Luciano Giglioni

Along with a group of Italian pilgrims, Luciano Giglioni from Castel del Piano witnessed a 30 minutes sun wonder in Medjugorje on April 27.

Giglioni says he saw the Virgin Mary in the sun minutes before 5.40 pm when three Medjugorje visionaries have their daily apparition.

“When we went down Apparition Hill, the sun had become so bright that its light took much of the sky. Then suddenly it started to throb and turn on itself, and then split into two. And you could see the image of the Virgin Mary dressed in a blue cloak, and a purple Cross” Luciano Giglioni tells regional newspaper Il Tirreno Grosseto.

Luciano Giglioni on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje where he saw the Virgin Mary in the sun on April 27. His account of the event has many similarities with accounts of the earliest sun spectacles in Medjugorje, when the apparitions began in 1981

“Some began to cry, some to pray, some were still walking as if nothing had happened. I realized I was crying. And I took off my glasses, and I left myself to watch the sun changing color continuously for at least half an hour. Just as it started, then everything went back to normal, with only the ‘normal’ heaven, and apparently ‘normal’ people” the retired bank manager says.

Saying he will always have emotions tied to the event, Giglioni has spent a while since April 27 trying to make sense of what happened:

“Imagine my surprise when I tried to rationalize the event. What had I seen? What did we see? How did I look at the sun without sunglasses all the time, and not take any damage to my eyesight?” Luciano Giglioni recounts.

“I am only giving a witness, and this means that I must stick to the facts of what I experienced on April 27 at about 17.30.”

Notice: Looking directly at the sun is no less dangerous and no more advised in Medjugorje than anywhere else in the world. Sun phenomena should not be looked for, and in Medjugorje they are best and most safely discovered by noticing people’s reactions or hearing the commotion of a crowd. Cases of eye damage have occured.

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The new piece of motorway includes even more demanding constructions than this part of current motorway in Bosnia

Completely void of asphalt by the time the apparitions began, Medjugorje will have a motorway going to its doorstep by New Year 2014. The motorway will connect Medjugorje to Croatia as well as to the pan-European corridor 5c through Bosnia and Hercegovina.

The new road has been planned since 2008, but took a major step ahead in Mostar on Thursday when a consortium of the worldwide operating Czech construction company OHL ZS and the Bosnian civil engineering company Laktasi signed a contract worth 61.6 million Euros with the civil infrastructure authorities.

Centered on the capital, Sarajevo (middle-right), the outline of Motorway A1 through Bosnia and Hercegovina spans the country from its northern to its southern border with Croatia. Some stages are completed, others not begun yet. The stage of the road involving Medjugorje is the southern-most

“Upon completion of this section, we will have a complete road section in operation from Medjugorje to the Croatian border, including border crossing” director of public highways Ensad Karic said, according to the Bosnian news agency Oslobodjenje.

Karic agreed with the Czech entrepreneurs that the job will not be easy. The main structures of the new piece of motorway are the Zvirovici interchange with one overpass and underpass, a 590 meters long bridge in Studencica and one of 380 meters in Trebizat, along with a 387 meters long viaduct in Pavlovici, and a tunnel in Bijela Vlaka with a length of 485 meters.

“This is an extremely demanding task with a total mile and a half of bridges and viaducts, and a tunnel of half a kilometer in length” Karic said.

Czech consortium representative Michael Stefl said the task of completing the 5 kilometers of motorway by New Year 2014 is “on the edge of viability” but expected to make it:

Contract signing in Mostar on May 10

“Deadlines are quite short, but we hope to succeed in the 20 months. Here in Herzegovina it is a demanding project, due to the global financial crisis on the verge of profitability, but I am confident that we will do a quality job on time” Stefl said.

Funds for the new motorway comes through loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Pilgrims standing in line with handkerchiefs, ready to collect drops of the liquid that flows from the Risen Christ sculpture

Almost 11 years after one of the knees of the Risen Christ sculpture in Medjugorje first started to shed a tear-like liquid, even returning pilgrims are surprised by the sculpture these days: Now the watery substance comes from both legs.

“Yes, it is true. Water is coming from both legs now. The new drip is actually just above the knee, on the lower thigh. The new drip is stronger than the older one” film-maker and Queen of Peace Productions founder Sean Bloomfield reports from Medjugorje.

The right leg of the sculpture from where liquid started dripping in 2001

“With all the people in Medjugorje now, having both knees dripping sure helps in the crowd flow!” he adds on the discussion board at MedjugorjeLive where another pilgrim just back from Medjugorje likewise tells to have witnessed the substance dripping from both sculpture legs.

