Meetings with Fr Jozo

If you can afford to purchase just one book during this year, then “Meetings with Fr Jozo” has to be the choice!

This new hardback book is a revised edition of Encounters with Fr Jozo that was produced three years ago by Sabrina Covic. This time around it has added chapters and a fantastic range of photographs, some which have never been published before.

Meetings with Fr Jozo is by Sabrina Covic-Radojicic and published by Editons Sakramento of France.

• The above photograph is one of many excellent images from the book and shows Fr Jozo meeting with Pope John Paul II in January 1993. Notice the prayer card of Our Lady which Fr Jozo always hands out pilgrims. It seems that the John Paul II was no exception!

One with the Father...

When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing of myself; what the Father has taught me is what I preach; he who sent me is with me, and has not left me to myself, for I always do what pleases him. John 8 : 28-29

My dear children! Today I want to call all of you to decide for Paradise. The way is difficult for those who have not decided for God. Dear children, decide and believe that God is offering Himself to you in His fullness. You are invited and you need to answer the call of the Father, Who is calling you through me. Pray, because in prayer each one of you will be able to achieve complete love. I am blessing you and I desire to help you so that each one of you might be under my motherly mantle. Thank you for having responded to my call. October 25, 1987

Discovering God...

But surely the Law does not allow us to pass judgement on a man without giving him a fair hearing and discovering what he is about? John 7 : 51

Dear children! Today I invite you all so that your prayer be prayer with the heart. Let each of you find time for prayer so that in prayer you discover God. I do not desire you to talk about prayer, but to pray. Let your every day be filled with prayer of gratitude to God for life and for all that you have. I do not desire your life to pass by in words but that you glorify God with deeds. I am with you and I am grateful to God for every moment spent with you. Thank you for having responded to my call. April 25, 1991

March 25, 2009 message of Our Lady to Marija

Dear children! In this time of spring, when everything is awakening from the winter sleep, you also awaken your souls with prayer so that they may be ready to receive the light of the risen Jesus. Little children, may he draw you closer to his heart so that you may become open to eternal life. I pray for you and intercede before the Most High for your sincere conversion. Thank you for having responded to my call. March 25, 2009

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Abandoning self-will, by Michael Casey

Divesting ourselves of self-will is a goal easily stated, yet it takes a lifetime of effort even to make a beginning. Without thorough self-knowledge, we can never be sure that our effort is not merely a subtle expression of the very self-will we are striving to eliminate. For this reason the task is usually left to other people. Family, friends, associates, superiors, and those who are supposed to take the lead from us will all join together in a massive conspiracy to frustrate our plans and projects. At least this is how it seems on our more paranoid days.

It is interesting in reading biographies of the saints to note how often they are blocked by the well-meaning interventions of small-minded and conventional wielders of power, subjected to scorn and humiliation and reviled by those who ought to know better. This is especially evident in the lives of founders and formers of religious orders.

Blessed Mary McKillop was hounded by certain bishops in colonial Australia fro much of her life and eventually excommunicated; she has been beatified, they not. Anyone who speaks or acts against the institutional status quo can experience trouble –– irrespective of whether their message is from God or from themselves.

Indifference, misunderstanding, passive aggression, and various degrees of harassment are unavoidable especially for those who try to live creatively. They are generated in others independent of our will and often of our deserts. If we resist the temptations to become professional victims, such mistreatment can be a potent means of purifying the subtle promptings of self-will in the ordering of our life. It is not enough, however, to be totally passive, waiting for someone to come along and persecute us. Once we have developed the capacity to discern the stirrings of self-will, we can refuse to cooperate with it. We are given a measure of freedom. We can say “No”!

Over the years, we can become quite good at withholding our consent. That is admirable, of course, but it can turn us into very negative people. Excessive caution and suspicion, combined with an element of rigidity, can rob our life of any sense of lightness and joy, isolate us from many of the harmless pleasures of life, and risk our being dismissed as eccentrics by those whom otherwise we may have been able to help. Just because the Ten Commandments begin “Thou shalt not” does not mean that religion is merely a matter of saying “No”!

