On the fourth day of the 36th Youth Festival, the Mir Medjugorje Centers, which spread Our Lady’s message around the world in ten different languages, were presented. Numerous volunteers from these centers also came to this Mladifest and introduced themselves at the outdoor altar of St. James Church in Medjugorje.
The director of the Mir Medjugorje Information Center, Vedran Vidović, addressed to the young people, pointing out that the essential condition for all the positive fruits of Medjugorje is conversion. “But before conversion comes information, and that information is the messages that Our Lady has been sending us here in Medjugorje for 44 years,” he explained.
“For a person to convert, he must first hear the Good News. He must have the opportunity to know it; someone must bring him that fundamental call to conversion. The Mir Medjugorje Information Center was born precisely from that call of Our Lady and has grown as a place that informs people through the media and new technologies. All of us are instruments for the conversion of those around us. Let us open our hearts and accept being her outstretched hands to those to whom Our Lady is calling us,” Vedran said, encouraging the young people to evangelize in today’s times.
He also presented the Information Technology Conference held in Medjugorje and announced that the next one will take place from March 5 to 8 of next year.
“The family of the Mir Medjugorje Information Center is not just us here in Medjugorje, because we cannot do this alone. Our family is also made up of ten information centers around the world. These cover the German, Spanish, English, Italian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Czech, and Portuguese language areas, and more than 150 volunteers collaborate in them,” the ICMM director explained.
He highlighted some of the activities these centers carry out: the organization of pilgrimages, regular prayer gatherings, and meetings for peace… He also invited the young people at Mladifest: if there is no center in their language, they should get in touch to work together in creating a new one.
The parish priest of Medjugorje, Fr. Zvonimir Pavičić, praised and thanked the work of these centers around the world. He shared how he had visited some of them, where he gave testimony, offered words of encouragement, and shared the presence of Our Lady with those who cannot travel to Medjugorje.
“The centers are a blessing for all those countries where they operate. They organize, as Vedran said, prayer meetings and make an effort for this to happen once a week, once a month. They bring people together, unite them. They organize ‘Medjugorje days,’ the prayer of the Rosary, Confession, the Eucharist, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and the sharing of experiences,” Fr. Zvonimir began.
Then he added, with a big smile and joy: “Something beautiful that has happened to me as the parish priest of Medjugorje is that many times the parishioners joke with me and ask, ‘Where is the parish priest? On what continent is he? In which country is he?’ The parish priest always goes where he is invited, where he must give his testimony, where he must encourage people, where he must bring Our Lady’s message. So, with our centers, I have already visited many countries, from South America to North America, across Europe, and truly this is a great blessing. For example, when we were in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia. My brother friars think I go on vacation, but in reality these trips are trips of prayer, of catechesis, of Eucharist, of preaching, of meeting with bishops, with priests, with people who want to hear more about Medjugorje.”
“It is special when I meet people who will never be able to come to Medjugorje; I rejoice because Medjugorje reaches them. Then I can feel that breath of Medjugorje in those places. In poor, abandoned places, in those countries where people have nothing, but they have a great heart. And when you see, at the ends of the earth, that they have a statue of the Virgin Mary, the Queen of Peace, that they have some image, that they pray. For example, in Paraguay you hear them singing in Croatian, ‘Gospa Majka moja, Kraljica Mira.’ When you see their status on social media and realize it’s in Paraguay, I cannot believe how in Paraguay they know how to pray in Croatian, to sing in Croatian perfectly. They learned all this thanks to these Peace Centers. By listening to the Medjugorje prayer program, the messages of Mary, Queen of Peace, are spread,” reflected the parish priest of Medjugorje.
Then, before concluding, he spoke about his trips to Ukraine: “What I said earlier about Ukraine, where we had the courage to go to those war-torn places without fear, with the rosary in hand. To pray with people who had nothing left except prayer. As Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac used to say: if you have nothing left in life, you still have your hands to join in prayer. And this is the purpose of our centers, to teach people to pray. I can only truly enjoy life in those moments when I gave myself to others, that is, to place oneself at the service of the Queen of Peace, at the service of the Gospel, which is the greatest thing a person can do in life. I would be happy if these centers became more numerous, not so that I can travel,” he said with a smile, “but so that in every country, in every diocese, in every parish, people can have prayer moments like in Medjugorje. Do you know what parish priests have told me who established Medjugorje-style prayer gatherings in their parishes? That their parish was renewed, that the faithful began returning to church, that people began to pray again. They didn’t offer anything unusual or extravagant, but they offered that simplicity that Medjugorje offers: to live, through Our Lady’s messages, the five stones.”
For his part, Fr. Danko Perutina, president of the Council of the Mir Medjugorje Information Center and one of the spiritual guides of these centers, stated: “Our Lady gives messages for the whole world, and she is not only the Mother of Catholics, of Christians, but she is also the Mother of Muslims, of Jews, of Orthodox, of Protestants, of atheists, of agnostics, and of all people, and she wants to lead us all to her Son.”
“It is always important to recall Our Lady’s messages in the light of the Gospel. The message she repeats most is prayer. On many occasions she has said: ‘Dear children, pray with the heart…,’ and to pray with the heart means to pray with love,” explained Fr. Danko, who then prayed with the young people to show them what it truly means to pray with the heart.
Finally, Oriol Vives, president of the Centro Medjugorje Foundation for the Spanish-speaking world, presented the work of the centers. On the screens, images were shown of Medjugorje gatherings celebrated in various parts of the world.
He shared his testimony of conversion and how his mother consecrated him to Our Lady when he was seven months old, sick with pneumonia and on the verge of death. He emphasized that since then he has continued walking in faith throughout his life. A faith that, together with his wife Cati, they try to transmit to their eight children, and to the great family that is the Centro Medjugorje Foundation for the Spanish language.
Oriol explained that the Centro Medjugorje organizes prayer groups, spiritual retreats, prayer meetings, and pilgrimages. He called on the young people to support their centers and to work together: “Our Lady says she desires to build a better world, that we are important for the plan of salvation that God has for humanity. She asks us to be her outstretched hands. Our Lady asks us to be united and to give witness. And to give witness, we must live her messages. Young people, do not be afraid! Our Lady needs you! She needs your help! Live her messages!” concluded the president of the Centro Medjugorje Foundation.
