MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- PROF. DR. LJUDEVIT RUPCIC

[The following is an excerpt from an article by Prof. Dr. Ljudevit Rupcic which I have copied from www.medjugorje.ws. He goes on to cite miracles which I have already commented upon so I have restricted my extract to his first two paragraphs -- a generalisation of various phenomena occurring at Medjugorje].

From the beginning, the Medjugorje apparitions were accompanied by many unusual phenomena, both in the sky and on the ground, especially by miraculous healings. I myself, with about a thousand pilgrims, experienced one unusual dance of the sun. That manifestation was so unusual and obvious, that everyone without exception classified it as a miracle. None of those present remained indifferent, which I myself was convinced of by questioning the others who were present. The joy, the tears, and the statements of those present strongly confirmed it. From their words, it could be seen that they understood that manifestation as a confirmation of the authenticity of the apparitions, and as an incentive to respond to the Medjugorje messages by accepting them. And that is the real purpose of miracles: to help people believe and live by faith because they stand in the service of the faith and of the salvation of people.

Regarding the luminous phenomena in Medjugorje, a professor employed in Vienna, an expert in that field, admitted to me that he studied them in Medjugorje for a week. At the end, he told me: "Science has no answer to these manifestations." Although judgment about miracles does not belong to any natural science nor to science in general, but to theology and faith, nevertheless, the judgment of science is very important because where it leaves off, faith takes over. It is very significant that many events were understood by the faithful as a real miracle. They understood their significance and, whether they experienced them for themselves or through others, they felt themselves obliged to accept the Medjugorje messages as an obligation. It is difficult to say precisely how many of these miraculous events have taken place in regards to the Medjugorje apparitions. However, it is well known that several hundred of them have bern reported and attested to. Several of them have been thoroughly examined and scientifically-theologically elaborated, and there is no serious reason whatsoever to doubt their supernatural character...

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- FR. JAREK CIELECKI

There have been many reports of people smelling a strong odour of roses at certain sites around Medjugorje. So far, I have not recorded any of these. However, the following, slightly edited by me, has been extracted from website Mystic Post authored by Antonella Sanicanti.

This is the story of Father Jarek Cielecki who had the Madonna Assunta painted, to carry it to parishes all over the world.  One day, Fr. Cielecki arrived in Medjugorje with that painting. Prior to this, he had not been inclined to believe in the apparitions but something happened there that changed his mind forever.

He began to smell roses and in the afternoon of the day when the Virgin appeared to the seer, Ivan, he felt that the smell came from the painting and it was so strong that it came to all those who stood next to him. Then all together they also saw the sun that was expressed in a “dance” and then turned into a pulsating host. 

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- ELEANOR HAHOUAD

[I picked up the following article from the newsletter of Sr. Emmanuel, a Catholic nun who I believe resides, or at least spends a lot of her time, in Medjugorje. The article was dated 22 August 2018. It was accompanied by a YouTube video of the little girl, the subject of the article, walking. By the way, when someone believes they have been cured of some incurable disease or affliction as a result of either a visit to or some connection with Medjugorje, they must submit details to the local parish office whereupon the matter is subjected to a detailed medical and scientific investigation before it is accepted or circulated].

In the little village of Abeline, where Saint Maryam of Bethlehem was born, the Hahoud family was deeply distressed. Their three-year-old daughter, Eleanor, born with a disability, was doomed to never walk. A month earlier, an Israeli Catholic frier went to visit this stricken family.

Seeing the little girl, he had the idea of giving her son rose petals which he had brought back from Medjugorje and which had been blessed by the Mother of God during an apparition. The Gospa (Blessed Virgin Mary’s name in Croatian) when she appears to the visionaries actually blesses religious articles that are presented to her: rosaries, icons, crucifixes, medals as well as rose petals. Pilgrims then give them to those who cannot come, especially to the sick, as signs that their Heavenly Mother is willing to reach out to them through her maternal blessing.

With such simple signs received in faith and prayer, Mary does what she wants for the person who is suffering, giving them the graces she deems necessary.

Our friend, upon seeing little Eleanor, was overcome with compassion and began to hope for the impossible. He explained to the family where the petals were from, and left after having prayed with them. In the evening, the grandmother said to the mother, “Did you put the petals on your daughter’s legs?” “No,” answered the mother. “Well, what are you waiting for?” The mother placed the petals on her daughter’s lifeless legs, and after praying many Hail Marys, she went to bed, crying all night long because her heart was so heavy.

In the morning, the father, a construction worker, asked his wife, “Why don’t you go and see if Our Lady has done anything for Eleanor?” The mother went, tried to lift her daughter upright but — to her amazement — the little girl stood up on her own; she was comfortable standing on her two feet and started to walk in front of everyone. She went out into the courtyard and turned around several times, so amazed that she was finally able to walk.

Since then, Eleanor’s walking has come on in leaps and bounds, and the whole family continue blessing God for this miracle. Medical records attest to this healing which cannot be explained by science. The Gospa of Medjugorje visited this stricken family — how can we not cry out with joy?