Christianity, in particular, is principally a matter of learning to say “Yes!” Merely abandoning self-will condemns us to live in an affective desert until such time as the love of God becomes paramount in our awareness. For most of us, this is too hard. This is why a more excellent way is proposed to us; genuine, unselfish love is a sweeter and equally effective means of neutralizing disordered self-will, but it also needs to be worked at.

Saying “Yes!” to others is not only a marvelous means of being kind to them, it is also an effective means of blocking our self-will and ensuring that the good deeds we do are not being poisoned by a hidden agenda. It is one of the more attractive effects of the spiritual gift of meekness (Galatians 5 : 23 – see Matthew 5 : 5). That is why, in the history of monasticism, obedience has always played a strong role. It was not seen primarily as a means of establishing or enforcing social order, but as a technique by which the monk could put self-will on hold while repair work was undertaken to remedy some of the ravages of sin.

• Adapted from the book: Fully Human, Fully Divine, by Michael Casey, a Cistercian monk of Victoria, Australia,

Fr Danko on prayer...

This is part of a talk on prayer given (with humour) by the Medjugorje Franciscan priest, Fr Danko Perutina, during a retreat in London earlier this year. Fr Danko also writes the monthly commentary for Our Lady’s message given to the world via the visionary Maria.

• Everyone is an expert on prayer; everyone has his or her own prayer. That person says prayer at a certain time, using the same words and no one is to disturb him at that time, otherwise that person will get annoyed.

There are millions of prayers to be said. I will just mention 500,000!


There is contemplative prayer, prayer of meditation, prayer with reason, prayer with words, prayer in silence and prayer with the heart. There are really millions of prayers! Prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of asking, prayers for healing, prayers for blessing, prayers for perseverance, prayers you say that your husband will be converted, or maybe that your wife will be converted. Really, we can pray for everything.



What is important when it comes to prayer? For me, the best prayer consists of few points. Some people compare this with how one uses a telephone, because you dial a number and then a person answers.

• The first step is to come close to God, in his presence.
• The second step is to admit your sins.
• The third step is to forgive everyone.
• The fourth step is to renounce all sins.
• The fifth step is to accept your cross.
• The sixth step is to accept the Holy Spirit because once we renounce sin, we are empty and have to be filled with something.
• The seventh step is to say to God, thank you.

You have dialled the numbers 1-7 and that’s what we call telephone prayer. Try this prayer; you will be changed in a day. Really, you will be.

You know that at this retreat we have been saying the prayers already, but I didn’t mention to you. Why is this prayer important? Because it contains all the important elements.

The most important part of this prayer is the presence of God. That is the most difficult thing. We say “where is God?” Then we start imagining Him. I always share this with pilgrims to Medjugorje, the way people imagine God.

When Jesus was crucified and buried he was 33 years old. We don’t know how old the Holy Spirit is. If Jesus was 33 then the Father must be around 70. He has a long white beard, and sits on a throne. He sees everything and knows everything. There is thunder and lightening below. Even if you do something in the dark he is able to see that. He can’t really see everything, because there are six and a half billion people living here, so he gave a guardian angel to every person and that angel is working on a computer. Once you make a mistake he records that. When the last moment of your life comes he will just press the “enter” and “print” button and all your sins will be on one piece of paper. It is not going to be just one sheet.

But it’s not going to be like that, because God is a God who forgives. There is nothing so beautiful as to know that someone loves you all the time, and that’s the way God loves us, without any conditions.

Some people think in this way: if we are good then God must be good; if we commit sins, straightaway he gets angry. That is not God. That is the image of God we use, and that’s often why people pray to images of God, the way they imagine Him. That is only an image, that is not God, God who is revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

The only way we can explain God, is Love. All the other images are wrong. And if you do not see God as Love you make problems for yourself because God is Love himself. He is not a judge; he is not the one who punishes, the one who is angry. That’s not God, that’s an image of our making.

That’s why, when you start praying, those few seconds at the beginning are really important, and that’s faith. Whenever I come to prayer I make the sign of the cross and say: “I know, Jesus, that you are here. Jesus, I know that you love me, and now I am going to speak to you of all that is in my heart.”

I don’t have to imagine him, if he is tall or short, fat or thin; or wonder if he made windows or chairs as a carpenter.

