Damir Jug and Stjepan Bozic walked to Medjugorje from town called Velika Gorica at the north of Croatia. They started their pilgrimage on May 1st and arrived on the Ascension Thursday, May 13th. Damir came to Medjugorje for the first time, while Stjepan was coming to Medjugorje before in the past. “Every man has his own personal wishes and desires, we felt in our hearts that we need to come, and thanks to God and Our Lady, here we are. The journey was not easy, we were adjusting to every situation that we would encounter as we travelled.” They prayed before the Statue of Our Lady and climbed the hills despite the rain and difficult weather conditions. Apart from many pilgrims from Croatia, this Feast brought also pilgrims from Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, France, England, Ireland, United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and China.
Last weekend around hundred of pilgrims from Albania came to Medjugorje. Fr. Prenk Lazraj, director of Radio Marija for Albania was amongst them, along with his coordinator Fred Palali and deputy director Orselina Paluca. They were guests in one live episode on Radio Mir Medjugorje. Pilgrimage to Medjugorje is their gift to volunteers who work on their radio back home. Fr. Prenk said that young people witnessed how they never experienced such peace as they did here in Medjugorje. For him, this is the place of prayer, where people convert with their complete and whole heart. Orselina Paluca is in Medjugorje for the third time. She said that she can not describe what she experienced when she came in December; that people need to feel that for themselves, it can not be depicted in words. She also added that she would be coming to Medjugorje every week, only if she could.
Fr. Radek Malac, who came recently with the group of pilgrims from Czech Republic, left us quite interesting testimony. He spoke about his brothers and his family, who are still atheists, and he used to be the one in the past as well. Twenty years ago, he started to believe in God. It was Our Lady’s messages from Medjugorje that helped him on his way of discovering the faith and God. He came to Medjugorje in August 1995 and for the first time experienced devotion of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and it was in those moments that he experienced immense grace that he can not describe up to this day. In between, he graduated at the University and decided to join the priesthood. He said: “When I came to Medjugorje for the first time, I believed, I felt and I knew that this was the place with the abundant source of grace. My first visit to Medjugorje changed my life completely, and gradually it started to change the life of my family. Before I came here I used to go to the church, but I did not pray a lot. I bought the statue of Our Lady and I started to kneel in front of it and to pray the rosary.” At the end he added how it is important to live Our Lady’s messages, because Our Lady knows what that that we need is, she knows that we want to be happy!
