The following was originally published in 1991, and continues to be a timeless read on understanding Our Lady’s Medjugorje apparitions in the proper light. Medjugorje visionary, Marija, told A Friend of Medjugorje that the messages of Our Lady are for today’s man to understand Scripture. What A Friend of Medjugorje discovered in studying Our Lady’s messages all these years is that Her message is the Gospel of Her Son, Jesus, seen through Her eyes. This is the “profoundness” of the message.
It is said that Our Lady’s messages from Medjugorje are simple and repetitive. Many feel that Our Lady is only repeating messages which She has already said in past apparitions. While many people were very curious about the apparitions in the beginning, they quickly became bored with the messages because of the repetition and because they felt they were too general and not specific enough. Many have had these thoughts. This will show how little is truly understood about what Our Lady is saying and, hopefully, present a whole new understanding of Our Lady’s plans and Her messages.
At first glance, the messages of Our Lady do seem watery and repetitious; but, if this is true, why does Our Lady go to such lengths about Her messages and even want them read daily? Is it because there is so much to discover? How many times have we read the word, “little,” in Her messages without giving it a thought. Our Lady does not want us to approach Her messages with our intellects but with our hearts, as “little” children, so rather than appearing as dead words, they may come to life!
December 25, 1989
We know we are Our Lady’s children, but Her use of the word, “little,” when addressing us who are not little, may seem strange until we see why. “Little” children are not clouded by adult thoughts, biases, busyness, philosophies, etc. They are open, pure, innocent, and impressionable. Any parent can tell a three-year-old child that his Guardian Angel is by his side, he can fly when he turns ten, or his dad is the strongest person in the world, and he will believe it. Most little children would never question their parents but simply believe them. Our Lady wishes us to approach and accept Her messages with the same innocence and faith. If we can go to Our Lady’s messages, not just as children but as “little” children, She will be able to form us, lead us, and help us in the difficult task of changing the direction of our lives. Our Lady has said:
March 25, 1990
It is much easier for a little child to adjust to change than for an adult who is set in his ways, opinionated or rebellious. Changing your life is of the utmost importance because of the crisis the world faces. How important are Our Lady’s messages? Our Lady’s messages deliver such importance that She says not only must Her messages not be changed or added to in any way, but also the Spirit of Truth is needed just to convey them.
June 9, 1984
If we need the Spirit of Truth just to convey the messages, how much more do we need to understand them? Our Lady is very clear about Her messages and their importance. Once Our Lady said that She was about to cease giving messages because some did not accept Her. These people changed their hearts and Our Lady went on to give an utterly profound message, stating that She would speak to us in a way which has never happened since the dawn of man – the beginning of the world. Our Lady said:
April 4, 1985
This message should easily get our attention when, contemplating the Scriptures, we realize just how personally God communicated with Adam and Eve. They had direct conversations with God! Through Eve, their fall caused them to lose many great gifts. Now we have the “Second Eve” coming and conveying messages for the whole of mankind from “God” in a way the world has never seen, even in the beginning, the time of Adam and Eve.
July 25, 1985
The gift we are receiving through Our Lady, God’s words coming to us through Her, is so great that it cannot be overestimated. Our Lady says:
October 25, 1988
Also regarding the greatness of Her messages which we are receiving, Our Lady says:
March 25, 1990
The messages are unique in the way they are given. The visionaries are receiving such a grace that Our Lady tells Ivanka that no one on earth has been given the gift they have been given.
May 7, 1985
How should we understand Our Lady’s messages? First of all, to help us comprehend Our Lady’s words we should think about our many conversations. Much of what we say is useless chatter. Listening to most conversations, much which is said amounts to only a multiplication of words and many times leaves us empty. Useless talk results in only pride, defense, gossip, complaints, or exaggerations. Our Lady said:
October 27, 1983
So what happens when Our Lady gives a message? When Marija first was told to write down a message from Our Lady, She did so; but afterwards she was depressed when turning it over to a priest. When she did, she started to cry, not just a few tears, but really in depth as if someone had died. When asked what was wrong, Marija explained:
“I have betrayed Our Lady. What I wrote on paper and what Our Lady said were not the same!”
