Catherine – Dublin, Ireland

The first time, it was miraculous how I came to be here in Medjugorje. It was ’86.

I was an awful lot younger. I remember feeling, after about two or three days, everything we’ve been told about God is real. 

That’s sounds like a very strange thing to say, but when you were growing up, you went to Mass and you learned about Jesus and you prayed because you were doing an exam or things had gone wrong, but I didn’t know Jesus. 

When I came here, I thought, “Everything is real! Jesus is alive, and Mother Mary is here.” That was what I took home. 

In 2006, we began a prayer which is still going 15 years later. It’s a great blessing because the area where the prayer is taking place, I worked there for 20 years. It’s a very poor area with drug addiction, poverty, and lack of education. The people there really appreciate their faith being strengthened in the prayer group. That has come out of Medjugorje.

People are impacted when you talk about Medjugorje. Most of them haven’t been here, but they love to hear about it.

We have day to day life, and life being what it is, we have good times and less good times. This year in particular, I was sick for a lot of the time. 

Medjugorje is like an injection of get up and go again. That’s what it does for me. 

I got to a point this year where we had serious lockdown in our country, and for a number of months, apart from being able to go to the church to pray, we couldn’t go to Mass and receive Holy Communion. We were isolated. I nearly got to a point where I felt, “I don’t think I have any faith anymore.” I knew I had, but I was really struggling.

I had intended on coming this time last year to meet Mary. That was cancelled. We couldn’t leave our country. 

The day we closed our prayer group, I said, “Pray Psalm 91. God guarantees His protection.”

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”

When you’re praying, God takes control of everything, and we don’t even realize it. He says, “Don’t worry. I’m with you always. I go before you always.”

The biggest thing I take from Medjugorje now is to completely let go and stop planning my own life and allow Jesus and Our Mother Mary to take control. 

I was reading my scripture the other day, and this is where I was led. It said, “We live by faith, not by sight.” 

I thought, “I know that, but why am I not doing that?” 

When I was growing up, my father used to say, “Catherine would worry about two flies going up a wall.” That probably sounds ridiculous, but I was a terrible worrier. I still struggle with that. 

All this week, and for a few days before that, I said, “Lord, no. I am not worrying. I’m trusting You.” I asked Him this morning, “Please help me to do this when I go home.”

When we do, You actually see His hand at work in your life.