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- BERNIECE DUELLO

[The following article, by Berniece Duello, was posted on the web with permission by Chicken Soup For The Soul LLC. I have copied it to here. It doesn’t necessarily describe a miracle. Then again, it might. You decide].

For all of my ninety years, I’ve had a great devotion to the Virgin Mary. I didn’t believe that Mary could answer prayers, but that she was an intercessor to her son, Jesus. While I was raising eight children, I needed all the interceding I could get! I turned to her often, mother to mother. A statue of the Blessed Virgin sat prominently on our buffet and fresh flowers adorned her, especially in May.

I knew Mary had appeared to youngsters in Lourdes, France, and to children in Guadalupe, Mexico. Then in the 1980s, I read new accounts of Mary appearing to youngsters in Medjugorje, Bosnia (and Hercegovina). Intrigued by the modern-day miracle, I bought books about it, subscribed to the Medjugorje Magazine, attended seminars on the topic… and bought a ticket to Bosnia (and Hercegovina).

At eighty years old, with  back problems and a mild heart condition, I didn’t know if I could climb the mountain, but I just knew I was supposed to go… to be there… to see where Mary had appeared.

I didn’t go planning to see a miracle, but many who had been there did. There were hundreds of accounts of miraculous healings and faith conversions.

Our tour group arrived in Medjugorje late one damp November night. The next morning we learned our scheduled trek had been postponed, due to the rain and slippery slopes. One younger man who had made the trip twice before, said he could wait no longer… he was climbing the mile-long mountain path right then.

I said, “Me too.”

So with more determination than strength, I set off for the climb. I was surprised to see the trail was only jagged rocks. Step by cautious step, I slowly hiked upward, past a woman even older than I kneeling in prayerful meditation… past a half dozen rowdy ten year old boys running and yelping with joy. They raced ahead of me; later I came upon them again kneeling in quiet prayer.

Within two hours, I stood in breathless wonder and awe at the top of the mountain, on the very site the virgin had appeared. I knelt in the sprinkling rain and did what I always do… I prayed for her children.

The trek was even more difficult than the ascent. Each step on the rugged rocks jarred me as I struggled to find stable footing. The rain intensified as we wound our way through the foreign streets of the city. I returned to the group, soaking wet but marvelling that, not only had I made the climb, I had done so without my usual pain. “Maybe that was the miracle,” I mused.

The next day was just another day in war-torn Bosnia (and Hercegovina), but it was Thanksgiving Day in the States… and the tour guide had a plan to make it a day of Thanksgiving in Medjugorje too. On every tour the staff purchased and distributed groceries and supplies to the most needy in the community. All of the dozen members of our tour group readily offered to contribute to the fund and help with the deliveries.

Our large bus stopped at the grocery store where the ordered bags of goods were loaded into the back. Carefully, we counted the twenty-four garbage-size bags. Local church and government officials had made a list of the twenty-four families in most desperate need, and the bus headed off to share Thanksgiving with them.

The first stop was a shanty with the roof partly blown off. My new friends and I filed past damaged household furniture sitting on the dirt lawn and entered the one room the family of four occupied. Laughing, smiling, and crying, the old couple accepted the food and supplies. Two young boys in clean ragged clothes chattered their gratitude while their toddler brother clung to the grandma’s leg, whining and fussing. Their parents were tortured and killed by the enemy, the tour guide had explained. Yet the family jubilantly hugged us goodbye and we headed off to the next stop.

The bus driver seemed to have the route and stops memorised from the many trips before. At the next run-down house, a wrinkled old woman in a headscarf stood waving from her cluttered front porch. As our group entered, she placed her hands on each of our faces and kissed us, one by one, thanking us in her native tongue. Inside we gathered in one of the two rooms left standing in her once three-bedroom home. There she prayed, not for herself, but for us, her guests.

The driver stopped next at a ramshackle house at the end of a lane, and before the tour guide could say, “They aren’t on our list this time,” a man and two young boys raced toward the bus clapping for joy. At the directive of the tour guide, the bus pulled away, leaving them looking forlorn and rejected.

“Can’t we please leave them some food?” I politely protested as I looked back at the family waving sadly.

“We only have twenty-four bags,” the guide explained, her voice thick with sorrow. “We have other families waiting for these. We promised them.”

The team sat, despondent, until the driver stopped at yet another war-damaged home. There, a couple who looked even older than I cared for two grown sons, both suffering from a wasting muscular disease. Yet their faith and joy exceeded ours as they crowded the entire group into their tiny kitchen to pray… and share food the old woman had prepared for us.

And so went the day, house after house, family after family, each physically destitute and spiritually wealthy.

“That’s twenty-four!” the guide said as she checked the last name off the list after the final stop.

“No, twenty-three,” someone corrected. “there is one bag of food left.”

Dumbfounded, the group looked in the back of the bus to see one lone bag of food.

“We all counted the bags and the people on the list three times,” one member said.

“There was no error,” our guide said, then beamed. “Are there loaves an fishes in that bag?”

The entire team stared at each other first in confusion, then in awe, then in elation. We cheered. “Let’s go!”

The bus returned to the ramshackle house at the end of the lane and the man and two boys raced out, as if they were expecting us.

