date: 17.03.2016.
A married couple, Marie Cécile and Rafael from France, came to Medjugorje with their pilgrimage organizer, Denis. Marie Cécile lives with her husband in a place which is 17 miles away from Lisieux, the shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. She was our guest at the radio station Mir and this is what she told us: “We have three children and six grandchildren, five of whom were adopted. The child who was not adopted is called Zélie. She was named after mother of St. Therese. We heard about Medjugorje at the very beginning of the apparitions. Some of our friends used to come here and eventually a desire was born in our hearts to come here too. In the beginning our children were small and we were not able to come. One of the nuns who came to Lisieux told us so many things about Medjugorje. That is how we met a guide who brought us here for the first time, it was last year in November. Peace and the presence of Our Lady can be felt in Medjugorje. We began to fast every Friday with our parish priest and this is the place where I learned how to pray the Rosary. After we returned home, we felt the joy we experienced here. Before we came to Medjugorje, we never prayed together and now every morning we say one decade of the Rosary together. When it comes to confession I was really impressed to see so many people waiting in queues for confession. We are not used to that, I had my first confession here as we are not used to that“ said Marie Cécile. Her husband Rafael added that after his first visit to Medjugorje he was drawn to the Gospa. He was surprised to see so many young people coming here and praying. Denis worked as a public notary until the age of 50, and in 1996, he came to Medjugorje for the first time. He had his conversion on Cross Mountain and began to work as a guide for pilgrims: “I started to cry and I did not know why I was crying. I kept saying to myself that it was not normal to cry. The person next to me told me it was the Lord's gift to cry but I was not happy to hear that. I came again the following year. I was saying that I did not want to be a public notary anymore and after three weeks, a tourist agency suggested that I should start bringing pilgrims. I have been doing that since 1997, and I have been here more than 120 times. I bring groups. Very often I come alone: sometimes also with my friends. This is where a special peace is felt“.
