July 15, 2011
Dear children of Medjugorje, praised be Jesus and Mary!
1. On July 2, 2011, Mirjana received her monthly apparition at the Blue Cross, surrounded by a huge crowd. After the apparition, she shared with us the following message:
2. On June 25, 2011, Ivanka received her yearly apparition at her home. The apparition lasted 8 minutes. Only Ivanka’s family was present. After the apparition, Ivanka said: “Our Lady spoke to me about the first secret and, at the end, said: ‘Dear children, receive my motherly blessing.’”
3. She hated her father! During the 70’s, in Germany. Monica was 17 when she lost her mother whom she loved very much. She was left behind with three siblings and her father who was a non-practicing protestant and an architect near Bonn. Monica detested her father. He had very little interaction with his children, so she found him cold, rigid, and insensitive. Since she was unable to connect with him on a heart level, she moved out at 17, using her studies as an excuse.
At the age of 20, she had a deep experience of God in her bedroom, and she conceived a great love for Jesus. Through some Protestant brothers, she understood that loving and forgiving her father are part of God’s commandments, you will honor you father and mother, so she made several attempts to do so. Eventually she offered to spend a vacation alone with him in the beautiful Swiss mountains. In the heart of this magnificent scenery, she discovered the truth about her father’s heart and started to love him. She also understood that his suffering was caused by a very difficult childhood. She forced herself to focus on the positive points of their relationship, rather than straining with the contentious ones. She also became aware of her own faults, the ones she had in common with her father; and she began asking him for forgiveness. She prayed and slowly discovered within her father a child capable of being in awe.
Building the Berlin Wall. Image via Wikipedia
Then a providential event took place. She was with her father and his friends (who had, like him, run away from East Germany just before the closing of the Berlin wall) when her father became a different person. In a different context he was vulnerable, open, obviously his true self. Monica discovered everything he had suffered because of his exile and how he was forced to harden his heart in order to survive. She understood also how children can too quickly reject their parents and make them become as hard as marble. Monica’s heart opened to this “unknown” father and at last a dialogue started between them.
When she was 26, she was working as a nurse in a home for the elderly. She worked the night shift and often found herself alone in the service. Every two weeks, she visited her father. She worried about his loneliness.
At 77, her father enjoyed good health and there was no inkling of any medical condition. One day he went to the hospital for a minor overnight procedure. That same night, Monica was working the night shift when suddenly a strong feeling seized her. In her heart, she knew that she must go immediately to be near her father. At sunrise she got into the car and drove two hours non-stop at full speed in the rain and fog. She was going through an inner struggle, ‘I’m crazy, I could go see my father later, why should I go there now?’
However her intuition was too strong. She sensed that this encounter with her father would be important, and she began to pray. When she arrived in Bonn, instead of going to the hospital, she felt an urge to go first to her father’s house, without knowing why. The house was empty. Monica walked toward the armoire, opened a drawer and found a document unknown to her. She took it and quickly went to the hospital where she found her father in excellent condition. They opened the document together and found the diary that he had written when he was young.
They came upon a story of a hike that he had made with his friends when he was 17, during the War of 1940-1945. On that day, at the top of the mountain, her father and his friends had marveled at creation, as if they had seen the glory of God. The story was extremely moving. Monica and her father started to cry. For Monica, the moment was as if a corner of heaven was opened. The visit lasted 3 hours. The father-daughter relationship deepened and there was a true exchange of hearts.
Monica asked him if he would give his life to the Lord. Her father accepted and there they prayed together for the very first time! Since her father did not know how to pray, he asked her to say the prayers and he would repeat them after her. Monica began a spontaneous prayer, simple, as the Holy Spirit inspired her. A great union of hearts developed during that prayer too.
Taking advantage of the occasion, Monica told her father how much she loved him and she thanked him. It was a little like a declaration of love, sober but sincere. She asked his forgiveness for all the hurt that her attitude toward him might have caused. Then his roommate returned and her father walked his daughter to the door. From a distance he waved to her good-bye and Monica noticed a light surrounding him. Monica was full of joy and returned to work. Three days later she received a call from her brother saying that their father had just died very peacefully, alone.
Monica is now catholic. Her journey to forgiveness is encouraging! At times we feel unable to forgive a person who has hurt us. But doesn’t God offer each one of us a path of mercy and peace? We find it only kneeling down, in a heartfelt prayer. This reconciliation between Monica and her father is beautiful, but more beautiful still is the way Monica listened to the Holy Spirit and let Him guide her, without taking into account her feeling of repulsion towards her father. We depend too much on our feelings; we speak too much about them; we judge too much; we ‘ruminate’ and we constantly comment on evil; we feed upon sad stories. But happy are those who listen to the whisper of God in their hearts and who let the beautiful flower of forgiveness bloom, sprouting even in the middle of sordid garbage. Our garbage will pass but the flower and its fruits will remain. They come from God.
