Fr Leonard Orec and Msgr Hnilica, Czech bishop and confidant to the Pope, took Marija to the Soviet Union in October 1990. The trip, full of inconveniences, permitted the travellers to see the real Russia.
To begin with, due to cancellation of a flight from Bratislava to Moscow, it became necessary to travel more slowly by car to reach the Russia fronts. That enables Maria to visit a Slovak doctor (a victim of 18 years imprisonment). She had her apparition at his home.
On Saturday, October 19, to cross the Russian border, Msgr Hnilica dressed in his episcopal dress with pectoral cross and violet sash and skull cap. This helped him to pass in front of an endless line of cars. His luggage, filled with medals and holy pictures, received a benevolent inspection made easy by some presents to the custom officials. The time of the apparition was approaching. They entered the first little church which they found. Courageous people were reciting the rosary there. Maria told them: “Many come to Medjugorje from throughout the world, but less from Russia. That is why I have come to you.”
On Monday, the twenty-second, in Uzzhorrod, county seat of the province of South Carpathia, a Polish priest welcomed them to his very poor residence. Since Croatian is a Slavic language, Marija, who is gifted, understood many things.
Finally, on Wednesday, October 23, they arrived at Moscow. The travellers were welcomed to a poor house, that of Michel, father of four children. He is in charge of the parish since there was a lack of priests. At 6.00pm they had a Mass at the only Catholic church open in Moscow, St Louis of the French.
Marija’s apparition took place after the Mass in the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes, to the right of the main altar, at the same time and with the same prayers as in Medjugorje.
“Now, it is Mary’s time,” explained Marija. “Even here, you see the fruit of the blood of martyrs and of prayer by all. The Gospa (the Blessed Virgin) undertook the spiritual direction of the Church through prayer.”
That same day the travellers visited the Lenin mausoleum. The guards forced the bishop to remove his hata. That prevented him from taking from his pocket the miraculous medal which he wanted to leave in a corner near the lights which radiated the deified Lenin. But, is it not so that after having renamed Stalingrad, one hastens to do the same thing to Leningrad!
On Friday the twenty-fifth, there was a second Mass atSt Louis of the French, where prayer does not end. The people stay and continue. Fr Leonard Orec invited them to come to Medjugorje, promising to find them lodging.
Marija and her friends spent a miserable night. On the evening before, a pickpocket had relieved her of her wallet with passport and plane ticket. It was then a race against time to have her picture taken, a new passport prepared, and all the necessary procedures to make the flight that day, October 25th, the day of the message to the world. It was on the plane from Belgrade that Marija received it. The word “peace” appeared in it six times, at the time when war was still on delay.
“Offer your sacrifices and good works for the peace of the world,” the Blessed Virgin said.
From the talks improvised by Marija at each of her stops, we present these:
“Nine years ago the Blessed Virgin came to our parish as Queen of Peace. She asks us to pray for peace which comes from God alone: first in our hearts and then prayer in our families. When peace has been established in our hearts and in our families, then we can pray for peace in the world. The Gospa has asked us to live more as Christians, not to leave the Most Blessed Sacrament in solitude. She requested formation of prayer groups, and many have been established.”
Marija explains her own spiritual development thus:
“We were not children who prayed very much. We were like others, but we took the Blessed Virgin seriously, and began to pray. The Gospa is guiding us; she has asked us to put God first in our life. Medjugorje is a school of prayer.”
She stresses the simplicity of this teaching:
“Careful! When we are in church, we are good and holy, but outside we become pagans again. It is necessary to give witness wherever we are, even at school. When we begin to change, everything changes around us. The Blessed Virgin made us understand that evil exists. She has never said ‘Do this or that,’ but ‘Decide for yourselves for good over evil.’ She respects our freedom. She guides us as a teacher, but she loves us like a mother. The eyes of the Gospa which we see every day help us to enter into the depth, for they are blue and deep like the sea. Once we asked her how it was that she was so beautiful, and she responded: ‘I am beautiful because I love.’
“Then we also decided to love more. She calls us to choose the way of sanctity. She has shown us that another life exists and the only thing that we carry with us to the beyond is holiness. Several times she said: ‘Now this is the time of grace.’”
On her return from her pilgrimage, Marija thus summarised for me what had struck her.
“The Russians have an extraordinary love for the Blessed Virgin. During the apparition, many cried. In contrast to the pilgrims in Medjugorje, they do not ask for any physical cure, but only for interior and spiritual cures. It is a shame that many people come here as curious tourists. In the USSR I did not meet any curious people, but the people gathered for God and for Mary, eager for the meeting and the message, It is necessary to pray for those who do not recognise this grace. I met many people who had heard of Medjugorje without having been able to go there. The trip was directed by God beginning with Czechoslovakia, where many priests have spent 20 to 30 years in prison. Only prayer helped them survive. The Blessed Virgin was very present with them.
“In the Ukraine, Catholics have recovered a number of their churches which were confiscated. They had become warehouses, some office structures, some museums. They were defaced. They cleaned them, purified them. They decorated them. These people are poor; they have only basic furniture. They have given carpets and little treasures which they possessed to revive their churches. Since there were no other places, it was there that we gathered, and at times it was the place of our meals.
“A large number of people were baptised each week. They are very active in asking for more freedom and to organise it. These people , who have been deprived for such a long time, hunger for God. For them, he is the first. In Medjugorje, when I speak to some pilgrims, I at times experience fatigue, distraction; whereas there, the desire for God is striking: ‘Lord, always give us hunger and thirst for you, us who do not know how to keep you in first place.’”
• Adaped from René Laurentin’s book: Ten Years of Apparitions (Faith Publishing)
