Mirjana of Medjugorje "the seventh punishment was reduced thanks to prayer"

A. We learned a few years ago that the 7th secret - a punishment - was reduced thanks to the prayer and fasting of many. Can other secrets / punishments / warnings also be lightened by our prayers, fasting, etc.?

M. Here this would be a little longer because here it is the 7th secret and I have lived far from other visionaries. When I received the 7th secret I felt too bad because this secret seemed worse to me than the others, then I prayed to Our Lady to pray to God - because even you cannot do anything without him - to tell me if it would have been possible to diminish this. Then Our Lady told me that a lot of prayer is needed, that she too would help us and that even she cannot do anything; she too had to pray. Our Lady promised me to pray. I prayed together with the nuns and other people. In the end Our Lady told me that a part of this punishment we managed to decrease it - let's call it this way - with prayer, with fasting; but not to ask further, because secrets are secrets: they must be carried out, because this is up to the world. And the world deserves it. For example: in the city of Sarajevo where I live, if a nun passed by, how many people would say to her: 'How good she is, how smart she is, pray for us "?; and how many people would mock her instead. And of course the majority would be the other one who would mock the nun praying for them.

M. Prayer for me is talking with God and with Mary as talking with the father and mother. It is not a question of simply saying Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory to the Father. Many times I practically tell; my prayer consists only in freewheeling dialogue, so I feel closer to God by speaking to Him directly. For me, prayer means abandoning yourself to God, nothing else.

A. We know that you have been entrusted with the mission of praying a lot for the conversion of atheists. This is why we learned that in Sarajevo, where you live, you have formed a prayer group with friends. Can you tell us about this group and tell us what and how you pray?

M. Mostly we are young people studying in Sarajevo. When we arrive, one has already prepared a part of the Bible, read this part. After we talk together, we discuss this piece of the Bible together, after which we pray the Rosary, the 7 Our Father and sing the sacred songs and then we talk.

A. In many messages Our Lady insists on fasting (also on January 28 to you). Why do you think fasting is so important?

M. This is the strongest thing for me, since this is the only thing we give to God as a sacrifice. Why did you also ask us what else we give to God compared to what He offers us? Fasting is very important, it is very strong because it is precisely this sacrifice that we directly offer to God when we say "I do not eat today, I fast and I offer this sacrifice to God". He also said: "When you fast do not tell everyone that you have fasted: you just need to know it and God." Nothing else.

A. On 7.6.1987 the feast of Pentecost the Marian Year began. Slavko says: the Pope gives us 13 years of time to prepare ourselves for the bimillennial of the birth of Jesus; Our Lady, who knows us better, has given us almost 20 years (from the beginning of the apparitions): but everything, Medjugorje and Marian Year, is preparation for the Jubilee since 2000. Do you think this Marian Year is important? Because?

M. Certainly it is important already for the mere fact that it is the Marian Year.