“Beautiful You Are, Our Lady” – Part II

August 12, 2009

A continuation of “Beautiful you are Our Lady” – Talk by Medjugorje Visionary Marija on August 10, 2009.

When the sick people started coming to Medjugorje and would say Our Lady, heal them, intercede with Your Son. Our Lady said pray over them. Jesus told us when there are two or more united in my name, he would be present there as well. And Our Lady said I am with you even when you are not able to see me because where there is Jesus, I am there as well. And then the joy came in realizing that the apparition is not only just those three, five, or ten minutes with Our Lady but that when we would remain for hours in the church we realized that Our Lady was with us also then. And then we would pray for all those people who were sick. With the children and everybody else who were there we started creating prayer groups, with the blessing of the priests who were coming.

One night Our Lady said that She would come for a second time that day, and that She would appear in a field, among our houses. We prayed and then Our Lady appeared. And She said that we all can approach Her and touch Her. And we said, “How can this be, Our Lady, because only we can see You, the others cannot see You.” And Our Lady said, “You take their hands and bring them closer to Me.” At that very moment we took the hand of every single person as they approached Our Lady and then with their own hand they would touch Our Lady. As people would touch Our Lady we noticed there were dirty marks remaining on Our Lady’s dress after people had touched Her. And we started crying and we said, “Our Lady why is Your dress turning into dirt? Why is it dirty?” And Our Lady said, “Those marks are your sins.” From that very moment Our Lady invited us to go to confession.

After that day all of us from the village, our neighbors and all the people from the local areas started going to confession. And we thought none of us, if Our Lady invites us again to touch Her, want to make Her dress dirty with our sins. But we saw a beautiful thing, through this experience, when we are in the state of grace. Because when we go to confession we simply will receive the graces to be rid of our sins. And that is why, finally, when Jesus and Our Lady can grant us the graces that we are looking for. That is why we warmly recommend to every pilgrim when you come to Medjugorje to go to confession first, because in the moment of the confession you are able to encounter Jesus through this priest. As we many times here say, we encounter God with the truth.

Today we have many images of ourselves. And many times people propose to us different kinds of fashions and things like that. And many times we have a fear to say that we are Christians in order to witness and to give our testimony. But Our Lady simply invites us to fall in love with Her, just as we did, in order to be able to take us to Jesus. Today we are simply forgetting the roots of Christianity in Europe. But Our Lady does not invite only Europe, or only our parish, or only our family but She invites all of us. So in the beginning when Our Lady first started giving Her messages, She invited me, personally as well, of course. On every Thursday Our Lady started giving a special message referring to the parish of Medjugorje.

Then little by little pilgrims started coming to Medjugorje. They simply desired to share that same message that Our Lady was giving to us. Our Lady was inviting us to conversion, to change our lives, to embrace the way of holiness because we are all called to the way of holiness. And then Our Lady invites us to change our lives from bad to good. Our Lady invites us to have a smile for oneself because we are all created after the image of God, so every morning and every evening, we have to smile at ourselves. And then, not to protect only your own life but to protect the lives of those who are aborted, children who are not born. Our Lady invites us to have courage and to love life.

Here in Medjugorje so many communities were born, communities that are dealing with different issues, problems, like for example those communities who are dealing with drug addicts, etc. You may have visited some of these communities. Our Lady said if we do not discover joy then we will not be able to discover God either. That is why Our Lady invites us to put God in the first position in our lives instead of ourselves. Because we consider ourselves God many times and Our Lady desires that this should be changed and we put God in the place that He deserves. We should be aware that Jesus died on the Cross for us. From the Cross Jesus said to St. John, behold your Mother. And then to His Mother He said, behold Your son. We can see even today Our Lady is amongst us everyday and I am the one who can witness that. And Our Lady wishes us well. She desires to help us so we can overcome this paganism. Our Lady doesn’t want us to become slaves of TV or fashion or many other things that will make us slaves.

