The Spirit of Medjugorje Online

THE 25TH DAY OF EACH MONTH, THE BLESSED VIRGIN GIVES A MESSAGE TO THE VISIONARY MARIJA, THAT IS TO BE GIVEN TO THE WORLD.

Our Lady came with little Jesus in her arms and she did not give a message, but little Jesus began to speak and said : “I am your peace, live my commandments.” With a sign of the cross, Our Lady and little Jesus blessed us together.

The picture above was taken in St. Jerome Church in Slano, a village in Croatia, which is often a stop for pilgrims going to Medjugorje.

The Living Sign

By June Klins

On June 15, 2012, my Medjugorje pilgrimage group visited the home of Ivo Juricic to hear his powerful testimony.

I had heard Ivo’s story years before, and this was like a dream come true to be in the presence of this holy man who radiates joy from his face, just like his sister-in-law, visionary Vicka. Since Ivo seemed to know only a few English words, our guide, Ana Sego, translated for him.

Ivo began, “I'd like to share with you what happened in my life – many things, bad and good.” He remarked that all of our lives are like that, and then added, “But when God is with us, it is easier to carry the cross.” Ivo said that when he was 19 years old, he was good at basketball and his dream was to become a professional basketball player. But one morning he felt a strong pain in his left leg, below the knee. His doctor in Mostar sent him to a hospital in Zagreb, six hours away. The doctors there said they would need to do a biopsy to test for cancer of the bone, and if so, they would need to amputate. Ivo said, “After a few hours, I woke up. I was looking for my leg, and my leg was not there. All my world fell down and collapsed. There is no more normal life, nor more basketball.” Six months later, Ivo got a prosthesis, and went back home, but life was difficult. All his old friends were playing basketball, which he could not do, and he fell in with the wrong people, who were drinking and gambling to excess. Ivo’s lifestyle made his mother cry, but she never gave up praying for him. Six months later, he parted company with the bad crowd.

In the meantime, Our Lady began appearing in Medjugorje. Ivo’s mother kept telling him to go to Medjugorje (which was 5 km. away) and talk to Vicka. Ivo said, "I could not watch the tears of my mother anymore, and I ran to see Vicka.” Vicka invited him to stay for the apparition that night. Ivo accepted the invitation, but only to be polite. His mind was with his friends. He did not see or feel anything at the apparition. Afterwards, Ivo offered to drive Vicka over to the church for Mass, since he was one of the few to have a car at the time. From that night on, he began driving the visionaries over to the church for Mass.

A year and a half after his surgery, Ivo had to have some follow-up testing. The doctor called him and said he had to return to the hospital right away. The cancer had spread all over his body – metastasized, even into his lungs. The doctors did not give him much hope, even with chemotherapy. Since the doctors told him he would only have one year to live, Ivo went to Vicka and requested that she ask Our Lady what he should do. He was waiting for a concrete response, but after the apparition, Vicka said to him, "Our Lady said you are free to choose to go to the hospital or not." Ivo said that he was very angry, sad, and disappointed because Our Lady did not give him a concrete answer. He could not sleep all night.

The next morning, Ivo’s parents were going to take him to the hospital, but he said, "I'm not going anywhere. Why go? It would be torture there – chemotherapy.” His mother began to cry and told him to go see Vicka. Ivo replied, "Mother, why should I go to Vicka? Our Lady did not give me any answer.” Then Ivo said he had an inner battle. He left the house and drove around for two hours in his car. Soon he found himself in front of Vicka’s house. He could not leave because Vicka and her friends saw him. He ended up staying for the apparition. He begged Our Lady, "Dear Lady, why don't You help me? Tell Vicka something – give me a message through Vicka. Help me, Our Lady." After the apparition, Vicka turned around and said, "Ivo, wait. I have a message for you." When all the people left, Vicka said, "Ivo, Our Lady said that you made a good decision.” Ivo thought, “Our Lady, thank you, but why didn't you tell me this last night?” Ivo reflected about that night, “Our Lady decides, not me. God, Our Lady gives us freedom.” Ivo went home very happy. and could not sleep the whole night because he was really excited. His mother said, "See, I told you to go to Medjugorje!"

