Croatia’s national football team

Football fever is coming to Medjugorje on May 27 through June 2 when the Croatian national team will be present to prepare for June 7′s World Cup qualifying game at home in Zagreb against Scotland.

The upcoming stay in Medjugorje was confirmed by the Croatian Football Federation on Friday, the Zagreb-based newspaper Jutarnji List is reporting.

National team manager Igor Stimac

National team manager Igor Stimac has family in Medjugorje, and is a long-time regular visitor. In September, before the qualifying game against Serbia, he visited along with assistant manager Alen Boksic.

“The visit has the least to do with football. We came to give thanks for good health, and for what we are able to overcome every day, to give thanks for every morning when we wake up alive and well. Here we feel like at home, we find a much needed peace and home to return home in a relaxed atmosphere” Stimac told Radio Mir Medjugorje.

Croatian national goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa with Medjugorje’s iconic image of the Virgin Mary on his shirt

Before the Scotland game, Croatia and Belgium are tied at the top of the World Cup qualifying group, both with 16 points. Serbia is third with 7 points while the visiting Scots are sixth and bottom-placed with 2 points.

The group winner is automatically qualified for 2014′s World Cup in Brazil while number 2 plays two games against number 2 from another group for yet another ticket.

Among the Croatian national football players, several have visited Medjugorje before with their clubs Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split, both of whom have been using Medjugorje as the setting for their pre-season training.

Thumbs up for Medjugorje: Previous leaks indicate that the Vatican Commission is very positive of the fruits of Medjugorje whereas the question of the authenticity of the apparitions is expected to be kept open by a time when the visionaries say the apparitions are still going on

Medjugorje gets a positive review in the report from the international Vatican Commission of experts formed by Pope Benedict XVI in March 2010. The Commission has handed over its report to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), a well-informed source confirms to Medjugorje Today.

“However, the time taken for a decision could be long from Pope Francis” says this source.

News of a positive report from the Commission was first reported on April 24, on the Facebook page of the local news portal Brotnjo Info. Quoting no sources and passing on no further detail, the news note basically said the report had been delivered. Medjugorje Today learns that this was due to have happened by the end of March.

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Linda Christy

Medical science cannot explain how Linda Christy from Canada left her wheelchair in June 2010 in Medjugorje, after 18 years with a crippling spine injury.

“I experienced a miracle. I arrived in a wheelchair, and now I walk, as you can see. The Blessed Virgin Mary healed me on Apparition Hill” Linda Christy tells Radio Medjugorje.

Last year, on the second anniversary of her healing, she handed over her medical documents to Medjugorje’s parish office. They testify to a double miracle: Not only did Linda Christy start walking but also her physical-medical condition remains the same as before.

“I brought all the medical findings that confirmed my condition, and there is no scientific explanation as to why I am walking. My spine is in such a bad shape that there are places where it is not even coherent at all, a lung has moved six centimeters, and I still have all the spine diseases and deformities” she says.

“After the miracle happened to my spine, it is still in the same poor condition it was, and therefore there is no medical explanation as to why I can stand on my own and walk after I walked on crutches for 18 years, and spent a year in a wheelchair.”

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Jakov Colo

Mankind at large, and even many Medjugorje visitors, are far from understanding the real significance of more than 31 years of the Virgin Mary’s daily apparitions, visionary Jakov Colo recently told pilgrims in a lecture passed on by Glasnik Mira, the official parish magazine.

“You need to turn to God and Our Lady, and promise that you will start to live with Him today, that from now your life is changing, that as of today you want to be an example to everybody, that you will love God and share God’s goodness with everybody” Jakov said.

Jakov as a teenager in the 1980s, when he still had daily apparitions. Since they ended on September 12th 1998, he has had an apparition once a year, on Christmas Day

“This is what Our Lady teaches here in Medjugorje. We do not realize how much grace we receive. Do you see how long Our Lady is appearing here? Mary comes for so long. She is coming here because of us, because she is our Mother, because we are immensely loved. The Madonna said in one of her messages: “Dear children, if you knew how much I love you, you would cry of joy!”

“That is Our Lady’s love for us, and so little is needed for us to start loving the Madonna! Let this day mark our promise to Our Lady: that we will begin to love her as our Mother, that she may be the Mother of our entire lives. Let us think about something else. At the end of each message she is giving us here in Medjugorje every month, Our Lady says: “Thank you for having responded to my call.”

“How big it is! Our Lady tells us very much, and every day we should give thanks for ​​it, thank God for the gifts He has given us because we do not understand what gifts we have. From today, let us pray that we feel the gifts of God in our hearts, that we feel and accept God and His Mother in our hearts” Jakov said.

