Janelle

I prayed all these novenas to Saint Michael, Our Lady, Saint Joseph, that I would come here.

And it’s happening. I prayed these novenas less than a year ago, and it’s been an answered prayer beyond my imagination. 

The presence of the Blessed Mother is here. I’m so inspired by everybody united in prayer. Everyone is carrying around their rosaries. It’s beautiful. 

The moment you step foot onto Medjugorje soil, you don’t even know it, but the Blessed Mother is opening your heart every second.

Just talking about it, I’m already tearing up. The whole time I’ve been here, I’m always having these tears of joy and gratitude, and that’s when I know the real presence of God and the Blessed Mother.

I was expecting healing, a deeper transformation. Most of all, my prayer to the Blessed Mother was that if I come to Medjugorje, the fruit of it is conversion, maybe it would help heal my family. In my family there is a pattern of division and un-love, from growing up, and I really wanted family tree healing. That’s what I was expecting, that I would come back, and I would be an instrument of salvation for my family. 

But it’s been different. The Blessed Mother wanted to heal me first. I was so busy being a Martha to my family that I didn’t realize that I was the one who needed it first. 

We all are a work in progress every day.

Priests I’ve met randomly, praying a blessing over me, I met them all at different times, but they all said the same thing: I have to open my heart because I’m carrying all the burdens. I need to surrender at the foot of the Cross and learn to receive love. I’m always trying to give it, but I forget that I need to receive it first. 

It’s very inspiring to see how these people treat others with love, and it becomes a beautiful domino effect of God’s love shining through them. If it’s a domino effect, then everybody is affected just because God’s love is radiating. If your heart is filled with joy, you don’t have to say a word, it just radiates.

I have to admit, before I was like, “Should I see the miracle of the sun?” 

The miracle is the people that love. 

What if I saw the miracle of the sun, but I didn’t experience these people and how they live and how they love, I’m going to go home not transformed. I mean, transformed but it would be different. It’s a physical witness but not a deeper transformation of the heart. 

There are a lot of people I’ve met who are skeptical because of what’s being said, but I think it’s lack of knowledge. You can’t make a verdict if there’s still something happening. It’s ongoing. 

If I come home and they see the fruits of a deeper transformation, I probably won’t have to say anything. If I come home changed, they’re going to be like, “Okay there’s probably something about Medjugorje.”

If I come home radiating joy from my heart, and it comes out of my face, they’ll be like, “What is going on with Janelle?” Not that I’m not a happy person, but it’s different. 

This is a real transformation of the heart, transformation of the spirit. You’re a witness just by how you act. I won’t have to say anything. I won’t have to try to prove myself or prove Medjugorje. I have to be a living witness.