Requirements for Being an Apostle

One of the prime locations for Mirjana’s apparition is a house right on the path of Apparition Mountain heading up to the Blue Cross. Cross Mountain looms in the background. Pilgrims gathered here, this rainy October 2nd morning, just like Zacchaeus, who climbed the tree to be able to see Jesus better. It’s always evident at every public apparition in Medjugorje that 2,000 years later, pilgrims still look for the best vantage points to be able to “see” better. If we all could only wish to do this in our spiritual lives, we would bring great joy to Our Lady, “You will illuminate the way for those who have been given eyes but do not want to see.”




Mirjana, while in ecstasy this morning, October 2, 2012, receives Our Lady’s message. Our Lady comes twice each month, on the 25th with visionary Marija, and on the 2nd with Mirjana, always with new words for us. But we are not the visionaries, who can see, touch and hear Our Lady, who infuses Her words into their very being. How are we, then,to grasp what Our Lady is saying? A Friend of Medjugorje, in his classic writing, "Understanding Our Lady's Messages," helps us learn how to discover the profoundness in Our Lady's words:

“If one does as Our Lady says and prays to understand the greatness of the messages, prays to comprehend them, then rather than just paper and ink, the messages become filled with love, filled with profound meaning, and a great source of grace to live by. From the great heights from which the visionaries receive them, to the depths of paper and ink, then lifted back up through prayer, we are able to taste the sweetness of Our Lady’s love for us and understand Her messages. They, like concrete foundations, are solid enough to build our lives on for this time.”

It is a day that the visionaries avoid thinking about—the day Our Lady will stop appearing to them. It has already happened to three of the visionaries, but Marija, Ivan and Vicka know that day will come for them as well. Jakov and Ivanka only see Our Lady once a year, and Mirjana, only on the second of every month and her birthday. Jakov described in an interview, as best he could, how he endured that separation:
“It is hard to describe the pain I felt when the Gospa told me that She would not be coming to me every day anymore. I asked myself millions of questions: Why? How will it be possible not to see the Gospa anymore? What will I do during the time of the apparition? How will I be able to bear not to see the Gospa, who had been appearing to me daily for 17 years? I can say that I have grown up with the Gospa, She had taken me by the hand and had guided me through my life…However, the Gospa had told us: “Pray and you will receive all the answers to your questions!” That is what I did—I prayed and the Gospa gave me the strength to be able to accept everything. I am grateful to God for everything that He has given me, for the time in which He has sent me the Gospa and for seeing Her with my own eyes. But I also realized that it may not be that important to see Her with your eyes, but with the eyes of your heart. She is still there today. The Gospa is always with me, also when I don’t see Her with my own eyes, but with the eyes of my heart.”




A Medjugorje villager stands holding an umbrella over Mirjana to protect her from the rain, though she is oblivious to this as her entire being is absorbed into Our Lady’s presence and love. Medjugorje visionary, Ivan, was asked for his advice in following Our Lady. He said,
“First and foremost—we need to be responsible. The time we live in is a time of responsibility and we need to become responsible when Gospa’s message are at hand. We should be responsible in accepting Her messages, in weaving them into our lives and in being living examples. People often ask me when will Gospa leave a sign…She will leave a sign. However, today, we need to be those signs. This parish must be a sign. The youth in Medjugorje must be a sign. Our families must be living signs for all the pilgrims that come here, the whole world must be a living sign—this is what the word ‘responsibility’ means.”




Pilgrims stand by a wall overlooking the path Medjugorje visionary walks through to return to her home after the apparition. For some, seeing Mirjana helps to make the experience more real to them. But, the essential encounter is the one with Our Lady in their hearts. The testimony that this encounter continues to happen for hundreds of thousands of people, even after 30 years of apparitions, is the multitudes that continue to flood into Medjugorje month after month from all over the world. They come, primarily, because of someone who has told them, “Go to Medjugorje. Our Lady is truly present there. I experienced Her in my heart.”