Soon Ivo went again to see Vicka. After her apparition Vicka said, "Our Lady said, ‘Ivo is my beloved son. He will be completely healed and he will be my living sign on Earth.’" After the next apparition, Vicka said, "Ivo, I saw you in a vision with Our Lady; She was holding you in Her arms like a baby." Vicka saw them in a blue color – a blue color was coming out of them. Our guide, Ana interjected here, "I was listening to one Italian priest. He was speaking about colors, and he said blue color is the color of grace."

Another time, Vicka saw Ivo with Our Lady; he was on Our Lady's left side, and this side was the one with his prosthesis. Vicka saw Our Lady take off Ivo’s prosthesis, and then Vicka saw his real leg. Our Lady said that when She leaves the sign on Apparition Hill, Ivo will have a real leg! Our lady said, "Nothing is impossible for God."

For the next two months after that, Ivo began receiving messages from Our Lady through Vicka. He said the messages were not really any different, mostly about prayer and fasting. After two years he did not need to see a doctor anymore because Our Lady said he would be completely healed. Ivo said, “I was also healed inside. I became another person, because Our Lady entered into my life. Our Lady showed me how to carry my cross.” Ivo continued, “I was not interested in a physical healing, and from that time, Our Lady taught me how to pray, and then prayer became my life. So through prayer I saw my direction. Whatever I asked Our Lady was realized.”

The first thing Ivo prayed for was a job. He prayed, "Please, Our Lady, help me to find a job. I cannot rely on the help of others, my parents, and you know best what I can do." Ivo said that at that time it was a communist regime, and if you were going to church, there was no job for you. Ivo was promised a job at a bank, but a communist heard about that, and they called him to their office and told him he could work at the bank, as long as did not go to church anymore or drive the visionaries. Ivo said, "I have another direction. It's Medjugorje, Our Lady, Holy Mass." Ivo went back home and kept praying. One month later, a friend from Belgium brought him a bag of rosary beads. He said, "Ivo, you can make rosary beads and this can be your job." Ivo learned how to make rosaries, and for the past 29 years, that is how he has made his living. Ivo quipped, “So what can you do when you make rosary beads? Pray!”

Now that he had a job, Ivo began praying for a wife. “Dear Lady, please find me a wife that will understand me and go with me through life and to help me to carry my cross.” Ivo said he did not have to pray long for that intention. “She brought me to Vicka's house. All my rays were going to Vicka's house, and I met her older sister Zdenka. We fell in love and got married.” Ivo continued, smiling ear to ear, “But I did not ask Our Lady to give me Vicka's sister. Thanks for that gift. I only asked for a wife…She gave me the best wife!”

Ivo said that one year later he and Zdenka had a daughter, and they named her – of course – Marija. She is 28 years old, married and has two children, a boy and a girl. “When I got metastasis, I could not imagine that one day I would be a grandfather! Everything is possible to God. We have to open up our hearts, pick up the rosary and pray, and then God and love come into our life through prayer –-only through prayer.”

Ivo continued, “I was blessed because my mother prayed for me and her prayer reached Our Lady’s heart. You can see the faith of my mother. It is what Our Lady requests of us – to have a strong faith. She believed that Our Lady would help me. And then it depends on me – how much I will open my heart. After I opened my heart, God entered into my life. Then I thanked God for my cross, because if I did not have this cross, I would not know God’s love.” Ana added, “Who knows what would have happened to him with a career as a basketball player; maybe he could have been lost.” Then Ivo said, “When we put God in the first place, all other things are not important. Put God in the first place, then take Rosary beads, and through God, you will find direction because God will lead us….Where there is God, there is joy.”

