Part 16-
Continues from my book Constant Procession with the breaking apart of the USSR’s satellite country once known as “Yugoslavia” before moving onto Chapter 28- “Immigrants: Safe Harbor for the Motherland.” The chapter goes into the results following the final apparition in 1998 by Nancy Fowler near Atlanta, Georgia.
I’ve read the entire book from cover to cover (Installments 93-110)
Each installment runs 15 minutes in length.
Tourism industry travelogues typically feature romantic locations, historic sites as well as get-away destinations. When considering where to go in the world of travel, Medjugorje, a village located in Bosnia and Herzegovina typically does not come to mind.
Yet Medjugorje is the spot where a contemporary visit by the Virgin Mary occurred and some of the seers report she still visits them there.
Why did the Madonna come to Medjugorje? In this podcast installment taken from my book Constant Procession, I explore possible answers.
For young people, who have not lived more that thirty years, this area of the world is typically not on their radar. For those who have lived a bit longer, there remains a dark mental imprint. A remembrance that recalls brutality inflicted on people within this region as they experienced civil war in the 1990’s. Fighting caused by the breaking up of Yugoslavia.
For me, the news reporting during that period of the civil war did little to help explain the confusing jumble of puzzling information that ominously included atrocities, genocide and war crimes.
Yet this area is where the Madonna appeared. She offered to the world a surprising counterpoint to humanities struggling. It’s amazing to me that even during the civil war violence, pilgrims from around the world continued to converge on Medjugorje, which seemed to be located in the middle of the warfare.
And today on the world stage, Medjugorje increasingly continues to finds itself in the center of humanities continued need for help in our modern world.
At one point during the Virgin Mary’s early apparitions, the seers mentioned that she would provide a dramatic sign for all. This sign is intended for those who believe in apparitions as well as non-believers.
Since that time, efforts to document this sign, when it does happen have matured. Thanks to inter-net technology, people from across the globe can view a live camera feed at the spot where she first appeared, keeping watch for this sign!
And also a recent development occurred when in May of 2018, Pope Francis installed a retired archbishop to Medjugorje in order to help guide the daily pastoral care for the millions of pilgrims who go to Medjugorje annually.
While putting this update together, as I was re-checking my
sources, I discovered to my pleasant surprise a double-bonus! I found the live
eye camera up and running and in addition also saw on the same internet channel
(MaryTV) a live view of this archbishop, Henryk Hoser, offering the Sunday
morning mass to a huge gathering of pilgrims right there in Medjugorje!
Apparition Hill in Medjugorje
Also found in this podcast of my book Constant Procession, are observations about how the early pilgrims spilled out from Medjugorje and brought back to their own communities renewed spiritual energies and in doing so they too benefit humanity on local scale.
And the constant procession continues…
Constant Procession tells of key apparitions of the Virgin Mary since she passed on from the world and how she serves humanity through Christianity.
Installments since Podcast 50 are an extended series of additional stories about the history of the Virgin Mary that are not found in the book.
Constant Procession; the podcast; is published here every Tuesday morning.
I value feedback through the comments section on my website or better via email at NikosSteves@gmail.com