Mary TV February 7, 2012 reflection

Hundreds of Pilgrims gather at the spot where Our Lady first appeared on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje!  The spot Ivan first saw her! (c)Mary TV 2011 February 7, 2012   Dear Family of Mary!   "Dear children!  Today also I am calling you to personal conversion.  You be the ones who will be converted, and in your lives be witnesses.  Love, forgive and bring the joy of the Risen One to this world where my Son died, and where people do not feel the need to seek Him and discover Him in their lives. You be adorers of my Son and may your hope be hope to those whose hearts do not have Jesus.  Dear children, thank you again today for having responded to my call." (January 31, 2012, to Ivan in Kalamazoo)   Here is the second installment of Ivan's talk during his visit to Kalamazoo on January 31, 2012:   I know that many of you here have been to Medjugorje. Or you have heard of it from friends who have been there. Or you have watched videos about it. How many of you have been? How many have not been? For those who have not been, I would like to take you back to the early days of the apparitions, so you can have an idea of how the apparitions began.   1981, I was a child at the time, I was 16 years old. I was very shy, very reserved. And those years, 1981, those were difficult years. It was the time of communism. Yugoslavia existed at that time, a time without freedom, without freedom of speech and freedom to express your faith. Life was difficult. My parent and I worked very hard every day in the fields, in the tobacco fields and in the vineyards. I got up every morning at 5:00 am. Because I was the oldest of the children, I had to be the first one. I worked hard every day. And every day, in that difficult labor I asked my parents when some holiday or feast day would come up, so I could rest. So I could go play soccer with my friends.   And that day did arrive. It was the 24th of June, 1981. It was the feast day of St. John the Baptist. It was a Wednesday. That morning, like on every other feast day, our parents let me sleep in a little longer - but not long enough for us to miss Mass. My mother came to my room several times, waking me up, saying to me, "We are going to be late, what are you waiting for?" You know how mothers can be! There wasn't much to think about. I got up quickly, got dressed, and woke up my 2 younger brothers. We crossed the fields together to go to church. I went to the 11:00 am Mass that morning. I was there in body, but I am not certain if I was there in heart and soul. I could hardly wait for that Mass to end. I came home. The habit my parents had was to ask me a question. My mother asked me that question. "Ivan, what was the gospel reading today?" I will never forget that. And I didn't know!   After that we sat at the family table and had lunch together. And before the end of that lunch, some of my friends from the village came by and asked me to play soccer with them. And somewhere around 3:00 pm that afternoon we went to a field near my home and we played soccer. And when we all got tired, we started heading back to our homes. As we were walking back to our homes we encounter three girls, Ivanka, Mirjana, and Vicka. I knew one of those girls well because she and I went to the same school. She was a year older than me. But I didn't know the other two girls well because at that time they didn't live in Medjugorje. Mirjana lived in Sarajevo, Ivanka lived in Mostar. But they would come during the summer vacation to Medjugorje to spend the summer with their grandparents.   And so my three friends asked the three girls "Where are you going and what are you doing." They said they were going for a walk to look for the family sheep. I didn't' ask them anything because, as I said earlier, I was very shy and I didn't talk much with girls. When my friends finished this conversation we continued on our way to our homes. The majority of my friends went towards the village. But since my home was a bit further away from the village one friend came with me so I could quickly change clothes so that we could go back to his house that evening to watch television. At that time there were only five or six families that had color televisions. So we would gather in one of those homes to watch basketball or soccer. And so it was that evening. We watched the first half of that game. Ant at the half time of that game, I said to my friend, "Come back to my house with me so we can have something to eat and then we can go back and watch the second half of that game."   And so we went back to my home and ate something, and we were slowly heading back to his home to go watch the second half of the game, but we never got there. Nor have we to this day ever seen the second half of that game, nor do we know the result of that game because something else happened. As we were waking on that path, we heard a voice. Somebody was calling us in the distance. "Ivan, Ivan, Ivan, come see Our Lady!" I heard the voice but I didn't see anyone neither in front of me nor behind me. The path was very narrow, overgrown with bushes and shrubs. And since we didn't see anyone we three continued on our way. But the further along we went, the louder and closer that voice became. And in one moment I heard that voice, so close, I turned to look behind me, and I saw one of those three girls we had seen earlier, named Vicka. She was running towards the two of us. She was barefoot and trembling with fear. With her trembling voice she was saying, "Come with me, come with me to Our Lady on the Hill." I stopped and looked at her I didn't know what she was talking about.   As I said, I was 16 years old at the time, I was a child. I turned to my friend and ask, "What is she talking about, what is she saying Our Lady?" And I said, "Forget about her, she's nuts, let's go watch the second half of the game!" But she was so persistent and she was calling us to go with her. And I said to my friend, "Something strange is happening with her because that is not the Vicka I know." And so we were slowly walking with her, and as we watched how she was behaving and saw how she was shaking, we didn't feel so great anymore either. We came to that place and we saw the other two young girls, Ivanka and Mirjana. They were kneeling, turned in the direction of the hill and looking at something. As we came close to the hill, Vicka turned in the direction of the hill and pointing said, "Look up there." I looked three times, and I saw the most beautiful image of Our Lady, in normal size, and as soon as I saw it, I immediately ran home. I don't think anyone could have caught up with me. I came home, and I didn't say anything to anyone, not to my parents, nor to my brothers. I locked myself in my bedroom. And I think if I had had 100 keys and locks, I would have put them all on the door!   It was a night of so much fear, a night of so many questions running through my mind. Is this possible? How is this possible? Was that really Our Lady? I saw, but still I wasn't certain. And believe me, up to that point in my life, I could never have dreamt of something like this. And I never had any special devotion to Our Lady. I had never read of apparitions and as a child, I didn't like to read much anyway. I was a practicing believer. I went to church. I prayed with my parents. I grew up in the faith. I was raised in the faith. I was no better or worse than the others. But that night that was before me truly was a night of such great fear. And you know what I was most afraid of? I was most afraid of this that night. "What if Our Lady comes to my room tonight? How will I escape, where will I run to?" I could hardly wait for morning to come. But morning seemed to never come and that night was so long for me...   I love all of the details of that wondrous day when Our Lady first came to the six visionaries of Medjugorje. The details make it so real, so understandable. Ivan will never forget one of those details and he faithfully shares them wherever he speaks. This is his witness, his sharing of faith. He is living Our Lady's words, "You be the ones who will be converted, and in your lives be witnesses."   May our faith grow and our conversion continue so that we may all be witnesses to the love of our Mother!   In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2012

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