Ana said there was one part of the story that Ivo did not share because he is humble. She said that Ivo got to touch Our Lady one time. Ivo agreed to share the story: “In the period when Our Lady said I would be healed completely – in the period when I was receiving the messages from Our Lady – during one apparition, Vicka turned around and asked me, ‘Would you like to touch Our Lady?’ I was scared. Who am I to touch Our Lady?… A little time before, people were touching Our Lady – Our Lady permitted them to touch Her – and they left black stains on Her dress – these are sins. Our Lady said, “Go to Confession every month.” It crossed my mind what will remain after me when I touch Her? Vicka took my hand and said, ‘Here’s Our Lady’s hand, arm.’ Vicka did not tell me I left stains, but it was the moment when I was healed inside.” As an afterthought, he said, “I felt electricity when touching Our Lady.”

In a question and answer session following Ivo’s talk, Ivo shared that he and Zdenka are members of visionary Ivan’s prayer group. Ivo said that when the prayer group prays on Apparition Hill, he prays on his balcony at the same time, but when the prayer group meets in Ivan’s chapel, he is able to join them. He said that Our Lady has asked Ivan’s prayer group to pray for three groups of people who are under attack by Satan: priests, families, and the youth. Someone asked if their daughter Marija was also a member of the prayer group. Ivo said that he and Zdenka were part of the prayer group since they were married, so Marija was part of the prayer group even before she was born! He said that Marija lives in Zagreb now, and cannot join them physically in prayer, but does pray at the same time that the prayer group is praying.

After Ivo’s testimony, we were able to purchase rosaries that he made. I bought a beautiful ladder rosary. I feel so blessed to own a rosary made by the man who will be “The Living Sign” of Medjugorje.

The next day we had the opportunity to hear visionary Ivan speak. At the end Ivan said that by living Our Lady’s messages, we can become a “living sign.” Imagine that!

The Power of Prayer – Medjugorje is Special

By Louise Lotze

I have always believed in the power of prayer. One of my favorite saints is St. Padre Pio. He said, “The Rosary is the weapon for these times.” Our Lady of Fatima asked us to pray the Rosary daily. She told Lucia and her two cousins “to pray the Rosary to stop wars.”

This past summer I purchased a book which intrigued me, Medjugorje Investigated, by Michael Kenneth Jones. It is a very thorough and careful examination of facts up to 2006, and even included chapters on our own government in the U.S. investigating Medjugorje. One chapter which caught my attention was the chapter entitled, “Personal Interview with Dr. Boguslaw Lipinski.” Dr. Lipinski is a scientist and a former atheist. His conversion story is fascinating, but his findings as a chemist who was also interested in bioelectricity are very impressive and truly revealing. He speaks about the participants who touched Our Lady – people with unclean hands including secret police agents, as pointed by the visionaries. They all felt a hard metallic object emanating weak electric current. Dr. Lipinski thought that the Holy Spirit created an electromagnetic standing wave that gave an impression of a material object.

Since Dr. Lipinski was interested in the measurements of electrically charged air ions, he thought he would use the same instruments to document scientifically the apparitions in Medjugorje. So it began in 1985, when he went to the former Yugoslavia which was then under communist control. He received permission from Fr. Svetozar to do scientific measurements in Medjugorje. He also had to be careful to hide his instruments from the Yugoslav communists. He received permission to set up his electroscope in the apparition room with attached tape recorder switched on. To his total surprise the instrument showed very high readings of air ions that he had never seen before – the readings on the scale showed 100,000 millirads/min. After the Mass ended, the electroscope was still 100,000 millirads/min. He had also checked the instrument earlier to see if it was working properly.

