Ivan Dragicevic Will Be in My Hometown this Weekend!

I just checked the speaking schedule for Ivan Dragicevic (he's one of the Medjugorje visionaries) and he will be at the Marian Community Center in my hometown of Medway, Massachusetts this Saturday, November 3rd!

I attended two of Ivan's speaking engagements last year, and I can tell you they are very moving. There is a recitation of the Rosary, followed by the daily apparition to Ivan. It is so powerful to be in the building for this. The night ends with a Mass and then a talk by Ivan about the evening's message and his experiences as a visionary for the past 26 years.

I plan to attend and will give a report Sunday morning!

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

Peace to All!

Below please find the official English translation of Fr. Danko's commentary on Our Lady's October 25, 2007 message as provided by the Information Center in Medjugorje.

God Bless!
Steve and Ana Shawl
The Medjugorje Web
http://www.medjugorje.org
-----------------------------------------------------------

BE THE LOVE AND THE LIGHT

“Dear children! God sent me among you out of love that I may lead you towards the way of salvation. Many of you opened your hearts and accepted my messages, but many have become lost on this way and have never come to know the God of love with the fullness of heart. Therefore, I call you to be love and light where there is darkness and sin. I am with you and bless you all. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

(Message of October 25, 2007)


At the beginning of her message, our Lady repeats the main goal of her mission – our salvation. Not once did she place herself in the first place. The words she uttered two thousand years ago at the wedding feast in Canaan in Galilee : Do whatever my son Jesus tells you (comp. John 2:5), are still relevant for us. To do whatever Jesus want, that is, to do God’s will - there lies the salvation.

As a true mother, our Lady wants for all her children to be saved. Therefore she constantly calls us, but she also warns us, like she did in the message of November 25th 1998, when she said: My children, I invite you all to the road of salvation and I want to show you the way to the heaven. There is only one way which leads to the eternal life, which leads to paradise, and that is Jesus Christ. He said of himself: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". (John 14:6).

Our Lady says that many people have opened their hearts. To open our heart means to give our whole being to the God who is love, but also to the messages which invite us to such giving. The heart is the most precious, most beautiful possession of a human being. The heart is a symbol of life and love, of all good things which humans have. Our Lady has already asked of us to dedicate ourselves again to her heart and the heart of her Son Jesus. In her message of October 25th 2003 she said: Do not hesitate, my children, but say with all your heart: I want to help Jesus and Mary to introduce more brothers and sisters to the way of holiness. She reminds us that there are those who became lost on this road of dedication, because they never did give their hearts to the God. In the Gospel, Jesus often reminded his listeners that they have closed hearts, hearts of stone. And the people who have such hearts have inverted systems of value, in which the first place does not belong to the God, but to some person, wealth, honor, human considerations or something else. To have pure heart, heart of flesh, religious heart, means to turn completely to the God, who awaits us in secrecy and in silence.

Our Lady encourages us to be the love and the light. To be love means to be a witness of the pure Christ’s love which was given for us. This love is unconditional; it does not ask for anything, it just gives. It always thinks of others before it thinks of self. We learn such love from Jesus if we give ourselves to Him with our whole hearts, because he invites us to love not just our friends, but also our enemies. People were always ready to love their neighbors and hate their enemies (Mt 5:43) because it was easier. Jesus has gone beyond that. His disciple, believer, Christian, cannot be fastidious with his/her love. He/she has to love all people, including the enemies, in the spirit of the Lord. That means to be the love. What does it mean to be the light? To be the light means to shine for the others, so they do not stumble and wander in the dark. We should be the light which Christ has ignited, so people can see the truth and the face of His heavenly Father, instead of wandering and stumbling in misconceptions. In this light, people can recognize all men as their own brothers and sisters. As a true mother, our Lady follows us and blesses us on this road.


Fr. Danko Perutina
Meðugorje 26.10.2007

The Lost Book of Nostradamus

I watched an interesting History Channel program, titled "The Lost Book of Nostradamus", last night. Here is the teaser for the program, as advertised at history.com (The History Channel's official Web site):

"In 1994, Italian journalist Enza Massa was at the Italian National Library in Rome when she stumbled upon an unusual find. It was a manuscript dating to 1629, titled: Nostradamus Vatinicia Code. Michel de Notredame, the author's name, was on the inside in indelible ink. The book contains cryptic and bizarre images along with over eighty watercolor paintings by the master visionary himself. Follow the investigative trail of how the manuscript was found in the archives and exactly how it got there. New insight is given into the life of Nostradamus and his relationship with Pope Urban VIII, who knew about this manuscript and in whose possession it was for many years."




I caught the program about halfway through but was immediately sucked in. I love stories of prophecy, as I think most who are interested in the Medjugorje apparitions do. I think we like knowing what our fate as a human race will be, and seeing more of the power of God. To me, I think there will be some vindication in End Times events, showing unbelievers or casual Catholics that there is a God and it WAS important to live a good life and not go through the world uncaring and acting selfishly. But that's an aside.... :)

The program got into how this "lost book", allegedly authored by Nostradamus, went into detail about the End Times, specifically mentioning the apocalypse will occur when the planets are aligned with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, scheduled to happen on that famous date in 2012. The Mayans also predicted the world would end in 2012, giving the date more significance.

The jury on the authenticity of the book is still out, but it's intriguing, nonetheless. There certainly will be this celestial event. What it means is uncertain. We should probably assume nothing, but who knows? And, after all, we know from the Medjugorje visionaries themselves that they have received at least some secrets about the end of the world, and that there will be something supernatural that will occur when the apparitions come to a close.

But I'd like to stress one thing, and that's this: Don't stress.