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- VARIOUS CLAIMS

[There is a seemingly never-ending supply of information on the Internet regarding alleged miracles of one kind or another associated with the phenomenon that is Medjugorje. The following are some extracts from a 1988 article by Monte Leach entitled Manifestations from Medjugorje, only slightly edited by me]:

Eighteen members of a Catholic prayer community in Northern California say that their rosary beads changed from a silver to gold colour both during and after a recent prayer retreat. The eighteen believe the changes are miracles performed by the Virgin Mary as part of her manifestation in Medjugorje…Changes in rosary beads have been reported in other parts of the U.S. and around the world, including some 50 parishioners in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, who say their beads changed form silver to a gold colour after a member of their congregation returned from Medjugorje last year.

Like Somers, one of the Northern California Catholics who attended the prayer retreat, says she was reciting the prayer of the rosary when her beads changed colour.  “I looked at the rosary in my hand and it was glowing,” Somers says. She has had rosary beads for 40 years, she says, and has never seen any of them change colour the way hers did that day at the retreat. In other parts of the U.S., metallurgists have examined beads that people claim have changed colour. The metallurgists have found the rosaries not to be gold, but have yet to determine their actual metallic composition.

Phenomena of all types have been reported at Medjugorje. Physical healings are common; the cross on one of the mountains lights up, and a woman’s figure is seen on the cross; the word MIR, the Croatian and Russian word for peace, has been written across the sky in bright lights, and seen by thousands of people; rosary beads in Medjugorje change from silver to gold.

Mary Ann Serrano actually witnessed one of the more commonly reported miracles at Medjugorje. “I had just come out of Mass. The sun was over Mount Krisevac, a hill where people pray every day and where Mary has actually appeared. All of a sudden I saw a crowd of people with the faces in awe. And gold light on their faces. I turned and looked and the sun was spinning across the  sky, with great rainbows of light coming out of it. Rainbows of light and most prominently a cross. You could stare straight into the sun and you didn’t have to blink. It didn’t hurt your eyes. And then all of a sudden it came back and was a normal sun again.”

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- JOANIEE SCHLAGEL

[After nine months of undertaking this exercise, it seems there are countless stories on the Internet about miraculous cures attributable to Medjugorje, many more than I thought I’d be able to find. What follows, only slightly edited by me, is the testimony of Joaniee Schlagel, a woman from Colorado in the U.S. who was inexplicably cured of an inoperable and life threatening tumour simply by visiting Medjugorje]:

“It all started in my home state of Colorado. I hadn’t been to church since the time of the Latin Mass and for some reason, this Easter in ’92, it was like someone was dragging me to church by the collar. I went and met these people. They had back packs that said “Queen of Peace” on them. I asked them who they were and they said they brought medical supplies into Bosnia. I responded that I would like to go and we exchanged numbers.

“I thought to myself — Where’s Bosnia and why do I want to go there? Then I found that something else happened that was strange. I couldn’t stop saying the Rosary even though I had never liked the Rosary. Basically, I had no idea what was happening to me.

“Anyway, as I was preparing for my trip I found out I had a rare tumour wrapping around my heart and kidneys and that it was inoperable. It was called Retroperitoneal Fibrosis. (From an international search it was discovered that I was only one of 500 with it in the world, with most people dying from it because it is undetectable. As it is not cancerous, chemotherapy was not an option. Instead, steroids were used as a last ditch effort. My surgeon had actually asked me not to take them because of the damage they would do. As it happened, I blew up to 250lbs and it wasn’t just the weight — I looked almost disfigured). I called and cancelled the trip.

Then when I found out I had three months to live, I got a call from the same people and they told me they had to postpone their trip to Medjugorje — they were going in April 1993 instead. They asked if I’d like to go. I decided I would.

It is important to understand that I wasn’t going for a miracle. In fact, the way I behaved while I was there it was interesting that I had even said yes at all. When I got there, I really wasn’t doing much praying. I remember spending a lot of time in the pizza place and soon enough I was back on the plane returning home, thinking — Here I am in this holy place with three months to live. I should have been on my hands and knees praying.

“Then something happened which I didn’t expect. Suddenly, I felt so good in my heart like if I were to die it would be okay.

“When I returned home, I went to my doctor for another CAT scan. He called me in and said something was wrong. Of course, I thought I probably had a week to live. But he had other news for me. He said ‘Your CAT scan says your tumour is drastically decreased. There’s something wrong. They must have made an error. Would you please take another test?’ So I did.

“When that report came back the tumour was all gone. Praised be Jesus.

“I am left with the sense that it is not about the physical healing but the conversion of heart. I never thought I could feel this way.”

Joaniee Schlagel, Colorado, United States

19 January 2009.

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- LOLA FALANA

[Said to be the most famous person to have received a healing courtesy of Medjugorje, details of Lola Falana’s cure appears on multiple websites. The following is a short extract from one of them, only slightly edited by me]:

The most famous person to claim that she had been healed by Our Lady of Medjugorje was entertainer Lola Falana who was also suffering from multiple sclerosis. By 1989, she was confined to either the wheelchair or her bed. One day, she was watching a documentary about Medjugorje. According to her, “When the television showed the crowd of pilgrims which ascend the Hill of Apparitions, I experienced a desire to go there, to walk with them, but my legs were inert, dead. Then, with tears in my eyes, I prayed to the Blessed Mother to heal me, promising her that if one day I would be able to walk again, I would go there.” Within a month, all the symptoms of her illness had disappeared.

