{"id":47570,"date":"2021-06-25T08:10:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T12:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=47570"},"modified":"2021-09-01T22:27:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T02:27:26","slug":"archives-with-belief-in-god-no-fear-in-coming-secrets-fortieth-anniversary-of-medjugorje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/archives-with-belief-in-god-no-fear-in-coming-secrets-fortieth-anniversary-of-medjugorje\/","title":{"rendered":"Archives: With Belief In God, No Fear In Coming Secrets (Fortieth Anniversary of Medjugorje)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

We sat down [a few years back] with Mirjana Dragicevic Soldo, one of the seers at the apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the first to receive all ten secrets. We covered a number of issues with Mirjana \u2014 a humble, gracious woman whose daily apparitions ended in December of 1982 but who still sees the Blessed Mother once a month (as well as on her birthday).<\/p>\n

Before we start, a caveat: we are at the mercy of translation. Sometimes, even with the best interpreter (and ours was excellent), there are miscommunications. Remember also that each seer has different experiences and secrets. With Mirjana, we covered both old and new ground.<\/p>\n

For years it has been claimed that the Pope once described Medjugorje as the \u201cfulfillment and continuation of Fatima.\u201d Have the seers ever been told anything like that, we asked?\u00a0(For two best books of seer interviews, see bottom.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, replied Mirjana. \u201cIt was said to Marija [another seer]. Our Lady told her,\u00a0\u2018What I have started at\u00a0<\/i>Fatima\u00a0I will finish at Medjugorje.’\u201d\u00a0<\/i>In fact if she ever visits another major Marian shrine, said Mirjana, it will be Fatima because \u201cit is so simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

We asked her about Church approval for Medjugorje. Right now, such is in limbo, with the matter in the hands of a national commission of bishops headed by Sarajevo Cardinal Vinko Puljic \u2014 whose vicar said earlier this year that the matter will not be decided until the apparitions conclude. In 1986 the local bishop attempted to reject the apparitions, but the Vatican, in the form of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, intervened and took away the local bishop\u2019s authority to do so. Since then the national commission has stated only that thus far it has no proof of the supernatural and will further investigate.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons Medjugorje has survived is the strong support of John Paul II, and Mirjana is the only seer who met with him privately. That was in 1987, and she reports that he told her he had read the messages from Medjugorje as well as a book about the apparitions. During a ten-minute session the Pope never inquired about the secrets but asked how the Blessed Mother appeared.\u00a0He also said that if he was not Pope, he would have visited there already.<\/p>\n

If John Paul leaves, we asked, did Mirjana think Medjugorje would risk Church rejection?<\/p>\n

\u201cI really can\u2019t say anything about it,\u201d answered the seer.\u00a0\u201cAll I can say is that I really have great faith in Our Lady, and I know that she will fix it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did she have contact with the Sarajevo Cardinal\u2019s office?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never had any contact with the Bishop or the Cardinal,\u201d replied Mirjana. \u201cThey have never asked that. If they did ask that, we would respond immediately. We learned from both Our Lady and our own parents to respect the priests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time we spoke to Mirjana she revealed that in 1999 she had taken and passed a lie-detector test administered by Italian and Austrian scientists. What is it like to be a seer from a site that is now ranked by many alongside Lourdes? What about the many who flock to seers, who gather by the hundreds at her gate, who ask for prayers?<\/p>\n

\u201cA visionary is not special,\u201d said the seer. \u201cWe can make mistakes like all of you.\u00a0Blessed Mary reads our hearts and knows all these things that we want. If you pray, she is reading your hearts and knows all these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other visionaries, Mirjana has emphasized that no picture, however beautiful, captures the way the Blessed Mother \u2014 known here as\u00a0Gospa<\/i>\u00a0\u2014 actually appears. What about a large painting in her basement that shows the Blessed Mother in flowing blue robes? \u201cIt is a beautiful painting,\u201d said Mirjana, \u201cbut we never saw any painting, any picture, that even came close to the way Our Lady looks. She has dark hair and you can see it down low, so it is long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such pictures capture essential qualities, says the seer, but do not really look like her. Nothing earthly, not even miraculous pictures, can. The seer says that she is especially drawn, however, to the Shroud of Turin.<\/p>\n

Did Mirjana, who is now 37 and the mother of two girls, ever contemplate becoming a nun?<\/p>\n

\u201cFor seven days I sat in my room in prayer and fasting, and finally I realized that I really wasn\u2019t invited to become a nun, and then I felt peace in my heart. When you feel that peace, then you will know that you made a good decision.\u201d<\/p>\n