The sculpture has shown to be unpredictable on previous occasions as well. Several times, the dripping has stopped for extended periods of time. One such occasion in 2010 coincided with Medjugorje receiving large amounts of rain, weakening a theory that the watery substance could be rain dripping out from inside the sculpture.

On another occasion, a large group of pilgrims witnessed how the substance was suddenly red and no longer clear:

“My friend Drago who lives in Medjugorje has informed me that this past week a man took a paper napkin and reached to take a drop of oil from the Risen Christ statue. When he looked at the napkin it is reported that the napkin was full of blood. A minimum of 50 people witnessed this. Some screamed in fear and some said, “It’s a miracle” MedjugorjeUSA reported by that time.

Gallons of mysterious liquid have been gathered by Medjugorje pilgrims in the course of the almost 11 years when the substance has been flowing from the Risen Christ sculpture behind the outdoor altar of St. James Church

Vatican experts have been rumored to have analyzed the substance, but neither Rome nor the parish of Medjugorje have ever confirmed such analysis to have taken place.

The statue is a replica of the 277 centimeter silver sculpture “The Resurrection”, sculpted by Andrej Ajdic and presented to Pope John Paul II on the occasion of his 1996 visit to Slovenia.

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Mostar International Airport

Celebrations of the best single day in Mostar International Airport since the opening in 1965 had barely ended on April 27 when the staff in the airport close to Medjugorje got more good news to celebrate.

The month of April as a whole saw 9.169 passengers, a record number since the end of the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Compared to the same month last year, Mostar International Airport saw a 318.1% passenger increase, balkans.com reports.

“The results are even more remarkable when it is taken into account that Mostar does not have any scheduled flights. All passengers arriving and departing Mostar do so on charter flights, the vast majority being pilgrims visiting the Medjugorje site” the news agency adds.

“Most passengers this Summer are arriving on numerous flights from Italy. The positive trend is continuing in May as well.”

Part of the crowd that heard Ivanka in Sarzana

The crowd was smaller than previously seen, but people’s reaction was just as welcoming this weekend when visionary Ivanka Ivankovic-Elez took part in fueling the Medjugorje boom in Italy by appearing two times in Sarzana in the north-western part of the country.

Ivanka last spoke in Italy when she joined fellow visionary Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic for a public appearance in Corridonia in November last year. A few days later Ivan Dragicevic had public apparitions in Italy on five consecutive evenings.

Ivanka receives the microphone from fellow visionary Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic when Ivanka teamed up with Vicka for an unannounced appearance in Corridonia, Italy, on November 13th 2011. Photo: Marco Piagentini

Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo moved along in Naples on February 2, upholding her tradition of having her apparition on that day in Italy. In late April she filled a sports hall outside of Ancona for a lecture. Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti saw a busy month of April culminate when she gathered more than 30,000 people in Palermo as part of a three day Sicilian visit.

And so, when Jakov Colo gives witness in Rho Fiera on May 20, all the Medjugorje visionaries will have spoken publically in Italy within the last six months.

This weekend, Ivanka appeared at Sarzana’s football stadium where the local team Tarros Sarzana had agreed to postpone an at home game to make room for the prayer meeting with Ivanka, the national newspaper La Nazione reports.

800 people attended, Il Secolo XIX writes from the meeting on Sunday. The newspaper adds that “a magical silence” followed Ivanka’s description of how the Virgin Mary looks and appears.

Ivanka during an apparition by the time when she still saw the Virgin Mary every day, and the Virgin granted Ivanka's wish to see her late mother again. The first visionary to see the Virgin Mary in 1981, Ivanka had daily apparitions until May 7th 1985. Since then, she has had an apparition once a year, on June 25th

The visionary described herself as a witness to life after death, a theme Ivanka usually stresses in her lectures:

“Two months before the first apparition, I had lost my mother. If anyone has any doubt that there is another life after death, I bear witness to it, because in the course of these meetings with Our Lady, I have seen my mother, I have spoken to her, and she has hugged me and said “I’m proud of you” Ivanka said, according to Il Secolo XIX.

Local parish priest Fr. Massimo Achilli shared his impression of how Medjugorje is moving closer to official recognition with the work of the current Vatican Commission:

“The Pontifical Commission has heard and still listens to people like Ivanka. The apparitions are not officially recognized as having occurred because they are still going on, but there have been steps forward” the priest told Il Secolo XIX.