Vicka last week, during one of her last meetings with pilgrims before she went to hospital on April 9

Visionary Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic left Medjugorje on Tuesday, to go to hospital where doctors will decide if her troubled back needs a fourth operation since the seer was accidentally injured by a pilgrim in June 2011.

“Goodmorning dear friends. It is a new morning with Vicka, then she leaves for her treatment in the hospital. Let us all pray that our dear friend returns home to her family and to our pilgrims even stronger and more healthy so that we can increasingly experience these joyful moments with her. Have a good trip Vicka, please come back soon to Medjugorje” official Medjugorje guide Anita Pehar informs on the Facebook page Informazioni da Medjugorje.

Medjugorje Today further learns that Vicka will go to Gemelli Hospital in Rome, Italy, where Blessed Pope John Paul II was also hospitalized, and that she will stay there for about 10 days.

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Francis is the needed Pope for the present moment, and has immediately been taken to heart. But his road will be very hard with too much work to do, and so he is much in need of prayers, says visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo. She calls Benedict XVI great, his resignation a lesson.

Mirjana talking to pilgrims on a previous occasion. Photo: Daniel Miot, guardacon.me

Medjugorje visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo has high hopes for Pope Francis. Yet his task is also very difficult, and he needs people’s prayers to succeed, the seer tells pilgrims in a feature on Medjugorje aired by the Italian tv station TG1 on March 25.

“Our Pope Francis who has immediately entered into the heart of all of us is a Pope whom we have needed for the present moment. We must pray a lot for him, help him with our prayers because his road will be very hard, and there will be too much to do, and if we do not pray for him, who will help him?” Mirjana says.

Pope Francis with his predecessor, Benedict XVI

The visionary also comments on Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign, saying there is something to learn from Francis’ predecessor:

“He is a great man who has given a lesson to all of us. Since he is now old and sick, and cannot give everything to the Church, he has resigned as a great man” Mirjana says.

Mirjana about the Pope in feature aired on Italian TG1 on March 25.

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Mirjana during her apparition on March 2

Medjugorje and the date August 2 are linked in special ways that will be more fully known in the future, visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo tells in author Wayne Weible’s new book, “Medjugorje, The Last Apparition”.

In the book, Weible asks the visionary if it is coincidental that Mirjana’s encounters with the Virgin Mary began anew on August 2nd 1987, having been interrupted for almost five years – when August 2nd also stands out as the day (in 1981) when the Virgin Mary allowed the parishioners of Medjugorje to touch her, only to stain her dress, an event that had parishioner Marinko Ivankovic call everyone present to go to confession.

Wayne Weible

“Many beautiful things happened on this day. You will understand later why this day is the day she chose to (again) appear to me” Mirjana replies.

Also on August 2nd 1981 the Virgin Mary explained why she had started to appear in Medjugorje, with the message “A major struugle is about to unfold. A struggle between my Son and Satan. Human souls are at stake.” And on August 2nd 2009, an estimated 50,000 people witnessed a major sun miracle during Mirjana’s public apparition, with the sun dramatically pulsating in the sky.

Mirjana looking straight into the sun while a major solar miracle occurs during her apparition on August 2nd 2009 (video below)

The Catholic Church has long celebrated August 2 as a Marian feast day when the Virgin Mary is venerated as Our Lady of the Angels. Medjugorje being a Franciscan parish, August 2 is one of the most important days of the year in the Franciscan annals, for the date further marks the anniversary of the dedication of the birthplace of the Franciscan Order.

While Mirjana has oftentimes told it is no coincidence that her apparitions take place on the second day of each month, and that the reason will be known when the 10 prophetic secrets begin to unfold, it is the first time she publically singles out August 2 as a date of special importance. Mirjana has said the same of March 18, her birthday when she also has an apparition.

Mirjana’s apparition on August 2nd 2009 at The Blue Cross, Medjugorje.
Sudden commotion in the crowd at 3.11 marks beginning of major sun miracle.

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Pope Francis

Medjugorje is far from unknown to Pope Francis.

In the recent newsletter of the organization Children of Medjugorje, Sr. Emmanuel Maillard summarizes three occasions when the new Pope, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, approved of public talks from prominent Medjugorje visitors in his diocese.

The most recent of these approvals was given just a few weeks ago:

Part of the audience present at visionary Ivan Dragicevic’s public apparition on March 6 at Luna Park, Buenos Aires, an arrangement approved of by then-Cardinal Bergoglio

“He welcomed Fr. Jozo Zovko while on his mission in Argentina. He welcomed Fr. Danko last year, for his mission through Argentina. And Cardinal Bergoglio allowed (visionary) Ivan to spread his witness in Buenos Aires early this March. Only a few days before leaving for Rome to join the conclave, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio gave his approval for Ivan to receive the apparition at Luna Park” Sr. Emmanuel informs.

