing. There was greater peace.
The smaller mountain, the mountain where Our Blessed Mother first appeared, takes about one and half hours to climb. Some pilgrims even climbed without shoes. I really don’t know how they could have succeeded in climbing such a rocky mountain, but they did.
You could see the sick and old also going up the mountain with some help from other pilgrims. While climbing up the mountain one finds numerous crosses that have been placed by various countries and families.
It seemed to me that it was not an easy climb up the mountain the first time. But, subsequent climbs seemed much easier. This mountain was the place where people left their prayers, rosaries, buried written petitions or a toy of a cripple child. Leaving these items behind was a way to say to:
“God” I am here, hear my cries, hear my pains and struggles. Hear, Oh God, and answer me.”
It also symbolized their leaving it at the foot of the Cross for God to answer.
Many saw signs and wonders. I praise God that I was one of those who was to believe by faith. Faith is stronger. Since later on we can rationalized what our eyes have seen.
People saw the sun and Cross do things and this was God’s gift to them. I noticed the beauty of God’s creation in a new way, and my taste buds became sharper. I became more aware.
Beauty was all around us. Here, the sun looked bigger, fuller, and brighter. The sky was in splendor array. The mountains majestic yet rustic.
It was a wonderful experience to see people from all over the world, coming from different walks of life coming together in prayer.
It was beautiful to see how people coming from different countries and unable to verbally communicate with each other found ways to communicate. Everyone having one purpose to bring praise to God, Jesus and Mary.
God worked miracle. God continues to work miracles in people lives.
God strengthen His people to continue on their journey.
God inflamed hearts with love.
In Medjugorje there are several visionaries that are being taught by Our Blessed Virgin Mary. Some of the visionaries in Medjugorje have visions frequently while others only once a year.
Recently, I was privileged to see a video of one of the Medjugorje visionaries named Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo taken on August 2, 2009. Look for yourself.
See Medjugorje Visionary Mirjana
See her reactions and demeanor.
Let me know what you think. I do not want to influence you.
Tags: Blessed Virgin Mary, Medjugorje, miracles, visions
Thank you for your beautiful and inspiring post on Medjugorje. How fortunate you are to have seen the village as it was only 4 years after the apparitions began. Medjugorje has grown quite a bit since then. However, one still experiences a Holy Presence there and there are still many, many spiritual and physical healings and conversions. I myself was converted there during a pilgrimage with my wife in October 2007. It was so totally unexpected and so wonderful. I thank the Blessed Mother and Her Son every day for the gift I received there. God Bless you.
I love your articles, and your clear insights. I wanted to mention, in this video, you apparently missed seeing something incredibly important. I remember when this took place, and had wanted to locate the video again.
Look at the people behind Mirjana. Look where their eyes are going, where their cameras are pointing. A major sun miracle was taking place, being witnessed by, as I recall, thousands on that day, all together. You can see by watching the people what no camera so far has been able to record: the sun miracle.
I say that despite all the videos and pictures of the sun miracle, because cameras reportedly don’t technologically respond well to being pointed directly at the sun, and much of what they record is said to be technological responses to it, even though what the people were seeing was the real miracle. I only know this because camera experts have analyzed the sun photos and explained them in that way.
But this, looking at all these people and their obvious experience of the sun miracle, cannot be explained away. God bless you.
Here is a longer video. Look about 1:48, and again about 1:58, and following. Somewhere there is another video that shows more of the crowd, or photos, but right now I don’t know where it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxfNLXlPJv0
A Great Cry Bursts Forth From The Thousands During Mirjana’s Apparition Today, August 2, 2009
http://www.medjugorje.com/medjugorje-today/headlines/670-august-2-2009-message.html
Mirjana Reveals Something Further About Her Apparition on August 2, 2009
http://www.medjugorje.com/medjugorje-today/headlines/675-mirjana-reveals-something-further-about-her-apparition-on-august-2-2009.html
Joly, thanks for your insight. I had seen their eyes but I didn’t know that a major sun miracle had occurred. In fact I never experience the sun miracle when I was there but others of my group did.
God bless you.
Hi Nadir,
I would like to know of your thoughts concerning this video of Vicka and her reaction during an alleged vision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDmW2mDfrI0&feature=youtu.be
I will say that the person who sent this video to me had visited Medjugorge on numerous occasions and was very much in favor of it but was very dismayed when he saw this video and this was why he passed it along to me.
Those who have studied mystics and visionaries enough know that during a true vision or ecstasy a mystic/visionary will be completely insensible to external stimuli of any sort—needles, flames etc…and certainly not a wave of the hand. Mystics have been tested in this way for centuries, because it is a strightforward test to determine the authenticity of the alleged ecstatic/visionary phenomenon.
Anyway, I won’t comment any further—I let you draw your own conclusions.
I will say that Vicka’s phony explanation afterwards makes matters much worse, as it is obviously an attempt to ‘cover up”.
God bless,
Joseph Johnson
Hi Joseph,
The scripture says that there is nothing new under the sun. Throughout the centuries many great saints, mystics and doctors of the Church had their doubters. Even Jesus Himself had His own doubters. People like St Theresa of Avila, St. Theresa of Lisieux, St. Bernadette, St. Padre Pio in our own time.
It is part of our sinful nature that we don’t see things the way God sees it.
The seers of Medjugorje have been studied by psychologist, psychiatrist and a host of other scientists more than anyone else in the history of humanity. They have been tested under controlled laboratories. Please refer yourself to “Nine Years of Apparitions toward the Revelation of the Secrets” by Father Rene Laurentin, the foremost Marian authority presently living.
In the final analysis, it is the Church who has the authority to decide the authenticity of the apparition. Holy Mother Church has not condemned it. The case is still under investigation. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus. He will lead us to the right direction.
Blessings.