As promised, she went to Medjugorje.

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- CHIARA ZOCCANTE

[Articles relating to Italian girl Chiara Zoccante appear all over the web, mainly in Italian. I have found the following on andamazinggrace.blogspot.com.au. It has only been slightly edited by me]:

10 year old Italian girl Chiara Zoccante suffered from a pituitary tumour when she attended visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo’s apparition on 02 January 2006.  Afterwards, Mirjana told Chiara’s parents that the Virgin Mary had put her hands on their girl. One month later doctors discovered that the tumour was gone.

The cure must be immediate, permanent and unexplainable by medical treatments. When the Catholic Church investigates claims of miraculous healings, these three criteria must be met before a cure can be declared a miracle.

And so, when the medical experts assigned by the Vatican Commission charged with investigating the events in Medjugorje sift through the more than 400 case files of claimed healings, they might set aside Chiara’s case, now in her seventh year of good health.

At age 10, Chiara was diagnosed with a pituitary tumour. She was first hospitalised on 24 June 2005, on  the 24th anniversary of the Medjugorje apparitions.

“By chance, at the hospital we met a friend who told us about the apparitions,” Chiara’s parents, Patrizia and Mariano, told the weekly Italian magazine Oggi in June (this year — possibly 2012). We promised to take Chiara to Medjugorje as soon as she felt good enough physically. And we kept our word.

“On 31 December 2005 we arrived in the town of the Virgin. We were excited by the grace of the place where everyone invited us to pray. Meeting with Father Jozo (Medjugorje’s parish priest at the time of the first apparition) was a balm, but the most touching moment  was the meeting with Mirjana during her monthly apparition.

“On 02 January 2006, Chiara was taken near the visionary. After the apparition Mirjana told us that he Virgin had put her hands on Chiara.  Exactly one month later, on 02 February 2006, we went to the hospital for a routine MRI. The cancer had completely disappeared. And not only that: her hair also came back though the doctors told us that Chiara would remain bald, as a consequence of chemotherapy.”

Though Chiara’s story is only now breaking in English, it has been known for a while in Italy. On 18 April 2010 Chiara testified before about 20,000 people gathered for a Medjugorje prayer meeting in Milan.

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- SUSAN TASSONE

[Susan Tassone’s story appears on many websites. She has authored a number of books, including Praying with the Saints for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. The following is an extract of her testimony in her own words with just slight editing by me]:

On August 11, 1983, the feast of my patron, St. Susanna, I was hit head on and injured by a cab, which left my leg damaged. My doctor told me that my leg was permanently damaged, and that I would have constant bouts of painful swelling and tenderness of the leg for the rest of my life.

The date was even more significant. Fifty years earlier, on that very same day, my great aunt, known as “Little Mary,” who was ten years old at the time, was also injured in a car accident. She died. I survived. A priest told me that my life was spared and that I had a mission. He said that sometimes a sacrifice is made in the family for a greater cause. It shook me up.

I have had a special bond with the Blessed Mother since I was a child. My mother was very active in the parish, and we were very young when she planted the seed for the love of Our lady in our hearts. (I remember, for example, we had the Pilgrim Virgin statue in our home).

In 1993, with the permission of my doctor, I decided to go on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, to pay a visit, experience closeness with Our Lady, and to return home. Our Blessed Mother had other plans. During an apparition on Good Friday night, 1993, I saw an image of Our Lady within a cobalt blue colour. I knew it was Her. They say the white flashes are angels that appear before Her. My knees shook. I knelt to steady them. I was in amazement and awe.

My rosary links turned to gold and my leg, my permanently damaged leg, was healed on Mt Krizevac (Cross Mountain). My doctor said it was a miracle and I was blessed. However, he waited three years before he would document the healing. He wanted to be sure it was real. Three years later, I flew back to Medjugorje to deliver the letter. It is one of the documented medical cases of registered healings in Medjugorje. Fr Slavko Barbaric interviewed me for “Mir Magazine,” the local magazine of Medjugorje.

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- SILVIA BUSI

[The following testimony, or articles relating to Silvia Busi appears on many websites. This one has been extracted from an article by Jakob Marschner on www.medjugorje.ws. It has only been slightly edited by me]:

All the medical tests were negative when Silvia Busi fell very ill at 16. Within days, the normal Italian girl found herself in a wheelchair, unable to move her legs. Nine months later Silvia’s illness disappeared as suddenly as it had come about, during an apparition to Medjugorje visionary Ivan Dragicevic. “The gift of faith is the biggest one I got,” she says.

Instantly ill and crippled for months, then just as instantly cured. Life took place in drastic turns when Silvia was 16 and 17.

For nine months from October 2004 the student from Padua, Italy was a paraplegic confined to her wheelchair, unable to walk or move her legs. Silvia’s time as an invalid ended in June 2005 on top of Apparition Hill in Medjugorje when she stood up and walked after an apparition to visionary Ivan Dragicevic.