Our Lady has been inviting us to prayer with the heart. It’s the prayer of offering what is there in our heart and presenting it to God. It is not new. The more sincere we are, the deeper the prayer. We are purifying ourselves and so become more of what God want us to be, restored in his image, but not a photocopy. God created everyone special and unique.

Prayer is the law of life. The more we pray, the more God opens all the doors for us. But there may be times, if necessary, when the door will closed so that we are not able to enter, because in God’s wisdom this is better for us. That’s why we always have to look for the will of God.

Seeing Gospa...

• Three of the Medjugorje visionaries still receive daily apparitions of Our Lady: Marija, Ivan and Vicka. The apparitions occur almost always at the same time – 6.40pm (5.40pm in the summer time) – wherever the visionaries happen to be. People present for the apparition begin to recite the Rosary and usually after one or two decades Mary’s coming in prayer is preceded by brilliant light. She stands a few feet away upon a small cloud. The visionaries describe her as beautiful beyond words, radiant with holiness, and most times smiling.

During an apparition (see photo of Mirjana in ecstasy), the visionaries are able to see the Virgin in three-dimensional form, and can even touch her. They freely converse with Our Lady (in Croat), but are oblivious to noise, light and pain during the apparition – as numerous scientific tests have shown. Exhaustive psychiatric tests have also judged the visionaries to be normal in every way.

Our Lady seems no more than 20 years of age, slender, with dark hair and blue eyes. A small black curl is seen on the left side of her face. She usually wears a luminous, loose-fitting, grey robe, with a white veil reaching down to her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head. Her face is human – olive in complexion with reddish cheeks – but her beauty divine; her voice is described as musical; her expressions range from joy and happiness, to sadness and grief; her hands are raised in an attitude ‘typical of charismatic prayer’(see painting depicting the Gospa as she appears to the visionaries).

On certain feast days, such as Christmas, she appears with the Infant Jesus in her arms. “I could look at her – and look and look forever,” said one of the visionaries.

The visionary Vicka says, “Each time before Our Lady comes, we see a light three times, which is the sign that she is coming. When she appears she has a white veil, a crown of stars on her head; her eyes are blue, the hair black, the cheeks rosy; she is hovering in the air on a grey cloud, so she does not touch the ground. For some greater festivities, for example Christmas and Easter, or for her birthday, she wears a robe of gold.”

The Virgin’s conversations with the seers express motherly tenderness and love. Assuming the role of both mother and teacher, she guides them in prayer and gives advice and direction for their lives. Apparitions can last from a few minutes up to an hour.

Open your eyes...

Open Your Eyes... by Snowpatrol

More changes to Colombo’s

Colombo, the popular Medjugorje cafe restaurant, is extending it new premises with a rooftop balcony. When completed, the balcony will provide a wonderful view of St James church and increase the capacity of the restaurant’s outdoor dining facility.

Gospa calls everyone

• More than 27 years have passed since six children first reported seeing the Virgin Mary appear on Podbrdo, a rocky hill that rises above the hamlet of Bijakovici, part of the small parish of Medjugorje located in the former Yugoslavia.

The first sighting happened in the late afternoon on 24 June 1981, the feast day of St John, the Baptist. Now the young children are adults and married with families of their own – and still the apparitions of Our Lady continue to the visionaries.

On the third day of the apparitions, Our Lady stated to the children that she was the Blessed Virgin Mary and later added: Peace, Peace, Peace! Be reconciled! Only Peace. Make your peace with God and among yourselves. For that, it is necessary to believe, to pray, to fast, and to go to confession.

Attempts by the communist authorities at the time were unsuccessful in suppressing the apparitions. Even the Balkan war failed to put a stop to all that was happening in Medjugorje as our Lady continued appearing to the seers, asking for peace, prayers and reconciliation.

As the news and messages spread, pilgrims from all over the world began to make their way to the tiny village in Herzegovina. On returning home they spoke with passion about the healings and conversions, and the signs and wonders they witnessed. For many, what was once a life of little hope and much despair has become a new life of prayer and faith. Now they encourage others to make the journey and to avail of the special graces that Our Lady is presenting in Medjugorje.

The Church has examined, in part, the circumstances and claims of Medjugorje, but has still to make a definitive decision, preferring to wait and show patience. This delay has not prevented some 30 million people from making the journey to the Shrine since the apparitions began in 1981. Millions have received the grace to take the path of daily conversion that Our Lady calls for – and their lives have changed for the better, some in dramatic fashion.