One day during the apparition Our Lady invited and took Vicka and Jakov with Her in order to show them Heaven, purgatory and hell in order to clarify that life after earthly life truly exists. And I remember that Jakov said to Our Lady, “You better just take Vicka. She has eight brothers and sisters, but I am the only one my mother has.” He was the only child in the family so he was thinking about the sorrow his mother would have if he would die. And Our Lady just smiled, took hold of their hands and took them with Her. Then after She took them She showed them Heaven, purgatory and hell so to show them that life doesn’t end here on earth, that our lives are in eternity.

Even I, before the apparitions, I thought that God was some where there in the sky and in Heaven, and here I am on the earth. I thought there are so many of us, God simply doesn’t have the time for every single one of us. But then with Our Lady and Her presence and when Our Lady started giving us Her messages, which She always starts with the words “Dear children,” we understood that we just wanted to understand more how much Our Lady wishes us well and how much She loves us. And with this immense love, God has enough love for all humanity, for you, for me, for everyone. And so that even today He sends to us His Mother in order to inform us that we do not have a future without God. Because many times our media, television, etc. transmits the messages with no God in it. I remember in those early days in school they would say that there is no God. God doesn’t exist. And it seemed to me in that very moment of Our Lady’s apparitions, I felt so strong that I could conquer the world. I had enough courage and strength to witness and to give the message. In those very early days when the police would come looking for the visionaries, we had fear because of communism in our home place as well because we were just children.

Marija is here talking to several thousand pilgrims on August 10, 2009. She shares with them many unknown stories and insights in the beginning days with Our Lady when the visionaries first began learning and taking the first steps of the spiritual life. Sometimes, she admits that they were not necessarily the best students. But “little by little” they grew more responsible and now they live to testify to all Our Lady has taught them in order to help others to grow close to God so that they will be able to go to Heaven after their earthly life is finished.

I remember one day, in those early days, that I was in a tree when pilgrims were passing by. They asked, “Where are the houses of the visionaries?” I was with my friends, we were eating some fruit, and I said, “Go there, down there are the houses of Ivan and Jakov.” (Everyone started laughing and clapping). Today it is different. I do not spare myself from my own responsibilities. And today, for example, my mother-in-law sent me to go to the grocery store to buy some bread because there was no bread in the house. And when I was shopping some people said to me, “You are the visionary Marija.” I said, “Yes, it is me.” They were Italian and I said I was talking at 4:00 p.m., so come, you are welcome. When I go to school to take my children to school, because I am the same just like everyone of you, and every time I go there, there are some mothers of children who would like to approach me, that is why I always have some Miraculous medals with me. And then I say, “Here, this is a Miraculous medal blessed by Our Lady and I wish that it may help you as well. And do you know why it is called the Miraculous medal? Because it simply makes miracles, so I wish the same miracles for you to happen as well.”

As St. Paul said, when I was a child I thought as a child, but now that I am an adult I must think with responsibility as an adult person. I truly invite all of you to be aware that Our Lady is still present every single evening here so that you can take advantage of this time of grace for you. Pray. Ask things from Our Lady not only physical/material things, but ask for spiritual matters as well so that God may increase your faith. Get on your knees and pray the Rosary. Learn here what it says in the Holy Scripture, pray in the silence of your rooms. Because in the silence of Apparition Mountain or Cross Mountain or in the silence of Adoration God will speak to you and will be able to change your heart. The heart will become sensitive to the Word of God. I’ve seen so many people who have been here, who are here, who will be here, people who are extra poor I would say, they all simply and equally have the need for God.

I remember this lady from Russia who came here. She had cancer in her knee and the doctor said they would have to cut her leg off because the cancer is spreading. She came and she prayed. She went to Apparition Mountain to be present in the apparition of Our Lady to Ivan. She took a little stone, she stayed in prayer, and then with this stone she hit her knee. She started to pray, “God I need my legs, I need healing because I want to do many more things.” And then she started crying. She went back home with her stone from Apparition Mountain. She was healed. She did all the examinations in the hospital and now the doctors said they do not have to cut her leg anymore. As you can see our Apparition Mountain is so generous with the rocks so, yes, you can take as many rocks as you want. There is this lady from California whom I know very well. She built a little chapel in her backyard with stones from Apparition Mountain. Every time when she would come here, she would take an extra stone for her chapel. I want to say it was not the stone or the rock that healed this lady, but I believe that it was her faith. And it is the same for every one of us.

