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How many Christians were baptised, received the sacraments, fell into the sins and became atheists, liberals and enemies of the Christ and His Church. Crucify him, forbid him and spit on him! How many times we force crosses on others instead of helping them to carry those crosses? How many times we betray God and our loved ones? Dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Week is inviting us to weep just like St. Peter did. He swore that he did not know Jesus and then recalled His words to him, that he would deny him three times before the rooster crows. And so Peter came out and wept bitterly. Yes, we all need those tears.

Stefano Rotondo is a doctor from Italy. He heard about Medjugorje at the beginning of the apparitions and made his first pilgrimage here in 1983. He told us that his life changed dramatically after that visit. “It was then when I understood that it is very important to find God where I live and that I can discover joy of simple encounter with God. I came in 1983 for the first time and Medjugorje is today everywhere for me, everywhere I live. It helped me understand the Gospel and to live it in everyday life. I learned how to listen here, I learned what is silence, I learned how to accept myself – simply, I started opening my heart to God,” said Stefano whose family together with two another families formed a prayer group. This is his fourth year that he comes and brings pilgrims to Medjugorje. “In the depth of our heart we wanted to continue prayer in our place and that is why our three families began to pray the Rosary together and we do that on regular basis. We felt Gospa’s presence in our homes and how She wanted us to bring others to Medjugorje as well.”

The first Urbi et Orbi Blessing of the Pope Benedict XVI : “ Dear Brothers and Sisters, after our great Pope, John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in the Lord's vineyard. I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and how to act, even with insufficient tools, and I especially trust in your prayers. In the joy of the resurrected Lord, trustful of his permanent help, we go ahead, sure that God will help. And Mary, his most beloved Mother, stands at our side. Thank you”, were the first words of the Pope Benedict XVI to the faithful gathered at St. Peter’s Square. May the Holy Spirit guide him!

Stephane Galbert comes from Martinique. This is his first time in Medjugorje. He said how many people in Martinique know about Medjugorje since many of them came on pilgrimages in the last few years and they witnessed about what they experienced. They were saying how every Christian should come here. “I always felt close to Our Lady, ever since I was eight I had Our Lady’s statue and I was always connected to Our Lady. When my mom told me about Medjugorje and invited me to come here, I accepted her proposal immediately and I realised this was Our Lady’s home. We usually see Mary with her opened hands because that is her mission, She is inviting us to come to Her.”

The central part of the Youth Festival is the Holy Mass that is celebrated by this year’s newly ordained priests and Fr. Ante Vuckovic is giving homilies every night. We are here bringing one part of Fr. Ante that he gave on Sunday, August 3 rd : “We people are unusual creatures. We are so unusual that we still wonder whom we are. Wherever we look around, we see a hunger. We are not sufficient to ourselves, wondrous beings, and the most unusual of all that were created. But, when I look into the body, hungry and thirsty, when I look into interior, I see the heart that is hungry and thirsty. It is a heart that needs understanding, acceptance, love and poetry. I look into the mind and it is also hungry, it desires to understand and desires story. Wherever I look, I just see hunger. But, whichever hunger I see, I am thinking that it needs to be quenched. I can only imagine that that is where the secret of creation of this unusual being is. God did not create us with hunger without giving us possibility to quench it. It is not unusual that we people are hungry, but when we know that man is hungry, it is easy for him to receive any food just to eat, and he can even be given a poison instead of the real food. It is understandable that hungry person grabs and eats anything that seems eatable for him, but what cannot be understood is something that the reading of the prophet Isaiah revels us, because in just one sentence we have all of this contained and the mystery of so many failed and destroyed lives: ‘Why spend money on what cannot nourish and your wages on what fails to satisfy?’ Yahweh sees well. Man can in a good way quench his hunger. Again, anew it happens that someone deceives him and betrays him to take something that will not quench his hunger, and even worse, he pays for that with money and sometimes even with his life. How many deceived people are there and they had genuine hunger for love, acceptance, and understanding and yet they were not able to quench it. Afterwards, they fall into the drugs, addictions and whenever I listen to someone’s testimony from Cenacolo community I never have questions or doubts whether they are saying the truth. I have deep conviction that they are saying the truth, but that is not the case with every testimony or story I hear. When I listen to the politicians, I have many questions and I do not believe them always. Even when I listen to us priests, I am still not certain whether we say the things that we lived and those we believe in. When I listen to them, how deeply they fell into, how they left their communities, God’s call is before me like a shining spark: Why do you pay so much for the poison and we can receive such a good food for nothing? It is simple. Isn’t Medjugorje a place where whenever we turn around us we can see how human hungers are quenched in such a wonderful way for free? Tonight’s readings speak to us about that human hunger and speak to us how God sees that hunger. It is not always the same how we see that, how we in the Church understand it and perceive it, or how those who are close to Him see it. This is a good opportunity to look from close what does He really see.”

Highly respected and dear Archbishop Henryk Hoser! My words are too small to express how I feel ever since February 11, 2017, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, when our dear Holy Father Francis appointed you as his personal Envoy for Medjugorje.

At the last daily apparition to Jakov Colo on September 12th, 1998, Our Lady told him that henceforth he would have one apparition a year, every December 25th, on Christmas Day. This is also how it was this year. The apparition began at 2:30 pm and lasted 7 minutes.

At the last daily apparition to Jakov Colo on September 12th, 1998, Our Lady told him that henceforth he would have one apparition a year, every December 25th, on Christmas Day. This is also how it was this year. The apparition began at 2:35 pm and lasted 12 minutes.

At the last daily apparition to Jakov Colo on September 12th, 1998, Our Lady told him that henceforth he would have one apparition a year, every December 25th, on Christmas Day. This is also how it was this year. The apparition began at 9:48 am and lasted 6 minutes.

At the last daily apparition to Jakov Colo on September 12th, 1998, Our Lady told him that henceforth he would have one apparition a year, every December 25th, on Christmas Day. This is also how it was this year. The apparition began at 2:29 pm and lasted 6 minutes.