Blessings from Medjugorje

Blessings from Medjugorje, and peace!

You may recall my telling you last weekend that I travelled here on pilgrimage with some people of the parish. We left last Tuesday and will be returning on the evening of the 18th.

I hope you’ve been seeing the short posts I’ve been uploading to petersboat.net for you.

Below you’ll see an image that we designed for our pilgrimage. It says:

from NEW YORK

to MEDJUGORJE

to pray for peace

I wrote to you last week that the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to take place in Medjugorje happened on June 24th, 1981, the Feast of Saint John the Baptist. Our Lady appeared to six children on the hill now called Apparition Hill. Though there have been many messages since, she did not speak at first. Rather, she held the Child Jesus, like Saint John the Baptist, and gestured to her Son, “Behold the Lamb of God.” This week, the group and I were able to visit Apparition Hill, and to remember you to Our Lady in prayer.

There is another special place here in Medjugorje that strikes me as significant and worth sharing with you. In the year 1933, the people of Medjugorje built a very large cross atop a mountain here in honor of 1900 years since the crucifixion of Jesus. We climbed that mountain as well. It’s called Cross Mountain. I mention it, because Apparition Hill is at the base of Cross Mountain, and so we see that, after all these years, we can still find Our Lady where Our Lord first gave her to us - at the foot of the cross.

The Mass makes it possible for you and me to stay in prayer with Mary at the foot of the cross. This is why her messages are often a call for us to love the Mass more. And we’ve been remembering all of you at the altar every day through the celebration of Mass here this week. Even now, as you read this column, know that we heard the same readings here in Medjugorje, and prayed the same prayers, in communion with all of you at home. The Mass truly makes communion possible in a way unlike anything else in this world.

This is really what Our Lady wants for us. This is why she is appearing to us in our times: to draw us closer to her Son, as He makes Himself present to us in the Church.

We’ll be home soon. +