Early the next day, he ran to the church to take more measurements. They were within a normal range, around 100 millirads/min. As the day passed, he took readings wherever he happened to be. When he started measurements at

3 P.M. inside the church, the reading was 1,000 millirads/min., and as people kept coming and prayers intensified, the electroscope scale showed 20,000 millirads/min. However, after all the people had left the church at about 8 P.M., the reading returned to normal. Back home in the U.S., he went to the local Catholic church and found the reading within the normal range all the time. He even visited a Polish church in which people sing in a way similar to Medjugorje, and nothing unusual was there. He went to Mexico City to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and did not get any increased reading there, which disappointed him. However, this negative result reinforced his belief that Medjugorje is a special place.

When he returned to Medjugorje for the second time, he was arrested and the Yugoslav police confiscated his instruments. The question then asked of Dr. Lipinski was: Do you think that this energy was responsible for the protection of St. James Church from being destroyed during the last Yugoslav war? His response was: “Exactly. Because I believe this energy controls all other types of energy, it could easily defuse bombs that fell in the vicinity of the church but never exploded. At other times the Serbian pilots were heading towards Medjugorje, but their navigation instruments went crazy so they were completely lost. Still on another occasion, the pilots were ready to drop bombs when suddenly a dense fog covered the whole area, so that they had to go back.”

Another question asked of Dr. Lipinski was:This energy you have measured is like a nuclear radiation, yet it is not harmful. Do you think that prayers, in certain specific situations and occasions, could neutralize the destructive effect of ionizing radiation? Dr. Lipinski's answer was: “It is certainly a provocative question, but the answer to it is, yes, that is exactly what I think.” Dr. Lipinski went on to say that he was led from chemistry to a study of ionizing radiation on living organisms. Later on, he became interested in bioelectricity. Now he knows that without those particular experiences, he would never have been able to measure anything in Medjugorje, and even less to interpret the results. “Neutralization of nuclear radiation is not a science fiction,” he stated. “After all, all matter is of electromagnetic nature, and it is a question of finding out proper conditions.” He went on to say, “This energy generated during prayers, in another situation, might be protective.”

This interview and his research reminded me of the Rosary Miracle of Hiroshima, Japan, when the A-bomb was dropped on Aug 6, 1945. There were eight German Jesuit missionary priests living eight blocks from where the bomb was dropped. They were praying the Rosary and living the messages of Fatima in their home there. The church attached to their home was destroyed, but they and their house were totally protected. They suffered no harmful effects from the radiation, and they all lived long lives. This has baffled scientists since they have no answer for why this could happen.

St. Padre Pio said, “Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for Her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today.....Prayer is the oxygen of the soul.”

As a final note, Dr. Lipinski in no way is saying that our prayers in our churches at home are not powerful. I myself feel that he was convinced by his research that Our Lord and Our Lady want us to know that Medjugorje is truly special, and with time passing we will soon find out why.

Editor’s note: Louise is from Ashtabula, OH.

Pope Took Messages, Sent Seers Rosaries

By Daniel Klimek on Nov 25, 2012

Blessed Pope John Paul II lived the messages of Medjugorje and he blessed rosaries for the visionaries, Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti told attendees at a Marian Conference in Sacramento, CA (USA) on November 18. “John Paul II, with big joy, liked to live Our Lady’s messages,” Marija explained.

The Pope would use a Medjugorje book to do this, the seer continued, telling of a Vatican priest she knows who received his vocation in Medjugorje, and who kept a book of Medjugorje messages that the Pope often read. “This little book of messages Don Stefan would bring with him [to the Vatican], and he would put it here and there, and many times he saw it would disappear – this book of messages of Our Lady,” Marija said.

Often the priest would ask a religious sister close to the pope about the disappearance of his Medjugorje book. Smiling at him she would reply that it is “in the office of the Holy Father.”

“I don’t have the strength to say, ‘This book is mine,’” Father Stefan would reply. “And many times Father Stefan would come to Medjugorje, and he would bring blessed rosaries from the Holy Father for us,” the seer said.

Marija explained that often when John Paul II would encounter skeptics in the Vatican who doubted Medjugorje, he frequently asked Father Stefan to share his vocation story with them, stressing that it was a spiritual fruit of Medjugorje.