Though most of these pilgrims arose early to come to Mirjana’s apparition this morning, many skipping breakfast, they were rained upon, they stood for hours, knelt on hard rocky stones, and now patiently are waiting to descend the mountain to return to their pansions—so how is it that such joy and peace is seen on many of their faces? It’s as Mirjana once said,
“Somehow the faith arose within me that we could wipe away Her tears and lessen Her pain. When I say we, I mean all of us, not only the visionaries and the priests. When the Gospa says “dear children”, then She speaks to all mankind. All people are Her dear children.”

via medjugorje.com

Our Lady Queen of Peace of Medjugorje’s October 2, 2012
Apparition and Message Given to Mirjana on the Day for Nonbelievers
Pilgrims started to gather at the Blue Cross October 1, 2012 before 7:00 P.M. Rosary and after rosary was prayed with songs of love sung throughout the night to Our Lady. Thousands had gathered when Mirjana arrived, taking her place before Our Lady, visibly anticipating Our Lady’s arrival as she composed herself and began to pray. The apparition was long, lasting more than 5 minutes, as Our Lady was giving the message it began to rain on all gathered with thunder heard in the distance.
As usual, Mirjana’s face expressed the array of emotions felt conversing with Our Lady and receiving today’s message for Non-believers. Following is Our Lady's message given today, October 2, 2012 on the day of prayer for nonbelievers:
“Dear children; I am calling you and am coming among you because I need you. I need apostles with a pure heart. I am praying, and you should also pray, that the Holy Spirit may enable and lead you, that He may illuminate you and fill you with love and humility. Pray that He may fill you with grace and mercy. Only then will you understand me, my children. Only then will you understand my pain because of those who have not come to know the love of God. Then you will be able to help me. You will be my light-bearers of God’s love. You will illuminate the way for those who have been given eyes but do not want to see. I desire for all of my children to see my Son. I desire for all of my children to experience His Kingdom. Again I call you and implore you to pray for those whom my Son has called. Thank you.”
Mirjana said that Our Lady blessed all those present and the religious articles brought for blessing.
Requirements for Being an Apostle
A Friend of Medjugorje
The old woman had worked tirelessly for her children to walk the right path. Several had turned out good. Yet because of her concern for those who had become wicked, she constantly prevailed upon her good children to help them. But they would respond, through their actions, that their siblings were unworthy of their help.
To be an Apostle, in the time of grace, is for eternity an extraordinary position that few others will have had, just as Peter, James and John, and just a few others, held the fortunate position of being in the right place at the right time, encountering the right Person. They sit on special thrones in Heaven reserved for them because of an opportunity that fell in a specific time of man’s history. A special time that their birth and the geographic location of where they were raised made it possible for them to respond. Their occupations required of them to be in the right place at the right time when the clock of history struck the hour that the Messiah would cross their paths, and at the exact moment of their lives when the Messiah’s call went out. One could say, but they were chosen! True, but they still were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right particular time when the Messiah went among them to be chosen. Our Lady said,
June 25, 1993
“…Dear children, these times are particular…”
We may be surprised at who will be counted among the chosen today. There are many good children whose actions speak that they have eyes but do not see, have the opportunity, the grace offered to be love and humble but do not illuminate. Light-bearers that did not bear the light of the love given to them, and that they, in turn, did not give to others.
Our Lady has come among us with a cause of need. A need of those who are desiring a pure heart to help Her. How many hearts will She have to pass to get to that particular soul who is a John or a Peter who would be open enough to see who is calling them? Peter was told by his brother, Andrew, “Come, the Messiah is here.” Peter dropped his nets and responded. Others Jesus walked by to go to Peter. Why did He pass them by? What was in their hearts that Jesus was unable to be recognized by them? Is it not the same today, as Our Lady comes among us? Even for us in Community, having been in the right place at the right time, even born here, will we understand? Will we see the opportunity of Our Lady’s call in this particular moment of history? If we do not, why can we not see? What do we not understand?
Our Lady requires of those She needs not just to be counted among the good. But to have a character of soul that possesses love, humility, purity, prayer and mercy. Those traits, and the ‘desire’ to be so, can be just as easily found among the sinners. Many good people do bad things and can just as easily be lacking these five traits. Our Lady has not just come to make the good, Apostles, but for the one who has ears, let him hear. For the one who has eyes, let him see. Just because one is a religious, one is in a religious community, does not mean they illuminate with their life. Yes, they are chosen, but that position demands a response. To be a light-bearer of Our Lady has requirements. The opportunity Our Lady gives us today is as important as in the origins of salvation history. Will you meet the need of Our Lady? Do you even want to? Do not be the one who causes Our Lady the very pain we are to alleviate. The Holy Spirit wants to enable you, to lead you through Our Lady’s and your prayers to fill you as a basket with love and humility, fill you with graces and mercy, that you can feed those who pain Our Lady’s heart. You hold one of the twelve baskets of fish to dispense. Will you keep it for yourself or give it out?
With Love,