It is very difficult every day to see our Lady, enjoy her, be happy with her, have joy with her, and then come back to this world. On the second day our Lady came, she presented herself as Queen of Peace. She said, "My Dear Children, My Son is sending me to you so I can help you. Dear Children, peace must reign among God and people. The world today is in great danger and is threatening itself to be destroyed." [world = society]
Our Lady wants to take our hands and guide us to peace, guide us to God. In one of her messages she says, "Dear Children, if there is no peace in the human heart, there cannot be peace in this world. That is why you must pray for peace." She comes to bring healing to our wounds. She wants to lift up this sinful world, calling this world to peace, to conversion, and to strong faith. In one of the messages she says: "Dear Children, I am with you and I want to help you so that peace reigns. But, dear children, I need you! Only with you can I make this peace happen. That's why, decide for good and fight against evil and against sin!"
There are many people in the world today speaking about some kinds of fears. There are many people today speaking about three days of darkness and about many punishments, and many times I hear people say that's what our Lady says in Medjugorje. Yet, I must tell you, no, our Lady is not saying this, people are saying this. Our Lady is not coming to us to bring us fear. Our Lady comes as Mother of hope, Mother of light. She wants to bring this hope to the world that is so tired and so much in need. She wants to show us how to get out of this terrible situation we are in. She wants to teach us because she is the Mother, she is the teacher. She is here to remind us what's good so we can come to hope and come to light.
It is very hard to describe to you the love that our Lady has for each one of us, but I want to tell you that she puts each one of us in her maternal heart. For all of these 15 years, the messages she has been giving to us she has given for the whole world. Every message always begins, "My Dear Children" because she is our Mother, because she loves us so, she needs us so, and we are all important to her. With our Lady, no one is rejected. She calls us all the same. That is why our Lady in her messages says, "Dear Children, put God in first place in your life; then put your family in the second place." Our Lady is not expecting us to know more of what someone else is doing, but she expects and likes us to open the door of our own heart and do what we are capable of doing. She is not teaching us to point our fingers to someone else and say what they are doing or not doing but she does ask us to pray for others.
Our conversion is a gift from God to us and it is a practice. This practice lasts a whole lifetime because we must convert. Every day we must change. In order for our conversion to be holy and to be more perfect, our Lady calls us to prayer. In order to grow in sanctity, it is always necessary to pray. She also asks us to read the Bible especially in the family with our children. In one of these messages she says, "My Dear Children, may your Bible be in a visible place." Our Lady didn't mean for us to put the Bible in a visible place to let the dust fall on it. She desires that the true words of the Gospel become a part of our everyday life so that the word of scripture becomes spiritual food for us on our way to holiness.
Thousands and thousands of times our Lady has repeated again and again: "Pray, Pray, Pray!" Believe me, even until today she is still not tired of calling us to prayer. She is a mother who never gets tired, a mother who is patient and a mother who is waiting on us. She is a mother who doesn't allow herself to be tired. To pray with the heart as our Lady calls us to do is to pray with love, out of love. Her desire is that we desire prayer and that we pray with our whole being and that means to unite oneself to Jesus in prayer. Then prayer will become an encounter with Jesus, conversation with Jesus and real relaxation with him and become strength and joy. To our Lady and to God, any prayer, any kind of prayer is dear to them as long as it comes from our heart. Prayer is the best flower that comes from our heart and it grows to bloom over and over again.
People are asking, "How is our Lady teaching us to pray better?" Our Lady says very simply, "Dear Children, if you want to pray better then you must pray more!" Praying more is a personal decision and to pray better is always a grace given to those who pray. Many families and parents today say, "Oh, we don't have time to pray." We have a problem with time. If a person loves something or likes something they always find time for it. But when someone doesn't like something or it is not something he enjoys, he never finds time for it.
If there is something [on TV] you wanted to see you would find time to watch that program, because that's the way it is! I know that is what you think about. If you go to the store to buy something for yourself, you go once, then you go twice. You take time to make sure you want to purchase something and you do that because you want to and it is never difficult because you find time for it.
Our Lady comes to wake us up in faith and strengthens us in faith. In one of her messages she says, "Dear Children, if you are strong, the Church will be strong. If you are weak, the Church will be weak, because you are each a little Church". A lot of Christians and a lot of Catholics who claim they are both have left the prayer life. They are already spiritually dead. Today there are so many people who are in a spiritual coma and then just once in a while they open their spiritual eyes - maybe at Christmas or Easter or holidays. This is why our Lady is constantly calling us to prayer.