“Until the beginning of October 2004,” Silvia testified during a recent prayer meeting in Italy, “I was a normal girl going to school, having friends, dancing and swimming. Suddenly, within a few days, all that was blocked, though all the medical tests were negative.

“When I found myself in a wheelchair, my family and I lived through hard and painful moments. In the following months I began losing weight and my seizures got worse, limiting my life even more, and leading me to an emotional breakdown.”

Early on, Silvia’s mother turned to faith as the solution to her daughter’s condition. The home was Catholic but Silvia says she attended Sunday Mass only out of habit:

“My mother was our strength,” Silvia said. “Finding no answers with doctors, she turned to a priest who was very devoted to a Marian group. So we started to follow the group every Friday, along with praying the Rosary, going to Mass and Eucharistic Adoration. I followed my parents, though, only because I could not stay at home alone.

“In May, the month dedicated to the Madonna, my mother decided to attend the group every day and not only on Friday, and at least pray the Rosary and go to Mass. At first it was not easy for me but after a few weeks, I began to feel the need to go there because only there could I feel a little peace. Not being able to do the same things as my peers, in that place I felt the weight less.”

Silvia’s decision to go to Medjugorje was as sudden as her illness and her later cure:

“On June 20,” Silvia told the attendees at the prayer meeting, “my physical therapist told me that next week she would accompany her mother to Medjugorje. I asked if I could go with them, and after three days I found myself on the bus to Medjugorje with my father. We arrived in the morning of June 24, the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, but also the anniversary of the first apparition.”

When Silvia heard that visionary Ivan was to have a public apparition in the evening, she immediately decided to go there, though she thought it would be impossible to bring her wheelchair to the top of Apparition Hill. Instead, she was carried to the hilltop where she arrived at 8:00 pm, two hours before the apparition.

“That is my earliest memory of prayer really done with the heart. Those two hours flew away. Sitting next to me, my group leader told me to address the Madonna because shortly thereafter she would come down from Heaven to listen to all of us. Then I asked Her for the strength to serenely accept and face a life in a wheelchair because I was seventeen, and the future terrified me so.

“During Ivan’s apparition,” Silvia testified, “I saw a light to my left: white, beautiful, very vocal and loud but I could look at it because I did not get blinded. When I saw it, I was afraid and I lowered my eyes not to look at it but it was also good and I could not help but watch it. Thus, throughout the apparition, I always looked at this light through the corner of my eye.”

After the apparition, Silvia’s carriers lost her, and she fell on the hard hillside stones. But Silvia did not feel the rocks, she said. Instead her healing took place:

“I remember it as if I was being on a soft mattress and not on those hard and sharp rocks. I also remember a very sweet voice which spoke to me and calmed me. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes and my father was crying. But for the first time in nine months, I could feel my legs; I felt I leaned on something. Then I told my father ‘I am cured; I can walk!’

“There was a hand stretched out in front of me. I grabbed it and I found myself on my feet as if it were the most natural thing. I burst into tears because this was something bigger than me. I could never have imagined this. Then I started to walk. My legs were very thin but I was sure I would never fall because I felt some invisible strings that held me from behind, and I was sure that I would not fall and get hurt.”

The next morning, at about five o’clock, Silvia climbed Cross Mountain to pray the Way of the Cross along with her group. When she returned from Medjugorje, only the seizures were left of her illness. For them to disappear took another Medjugorje involvement:

“I continued to have seizures,” Silvia said, “but thanks be to God they went over. At first I was very shy and did not witness, and then I had many seizures during the day. Then Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic, a priest from Medjugorje, came to Turin for a prayer meeting and he told me to give thanks and praise to God for the gift He gave me.”

She was happy to pray the Rosary and give her testimony, then thought that was it. But it was not:

“Before I went away, Fr Ljubo prayed over me, blessed me and a few days later all the seizures disappeared. After a year I stopped taking medicine and now, thanks be to God, I am fine.”

Though Silvia is now completely healed, she does not consider that the biggest gift she got:

“The greatest grace that God gave me and my family was to rediscover the grace of God, faith and conversion. The road is very long; we just started and then it continues for a lifetime. The difficulties are there and no-one is immune to this but with the power of faith and prayer, you are able to overcome and deal with them.

“With this conversion, it is as if God has lit a fire inside me. But as fire is being fed with wood, so faith must be nourished by prayer. And by the Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, the Rosary, reading the Bible, fasting and Confession at least once a month. With all this, the fire is not quenched, even if a little wind is blowing.

“For me this is really the most important and beautiful in life. I pray with all my heart to every day experience more of the love of God and the Madonna which is immense, and the same for each of us.”

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- DOMENICO MASCHERI

[The story of Domenico Mascheri appears on numerous Internet sites. The following is an article about him I have taken from www.medjugorjemiracles.com. I have only slightly edited it]:

An 87-year-old man from Italy, who had been using a hearing device since the 1970s, suddenly started to hear during a Mass at Medjugorje.