4. The night of the 30th Anniversary, a huge crowd, was gathered on Podbrdo for Our Lady’s apparition with Ivan, at 11PM. After the apparition Ivan expressed his deep emotion: “Today is 30 years since Our Lady has been with me and since I have been in Her school, the school of peace, of love, the school of prayer. Truly this meeting has a great significance for me and for my life, and it is exceptional for me. Our Lady came tonight to us in a gold dress with three angels. She came very, very joyful and happy. At the beginning as always, She greeted us all with Her Motherly greeting, ‘Praised be Jesus, my dear children.’ Then She said:
“Dear children, also today I rejoice together with you. Also today, in joy, I call you: accept my messages and live my messages. May my messages become life. Build them into your lives. May they be food on your life’s journey. Know, dear children, that I am with you when it is most difficult for you, that I encourage and console you, that I intercede before my Son for all of you. Therefore, dear children, persevere in prayer and do not be afraid. Follow me without fear. Thank you, dear children, also today, for having accepted me again and having accepted my messages, for living my messages.”
5. A pilgrim asked Father Svetozar (a Franciscan priest in Medjugorje): “What would you say to a man who prays each day and wishes to pray with his family, but his family refuses to pray with him?” Father asked him, “Are you this man?” “Yes,” the man answered. Father responded, “You are on the way to holiness!”
The Gospa gave this message several times on the mountain: “Today more than ever before, Satan wants to destroy your families. This is why, dear children, pray with your family and pray for the family!”
This message is vital! Many pilgrims start living it upon their return from Medjugorje. Some encounter difficulties, and sometimes lose peace when members of their family refuse to pray with them. Above all, may they not lose peace! The peace of our heart should not depend on the attitude of others (we would be likely never to have it!). It depends on God, who alone gives true peace, in prayer. As for God, He is always ready to welcome us and to bless us. Our testimony of unshakable peace in the middle of the waves will bear its fruit.
I learned a very valuable lesson here, through the visionaries: The Gospa only requires of us to live Her messages, to do our part (pray each day in our home), and she will do her part! As long as we have done our part, we ought to remain in peace, the rest does not belong to us, Jesus and Mary will take care of the rest themselves. This burden would be too heavy for us. Our total confidence in them is essential; it will hasten the impact of grace on the family.
Vacations are favorable to prayer encounters and to the miracles of conversion which prayer obtains, the Blessed Mother will help us to benefit from this time of grace!
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“Medjugorje 30”, the DVD of the 30th Anniversary (in 5 languages) has been created by the parish. You will find recent interviews of the 6 visionaries. Very interesting! Available at the Franciscan Bookstore. Ask a friend coming to Medj soon, to pick one up for you. (17€)
PS 2. For WYD in Madrid, a key book, the YouCat! Each youth will have it in his backpack. The “Youth Catechism” is a great illustrated book especially created for young people. You can find it in bookstores for $15 (USD). Parents and grandparents, Youth Ministers, etc. here is THE present you can give the youth, with so many about our faith, the Church, Eternity, love, sexuality, etc. Pope Benedict wrote its prologue. "You must know the faith as a musician knows his instrument!"
PS 3. The Youth Festival will start on August 1 with evening Mass. It will end on the 6th with the Mass of the Transfiguration on Mount Krizevac at 5 AM. Info at the parish: Tel. +387 36651 988
PS 4. Pick your Summer CDs and DVDs now!
Sister Emmanuel’s latest teachings are AVAILABLE on both CD and DVD format! Choose a single title or purchase all six *: Take the Hand of Your Heavenly Mother; Make Your Peace With God (about Confession); Embrace Suffering As Your Way to Joy; Pray With Your Family: A Remedy for our World Today; Responding to Our Lady's Call to Holiness; Prayer Groups: Our Lady's School for Holiness.
*Buy the DVD set and go on a virtual retreat with Sr. Emmanuel, as experienced at the Children of Medjugorje Summit Retreat in St Malo, Colorado!
PS 5. Watch Sister Emmanuel ON DEMAND, on your computer! Go to: www.napavalleyTV.org Click on "Video on Demand" on the red banner at the top. Screen goes light blue- wait, then scroll way down until you see channel 27 channel 28 side by side. Click on Channel 28 and scroll down the list until "Medjugorje - Our Mother's Last Call", then click on the date you want to watch.
PS 6. Children of Medjugorje Inc needs your help! Please consider supporting our ministry in prayer and, if possible, through financial contributions so that we may be able to continue spreading the messages of Our Lady to the English-speaking world. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to help support and sustain our work, please donate through this link on our secure online store or send an email to pray@childrenofmedjugorje.com Your generosity is deeply appreciated! Thank you!
PS 7. Take Medjugorje home! View the evening celebration live at: http://www.medjugorje.hr/fr/multimedia/tv-web/
PS 9. Make your own fasting bread! (See recipe in the March 18 report)
Permission is given to spread the text of these reports under two conditions: 1) no words are changed,
2) “Children of Medjugorje” is cited along with our website www.childrenofmedjugorje.com
PO Box 18430, Denver CO 80218, USA. Tel. 877-MIR-MEDJ
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