“Many times people went to the Holy Father, cardinals, bishops, and priests. And every time when somebody spoke against Medjugorje and Don Stefan was there, the Holy Father said: ‘Don Stefan, go share your vocation.’”

Joy was experienced in Medjugorje because of the Pope’s support for the apparitions, Marija continued.

“We said, he is with us,” the seer explained. “He’s completely Our Lady’s Pope. Many times when Our Lady speaks and he speaks, it is the same language, the same Holy Spirit.”

www.medjugorjetoday.tv

Jakov and Francisco

By Cathy Nolan

On October 8, 1984, Our Lady gave a short message to Jakov, who had to stay home from the church because he was sick. Jakov was only 13 at the time. Our Lady said: "Dear children! Let all the prayers you say in your homes in the evening be for the conversion of sinners because the world is in great sin. Every evening pray the Rosary."

As I read this message, it occurred to me that it sounded very much like Our Lady's messages to the children of Fatima. Little Blessed Jacinta used to fast and pray for sinners all day long. And Blessed Francisco did the same. He once said: "I'm thinking of God who is so sad because of so many sins! It hurts me so much that He's sad. I offer Him all the sacrifices I can. If only I could console Him."

Children see things very simply. The little children of Fatima received a very important message from Our Lady, and responded to it with complete simplicity and honesty. Jakov was also very young when Our Lady first appeared, and he had a very simple and honest relationship with Our Lady.

It is beautiful to think of Jakov, as a 13 year old, sick in bed and offering his Rosary from home for sinners because there are so many! It is beautiful to think of Our Lady sharing Her heart with him and asking him to pray for sinners at home in the evening. Like Francisco, Jakov prayed for sinners to console Our Lord and Our Lady and save souls.

The picture above is one of my granddaughter Angela's works of art. I didn't ask her to do it, or suggest anything to her. Her pictures come from her little heart. She wrote, "When you do sumpthing good you get closer to God." I think that Francisco got closer to God when he prayed for sinners. His little heart wanted to console God! Imagine! I think Jakov got closer to God as well, by praying his evening Rosary for sinners. Jakov and Francisco received so much as they sacrificed and prayed. And we do too!

When we respond to Our Lady's call, when we pray, or fast, or read scripture, or sacrifice, or go the Holy Mass or Adoration, we not only do a good thing, but we get closer to God! It is a win-win!

Thank you, Lord, for Blessed Francisco, Blessed Jacinta, Jakov and Angela! Let the little children lead us!

www.marytv.tv

The 23rd International Youth Festival in Medjugorje . . .

Alive and Kicking Like a Child in it's Mother's Womb

By Mary Hendel McCafferty

Having just returned two weeks ago from a Catholic Youth event in Medjugorje, with 40,000 others from 70 countries around the world, and witnessing as many as 591 priests at one Mass, I desired to write and share with your readers about this wonderful experience.

This year was the 23rd International Youth Festival in Medjugorje, which began with the opening ceremony on the evening of July 31 and ended with Holy Mass on the morning of August 6 at 5:00 a.m. Having been to Medjugorje many times, but never to the Youth Festival, our small group of eight decided to arrive in Medjugorje on August 3 in order to spend several days at the Youth Festival as well as several days in Medjugorje after the festival ended to experience a more quiet time of prayer.

