Mama Mary Is With Us: Our Lady of Medjugorje

Dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time of Coro­n­avirus, I will be shar­ing excerpts from the book, Mag­ni­fi­cat: Mama Mary’s Pil­grim Sites, a col­lec­tion of 24 tes­ti­monies by peo­ple whose lives were changed by Mama Mary.  I hope that these arti­cles remind us that Mary is with us dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. May you find solace in these per­son­al tes­ti­mo­ni­als.  ~ Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard, edi­tor of Mag­ni­fi­cat.

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Our Lady of Med­ju­gor­je

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA – Med­ju­gor­je

Med­ju­gor­je is a town locat­ed in west­ern Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, close to the bor­der of Croa­t­ia. “Our Lady of Med­ju­gor­je” is the title giv­en to the Blessed Vir­gin Mary who pil­grims believe has been appear­ing to Vic­ka Ivankovic-Mija­tovic, Ivan Drag­ice­vic, Mir­jana Drag­ice­vic-Sol­do, Ivan­ka Ivankovic-Elez, Jakov Colo, and Mar­i­ja Pavlovic-Lunet­ti since June 24, 1981. In March 2010, the Holy See announced that the Con­gre­ga­tion for the Doc­trine of the Faith was form­ing an inves­tiga­tive com­mis­sion, com­posed of bish­ops, the­olo­gians, and oth­er experts, under the lead­er­ship of Car­di­nal Camil­lo Rui­ni, the Pope’s for­mer Vic­ar Gen­er­al for the Dio­cese of Rome. Med­ju­gor­je has become one of the most pop­u­lar Mar­i­an pil­grim­age sites in the world and has turned into Europe’s third most impor­tant reli­gious place, where more than 1 mil­lion peo­ple vis­it each year.

A MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE WITH OUR LADY

Lin­da Yamamo­to

I HAVE been to sev­er­al Mar­i­an pil­grim­ages such as Fati­ma in Por­tu­gal, Lour­des in France, and Med­ju­gor­je in Bosnia-Herze­gov­ina. All of them were life-chang­ing expe­ri­ences and were very sig­nif­i­cant in my spir­i­tu­al jour­ney to a clos­er rela­tion­ship with Jesus and Mary.

I first heard of Med­ju­gor­je way back in the ear­ly 1980’s. The Blessed Moth­er has nev­er before appeared so often to so many peo­ple over such a long peri­od of time. Accord­ing to reports, the Blessed Moth­er (or Gospa, the Croa­t­ian word for “Our Lady”) has been appear­ing to six young vision­ar­ies rang­ing from ages ten to six­teen years old, since June 24, 1981. Three of the six vision­ar­ies (lvan, Vic­ka, and Mar­i­ja), all of whom are now adults, mar­ried and have fam­i­lies, are still get­ting dai­ly appari­tions. Our Lady gives her mes­sage of peace every 25th of the month. She asks us to fast, hear Mass, go to con­fes­sion once a month, and pray dai­ly espe­cial­ly the rosary.

I had attend­ed a Rosary and litur­gi­cal ser­vice with Father Char­lie Beck­er and Andy Zovko, a man renowned for his gift of heal­ing. Andy encour­aged me to go to Med­ju­gor­je. With no grand expec­ta­tions on how the pil­grim­age would turn out, I joined a group of pil­grims in May 2002 head­ed by Father Char­lie and Andy. Aside from them, I did not know any­body in the group of 30 pil­grims who came from dif­fer­ent parts of the coun­try. Lat­er, I met anoth­er Fil­ip­ina who became my room­mate.

We flew in from Chica­go to Ger­many and then to Split, where we took a three-hour bus ride to a lit­tle vil­lage in Bosnia. We stayed at a res­i­den­tial house owned by Andy’s fam­i­ly built pur­pose­ly to house pil­grims. There are oth­er hotels and homes around the vil­lage that can accom­mo­date pil­grims com­ing from all over the world. It has attract­ed the atten­tion of over 40 mil­lion pil­grims.

