PHOTO: Celebrating the 45th Anniversary of Our Lady's Apparitions in Medjugorje – A Place of Forgiveness and New Beginnings
After the evening Holy Mass on the eve of the 45th anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions, attended by tens of thousands of pilgrims and 260 priests, there was a one-hour Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, which continued in silence until 6 a.m. During this time, many pilgrims arrived walking to Medjugorje and joined in the adoration, waiting for the first Holy Mass, which was celebrated at six o'clock, and masses in the Croatian language were also celebrated at 7, 8, 9 and 11 a.m.
Another 15 Holy Masses were celebrated in the languages of foreign pilgrims who arrived in Medjugorje from Hungary, Poland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, England, Canada, the USA, France, Ukraine, Scotland, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Korea, China, India, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Slovenia, Italy, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Mauritius, Brazil, Romania, Trinidad and Tobago, Hong Kong, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Although tired from the journey, the pilgrims still had the strength to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament, before Our Lady, and in this confessional of the world, stand in line for confession and confess their sins and once again embark on a new life. In his homily, the Provincial of the Herzegovina Franciscan Province, Fr. Jozo Grbeš, said that Medjugorje is a place of forgiveness and the new beginnings, and that this makes it special.
"This is a place in the Church where both bishop and priest, unbeliever and barefoot sufferer are on the path of seeking, all on the path of truth and meaning. All are seekers," said Fr. Jozo, who presided over the evening Holy Mass at the White Dome of the Church of St. James in Medjugorje on the 45th anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions, and was concelebrated by 397 priests, while dozens of priests heard the confessions of believers who had arrived from all over the world.
In his homily, he said that for believers this is a place of conversion, confession, prayer and deep personal experiences of God. For unbelievers, he said, it is a place of the impossible, the strange, a place of questions where people do not come only with faith, but also with doubts, curiosities, and almost all with wounds and crises.
"For witnesses, Medjugorje can be understood above all as a place of testimony of those who prove with their lives how the lost came to their senses, how marriages were renewed in love, how addicts changed their lives, how the unforgiven forgave deep wounds, how priests and religious emerged from crises, and many here stopped being atheists," said Fr. Jozo Grbeš, adding that what everyone has in common is a return to the sources.
We seek one thing, and we get what we need: we seek health, and we get meaning. Oh, how important it is to take that first step, the most important step in life, and that is the step that sets out on the path of seeking. This is the place of encounter with Christ. Here we get to know and encounter Him. If we do not encounter Him, everything else is superfluous! He is the encounter of all encounters," said Fr. Jozo, adding that the Queen of Peace's Note about the spiritual experience related to Medjugorje also acknowledges the importance of experience, of fruits that no one can deny.
"If you have Christ, you have everything. If you do not have Him, everything you have, you have nothing! He is the meaning, the wisdom, the truth, love... He who says that man is more important than the law, that love is more important than rudeness, that forgiveness is more important than hatred, envy, revenge... That is why in Medjugorje, Križevac, the hill of the cross, is the highest hill, the most exalted. He is in the most exalted place! To reach Him is both the most difficult, and the easiest, and the most beautiful, and the most meaningful. Such is the cross. Such is the Lord. Demanding, but giving everything. Such is love," said Fr. Jozo Grbeš, and invited us to take up the Gospel again in order to understand life.
"In it we learn what the true mission of the Blessed Virgin, our Lady, is, a mission so visible in Cana of Galilee in a time of trouble when she quietly says, as if gently commanding what has echoed in all souls for centuries: "Do whatever He tells you!" That is She! She always points to Him," said Fr. Jozo Grbeš, and then he presented some Gospel passages in which we are told what we should do: "Love your God... and your neighbor as yourself." (Mt 22:37-39); "Go and sin no more." (Jn 8:11); "Take and eat... this is my body." (Mt 26:26); “Forgive.”; “Go into all the world.” (Mt 28:19); “Take up your cross and follow me. (Mt 16:24); “Do not be afraid.” (Mt.10,26/28,10)…
In the end, he said that we should take her call and her love home with us, so that life would have more love, and through love all meaning would be found.
''I leave you with a simple question, for me personally the most important: What is the state of your love? That state of your love is the state of your soul! Let this anniversary be our departure on the journey to it and finally to Him. Only then will we understand the fullness of peace and the greatness of the infinite and the greatness of the meaning'', concluded Fr. Jozo Grbeš.
Before the Holy Mass, the Rosary was recited by Fr. Ivan Hrkać. The anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions was preceded by a novena. The Rosary was said daily for nine days on the Apparition Hill and at the White Dome of the Church of St. James, where it was led in front of a multitude of believers by Medjugorje parishioners, friars, third-year students, volunteers of Mary's Hands and residents of the Mother's Village. The Holy Mass in the novena was celebrated by Fr. Jure Barišić, Fr. Hrvoje Miletić, Fr. Bože Milić, Fr. Mario Knezović, Fr. Ivica Vrbić, Fr. Karlo Lovrić, Fr. Ljubo Kurtović, Fr. Andrija Majić and on the eve of the 45th anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions Fr. Miljenko Šteko, with the concelebration of several hundred priests during these nine days.
At the end of the Holy Mass, the parish priest of Medjugorje Fr. Zvonimir Pavičić thanked God and the Queen of Peace for all the graces throughout these years. He also thanked Fr. Jozo Grbeš, who presided over the Holy Mass, and all the priests who concelebrated and heard confessions.
He also thanked the parishioners from Šurmanci who carried the statue of Our Lady in the procession, as well as the parish choir of the Queen of Peace and the wind quintet from Split.
The visionaries Ivan Dragićević and Marija Pavlović Lunetti, as well as on all days of the Novena to the Queen of Peace for the 45th anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions, prayed Mary's hymn Magnificat, and after the Holy Mass, there was Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, which continued in the church until seven in the morning.
The day before, on the eve of the anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady and the feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist, the traditional 35th Peace March from Humac to Medjugorje was held in the morning, which gathered a large number of parishioners and pilgrims from all over the world, and in the afternoon, participants of the 7th votive pilgrimage from Čitluk to Medjugorje also arrived in Medjugorje.