Editor’s introduction: The following was excerpted from The Queen of Peace Newsletter, published by the Pittsburgh Center for Peace (Vol. 1, No. 3) in 1988. I found it in my files although I did not get involved with Medjugorje until 1993. It is very informative and on behalf of all who could benefit from this, I thank the person who gave it to me.+
On February 25, 1988, Our Lady instructed Vicka to write three letters: to Father Ivanko Bubalo, her confessor; to a Bishop’s Commission investigating the apparitions; and to the priest in residence at the rectory of St. James, Medjugorje. These letters were sealed and delivered to the above-named persons. Seven months later, on September 25, 1989, Vicka asked all the persons who held the sealed letters to open them in the presence of two witnesses. Each letter contained the following information: Vicka’s illness was God’s gift to her; it was not a punishment. Vicka’s illness was to help heal the illness of sinners. Her service would be completed on September 25, 1989; and on that date, Vicka would be healed of her illness. In fact, Vicka was healed on September 25, 1989, just as the sealed letters of February 25, 1988, had stated.
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The following is an excerpt from a personal interview with Vicka on July 16, 1988, by Attorney Jan Connell at the Pittsburgh Center for Peace:
Q: How will it?
A: I have suffering, painful headaches.
Q: When will it end, then? The suffering?
A: Our Lady invited me to suffer after She showed me Heaven and Hell. She then showed me Purgatory. I didn’t see any people there, but it was fog. I heard sighing and sobbing. I didn’t know what those crying sounds meant, so I asked Our Lady. She told me that there are many religions on earth now which do not believe in Purgatory—that it really exists. Those who die from those faiths have no one to pray for them. They are quite alone and abandoned by their loved ones on earth. Our Lady invited me to suffer for these abandoned souls and for the people on earth now who do not believe. I said yes, but Our Lady made me wait three days to really think about the responsibility I was accepting. Our Lady knows better than I do what I can do for those abandoned souls in Purgatory who suffer so much, and for unbelievers who do not know what awaits them. After three days She accepted my sacrifice and I got this sickness.
Q: Do you see Our Lady every day?
A: No. Sometimes Our Lady does not appear to me for certain days, and when She does not come, I do not have the sickness.
Q: Do you have the sickness whenever you see Our Lady?
A: Not always. When I am with Our Lady, I can be in a different time frame.
Q: What happens during your apparition? Are you present in your room with Our Lady?
A: We are in different places. And I participate in the Mass, though I am not at the church.
Q: So, though your body appears to be in a corner of your room, what do you experience?
A: I experience being with Our Lady. We travel, but it is unlike anything of the earth, and it involves things of the earth.
Q: Can you tell us anything about these experiences? Are they meant for you privately, or for the entire world?
A: Now, they involve me privately. Our Lady wants me to be alone in my room.
Q: Is there anything people throughout the world can do to help?
A: I asked Our Lady this question, and She said that by prayer and fasting, we can stop war.
Q: If we don’t pray and fast, will there be a war?
A: Our Lady didn’t say. She always says that with prayer and fasting, we can stop war.
Q: Vicka, do you feel great urgency to spread Our Lady’s messages?
A: Yes! I want to bring Our Lady and Her messages closer to everyone. I know why Our Lady is appearing for so long a time! She loves us so much! Our Lady says, “Everyone on the earth is my child.” I want everyone to be saved. I know I want to save one of my children in hell! Our Lady hopes that sinners, people will accept Her messages; therefore, if we listen, we can help in the victory. Prayer and fasting are powerful ways to rescue souls for the Kingdom of Her Son.
Q: Tell me about love and God’s plan for you—who must have chosen you here in Medjugorje.
A: Long before God made the world, He planned each one of us. Our Lady told me He knows us. He called us by name before He placed us in our mother’s womb. He selected the particular century in which we would be born, our nationality, our family, our size, our strengths and weaknesses. Everything we are and we have from God are gifts.
Q: What about suffering, Vicka? Do you consider this form of a gift, too?
A: Even our sufferings or our illness are a gift from God. They are a hand-hewn cross that is especially ours.
Q: God selected the suffering we have? Would you say God allows personal crosses for each of us?
A: Yes. How we accept that personal cross, our attitude about it—the only decision we can make. We know we can’t change who our parents are, where we are born—things like God made those decisions. We know He loves us. He knows why He chose all these things for us. If we respond with love, even what might look like great suffering to an unbeliever, is a joy. Our Lady has shown me that. There is a purpose, and joy, in obeying God’s will.