Our place was close to the town where St. James Church parish is locat­ed, the only church there. It is a per­fect place to stay for a pil­grim­age: qui­et and sur­round­ed with scenic views of the vil­lage. It is also a ten-minute walk to the church where most of the activ­i­ties are held.

Our first day start­ed with morn­ing prayers at the break­fast table, fol­lowed by Father Char­lie giv­ing us a sched­ule of activ­i­ties for the week. We would hear Mass every morn­ing at ten, which is the only Mass in Eng­lish so we could not miss it. Every hour, Mass is cel­e­brat­ed in dif­fer­ent lan­guages and the church is always packed. Lunch was on our own and din­ner was served ear­ly to give us time to go back to church to pray the Rosary. Father Char­lie also told us to do our shop­ping towards the end of the pil­grim­age to avoid dis­trac­tions. He told us that we would get more out of this expe­ri­ence if we focus on prayer and med­i­ta­tion.

We returned to church at 6 p.m. and prayed the Rosary. We were told to keep qui­et at 6:40 p.m. because this is the time when Our Lady comes and that the appari­tion usu­al­ly lasts for ten to fif­teen min­utes. At exact­ly 6:40 p.m. every­one stopped pray­ing and the whole church was so still you could hear a pin drop. Since we arrived late that evening my room­mate and I stayed at the back of the church. Dur­ing this peri­od of silence, I sud­den­ly smelled a strong scent of ros­es. I imme­di­ate­ly asked my friend if she had per­fume with a flo­ral scent or if she smelled some­thing sweet; she said no. I real­ized it must have been a spe­cial grace that I received from the Blessed Moth­er because I had prayed for a sign of Her pres­ence. I start­ed sob­bing from joy that Our Lady was in our midst, and I could not stop. I lat­er shared this expe­ri­ence with the group at the dai­ly evening gath­er­ing at Andy’s house.

There were oth­er won­der­ful events that hap­pened and every sin­gle one of them showed that we were on holy ground and that the Blessed Moth­er was tru­ly present in our midst. Our group was sched­uled to climb Appari­tion Hill the next day, but Father Char­lie said we could do a dry run the day before. It was a rocky and steep hike to the top of Mt. Pod­br­do, but it was worth get­ting there to see the stat­ue of Our Lady.  We reflect­ed and prayed for only a short time because it start­ed to rain. The way down was very slip­pery, and we were scared we might slip and fall. See­ing how ner­vous I was, one of the pil­grims gave me a hand. We start­ed pray­ing the Rosary and before we knew it we man­aged to come down safe and sound. I real­ly believe we were guid­ed and pro­tect­ed by Our Lady because every­one stayed calm. The next day we climbed the hill again, and it was a piece of cake. Some of the pil­grims tried doing this hike almost every day while we were there.

We also went up Cross Moun­tain, a much steep­er and treach­er­ous hike. We had to get up very ear­ly, about 5 a.m., so that we could return before the weath­er became too hot. It took about three to four hours to reach the top. Along the way were life sized bronze stat­ues depict­ing the Sta­tions of the Cross. We med­i­tat­ed on each sta­tion, with sev­er­al pil­grims tak­ing turns read­ing the prayers. We had a chance to rest in each sta­tion, mak­ing the hike more man­age­able. The cli­max of the hike was the big cross on the very top of the moun­tain, and the view of the vil­lage was breath­tak­ing. That was my first time to be on a site that high and I stood in awe and won­der at the grandeur of God’s cre­ation.

In addi­tion, Vic­ka (one of the vision­ar­ies known to have the gift of heal­ing) vis­it­ed Andy’s house to give her wit­ness for the Gospa and for the hon­or and glo­ry of god. We felt her deep love and devo­tion to Our Lady; her joy and holi­ness were appar­ent on her smil­ing face. At the end of her talk she laid hands on us indi­vid­u­al­ly and prayed for our inten­tions.

Every evening we gath­ered at the liv­ing room to share our expe­ri­ences dur­ing the day. There were inci­dences of phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al heal­ing among our group too many to relate. Our group became a close­ly-knit fam­i­ly, and when it was time to say good­bye we became sad.  To make our part­ing more light­heart­ed, Father Char­lie led a group prayer and said we should take with us the joy­ful mem­o­ries and the mys­ti­cal expe­ri­ence this holy place had brought to all of us.