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All the benches and the entire lawn next to the outdoor altar by St. James Church were afloat with people on April 29

Unusually many pilgrims visited Medjugorje last weekend April 28-29, and some arrived to the surprise that they could not find a bed to sleep in,  local guide and webmaster Mate Vasilj tells from Medjugorje.

“I think the whole Italy moved to Medjugorje. I have lived here throughout my whole life, and I have been around on most of the busy events through the years, and I will say this with a clear conscience, I have never seen Medjugorje this busy” Mate Vasilj reports at medjugorje.net.

Mate Vasilj

“There are people still looking for a bed to sleep, there are some groups that arrived hoping they will find accomodation once they arrive since they were not able to do it by the phone/email, they ended up sleeping in the van.”

“I went to the evening Mass last night, and the whole space behind the church, all of the benches and all of the lawn was packed. It was pretty impressive but also quite intriguing, I wonder where did they all find accommodation?” Mate Vasilj writes.

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Mostar International Airport. Photo: Bljesak

They came from Rome, from Naples, Catania and Bari, and from other Italian cities as well. And when April 28 had come to an end, the total number of passengers summed up to 2,200, making for  the busiest day ever in the 47 years history of Mostar International Airport, located 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Medjugorje.

“I do not remember such a rush, and we can not even tell you how pleased we are to have this many passengers. These are charter flights from Italy and from the regular route to Pescara. Events suggest that we will make a lot of these days, and we have reason to believe in the bright future of our airport” airport workers told Indikator, a Bosnian business media.

Italians landing in Mostar last Autumn. Photo: Bljesak

“Hercegovina has a great potential for tourism, and you can definitely have a successful airport. Management efforts, a little help from local authorities and the opening of new routes will be a sure way to success. We can only hope that yesterday’s passenger traffic record will not be the exception, but rather the rule”, aviation engineer Marko Djuzel said.

The record comes less than one week after the airport experienced a set-back when the Italian operator Air Vallée cancelled 52 planned flights from Pescara to Mostar this year, having only operated the inaugural flight.

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Mirjana on the giant screen of Pala Baldinelli, Osimo

It does not take an apparition to fill a sports arena for a Medjugorje event in Italy. A lecture from one of the seers can have the same effect, visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo saw along with 5,000 people in Osimo close to Ancona on April 25.

Mirjana took the opportunity to address an incorrect notion of the Christian faith which she has found among the youth, local newspaper Fatto Diritto reports.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic

“Many young people are afraid to follow Jesus because they think that if they follow Jesus all that is fun is forbidden, but I always say that is not true – that nothing is forbidden, only that which hurts you is banned” Mirjana said, referring to sin.

The parking lot outside the sports hall Pala Baldinelli was overcrowded with cars. So were the streets next to the hall, writes local newspaper Cronache Anconetane.

Mirjana guested the Ancona area along with the Franciscan priest Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic who got very popular during his stay in Medjugorje by the turn of the new century. He meditated the Rosary and gave a catechesis.

Osimo mayor Stefano Simoncini also greeted the attendees, Cronache Anconetane further reports.

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Visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti is fond of inviting children to be close when she has an apparition. Keeping her four sons near to her when she prayed was her main method in teaching them to pray, the seer told Radio Marija on April 25. Photo: Daniel Miot, guardacon.me

Throughout her time in Medjugorje, the Virgin Mary has urged families to pray the Rosary together. But how to find the time, how to begin, and how to teach prayer to children?

Medjugorje visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti got to touch on all of these issues and more on Wednesday when she was on the phone to Radio Maria to pass on the Virgin Mary’s message of April 25, a message that came with this wording:

“Dear children! Also today I am calling you to prayer, and may your heart, little children, open towards God as a flower opens towards the warmth of the sun. I am with you and I intercede for all of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Radio Maria founder and interviewer Padre Livio Fanzaga

“Many mothers ask ‘About reciting the Rosary, what should we do with our kids?’ Radio Maria founder Padre Livio Fanzaga asked the visionary in their short subsequent conversation.

“I have seen that the important thing is that they are near you. Then by praying you are giving them an example.  A mother with small children cannot demand that they pray a complete Rosary. You might say at some point “Let’s pray ten mysteries” but later it is not necessary any more. It becomes a part of life” Marija said.

“When they are tiny, you might have to say ‘It is prayer time’, and a toy might be necessary to keep them near you. At least I did it that way.”

