Our Lady of Medjugorje has appeared to six visionaries since 1981, telling us God exists, and that we need to return to a life of prayer. She has told them these will be her last apparitions on Earth.

This blog is here to help you live a the full, holy, and enriching life Our Lady says God wants us to live, by providing you with reviews of books related to the apparitions and messages.

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Sunday, August 26, 2007

Medjugorje - Our Lady's August 25, 2007 Message

Peace to all! Below please find the official English translation of Our Lady's August 25, 2007 message to the world as provided by the Information Center in Medjugorje.


Message of August 25, 2007


"Dear children! Also today I call you to conversion. May your life, little children, be a reflection of God’s goodness and not of hatred and unfaithfulness. Pray, little children, that prayer may become life for you. In this way, in your life you will discover the peace and joy which God gives to those who have an open heart to His love. And you who are far from God’s mercy, convert so that God may not become deaf to your prayers and that it may not be too late for you. Therefore, in this time of grace, convert and put God in the first place in your life. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Thursday, August 9, 2007

How Can I Make This Interesting?


My intent in creating this blog is to spread the messages given to us by the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, leading us back to her son Jesus.

It's important I take up my cross and spread these messages but, coming from an online marketing background and realizing this information is readily available elsewhere, I'd like to make this blog an interesting place you'll want to come back to regularly.

Please, if you have any thoughts on what would interest you enough to check back here, feel free to drop me an e-mail at haan.erik@gmail.com or respond through a comment on this blog.


Today I share with you a map to show you where in the world these events are taking place. Medjugorje is located in Bosnia Hercegovina.


God Bless!
Erik

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Medjugorje - Commentary on Our Lady's July 25, 2007 Message

The following is first the Virgin Mary's monthly message for the world, given July 25th, 2007, followed by Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic's (of Medjugorje) commentary on the message.


Mary's message:


"Dear children! Today, on the day of the Patron of your Parish, I call you to imitate the lives of the Saints. May they be, for you, an example and encouragement to a life of holiness. May prayer for you be like the air you breathe in and not a burden. Little children, God will reveal His love to you and you will experience the joy that you are my beloved. God will bless you and give you an abundance of grace. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of July 25, 2007



Fr. Ljubo's commentary:


Our Lady calls to us as our Mother and invites and encourages us today, on the day of Saint Jacob the apostle, the patron saint of the Parish of Medugorje and pilgrims to inherit the life of the saints, the lives of those who came to heaven into a homeland we shall never leave. In her message on the 25th of July 2002, Our Lady also said: Dear children! Today I rejoice with your patron saint and call you to be open to God's will… Ask your holy protectors to help you grow in love towards God.” The saints are those who intercede for us and stand up for us before the face of God. That is why we turn to them and give up our prayers to them so that they may present them to God. The holy are an example to us that it is worth being faithful to God and that God will never betray us.


“Let prayer be like the air that you breathe” – says Our Mother Mary. Our body needs air. We know how we feel when we don’t have enough air. Without air our body cannot live. So as we have a physical body we also have a spiritual body. We can imagine that we are spiritually dead without prayer. Without prayer man’s life only consists of the body, material things, on dead things which do not have any life. Prayer is not something that is stipulated or ordered by the Church, God or Our Lady. Prayer is not only a devout exercise. Prayer is much more than this. Prayer is life. Without prayer we are dead and there is no life in us. Without prayer God has no room in us in which he can visit and heal us, save us and heal our hearts and souls.


It is only in prayer that God can reveal his love and we can experience the joy of being beloved children of God and Our Lady. From experience we know that it is not enough to only know that food is good, it is necessary to eat it to be able to live. It is not enough to know that God and Our Lady love us, rather it is necessary for us to experience this, experience it in out life as a reality more true than the physical one we see with our eyes.


“You will experience the joy of being my loved ones” – Our Lady says to us. However, it is necessary to fulfil one condition and this is prayer with our heart in which the soul opens and surrenders to God through Our Lady. The Gospel tells us at Jesus’ baptism at the River Jordan from the heavens thundered the voice of our Heavenly Father: “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1, 11). These words apply to Jesus. But through Jesus and in Jesus, also to you and me. Everyone of us are in Jesus and through Jesus the beloved son of the Father, beloved daughter of the Father, the chosen one, favourite of Our Father’s Heart. In Jesus and through Jesus we are also Our Lady’s beloved children.


Throughout our lives we have been told many times that it is important to love God. However it is far more important that God loves us. Our love towards God is of secondary importance. God’s love for us has precedence: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4, 10) – tells us the apostle John in his gospel. And still adds: “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. (1 John 4, 16).


Let the Virgin Mary, full of grace and Immaculate lead us and introduce us to the secrets of Our Father’s heart and love which he has for us.



Fra Ljubo Kurtovic

Medugorje 26.7.200

An Introduction

I wanted to create this blog as a virtual prayer/discussion group centered around the messages the Virgin Mary is reported to be giving the world in Medjugorje, a small village in Bosnia-Hercegovina.


I state "reported to be giving" but I actually mean "giving" because I believe these messages are authentic after several years of reading and talking to others about them. Mary is acting as an intercessor to re-teach us everything in Scripture and lead us to Jesus. Though Mary advocates Catholicism and states not all faiths are equal to God, the messages are intended for everyone and the bottom line is that faith and love of God are most important.


The best reference I have discovered, if you would like some background on the messages, is The Medjugorje Web. There you can read current and past messages (dating all the way back to 1981) and learn more about the visionaries and their mission and how they were called to that mission as children in 1981.


This blog will also feature videos, links to books and Web sites, and actually Google AdSense ads.


You should know that my account will earn rewards for any Google ads clicked on. I'm not inviting you to click on any ads, nor do I personally endorse any of the ads. Google's algorithm will attempt to match this blog's content with relevant ads, and my hope is the ads will enhance this site by providing good religious resources. In any event, 100% of the earnings will be donated to The Medjugorje Web to assist in the spreading of the messages.


The videos are also compiled on a simple search of YouTube for "Medjugorje". Many of these videos feature footage from Medjugorje pilgrimages, including miracles of the Sun. I do not personally endorse any of the videos or back their authenticity. Many people (including people I know personally) have reported seeing such miracles. I believe in the miracles but I can't back the videos displayed in this blog without more investigation. Some of the videos actually feature interviews with the visionaries, so check out everything. It's OK to be skeptical. View with an open heart and let God lead you in your decision making.


I invite you to visit this blog frequently and subscribe to it so you know when there are updates. I plan to post at least twice per month: one with Mary's monthly message (given on the 25th of every month) and another with Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic's (of Medjugore) commentary on the message. I will probably also make other sporadic posts.


Please comment as often as you feel called to. I want this to be a vibrant online community, and it will only be as good as its viewers' participation!


Erik Haan


P.S. Start your participation by taking this month's (anonymous) poll!


P.P.S. Though I will be donating all Google AdSense proceeds to The Medjugorje Web, this blog is not in any way (yet, maybe some day :) ) affiliated with The Medjugorje Web.