date: 10.08.2021.
“Also this year we are coming to the closing moment of the Festival. This is very important moment, for together with the Eucharist we would have the special event of the mission at the end. Indeed, the intimate joy of the direct encounter with Jesus, that you must have lived from Sunday night until today, makes you shout to the world, so the entire world would take part in your joy and hope”, said the Nuncio in his homily at the closing Holy Mass of the 32nd Youth Festival in Medjugorje. His final message was for the youth – Now you have encountered Jesus, you cannot not witness Him to this world.
The evening Holy Mass at the white Dome of St. James church in Medjugorje began with the offering of the banner where the participants of the Youth Festival wrote their petitions, prayers, thanksgiving thoughts, and the youth from Medjugorje brought it to the altar.
“This banner is hundred meters long and it is filled with your petitions”, said Fr. MarinkoSakota, Medjugorje parish priest, as the banner was being brought to the altar.
After this, Msgr. Pezzuto said that the “solemn closure of the Festival is related to one extraordinary Marian event that took place in Rome on August 5, 358.
“It happened that the Virgin Mary, after having appeared to Pope Liberius in his dream, asked of him to build a church in Rome in her honour, and it snowed right at that place, on August 5, in the middle of the summer. This took place at the hill Esquilino in Rome, where basilica Santa Maria Maggiore was built in the obedience to the dream of Pope Liberius”, said ArchbishopPezzuto and referred to this year’s message of Pope Francis to the participants of the Youth Festival.
“Also Pope Francis, in the lengthy and beautiful message to the youth in Medjugorje, defines the Festival as the “week of prayer and encounter with Jesus”.
Therefore, as a shepherd and representative of the Church in this country, where the providence desired to express such a special presence of the supernatural, I feel it is my duty to encourage you, especially the youth, to the fervour and devotion of witnessing the Christ to the world, above all in the Christian communities where you belong to”, said Archbishop Pezzuto and asked of us once more to direct the gaze to Mary, and then he concluded: “The entire Church, along with all the present shepherds here, entrusts you all to the motherly intercession of the Virgin Mary. All of us, humbly and piously here place ourselves under the protection of Her mantle, asking her to come into our aid and to accept our prayers and to help us in all of our needs. Amen.”
There were 319 priests concelebrating, along with bishops Guido Gallese and ArchbishopWieslawLechowicz and the Provincial Fr. MiljenkoSteko.
This day too began with the morning prayers during the heavy rain that did not scatter the youth away at all, but they prayed aloud and listened to catechesis and testimonies.
“Once you return to your homes and they ask you: What good did you acquire? What did they tell you in Medjugorje? Say to them: We passed the exam! Tell them you learned three things: to love the Eucharist. It is what cardinal Sarah told you to do. The second was to love Mary. What guy would spend time here in the rain and you are in the rain for Gospa! This means you love her. It is the second test that you passed. The third test is prayer of Rosary! Then, you acquired all three goods you need to do in your life to be holy. These are the things to bring home, said Fr. Goran Azinovic who placed before the youth models – St. John Paul II and St. Maximilian Kolbe.
Jakov Colo, the visionary, spoke about the experience he had when he was ten and when Our Lady appeared, but he also spoke about the humanitarian association Mary’s hands that he leads and helps to the poor. He said that the main messages of Our Lady are prayer, conversion, peace, penance, fasting and Holy Mass.
“If we brought that from Medjugorje, if we have placed that in our lives, then we understood what Medjugorje means. It is not about returning home from Medjugorje and shouting to all: We were at the Youth Festival and it was good! Let us show that with our example, our lives, so the others can recognise that spirit of Medjugorje in us, that they can recognise how God works through us. I will pray for you, but I invite you all to pray for us, to pray for Mary’s hands, so those hands would always be extended and with opened hearts”, said Jakov Colo.
Msgr. Guido Gallese, bishop of Diocese Alessandria in Italy had his testimony in the afternoon and he spoke about his vocation and priesthood, but also how he came to Medjugorje for the first time with his parents as twenty years old young man and this was long ago in 1982.
After the evening Holy Mass the Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament followed, and at the end all priests came down among the youth and prayed with their extended hands over them.
At the very end, the mission and farewell in song took place. The representatives of the countries that took part at the 32nd Youth Festival received rosary beads from Archbishop Pezzuto and Fr. MiljenkoSteko. The Festival ended with the Holy Mass at 5 am at Cross Mountain. (PHOTO)