When we arrived in Medjugorje on Friday, August 3, 2012, we were greeted by our host, Sima (Sheema) at around 4:00 in the afternoon at her modest home just two blocks from St. James Church. Sima has lived in Medjugorje her whole life. She showed us to our rooms and told us dinner would be waiting when we were all settled in. Upstairs in the hallway, we met Elizabeth, a very pleasant and smiling 19 year old from Austria. She and 40 of her friends from Austria had taken the 12 hour bus ride to attend the Youth Festival and their large group was divided into 3 homes in the village. Six of the youth from her group were staying with us at Sima's. This was Elizabeth's seventh year attending the International Youth Festival. The prayer of the rosary was to begin at the Church at 6:00 but Elizabeth let us know she and her friends were heading to the church much earlier because she knew they had to go early if they wanted to get a good seat! Besides, from 4:00 until 6:00, there would be music and personal testimonies for anyone who came early enough to listen. The temperature, when we arrived in Medjugorje, was 100 degrees and it was 4:00 in the afternoon. Elizabeth was anxious to get to the Church. We were anxious to unpack our bags and have a good meal. After a full day's travel beginning in Lancaster and travelling to JFK in New York the day before, taking two long flights through the night and finally a 3 hour ride along the Adriatic Coast before reaching Medjugorje, we were exhausted. On this, our first night, we would take it slow and arrive sometime during the rosary knowing the Mass would begin promptly at 7:00 P.M.

As we approached the grounds of the church on that, our first evening, we were overwhelmed by the crowd of over 40,000 in attendance singing "Come, Now is the Time to Worship". There are no adequate words to describe the feeling of coming upon a group so large, young and old alike, all God's children, waving their hands in the air and praising Him. A lump in my throat? Definitely. Tears? Immediately. Here I was, among the "youth" of the world, with my 14 year old daughter and we were about to witness love for God in a way that words can't describe. This was praise and worship at it's finest even before the Holy Mass had begun. The Mass itself was beautiful with a full choir of young men and women from 22 countries leading all of the songs. To describe how 500 priests distribute Holy Communion to 40,000 people would take more space than I am probably allowed here. However, if you can imagine a packed crowd of 40,000 suddenly turning into very organized chaos with paths opening throughout the multitudes, with the help of the volunteers from the Franciscan Youth Prayer Group all wearing the same brightly colored shirts, you can then imagine these youth leading the priests through the open paths to the back of the crowd first and strategically placing them so that all could be fed ... the last shall be first. Hmmm, sound familiar?

The next two days (in the mornings and late afternoons from 4-6:00) we heard personal testimonies given by men and women whose lives had been torn apart by bad decisions including drugs, alcohol, and abortion. Each testimony ended in a joyful way because, with the help of Jesus and Mary and conversion of their individual hearts, each person found a way out of their desperate situation. In between each talk, the outdoor altar quickly filled with about 100 young people wearing brightly colored t-shirts with the words "Dalle Tenebre" "Alla Luce" which means, "Out of the darkness" and "Into the light." They were accompanied by several young and vibrant nuns who led the crowds of many thousands in music and dance to uplifting songs such as "Gloria!", "Hosanna!" and "We are Marching in the Light of God!". All of this, let me remind you, was under a cloudless sky of 100+ temperatures.

Our second evening there, we knew to arrive early so, with umbrellas for shade, we arrived at 4:00 and were able to get a spot much closer to the action. To our surprise, suspended in the air above the crowd was a very large blue and yellow rosary made out of helium balloons. What a beautiful sight! The area behind the Church at the outside altar was quickly filling up with God's children, young and old, willing to endure the heat of the day for what would become the joy of the night. This was not a carnival, or a concert, or a park where you would expect to see tens of thousands of young smiling faces. This was the Catholic Church preparing for worship. This particular evening went from 4:00 until 11:00 with a schedule of two hours of testimonies and uplifting music followed by Holy Rosary (Joyful and Sorrowful Mysteries), Holy Mass, blessing of religious articles, prayers for healing, the Glorious Mysteries, a one hour break and then Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from 10-11:00 p.m. You might expect that after the one hour break, the crowd would be ready to go home but they neither went to their homes nor left the grounds of the Church - no one wanted to lose their place for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I noticed at one point, during this Holy Hour, with tens of thousands of people on the grounds of the church, in that sacred silence, I could hear crickets chirping. This is Medjugorje. This is where so many are coming to know Jesus. This is why I keep going back.

