September 13, 2010
St. John ChrysostomDear Family of Mary!"Little children, do not be afraid because I am with you even when you think there is no way out and that Satan is in control. I bring peace to you. I am your mother and the Queen of Peace." (July 25, 1988) Isn't it amazing that Our Lady is with us! She is here at this time in history for a specific reason. She is with us to shield us from Satan and to bring us peace. She is with us as our Mother and Queen of Peace. This summer Mary TV went to Medjugorje to film. We were blessed to stay with the visionary, Ivan. He graciously took us for walks around his neighborhood, describing the first days of the apparitions in detail. It was wonderful to be standing in the very spots where the children first saw Our Lady in 1981. Ivan shared so simply and clearly, exactly what it was like on that first day, June 24. I want to share a transcript of his remarks, given at 6:00 am on August 3, 2010. Ivan shares the complete surprise he felt at seeing Our Lady on Podbrdo: "Today we will do the 1st part about the beginning of the apparitions. I will start by sharing about the first two days and how the apparitions started. We will walk the same path that we walked those first days.
"It was 1981 and I was 16 years old. I live over in that house with my parents. When I was a child of 16 I was very shy. I did not communicate very much and I was very connected to my parents. "This area was under the communist regime. There was no freedom of speech or freedom to practice religion. Life was very hard. We worked every day in the tobacco fields and the vineyard. I was the oldest son. We got up very early, even earlier than you got up today - between 4 and 5 a.m. to go work in the fields. I would work and help my parents every day. All of this was done to be able to educate me. It was hard labor every day! I would ask my parents, is there a feast coming soon? I waited for a feast day so that I could rest and play soccer with my friends. "A feast day arrived, the feast of St. John the Baptist on June 24th, 1981. This day we could sleep longer, but not too long. We could not miss Mass. I slept in that room over there (he pointed to the window of his room on the second floor in the corner of the building). My mother came to our room and woke us and told us to hurry so that we would not be late for Mass. It took 5- 6 times for her to get me up. I got up, quickly dressed and we left to walk through the fields as a family to Mass. There was no time for much thinking. I was at Mass with my body but I am not sure that I was there with my heart and soul. As soon as we returned home my mother asked me what the Gospel was about. I did not know because my heart was not there. I just wanted Mass to be done. "Next we had lunch and after we ate my friends called out for me to go and play soccer. I went with them. We walked to a meadow where we played soccer. This road you see today was not here before. It did not exist. There was a narrow path with bushes. The path was only wide enough for a sheep to walk. My family had about 50 sheep, 2 cows and a horse. (We moved now from his original home further up the road.)
We will walk now. In 1981 there were only 2 houses here, my parent's home and one house across the street. That house across the street is very different now. There were no other homes. All the rest were bushes. See this garden here. (We had walked a little ways down the street.) We had 2 green apple trees in this garden. They were green apples and they were very bitter. Remember this place for later.
(We walked to the top of the street by the stop sign and stopped.Looking to the left and down that street a little) "Ivan pointed and said, down there by that sign, two of us were standing and we heard Vicka calling us. I and my friend came up here. There was a meadow where these two houses are now. This is where my friend whose name is also Ivan and I would play soccer here on Sunday and Feast days. It was Jakov's mom's property. We played soccer from about 3 to around 5 p.m. When we got tired and started to walk back to our house. We reached about this point in the road; it was very narrow and not paved. On this road we met Ivanka, Mirjana, and Vicka. We asked where the three girls were going. They said they were going for a walk to look for their parent's sheep. I did not talk much to the girls. I did not know Ivanka, who was from Mostar or Mirjana, who was from Sarajevo. They were only here visiting their grandparents for the summer. "After our conversation with the girls, they went toward the hill and I went back toward my house with my friend Ivan who was from the village. I asked my friend to come to my house so I could change my clothes. There was a basketball match on the television. We did not have a TV so we would gather at another family's home to watch the basketball game on their black and white TV. After we watched the first half of the game I told my friend, 'Come to my house, I want to eat something.' We ate and then we were going back to his house. As we were walking on the way to his house, we stopped at the garden to pick apples from the garden I pointed out to you and walked on some more. "Then we heard a female voice calling us. 'Ivan, Ivan, Ivan. Come with us. See Our Lady. She is on the mountain.' We walked on but did not see anyone. We got down near that sign and then turned back because the voice was so close and the road was narrow. We saw Vicka and she was shaking from fear. She said, 'Come see Our Lady on the hill.' I started laughing. I turned to my friend and said, 'What is she talking about? She is crazy.' We were late for the second half of the basketball game. We wanted to go on but she was so persistent. 'Come with me. Come!' I said 'Let's go. That is NOT the Vicka I know. Something definitely strange is going on.' We went on walking with her. She was shaking and so very excited. By now we were scared too. When we came close to this area about 15' we saw the other two girls turned toward the hill crying. Walking with Vicka to them we saw Ivanka and Mirjana turned toward the hill watching something. "Vicka turned and said look up there. I looked three times and saw the beautiful image of Our Lady. She was normal size. I looked not more than 5 seconds. Then I ran to my house through the bushes faster than I had ever run before. I talked to no one. I closed myself in my room. All night there were so many questions in my mind. Is that possible? Was it really Our Lady? It was such a night of fear. I could not even dream of this happening. I had never heard of anything like this. I was a practical believer, raised in the faith but I had no real devotion to Mary and I was not better or worse than others. I was not anything special. I was afraid most of the night. All I could think is 'What if Our Lady comes to my room? How can I escape?' It was a very, very long night and morning never seemed to come. "My parents heard in the village that I was there with the others. In the morning they were waiting outside my room. They were scared of what would happen. This was a time of Communism. We were not allowed to talk about it. My parents told me not to play with this sort of thing. I told my parents what we saw." (Ivan sharing the first day of the apparitions outside his home in Medjugorje, August 3, 2010) Normal young people on a Feast Day in summer! An event that is changing the world! In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
PS. Thanks to Mary Matasso and Cathy Fedor for transcribing this sharing!
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