We must understand every word of Our Lady is of value. Marija has explained that when Our Lady gives a message, it is given to her audibly as well as to her heart. You might say it is infused into her. It is given with immense love, overpowering gentleness, and completeness in its truth. Our Lady is present three dimensionally in a glorified body, speaking to Marija and, on special occasions, even kissing her. Each word has meaning to the fullest. Once Marija writes it on paper, it betrays all the love, gentleness, power, and meaning in which it was given by Our Lady. What you read in a book when you read Our Lady’s messages, after your initial conversion1 or curiosity, betrays the beauty in which the messages were given. When Marija is given the messages, they are in the highest degree from Heaven; but when they are written down, they are reduced to ink on paper. At this point, many lose interest, become tired, and no longer want to listen to or live Our Lady’s messages. Why? Because we are not conscious of the importance of the messages God sends us. We are not able to comprehend the great depth of graces available through these messages. If we did, we would pray without stopping. Only through the Holy Spirit are we able to begin to understand. Our Lady said on November 8, 1984:
But if one does as Our Lady says and prays to understand the greatness of the messages, prays to comprehend them, then rather than just paper and ink, the messages become filled with love, filled with profound meaning, and a great source of grace to live by. From the great heights from which Marija received them, to the depths of paper and ink, then lifted back up through prayer, we are able to taste the sweetness of Our Lady’s love for us and understand Her messages. They, like concrete foundations, are solid enough to build our lives on for this time.
August 6, 1982
Our Lady’s words are not exaggerated. They are more significant than they appear. They understate what She is relaying. The meaning goes way beyond the words. But the world does not understand this. It is the opposite. It overstates, disguises, debates, compromises, exaggerates. It is untruthful. It makes evil appear good, denies or ignores the existence of sin, and makes bad situations appear worse than they really are, in order to lead more people to the acceptance of sin. Our Lady contradicts the ways of the world. Her words do not exaggerate, and we do not have to debate whether Our Lady is right or wrong. There is a fullness and a completeness of truth. She does not give us opinions but the very thoughts of God Himself.
After reading many of Our Lady’s messages from Medjugorje, a nun once said: “I’ve decided these messages are too superficial and not specific. The messages from the apparitions of Akita, Japan2, are very specific. I will devote my life to spreading those messages.” One needs to understand that Our Lady purposely gives Her messages without being specific. You might describe them as being loose. This is one of the “secret mysteries” which enable Our Lady’s messages to continue to speak to you.
During the Middle East crisis3, Our Lady repeatedly called for prayer for peace. She said to Ivan several times on the mountain:
Week after week, month after month to both Ivan’s prayer group and also to the world in the monthly messages, Our Lady asked us repeatedly to pray for peace. Although She never mentioned the Middle East situation, all the world knew what Our Lady was speaking about. So why wasn’t Our Lady specific and mention the Middle East? What if ten years from now you are in a personal crisis? You are praying about your situation which has placed turmoil in your heart which desperately needs peace. When you read Our Lady’s messages that say, “Pray for peace in this time,” and you pray as Our Lady’s messages say, peace can calm your heart. But what would it be like if Our Lady had been specific and said, “Pray for peace in the Middle East in this time?” These messages would be dated and tied only to this conflict. They would be historical messages with little use in the future except for helping to explain the past. The genius of Our Lady’s messages is that they are “living.” They speak to us now, next week, and ten years from now. Each time these messages can say something different to us, addressing different situations. Our Lady’s messages are given in a profound way purposely to give room for the Holy Spirit to say many things. That is why you can read these messages and receive them personally. Our Lady is speaking to you as an individual, yet these messages apply to every man on earth. These are not just messages. They are a guide for this age and future ages to live by. Are they on an equal with the Bible? Definitely NO! But they are something which the world has never received before. If the messages are not to be held as an equal with the Bible, how close to or how far from the Bible should they be held since Our Lady repeats many times that God is telling Her what to convey?