Domenico Mascheri says his wife still cannot understand that she does not have to shout anymore. It all happened at an outdoor service on September 27 of this year (2011). During the Mass, he started to hear by himself after 40 years of being totally dependent on hearing devices. When he went to the Mass that evening, it was after two days of total silence, as the batteries in his hearing devices had run out, and he did not have spares. He had climbed Apparition Hill that day with the help of a wooden cane.

Domenico sat on the bench with a small group of pilgrims and about half-way through reciting the Ave Maria — he told reporters back home — he started to hear the pastor’s voice, which slowly became stronger until he could hear everything. He began to cry, and did not even tell his companions.

Later that evening Domenico told everyone in the group what had happened. They spent the rest of the evening partying and praising God for the beauty of the miracle of Domenico. (Source: www.medjugorjetoday.tv).

Medjugorje is a fountain of spiritual fruits for the world. As of October, 2011 Medjugorje parish archivist Marija Dugandzic has confirmed that 532 healings were medically documented; 520 men became priests as a result of a visit; 123 women became nuns as a result of a visit and 540,000 visits were registered from cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns. (Source: www.medjugorjetoday.tv).

And it is likely that hundreds, if not thousands of healings, vocations, and visits have gone unreported to the Medjugorje parish. On this Thanksgiving Day, 2011, let us give praise and thanksgiving to God for Medjugorje.

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- NICOLO PACINI

[Nicolo Pacini’s testimony or articles about his experience appear on various websites and feature in a book by author and theologian René Laurentin’s Ten Years of Apparitions. Nicolo’s case is also mentioned in Miracles of Healing:Inspirational Stories of Amazing Recovery by Brad and Sherry Hansen Steiger.  The following is from http://johnbarrysblog.blogspot.com.au with only slight editing by myself]:

Thirteen year old Nicolo Pacini, who lived with his family near Florence, Italy, had been confined  to a wheelchair for five years with muscular dystrophy when his parents decided to take him to visit the site where the Virgin Mary had appeared in a small village, Medjugorje, in December 1991.

In spite of the popularity of Medjugorje as a healing shrine, Nicolo did not want to go; he told his parents that he would rather have them save the money that such a trip would cost. He thought it would be useless to go and that the pilgrimage would only bring all three of them additional heartache and disappointment.

He argued that he was but one of millions of handicapped people in the world, and he would be but one of thousands of pilgrims who would be crowding around the statue of Mother Mary at Medjugorje praying for a healing. Why would the Queen of Heaven choose him before all the others?

But at last, after much discussion and prayer, Nicolo agreed to accompany his parents to the holy place where Mother Mary had appeared wearing a crown of twelve stars.

The bus trip was exhausting, but when the Pacini family arrived at the shrine on December 8th, Nicolo’s mother wasted no time in pushing his wheelchair directly in front of Mary’s life-size statue. Perhaps more to please his parents than to get a miracle, Nicola began to pray.

Then, to his astonishment and his parent’s great joy, he felt his right hand slowly open.

Encouraged by such a marvellous sign of divine energy, Nicolo was eager to return to the shrine the next morning. In his prayers, however, he asked that his healing not be done for his sake alone, but also for that of his parents. Then, Nicolo simply felt like getting up and walking for the first time in five years.

“It was the strangest feeling,” Nicolo said later. It was as if something were moving inside of him, and he had an overwhelming urge to get up and walk. An irresistible force seemed to be lifting him up from the wheelchair.

Although he thought that it was impossible, he found himself standing upright and walking.

After he had taken the first few steps, he called out to his mother and heard her cry of joy, as a miracle had occurred. Mrs Pacini instinctively rushed to her son’s side to help him but Nicolo asked her to leave him alone. He knew that he could walk on his own.

The Pacini family will always remember how the hundreds of pilgrims who were gathered around the shrine burst into applause when Nicolo kept walking.

The boy’s mind was filled with the wonder of it all. Mother Mary had heard his prayers and those of his parents.

When the Pacinis returned to Florence, Dr Rosella Mengonzi, their physician, was shocked when she saw Nicolo standing and walking. Dr Mengonzi had been certain that Nicolo would be forced to spend his life in a wheelchair. After a thorough examination, Dr Mengonzi told journalist Silvio Piersanti that somehow Nicolo Pacini had completely recovered from an incurable disease in a manner that she could not medically explain. A healing miracle had been performed.

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- HEATHER PARSONS

[Testimonies by and articles about an Irish journalist, Heather Parsons appear on numerous websites and she has written books about her experience (one of which, A Light Between The Hills, I have read). The following article, by Michael H Brown appears at www.spiritdaily.net. It is obviously dated; I would guess it was written in the 1980s. Since the Church’s investigation he alludes to in the fifth from last paragraph, there has been a more high profile one which has been completed but whose findings are yet to be revealed to the world. Meanwhile the Pope has sent an emissary, Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser, to Medjugorje on his own fact finding mission and to assess the needs of the millions of pilgrims who go there. Michael H Brown’s article has only been slightly edited by me]:

An Irish journalist asserts in a new book, Vicka, Touched by a Mother’s Love, that she encountered extraordinary sights in the skies above the famous apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

The journalist, Heather Parsons of Dublin — who at the time was Protestant — says that during her initial visit there in June, 1985, she witnessed what has became known as the “miracles of the sun,” but at a level unusual even by the standards of this reputedly miraculous place.  Others too, witnessed the display which Parsons, a sceptic, never expected. “Lifting my hands to shade my eyes from the bright light of the sun,” she writes in the book, “I followed the direction of their pointing fingers — and for one short, sharp moment doubted the reality of my own sight.  Closing my eyes momentarily, I looked again and saw exactly the same thing. There, in the sky above me, the sun was spinning like a top. As I watched, colours appeared to come streaming from behind it — red, green, yellow, blue — to circle it independently, while all the time the sun continued to spin.

