Ivan of Medjugorje: Our Lady shows you how to live the Gospel

You said that you visionaries did not even frequent you before the apparitions. What relationship was created later?
Yes, we six have different characters, really very different, and in the beginning and before the apparitions in many cases we didn't even frequent each other. By the way, five of us were teenagers, but Jakov was just a boy.
But, since the Madonna has put us together, this story has united us and an intimate relationship between us has been established over time. And it goes without saying that we are united not only by the fact that Our Lady appears to us, but in all the concrete situations of our life; and we share the daily difficulties that arise in running a family, in raising children ... We talk to each other about the things that attract us, about the temptations that catch us, because we too sometimes hear the calls of the world; our weaknesses remain and must be fought. And sharing them helps us to get up, to strengthen our faith, to remain simple, to support each other and to see more clearly what Our Lady asks of us. However, this link is singular, because we remain people with very different characters from each other, with a marked and peculiar vision of the world that also concerns the smallest and most domestic aspects.

How do the meetings take place between you? You rarely have apparitions together and life has taken you to places even very far away ...
When we are all here or, in any case, with those who are here, we also meet a couple of times a week, but sometimes less because everyone has his own family and many commitments to pilgrims. But we do it, especially in times of great crowding, and we try to keep up to date with each other and meditate on what our heavenly Mother says to each one. It is very useful for us to compare ourselves on his teachings, because four eyes see better than two and we can thus grasp different shades.
It is important, because we must first strive to understand and above all to live what Our Lady says and asks. It is not because we are the visionaries that we must feel right.

However, you are points of reference, teachers of faith for the parish of Medjugorje.
Each of us follows prayer groups. When I am here I resume the life of the parish, and personally I lead a prayer group of thirty people that was formed in 1983. For the first seven years we met on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while now we are only twice per week, for three hours of prayer together which also include the moment of the apparition. For the rest, we praise the Lord, pray to him spontaneously, read the scriptures, sing and meditate together. Sometimes we find ourselves behind closed doors, while in other cases we gather on the hill of apparitions welcoming all those who wish to participate. But it must be considered that then, in winter, I am in Boston ...

Medjugorje-Boston: what do you do?
I don't have a particular job, because I spend most of the year giving my testimony in the dioceses and parishes that invite me. Last winter, for example, I visited nearly a hundred churches; and so I spend my time in the service of bishops, parish priests and prayer groups who request it. I have traveled far and wide the two Americas, but I have also been to Australia and New Zealand. As a source of income, my family owns some apartments in Medjugorje to accommodate pilgrims.

Do you also have a particular task?
Together with the prayer group, the mission that Our Lady has entrusted to me is to work with and for young people. Praying for young people also means having an eye for families and for young priests and consecrated persons.

Where do young people go today?
This is a great topic. There would be a lot to say, but there is much more to do and pray. The need that Our Lady speaks of many times in the messages is to bring prayer back to families. Holy families are needed. Many, however, approach marriage without preparing the foundations of their union. Today's life is certainly not helpful, with its distractions, due to stressful work rhythms that do not encourage reflection on what you are doing, where you are going, or the false promises of an easy-to-measure existence proper and materialism. It is all these mirrors for larks outside the family that end up destroying many, to break relationships.

Unfortunately, today families find enemies, rather than help, even in the school and in their children's companions, or in their parents' work environments. Here are some fierce enemies of the family: drugs, alcohol, very often newspapers, television and even cinema.
How can we be witnesses among young people?
Testifying is a duty, but in respect of who you want to reach, in respect of age and how he speaks, who he is and where he comes from. Sometimes we are in a hurry, and we end up forcing consciences, risking to impose our vision of things on others. Instead, we must learn to be good examples and let our proposal mature slowly. There is a time before the harvest that needs to be taken care of.
An example concerns me directly. Our Lady invites us to pray three hours a day: many say "it is a lot", and also many young people, many of our children think so. I divided this time between morning and noon and evening - including Mass, Rose, Sacred Scripture and meditation at this time - and I came to the conclusion that it is not much.
But my children can think differently, and they can consider the crown of the Rosary a monotonous exercise. In this case, if I want to bring them closer to prayer and to Mary, I will have to explain to them what the Rosary is and, at the same time, show them with my life how important and healthy it is for me; but I will avoid imposing it on him, to wait for the prayer to grow within them. And so, in the beginning, I will offer them a different way of praying, we will rely on other formulas, more suited to their current state of growth, to their way of living and thinking.
Because in prayer, for them and for us, quantity is not important, if quality is lacking. A quality prayer unites the members of a family, produces a conscious adhesion to faith and to God.
Many young people feel lonely, abandoned, unloved: how to help them? Yes, it is true: the problem is the sick family that generates sick children. But your question cannot be cleared in a few lines: a boy who takes drugs is different from a boy who has fallen into depression; or a depressed boy maybe even takes drugs. Each person needs to be approached in the right way and there is no single recipe, except for the prayer and love that you must put in your service to them.

Isn't it strange that you, who are of a temperamental nature - but from what you see "you were" - very shy, are asked to evangelize young people, who are certainly not an easy audience?
It is certain that in these twenty years, looking at the Madonna, listening to her and trying to put into practice what she asks, I have profoundly changed, I have become more courageous; my testimony has become richer, deeper. However the shyness still remains and I assure you that it is much easier for me, for the confidence that has been created over time, to face the Madonna, than to look out onto a room full of young people, full of pilgrims.