The Old Testament gives us some insights to consider regarding Our Lady’s messages. In Exodus, God devotes many chapters for the “Theoktos,” the Ark, which is to house the Ten Commandments. Chapter after chapter explains the size, the material, instructions to line the Ark with gold, etc. It is amazing to see how specific God’s instructions are about the Ark of the Old Covenant. Even more surprising are the instructions on how sacred it is to be handled. There is great detail about who enters the tent, what kind of vestments are to be worn, even what kind of oil is to be used for the lamps. The penalty from God, not for touching the Ten Commandments, but for improperly handling the Ark itself, the “Theoktos,” was death. God made it clear that the Ark, housing the Old Covenant, demanded this reverence. Several centuries later King David was moving the Ark, which had been placed on an ox cart by the priest. When the cart tilted, a soldier reached out to steady the Ark and he dropped dead.
If the Ark (vessel) of the Old Covenant was this important and deserved this much reverence, how much reverence does God want for the “Second Theoktos” which housed the New Covenant, Jesus Christ! Does this New Living Covenant and this Living Ark not have a greater degree of closeness to God than the old? If the old Ark, made from the materials of the earth (gold, wood, etc.), was so sacred because of what it housed, how much more sacred is the vessel, the new Ark, the Virgin Mary, who housed Jesus for nine months in Her own body, Who, through the umbilical cord of life, nourishment flowed from Mary to Jesus? Whose body produced milk which nourished the Messiah’s body—the Body and Blood of which we now partake of in the Eucharist? We can reason that Mary is nourishing us through the milk She nourished the Sacred Blood of Jesus with. Then, as a child, God had to be fed, bathed, clothed, and was totally dependant on His Mother, Mary, who sheltered Him with Her mantle, as the Ark sheltered the Ten Commandments. By contemplating this, do we realize in what context Our Lady’s messages should be held? Of all the archangels, including Michael and Raphael, all the angels, all the prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, and all the human race put together, no one has been as close to God as Mary. She is not a deity. Her place with God is above all angels and all mankind but below God. BETWEEN. So it is in this context that the messages of Medjugorje have to be understood. They are below the Bible, the inspired Word of God, but above all the books containing the greatest human wisdom and thought in all the world, throughout all the ages. Even the writings of scholars, philosophers and the saints together will not be on an equal basis with the messages of Our Lady from Medjugorje. This author predicts these “words from Heaven” will be scrutinized by the Church in somewhat the same way the early Church scrutinized the contents of the Bible in putting it together. Once we realize that we are in a Second Pentecost, we will be able to understand that this is not new revelation, but it is new revelation about Old Revelation. Never in 2,000 years have we had such a clear window explaining the Gospels. It’s the reason Our Lady’s said:
April 4, 1985
Just as Our Lady’s role is not on an equal basis with any angel or man but above their roles and below God’s, Her role is to lead us to God. So it is with Her messages. They are above all human books ever written but below the inspired Bible. Her “messages” parallel Her role, leading us to God. The Virgin Mary’s messages will lead you to the Gospels, and you will understand the Gospels as never before. The messages are to be elevated to a supreme place above all philosophies, spiritual writings, books, etc.. This is why Our Lady says:
November 15, 1984
But why is it necessary for today’s man to see the Gospels more clearly? Man today, as well as the last few decades, lives radically different than man did for the past several thousand years. Man, for thousands of years, lived, toiled, worked the soil, blacksmithed, and produced goods basically the same way. The threads of life were unchanged for thousands of years. The men who wrote the Bible relayed God’s truths through the fabric of their daily lives and ways.
Our Lady’s messages bring new light to the Scriptures, leading us to them, and to a better understanding of God’s holy words. Her words are living just as God’s words are living. Our Lady is speaking to us, to lead us to the living words of the Bible which are from a living God, instructing us, encouraging us, giving us hope. The Bible is not a dead tree manufactured into paper with ink pressed on it, but God’s powerfully present voice, living and holy. And now Our Lady is coming daily giving living words, that are not on an equal level with God’s words, but are given in order to lead us to those Heavenly words of the Bible. Her words will go down in history as a preface to understanding Holy Scriptures and to show us how to bring new life into the modern world which is presently dying. Why? Man, for six thousand years, has lived the same way. He basically plowed the fields the same way, lived in a village, supplying on a small scale to his local villagers the craft of his hands. In the course of this work, man has thought the same way from generation to generation, for centuries up until the present modern times. The Scriptures were written by minds which had a specific understanding, since the dawn of man, of man’s ways and of his thinking. Scripture states:
“You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together.”
