Maryann – Long Island, New York

I first heard about Medjugorje back in 1988 when my aunt took me there. I was 23 years old. I had no idea. I got off the bus and I started to complain. I told my aunt, “This is where you take me? Dirt roads and goats?”

I was complaining and had my nails done, my big hair, my chewing gum, my earrings. Totally 80s look. A person taps me on the shoulder and says, “Look up.”

I look up and all of a sudden I see the Host. The sun moves. I saw it spinning. It was orange and pink. It was amazing. I got to see the miracle of the sun as soon as I got off the bus.

I regret complaining. It stopped me there. She gave me this gift as soon as I got off the bus, as rude as I was.

The first trip taught me how to pray with the heart, totally. I was never the same again.

The Blessed Mother has brought me closer to Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit. She really taught me how to open up my heart and pray with my heart. It’s such a feeling I don’t know how to explain. 

A lot has happened in my life. She gave me a lot of miracles. I went on Mother’s Day of 1988. I had just gotten married. Then the doctors told me I had a medical condition so when they gave me the treatment I had to try to have a baby right away or I wouldn’t be able to have a baby. I told my husband, and he didn’t want to have children.

So my aunt took me to Medjugorje so I could talk to the Blessed Mother. 

A woman took me up to Cross Mountain. She was telling me about her miracle, that she had gotten pregnant at 40 years old. We were up at Cross Mountain. We’d made a mistake. We should have been at Apparition Hill with Ivan. It was just me and Connie up there in the dark on Cross Mountain. She was telling me about this miracle as we were sitting under the cross.

As soon as she finished telling me, I said, “I wish I could do something for the Blessed Mother. It’s Mother’s Day. What can I do?”

She gave me something. The following month, I conceived Christina. My daughter Christina is 33 years old. It was the Blessed Mother. She gave me the gift to be a mother. 

I was there in 1988 and that was it. Now I’m back after all those years.

I know there’s a big reason why Mary has me here this time. I don’t know yet what it is. I kind of felt blocked, like lost. Because I wasn’t praying the Rosary every day, I strayed away a little bit. When you do that, it’s like you’re so far away from Jesus and Mary. I was lacking in prayer. 

I’m sure the Blessed Mother is going to be healing me in a lot of ways, bringing me back.

Since Medjugorje, I will never be the same. I hear that from many people. It just totally changes you, changes your heart. I’ve learned how to speak to the Blessed Mother and to Jesus. My prayer life totally changed, and it will never be the same. 

Medjugorje is devoted. The church is filled inside and out with devoted people, apostles of love. They are an example for the whole world. Medjugorje is the center of what God is. God is love, and Medjugorje is love, unconditional love.

I tell people, “You just have to go there. You step on the ground, and immediately you can feel the peace. It’s something so hard to explain, but you just have to go. Yes, the Blessed Mother is everywhere and Jesus is everywhere, but the peace here you will find nowhere else. It’s heaven on earth.”

It just changes you. There’s no going back. You know that your Mother is always there. She makes you feel that She’s always there for you.

I almost died when my mother was carrying me. That’s why my name is Maryann. She dedicated me to Mary and Saint Anne, the grandmother of Jesus. It started from when I was in my mother’s womb. Mary has never let me down.

Medjugorje is love. There’s no other place like it. I wish everybody could come here. You can talk to the Blessed Mother anywhere, but come here to really have your eyes opened and your heart opened, to really truly understand the Mother of God.