This lady became a sign like in the first days of the apparitions. An old man was the first person to receive a miracle in Medjugorje. He was 80 years old. His name was Jozo. He was almost blind. He wasn’t really able to see anything. He was in his home. And his wife, when the apparitions started, she climbed Apparition Mountain in the morning, took some soil and some herbs from the apparition site, thinking that it was Our Lady who touched the soil with Her own feet. But Our Lady always stands on a cloud, She never touches the ground. So she took some soil and some herbs from the spot of the apparitions, she boiled them in water and then she put it on the eyes of her husband. And after she put it on the eyes of her husband, they said a prayer and he was healed. And he became kind of like a target for so many pilgrims. They all came to see him, and in order to demonstrate that he was feeling well and that he could see he would go up and down the stairs in front of his home. He would say, “Yes, I was blind but now I can see.” And he would go all day long up and down the stairs. And then when he reached the 90’s he died because of his age. And Our Lady said, “You are like a flower. Today you are, but tomorrow you may not be.”

Our Lady invites us to be the testimonies to witness as creatures of God in this world. To be a sign that will remain after we are gone. For example, like Michelangelo did great things. God gave him that gift. And he used that talent to make so many beautiful pieces of art that you can see when you go to our Italy. Our Lady wants us to know that every single one of us is important. And when She says “Dear children, I desire to present you to my Son Jesus as a most beautiful bouquet of flowers,” wanting to say to us that every single one of us is different, that there is not even two of us the same. Science says today that we can reproduce a person. They try with that sheep, you know, Dolly, or whatever her name was. They say she suffered her entire life and she died in such incredible pain. As we can see many scientists, unfortunately want to replace God in our lives.

A gentleman from California who originated from one of those beautiful islands, the Bahamas or some other, he became a scientist, one of the most renowned scientist of the world. He encountered Mother Teresa many times and he really began feeling a great love for her. And she said to him there is really a terrible plague in the world today called AIDS. You have to work more on this matter. He said, my team, we know everything, we have discovered this virus. We know how it grows, how it develops, etc. But we just miss a little ray of light. So they came here to Medjugorje after a large conference they had in Monza, Italy. They came looking for us visionaries saying to ask Our Lady to give them this ray of light. And you know what Our Lady said? To go before Jesus. Going back to where they were, they put a beautiful Adoration chapel in the midst of their working place. They said, “We finally understood everything is in the hands of God, life and death. In the beginning we didn’t want to accept. But we are scientists, we have to know more. And we learned only in the act of humility when we kneel down, in that very moment only, God will talk in our hearts.” And I truly believe that every response, every answer we seek in our hearts, as the Psalm says; only in God is my peace, my rest.

Even the visionaries, like me, today for example, we are trying to do our best to help you to fall in love more and more with Our Lady. We are trying to explain, to describe to you how beautiful Our Lady is. For example, see how beautiful this painting behind us is. We always say She comes with a gray dress, a white veil, dark hair, blue eyes. But still we have not seen anybody or any image or any painting that looks like Our Lady. This painting is beautiful, but not as beautiful as Our Lady is. And one day we asked Her, “How come you are so beautiful? Because we have no words to explain to these crowds Your beauty.” Our Lady smiled and said, “I am beautiful because I love.” It was a great answer for us. It was the answer for our life. As St. Augustine said, “Love and do what you want.” And as our present Pope, Benedict XVI said, the word “love” is being used in a very wrong way today in the world. It is not about promiscuity or that is not love.

But God, through Our Lady desires to tell us what love really is. Because we can see where Our Lady has taken us. She has guided us, and She still guides us. She gave us permission to fall in love with Her. I profoundly believe that Our Lady loves me even more than my husband, my children, my mother, my father or anyone else. And I know that my life is not here. I am just on a passage here, thanks to Our Lady. And I can tell you how beautiful it is to Our Lady when I simply cannot wait for the moment, for God to take me when I can be in Paradise with Our Lady because we did fall in love with Her. And we understood. We are convinced one-hundred percent! It is not only these ten or fifteen minutes of an apparition that are important, because it is through our prayers of fifteen minutes of silence that God sends us a blessing that is very strong, much stronger than an atomic bomb.