“Then the centre of the sun turned to red and then to black before returning to its usual brightness. Above it, slightly to the right, I suddenly saw what appeared to be white cloud-like letters begin to form. As I watched, the word “Peace” appeared in the sky above the dancing sun — in English, but in what I would have described as Celtic script, just like that in the Book of Kells. Remaining for what seemed like twenty or thirty seconds — although to be honest I was not counting time as I witnessed this extraordinary and unbelievable phenomenon — the word disappeared and the sun continued to spin and dance.”

Native villagers have made similar claims, asserting that a bright, inexplicable inscription appeared in the sky above the holy spot of Mount Krizevac one summer evening in 1981. But in that case the letters had formed a word, “Mir,” in Croatian. “Mir” translates as “peace.”  During the 1990s Americans from the New York area snapped photos from Apparition Hill that later showed the word “Christ” in an otherwise clear sky.

Parsons, who has written in Ireland for national newspapers and magazines, reveals that the entire episode lasted about 35 minutes. At one point, the journalist says that the sun appeared to “break away from the heavens” and come rushing toward the crowd — similar to the “great miracle” reported in 1917 at Fatima.

“All around me, I heard cries of fear mingled with terror-filled prayers, as the sun’s brightness came closer and closer and all I could see was a total golden light,” the journalist, who is now Catholic, continues. “Strangely, I realised, I felt no fear before the descent of the sun stopped and then withdrew back into the sky, where it continued to spin.”

This is not what the entire book is about. It is a book about the experiences of others, including the seer Vicka Ivankovic Mijatovic (who recently bore her first child). It is a story of the Blessed Mother’s message. But the phenomena reported by Parsons were profound and of potential prophetic significance. “As I continued to stare at the sun,” she writes, “I saw what seemed like a fountain of light gush up from it. Just as with a fountain of water, where it reached its highest point this fountain of light separated and there appeared, to my utter astonishment, a bright, shining figure with arms outstretched. So bright and shining that I could never describe the whiteness of the garment, but a figure that I immediately recognised, despite my own lack of religious interest for many years, as the Risen Christ.”

Parsons says that other witnesses seemed to be seeing what looked like a Communion Host in front of the sun — a frequent claim at Medjugorje, where a disc-like shape blots out the harmful centre rays. Parsons reports that she could see the sleeves that hung from the wrists of the figure as the cloth flowed down to meet the hem of the garment where it touched the figure’s feet. “But I could not see the face,” she explains. “Try as I might, I could not make out the features on his face, although I knew it was there, framed by hair that fell to the shoulders.

“Ten times this figure disappeared, to return again almost immediately, always preceded by the fountain of light. At one point I recall holding my hand in front of my face — and continuing to see the figure as if my hand was not there. And then the realisation, as I stood in this place and continued to look up into the sky, that tears were pouring down my face and the only thought in my mind was that I was in the presence of God.”

The Church has not yet ruled on Medjugorje, with an investigation of such phenomena currently in the hands of a national commission composed of the Cardinal in Sarajevo, his auxiliary, and two other bishops. A spokesman for the Cardinal, Father Mato Vovkic, told Spirit Daily that a decision on authenticity will not be rendered until after the apparitions stop. What is the significance of this? Is there a sign for us all in the alleged manifestation of Jesus?

In the coming weeks the Vatican is expected to release guidelines for discerning such claimed apparitions and other phenomena currently sweeping across every habitable continent, and when those strictures come out, we must strictly obey them, as we should obey all that the Pope directs through his congregations. Then we will better discern such reported signs — along with the message.

That message has been peace. It has been love. It has been that the world is only a passing place and we must not allow evil to steal our happiness.

With God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus — with the prayers of His mother — we have all we need to get through even the most challenging times.

This we have known now for 2,000 years. As Parsons says, “I had gone (to Medjugorje) in 1985 as a Protestant journalist. What I expected to find was Marian propaganda. What I actually found was the gospel message.”

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- REPORT OF DR NIKOLA BARTULICA

[Articles and testimony of Croatian psychiatrist, Dr Nikola Bartulica appear all over the Internet. The following was extracted from www.medjugorje.com. It has only been slightly edited by me]:

Name: Dr Nikola Bartulica, a Croatian psychiatrist, originally from Split, but now lives in the USA.

Place and date of testing:  Medjugorje, October 1981 and 1989.