Many priests testify that their vocation was received or strengthened because of a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. They also confirm that the most convincing factor about Medjugorje is not the heavenly phenomena but the quality of confessions and conversions they experience as priests during the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Our Lady’s call is to everyone, not just Catholics. All her messages are addressed, Dear Children..., not Dear Catholics... or Dear Christians... or even Dear non-believers...

She also acknowledges our efforts to carry out her call for peace, reconciliation, prayer and penance, completing most of her messages with the words: Thank you for responding to my call.

Her call is to everyone.

Solemnity of St Joseph

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary;
of her was born Jesus who is called Christ. Matthew 1 : 16

Psalm 94, v 8

O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts.’

Our Lady’s annual message to Mirjana

Several thousand pilgrims gathered in prayer at the Blue Cross today in preparation for Our Lady’s annual apparition to Mirjana. The apparition lasted from 13:52 to 13:58.

Dear children! Today I call you to look into your hearts sincerely and for a long time. What will you see in them? Where is my Son in them and where is the desire to follow me to him? My children, may this time of renunciation be a time when you will ask yourself: “What does my God desire of me personally? What am I to do?” Pray, fast and have a heart full of mercy. Do not forget your shepherds. Pray that they may not get lost, that they may remain in my Son so as to be good shepherds to their flock.

Our Lady looked at all those present and added: Again I say to you, if you knew how much I love you, you would cry with happiness. Thank you.

Mirjana’s annual apparitions

The Medjugorje visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo received daily apparitions of Our Lady until December 25, 1982. On that day she was informed that in future she would receive an annual apparition on March 18, for the rest of her life. Mirjana explains that March 18 is a significant date in Our Lady’s future plans and although it is also Mirjana’s birthday, this has no connection with Our Lady choosing to appear to her on that day. 

Tomorrow’s apparition is due to take place close to the Blue Cross at the foot of Apparition Hill. Any message given for Our Lady’s annual apparition to Mirjana is announced officially by the Medjugorje Parish Office.

Here are the messages given by Our Lady to Mirjana on this anniversary date since 1995.

Dear children, today I extend my hands towards you. Do not be afraid to accept them. They desire to give you love and peace and to help you in salvation. Therefore, my children, receive them. Fill my heart with joy and I will lead you towards holiness. The way on which I lead you is difficult and full of temptations and falls. I will be with you and my hands will hold you. Be persevering so that, at the end of the way, we can all together, in joy and love, hold the hands of my Son. Come with me; fear not. Thank you. March 18, 2008

Dear children! I come to you as a Mother with gifts. I come with love and mercy. Dear children, mine is a big heart. In it, I desire all of your hearts, purified by fasting and prayer. I desire that, through love, our hearts may triumph together. I desire that through that triumph you may see the real Truth, the real Way and the real Life. I desire that you may see my Son. Thank you. March 18, 2007

Dear children! In this Lenten time, I call you to interior renunciation. The way to this leads you through love, fasting, prayer and good works. Only with total interior renunciation will you recognise God’s love and the signs of the time in which you live. You will be witnesses of these signs and will begin to speak about them. I desire to bring you to this. Thank you for having responded to me. March 18, 2006

Dear children! I come to you as the mother who, above all, loves her children. My children, I desire to teach you to love also. I pray for this. I pray that you will recognise my Son in each of your neighbours. The way to my Son, who is true peace and love, passes through the love for all neighbours. My children, pray and fast for your heart to be open for this my intention. March 18, 2005

Dear children! Also today, watching you with a heart full of love, I desire to tell you that what you persistently seek, what you long for, my little children, is before you. It is sufficient that, in a cleaned heart, you place my Son in the first place, and then you will be able to see. Listen to me and permit me to lead you to this in a motherly way. March 18, 2004

Dear children! Particularly at this holy time of penance and prayer, I call you to make a choice. God gave you free will to choose life or death. Listen to my messages with the heart that you may become cognizant of what you are to do and how you will find the way to life. My children, without God you can do nothing; do not forget this even for a single moment. For, what are you and what will you be on earth, when you will return to it again. Do not anger God, but follow me to life. Thank you for being here. March 18, 2003

