Jacov of Medjugorje "I have seen the Madonna for seventeen years every day"

JAKOV: Yes. First of all, I want to greet everyone who came here tonight and also those who listen to us. As Father Livio said earlier, we are not here to advertise for Medjugorje, nor for ourselves, because we do not need advertising, and I personally do not like to do it either myself or even in Medjugorje. Rather let us know Our Lady and, what is even more important, the Word of Jesus and what Jesus wants from us. Last year, in September, I was in America, for meetings of prayer and testimony with people.

FATHER LIVIO: America, in the sense of the United States ...

JAKOV: Yes. I was in Florida, together with Mirjana, to give our testimony of the apparitions. After having been to several churches, to pray and speak with the faithful, the evening before Mirjana's departure, we were accompanied by the gentleman who had invited us to a meeting of a prayer group.

We went there without thinking about anything and on the way we joked and laughed thinking that America is a very large and very new country for us. Thus I arrived at a house where many faithful were present, during the common prayer I received the apparition.

Our Lady told me that the tenth secret would confide in me the next day. Yes, at the moment I was speechless ... I could not say anything.
It had occurred to me that as soon as Mirjana had received the tenth secret, the daily apparitions had ceased for her and the same had been the case for Ivanka. But Our Lady had never said that after the tenth secret she would never appear again.

FATHER LIVIO: So you were hoping ...

JAKOV: There was a hint of hope in my heart that Our Lady would return again, even after having confided the tenth secret to me.

Although I was so bad that I started to think: "Who knows how I will do later ...", there was still that little hope inside my heart.

FATHER LIVIO: But you could not immediately resolve the doubt, asking the Madonna….

JAKOV: No, I couldn't say anything at the time.

FATHER LIVIO: I understand, Our Lady will not let you ask questions ...

JAKOV: I couldn't say anything anymore. Not a word came out of my mouth.

FATHER LIVIO: But how did she tell you that? Was it serious? Strict?

JAKOV: No, no, he spoke to me sweetly.

JAKOV: When the apparition ended, I went out and started to cry, because I couldn't do anything else.

FATHER LIVIO: Who knows with what anxiety you waited for the appearance of the next day!

JAKOV: The following day, to which I had prepared myself with prayer, Our Lady confided to me the tenth and last secret, telling me that she would no longer appear to me every day, but only once a year.

FATHER LIVIO: How did you feel?

JAKOV: I think that was the worst moment of my life, because suddenly many questions came to mind. Who knows what my life will be like now? How can I go on?

JAKOV: Because I can say that I grew up with the Madonna. I have seen it since the age of ten and all that I have learned in my life on faith, on God, on everything, I have learned precisely from Our Lady.

FATHER LIVIO: He educated you just like a mom.

JAKOV: Yes, like a real mom. But not only as a mother, but also as a friend: depending on what you need in various circumstances, the Madonna is always with you.

At that moment I found myself in the condition of not knowing what to do. But then it is the Madonna who gives us so much strength to overcome the difficulties, and at a certain point, I came to think that perhaps more than seeing the Madonna with the eyes of the flesh, it is more right to have her in their hearts.

FATHER LIVIO: Of course!

JAKOV: I understood this later. I have seen the Madonna for more than seventeen years, but now I am experimenting and I am thinking that perhaps it is better to see the Madonna internally and have it in your heart than to see it with your eyes.

FATHER LIVIO: Understanding that we can carry the Madonna in our heart is undoubtedly a grace. But certainly you are also aware that seeing the Mother of God every day for more than seventeen years is a grace that very few, indeed no one, in Christian history, outside of you are visionaries, has ever had. Are you aware of the greatness of this grace?

JAKOV: Of course, I think about it every day and I say to myself: "How can I ever thank God for this grace that he has given me to be able to see Our Lady daily for seventeen years?" I will never have words to thank God for all he has given us, not only for the gift of having seen Our Lady with our eyes, but also for all the rest, for all that we have learned from her.

FATHER LIVIO: Allow me to touch an aspect that concerns you more personally. You said that Our Lady is everything to you: mother, friend and teacher. But in the time in which you had the daily apparitions did he also take care of you and your life?

JAKOV: No. Many pilgrims think that we, who have seen Our Lady, are privileged, because we have been able to ask her about our private things, asking her for advice on what we should do in life; but Our Lady has never treated us differently from anyone else.