Test or procedure: Dr Bartulica was among the first to examine the visionaries. In October 1981, he examined Vicka for nearly two hours, all the while she was unaware that he was a psychiatrist. He stated the following about that visit:

“When a psychiatrist hears that a person has visions, he first wonders if that person is mentally healthy. So I asked Vicka what did she see, hear, how did she react. She answered spontaneously, without fear or hesitation, and you could see that this was a determined, completely normal person…in psychiatry, you can quickly determine if a person is sincere.”

In 1989, Dr Bartulica returned to Medjugorje to carry out new psychiatric tests on the visionaries. In Medjugorje, he spoke to Marija, Ivan, Vicka, Mirjana and Ivanka. Only Jakov Colo was absent.  “I examined each of them for half an hour and a pilgrim from California recorded it with a video camera so there is evidence of the event.”  Dr Bartulica presented his conclusions on the Medjugorje phenomenon in the book Are the Visionaries Telling the Truth? published in 1991 in Chicago.

Conclusions:

In October, 1981

“I asked Vicka what did she see, hear, how did she react. She answered spontaneously, without fear or hesitation, and you could see that this was a determined, completely normal person.”

In watching Vicka in ecstasy for the first time, four years after his first interview with her, he said:

“She was very expressive. I was watching her moving her lips, nodding…It made me think, if she doesn’t see the Blessed Mother, and is just staring into the wall like the rest of us, and behaves in such a manner then she is making fools of all of us. You have to ask yourself if it is possible that she is deceiving us. The answer is that it might be possible, but if that was the case, all the six seers are capable of this simultaneously for a period of 25 years. That in itself would be a phenomenon. And anyway that cannot be because it has been established scientifically that their ecstasies are authentic. Besides, there is no such case in the history of psychiatry that six children start simultaneously hallucinating at 6:40 pm (every evening)” says the psychiatrist. “It does not take an expert though to tell that the children were normal, sincere, and that their experience was not invented.”

He said that he has met many people in his line of business that were faking their experiences. But in the case of the visionaries of Medjugorje he is completely convinced that they have had the experience they testify to. He has visited Medjugorje more than 20 times and has often attended the apparitions.

MEDJUGORJE MIRACLES -- TESTIMONY OF DR MARCO MARGNELLI

[Dr Marco Margnelli is a specialist in ecstasy and altered states of consciousness. He is mentioned on numerous websites as an avowed atheist who went to Medjugorje and, as a result of what he discovered, converted to Roman Catholicism. The following article is just one of the many I have come across. In it, Dr Margnelli relates his own experiences. I have only slightly edited it]:

One impressive testimony comes from an Italian neurophysiologist, Dr Marco Margnelli, a specialist in ecstasy and altered stats of consciousness. He was part of the group of Italian doctors who tested the visionaries in 1985. He was unprepared for how the visionaries’ testimony would impact him personally.

An Atheist Tests the Children

“I am a non-believer and therefore I went to Medjugorje in a critical spirit, ready to welcome any evidence of what would contradict it or show up as a fake. Insofar as I am concerned, that is from my studies on change in states of consciousness in the children, I must say that I have, with my instruments, verified and documented a genuine state of ecstasy.

“Certainly, as far as my opinion goes, there is no lying, and certainly the children enter a different state of consciousness, that which is scientifically called the ‘alfa’ state. If they then really see the Madonna, or if it is a case of suggestion phenomenon inexplicable to us, is a matter for theological competence, on which I cannot express myself.

“Certainly, we were in the presence of an extraordinary phenomenon. Since my return from Yugoslavia, I continually think of it, and I confess that I also ask myself questions which are not scientific, and I question myself on the meaning of all that.

“As a man the events surrounding this phenomenon also surprised me. There is the videotape of a colleague which records our work, in which one can see the absolutely synchronous movement with which the children act, their looks which all together follow the apparition; there are films taken by people I know and who appear to be honest, of the cross which dominates the hill nearby, which disappears; there is the absolute silence of the birds which gather before sunset in the square and they go silent, all together, suddenly as soon as the apparition begins.

“A lady living in Milan, and who seems to me to be a very responsible person told me a curious fact. Gravely ill with leukaemia, she had gone to Medjugorje, wishing to be embraced by the Madonna; at the end of the ecstasy, one of the children ran to embrace her, among hundreds of people present, saying to her: ‘That’s the embrace you wished from the Madonna.' She is now healed of her illness. Another doctor from the Mangiagalli of Milan, Luigi Frigerio, to whom we were indebted for the organisation of our journey, tells that he was singled out in the same way by one of the visionaries who asked in a loud voice, in Croatian: ‘Where is the doctor from the Mangiagalli in Milan? The Madonna asked me to tell him that she is pleased with the work he is doing.’

“If anyone had told me these things before my journey there, I would have laughed at it. We are certainly in the presence of an extremely interesting phenomenon. Whether we are dealing with an authentic apparition or something else that we cannot explain, I cannot say; it is a question I prefer not to put to myself.”

As Dr Margnelli confessed, he continually thought of all the things, asking questions that were not scientific, but pondering the meaning of what was happening in Medjugorje. His ponderings led him out of his unbelief. He is now a practising Catholic.