Medjugorje Pilgrimage

Bosnia-Herzegovina   September 26 – October 3, 2025

A year ago, I had never heard of Medjugorje. Yet Mary, the Mother of God has been appearing there to 6 visionaries since June 24, 1981. She still appears daily to 2 of the visionaries and several times a year to the other four. There are many miracles performed here and she relays messages to the world daily.

Over the last 3 years we have been on 5 pilgrimages, including Lourdes and Fatima. I am baffled I did not know there was anywhere in the world that Mary was still appearing to people on Earth. I immediately dove into as much research as I could get my hands on. Two books stand out as incredible in my studies: My Heart Will Triumph by Mariana Soldo and The Last Apparition by Wayne Weible. Also www.MaryTV.TV on YouTube which is a daily live feed from Medjugorje. Pope John Paul II said “Medjugorje is the hope for the entire world.” Pope Francis approved devotions and pilgrimages to Medjugorje in September 2024. Pope Leo XIV offers strong encouragement for the spiritual journey at Medjugorje.

So here we are, well read and prayed and travelling to the other side of the  world.

We flew from Rome to Dubrovnik, Croatia and then travelled 3 hours south by car into Bosnia-Herzegovina (formerly Yugoslavia). We arrived just minutes before the evening mass. We could see pilgrims walking from far outside the town along the roadway. We checked into our hotel and followed the people to the huge outdoor Croatian mass. There were at least 3500 people in attendance every night in the outdoor theatre in the back of St. James church. It is amazing to see and hear. On Saturday we hiked up Apparition Hill where Mary appeared to the 6 visionaries since June 1981. She has said repeatedly that this is the last time she will appear in this way on earth, even though she has many times in many places: Lourdes, Fatima, La Salette, Guadeloupe, Rwanda, Ireland; Belgium, Akita, Japan; La Vang, Vietnam; and Champion, WI. That message in and of itself is kind of bone chilling.

The village is overrun with pilgrims and tours but it still has small village charm and peace, especially on the mountain. We hike the treacherous rocky climb and venerate the Cross and statue of Mary on the exact spot of the visions. Then we walked back to town through a field about a mile, with lots of vineyards and olive trees.

Monday we went  back to Apparition hill but visited the Blue Cross grotto where Ivan (John) started his prayer group in secret from the Communist police. You can barely see it from the road. Mary told Ivan to meet here instead of up on the hill since the police would be there looking for them. The climb is extremely rocky and some were doing this in their bare feet. The 6 kids (visionaries) used to scale this mountain nightly (the first night Mary caught them off guard and they were in their flip flops) at 5pm and start the rosary and Mary appeared at 5:40. The name of our tour group is 206 and was started here but now travels all over the world. 206 represents 20 minutes before 6:00.

Every night at St. James Church in town there is a rosary at 5 and Mass at 6. They stop the rosary at 5:40 in case Mary appears. We usually attend the 10 am English Mass inside the church. It is extremely crowded, every pew filled and every walkway jammed with people standing. Every Mass is over in exactly 50 minutes as there is always another one starting at the next hour in different languages and hordes of people are waiting outside to enter before we even have a chance to leave the church. Can you imagine if every town and village and city was this devout? Then we truly could have World Peace.

The next day, we hiked up Cross mountain, took 1.5 hours each way and was extremely steep and huge jagged boulders everywhere, hardly a foothold to be had. We did the stations of the cross as we climbed and stopped at each of the 14 stations and took turns reciting the prayers at each stop. At the top there was a huge white cross erected in 1933. The women of the parish carried the dry cement on their backs up to the site. The bishop said for every diocese to build a cross on their highest point during a time when the area was mostly Muslim or communist, so this was an incredible feat, and long before the apparitions started. Today the area is 100% devout Catholic. Everyone hikes apparition hill and everyone attends daily Mass, weekly confessions and adoration and daily rosary. The confession lines for the locals takes up 2 whole blocks with lines at least 20 deep at each of the ~15 doors. The visiting priests, no less than 150 on any given day, line up in folding chairs on the side of the church and post their shingle for which languages they can accommodate. Regardless of the weather (several nights it was raining) these priests stay out there until every last confession is heard.