Marija and her husband, Paolo Lunetti, with their first-born son Michele Maria in 1994. The visionary taught him and his three younger brothers to pray by having them close when she prayed

The Medjugorje visionary, a mother of four sons, also adviced a playful approach to teaching children faith and prayer:

“I remember a friend who was a monk who brought me a Gospel for children, with a handle. All four of them used it with great joy. Finding a book, a colored Rosary, or telling them stories might be attractive to them.  This could be a tip for the mothers” Marija told Radio Maria.

Mary asks for the whole family to pray the Rosary; children with parents and parents with children?

“Yes, Our Lady asked us all.  Many times my children say “we’ll do two Rosaries”  I’d say a little at a time – like the Italian proverb: ‘You gain appetite by eating’. At first we might not be in the habit, it is difficult. Start out, then add thoughts on how much you love, somewhat like lovers. It could be the Hail Mary but it could be a thousand other ways.”

Marija in Palermo, Italy, last weekend

One such way could be blending prayer into daily activities, the visionary said:

“I might have to drive and I’d be praying the Rosary or maybe while I cook. Once, a Mexican bishop said ‘the Rosary can be washed, ironed, and cooked’, meaning you can work and pray. Certainly it is preferable to have a specific place and maybe a little altar.”

“In the early years (the Virgin Mary) asked our parish to place the Bible in a visible place, but also a chapel or nitch area to be calm. Normally the tv is the center of the house, but if you could have a tiny altar in the center it would stimulate prayer” Marija said.

Making the most of May

With May approaching, the Virgin Mary’s month when many are reporting great graces and Mary seems stronger, Padre Livio Fanzaga also urged Marija to tell how to make the most of May:

A toddler plays with a Rosary during one of Marija's apparitions. The visionary advices a playful way of teaching children to pray. Photo: Daniel Miot, guardacon.me

Many years have gone by but you might remember that once May was also the month for good deeds, not just the Rosary?

“Sacrifices too” Marija answered.

Then good deeds and sacrifices have an important value nowadays?

“Yes. And may times Our Lady thanked us. She also said that she would present them to her Son. She also said that when we pray, we open our hearts, and she can intercede to God for us.”

Marija praying the Rosary. Photo: Daniel Miot, guardacon.me

Then she presents our prayers and our little sacrifices?

“Yes, and they are very appreciated. I would like to invite you all during this month of so many flowers to offer a ‘flower’ to Our Lady made of prayer or an extra Rosary. Something that she would appreciate, and she will return it a hundredfold. Because she knows how to touch the Heart of Jesus” Marija told Radio Maria.

Antonio Miraldi transcribed and translated from Italian

Ivan Dragicevic during a previous apparition. Photo: MaryTV

People traveled to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, from as far away as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (431 miles) and Toronto, Canada (475 miles) to hear Medjugorje visionary Ivan Dragicevic speak in Holy Angels Catholic Church on April 21.

The large church accommodated 900 people, and it was estimated that there were 150 people standing. Ivan’s apparition lasted 10 minutes during which the Virgin Mary prayed over all the attendees in her Aramaic mother tongue, Spirit of Medjugorje editor June Klins further reports from Chagrin Falls.

Baptism in Holy Angels Catholic Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where Ivan spoke and had an apparition on April 21

The visionary said, in quoting the Virgin Mary, that parents do not pray with their children, and there is no time for each other in families. Introducing this theme led Ivan to talk about the negative influence of media, especially on young people.

“Parents do not have time for their children and children don’t have time for their parents. There is no love in families and there is not enough fidelity within marriages. Every second, third marriage is falling apart, and so many broken families, and tired families, and morality is on the downside”.

“So many outside sources –  television, radio, media – are influencing the downfall. And it is pushing the young people into a valley of blindness” Ivan said.

Ivan Dragicevic

Well-being takes forgiveness

Compared to previous lectures, the visionary raised a rare or even new point in talking about how forgiveness is necessary for even the physical well-being of man.

“We need to know how to forgive –  and to forgive oneself and to forgive others. Without forgiveness, we cannot get well spiritually, physically, or emotionally. The Holy Spirit and prayer are needed to learn how to forgive” Ivan told the attendees.

The seer next turned to talking about prayer, the Virgin Mary’s foremost message in Medjugorje:

“Our Lady has said many times over the years, to “pray, pray, pray,” but she does not want us praying by habit or by looking at the watch that you may finish as soon as possible”.

“She wants us to set aside a time every day for prayer and to pray from the heart, which means “to pray from love and with love, to pray with your whole being, so that our prayer can be a meeting with Jesus”. If we pray like that, we will be filled with peace and joy” Ivan said.

He added that religious vocations will come through family prayer.

Spirit of Medjugorje editor June Klins reported from Chagrin Falls

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