Joelle – Part 1

I’m a journalist. Usually I’m the one who asks questions. 

I live all this glamour like Paris fashion week, Italian design, I travel the world for my job. I’m around people like Monica Bellucci, Claudia Schiffer, all the designers. For years I’ve been living in this, but what I love most is to be the reporter of Our Lady.

I just tell you to see the difference between then and now, not to be arrogant, but to imagine where I am, which world I’m in, and how I run to come to Medjugorje all the time. 

For 19 years, I’ve been coming to Medjugorje, since 2002. In 2011, I started to be a group leader. 

I have brought groups here for ten years with a Lebanese agency called Friends of Mary. 

I founded my Medjugorje Family. You can check that out on Facebook. 

Even in this world with my job, every time I had the opportunity to come to Medjugorje, I ran here. I don’t know how many times a year, too much. If I had the choice between a party in Mykonos in Greece with my friends, and Medjugorje, I come to Medjugorje. 

I choose to come back here. I travel the world. I go everywhere, to America, to Thailand, to Europe, but here it’s special. Our Lady really appeared here. I’ve never seen Her, but I saw Her in myself. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if not for Her.

She tells us, “This is a time of grace.” Nobody in the world should lose this time of grace. We should be here. All the benches should be fully booked. 

It’s a time a grace. God is giving grace in every Mass everywhere in the world, but He also chooses this place to give graces. We should listen to what She says and take these graces. 

It’s like somebody has given you a gift, and you’re not taking it. That’s why I’m here.

I treasure this Medjugorje because I know it’s a gift for me. When someone cares for you, they give you a gift. Our Lady gave me a gift, and I have to take care of that gift. 

I didn’t pray the Rosary before I came to Medjugorje. I used to say, “Why does She tell us in all Her messages, ‘Pray, pray pray.’ Okay. I will pray, pray, pray.” I started praying. That was the gift, the Rosary.

It’s a small yes you say to Our Lady. Yes I came here. Don’t be arrogant. Be humble, like She said to God, She didn’t know the plan, She said yes. She was humble.

Let’s, all of us, say yes to Medjugorje. Be humble. Just come and listen. Come and see what God wants from here. With this small yes, you will go back to your place with a lot of gifts, with a lot of graces. It’s not only for you. It’s for everyone around you, for every person you meet. 

God is very simple. It’s a Father and it’s a Mother. The problem is we try to control. Our world teaches us to control everything. God here, in this place, it’s only surrender. He teaches us to surrender, to surrender first to His Mother, like for 30 years He surrendered. He’s God the Creator of everything and He surrendered to Her. 

God has a plan bigger than what we plan or what we control. This is what She’s doing here for each person who has come here. 

We come here with a lot of demands, but we should also listen to what She wants from us. She has a plan for humanity. She has a plan for each one of us.