date: 14.09.2025.
On Friday, September 5, 2025, the Bishop of the Diocese of Zamora from Spain, Mons. Fernando Valera Sanchez, celebrated the Holy Mass at the White Dome of the Church of St. James in Medjugorje. The Bishop was concelebrated by the parish priest of Medjugorje, Fr. Zvonimir Pavičić, and 75 other priests, and the Rosary before the Holy Mass was led by Fr. Karlo Lovrić.
The Bishop arrived from Spain with a group of about forty other pilgrims, and the pilgrimage was organized by Maria Vallejo – Nagera, a Spanish writer who converted in Medjugorje, and this group also included the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to the Republic of Croatia, Jose Ramon Garcia Hernandez.
At the beginning of his homily, Bishop of Zamora Fernando Valera Sanchez wished everyone peace and well-being, and then said that "through Him, Jesus, and in Him, God wanted to reconcile all things - both those in heaven and those on earth - establishing peace through the blood of His cross".
"That is why we are here, in this place of grace, where Mary, Queen of Peace, leads us by the hand towards the Mystery of the Cross of the Lord. Here, where heaven and earth are united in the Mystery of Love. Here, where the doors of paradise are opened by the mercy of God who says to us again: You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased", said Bishop Sanchez and added that "the drama of modern man is that he has lost the taste for eternal life" and explained, referring to the Gospel passage, how today, as in the times of the early Church, only the new wine of Christ is capable of removing the leaden shroud from our materialistic world and giving it a taste for eternity again.
"This is our intention in every pilgrimage: to discover that heaven has a mother's heart and that love dwells in us, men and women. We are temples of the Holy Spirit and He dwells in the deepest depths of our being. That is why, here, we discover that it is possible to see with the heart," said Msgr. Sanchez, and referring to Pope Francis' encyclical "The Light of Faith," he explained that faith does not only look at Jesus, but looks with his eyes.
"The experience we live here is like that of the disciples on Tabor: to see the glory of God - and this changes your eyes, making them similar to His - because we see Him as He is," said Bishop Sanchez, emphasizing the importance of a simple and poor life, unattached and unburdened by things, and called for a fast from worldliness "that which slowly hides into the heart."
Bishop Sanchez said that the Lord fills our interior with the new wine of the Holy Spirit and destroys the temptation to live Christianity without the cross.
"Let us leave from here with the wonder that we will be men and women in whose interior Love will dwell, without fear of goodness and good deeds. With the desire to enter into the exciting adventure of love, full of tenderness, which Mary showed us with her embrace of love," concluded the bishop of the diocese of Zamora in Spain, Mons. Fernando Valera Sanchez.