I went to Med­ju­gor­je a sec­ond time In Novem­ber 2006 with about twelve close friends.  This time, we stayed at Ivan’s house (one of the vision­ar­ies), which was spe­cial because we were with him every time he had an appari­tion from Our Lady in a chapel built in his back­yard. There were twelve oth­er pil­grims from dif­fer­ent states who joined our group. Stay­ing at Ivan’s place was already extra­or­di­nary, but it was more so when he served our food dur­ing break­fast and din­ner. Meals were served fam­i­ly style, cooked by his sis­ter-in-law. We felt very much at home.

Dai­ly activ­i­ties were sim­i­lar to my 2002 pil­grim­age, but we vis­it­ed a few more places which we had not seen last time. We attend­ed Holy Hour and Bene­dic­tion on a week­day evening, which was absolute­ly mag­nif­i­cent with the church packed to the wall and a choir singing in the back­ground. We also went to dai­ly Mass and con­fes­sion, along with so many oth­er pil­grims stand­ing in long lines. There were at least fifty or more priests hear­ing con­fes­sions with signs show­ing what lan­guage they speak. It was unbe­liev­able; l had nev­er seen any­thing like this before.

The vision­ar­ies were sched­uled to give their wit­ness talks dur­ing the day and they took turns doing this. Ivan did his on a Wednes­day, so we all went to the con­fer­ence hall, which was packed. He relat­ed how the appari­tion hap­pened in 1981 when he was only six­teen years old. He had been a very shy boy and not too reli­gious. He won­dered why Our Lady had cho­sen him, and he asked the Blessed Moth­er this dur­ing one of her appari­tions. She answered, “I don’t real­ly pick the good ones.” The crowd roared with laugh­ter. He con­tin­ued to stress the mes­sages of Our Lady, which always focused on peace: One time they looked up and the word Mir (Croa­t­ian word for peace} was writ­ten very clear­ly in the sky.

We always ate din­ner ear­ly so that we could pray the Rosary in his chapel and wit­ness the appari­tion at 6:40 p.m. Every day was spe­cial because we felt Our Lady’s pres­ence in that small chapel. On the last evening before we prayed the Rosary Ivan asked us indi­vid­u­al­ly what we want­ed the Blessed Moth­er to pray for us. After this was done, we prayed the rosary and this was one of my expe­ri­ences that I’ll nev­er for­get. At 6:40 p.m. Ivan stopped pray­ing and looked up with his lips mov­ing as if talk­ing to some­one. I was in front almost next to him and I watched his expres­sion. He was very joy­ful, smil­ing most of the time. When I closed my eyes I felt someone’s strong pres­ence, and after a few min­utes I felt Our Lady ascend­ing. When I opened my eyes, Ivan was look­ing up as if say­ing good­bye to Our Lady. My sense of Our Lady’s depar­ture and Ivan’s farewell to her was such a coin­ci­dence, and I believed then that she vis­it­ed every evening, just as Ivan had said.

Our pil­grim­age was over before we knew it, and it was a tru­ly life-chang­ing expe­ri­ence. This pil­grim­age trans­formed my spir­i­tu­al life, deeply enrich­ing and sanc­ti­fy­ing it. I feel that Our Lady is call­ing all of us to con­ver­sion, which means turn­ing to God, learn­ing to love him, serv­ing Him, pray­ing and trust­ing in him. The fruits of this jour­ney influ­ence the way we live our lives, and by being the best role mod­els for our Chris­t­ian, we will be blessed with joy, peace, gen­tle­ness, love and com­pas­sion in our hearts.

Bio of Author:

LINDA YAMAMOTO was born in Naga City, Philip­pines. She has been in the U.S. since 1971. She is mar­ried, with three adult chil­dren and two grand­chil­dren. Hav­ing worked as a food ser­vice direc­tor and reg­is­tered dietit­ian in a nurs­ing facil­i­ty for over 30 years, she is present­ly a part-time dietit­ian con­sul­tant in skilled care nurs­ing facil­i­ties. An active parish­ioner and min­istry leader at Holy Fam­i­ly Parish in Inver­ness, Illi­nois, she attrib­ut­es the rich­ness of her spir­i­tu­al life to knowl­edge of scrip­ture and to the won­der­ful peo­ple who have shared their spir­i­tu­al jour­neys with her.