“Man,” before this modern age, clearly and precisely grasped the understanding of what is meant in the above passage in far greater detail than we today. Man, close to the soil, had the working hands-on knowledge. A mismatch such as an ox and an ass would result in two directions, a weaker and a stronger, crooked plowing, no harmony, disorder. From this example given in Scripture “man” could easily apply this to his life, spouse, children, village, politics, etc. His whole concept was different from those of us who work with modern technological advances in our daily lives. These technological advances have taken us from the field and work shops keeping our minds very busy, so busy, in fact, that we are left with no time to reflect in our intelligence about who we are and where we are going as a society. For thousands of years a blacksmith could apply this verse to his own work, knowing the stupidity of trying to work his heated metal with a wooden hammer, rather than a steel one. The heated metal and wooden hammer would be as an ox and ass together, which would be ridiculous. Then through the Holy Spirit, the blacksmith could easily discern the methods he was using with the relationships of his wife, friends, etc., were not working any more than an ox and an ass plowing together and that perhaps he must change his treatment of her or others. It is not to say that modern man cannot understand the Scriptures, but those who wrote it were not modern men. They were of another world than what exists today. Marija has said that Our Lady’s messages are for today’s man, to help him understand the Bible. As another example, how many modern men know and understand these words of Jesus?:
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
For centuries, men knew an “eye of a needle” was an opening in the wall of a structure, such as a church, etc., built big enough for a man to go through, but small enough to keep out men on horseback. This “eye of the needle” as the entrance into a building was to safeguard against raids, invaders, etc. Perhaps it was possible that a camel could squeeze through on his knees, but only with great difficulty – and yet, perhaps this was not totally impossible. But modern man, reading this verse would deduce that any man who is rich is doomed, for it would be considered impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle.
The world is totally and radically different from the world of only a century ago. Man (or perhaps we should say satan4) has never had technology that has the ability to actually enter into our own thought patterns and lead and direct our thinking. We are being given a preface to the Scriptures, an owner’s manual (Our Lady’s words) to the machine (the Bible) on how to use it, how to work it, how to understand it, how to make our lives better in this world through it. Man is so different from his past that probably few would be able to make it if we were to go back the way it was one hundred years ago and before. We no longer possess a clear understanding of how we can depend upon God to provide for us through the labor of our own hands.
The farmer and the blacksmith and many others had a busy body and a free mind; a mind free to pray, to contemplate; a mind to understand his trials. The farmer had a greater ability to understand that God breaks man to form him just as he, the farmer, breaks up the soil, softening it to grow its fruits. The blacksmith could easily understand the purpose of God’s purifying fire to mold and form man through tribulation, as he placed his metal in purifying fire to form a tool. However, with modern man, the opposite is true. His mind is occupied, and his body is free. Many actually get off from their jobs to go to work, working out in a gym. Yes, there are still jobs which are very physical, but even then many now are involved with technology, and the occupying of the mind limits its ability to contemplate. We cannot conceive praying four hours a day and would think it ridiculous, yet the farmer prayed all day. The blacksmith could contemplate God the whole day long, ten hours straight. His work could easily be prayer if he wanted. Modern man lives for his work. There is no room to let God in when we are staring into a computer, listening constantly to music, T.V., etc. We are simply not able to understand. And so the question must be posed: Is it possible for us to pray and live in today’s world; today’s work place?
April 24, 1984
Our Lady was speaking here to the village who is close to the soil, but in the last sentence, She says “they” (the world). To visit the peaceful hamlet of Medjugorje at the time this message was given, was like going back one hundred years. The people lived very simply. The outside world and the way “they” worked and lived was radically different. However, in time, after the apparitions began in Medjugorje, the world, through T.V., music, etc., began to be introduced in Medjugorje. It offered very harmful effects against their life and prayer. The above message was even a shock for a Franciscan priest in Medjugorje. They in the village were looking more towards today’s world, the false promises conveyed through the introduction of T.V., music, etc., as the hope for the future and had already began to lose sight of St. Paul’s words to pray unceasingly. Fr. Vlasic, the Franciscan, questioned Our Lady through the visionaries in regard to this specific message, “If we tell the people to pray for four hours, they will turn away.” Our Lady answered:
Our Lady first said, “They (society) don’t understand” because their work clouds them, but She also says to Fr. Vlasic, “Even you do not understand.” As the world encroaches upon Medjugorje, even the villagers, as they came into modern times, began to be clouded (refer back to the previously quoted message of April 24, 1984 to see more clearly the point being made)!