I remember when the scientists were coming to examine us to see if we were OK and a journalist would say, “Are you sure that you’re not imagining things”. And while we were under examination, among all these medical staff, one day we heard Vicka yelling that she wanted to get out of this place. And we said, “Excuse us we have to go see what’s happening with Vicka.” And Vicka said, “They gave me one thousand questions and I had to respond to every one of them. But one simply made me mad!” The question was if there’s a table without one of its four legs, what is wrong with the table? We also went through those moments of humility like this but they were beautiful moments as well. And with Vicka we hugged her and said OK we know that we are not doing that for them, we are doing it for Our Lady. And the doctors would say every single one of you has a different character, a different personality, is a different person. Nobody could put the six of you together, nobody, never. But Our Lady did put us together as we all give our testimonies. And we give thanks to Heaven that we were chosen. When the journalists come and ask provocative questions like, are you sure that you are normal? But you’re not normal? And we just tell them “OK, dear friend, when you have these kinds of approval that you are normal like we have documented then come back and we’ll talk.”

We did it, we do it, and we will do it, all because of love of Our Lady. I believe that even my testimony will do the same and I truly give it with my entire heart. And I hope that it will be a help for all of you all to come closer to Our Lady. And tonight in the apparition I will pray for all of you, for all your intentions, and first of all for everything that you have in your heart. I remember from the first early days when Our Lady came we would say, “We desire to go to paradise.” Jakov was ten years old, and he would protest many times. And Our Lady would say to him, that he needs to study and listen to his mother. It’s something he needs to do. And during the apparitions I remember Our Lady would speak to us and we would hear Her, we would pray with Her, and then Our Lady would look at Jakov and She would talk to him. And we would not hear a word, and we thought, what is She saying to him? And we said to him, “Jakov what happened we couldn’t hear anything and Our Lady was talking to you only? We could not hear you nor Our Lady?” And Jakov said, “I will tell you if you do not say that to my Mom? Our Lady said that I have to be obedient to my Mom and I have to study. Today my Mom told me to study, and I just walked around the house and I went to play soccer.”

I remember when Our Lady invited us to pray the complete rosary every day, to sing and pray everyday at least an hour. We would go to church every night and there was three hours of prayer. And then when the apparition began Jakov said, “Our Lady is not alone too much.” Our Lady became our friend our mother. Our Lady would smile and She would say, “When a dear friend comes into your home, you are happy if your friend would stay a little longer?” and Jakov said, “Yes, yes of course!” “Even that he would stay over night in your house?” and Jakov said, “Yes, yes of course!” And Our Lady said, “This is what Jesus has to become, your dearest, dearest friend! And to come to know Him better you have to stay close to Him as much as you can.” In that Moment all of us started to take the Holy Scriptures and read more. Little by little Jesus began to become our dearest friend day by day. I truly desire for every one of you the same. In the first days we asked Our Lady, “We have this kind of attraction for paradise in our hearts.” You know that we are all married that we have families with children, and we are attached. As to my little son, Giovanni, I say “You are the most beautiful child in the world.” It’s the same with you that every child is most beautiful to his mother. Maybe there is a more beautiful child but for me my children are the most beautiful children in the world. But if tonight in the apparition Our Lady said to me I am taking you with me to Heaven. I would say good-bye to my children, to my little Giovanni to everyone, without thinking twice. Many people say to me, “Marija, Jakov and Vicka they went to Paradise and you did not?” and I assure them if I go I would not come back again. I would not stop for a second in purgatory I would go straight to Heaven. There has to be a balance, the desire in our hearts for Him is great. We will live as long as God desires for us to live. I hope for all of you, you will live for a long time and that Our Lady will not stop appearing! God bless you all.

– Medjugorje visionary Marija
Who is Medjugorje visionary Marija?

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