The fruits are abundant. Lives have been changed. I, personally, was born again in Medjugorje in 1990 and that is why the title of this article, "The International Youth Festival in Medjugorje. . . alive and kicking like a child in it's Mother's womb" led me to share with others. Being in Medjugorje for the International Youth Festival felt as if Our Lady is giving new life to the next generation by leading them to Her Son, Jesus. Anyone wishing to see uplifting video of the youth festival can google: "youtube video and Medjugorje Youth Festival". You will see many, many videos posted by those who have attended over the years. I hope I have been able to take you there with this article.

"Peace, peace and only peace must reign between God and man and among humankind."

Editor’s note: Mary is the author of the book, Born Again…in Medjugorje. It is available on Amazon and at www.createspace.com/3910107.

"Dear children, with motherly love and motherly patience anew, I call you to live according to my Son, to spread His peace and His love, so that, as my apostles, you may accept God's truth with all your heart and pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you. Then you will be able to faithfully serve my Son, and show His love to others with your life. According to the love of my Son and my love, as a mother, I strive to bring all of my strayed children into my motherly embrace and to show them the way of faith. My children, help me in my motherly battle and pray with me that sinners may become aware of their sins and repent sincerely. Pray also for those whom my Son has chosen and consecrated in His name. Thank you."

Spreading the Messages to School Children

By Fr. Fredrick Kazibwe

Having worked in several schools as chaplain, both senior and primary, I have come to realize that many young people think that the Rosary is a prayer for old people and a few pious youth. Many think that it is outdated and too long. Many abstain from it, and others take it without conviction. It is my aim to put an end to such a mentality, and to write about the Rosary as connected to the messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje.

Targeting especially school children, well-acquainted to their parents, it is quite natural to have the image of a mother. It has been a surprise to them that a Lady appears monthly from Heaven because She loves us. “What does She look like? What is She saying?” they ask.

The messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje have no age limit, whether child, youth, or adult. Our children in schools are so confused by hearing and reading about so many sects. We are working from school to school, class to class, as time can allow us, to make Our Lady known and Her messages lived. The message of Medjugorje is basically a call to CONVERSION, back to God, using the five weapons PRAYER, FASTING, READING THE BIBLE, CONFESSION, EUCHARIST. We can use them to overcome the power of evil and sin in our lives. Our children are leaders of tomorrow. We prevent them early enough, through the messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje, from becoming bullies, thieves, atheists, corrupt, drug addicts, etc.

Prayer is the center of Our Lady’s plan and is the most frequent message in Medjugorje. Many parents have no time for prayer and, more so, the children. They are busy working, and the children would say they are busy studying. There is time for mathematics, science, etc., but hardly any time for prayer. And yet Our Lady says, “May prayer reign in the whole world” (August 25th 1989).

We also teach children how to pray. Among the challenges we are facing are witchcraft, born again sects, Modernism, etc. Many people are trying to divert our children from the authentic Catholic teaching about God, Our Lady, Satan, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell, Rosary, etc., and watering down anything to do with sacramentals. Indirectly the children lose sight of the supernatural and eternal happiness.

That is why I appeal to all reading this article to help us, financially or otherwise, for we need Rosaries, medals, charts of the Rosary mysteries, portable public address system, visual aid charts, etc.

In the schools we visit, many of the above are missing. To our children, meditating on the mysteries of Joy, Light, Sorrow, and Resurrection helps children to use their memory, understanding, reason and foresight.

We also have Masses for children weekly. Our Lady wants us to say Holy Mass, “the highest form of prayer,” and “the center of our lives. “ This is preceded by monthly Confession as the time table of schools can allow us.

I am of the hope that we shall work hand in hand with anybody, any group willing to help us to spread the messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje to school children all over Uganda.

Editor’s note: If you would like to help Fr. Fredrick spread the messages to the children, contact June at jklins1981@verizon.net.