Apusul soarelui pe „Dealul Apariției” -- Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herțegovina
IT a fost a patra și ultima mea zi în Medjugorje - acel mic sat din munții sfâșiați de război din Bosnia-Herțegovina, unde se presupune că fericita mamă ar fi apărut la șase copii (acum adulți mari).
Auzisem de acest loc de ani de zile, dar nu am simțit niciodată nevoia să merg acolo. Dar când mi s-a cerut să cânt la Roma, ceva din mine a spus: „Acum, acum trebuie să mergi la Medjugorje”.
I had a few hours before the cab ride back to the airport. I decided to climb "Apparition Hill", a rugged terrain which leads up to the spot where the Medjugorje seers say the Blessed Mother appeared to them. I began the journey over jagged rocks, passing several groups praying the Rosary in Italian. I finally came to a place where a beautiful statue of Mary, The Queen of Peace, stood. I knelt down among the stones, and began to pray the prayer of the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours.
In the Second Reading from the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world (Second Vatican Council), I read:
Trebuie să trecem cu toții la o schimbare a inimii. Trebuie să privim întreaga lume și să vedem sarcinile pe care le putem face cu toții împreună pentru a promova bunăstarea familiei omului. Nu trebuie să fim induși în eroare de un fals simț al speranței. Dacă nu se renunță la antagonismul și ura, dacă nu se încheie acorduri obligatorii și oneste, care să salveze pacea universală în viitor, omenirea, aflată deja în pericol grav, se poate confrunta, în ciuda progresului său minunat în cunoaștere, acea zi de dezastru când nu cunoaște altă pace. decât pacea îngrozitoare a morţii. —Gaudium et spes, nn. 82-83; Liturghia orelor, volumul IV, pag. 475-476.
This is a document of Vatican II. And here I knelt beneath the Queen of Peace, who has allegedly come to this little patch of earth to announce that we need to pray for peace, and that this peace will only come through a change of hearts. I read on…
In saying this, however, the Church of Christ, living as it does in the midst of these anxious times, continues unwaveringly in hope. Time and again, in season and out of season, it seeks to proclaim to our age the message of the Apostle: Now is the hour of God’s favor, the hour for a change of heart; now is the day of salvation.
I sat back on the rocks and took a deep breath. Anyone who knows the messages of Medjugorje knows that Mary has repeatedly said, "Acesta este un timp al harului." Anyone who has read my own meditations here (The Trumpets of Warning!) knows that I have written this as well with an urgency. It just seemed to me an enormous coincidence. Whether or not one believes in the apparitions of Medjugorje, we are certainly obligated to heed the words of the Magisterium.
Now is the hour of God’s favor, the hour for a change of heart; now is the day of salvation.
As I walked back down the hill, I was filled once again with a sense that the time is short. That if these apparitions are happening, they may soon be coming to an end.
While on my flight back to North America, one of the visionaries in Medjugorje allegedly had an apparition with Mary once again. And this was her message:
"Dear children, my coming to you, my children, is God’s love. God is sending me to warn you and to show you the right way. Do not shut your eyes before the truth, my children. Your time is a short time. Do not permit delusions to begin to rule over you. The way on which I desire to lead you is the way of peace and love. This is the way which leads to my Son, your God. Give me your hearts that I may put my Son in them and make my apostles of you — apostles of peace and love. Thank you!" -Monthly message to Medjugorje seer, Mirjana Soldo, as translated from Croatian