We did a tour of the St James campus which includes elaborate mosaics on stone for the mysteries of the rosary and the stations of the cross. This is a large church and a large campus with several other halls for even larger events and the outdoor amphitheater that appears to hold about 7,000 where the nightly Croatian mass and weekly adoration is held. There is also a chapel with devotion to Mary. The visions and instructions to build this church and campus decades before the apparitions were to prepare the parish to handle the number of pilgrims that would descend here, well over a million each year. There is a huge sculpture of the risen Christ (Jesus on the cross) where people stand in long lines just to come and adore. They said holy water runs down one side of the sculpture and no one can identify why or where it comes from. There is also a nice grotto with hundreds of red candles people light and pray outside the church. You can see the red glow from afar.

The view of St. James from out hotel door (balcony) was spectacular. We could also see apparition hill and Cross mountain with the moon shining on them each night. So peaceful. Even though there were a lot of people in the village, everyone is respectful and prayerful. Our group of about 25 were from all over. We had some interesting talks with Monika from Poland and others from behind the Iron curtain as well as many from the states. We had a group of women consecrating themselves to Holy Mary on this trip. I was the only outsider to witness the blessing and culmination of years of study. It is common that people are on their 5^th or 10^th return trip to this place. Everyone is anxious to hear when Mary will reveal her 10 secrets she has given each of the visionaries except Jacov and Ivan whom she is still appearing to.

Her messages are clear. If the world becomes more communistic, it will be very difficult to recover any freedom of religion or presence of God. This is extremely dangerous (and her same message in 1917 in Lourdes, but communism is actually worse now). We need to pray, repent, convert others, and stay in God’s grace at all times. Go to Mass, say the rosary, go to confession and adoration, read the scriptures, and live your life as Jesus Christ did: take care of the poor, the sick, the infirmed and imprisoned. This is our only chance at eternal life that was meant for us when Jesus died.

The visionaries describe Mary as incredibly beautiful (no picture or words could do her justice) and very young, maybe 15 or 16.  She showed 2 of the visionaries a vision of heaven, hell, and purgatory to get her message across of what choices we have. Heaven is indescribable with colors no one has even imagined yet, deep peace and beauty beyond words. Purgatory is difficult, much unrest and unhappiness in a void with no God. Hell is indescribably horrible. As souls are thrown in the fire, they emerge as dragon-like creatures that are too ugly to describe and souls appear trapped in these bodies with no escape from the evil or the fire. The other 4 visionaries were offered a view and they declined.

Mary has not said when the 10 secrets will be revealed but scholars say that by then it will be too late to convert and repent. You must do it now. The daily messages are similar: Pray constantly, make your whole life a prayer, doing for others, honoring Jesus Christ and repenting for our sins, receive the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist which puts you in God’s grace and empowers you to fight off the constant evil we are surrounded in our secular world. Pray for the souls in purgatory, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, young, and elderly. Teach the innocents. Her early messages were all about love. “If you knew how much I loved you, you would cry for joy.” All love comes from God. You are not capable of love without God, so why not love him exponentially and everything else will be as it should. (paraphrasing)

Mary is here. It is a very strange yet comforting feeling  to know she could be appearing to someone within a few blocks of where you are any time on any day. She usually appears to Ivan around 2pm. On Christmas she often appears with baby Jesus. She offers to bless those in attendance even though others can’t see her. Mary is very patient and generous with requests and constant questions from the seers. Sometimes she gives a direct answer, other times she asks for repentance and prayer. She asked Ivanka if she would do penance for sinners and Ivanka said no. Mary suggested she think about it for a while and she would reappear and want her answer. After 30 days, Ivanka agreed to take on penance for sinners. She has since been very ill with a terminal illness that is very painful, yet she is always happy and smiling and patient and generous with her time and people’s constant questions and requests. I believe this is to show that we were never promised there would be no pain or suffering in this world. In fact, we are told in the scriptures to suffer as  Jesus did if we want to earn eternal life with him. Those visionaries and saints, who are chosen and know that their suffering has meaning, are perhaps the lucky ones that have a place reserved for them at the table. “Blessed are those who are called to the table of the Lord” is said in each Mass at the Eucharistic prayer.

Each day I learned more about my faith and how powerful it is and how blessed I am to have this time in my life to make faith my priority. I only wish I knew 40 years ago what I know now, and I’m sure I have only just scratched the surface. As a result of this trip, I am now studying about the Illumination of Conscious through many testimonies from Medjugorje in the book The Warning by Christine Watkins.

Medjugorje was an extremely powerful experience, very reverent, and more holy than I have ever felt or dreamed I could feel in my life. Truly a magical place.