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Book: Mag­ni­fi­cat: Mama Mary’s Pil­grim Sites

Col­lect­ed and Edit­ed by Cecila Manguer­ra Brainard

Anvil, 2012, soft­cov­er, 168 pages, ISBN 9789712727115

Hard copies avail­able from Philip­pine Expres­sions Book­shop: 1–310-548‑8148 or 1–310-514‑9139

Avail­able from Ama­zon Kin­dle 

Con­trib­u­tors are: Lucy Adao McGin­ley, Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard, Angeli­ta Calu­ag Cruz, Maria Cio­con, Celeste, Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, Mil­li­cent Dyp­i­ang­co, Ma. Mila­gros T. Dum­dum, Pene­lope V. Flo­res, Almi­ra Astudil­lo Gilles, Ma. Tere­si­ta Her­rera-Tan, Fe Aida Lac­samana-Reyes, Jaime C. Laya, Guia Lim, Lin­da Nietes-Lit­tle, Ma. Tere­sa Z. Lopez, Aimee Gaboya Orte­ga Lucero, Lyn­ley Salome R. Ocam­po, Ma. Cristi­na Padil­la-Sendin, Mar­sha C. Paras, Rev. Dr. Sebas­t­ian Peri­an­nan, Bri­an Ascalon Roley, Julia H. Wol­s­ki, and Lin­da Yamamo­to.

Praise for Magnificat

“This is anoth­er out­stand­ing book by Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard. Pro­found­ly Mar­i­an and beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten by the con­trib­u­tors as these are their per­son­al expe­ri­ences! To our fel­low devo­tees and would-be devo­tees of the Blessed Vir­gin Mary, you will sure­ly fall in love with Mag­ni­fi­cat: Mama Mary’s Pil­grim Sites and love Our Blessed Moth­er even more.” (Bish­op Leopol­do C. Jau­cian, SVD, DD, Bish­op of Bangued, Philip­pines)

“The devo­tion to Mama Mary is strong in the hearts of every Fil­ipino.” (Father James B. Reuter, SJ)

“The Mag­ni­fi­cat has always been a tes­ta­ment to God’s para­dox­i­cal deal­ings with his peo­ple. This book assem­bles a tableau of wit­ness­es to how a fleet­ing vis­it with Mary can turn into a life-chang­ing intro­duc­tion to her Son. Through their sto­ries the author offers their read­ers the dis­tinct pos­si­bil­i­ty of set­ting the stage for a per­son­al, if vic­ar­i­ous, epiphany.” (Father Dion­i­sio M. Miran­da, SVD, Pres­i­dent, Uni­ver­si­ty of San Car­los in Cebu)

“Run­ning as a leit­mo­tif in all the essays in this book is the writ­ers’ pal­pa­ble love for Mama Mary. Each writer has under­gone a change in his or her life or out­look fol­low­ing a vis­it to a Mar­i­an site. Some may have expe­ri­enced a “mir­a­cle,” or felt con­soled and renewed; oth­ers a deep­en­ing of spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, or an epiphany, an insight into the divine. Although we know that Jesus is the only Way to the Father, it is our belief in the pow­er of Mary’s inter­ces­sion to her Son, borne out of the Bible’s Cana sto­ry, that makes us all turn to Her, whom Her divine Son will nev­er refuse. Kudos to Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard for putting togeth­er an engag­ing col­lec­tion of sto­ries that mag­ni­fy the hum­ble hand­maid of the Lord.” (Erlin­da E. Panlilio, Writer and Edi­tor)

 

Tags: book review, Mar­i­an, Mama Mary, Catholic, reli­gion, Chris­tian­i­ty, anthol­o­gy, Medugor­je, Coro­n­avirus, Covid 19