Medjugorje: what are the ten secrets?

The great interest of the apparitions of Medjugorje does not only concern the extraordinary event that has been manifesting since 1981, but also, and increasingly, the immediate future of all humanity. The long stay of the Queen of Peace is in view of a historical passage full of deadly dangers. The secrets that Our Lady has revealed to the visionaries concern upcoming events which our generation will witness. It is a perspective on the future which, as is not uncommon for prophecies, risks raising anxiety and perplexity. The Queen of Peace herself is careful to urge our energies on the path of conversion, without giving anything to the human desire to know the future. However, understanding the message that the Blessed Virgin wants to convey to us through the pedagogy of secrets is fundamental. Their revelation in fact ultimately represents a great gift of divine mercy.

First of all, it must be said that the secrets, in the meaning of events that concern the future of the Church and the world, are not new to the apparitions of Medjugorje, but have their precedent of extraordinary historical impact in the secret of Fatima. On July 13, 1917, Our Lady to the three children of Fatima had roughly revealed the dramatic Via Crucis of the Church and humanity throughout the twentieth century. Everything he had announced was then punctually realized. The secrets of Medjugorje are placed in this light, although the great diversity in relation to the secret of Fatima lies in the fact that each one will be revealed to them before it happens. The Marian pedagogy of secrecy is therefore part of that divine plan of salvation which began in Fatima and which, through Medjugorje, embraces the immediate future.

It should also be stressed that the anticipation of the future, which is the substance of secrets, is part of the way in which God reveals himself in history. All Sacred Scripture is, upon closer inspection, a great prophecy and in a special way its conclusive book, the Apocalypse, which sheds divine light on the last stage of the history of salvation, the one that goes from the first to the second coming of Jesus Christ. In revealing the future, God manifests his lordship over history. Indeed, he alone can know with certainty what will happen. The realization of secrets is a strong argument for the credibility of faith, as well as a help that God offers in situations of great difficulty. In particular, the secrets of Medjugorje will be a test for the truth of the apparitions and a grandiose manifestation of divine mercy in view of the advent of the new world of peace.

The number of secrets given by the Queen of Peace is significant. Ten is a biblical number, which recalls the ten plagues of Egypt. However, it is a risky combination because at least one of them, the third, is not a "punishment", but a divine sign of salvation. At the time of writing this book (May 2002) three of the visionaries, those who no longer have daily but annual appearances, claim to have already received ten secrets. The other three, however, those who still have the apparitions of each day, received nine. None of the seers know the secrets of the others and they don't talk about them. However, secrets are supposed to be the same for everyone. But only one of the visionaries, Mirjana, received the task from Our Lady to reveal them to the world before they happen.

We can therefore speak of ten secrets of Medjugorje. They concern a not too distant future, as it will be Mirjana and a priest chosen by her to reveal them. It can reasonably be argued that they will not begin to be realized until after they have been revealed to all six visionaries. What the secrets can be known is summarized as follows by the visionary Mirjana: «I had to choose a priest to tell the ten secrets to and I chose the Franciscan father Petar Ljubicic. I have to tell him ten days before what happens and where. We must spend seven days in fasting and prayer and three days before he will have to tell everyone. He has no right to choose: to say or not to say. He has accepted that he will say everything to all three days before, so it will be seen that it is a thing of the Lord. Our Lady always says: "Don't talk about secrets, but pray and whoever feels me as Mother and God as Father, don't be afraid of anything" ».

When asked if the secrets concern the Church or the world, Mirjana replies: «I don't want to be so precise, because the secrets are secret. I'm just saying that the secrets are for the whole world. " As for the third secret, all the visionaries know it and agree in describing it: «There will be a sign on the hill of the apparitions - says Mirjana - as a gift for all of us, because we see that the Madonna is present here as our mother. It will be a beautiful sign, which cannot be done with human hands. It is a reality that remains and that comes from the Lord ».

As for the seventh secret Mirjana says: «I prayed to Our Lady if it was possible that at least a part of that secret was changed. She replied that we had to pray. We prayed a lot and she said that a part has been changed, but that it can no longer be changed, because it is the will of the Lord that must be fulfilled ». Mirjana maintains with great conviction that none of the ten secrets can be changed by now. They will be announced to the world three days before, when the priest will say what will happen and where the event will occur. In Mirjana (as in the other visionaries) there is the intimate security, not touched by any doubt, that what the Madonna has revealed in the ten secrets will necessarily be fulfilled.

Apart from the third secret which is a "sign" of extraordinary beauty and the seventh, which in apocalyptic terms could be called "scourge" (Revelation 15, 1), the content of the other secrets is unknown. Hypothesizing it is always risky, as on the other hand the most disparate interpretations of the third part of the secret of Fatima demonstrate, before it was made known. When asked if the other secrets are "negative" Mirjana replied: "I can't say anything." And yet it is possible, with an overall reflection on the presence of the Queen of peace and on all her messages, to reach the conclusion that all the secrets concern precisely that supreme good of peace that is at risk today, with great danger for the future of the world.

It is striking in the visionaries of Medjugorje and in particular in Mirjana, to whom Our Lady has entrusted the serious responsibility of making the secrets known to the world, the attitude of great serenity. We are far from a certain climate of anguish and oppression that characterizes many supposed revelations that proliferate in the religious undergrowth. In fact, the final outlet is full of light and hope. It is ultimately a passage of extreme danger on the human path, but which will lead to the gulf of light of a world inhabited by peace. The Madonna herself, in her public messages, does not mention the secrets, even if she does not keep silent about the dangers that lie before us, but prefers to look further, to the spring time towards which humanity wants to lead.

Undoubtedly the Mother of God "did not come to frighten us", as the visionaries like to repeat. She urges us to conversion not with threats, but with a plea of ​​love. However his cry: «I beg you, convert! »Indicates the seriousness of the situation. The last decade of the century showed how much peace was in danger in the Balkans, where Our Lady appears. At the beginning of the new millennium, threatening clouds have gathered on the horizon. The means of mass destruction risk becoming protagonists in a world crossed by unbelief, hatred and fear. Have we come to the dramatic moment when the seven bowls of God's wrath will be poured out on the earth (cf. Revelation 16: 1)? Could there indeed be a more terrible and more dangerous scourge for the future of the world than a nuclear war? Is it correct to read in the secrets of Medjugorje an extreme sign of divine mercy in the most dramatic if in the history of humanity?