Sharing our Pilgrmage with You

Excerpt from a Talk given by Father Jozo Zovko at Siroki Brijeg in September 2001.

"onvert my heart, my life, my family, my Church that I may be able to bear the fruit which will remain. Come, oh most Holy Spirit, come oh most Holy Spirit. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be. Oh come oh most Holy Spirit. Grant that as your own Church, we may feel your presence, your Grace, your Strength. You who give new birth, you who are the light, the springtime, grow in the Consecration of the Church, come and pour out upon us like the rain, we long for you, as a land dry and parched longs for rain. Come oh Most Holy Spirit. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be. Mother and Queen of Peace Pray for us." Make the sign of the cross...

Welcome - you are now a pilgrim after 20 years and two and a half months of Apparitions and now we ask ourselves. "What more can happen with us?" There was a beautiful television review entitled "Medjugorje after 20 years". They had interviewed the doctor who from the very beginning had examined the children. The Communists said "You must proclaim the children are sick". After a full day of medical examination which was on the 5th day of the Apparitions, the Doctors came to a conclusion that the children were perfectly healthy. The Communist police insisted that they could not be healthy because they are saying that they are seeing Our Lady. They had to be stopped, they had to be prevented from saying to anyone that they see Our Lady. But the communists did not succeed in stopping the children no matter what means they used. They persecuted the children and the parents. They blockaded the Hill of Apparitions and the Mountain of the Cross, for years prohibiting anyone to climb them; and yet you see now, after 20 years, a statue of Our Lady stands exactly in that place where on the 2nd day of the Apparitions, the children knelt in front of the light that filled the entire Hill and although told by their parents they were to check if it were not Our Lady, who could it be? The parents said it could be the enemy, it could be Satan appearing. That is why you must pray, you must sprinkle the image with Holy Water because where there is prayer, Satan cannot be. And already on the second day we see children who brought Holy Water with them. We see the children together when the light filled the Hill. The children knelt down and the light was seen by everyone even those who came with curiosity. Those who climbed in curiosity when the children finished praying The Creed, 7 Our Fathers, 7 Hail Mary's and 7 Glory Be. From the light the most beautiful Mother and Virgin came. Vicka stood up and sprinkled the image with the Holy Water that she had brought and said to the image... "If you are Satan be gone from us.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit". But with a smile the most Beautiful Virgin said: "Do not be afraid little children. It is I" Marija the other visionary said "Who are you and what is your name". "I am the Queen of Peace. My name is the Queen of Peace". And from that day on until today, this is the name we call the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is nothing unknown that is taking place in Medjugorje Nothing that we do not know about and who it is that is appearing We have heard the voice and seen the Person who introduced herself and we see the fruits, powerful and great coming through the Virgin through her presence, conversions, numerous gifts, witnesses. Yesterday as I climbed Mount Krizevac, the Way of the Cross, I saw the young and the old climbing. Yes, that power that draws the Cross of Jesus has drawn all of us. This is what the Virgin and The Mother does, the one who has chosen this Hill. It was Sunday, 8.30 a.m. and everyone who came to the Mass was looking towards the Mount of the Cross. They did not see the Cross anymore, on a perfectly clear day, but only the light, and they saw the Mother come from the light. They knelt and wept and prayed. It was incredible and then again the Cross could be seen and from the cross, on the left hand side the message flowed written in the sky "MIR" meaning PEACE, PEACE. We have learned that this great fruit PEACE is the fruit of the Cross. As the Blessed Mother has taught us from the very beginning to come before the Cross of Jesus and kneel before the Cross and she invites us to learn from Him. For 20 years as an entire generation we learn from Jesus by looking at Him and by contemplating on His wounds as His Mother calls us. By looking at His love we learn how to love. Through His love our love is awakened and we know what love is. Love is to give ones life for others. Love is to offer oneself for others. Love is to pray and to forgive; to intercede with prayer and say: "Father I beseech you Forgive them".

Love is to come to know the will of the Father, to place our life and our will into His Hands. "Oh Father into your Hands I place my life." I place my everything. Yes this is love. But at the same time this is the Cross. Do you know that it is a Cross to be for others to sacrifice for other? You have your martyrs, you have your Saints. All those who sacrificed themselves for others for the Church. Yes this is love. To forgive one's neighbours is love, to pray for the enemy is a Cross, but this is love. That Cross saves and when we stop being able to do this; when we stop being willing to take that Cross to know how to sacrifice for others, to do more for others, to forgive, to know the Will of the Father, to fulfil the Will of the Father. Remember if I do not do this, if my Church does not know of this then my Church is not the Church of Jesus. The church of Jesus is a church that is as Jesus lives by following Him.

That is why we are Pilgrims because we listen to the important message. Our Lady places us before the Tabernacle and she asks us to live this most Blessed Sacrament, this mystery.

She asks us to learn from Him what is the Eucharist... "Take this all of you and eat it. This is given up for you". Yes we learn from the Eucharist to be for others just like the Cross, to offer ourselves for others, to be bread for others. By the Tabernacle you always see a Perpetual light. Yahweh speaks to Moses" I am the God of your Fathers. Yes this today is the Burning Bush, this Perpetual light by the Tabernacle. Your God dwells with you, the God of your Fathers so near you, so close to you. Do you know English speaking Church and the Church of Ireland that God lives in England. He dwells in Ireland and in the United States if we have a Tabernacle there. Today is important that you reflect on whether YOU, YOU know Jesus. Our Lady brings us to Jesus. Our Lady teaches us to love Jesus, to follow Jesus. Medjugorje is not some kind of a children's tale, one without a beginning or end or content.

It is a way of trial. The call to Holiness and the most recent messages call us to Holiness. I don't know when was the last time your Parish Priest spoke to you telling you that you are called to be Holy. But in the most recent message again Our Lady tells us that we are. All of us are called to be Holy. And this is what it means to follow Jesus, to be like Jesus and that is why it is important to see His presence in a very concrete way in the life of the church and in the life of each one of us. It is important to know how we love Jesus, to accept Jesus and to be for Him and with Him and your Mother says: "Behold Jesus crucified". In the recent message the Mother says "Do not bind yourself to material things. Bind yourself instead to God" To bind oneself to God.. Not to permit ourselves to be bound or attached to money or our own intellect or even our own family. And that is why our God desires us to be freed of everything, so that nothing may bind us but Him.