If you watch the video in my last posting, you'll see Mirjana, one of the visionaries, talking a little about what the Virgin Mary hopes to achieve through Her apparitions and how She wants us to respond. And one of the key things Mirjana says is that the Virgin Mary does not want us to be concerned with secrets or the end of time. She wants us to live holy lives, and to serve God. And when we do that, we don't have a whole lot to worry about. We will be taken care of.

The thing with these programs about Nostradamus or End Times prophecy is they're intended to get your blood pressure up. It's like watching a horror movie. You're scared but you kind of like being scared.

I think the most appropriate mindset after watching shows like this is to take it as information. Sure, it's intriguing. But use it as a motivator to live an even holier life than you have previously. Look at it as an opportunity to incrementally improve your life before it IS too late. Don't worry about when it will happen, because all you'll do is spend your life in fear. Make progress and spread peace and love and we'll all be a lot better off!

Zimbabweans Need The Virgin Mary's Help

My sister, Monique Haan, alerted me to something I knew nothing about: the plight of Zimbabweans under the dictatorship of President Robert Mugabe.

Below is a video highlighting just some of their many struggles. I think this is a perfect opportunity to petition the Virgin Mary to help these people by forcing the removal of Mugabe from power and blessing them with a caring, true leader.

You can pray as you always do or send a petition to the Virgin Mary via e-mail. Your petition is private and will be presented to the Virgin Mary during an apparition in Medjugorje.

Here is the video. Please share it with your friends if it strikes you.

Medjugorje - October 25, 2007 Message

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


From: The Medjugorje Web
http://www.medjugorje.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Message of October 25, 2007

"Dear children! God sent me among you out of love that I may lead you towards the way of salvation. Many of you opened your hearts and accepted my messages, but many have become lost on this way and have never come to know the God of love with the fullness of heart. Therefore, I call you to be love and light where there is darkness and sin. I am with you and bless you all. Thank you for having responded to my call."

A Few Things I Would Like to Point Out

My hope is to make this blog a resource for those seeking some additional information about Medjugorje. I am currently using the blog to be a metaphorical microphone for the Virgin Mary's messages to humanity, but there are also some features of this blog you will not find at the official Medjugorje Web site.

First of all, I have some Medjugorje videos. If you look at the right side of the page, you will see some video thumbnails served by YouTube. If pictures speak a thousand words, I think videos tell the whole story. While I don't have control over the selection of the videos displayed on this blog (YouTube serves the videos based upon keywords I enter into a search algorithm) I think most - if not all - of the videos are relevant. Here's an old 20/20 report from the 1980s, soon after the apparitions began:



Secondly, there are links to books about Medjugorje and other helpful stuff. Again, this is on the right side of the blog. Check it out. There's a link to the official Medjugorje Web site and even a link to e-mail a prayer to the Virgin Mary!


Third, there are ads being served by Google. I generate revenue if you click on the links. My hope (maybe it's a pipe dream but I hope not) is to drive enough revenue from the ads that I can devote my entire workday to spreading the Medjugorje messages.


Additionally, the appearance of this page is helping to spread the word about the Medjugorje apparitions because it is providing links back to the official Medjugorje Web site. This helps that Web site get ranked higher in Google search results!

And so will your traffic, so keep visiting! I'll try to post fresh content regularly to keep you coming back!

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

Peace to All! Below please find the official English translation of Fr. Danko Perutina's commentary on Our Lady's September 25, 2007 message. Fr. Danko is one of the Franciscan priests in the parish of Medjugorje.


God bless!
Steve and Ana Shawl
The Medjugorje web
http://www.medjugorje.org
------------------------------

PRAYER – PATH TOWARDS PERFECT LOVE

"Dear children! Also today I call all of you for your hearts to blaze with more ardent love for the Crucified, and do not forget that, out of love for you, He gave His life so that you may be saved. Little children, meditate and pray that your heart may be open to God’s love. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of September 25, 2007


In her latest message, Our Lady encourages us with her motherly words to feel an ever greater love for the Crucified. This love must flow from our hearts as the heart is the centre of human being. We may very well say that man is his heart. So many times has Our Lady called us to wake up, to begin to feel love because only love is fruitful. Only deeds done out of love and only prayer said out of love reach directly God’s heart.

God has done everything for us. He has given about his Son so that every man who lives his testimony has eternal life (cf. 1 John 5,11-13). There is nothing God desires more than the salvation of man. If God desires it so ardently, what are we then waiting for, why are we defying him, why do not we open ourselves to Him fully?

In the second part of her message, Our Lady calls us to meditate about God's words so that the word of God may enter the depths of our soul and blaze with more ardent love for God. The more we enter the spirit of God's word, the more ardent our devotion becomes. Our Lady is aware of that as she too has cherished God's words in her heart, meditated about them and lived by them (cf. Luke 2, 19.51).

The Blessed Virgin Mary is a role model of the Church for she is also the Praying Virgin (Virgo orans). By being a role model she is the one that encourages us to adopt a correct attitude towards prayer and towards God. She often calls us to prayer because we are weak and unable to pray in the correct manner. Some pray only during hardship or when they carry their cross or when burdened with pain and suffering. It is not only then that one should pray. We are also called to prayer when life is good to us, when we feel fine. It is then when we should say a prayer of gratitude so that God may give us more blessing and multiply the gifts that he has given to us. Prayer is not of secondary importance. Prayer is a matter of life and death. Just as a man drowning needs air, so do all the faithful need prayer because it is through prayer that we receive grace and turn our hearts towards God. While we think of Mary, the Mother who is the embodiment of the Word and the Teacher of spiritual life, we thank her for being our teacher and instilling in us love.


Fr. Danko Perutina
Medugorje 26/09/2007


For perspective on the Medjugorje apparitions from a couple of the visionaries themselves, watch this video!