Dear Children! As a mother, I implore you, open your heart and offer it to me, and fear nothing. I will be with you and will teach you how to put Jesus in the first place. I will teach you to love Him and to belong to Him completely. Comprehend, dear children, that without my Son there is no salvation. You should become aware that He is your beginning and your end. Only with this awareness can you be happy and merit eternal life. As your mother, I desire this for you. Thank you for having responded to my call. March 18, 2002

Dear children! Today I call you to love and mercy. Give love to each other as your Father gives it to you. Be merciful – with the heart. Do good works, not permitting them to wait for you too long. Every mercy that comes from the heart brings you closer to my Son. March 18, 2001

Dear children! Do not seek peace and happiness in vain, in the wrong places and in wrong things. Do not permit your hearts to become hard by loving vanity. Invoke the name of my Son. Receive Him in your heart. Only in the name of my Son will you experience true happiness and true peace in your heart. Only in this way will you come to know the love of God and spread it further. I am calling you to be my apostles. March 18, 2000

Dear children! I want you to surrender your hearts to me so that I may take you on the way, which leads to the light and to eternal life. I do not want your hearts to wander in today's darkness. I will help you. I will be with you on this way of discovery of the love and the mercy of God. As a mother, I ask you to permit me to do this. Thank you for having responded to my call. March 18, 1999

Dear children! I call you to be my light, in order to enlighten all those who still live in darkness, to fill their hearts with Peace, my Son. Thank you for having responded to my call! March 18, 1998

Dear children! As a mother I beseech you, do not go on the way you have been going. That is a way without love toward neighbour and toward my Son. On that way, you will find only hardness and emptiness of heart, and not the peace that everyone is crying out for. Genuine peace will be had only by the one who sees and loves my Son in his neighbour. In whose heart my Son reigns, that one knows what peace is and tranquillity. Thank you having responded to my call. March 18, 1997

Dear children! On this message, which I give you today through my servant, I desire for you to reflect a long time. My children, great is the love of God. Do not close your eyes, do not close your ears, while I repeat to you: Great is his love! Hear my call and my supplication, which I direct to you. Consecrate your heart and make in it the home of the Lord. May he dwell in it forever. My eyes and my heart will be here, even when I will no longer appear. Act in everything as I ask you and lead you to the Lord. Do not reject from yourself the name of God, that you may not be rejected. Accept my messages that you may be accepted. Decide, my children, it is the time of decision. Be of just and innocent heart that I may lead you to your Father, for this that I am here, is his great love. Thank you for being here! March 18, 1996

Dear children! Already for many years as a Mother, I have been teaching you faith and God's love. You have not shown gratitude to the dear Father nor have you given him glory. You have become empty and your heart has become hard and without love toward your neighbour’s sufferings. I am teaching you love and showing you that the dear Father loved you but you have not loved him. He sacrificed his Son for your salvation, my children. As long as you do not love, you will not know your Father's love. You won't get to know him because God is love. Love and don’t be afraid, my children, because there is no fear in love. If your hearts are open to the Father and if they are full of love toward him, then why any fear of what is to come? Those who are afraid are the ones who do not love because they are waiting for punishments and because they know how empty and hard they are. Children, I am leading you to love, to the dear Father. I am leading you to eternal life. Eternal life is my Son. Receive him and you have received love. March 18, 1995

Prophetic painting

Viewing the artwork above, one might suppose that it was painted to illustrate Our Lady’s appearances at Medjugorje – yet the painting was done in 1974, seven years before Our Lady first appeared in Medjugorje!

The simple painting is the work of Vlado Falak from the hamlet of Šurmanci, which is part of the Medjugorje parish. It used to be displayed in the choir loft of St James church.

New station crosses

The Way of the Cross stations that encircle the Risen Christ sculpture in Medjugorje have recently been replaced with new wood crosses after the weather had eventually taken its toll on the previous stations.

Did you know that every station of the Way of the Cross has to have a wooden cross? In fact, the image is not obligatory, but the cross is – and it has to be made of wood to fulfil one of many Church regulations appertaining to the Stations of the Cross.