Our Lady’s words are to change our modern society, not necessarily to vanquish technology, but to get rid of the anti-“Gods” and to master other technology rather than it master us. Our Lady’s words are comparable to the gifts brought by the three kings and presented to Our Lady on behalf of Her young Son. Scripture tells us She treasured them. We too are to treasure, value, and hold in deep reverence and awe each word of Our Lady’s.
Marija went to the United States to reside for three months. While in her host’s home near Birmingham, Alabama in 1988, the first message Our Lady said was:
November 20, 1988
This message was prophetic. It was about a future community, about their lives, their work, all before it actually came to be. The community was birthed shortly afterwards and continues to grow and is made up of many who have given up occupations, businesses, and careers in order to live and spread Our Lady’s messages and offer their work, living and then spreading the messages, as prayer. For you it doesn’t necessarily mean you are all to go out and change your occupation, but rather, through the messages let God lead you to what it is He wants you to do and where He wants you to go. It is interesting that for three months while Our Lady appeared, She gave many varied messages. Some were very strong, others beautiful. But in Her last apparition of January 26, 1989, Our Lady ended this chapter as She began it, with the very first words She spoke three months before:
The focus of the Community of Caritas has always been Our Lady’s words. Their whole life is built around them, and they are truly the guide to their every action of everyday life. Their work is performed with the thought of prayer, with the hope of it producing fruit. This is Our Lady’s desire; that we not live for our work, but our work be filled with prayer and lessons of the Scriptures. Her messages, Her words, help show us how in today’s society to do that, as this community has learned and gives witness to.
If these messages are as important as stated in this book, do we have a responsibility regarding them? Are we to be accountable to anyone for them? Many of us see Mary as a mother, letting many of our faults slide by but going to Jesus on our behalf and saying, “Forgive your child these offenses.” This is so; however, we are receiving such enormous graces and gifts through Our Lady’s apparitions that Our Lady Herself in justice says firmly:
February 6, 1986
Finally, if Our Lady’s messages are as important as shown, can we expect satan to be idle and not try to destroy or weaken them? Our Lady has said that She wants to save the world through the Parish of Medjugorje, “here” is the source of grace, and She has asked us to listen to Her messages “here,” etc. The messages have been “imported” to Medjugorje from Heaven, and then they are to be “exported” from Medjugorje to the rest of the world. God has created a voice in and through Medjugorje through which Our Lady is to guide the whole world.
October 24, 1985
The seriousness of what Our Lady’s messages call us to is revealed. Our Lady said:
May 2, 1982
Given the seriousness of this message, we must realize the messages are carrying a great grace, a gift directly from God of such proportions that we do not comprehend. Our Lady has given many messages similar to the following one:
April 25, 1990
This gift is so great, so profound, that each one of us has a responsibility to respond according to our ability and what we’ve been given.
May 8, 1986
satan wishes to lead many away from the real truth and toward half truths or falsehoods.
September 25, 1990
This is why Our Lady thanked those who remain firm to Her plan “here” and who do not betray Her presence.
January 25, 1991
Except for the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the death of the last apostle, the messages and apparitions of Medjugorje are the most important event in history in nearly 2,000 years for the following three reasons:
- They are the most frequent apparitions ever.
- Our Lady will give messages from Medjugorje as never in history since the beginning of the world.
- They are the last apparitions on earth.
The plan of Medjugorje is beyond our total comprehension, but through prayer, we can receive glimpses of its magnitude. We finish with Our Lady’s words about Her messages:
December 25, 1989
June 25, 1989
October 27, 1983
April 25, 1987
December 4, 1988
September 12, 1983
November 30, 1983
March 25, 1990
February 17, 1989
January 28, 1987
A Friend of Medjugorje