She greeted us all at the beginning, "Praise be Jesus! My Dear Children!" Then our Lady prayed over all of us with extended hands. She blessed us all. Then I recommended to our Lady all of you, all of your families, and all those petitions that you hold in your hearts, and especially those that are sick.
Then together with our Lady I prayed the Our Father and Glory Be. Our Lady also had a conversation with me that was private and was just between us. Our Lady then left with the sign of a lit up cross, saying, "Go in peace, my dear children." There was no special message tonight. This is all I can tell you about the apparition. But three days ago on October 25 our Lady gave her message to the world which is for everyone.
I hope that we will respond to our Lady's call and live her message and that we will be coworkers to make a new world of peace.
Questions and answers following Ivan's talk
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Q: When our Lady appears, how old is she?
- A: Our Lady has spoken to Vicka and given her the whole life story and some day that will be released, but if you would ask me my opinion of how old our Lady looks, I would say about 24 or 25.
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Q: Was Medjugorje affected by the war?
- A: The war that was from '91 to '95 has not touched Medjugorje in any way. It has not touched Medjugorje and we can attribute that to the hand of God.
- Q: Have you been told when the story of her life will be published?
- A: I can't really speak about that because our Lady has not told me anything about it and it has to do with Vicka. I would also like for that to come into my hands as soon as possible. Although I do know some of the dates because she has told me, I would like to have a complete book, too.
- A: The war that was from '91 to '95 has not touched Medjugorje in any way. It has not touched Medjugorje and we can attribute that to the hand of God.
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Q: When she appears, why would she not allow all of us to see her?
- A: If it was up to me, I would love that. In the 16 years I have always questioned why not to
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everybody? I would love for everybody to see her. There is two reasons for
this. One of them is that I would not have to talk to you and the second
is I would have a lot of private time.
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Q: Has Jesus ever appeared with Mary?
- A: The 2nd day of the apparition in 1981 our Lady did come with the baby Jesus in her hands, and every Christmas she comes with the baby Jesus.
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Q: What can you tell us about heaven, hell, and purgatory?
- A: I can't talk about all three because I only saw heaven. I know that you are waiting for me to describe heaven but I'm not really capable of describing heaven because the beauty of heaven is indescribable. I always like to say it like this: If we go, when we go, we will see the best what it is.
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Q: When you receive all 10 secrets or when our Lady stops appearing, will
the school of prayer be finished?
- A: No. Do you know when the school of prayer will end? It is when we die. Our conversion ends when we die. We are in the process our whole lifetime of converting and learning how to pray and these are gifts that we must pray for.
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Q: Why does she not appear to the other children (visionaries)?
- A: Two of them have received all 10 secrets and they see our Lady once a year. One on the anniversary and one of them in March. That's all I can say about that. Maybe the two girls could say more because I'm sure that our Lady has spoken to them about something.
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Q: How many secrets have been revealed?
- A: Four of us who still have apparitions have only nine secrets and the other two have 10.
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Q: Is it true that when our Lady stops appearing in Medjugorje she will no
longer appear again on Earth?
- A: In this way, no. In this kind of apparition, no.
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Q: What do you know about the sign that everyone will see throughout the
world? Does just Vicka know that or do you? Do you know when or does Vicka?
- A: Yes. Everybody will be able to see. Yes. I know when and I know what.
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Q: Should we be afraid?
- A: I'm not afraid. Don't fear. Don't fear. This past 15 years our Lady has been guiding us to the year 2000, to the millenium. I would suggest that together with her we prepare ourselves and that is why she is guiding us. We need to pray together with her about this plan that will happen that she knows and we need to pray with her for that to become reality.
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Q: Does St. Joseph ever appear with her?
- A: No.
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Q: Of the nine secrets, how many have been revealed to the world?
- A: Not even one. They are secrets. The secrets will be revealed when the time comes to reveal them and the time has not come.
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Q: Has Vicka said anything about the final Marian Dogma that will be proclaimed
by the Church?
- A: I can't speak anything about that because our Lady hasn't spoken to me about it and you have priests here in the audience that are more competent to give you the answers.
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Q: Is there any reason given for the secrets and is mention made of any
timetable?
- A: I believe so - that there is reason why she gave it to us. The secrets our Lady gave are tied with the world, with the Church and one day will be revealed, and it's also other things involved in those secrets.
- Medjugorje Links
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