Ivan further visited the Malvinas Microstadium where he drew about 5,500 people on March 4, a slightly higher number than at Luna Park two days later.

Fr. Jozo Zovko

Fr. Jozo Zovko, parish priest in Medjugorje by the time the apparitions began, tells the Croatian newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija that he spent a long time with then-Archbishop Bergoglio during his visit to Argentina in the late 1990s.

“We spent a long time together and talked about everything in Buenos Aires. And he was interested. We prayed together and at the end he asked me for a blessing. I touched one fine and good man. He is a good choice for a Church that is getting better, and there is no better person than Francis to rebuild the Church. Pope Francis’s gift to the Church is a fruit of the grace at this time. He dares to talk about our failures” Fr. Jozo tells Slobodna Dalmacija.

Francis with flowers to Mary

“He called for prayer, and his first move (as Pope) was going to Our Lady with a bouquet of flowers. There is a man who, like Mary at Cana, sees and feels and knows where to go.”

“We need such people deeply rooted in prayer. He holds a Rosary in his hand, and draws on the Gospel. It is the key that opens all closed doors, and the Pope is showing us the way.”

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Pope Francis – as Cardinal Bergoglio he was “very happy” to hear another Argentine Archbishop would go to Medjugorje

Medjugorje has been a cause of joy for the new Pope Francis, one of his fellow Archbishops from Argentina told during his visit in May 2006.

Monsignor Emilio Ognenovich, retired Archbishop of Mercedes-Luján (Argentina) visited Medjugorje from May 25th to 31st 2006, and then told Medjugorje’s official parish website:

“I will share my own personal conviction with my fellow bishops in the Bishops Conference of Argentina, and also with our cardinal, Mons. Bergoglio, who was very happy when I told him that I was going to Medjugorje.”

From his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, the new Pope will inherit the results of the Vatican Commission of experts who have been investigating Medjugorje since March 2010, for a final decision.

Marija’s apparition in Riva. Photo: medjugorje bz

Sacrifice, suffering, and prayer are the remedies for the current, very difficult time, Medjugorje visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti told about 1,000 people in the Church of San Giuseppe di Rione Degasperi in Riva del Garda, Italy, on Friday.

During her almost 6 minutes long apparition, Marija prayed for the Cardinals gathered in Rome to elect the new Pope, with the Conclave beginning on Tuesday, the regional newspaper Trentino Corriere Alpi further reports.

Marija (centre) preparing for her apparition in prayer, along with the audience in Riva del Garda. Photo: medjugorje bz

“I invite you all to pray, pray every day, especially in this time of great difficulty. Sacrifice, suffering, and prayer will bring love and joy. Accept the message of Christ, open your heart, and do not oppose His love. He will give you strength for the new life, and hope with His blessing” Marija said.

With many young people, families, seniors and couples, the audience was diverse, and started arriving in the early hours of the afternoon. Many were locals, but people also came from Brescia, Verona, Padua, Milan and Bologna. Those seated stood up during Marija’s apparition, those standing were kneeling down at the seer’s request.

Vicka spoke of afterlife at funeral

Vicka talking at the funeral of Giovanni Vecchiato on March 8

Marija’s fellow visionary Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic also spent March 8 in northern Italy, attending the funeral of her friend Giovanni Vecchiato. Vicka chose a positive approach, and spoke of the joys of life after death, the Italian blog site Gospodine reports.

Mr. Vecchiato, a pilgrimage guide who directed hundreds of Medjugorje pilgrimages since 1983, had his funeral Mass presided over by local Archbishop Pierluigi Mazzoccato, with seven priests concelebrating.

Vicka with the late Giovanni Vecchiato

Smiling and joyful, Vicka invited those present not to mourn the loss of their brother and friend.

“Rather rejoice for the fullness of life he has been given now in Heaven. And if he prays for us, we will equally for him” the visionary said.

Vicka’s visit to Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell along with the Virgin Mary (and with her fellow visionary Jakov Colo) in the Autumn of 1981 and so her testimony of the realities of the afterlife has been a part of her standard talk to pilgrims ever since.

Vicka and Jakov’s travel to the afterlife destinations took place in the body, and lasted just about 20 minutes. Meanwhile people searched for them, led by Jakov’s mother, without being able to find them anywhere.

Marija’s apparition on March 8th 2013 in Riva del Garda, Italy.
The apparition begins at 3.41
Photography: medjugorje bz

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