THE MEDJUGORJE WITNESS

I’m currently working on a project to identify some of the disguised features in the Stations of the Luminous Mysteries at Medjugorje, starting with the fourth mystery, The Transfiguration, where Jesus reveals his glory to the disciples Peter and the brothers James and John.

 

As a start, I thought it might be an idea to attempt to count all the pieces of stone that make up this mosaic, but gave up very quickly on this. However, I did manage to count the stones that make up the extended right hand and wrist of Jesus. There are 120 individual pieces, so that might give some idea of the thousands needed to complete the picture.

 

And then I got to thinking of the artist and his team and the time it must have taken them to not only sort and cut the pieces but then having the patience to fix the stones in place. What a labour of love and dedication this must have been for Anto Mamuša and any assistants he may have had.

 

But imagine each piece of mosaic as a prayer offered to God and then add all the prayers offered by pilgrims in front of this station since its completion in 2006. Prayers of transformation.

 

In a Christmas Day message (2019) to the Medjugorje seer Jakov, Our Lady said, “Through prayer and faith, God will answer your every ‘why’ and transform your every pain, darkness and cross into light.”

 

As to answering our every ‘why’ you may wish to take a closer look at the shape of the hand. You may even see the shape of a bird nestling in the palm of Jesus, its head and beak pointing to his sleeve cuff. The forefinger is the bird’s tail and the three other fingers represent one of its wings. But why has the artist disguised this feature, and what does this ‘bird in the hand’ signify?

 

I shall explain this and reveal more of the embedded narratives in The Transfiguration station at another time, after I’ve completed my study.

Early in the fourth century, Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher on that spot. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.

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The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus’ head: Then “all the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on.”

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To this day, the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica’s dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.

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source: Franciscan Media

There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told from its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart. Luke 6 : 43-45

 

Dear children! Today also I am calling you to prayer. You know, dear children, that God grants special graces in prayer. Therefore, seek and pray in order that you may be able to comprehend all that I am giving here. I call you, dear children, to prayer with the heart. You know that without prayer you cannot comprehend all that God is planning through each one of you. Therefore, pray! I desire that through each one of you God's plan may be fulfilled, that all which God has planted in your heart may keep on growing. So pray that God's blessing may protect each one of you from all the evil that is threatening you. I bless you, dear children. Thank you for having responded to my call. 

Medjugorje message, April 25, 1987

Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,” when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye. Luke 6 : 42

 

• The image above is a feature from the Angel Musicians panel of the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) by Jan and Hubert van Eyck,

Waiting on Rome... waiting on pope... waiting on secrets... waiting on messages... waiting on signs... waiting to decide to believe or not...

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My friends, while you are waiting, do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that he will find you at peace. Think of our Lord’s patience as your opportunity to be saved…

2 Peter 3 : 14-15

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Dear children! This is a time of grace and prayer, a time of waiting and giving. God is giving himself to you that we may love him above everything. Therefore, little children, open your hearts and families, so that this waiting may become prayer and love and, especially, giving. I am with you, little children, and encourage you not to give up from what is good, because the fruits are seen and heard of afar. That is why the enemy is angry and uses everything to lead you away from prayer. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Medjugorje Message, November 25, 2018

 

* Luke 3 : 15

Brothers, our time is growing short. [...] Those who have to deal with the world should not become engrossed in it. I say this because the world as we know it is passing away.

 

1 Corinthians 7 : 29, 31

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Dear children! Put Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your family and read it. In this way, you will come to know prayer with the heart and your thoughts will be on God. Do not forget that you are passing like a flower in a field, which is visible from afar but disappears in a moment. Little children, leave a sign of goodness and love wherever you pass and God will bless you with an abundance of His blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.

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Medjugorje messsage, January 25, 2007

Along the path that leads to the Risen Christ statue in Medjugorje is a set of five stations devoted to the Rosary and its five Mysteries of Light.

 

The beautiful mosaic images were made by the Bosnia Hercegovina artist Anto Mamusa and erected in 2006. Sometimes pilgrims, in groups and individually, spend time to stop and pray at each station on their way to the Risen Christ. 

 

But because of the phenomenon, where water weeps from the statue’s right leg, pilgrims generally prioritise a visit to the Risen Christ and pass by the Mysteries of Light, which is a pity, because the stations connect to the ministry of Christ that leads to the bronze statue sculpted meant to represent both the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

 

Not only that, each station is rich in scripture references which the artist has embedded apart from its main story, but not easily recognised at first. They are indeed mysteries of light and revelation, and ‘miraculous’ in their own way.

 

Over the next few months I intend to reveal more about the disguised narratives in the mosaics and will set up new section on the website for this.

 

* Exodus 33 : 18

Medjugorje parish priest Br. Zvonimir Pavičić recently visited England where he met with pilgrims and prayer groups seeking first-hand the latest information from Medjugorje.

 

Br Zvonimir’s report of his visitation is published on the Medjugorje parish official website.

September 8 can be viewed as Our Lady’s ‘official’ birthday celebrated by the Church. But for followers of Our Lady’s messages from Medjugorje there is another date in the calendar put aside for celebrating the Gospa’s birthday – August 5, best considered as Our Lady’s ‘private’ birthday. This was revealed to the visionaries very early on in the history of the Medjugorje apparitions.

 

Mention of this date was also made by Fr René Laurentin and published the same year in his book, Is the Virgin Mary Appearing at Medjugorje? He wrote: 

 

At the end of May 1984, Jelena and Mirjana, with whom I spoke on June 10, had received from the Virgin a call to celebrate August 5 as the 2,000 birthday of her birth. The feast was to be celebrated by two days of fasting and a day of celebration... The three days of fast (they added one) ended in a day of intense prayer in the Church and on the hill (of apparitions). There were many conversions and confessions. One of the priests said to me: “I will remember this day more than my 20 previous years as a confessor.” According to the young people (the visionaries), Mary had said who had heard confessions that day would have great joy...

Dr Nick Wells studied physics at Cambridge and completed a doctorate in Plasma Physics. As an atheist, he said his materialist understanding was that human beings are just very complicated arrangements of atoms and molecules in motion. That was until he made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje…

 

Read his witness at THE TABLET

The Lord is just in all his ways

And loving in all his deeds.

He is close to all who call him,

Who call on him from their hearts.

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Psalm 144

Two days ago I went to confession. The first words the priest said to me were: “Welcome back to the foot of the Cross”. That’s the first time I’ve been greeted like that, I thought. And then before giving me absolution the priest asked me to pray three Hail Mary’s for world peace.

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In the early hours of this morning, around 2:00pm, and as I lay in bed wide awake, the priest’s words came into my thoughts: “Welcome back to the foot of the Cross”. They reminded me of words spoken by Our Lady at Medjugorje, and I was tempted to search for the message on my smartphone.

 

Among the links was one to a page on this website, my testimony about how my life was changed on my first visit to Medjugorje. The headline was: PRAY AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS FOR PEACE.

 

I then searched for the full message. It said: Dear children! Without prayer there is no peace. Therefore I say to you, dear children, pray at the foot of the cross for peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.

 

But a remarkable thing about the message was its date, September 6, 1984.

 

Forty years ago today!