Window of change

It was in the room behind this window that Our Lady appeared regularly to the visionaries during the early days of the apparitions (the visionary Ivan can be seen in the picture above). Today, the window frame has been replaced and is now encased with an ornamental grille. The apparitions no longer take place in the parish church of St James.

Additions to the Medjugorje Gallery

• Another 50 images have been added to the Medjugorje Gallery

Mirjana’s annual apparition

It has been confirmed that the visionary Mirjana will receive her annual apparition of March 18 at the Blue Cross, at the base of Apparition Hill.

Provincial announcement about Fr Jozo

• This official statement regarding Fr Jozo Zovko has been issued by his Provincial, Dr fra Ivan Sesar.

Due to numerous inquiries regarding Fr Jozo Zovko, the Franciscan Provincial of Herzegovina declares:
1. In accordance with the rules of our Order and the Province, Fr Jozo Zovko directed a request for a usual “Sabatical year”.
2. the board of the Province, at its regular meeting in February of this year, has responded positively to Fr Jozo’s request and has permitted him to reside at the Monastery oon Badija.
3. Fr Jozo Zovko, as a member of the Herzegovinian Franciscan Province, has all the rights and obligations as every other solemnly professed member of this Province.

• Dr fr Ivan Sesar, Provincial

Medjugorje calls...

There will be no more posts until March 14, after I return from Medjugorje.

Our Lady’s March message to Mirjana

Dear children, I am here among you. I am looking into your wounded and restless hearts. You have become lost, my children. Your wounds from sin are becoming greater and greater and are distancing you all the more from the real truth. You are seeking hope and consolation in the wrong places, while I am offering to you sincere devotion which is nurtured by love, sacrifice and truth. I am giving you my Son. February 2, 2009

Bishop speaks on Medjugorje

• Bruno Volpe speaks about Medjugorje with Mons. Giovanni Battista Pichierri, Bishop of Trani, in Puglia, who says, “I think that the prudent position of the Church on the topic is just and legitimate. The visionaries continue to speak, therefore, it is necessary to wait. But if the faithful are coming in such a great numbers, there must be a positive reason for it.”

• The position of the Church is however very cautious...
This is true. There is a directive that prohibits the pilgrimages led by the bishops and diocesan priests, but lately - in front of the extent and the evidence of the phenomenon - this rigidity is being a little attenuated.

• Excellence, do you have personal knowledge of people and faithful from your Diocese who have been converted and have changed their life or their lifestyle thanks to Medjugorje?
Off course, and I have no reason to deny it. I know good people who, before the visit to Medjugorje, were not true and authentic Christians, and they returned from there literally transformed. From this point of view, it seems to me appropriate to speak of a place of grace.

• What do you mean when you speak of a place of grace?
Conversion, accepting the sacraments that were rejected or abandoned for a long time, is a grace. I can affirm that this happens in Medjugorje, and with certain permanence. Conversions may also happen in other places, but if they are recorded in such abundance, I think that the hand of God is at work, his mighty will.

• Why is the Church so prudent?
It must be said that - concerning Marian apparitions – the Church leaves us free to believe or not to believe, for they are not a dogma of faith. The Church has given approval to many apparitions. Concerning Medjugorje, precisely because the visionaries – that I think healthy of mind continue to speak, which means that the visions are not closed – the Church has decided to defer the judgment. But postponement in itself does not mean denial.

• Some malicious tongues have even spread the suspicions of presumed religious business.
This seems to me exaggerated and unfair. I do not exclude the presence of some cunning ones, but this phenomenon is very diverse and often present around Shrines and Basilicas. I do not understand why some underline this when they speak about Medjugorje, and pretend that it does not happen in others places. All together, if there are those who draw economic benefit in a dubious way, they will answer in front of their conscience, but my opinion is that if this is happening, it is happening not only in Medjugorje.

• A famous retired Archbishop, an exorcist, wrote that it could be a matter of a satanic deceit.
With all the respect for my brother bishop and friend, whom I esteem, I do not agree with him. I think that this is an exaggeration. Many conversions happen in Medjugorje, which means that people come closer to God. Satan is doing exactly the opposite, he is dividing. In this case, Satan would toil against himself, which seems to me little credible indeed.

sources: Medjugorje Information Centre and www.pontifex.roma.it