Pilgrims from Utah visit Medjugorje
Friday, Oct. 18, 2019
SALT LAKE CITY — Four local Catholics have experienced a renewed
closeness to the Virgin Mary and to Jesus Christ, thanks to a recent
pilgrimage to the village of Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since 1981,
Our Lady allegedly has appeared there more than 40,000 times to six
young people there, known as visionaries, giving them messages for the
world. Each year, more than 3 million pilgrims visit the shrine in
Medjugorje, according to Catholic News Service.
While the Church
has not recognized as authentic the alleged Marian apparitions, in May
Pope Francis lifted the ban on official pilgrimages to Medjugorje,
following the recommendation of a papal commission.
Recently,
Phil Hofstetter, Kate O’Keefe, Tracy Harden and Albert Malloy traveled
with eight others to Medjugorje as part of an unofficial pilgrimage
organized by Hofstetter, who was one of first Catholics from Utah to
visit the area and to evangelize its message here.
“The official
status has not changed my experience,” said Hofstetter, a Blessed
Sacrament parishioner. “I am, of course, happy and encouraged to see
official approval taking shape. The messages are so simple and basic,
but the extraordinary grace that is given to those who visit is so
bountiful and extraordinary. I am clearly a different and better person
today because of grace, and grace through Our Lady and this special
site.”
In September, the pilgrims – who had each been to Medjugorje
before (most in the 1990s) – laid aside the accoutrements of their
21st-century life for 10 days of prayer and reflection in the small
town, attending Mass, praying the rosary, at Eucharistic Adoration or in
solitary meditation and prayer. Each experienced the power of praying
together with so many people and also alone.
““There is a lot of
time for meditation,” said Harden, a St. Mary of the Assumption
parishioner. “The beauty of Medjugorje is there are no distractions for
you and you can really focus on what is important to you. Medjugorje is
the absolute epicenter of Catholic Christian prayer in the world; the
power coming out of Medjugorje is immense.”
“The thing that is so
magical about Medjugorje is that the rosary replaces your cell phone,”
she said. “It’s so refreshing, and you see the universality of our
world. We have people from all different countries praying and singing
in their native languages, praying the rosary on the street.”
Each
day in Medjugorje at 5:40 p.m. local time the Virgin Mary is said to
appear to the remaining visionaries (some have received all the messages
promised them) wherever they are. While they were not physically
present for the apparitions, all four pilgrims said the whole area is
impacted spiritually by the event and even nature stills during those
minutes.
“The interesting thing about Medjugorje is that the
spiritual, the invisible, becomes visible and the visible, the tangible,
becomes less important,” Hofstetter said.
The primary reason for
the apparitions is for the conversion of mankind, O’Keefe said. “Our
Blessed Mother, as a mother would, is worried about the spiritual health
of her children. She is reminding us that as Catholics we need to
partake in the sacraments and that these sacraments have a really
beautiful implication for the condition of our soul.”
All four
reiterated that the essence of the messages the Blessed Virgin shares is
love; her love and the love of the Father and Jesus for all mankind.
“What
Medjugorje has done to me is really fill me with joy that I am
Catholic,” O’Keefe said. “It really fills me with joy that I’m going to
go home some day to Jesus.”
While all four say it is difficult to
convey to their families and friends the depth of their experience,
each says they have taken away a lesson or message specifically meant
for them. They each desire to become a better person, to evolve
spiritually, to try harder and to be more charitable, they said.
Harden
said the experience “changes your purpose for being here and living
your life as a Christian. You better understand that your goal is to get
to heaven.”
“What it really did for me was show me where my soul still needs work,” Malloy said of the pilgrimage.
“Blessed
Mother is putting together her army of faithful and each of us has an
opportunity to give our lives to God; it’s a personal choice how far we
go with that,” O’Keefe said. “It’s my feeling that with Medjugorje that
no matter where you are, God’s going to put you to work.” Some of the four say they have witnessed miracles in Medjugorje and elsewhere in connection with the apparitions; however, while diocesan commissions and the Yugoslavian bishops’ conference have studied the alleged apparitions several times, they could not confirm that supernatural events are occurring in Medjugorje.
http://www.icatholic.org/article/pilgrims-from-utah-visit-medjugorje-15013054
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