You travel especially to America: do you have any idea how many Medjugorje-inspired prayer groups have formed there?
From the latest data that they communicated to me we are about 4.500 groups.

Are you traveling with your family or alone?
Alone.

It seems to me that more than the other visionaries you have a specific mission in bringing the message of Medjugorje to the world. But is it Our Lady asking you?
Yes, Our Lady asks me; I talk a lot with you, I tell you everything, I walk with you. And perhaps it is true that I spend more time than others on travel, I am actually required a lot for the apostolate. It is important to travel, especially to reach all those poor who know Medjugorje, but for whom a pilgrimage involves enormous sacrifices. People who in many cases already live the messages of Medjugorje and much better than me.
The initiative of each trip must however always come from the priests, it is not I who propose myself for a day of prayer, for testimony. I am happier when the parish priests invite me to the churches, because an atmosphere of prayer is created which favors the announcement of the messages of the Madonna; while in conferences with many speakers there is a risk of being more dispersive.

You have also mentioned bishops before: are there so many in favor of Medjugorje? What do you think of this Pope?
I have met many bishops where I have been invited; and in several cases they made me call on their own initiative. And all the priests who invited me to their churches is because they recognize the message of the Gospel in the messages of Our Lady. In the messages of Our Lady they see the same request repeated by the Holy Father for a re-evangelization of the world.
Many bishops have testified to me the particular devotion of John Paul II for Mary, which is confirmed throughout the pontificate. I always remember that August 25, 1994, when the Holy Father was in Croatia and the Virgin referred to him verbatim as an instrument of his: "Dear children, today I am close to you in a special way, to pray for the gift of the presence of my beloved son in your country. Pray, little children, for the health of my beloved son who suffers and whom I have chosen for this time ». One almost thinks that the consecration of the world to Our Lady depended on a mandate given by yourself.

Here in Medjugorje many communities are a source, a living image of the wealth of movements in the contemporary Church: do you agree?
When I go around I have no way of asking who I meet which movement it is part of. Seeing all those people who pray, who sit on the benches of churches, I tell myself that all of us belong to the same Church, to the same community.
I do not know the specific charisms of the individual movements, but I am convinced that they are very useful tools for the salvation of those who frequent them as long as they are in the Church, love the Church and work for its unity; and for this to happen it is necessary that they are guided by priests or at least by consecrated persons. If there are lay people at the head it will be important that there is always a close bond with the Church and local priests, because in this condition there is a greater guarantee of spiritual growth according to the Gospel.
Failure to do so increases the danger of dangerous skidding, the risk of ending up off the road away from the teaching of Jesus Christ. And this also applies to the new communities, which also flourish with extraordinary spontaneity in Medjugorje. I am sure that Mary is happy that many want to consecrate themselves to God or to undertake a lifestyle based more on prayer, however, everyone must be vigilant and work in the same direction. And to the communities that are here, for example, I ask for particular attention to the directives of the parish and the bishop, who represents the authority of the Catholic Church in Medjugorje. The risk, otherwise, is that everyone falls into the usual old temptation to make a parish to themselves.
After all, you seers, first of all, underlined your bond as faithful, and of Our Lady as a teacher of prayer, with the parish of Medjugorje ...
In the Church and for the Church.

In the Church some theological tension transpires: for example, we want to re-discuss the primacy of the Pope, there are divergent positions on issues such as ecumenism, science, bioethics, ethics ... But also at the doctrinal and devotional level it has arrived to cast doubt on the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the value of the community rosary has been lost ... is Mary worried? What do you think about it?
I am not a theologian, I would not like to cross over into a field that is not mine; I can say what my personal opinion is. I said that priests are the natural guides of the flock to whom we must trust. But with this I do not mean that they should not look to the Church, to the bishops, to the Pope, because their responsibility is truly great. We live a difficult time for communities and priests and personally I suffer a lot in seeing so many priests moving away from their community. It is dangerous for priests to be flattered by the mentality of this world: the world belongs to God, but the evil that distracts us from the truth of our life has also entered the world.
Let me be clear: entering into dialogue with those who think differently from us is a good thing, but without giving up what characterizes our faith, which ultimately characterizes our self. I want to confide that where I give you priests who pray a lot, and in particular devoted to Our Lady, the community is healthier, it is more alive, there is more spiritual transport; greater communion is created between the priest and the families, and the parish community in turn proposes a family image.
If your pastor holds positions on the edge of the Magisterium of the Church, what can be done? Do you follow him, accompany him or, for the sake of his children, do you move on to another community?
Without the help of each other we cannot go on. We must certainly pray for our priests, so that the Holy Spirit may renew our communities. If you asked me what is the greatest sign of the apparitions of Medjugorje, I would say that it is in the millions of Communions that have been administered in these years in St. James, and in all the testimonies that come from all over the world of people who when they return at home he changes his life. But one in a thousand who would change his heart after being here would be enough for everything that happened and happens to make sense.

All your answers are in tradition and in fidelity to the Church, to the Gospel ...
In these twenty years Our Lady has not told us anything that is not already in the Gospel, she has only recalled it in a thousand ways to the memory because many had forgotten it, because today we no longer look at the Gospel. But there is everything you need, and you have to stay in the Gospel, in the Gospel that the Church shows us, shows us the Sacraments. «How come?», They asked me, «for twenty years the Madonna has done nothing but talk, while in the Gospel she remains almost always silent?». Because in the Gospel we have everything we need, but it won't help us if we don't start living it. And Our Lady speaks a lot because she wants us to live the Gospel and in doing so she hopes to reach everyone and convince the largest possible number of people.